Hey JapanTravel friends,
first I want to acknowledge that in 2022 travel may still be restricted. I am very flexibel and I am very willing to go in both seasons and in later times too. It’s not decided which season we go although I prefer autumn a tick more. So I prepeared an Autumn Itinerary from roughly end of novemeber till beginning of december.
This is not my first time in Japan. I have already been there and have seen the major places of Kansai,Chugouku and Kanto already(Tokyo,Osaka,Kyoto,Kobe,Hiroshima…).As for my partner who will this time come with me she herself hasn’t been in Japan. She is more of a city person who loves futuristic scenes. Loves Fashion, entertainment and food while I am a sucker for nature and quite vibe. Both of us are very extroverted so we are not shy to explore all sort of things.We love food especially spicey one from Noodles to Rice everything spicey. We want to try out the local dishes of every place that’s the goal of the trip for me.
I want to make this trip very memorial for us because I might propose to her next or the following year before another big vacation. I am not sure where we should book a Ryokan during our trip.
# Kansai
**22 Tuesday Day 1**
\*Osaka Food: Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, Edit:: kushikatsu, Cheesecake 2 variants
>Arrive from FRA(Frankfurt) in KIX(Kansai Osaka) and hope we are not too jet lagged
1. ~~(Arrive at Osaka train station, put lagguage in lockers and checking the out the shopping centre (Umeda, Grand Front, Lucua…) and eating there. ) EDIT:PROBABLY GONNA SKIP THIS~~
2. **/EDIT: only Osaka castle garden/park not the castle**
3. Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan
>Dotonbori sleep in Namba //EDIT::Depending on mood we gonna go sleep earlier.
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**23 Wednesday Day 2**
1. ~~JR Kansai Area Pass 1 day. Very early taking the train to Himeji. Checking out Himeji Castle and park. /EDIT: SKIP HIMEJI~~
2. Nara
3. Dotonbori staying in Namba
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**EDIT::Maybe just maybe if we get 1 more day I will give it to Himeji**
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**24 Thursday Day 3**\*Kyoto Food: Beef Katsu, Kyoto Ramen, Nishin Soba, Anything Macha, Togenkyo , Maybe some Kaiseki and other traditional food.
>Take Train to Kyoto- Check in Hotel/AirBnb (Lagguage) in Gion (we don’t mind paying more here)
1. Renting a bike and exploring the west side of Kyoto. **We will not check out every Temple! We will pick our 2-3 favourite one.**
2. Rough biking route: Saihoji- Matsuno Shrine- whole Arashiyama **/EDIT: Might ADD -> Ryoanji- Kinkakuji as Travel Route**
>End the day in Gion Area just walking around
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**25 Friday Day 4**
1. Fushimi Inari
>Renting a bike and traveling North-West of Kyoto. We will not visit every temple! It’s a rough biking route. **We will pick our 2-3 favourite one.**
1. Rough biking route: **(EDIT:Might do this on thursday-> Ryoanji- Kinkakuji)** biking around the Kamo River to Shimogamo Jinja- Ginkaku ji, Honen-in, Nanzenji, Heien-Jingu
>End the day in Gion
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**26 Saturday Day 5**
>Take the train to Kibune early in the morning
1. ~~Eat in one of those outdoor restaurant //CLOSED IN AUTMN~~
2. Hike the Kibune Kurame trail
3. **EDIT: TAKE THE ONSEN HERE IN KURAMA**
4. Back to Gion and walk to Kyomzudera as our last temple for Kyoto **/EDIT: Some temples are open during autumn leaf season till 9:00pm+. Should be able to make it.**
# Chubu/Lake/Izu
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**27 Sunday Day 6**\* Food: Sushi , Restaurant Ramen Taiga
>Checking out and Using the Takayama Hokuriku Pass
>
>Check in Kanazawa Hotel/AirBnb
1. Suzuki Museum
2. Walking around Nagamachi and Higashi Chaya District/Neighborhood
3. Check out Kanazawa castle and Kenroku garden
4. **//EDIT::Omicho Market**
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**28 Monday Day 7**\* Food: Hida beef croquettes/Burger, Goheimochi, Hida Gyuman ?
