My husband and I will be traveling to Japan for the first time at the end of April and staying for 25 days. This will be our delayed honeymoon that was supposed to happen in 2020.
**About us**
* We’re in our mid-thirties
* We love food, nature, history, art and architecture.
* We don’t plan to do everything in our itinerary every day but will include items just to have the option. We prefer seeing less things but less hurried.
* We plan to travel with backpack to make transits smoother.
* We’d like to see the big cities, hike on the mountains, relax near the sea, learn about the local culture, meet locals, visit temples, explore rural areas and eat lots of delicious food (basically everything 🤓 )
I have two alternative itineraries (detailed in the table below) and I am trying to figure out which one makes more sense logistically. The first days in Tokyo (up until 26 Apr) and the overnight stays in Shikoku (8-9 May) are already planned so we cannot move them around. The rest is still open to rearrangements.
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**My doubts/questions:**
1. Which of the two itineraries makes more sense? The main difference is that in itinerary 2 we go to the Mount Fuji area immediately after Tokyo, then loop back up to Nagano for the Kurobe Alpine route, Kanazawa and then take it from there. This is mostly to avoid the 5 hours transfer from Naoshima to Hakone-Yumoto (in itinerary 1) and basically wasting that day, having to rush our time in Hakone. Plus to have less one night jumps at the end of the itinerary when we will be more tired.
2. I am wondering if it actually is worth it to go all the way to the Norther alps at all? It seems like a beautiful area, and we wanted to see the snow, but we won’t have the time to properly explore it (i.e. see Takayama and do Kamikochi, which also will not be at its best yet from my understading). Plus, we spend time in the mountains on our Iya Valley tour, and see the Ochiai village in Shikoku and Oshino Hakkai near lake Fuji, so maybe we can skip Shirakawa-go? Or is it worth having the detour just for that? Or should we just skip the Kurobe Alpine route and focus on Takayama and Kanazawa instead? It’s hard to let go of Kanazawa and Takayama as we wanted to see at least one of the most beautiful gardens (Kenrokuen) and see historical Takayama (and try hida beef).
3. If we skip the Japanese Alps, where could we use more time?
4. Are 3 full days in Kyoto enough? I know the city is hard to move around and is super packed so it requires time to move around, but we might have seen enough temples by the time we get there…
5. I calculated that the 14-day JR pass is probably going to cost me more than the single trips, since it won’t cover the full time we’ll need it (we need it for 16 days). Is it worth it even just for the convenience of not having to book train trips?
6. Is the Ashikaga flower park worth the day trip? Wisteria should be in bloom and they seem beautiful, at least from the pictures. Alternatively we would go to Kamakura+Enoshima, but we will have our fair share of temples during the rest of the trip, and view the sea in Miyajima and Naoshima, so we thought the flower park could be a unique experience.
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Thank you to whoever can help!
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||**Version 1**||**Version 2**||
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
||Day|Overnight|Day|Overnight|
|21 Apr|Land in Haneda at 22:35|Tokyo (Shinjuku)|Land in Haneda at 22:35|Tokyo (Shinjuku)|
|22 Apr|Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku (leisurly stroll)|Tokyo (Shinjuku)|Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku (leisurly stroll)|Tokyo (Shinjuku)|
|23 Apr|Ueno museums, Yanaka, Akihabara|Tokyo (Shinjuku)|Ueno museums, Yanaka, Akihabara|Tokyo (Shinjuku)|
|24 Apr|Ghibli museum, Odaiba|Tokyo (Shinjuku)|Ghibli museum, Odaiba|Tokyo (Shinjuku)|
|25 Apr|Ashikaga flower park or Kamakura|Tokyo (Shinjuku)|Ashikaga flower park or Kamakura|Tokyo (Shinjuku)|
