[Itinerary check] 21 days in Japan

8 comments

1. When you say Hokkaido, I would presume Sapporo? You can take a domestic flight to Sapporo from Tokyo, and then from Sapporo to Osaka (not sure if there are direct flights available). So as for your question of JR pass, I would think 7 days is more than enough, to be used in Osaka and back to Tokyo.

2. Not worth the pass at all.
   Fly to Hokkaido and then from there to Osaka. Around Osaka use local trains and then you can take the Shinkansen or a bus back to Tokyo.

   Also I don’t think Hokkaido is worth it for 3 days. It will take a while to get there and back. Realistically you only have 1 day. Also depending on the hot springs you need to rent a car.

   Go to some hot springs as a day trip from tokyo. Kusatsu onsen for example.

3. If you want to see orange leaf everywhere… sorry but September is way too early, you would have to do it November and even early December.

   Tokyo Tower is not especially the best observation deck in Tokyo, I would do Roppongi Hills Mori Tower or Shibuya Sky instead.

   Hokkaido specifically for Onsen, where exactly ? I know there is spots, but could make more sense do do it closer to Tokyo or Kansai and spend less time and money on transportation as realistically, if you do it, you want to fly to Hokkaido then to Osaka if you do not want to waste two days in the train. As for firework, there would need to be some when you go, so this is really conditional and I would say there is more fireworks in summer. So far I just do not see the point of Hokkaido specifically considering what you listed. Onsen you have several easy options like Hakone, Kawaguchiko, Nikko, Atami, Izu peninsula.

   It would be worth max a 14 days pass if you were to do everything by train, you do not need it for the time you spend in Tokyo. However, Hokkaido is far and it will take a lot of time to reach by train, so either completely replace it by something else that would make more sense or fly.

   If you decide to skip Hokkaido, then unless you add something, round trip Tokyo-Osaka is slightly under the price of the 7 days pass, so there is no real reason to use it, unless you decide to add something that would bring the cost of individual tickets over the cost of the pass.

   While Hokkaido does have interesting things to see, right now I do not especially see why you would go, there is many day trips possible from Tokyo and Kansai that could be done during these extra days.

4. I think you mean hanami, not hanabi. Hanami is flower viewing, typically used for cherry blossoms, hanabi is fireworks.

   The sushi you mean is usually referred to as conveyor belt sushi in english. There are a few chains and they’re pretty common so you shouldn’t find it hard to find one.

   Where in Hokkaido? Sapporo most likely. I would fly and I would say add some more time here, ideally I think 5 days but at least 4. Note that the cherry blossom season in Hokkaido is considerably later that the rest of Japan, typically late April or even early May.

   I would fly from Hokkaido to Osaka. You could also add more time in Osaka/ Kyoto/ Nara if you wanted to. I spent a whole day at USJ and I think that’s easily doable. Kyoto and Nara are largely temple/ shrine destinations though so if you’re less interested in that maybe you don’t need so much time. If you added more time you could also look at a day trip to Himeiji castle.

   Shinkansen back up to Tokyo from Osaka. Not worth getting the rail pass if you’re flying as suggested.

   You have basically half your time in Tokyo and while I’m sure you could fill that time, I would definitely take some of it to add to Hokkaido and Osaka. Although I also see unaccounted for time?

   You could add somewhere on your way from Osaka to Tokyo if you wanted. A couple of possibilities are Matsumoto, or somewhere in Shizuoka.

   You could also look at a daytrip to Yokohama from Tokyo if you wanted something else to do or see.

5. 1. You will not able to see orange leaves until Oct period. That’s usually in the northern Japan (Aomori/Hokkaido).
   2. 3 days in Hokkaido is not recommended. I recommend you to visit on another time with main focus on Hokkaido and spend more time there.
   3. If you want hot springs, there are some around Tokyo: Hakone or Kawaguichi
   4. You need to calculate how many days needed to take Shinkansen and from there you can decide the number of days needed for your JR Pass.
   5. You can visit Kyoto while in Osaka.

6. I did a similar trip but replace Hokkaido with Hiroshima, and that’s much more doable since the cities are all a reasonable Shinkansen distance apart (+ a JR pass *might* be good value in that case). So that’s one option if you really want to experience 3 different regions of Japan.

7. My wife and I did a little less days but used trains getting from Tokyo to Odawara, Fuji City, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka (as base camp) Nara and Mt Koya, than flight back to Tokyo from Osaka. Doing that route gave us tons of time to see what we wanted, do what we wanted and so on.

   Planning out the route was easy with trains and flight, but originally I did try to add some more north eastern and south western places, it just doesn’t work for a great time. If you want to see Hokkaido and the north eastern part of Japan, plan a second visit for that, or remove seeing Osaka and the western side for another visit and stick to Tokyo and the northern parts from there. Maybe go as far as Mt Fuji if you really want the Hokkaido area this trip.

   After planning out routes and so on for my first visit, I found planning to see lots of Japan for anytime under a month should be done with multiple trips, but I also like to leave room for randomness that isn’t planned to happen.

8. Does your $3,300 goal per person include airfare? Given that round-trip airfare can be up in the $800-1000 range depending on where you’re coming from as well as time of year (keep an eye out for flash sales on flights, sign up for alerts once you have your desired dates in mind, prices can fluctuate a LOT). If that $3,300 is *after* paying for flights I think you’re going to be alright. I suggest this pretty frequently but I would consider Kyoto as a base camp instead of Osaka. I say this because in many ways Osaka has a similar feel to Tokyo, it’s another massive mega-metropolis (obviously they’re not actually *the same*) with a lot going on. Kyoto and Osaka are close enough that for a day excursion like doing Universal Osaka it’s not hard to make the trip by local express train (and it’s not expensive like the bullet train). Kyoto gives a much starker contrast to the hustle and bustle of metropolitan Japan.

   I’m a huge fan of visiting Mt. Koya and I recommend at least doing one night there (maybe on your way down from, or back up to Tokyo), and staying at one of the temples around Mt. Koya is a great experience. Given the hassle in getting up to Mt. Koya and back, doing it as a day trip I think limits how much you can really see quite significantly. My partner and I did 2 nights (one in a temple, one in a hostel) and felt it was well worth the time spent.