>Using the bus from Kanazawa to Shirakawago to Takayama
1. Walking around Ainokura
2. Walking around Shirakawa-go, looking for the Observatory and visit 1 museum
>Take the bus and arrive in Takayama
1. *Visit the Showakan Museum*
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**29 Tuesday Day 8**\*//EDIT:: Eat local Miso Katsu/Tebasaki in Nagoya
1. Walking around old Town
2. **/EDIT: Check out Sake Brewrie**
3. Higashiyama Walkway
4. **/EDIT:Visit Showakan Museum if we won’t make it in the afternoon on Monday**
5. Take the train to Nagoya
6. ~~Nagoya Railway Museum //EDIT:: Might Skip this~~
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**30 Wednesday Day 9**\* Food : Anything with Seafood
1. Use Mt Fuji Shizuoka Area Tourist Path **EDIT: Might Skip this and use Shinkansen**
2. Take Train arrive in Shimizu. Take the boat to toi
3. Take the Bus downward till Kumomi Sengenshrine
4. The places we go: Koganezaki Park- Dogoshima- Sengenshrine
5. Take the Boat from Toi back to Shimizu and sleep there (maybe reach Atami and sleep there)
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**01 Thursday Day 10**
1. Mount Omura
2. Jogosaki Cape/Coast
3. Back in Atami
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**02 Friday Day 11 /EDIT:Might Skip this and go with bus from Tokyo as a dayTrip**
>Very early Train from Atami to Kawaguchiko **EDIT: try to be in Gotemba and not Atami**
1. Rent a bike and bike around Kawaguchi Lake and maybe Saiko Lake
2. Take the panoramic ropeway at sundown
>Sleep here
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# Tokyo
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**03 Saturday Day 12**\*Food: Sushi, Monjayaki, Taiyaki, Ramen, Gyudon, Tsukemen, Yakitori
>Take the bus to Tokyo
>
>Check in Hotel/AirBnb in Shibuya/Shinjuku (lagguage)
1. Koenji
2. Shinjuku Gyoen, Yoyogi Park
3. At sundown at Roppongi Hills
>Walking around at night
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**04 Sunday Day 13**
1. Asakusa
2. Ameyayokocho-Ueno-Yanaka
3. Akihabara at evening
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**05 Monday Day 14**
>Take train arrive in Yokohama
1. Sankeien-en, Walking around Minato Mirai
2. Cup Noodle Museum
3. Head to Chinatown to enjoy food
4. If enough time take the ferris wheel
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**06 Tuesday Day 15**
1. Teamlab Planets
2. Disney Sea
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**07 Thursday Day 16**
1. Shimo Kitazawa
2. Shibuya/ Shinjuku/ Harajuku…
>*Ikebukero at evening EDIT:if time, if not skip*
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**08 Friday Day 17**
1. Shibuya
2. Daikanyama/ Ebisu/ Meguro/ Shinagawa
3. Odaiba
Stuff to consider:: Observation Bars
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Next day Take the fly back to Germany
Thanks for Every Suggestion and Advice.
14 comments
If she likes futuristic/urban scenes, you need to go somewhere that you can see the city from high up, preferably at night. There’s nothing like it on the planet.
In Shinjuku, the Metropolitan Government Building has a free observation deck in each tower with great views. In Shibuya, the bar BelloVisto or the new Shibuya Sky observation deck are good.
Towards the central part of the city, Andaz Toranomon has an incredibly panoramic view from its bar. In Shiba Park where Tokyo Tower is, the Prince Park Tower hotel’s bar has a more intimate view of the skyline with a very up-close angle on Tokyo Tower.
In Aoyama, there’s an open-air roof deck bar called The Top at the Aoyama Grand Hotel, if it’s not raining it’s an excellent view as well.