|26 Apr|Asakusa, Shinjuku at night|Tokyo (Shinjuku)|Asakusa + evening bus to Mount Fuji area|Kawaguchiko|
|27 Apr|Kurobe Alpine Route (overnight in Kanazawa)|Kanazawa|Kawaguchiko|Kawaguchiko|
|28 Apr|Kanazawa (Kenrouken, old town, fish market)|Kyoto|transfer to Hakone with stop at Oshino Hakkai in the morning and Hakone Open Air Museum in the afternoon|Hakone|
|29 Apr|Kyoto|Kyoto|Hakone loop + evening shinkansen to Nagano|Nagano|
|30 Apr|Kyoto|Kyoto|Kurobe Alpine route|Kanazawa or Takayama???|
|1 May|Kyoto|Kyoto|Takayama + late transfer to Kanazawa OR Shirakawa-go daytrip from Kanazawa ???|Kanazawa|
|2 May|Transfer to Koyasan|Koyasan|Kanazawa Kenrokuen+old city and fish market + evening shinkansen to Osaka|Osaka|
|3 May|Koyasan to Osaka, explore|Osaka|Nara daytrip|Osaka|
|4 May|Nara daytrip|Osaka|Osaka|Osaka|
|5 May|Osaka|Osaka|Transfer to Koyasan|Koyasan|
|6 May|Himeji castle morning, Hiroshima afternoon|Hiroshima|Leave Koyasan, stop at Himeji castle, Hiroshima|Hiroshima|
|7 May|Miyajima|Hiroshima|Hiroshima, Miyajima|Hiroshima|
|8 May|Hiroshima, depart around noon to get to Iya valley early afternoon. Check in onsen and relax|Iya valley (onsen)|Hiroshima, depart around noon to get to Iya valley early afternoon. Check in onsen and relax|Iya valley (onsen)|
|9 May|Shikoku Iya valley tour. Mount Tsurugi, scarecrow village|Iya valley (farmhouse)|Shikoku Iya valley tour. Mount Tsurugi, scarecrow village|Iya valley (farmhouse)|
|10 May|Iya valley tour, Ochiai village, vine bridges + train back to Takamatsu around 4pm and last ferry to Naoshima|Naoshima|Iya valley tour, Ochiai village, vine bridges + train back to Takamatsu around 4pm and last ferry to Naoshima|Naoshima|
|11 May|Naoshima|Naoshima|Naoshima full day + evening shinkansen to Kyoto (from Okayama)|Kyoto|
|12 May|Transfer to Hakone (5h). Arrival after lunch time, Hakone Open Air Museum|Hakone|Kyoto|Kyoto|
|13 May|Hakone loop + transfer to Kawaguchiko|Kawaguchiko|Kyoto|Kyoto|
|14 May|Kawaguchiko|Tokyo (Ginza)|Kyoto full day + evening shinkansen to Tokyo|Tokyo (Ginza)|
|15 May|Fish market, Roppongi|Tokyo (Ginza)|Fish market, Roppongi|Tokyo (Ginza)|
|16 May|Ginza, last shopping|Depart from Narita (21:30)|Ginza, last shopping|Depart from Narita (21:30)|
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1 comment
Hi!
I don’t mean to be rude, but I think both your itineraries have some issues.
Shinjuku to the start of the Alpine Route and the entire Alpine route and then going to Kanazawa is a really really long day and I am honestly not sure how feasible it really is.
Your other option is slightly better but Nagano is still about 2 hours from the start of the route.
You are not likely to go to Takayama. There are only 8 trains in each direction a day between Toyama and Takayama. 4 Limited Express and 4 Locals. I think you will have a hard time timing to make one. (vs. Kanazawa which is 20 minutes from Toyama and has frequent trains)
I think on the first itinerary, Naoshima to Hakone sounds absolutely miserable. It might be 5 hours in theory, but the reality is more like 6+ As just an example:
If you take the 7:50 ferry from Uno [https://www.shikokukisen.com/en/instant/#route02](https://www.shikokukisen.com/en/instant/#route02)
you arrive at Uno at 8:10 and can catch an 8:28 to Okayama. You can take a 9:27 Hikari, but it won’t stop at Odawara. You instead get off at Atami where you switch to a local train to go 20 minutes to Odawara and then have to still get to Hakone-Yumoto and you don’t get there until 2:02 pm. So you leave Miyanoura Port at 7:50 and don’t arrive in Hakone-Yumoto until 2:02 pm.
This route has you making a connection in Okayama in 4 minutes, which might not be realistic.
So you might actually not be taking a train until 10:37 from Okayama to Shin-Osaka, you then have an hour in Shin-Osaka to catch a 12:18 which goes direct to Odawara and gets you there at 2:38 and then you can transfer to the Tozan line and arrive at Hakone-Yumoto Station at 3:11 pm.