Hi all 🙂 I’m finally embarking on my dream trip to Japan in November this year and I am so excited. I’ve been planning for almost 3 years and have revised my itinerary over and over again.
Rather than share my itinerary, I wondered if people could give me their opinion on the things I’ve decided to cut and give me advice on whether I’ve made the wrong decision. I know I can’t see everything Japan has to offer in 2 weeks, but I really want to make sure I’m making the most of my 14 days.
I’ll be there from 11 November to 25 November and I’m most excited about exploring Japan’s nature and seeing the autumn koyo, eating as much street food and snacks as possible, and collecting goshuin from the temples/shrines.
I’m staying in Tokyo (4 nights), Kyoto (5 nights) and Takayama (3 nights) before returning to Tokyo for 1 final night and flying home.
Onto my cutting floor…!
**HAKONE** \- I am excited to get out of the cities as much as possible and explore nature. At home in the UK, I love visiting places like the Lake District. However, Hakone seems like a bit of a frustrating detour because most people recommend only 1 or 2 nights. I really want to avoid having to do any stays less than 3 nights because I think I’ll feel too stressed otherwise. Am I missing out on an important experience?
**OSAKA** \- As I mentioned, eating as much street food and snacks is a HUGE part of my visit. I have a list of approximately 25 different regional foods that I want to try. Every site I have researched tells me that Osaka is the foodie capital of Japan, but I decided to cut it to avoid having another big city in my itinerary. Is there something remarkably unique about Osaka’s food that I won’t be able to get from the other places I’m visiting?
**GHIBLI MUSEUM** \- I love Studio Ghibli but having looked at the Ghibli Museum, it doesn’t look like there’s very much to do there. Aside from the fact that foreign tourists can’t explore all of the areas it has to offer, I’m not sure that the hassle of getting to it (and also the anxiety of trying to buy tickets in advance!) is worth it. Has anybody been to visit the museum that feels I am dead wrong about it?
**POKEMON CENTERS** \- Similar to Ghibli, I grew up obsessed with Pokemon and even still play the games to this day. I’ve looked at the Pokemon Centers and I was hoping they would be an engaging experience but they literally just look like shops selling merchandise. Is there more to them than this? If it’s just a shop selling hundreds of different Pikachu plushies, then I’m happy to skip it.
**ARASHIYAMA** \- I had planned a day to visit the Arashiyama monkey park, the bamboo forest and Sagano Romantic Train but during my research I found a lot of negative reviews about all three places. The monkey park/bamboo forest was generally just comments that it is too busy and not enjoyable, whereas the comments for Sagano Romantic Train was that the views were not that good and the end of the route is a town where there is nothing to do. Cutting this left a big gap in my itinerary, so thoughts on this would be very appreciated.
I hope this post doesn’t come across as too negative! I am bursting with excitement for all of the things on my itinerary, but these are the things that I keep thinking about and wondering if I’ve made any mistakes.
Thank you everyone! 🙂
12 comments
Hakone is not that nice, to get out of the city I would go to nikko instead. Less busy especially if you go towards the mountains. But mid/November would be too late for Koyo in the mountains
I was very underwhelmed by Hakone, so good call cutting it.
The Ghibli Museum is wonderful. I’m only mildly into Ghibli, but the museum is really charming and well done. If you “love” Ghibli, you should definitely go. It’s also a good excuse to get out of central Tokyo and see the western suburbs of the city.
Tbh Arashiyama is one of my favourite place in Japan (it does help that I can go there easily from Osaka where I live). But it’s not the monkey park, nor is the bamboo forest, not the Sagamo train. I Iove the Togetsukyo and the upper area (Otagi Nenbutsuji, Adashino Nenbutsuji) is quite nice.
As for Osaka, if you can spare half a day to visit Namba Dotombori may be good. But tbh as someone living Osaka that area is way to touristy to be really enjoyable.
I actually love this post, because I’m at the point of axing things from my itinerary because I have way too much planned.
Definitely on the same boat regarding Hakone. I feel people default to it because it’s relatively close to Tokyo and for the off-chance to get to see Fuji, but I’m sure you can find amazing onsen ryokan elsewhere just the same, such as Takayama or Kyoto itself. The mountain trail is interesting, but I’d honestly rather go to Nikko, and hope to get lucky to see Fuji from Enoshima.
I’m also considering cutting Osaka, as I’m not as drawn to big cities as I am to nature, but it’s so close to Kyoto that it feels wrong to not stop there. You can visit the “main” landmarks basically in a single day (or so I’ve heard), and while it’s also a big city, the vibe is completely different from Tokyo.