The drinks are overpriced in all these bars, but it’s not much worse than something like SkyTree and I think the experience is much better as you can relax and enjoy a drink while you really soak in the lights and energy of the city.
If you have any food, history, or skyscraper-related questions feel free to ask, I don’t want to just ramble on and on without knowing more about what you like. I’m sure you’ll have a great trip no matter what!
Edit: Sorry, I forgot to mention that yes, there’s definitely a great onsen in Kurama. It’s nestled into the mountains, open air baths, very relaxing. It’s not co-ed, and they’re fine with tattoos if you’re a foreigner, especially if you ask in advance. I used to go there all the time when I lived in Kansai.
Also, you should double check the dates on the outdoor restaurants in Kibune. I believe they’re just a summer thing.
My wife and I have done quite a few Japan trips that lasted for 10 days to two weeks. We found that we could do one thing in the morning, one thing in the afternoon, go back and rest and then do dinner. Some of your days, especially in the first week, seem ambitious to me. But if you are full of energy and spunk, I suppose it can be done.
But remember to build in transportation times and rest as well.
Just a few things from my experience.
I think your biking routes in west Kyoto can be combined into one day.
If you plan on going to Kibune for the flowing somen noodles, get there early and only go if the weather is nice. There’s usually a very long wait time for it and there’s basically no cover in the waiting area.
In the old town of Takayama, there are a few Sake breweries that lets you sample around 10-15 small cups of sake when you buy a tiny cup from them, I think it was around 500 yen? And the sake were all really good.
If you are going to splurge on a Ryokan somewhere, do it at Kawaguchiko. There are some ryokans that have private onsens in your room and some of them are even facing Mt Fuji. I stayed at Konansou last time I was there and it was so good.
Your day 2 Himeji and Nara on the same day sounds overly optimistic. I was living in Kyoto and took me 2 hours to get there even with the shinkansen. Nara is about the same distance so I would recommend doing Himeji one day and Nara the next. Himeji is pretty big, probably spend the day there then go back to Dotonbori for the night. Nara itself is smaller and be done in half a day since theres not much outside the Deer and Todaiji. You could do something aftewards.
Day 1 is way too packed. Kaiyuukan+Osaka Castle is going to be full day already.
Day 2: Just no. Osaka to Himeji is 1 hour. Himeji to Nara is 2 hour. The only thing you will be doing is being on the train. Choose one.
Day 3: The route is okay, but the food listed is too much for one day.
Day 4: Route make sense, but still probably too much temples for one day IMO if you planned to visit all you listed.
Day 5: The Kurama Onsen. But not sure if you will have enough time to visit Kiyomizu-dera on this day. Kibune & Kurama is usually a whole-day thing.
Day 6-8 make sense, except you might now have time on Day 7 to visit Showakan Museum, and the local delicacy in Nagoya is Miso-katsu, not Curry Katsu.
Day 9: You are looking at 3 hour train from Nagoya to Shimizu. The pass AFAIK doesn’t cover Shinkansen ride.
Day 11: “Very early Train from Atami to Kawaguchiko” << This doesn’t make sense. You will be going via Tokyo. Take a train to Mishima and take the highway bus to Kawaguchiko.
Overall, Day 9-11 is very confusing, especially with Shizuoka-Mt Fuji Pass. A lot of route doesn’t make sense to me.
The Tokyo part make sense, and is also much more relaxed compared to your earlier part which was very packed.
TLDR: How much was your budget excluding flights to and from?
Osaka : Never heard it’s especially known for yakiniku, but you could add kushikatsu.
Nara and Himeji on the same day… both are on opposite direction, and for the limited time things are open, (roughly from 9am to 5pm) you would use a quarter of this time just to move between Himeji an Nara. I would personally do one or the other.
Nara : food to try is kakinohazushi.
Kyoto : I agree with matcha option, check for matcha parfait or something similar, there is many shops in the street in front of Yasaka shrine (that is next to gion)
For onsen, I think there is only one, that is Kurama onsen, but yes it would be an option.
