Hi all,
Here is my itinerary, however I am struggling on some things, please could you have a look through and maybe make some suggestions?
Wednesday 19th April 2023 –
– Explore Shibuya for the evening/grab some food/go to Shibuya crossing at night to take pics etc.
– Visit Shibuya sky (check if this needs to be prebooked)
– Go to Nintendo Tokyo
– Hachiko Dog Statue
– Kyu Asakura House
Thursday 20th April 2023:
– Sensoji Temple
– Asakusa Shrine
– Tokyo National Museum
– Are these worth it? – Museum of nature and science & museum of western art? I am Western?
– Ueno Park
Friday 21st April 2023:
– Edo-Tokyo Museum
– The Imperial Palace
– Imperial Palace East Garden
– Museum of Modern Art
– Yasukuni Shrine
– Head to Harajuku for the evening (can see Yoyogi Park)
Saturday 22nd April 2023:
– Suntory museum of art (see if Tea ceremony is possible)
– National Art centre
– Ota memorial museum of art
– Nezu museum
Sunday 23rd April 2023 – reserve train – either day trip to Kamakura, head to Fuji OR explore more of Tokyo – if so where?
Book train to Hakone – Check in at Hakone.
Monday 24th April 2023 – Find out how to get to Mount Fuji from Hakone – Does the Hakone ropeway make up the journey to Fuji?
– Walk around Mount Fuji
– Visit Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine
– Find somewhere nice to eat (look on internet)
Tuesday 25th April 2023 – Hakone:
– Lake Ashi – find nice place for breakfast
– Detached Palace
– Chilled day/get some nice food etc
Wednesday 26th April 2023- train to Osaka EARLY or another day in Hakone?:
– Osaka castle and park
– Shittenoji temple
– Is there anything else to do on this day? – get recommendations
– Cup noodle museum – is it worth it?
Thursday 27th April 2023 – spend most of the day walking between destinations:
– Ryoanji Temple
– Kinkaku-ji
– Kyoto Imperial Palace
– Nijo Castle
Friday 28th April 2023 – day trip to Nara:
– Nara Park
– Isuien Garden and Neiraku Museum of Art
– Kasuga-taisha
– Nara national museum?
Saturday 29th April – another day in Kyoto:
– Saiho-ji
– Other suggestions for this day?? Feel like I’m missing something…
Sunday 30th April – Day trip to Kobe:
– Kobe herb gardens
– Sake museum
– Ikuta Jinja
Monday 1st May – either spend another day in Osaka/Kyoto area or day in Fukuoka???:
Tuesday 2nd May – Beetle over to South Korea
1 comment
Hi!
Yes, Kawaguchiko (what most people think of as Mt. Fuji) and Hakone are not the same place and are quite a distance apart depending on your starting point.
This is Hakone:
[https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5200.html](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5200.html) (Though don’t count on that view, it could happen, but I’ve been to Hakone multiple times and it’s never happened.)
And this is Kawaguchiko:
[https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6900.html](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6900.html)
And then there is the actual mountain itself.
[https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2172.html](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2172.html)
If you are a visual person, go to Google Maps and look up both Hakone-Yumoto Station and Kawaguchiko Station and it will give you a better sense of where they both are.
You can get between them, but it takes at least 2+ hours because you need to transfer to various buses.
You’re not going to stay in one and day trip to the other. You have the time to do both, but you need to decide if that is what you want or if you want to do neither.
Be aware, you are unlikely to get to Kansai early in the day from either.
To get from Kawaguchiko to Kyoto or Osaka you need to take a bus to Mishima and then catch a shinkansen. There can be transfer times. You can also go back to Tokyo and start from there, but it will take you about 2 hours to do so.
to get from Hakone-Yumoto to Kyoto or Osaka you need to catch a train to Odawara (or take a bus) and then take a Shinkansen. Odawara is only serviced by hikari shinkansen heading to Kyoto/Osaka every 2 hours. Now you can time to take a local train to Atami and catch a shinkansen there (but it is not always serviced by Hikari either) or take a slower Kodama to another station or even all the way to Nagoya, but that is likely going to take much longer.
There is a 7:50 am direct Hikari between Odawara and Kyoto/Shin-Osaka. Most people stay near Hakone-Yumoto or further into the valley. You would need to catch the train at Hakone-Yumoto at 7:28 to get to Odawara and would then have 8 minutes to make your shinkansen. If you didn’t feel comfortable you would need to take the 7:19.
That is pretty darn early!
I think your walking day in Kyoto is a lot of walking, but if that is what you want to do, go for it.
There are always more things to see in do in Kyoto. I don’t know what time your ferry is between Fukuoka and Korea but I would make sure you have time to get there.
You could visit Himeji, Okayama, Kurashiki, Hiroshima, Miyajima, or Fukuoka itself all pretty easily heading towards Fukuoka where your ferry is. Just pay attention to travel times.
Good luck!