Hi all, I will be travelling to Japan alone at the end of the year (17 Dec to 2 Jan). This is my 4th trip to Japan and I have been to several different areas. This time round, I will be travelling alone (without car) for a week, and meeting a friend in Nagoya to travel out by car. At this point, I have only planned my first half portion of the trip and have yet to decide on the second half, and I want to do quick sanity check to make sure it makes sense.
Mainly want to make sure my travel out of Tokyo makes sense. I am planning to visit Kawaguchiko and Izu peninsula prior to going to Nagoya.
1. December 17, 18, 19: Land in Tokyo on 17th, no concrete plans yet but probably checking out a few food places, second hand electronics, meet some friends in Tokyo. Maybe day trip to enoshima and/or hakone. Not too worried about my Tokyo plans for now. Potentially might cut one day off from Tokyo if i could go to any other interesting locations along my way.
2. December 20: plan to book highway bus to kawaguchiko early in the morning. Alternative is to take train. Plan to reach Kawaguchiko before noon, and check out chureito pagoda and mount fuji panoramic ropeway. I dont think i would have much extra time before sunset, was planning to do some cycling around the lake (not the whole lake) though I think this might be scraped depending on time. I haven’t found much other activities to do in the town after 5pm when the sunset yet, but resting early in the ryokan/hostel seem to be my plan.
3. December 21: plan to wake up early for sunrise. Hope to catch fujisan on a good weather. Checkout and leave kawaguchiko in the morning to take a highway bus to mishima station, then transfer train to ito station. Expect the morning to be travelling and will reach ito probably after noon. Check in (for 2 nights) and go to a few areas around town such as the Tokaikan and roadside station marinetown. Explore the town for the rest of the day. Considering to check out granilumi at night in ito granpal park, though i have not figured out how I would travel down and back to ito yet. May not be feasible to check out the night illumination.
4. December 22: travel out in the morning by train to jogasaki kaigan station. Do the jogasaki hiking trail. Expect to complete it around noon, and will be around izu kogen station. Take bus to izu shaboten zoo for some capybara action, and hopefully want to also catch the ropeway to explore mount omuro. I am a bit worried about this day’s itinerary, it looks like I may not be able to check out both the zoo and mount omuro before the closing time.
5. December 23: Check out early morning and travel down to shimoda station. Leave the luggage at the station and take a bus to ryugu seaside cave, and also check out cape tairai. Then head back to shimoda station and go to kawazu station. Alternative plan to the earlier part of day is to just explore either shimoda city or kawazu city. Not exactly finalised yet, as taking public transport feels a little iffy due to the frequency and I may not want to spend the extra effort for that. Not really finalised the plans yet. Either way, I will plan to take a bus up to kawazu nanadaru at around 3pm. Plan to stay overnight in one of the ryokan in the area (looking at amagiso and its outdoor waterfall onsen).
6. December 24: check out in the morning and leave the luggage at the ryokan, stroll up to check out the 7 waterfalls. Expect to take a bus up to shuzenji at around noon, then explore the sights in the town and stay the night there. Have not yet planned the items here, but most things are generally in walking distance so I think it should be ok. Was thinking of checking out shuzenji niji no sato but thats a decent walk away and I dont think i have enough time to check it out, nor does it really seem like a place I really want to visit so Im planning to skip it.
7. December 25: check out in the morning, take a bus to shuzenji station and travel down to Numazu station. Plan to explore a few areas in town, such as the fish market, view o water gate observatory, deep sea aquarium (maybe not, still planning), and I also want to kanukiyama. Plan to leave the city at evening to travel down to Nagoya and meet my friend for dinner on christmas.
The rest of the trip is yet to be planned, though there are some thoughts about going to shirakawa go. Generally thinking of going through aichi prefecture, maybe gifu and shiga. Ultimately, my flight back would be from Osaka on the 2nd of Jan.
So the main itinerary for the solo portion of my trip involves a lot of travelling from place to place, and while its typically what I usually do on my trips, mmost of the other times i tend to stay at least 2 days per locale. This time round it does feel like i will be making a lot of 1 night stays which seem a little rushed, though my initial planning seem to suggest that it makes sense and is an ok plan in general. Would like some feedback on the plan.
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Did you get the itinerary for Ito on Dec 22 from Izukyu Railway’s website? I remember seeing it somewhere, with a PDF of the bus timing.
I found public transit in Ito very frustrating. Got caught up in conversation, missed a bus connection, got mega lost… Two different people we talked to suggested I should really come back with a car 😮💨 If you’d be disappointed to see Mount Omuro, then I’d make sure to consider that you might miss it on the first day. Or if your Japanese is good enough to phone for a taxi, then you have a safety net. (I downloaded the Japan-Taxi app to use in Ito, but it didn’t work there)