Nagoya : local dish are Miso Katsu (not curry katsu), hitsumabushi (eel), tebasaki (chicken wing) and miso nikomi udon.
Atami to Kawaguchiko seems to be a bit of a stretch, there is not really a direct train. Ok if there is a decent bus, otherwise, you can consider Kawaguchiko as a day trip from Tokyo. Or even do Atami, stop by Yokohama, and finally Kawaguchiko.
Kawaguchiko dish is houtou (udon).
For Tokyo food, it might be a typo, but I think you mean Monjayaki.
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There is a couple of days that I feel are quite full, so you might have to drop things, like Teamlab + Disney in a day, I don’t know.
What time are you guys arriving at KIX? does your hotel/ airbnb allow early checkins? If so, I’d strongly recommend you guys go and do that. Most of the time, even if you guys were able to sleep on the plane (not a guarentee, I know I have trouble doing so), you’ll need an hour or so to check in, dump luggage and freshen up before tackling anything that day. Don’t have any hard and fast plans for the first day – give yourself a chance to nap if you need it. We didn’t need it, but we timed our flights so that we arrived in the later afternoon after a day of travelling, so it wasn’t hard to go to bed soon after but if you’re arriving from an eastbound flight, that can muck up a person.
Day two is utterly unrealistic – it takes an hour to get to Himeji from Osaka, and we easily spent five hours between the walk to the castle from the station (there is a bus, but the street had a lot of shops we wanted to check out), plus the castle tour itself and exploring the gardens after. Nara is worth a day trip on its own, and also involves a lot of walking – you won’t be able to do it in a short amount of time, no matter how much stamina you have.
You guys don’t really need to switch airbnbs or hotels for Kyoto and Osaka – you can pick one city or the other (depending on whether you want night life or not) and easily commute between the cities during the day on the train.
I also want to say that biking to Kinkakuji is hell and I do not recommend it – it’s uphill the whole way and the maps make it seem shorter than it is because they fudge the scale. My husband and I did it in 2016 and regretted it – wish we had taken a bus, especially since Kinkakuji tends to be so crowded and is basically a human conveyor belt unless you arrive early in the morning. So shuffling for 90 mins after being on a bike for two hours was… unpleasant. Biking around the downtown area, Gion and down to Kyoto station is much more pleasant.
Day one is too packed. You’ll have just landed after a long flight and you’ll be jet lagged to all hell. I’d say if you’re really wanting to do stuff on the first day then keep it extremely simple.
Don’t forget to try ramen from everywhere! Ramen is regional and the flavors are super varied and interesting! You must try them often.
Hey,
Ill go over Kansai, since I dont know much about the other places…
Day 1: this is crazy stuffed, you will be on the plane forever, even when you can sleep there, you will be out of whack, and yes, the whole OMG AWESOME feeling will keep you going and not feel too jetlagged, but…
its also new, and you will have to look around to find your way. you may underestimate the time you need to get out of customs, get from kix to central osaka, get to the castle, then the aquarium etc…
Even when you land at 8am local time, I would suggest you concentrate on getting to your hotel, and stay in that area and not attempt to travel through half the city…
now, feel free, when feeling bored from the surroundings at like 10am to rethink my advice and your plan to visit osaka castle…
But I dont think that is realistic.
Day 2:
Himeji castle looks awesome, the garden is just … beautiful. with the train ride from osaka, and back, thats easily half a day. going from osaka to nara, while kinda close, still takes time. instead of “spending the day there”, more realistic will be to spend the last 2 hours of the afternoon there, and thats if you go early and hurry in himeji
day 3:
the travel to kyoto is fine. with “dont mind spending a bit more” I think youll find a hotel and all the food you wanna have there in the gion and gion adjacent areas…
but dont underestimate the distances you need to bike to get around, even when “not checking out every temple”. and the west, depending on how you define it, is not too dense with tourist favorite temples, and, on the other side of the city than gion. and its slightly kinda hilly there. also, just a word of warning, saihoji needs a written permission slip for entry…
northwest is indeed arashiyama. youll find a LOT of matcha stuff there…
okay, so biking through the west towards arashiyama, that should be doable (not shure ALL of arashiyama is doable), and you sound like you are fit and wanting to bike…
I cant speak towards the kind of bike you can rent, dont expect a top of the line multi-gear-lightweight-bike…
also, what if its raining cats and dogs?
