Hello everyone!
Me and my fiancé have booked a trip (only booked flights so far) to Japan for our honeymoon in October 2023. This would be both of ours first time travelling to Japan.
We have a general idea of where we would like to go for the major cities but have not booked actual specific things to do each day. Please see below for a high level view of the cities/towns we currently have planned.
We would love some suggestions on our current Itinerary and whether or not people suggest moving things around or not.
Appreciate the time!
Itinerary:
Oct 07, Saturday: Tokyo (Land at 4pm at Narita)
\- Pick up Pocket Wifi or Japan Sim Cards.
\- Take Narita Express train to Tokyo Station (1hr) or Shinjuku Station (1.5hr).
Oct 08, Sunday: Tokyo
Oct 09, Monday: Tokyo
Oct 10, Tuesday: Hakone (Stay over night)
\- 35 min Shinkansen to Odawara (JR Pass) then 35 min bus to Hakone.
\- Stay in Ryokan with private Onsen.
Oct 11, Wednesday: Kyoto
\- 35 min bus to Odawara, then 3.5 hr Shinkansen to Kyoto (JR Pass).
Oct 12, Thursday: Kyoto
Oct 13, Friday: Kyoto w/ day trip
\- Day trip to Nara all day.
Oct 14, Saturday: Kyoto
Oct 15: Osaka
\- 15 min Shinkansen to Osaka (JR Pass)
Oct 16: Osaka
\- Universal Studios
Oct 17: Osaka w/ day trip
\- Day trip to Kobe and Himeji Castle
Oct 18: Hiroshima
\- 1.5 hr Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Hiroshima (JR Pass)
\- Hiroshima & Miyajima Island?
Oct 19: Hiroshima
\- Shiminami Kaido – Cycling across 6 Islands – 45 min to Onomichi (JR Pass)
**Oct 20: Hiroshima or Tokyo**
Oct 21: Tokyo
Oct 22: Tokyo
\- Disney Sea
Oct 23: Tokyo
\- Flight departs at 6:15pm, arrive at airport for 3:30pm as we are travelling to Canada.
Note: The spare day showing “Hiroshima or Tokyo” doesn’t need to be filled at the end of Hiroshima as shown. It can be added at any point after leaving Tokyo on the 5th.
Some questions off the top of my head are:
\- Should we maybe add more days to one or more of the major cities (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka) by removing Hiroshima or is what we have shown seem reasonable? Hiroshima, we would go see the atomic bomb dome cause it is there but it is not something we are dying to see, so just want to see if it is still worth it to go for Miyajima and the cycling.
\- Any other towns or cities you guys would recommend to do a day trip to to fill our extra day? Or any recommendations on whether we should do Hiroshima or Tokyo for the day on the 20th?
\- Anything to switch around in our plan to be more efficient?
Note: We do plan on purchasing the JR Rail Pass. Is it worth it, based on the itinerary?
3 comments
Super useful and very similar to our honeymoon we are (panic) organising for June! Will report back but please DM me if I forget…
I’m also from canada and will be travelling to japan on october i think we’ll leave canada same day as you, if your arrival is Oct 7 in japan. but I’ll arrive in kansai airport. we have almost same place to visit tokyo, hakone, osaka, kobe and hiroshima. i’ll also visit nagoya.
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You can check here [https://www.jrpass.com/farecalculator/](https://www.jrpass.com/farecalculator/) if JR Pass is worth it for you. it all depends on the x days pass you select and travelling you’ll do within that time period.
in my case I’ll just get the 7 days pass. and will travelling most of the high fare ride within that span.
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If Oct 19 is not that much important you can just do a day trip to hiroshima from either kyoto or osaka. here’s what i’m going to follow on my trip
[https://blog.japanwondertravel.com/day-trip-to-hiroshima-from-kyoto-osaka-10989#:~:text=The%20fastest%20way%20to%20get,45%20minutes%20without%20any%20transfers](https://blog.japanwondertravel.com/day-trip-to-hiroshima-from-kyoto-osaka-10989#:~:text=The%20fastest%20way%20to%20get,45%20minutes%20without%20any%20transfers).
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if you’re into harry potter there a new attraction opening this year [https://www.wbstudiotour.jp/en/](https://www.wbstudiotour.jp/en/) but the ticket for october is not yet available.
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if you’re into anime there’s a new park [https://ghibli-park.jp/en/](https://ghibli-park.jp/en/)
I’m Japanese. I think it is a very good plan!!
JR rail pass is worth to buy. It is difficult to move without it.