Hi guys and girls,
I’ll be heading to Japan with two friends in september. We’ll be arriving in Japan on the 5th of september, and we’ll be flying out on the 29th. This gives us a total of 24 days to spend in the land of the Rising Sun. Whilst we’ve got our initeraty pretty much set out, I’m still keen to hear if you’ve got any tips or things we’re missing along the way.
– **About us**: Three Dutch guys, 6’5”. Two of us have travelled intercontinentally before, 1 hasn’t. We just want to go out and about and enjoy whatever Japan throws at us. Whilst there are certains things we will have to make reservations for (TeamLabs, certain restaurants, USJ/Disney) we want to keep our schedule at the locations as clutter-free as possible. Go with the flow and if we don’t feel like doing something, that’s just as cool.
– **Mode of transportation**: We will be doing everything by train, using a JR Pass in Green Class
– **Our holiday motto: The word *No* does not exist (as long as it’s not excuberantly priced)
– **Goals**: Just enjoy and get a first impression of Japan. Not just the culture in the cities, but also when out and about in nature.
—
Ok, down to our itinerary:
– **Tokyo** – 5 nights – Split in two hotels, 1 in Shibuya and 1 in Shinjuku. Basically we want to accomodate a bit in Shibuya, see heaps of stuff in Tokyo (Like TeamLabs, a baseball game, Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, Ueno Park, Owl Cafe Akiba and all the standard stuff). Oh, and a former housemate of mine is from Tokyo and wants to take us out 1 night.
– **Sapporo** – 3 nights. You can’t go to Sapporo withouth visiting the brewery. On the second day we’re doing a daytrip to Shirogane Blue Pond to wind down a bit.
– **Osaka** – 4 nights. Obviously we’re contemplating visiting Universal Studio’s, but we’re all 6’5” so we are afraid we won’t fit properly in any ride. Besides USJ we’ll go to Osaka Castle, Hozenji Yakamazu, Dotonbori, Kuromon. We’ll be in Osaka during the Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri Festival we’ll be going here for sure. Might also put in a daytrip to Kobe or Nara.
– **Hiroshima** – 1 night. The obvious. Go to the atomic bomb dome and the peace memorial park
– **Iya Valley** – 3 nights. This is a place where we’ll be staying in a Ryokan and just want to relax for three days. Go for walks, enjoy nature, enjoy Onsens and recharge for what is about to come.
– **Nagoya** – 3 nights. Or should I say Formula 1. We’ll be visiting the Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka, and have booked our hotel in Nagoya.
– **Kyoto** – 3 nights. Here we’ve booked a Machiya. No stress, just enjoy the nature surrounding Kyoto, enjoy the culinary highlighs Kyoto has to offer (Did anybody say pizza from Yoshihiro Imai?)
– **Tokyo** – 2 nights. These final days will be Do Or Die. We’ve got a hotel in Akihabara and want to go out with a bang.
We’ll be traveling on a budget of 100€ per person per day, excluding travelling and F1-tickets. Fortunately we can split hotelrooms, so that should drive down our cost of accomodations a bit.
So, what do you people think of this trip? Are there any downsides in what we’ve got planned out right now? We can think of one, which is travel-related
– The train ride from Tokyo to Sapporo, and Sapporo to Osaka is a loooong one. But it’ll give us a view of the and cities across the island, something we won’t experience when we’re flying out.
5 comments
Hi!
Yes, the train ride from Tokyo to Sapporo and Sapporo to Osaka is incredibly long.
I would write down your itinerary as days, because I think you are going to discover you might be in Sapporo for 2 nights but you only have 1 day to sightsee in Sapporo if you are coming by train. I would do this for each location so you know how much time you really have someplace.
I would personally fly. The view from the air of Japan in good weather is really lovely and you get to see a lot of things you might not otherwise. You will be seeing Kyoto back to Tokyo via train as is. I don’t find any of the scenery from the shinkansen particularly amazing outside of Mt. Fuji when it is visible. The only shinkansens I don’t have a lot of experience with is the Niigata branch and any of the ones in Kyushu.
If you’re only going to Nagoya to go to the Grand Prix, I would switch out the hotel with somewhere closer to Suzuka’s Grand Prix. If the hotel on site is too expensive, look for a something near Yokkaichi. You’re going to be traveling an hour plus each way, for each of those days, plus I am pretty sure you will be paying a supplement each way because you spend some time not on JR tracks.
I’d re-examine whether a rail pass is worth it.
Getting from Hiroshima to Okayama and transferring there for a train to Oboke near Iya is not so bad, but be aware that the buses from Oboke and within Iya run at very infrequent intervals, with 7 buses a day the most frequent. Make sure you know how to get to wherever you are staying.
[https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7826.html](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7826.html)
Good luck!
8-10 hours each way to Sapporo to see the brewery + 3 hours each way to the blue pond… I think this is going to be gruelling and not worth it. Shinkansen trips aren’t great for scenery since it goes by in a blur, and even if you liked it one way, you’re seeing it twice. Sightseeing trains around Shikoku or visiting the mountains or valley north of Nagoya would make more sense for a nature experience. If you can’t move that segment around, check out the Sendai thread that’s on the front page. There’s northern scenery and alcohol (Matsushima, Yamadera, Nikka Miyagikyo distillery) and it’s way closer.
Other than that, all sounds nice!
No reason to change accommodation between Shinjuku and Shibuya, unless you plan to party and go dring in these neighborhood pass last trans and you want to be able to walk back.
Honestly, going to Sapporo almost wast two full days, I just feel there is better ways to spend the little time you have in Japan.
Not sure what you are expecting out of Akihabara to “go out with a bang” but Akihabara is not especially known for it’s nightlife… and you did not mention being into anime/manga/video game… so, not sure.
Japanese baseball is super fun! And like the other commenter said, no reason to get two hotel rooms in Tokyo those first five nights; Shinjuku and Shibuya are right next to each other all things considered.
Honestly I’d skip Sapporo this time because it’s just a long jaunt for not many plans and spend that time more in Tokyo or Kansai, doing a night stopover in Hakone, etc.
Hiroshima, you can also go to Miyajima while you’re there!
I tried to buy tickets to suzuka but they went sold out so fast! Enjoy the race (hopefully it will be better than last year)