We have 21 days in may (from the 3th so partially golden week, thats why we start south)
and it will probably be the only time ever in Japan and want to see nature, culture, food and ofcourse all of craziness and technology
(you never know ofcoure, but we keep that in mind)
We arrive in Tokyo and travel by train
All the bullets are optional but we at least plan to go there.
Day 1:arrival
Day 2: train Tokyo-Osaka
7 days Osaka
– universal studios
– visit to Kobe
– dotonbori
– visit Kyoto
– city exploration
– Nara
4 days Japanese Alps
*When we leave Osaka in mid may on our trip and head to Tokyo we are planning to do a 4 days alps trip like this:
– Osaka
– Kanazawa incl sleep
(not sure if really worth visiting though?)
– Kurobe Gorge in Toyama incl sleep
– Kamikochi / Matsumoto incl sleep
– Nagano monkey park
– Tokyo
Looking for experience or advice to see if this is a reasonable plan within the 21 days that we have?
Tokyo for 6 days
– Kamakura
– Nikko, Kegon Falls, Ryuzu Falls, Tsutenkyo Bridge
– Explore everything tokyo has
– Teamlabs
Last day: packing and Departure
If this is too busy i’m curious where we can skip to make it more doable 🙂
3 comments
Seems like a lot of moving around different places. Some ideas on what to cut:
Takeda castle ruins are a couple hours away from Kyoto city and is not worth it unless you go in the very early morning for the castle in the clouds view, and generally takes out too much time from a mere two days in Kyoto (since 1/3 of the days are for Nara).
You’ll get plenty of “city” experience in Tokyo and Osaka, and in this sense Kobe is also deletable. It’s a city for business, nothing super unique or “special” tourism wise unless you have a personal connection or really want to eat kobe beef in Kobe.
The four day kanazawa/kurobe/kamikochi/Nagano itinerary seems super ambitious. To make room, snow monkey park is not worth it in may since there is no snow and no monkeys bathing in the onsen. If you want to see monkeys just go to the one in Arashiyama which is much more accessible.
Going to kegon falls / ryuzu falls would basically require staying overnight in Nikko since the lake Chuzenji area is a further hour away from the train station.
Hi!
I really like Nagano, but as u/tribekat said, the monkey park is not terribly interesting in May when there is no snow and the monkeys don’t really need to come down from the mountain. This is really one of those places to visit in the Winter.
It is impossible to do Matsumoto and Kamikochi in one day. I think even if you are staying in Matsumoto, it is impossible to do both in one day. When you add in the fact you need to get to Matsumoto first it makes it even tougher.
I am 99% sure I commented on this itinerary before. I am 99% sure I said that going to Takeda Castle ruins from Kyoto to see the clouds is pretty much impossible. I am also 99% sure that I said I would like to see this written out with dates because I keep getting 1 (travel day) 4 in Osaka, 3 Kyoto, 4 Alps, 6 Tokyo 1 travel Which is 19 not 21. So either you are not actually in Japan for 21 days or something is up, because while math is not my strongest suit, even I can add 1+4+3+4+6+1 and I don’t get 21. I really want to see how this is getting to 21.
I will probably skip takeda then and the monkeys park, had to post again since we (thanks to your help) kinda changed the plans but wanted advice for the finetuning since our plans are not firm yet.but it is very helpful!