Hello! I’m a 26 year old male, planning to travel solo to Japan for the first time, for three weeks, from mid January to early February. I haven’t travelled in a long time and I have good savings so budget isn’t too much of an issue. I’m having a bit of a struggle determining what exactly to do with my itinerary and any suggestions would be much appreciated 🙂
I really enjoy wandering around new cities just to experience the general atmosphere, and I especially like riding the public transit and exploring all the nooks and crannies of cities. I also really enjoy riding trains and seeing the countryside go by, and I don’t mind long train rides much. Because of this, my initial thought for travelling in Japan would be to start in Fukuoka, and take the shinkansen all the way up the country, stopping in Hiroshima, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Tokyo, and eventually making it all the way up to Sapporo, giving myself some time in each city to wander around and take in the atmosphere.
After reading up on other people’s trip itineraries, it seems like the most common thing to do (and the general recommendation) for first trips to Japan is to focus mostly on Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka and minimize time spent transiting between the different cities. I’m now wondering if my idea of taking the train up the country might end up being too rushed and if I would be better off with a more traditional itinerary for my first trip. I’ve also heard that some of the cities I was planning on visiting (specifically Fukuoka and Nagoya, as well as Sapporo in the winter (outside of when the snow festival is happening)) don’t have as much tourism appeal as the others and I might be bored while visiting them.
Has anyone tried taking the train all the way up the length of the country before, and did you find it stressful or tiring at all? I’m certain I would still really enjoy my trip just focusing on the three major tourism cities, but I think I would be a little sad that I wouldn’t be getting off of the beaten path as much. I was also planning on visiting a friend in Fukuoka and a different friend’s family in Nagoya, so I’d be a bit sad to not get to see them as well.
Thanks for any and all help!
3 comments
The Shinkansen is surprisingly fast and efficient. You could base yourself in Osaka for a week and still could make day trips as far as Hiroshima without making a dent on your schedule. But that said, on certain far flung areas where staying overnight is a must, like Miyajima and parts of Shikoku, you will be missing out some charming things if you rely too much on the Shinkansen.
if you like train rides I agree that getting out of the shinkansen-only travel would be nice. some are still fancy and fast. some are slow and quaint. if you are someone who like riding reins and seeing diverse scenery (I def am) getting out into some more local lines can be awesome.
‘Up the length of the country’ in three weeks is futile. In general, considering that the minimum of 12-13 days is recommended for Kanto and Kansai, you are left with 5-8 days to play with, which realistically can be spent either in a single area further afield, or split between 3-4 day on Hokuriku route and same amount visiting Sendai, Kagawa, Izumo/Matsue or northern Kyushu.
I have made a three-week trip during winter that explored Nagano, Matsumoto, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, Fukuoka and Nagasaki beyond the Kanto and Kansai area, but this has required to choose your itinerary fairly carefully as in exact order of places you’re going to see, exact trains you are going to take. There were some minor failures due to weather, but it’s certainly possible to visit Japan within this parameters.
For a three week trip, these are your possibilities outside Kansai/Kanto:
* Hokkaido – if you go during winter festivals, you should realistically double down on that, although flying at least one way (and both if you don’t stop in Hakodate) makes most sense
* Kanazawa / Shirakawa-go / Takayama / Nagano / Matsumoto
* Hiroshima + either Seto Inland Sea Area (Onomichi, Okayama, Takamatsu, Naoshima) or northern Kyushu (Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Beppu or Takeo Onsen, Dazaifu) – note that during January/February I would keep Shimanami Kaido
* Kyushu (Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Dazaifu, Yoshinagari Koen, poss. Mojiko or Karatsu)
* Tohoku (Sendai + Yamadera and Matsushima Bay, Ginzan Onsen or Zao Onsen, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Kakunodate)
* Sendai area + either Hokuriku or Hiroshima
What I would not do:
* Kagoshima or Fukuoka to Hakodate/Sapporo – this takes 28-35 days for a reasonably place trip
* Izumo – Sea of Japan coast is not particularly pleasant during winter – in general any Sea of Japan coast itinerary that requires travel other than shinkansen can be blown off it’s course by heavy slow
* allocating too little time to Kanto and Kansai – I would say that you want to have a day in a reserve – if you manage to do all the stuff you wanted to do within its alloted days – cool; there are plenty of day trips like Kamakura, Kawagoe, Nikko, Omiya area, Yokohama, Yokosuka (from Tokyo) or Iga-Ueno, Hikone, Okayama + Kurashiki, Amanohashidate (from Kansai) that you may reasonably take from those areas on a spare day.