Hello! I’ve been lurking in this sub for a while, and I wanted to finally make my own post about my upcoming trip. My fiancée and I will be traveling to Japan in April 2023 for our honeymoon. Neither of us have been to the country before. We’re still putting a lot of thought into specific activities we want to do (especially in some of the bigger cities), but it has helped me with planning to put together a rough timeline of how long we will be in each city and when we’ll be traveling. For reference, our biggest interests are food and history. I thoroughly enjoy cooking, and we appreciate high quality and authentic food immensely. We also love history and museums, and we’re really looking forward to seeing some impressive places and artifacts that are remnants of historic Japan. Other general interests of ours are music, anime, and video games (Final Fantasy, Persona, and Monster Hunter to name just a few). Below is our drafted outline of our itinerary. I’m eager to hear what you all think of it:
* 4/10:
* Depart for Japan from east coast USA
* 4/11:
* Arrive at HND at about 5pm local time
* Find hotel, grab dinner somewhere, rest
* 4/12:
* Tokyo
* 4/13:
* Tokyo
* 4/14:
* Tokyo or maybe a day trip to Nikko
* 4/15:
* Depart for Hakone in the morning
* Arrive in Hakone by early afternoon
* Explore Hakone
* Stay at onsen
* 4/16:
* Leave for Kyoto by early afternoon
* Arrive in Kyoto by late afternoon
* Explore Kyoto
* 4/17:
* Kyoto
* 4/18:
* Kyoto
* 4/19:
* Nara (not sure how much of the day this would realistically take up)
* 4/20:
* Leave for Koya in late morning
* Arrive in Koya in afternoon
* Explore some of Koya
* Stay overnight in temple
* 4/21:
* See more of Koya in morning
* Leave for Osaka in afternoon
* Eat dinner and explore Dotonbori
* 4/22:
* Day trip to see Himeji and the castle
* Explore more of Osaka in evening
* 4/23:
* Depart for Tokyo in morning
* Arrive in Tokyo to do more shopping/sightseeing
* 4/24:
* Tokyo
* 4/25:
* Final visits
* Depart HND in evening
This is obviously a very rough outline that will help us choose more specific things that we want to do. I believe I am happy with the pace for the first half of the trip; I’m less certain about everything after Kyoto. Let me share my concerns in order:
1. Would you say that Nikko is worth a day trip from Tokyo if we also plan to do an overnight stay in Hakone? We would love to see natural parts of Japan, but we might already have that desire sufficiently covered by other things in our itinerary.
2. Is it fair to dedicate an entire day to exploring Nara, and would it be worth it based on our interests?
3. Would you say that 4/20-4/23 is too fast of a pace? We are aware of the luggage forwarding service in Japan and plan to use it for our overnight stays in Hakone and Koya (send bags straight from Tokyo to Kyoto and straight from Kyoto to Osaka) which I know will help us to not feel over encumbered while traveling. We are also transit nerds, and train travel within Japan is something we are both very much looking forward to.
4. The only things that I ideally would have loved to do are visit Hiroshima and maybe Miyajima. I couldn’t find a way to fit them in without having to rush through some of the other things we wanted to do. Does anyone with more experience see a way for us to fit it in to our schedule without scrambling all over the place and without rushing through anything?
Thank you so much for your help!
2 comments
1. With the amount of time you have and the itinerary as it is now, I would say probably not. You would need to cut either Koya or Hakone to fit Nikko in. I’m not sure what you are wanting to see in Tokyo, so you might be able to fit in a day trip if you cut things there.
2. If you like history, then yes to Nara. Horyuji temple was one of my favorite historical sites in Japan.
3. This seems okay with luggage forwarding to me. But I always feel like Koya takes up so much time on people’s itineraries. I’ve never been there so I can’t comment on whether it is worth it.
4. You could cut Osaka out of your itinerary and visit Hiroshima. You could add Himeji on the way back from Tokyo (I did something similar on my last trip). You would also have time for Hiroshima if you cut out Koya or Hakone.
You can’t gain too much extra time from a more efficient itinerary. You will have to cut things if you want more time somewhere else. Just prioritize what you want to see most.
Edit: I will recommend if you enjoy history the Edo-Tokyo Open-Air Architectural Museum is a must see to me.
Great start! We have similar interests to you and had a similar first round of itinerary and by the time we got to Osaka we were exhausted and kind of tired of cities. I would say choose no more than 2 things you really want to do per day and don’t wear yourselves out trying to crisscross cities every day like we did. Consider two nights in Koya as it is a nice peaceful break and it takes time to come and go from there. There is plenty to see there or just relax. Since food and a Ryokan are high in your plans I would say start getting things reserved once your dates are locked in. I wish i would have made reservations for dinners in Tokyo and Kyoto (and even some lunches). Even places you think you would not need them sometimes you do and it is no fun to have your heart set on somewhere and they turn you away at the door. Good Ryokans also book out far in advance. Have fun!