I believe I’ll hurry a lot and hence might have a bad time. It’s my dream to travel to Japan and I will finally achieve it this spring (extremely excited). It’s a shame I won’t have time to visit Hakone.
While in Kyoto I might go in the evenings to Osaka for some food then come back, will see.
Any input is appreciated, thank you for your time.
My itinerary:
Day 1 Tokyo ( Sensoji temple, nakameguro)
Day 2 Tokyo (shinjuku gyoen national garden, teamlab planets, tomioka shrine)
Day 3 Nikko-Kanazawa (see Toshogu and Takino Shrine then leave for kanazawa)
Day 4 Kanazawa-Shirakawago (geisha districts, gardens, leave for shirakawago)
Day 5 Shirakawago-Kyoto (roam around in the morning then leave for kyoto)
Day 6-9 Kyoto (shrines mostly)
Day 9 Nara-Osaka (nara park, temples, food in osaka)
Day 10 Okunoin-Kinosaki onsen (okunoin in the morning then leave for Kinosaki Onsen)
Day 11 Kinosaki Onsen
Day 12 Okayama – Magome-juku (okayama castle and garden in the morning then leave for magome-juku)
Day 13 (roam around magome-juku then leave for lake kawaguchi)
Day 14 Lake kawaguchi-Tokyo (shrine, museum then leave for Tokyo)
Day 15 Sadness
Thanks again!
2 comments
To preface, take everything I say here with a grain of salt. I have never been to Japan(or out of the US) and have very limited traveling experience overall.
With that said, this seems ~~disastrous~~ less than ideal. I’ve spent the past month planning my trip for autumn next year and have come to some conclusions.
First, if you’re there for less than a month, stick to the main “route”. Unless you’re specifically going for a certain thing. This is Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe with day trips to Nara/Nikko. Most people I’ve talked to have said 5-7+ full days is recommended for Kyoto/Osaka alone. I’m planning on a full 30 day stay in Kyoto with day trips.
Shirakawa-go and Kanazawa are great but they’re just too far out of the way. You’ll spend more time getting to them than enjoying your time.
There will surely be more experienced people jumping in but that’s what I noticed
Yes, it’s far too rushed, especially if this is your first trip. You’re only going to experience a tiny portion of Tokyo in two days, and even less of Osaka in one evening. You also need to be very careful on day 12. Magome-juku is a 30 minute bus ride from the nearest station (Nakatsugawa), and the last bus is at 18:30. Kinosaki to Magome via Okayama will take around 6 hours if your arrival at Nakagawa lines up will with the bus schedule. That doesn’t give you a whole lot of time in Okayama unless you’re planning on starting very early or you’re fine with taking a taxi from Nakatsugawa station.
I’d suggest cutting out one third to a half of the places you’re planning on visiting. That will allow you to concentrate more time on fewer places. It would also allow you to be more flexible incase there’s bad weather (not so much of an issue in spring, but it still happens), or if you get exhausted. Also remember that if this is your first trip to Japan, there will be many great places and things to do that you’re not aware of, and you’re not going to notice them rushing from one tourist attraction to another.