anyway. depending on what you plan its not impossible, but, it does not sound like a good relaxed holiday stroll, it sounds like sport…
day 4:
fuhsimi inari can be done really early, which leaves a lot of day (and is in the east, maybe south east…) left…. biking towards the north-west… thats arashiyama again. but okay, you specify, ryoanji, kinkakiju, ginkakiju which is going more central north towards north east … then further down towards east back towards gion…
thats a rough route for biking, hilly, and it will stretch, and will go on and on…
again, i would not say, thats impossible to do, but is it fun? will yo actually be able to visit any worthwhile temple or just cycle by ?
at that point, I will tell you, that with jetlag, getting up early, staying up a little late, and walkking/biking a lot, day 3 or 4 will be where it should start hitting you, hard to get up, be tired, battery empty… possibly feet hurting…
day 5:
train to kibune is great, (and I suggest using the bus and not walk to kibune from the station) I am not sure you will find a restaurant in fall where you still can eat outside on the river. they MAY be closed, or seat you inside. I am not a specialist here, you may need to check with someone else. but when I was there early october, which was still “summer” for me, the kibune restaurants were mostly shut down, and i did not see a single river seating…
The kibune kurama trail is HELL. literally HELL. (it looks like a stroll through the forest. but its going up a good hill) it might be better to use the bus/train to get to kurama. you know there is a free cablecar that gets you to the temple in kurama? people usually go up, by cable car, and IF they use the trail to kibune, it will be down, not up…
anyway. YES in kurama is a onsen/sento. a well known even, and your specific question at that point. its like, you KNOW and you wanna see what people tell you, and see if they are full of shit or not… anyway, yeah, there is “kurama onsen”. you can find it easy on maps, or by walking north through kurama until you find it on your right side.
there is btw a day trip ticket available, with train fee towards kibune/kurama, including unlimited rides between kibune and kurama, with entry fee for the temple, and the outside onsen of kurama onsen (they have a restaurand and more inside pools in the main building/left side, the outside pool is right side, up the stairs)
you can catch a free ride back to the train station from kuruma onsen… then take the train back, and you can easily switch towards going to kyomizu dera, from which you can easily walk to gion again.
but… seeing how last entry is 4pm or 4:30pm, I think you might not be able to see kibune, eat, hike, see the temple, see kurama, rest an hour, get back, and then be there before 4:30 pm…
…
so yeah, thats my wall of text…
hope it helps!
At Fushimi Inari, if you hike the entire loop there are some fantastic tea houses on the mountain serving matcha, and traditional treats. It was some of the best hot and iced matcha I had while in Japan. The upper part of the hike is beautiful and the crowds are very minimal the further up you get.
Yoyogi Park can be really fun on Sunday instead of a Saturday. The rockabilly group is usually out dancing in the park and they are super fun and friendly. Also look into if any festivals will be going on while you are there. There are often different festivals around Yoyogi Park throughout the year that have a variety of themes. These usually have musical performances and tons of food centered on the theme of the festival.
Another reminder for Ikebukuro, most of it closes around 8-9pm so make sure not to get their too late into the evening, unless you are just checking out bars and arcades.
Touch on abit for Kanazawa, don’t miss out on Omicho Market.
Another place i would recommend is Ramen Taiga, it is a short walk from the main station, was finding my hotel when i walk pass this area and saw a small crowd queueing outside the shop before it opens for lunch. I am not a miso person usually, but decided to try out the red miso, it was great, no wonder the locals are willing to queue for it even in the rain.
I hope they allow travel in 2021. Tbh I am waiting to get the vaccine until I can go