Planning to spend three weeks in Japan in April next year with my bf (both mid 30s). I love having action packed trips. I’ve never been to Japan before, so I’d like to soak in Japanese culture and do as much outdoor stuff as possible. I’d have loved to visit in August and climb Mount Fuji but not sure I could cope with the heat/humidity.
**All builds welcome!**
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* Firstly – has anyone flown AirChina? It’s half the price of most of the other flights, but the reviews I’ve seen are pretty scathing.
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*Fly Friday 29th March and land Saturday 30th March*
*Sunday 31st – Wednesday 3rd April – Tokyo – 4 days*
Day 1 – Giant Godzilla head, memory lane, Meji shrine, Shibuya crossing, Shibuya sky, Tokyo metropolitan government building for views, Hedgehog cafe, Kawaii monster cafe, robot restaurant
Day 2 – Sensoji temple, origami Kaiken, mega pokemon centre, imperial palace, Kabuk-za theatre
Day 3 – Studio Ghibli museum and climbing Mount Takao
Day 4: teamLab borderless museum, 21\_21 design sight, tokyo tower
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*Thursday 4th April – Sunday 7th April – Kyoto – 4 days*
Day 1 – Fushimi Inari shrine, Gion, Kiyomizu-dera temple, philosohers path, yasaka pagoda, international manga museum, Kyoto tower at sunset
Day 2 – Arashiyama bamboo forest. Go to Tenryu-ji Temple afterwards. Monkey Park Iwatayama. Kinkakuji temple.
Day 3 – Hike kibune to Kurama, Kifune shrine.
Day 4 – Daytrip to Nara
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*Monday 8th April – Osaka*
Day 1 – Osaka castle, Kamigata Ukiyoe Museum,Sumiyoshi shrine, Umeda sky building, Tempozan Ferris Wheel (at night), Dotonbori (dining and lights at night), Namba Yasaki shrine
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*Tuesday 9th April – Thursday 11th April – Kumano Kodo trail*
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*Friday 12th April – Sunday 14th April – Hiroshima*
Day 1 – Peace memorial, Shukkei-en Garden, castle, MOUNT HAIGAMINE (hike at night)
Day 2 – daytrip to Miyajima Island for floating shrine and deer, climb Mount Misen
Day 3 – Shimanami kaido cycling route
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*Monday 15th April – Tuesday 16th April – Alpine route day tour*
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*Wednesday 17th April – Thursday 18th April – Fuji Five Lakes trip*
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*Fly back Sunday 21st April*
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This leaves 2 spare days, but I’m sure I’ve not factored in enough time for everything else in the agenda, so advice welcome.
5 comments
Just a few remarks:
For Tokyo it seems like a lot for 4 days. The robot restaurant was still closed last month, so might want to check that. Shibuya sky and Tokyo Metropolitain Gov is kind of redundant. The imperial palace in Tokyo is not very spectacular, as you cannot enter – the one in Kyoto you can. Also I would check some more on the castles – Osaka and Hiroshima Castle are new builts after the war. Himeiji (which you will pass on your way to Hiroshima is a better choice in my eyes.
And this might be an unpopular opinion, but to free up a bit more time in Tokyo you could skip the Tokyo temples/shrines first and check later in your spare days if you really feel like more of those after seeing Kyoto and Miyajima and… They are pretty though, but you might want an entire day for Takao for example.
Kawaii monster cafe and robot restaurant both closed.
You have some strange stuff like Ghibli and Mount Takao.
You seem to ignore travel time between places like Kumano kodo and Hiroshima the to the alpine route. Those two travel days will mostly be spent in the train.
Feels like you haven’t looked into distances and transit times between some of the stuff you want to do.
Studio Ghibli and Mount Takao in the same day??
Thank you u/gdore15, u/nemmer475, u/meccaneko!
I planned most of this trip during COVID so it’s sad to see that some of those places haven’t survived. I also spent some time figuring out the order I wanted to visit everything in, but you’re right, I’d been lax on working out the time it was going to take to get from place to place. I’ve factored that back in.
What u/gdore15 said so much!
Every time you travel between cities, it feels like you think you can teleport.
Even taking the Nozomi between Tokyo and Kyoto, you still have to get to either Tokyo or Shinagawa Station, get on the train, get off at Kyoto Station, and then start actually getting to any of the myriad of places you have listed, which are likely to be super crowded because it’s sakura season. Move some of your Kyoto things to day2 or 4 depending on what you want to do in Nara.
Osaka to the start of the Kumano Kudo is going to take a while, you need to take a Kuroshio to Tanabe and then catch a bus. Getting from Tanabe to Hiroshima is going to take a significant amount of time, assuming you end somewhere where it makes sense to go back to Tanabe. If you end closer to Shingu I really don’t want to think about how long it will take you to get to Hiroshima.
I would take your spare days and use them for the Kumano Kudo and/or the Alpine Route, since unless the Hokuriku line extension opens you are easily looking at 4.5 hours just to get to Toyama from Hiroshima and that is assuming good connections with the 2 transfers you need to take and assuming you are staying at Hiroshima Station and don’t need additional time from there.
BTw assume you won’t be using a JR Pass. It’s possible one of the JR West passes will pay off depending on when you start it but a Nationwide is unlikely to, see all the prices increases (because it is the majority of passes not just nationwide, from the Japan Guide Article about it)
https://www.japan-guide.com/news/japan-rail-pass-cost-increase.html