View all of those places on YouTube first. Then decide if you want to see that on the trip.
Were you talking about Ghibli Museum in Tokyo or Ghibli Park in Nagoya? The museum is maybe a couple of hours’ worth in an interesting neighborhood. At any rate, you can go to the Ghibli stores in Tokyo and Kyoto and get your fix otherwise.
Im going to Japan too this year october and im excited. Been planning with friend For 2 years already and now i just need to save enough money haha.
I have no idea why people dislike Hakone. The round course is awesome with a lot of variety. You can also do it as a day trip so you don’t need to stay. That being said the autumn colors will be largely gone (same with Okunikko).
Just a late afternoon/evening in Osaka would be nice, perhaps. Check out Dotonbori and/or Shinsekai. The castle looks nice but it is a concrete reconstruction. I don’t know if you plan to visit Himeji or another castle. If so, feel free to skip it.
Ghibli museum you can skip in my opinion. I’m also a big fan, but if you’re short on time I’d save it for another trip. It’s not that amazing.
Pokemon centers same, although if you’re in the neighborhood I’m sure you could spare 5 minutes to pop in.
Please try to fit Arashiyama back in, even if that’s the only advice you take. Even with only 2 nights in Kyoto I would fit it in, especially because you’ll probably be there right in the koyo season. There plenty of stuff to fill a day besides the railway and bamboo forest. I found the railway to be quite nice, but what’s even better is to take the boat down the river afterwards.
Btw, interesting you’re spending 3 nights in Takayama! What are you doing besides the town center and Shirakawa-go?
I was underwhelmed by Arashiyama when I visited back in November 2016. It’s peak Autumn leaves then, so I found everything, the bamboo forest in particular, to just be super crowded and touristy. It felt distinctly un-zen. I know you can go very early in the morning to avoid this, but that’s a lot of pressure on holiday.
I liked Osaka and walking round dotonbori, but for me the main ‘must try’ street food was takoyaki, and you can get that all over Japan. I think you’ll get a similar range of street foods in lots of places in Tokyo and Nishiki Market in Kyoto.
Ghibli Museum I avoided on my first 2 trips to Japan because it always seemed too ‘out of the way’. We’re finally visiting on our third trip! I will say that I had to be online at 1am UK time to get tickets, so it was a bit annoying. But at least they release the whole month at once, so if you don’t get tickets you’ll know in advance and can just plan something else for that day.
Not a negative post at all! It’s important to go to the places you’ll enjoy.
The Arashiyama bamboo forest is nice and peaceful in the early morning, but from Europe jetlag makes it hard to get up early, so it makes sense to chop it unless you are very good at acclimatization. The Sagano Romantic train is nice but basically requires advanced booking during peak foliage season which is annoying.
If you are expecting lake district levels of spectacular nature I think you’ll be disappointed with Hakone – it’s not a “bad” destination per se, but half the popularity is convenience (close to Tokyo, has a lot of variety, etc.). Based on what you described I think you’ll really like Takayama and the taller mountains near it more, also consider the Tsumago-Magome hike (from Nagoya) which can be seen as “replacing” the part of Hakone where you walk along the old Tokaido.
On Osaka “street food” – The baseline quality of food served in Japan tends to be very high outside of the obvious tourist trappy places, so the marginally cheaper/tastier takoyaki/okonomiyaki/taiyaki in Osaka vs another city is not worth the detour if you otherwise are not keen on Osaka. Go see Dotonbori one evening and have your picture taken in front of the glico man if you must 🙂
For hakone I think there is a convenience factor with something like the hakone free pass. It definitely looks very tourist oriented but… is that a bad thing? Unfortunately I don’t speak a lot of Japanese so hakone is on our itinerary mainly because it is a tourist destination.
For ghibli park: wait until international visitors start reporting their experiences with the international ticket access then make a decision.
In our trip we will be going to ghibli Park (managed to buy tickets.) My travel companion is a huge ghibli fan so it wasn’t a question of going or not. It was a question of how to make it happen. I think for ghibli park a lot depends on how big a fan you are.
You can be on the lookout for [Pokelids manhole covers](https://tokyocheapo.com/entertainment/sightseeing/poke-lids-the-beauty-of-pokemon-manhole-covers-in-japan/) in the places you visit in Japan. You can find [locations of Pokefuta here.](https://local.pokemon.jp/en/manhole/)