Hi, my partner and I are going to Japan in October. I’ve made an itinerary, we’d like it to be a mix of seeing the sights but also with a bit of time to chill and not too much running between places, so I am a bit worried it’s too busy.
**Questions**
1. We want to stay in a Ryokan and get a good view of Mount Fuji (appreciate there is a 50/50 chance it’ll be covered in clouds), which is the main reason we’d go to Hakone. Is it worth it worth the trip there, or are we better of finding a Ryokan somewhere else and saving some time?
2. When in Tokyo, is it worth staying the whole time in a hotel near Tokyo station so that it’s easy to get to the airport when we leave, or better to stay somewhere else and move nearer to the station on the last night?
3. Are we better off with an extra day in Osaka or Kyoto rather than spending three whole days in Tokyo? Obviously we’d like more time everywhere but it isn’t possible. Maybe cut out Hakone instead?
Any advice is really appreciated, thank you.
**Itinerary**
**18 October – Arrive in Osaka midday**
* Get e-sim
* Namba Yasaka Shrine
* Kuromon Ichiba Market
* Dotonbori
**19 October – Osaka**
* Osaka Castle
* Umeda Sky Building
* America-mura
**20 October – Day trip to Hiroshima, spend night in Osaka**
* Peace Memorial Park
* Peace Memorial Museum
* Atomic Bomb Dome
**21 October – Osaka to Kyoto**
* Fushimi Inari Shrine
* Kiyomizu-dera Temple
**22 October – Kyoto**
* Golden Pavilion
* Pontocho
* Nishiki Market
* Hokan-ji Temple
* Ishibe-koji Alley
**23 October – Kyoto to Hakone**
* Hakone Ropeway – Sounzan Station
* Stay in Ryokan near Sounzan/Gora (suggestions welcome)
**24 October – Hakone to Tokyo**
* Get to hotel early afternoon
* Explore local area, chill.
**25 October – Tokyo**
* Shibuya Crossing
* Shibuya Sky2
* Cat Street
* Meiji Jingu
**26 October – Tokyo**
* Sensō-ji
* Tokyo National Musem
* Akihabara
**27 October – Tokyo**
* Imperial Palace
* teamLab Planets
**28 October – Leave Tokyo in the morning**
3 comments
I’m going to caveat this feedback by saying I haven’t been to Japan yet (my trip is also in October), so this is my perspective just based on my own planning and research and not on personal or firsthand experience.
* Unless you have a compelling reason to stay separately in each of Osaka and Kyoto, I would suggest basing yourself in one and simply day tripping to the other. It will be much more efficient than moving locations/hotels, between two cities that are very close to one another and easily/quickly accessible to one another by train. I think in general its better to base in Kyoto, given there are more ‘sights’ overall and things to do are more dispersed so logistically starting the day(s) already in Kyoto is helpful, but it would really depend on your particular interests (if a big interest in nightlife, then maybe Osaka is the move). Kyoto is also a better complement, I would think, to Tokyo, since Osaka is a big city and will be a similar experience in many ways. It seems like you can probably get away with most (if not all) of what you plan to do in Osaka in a day trip from Kyoto — you could still day trip to Hiroshima, if committed to doing that, from Kyoto (its basically the same logistically as far as I know, maybe the train ride is a tiny bit longer).
* It seems like your trip is 10 nights (hopefully I counted right) – with that, I’d suggest splitting the trip 5 nights in Kansai (Kyoto or Osaka) and 5 nights in Tokyo to minimize needlessly moving around. I would probably cut Hakone – if your main purpose is to stay in a ryokan and see Mt Fuji, I think you might be better served by doing a ryokan stay for 1 of your nights in Kyoto, and keeping your Tokyo itinerary somewhat flexible to support a day trip to to Hakone or Kawaguchiko on whichever day has the best weather forecast for Fuji visibility. Or if you really want to do a ryokan in the Fuji vicinity, do 5 nights Kansai and 4 nights Tokyo with the ryokan night in between. Another option is to re-allocate a Kansai or Tokyo night to stay overnight in the Hiroshima area, in a ryokan on Miyajima, which would help streamline some of your itinerary by not doing Hiroshima as a day trip.
* On your second question, I don’t have firsthand familiarity with the logistics of getting around Tokyo, but in general I wouldn’t base the location of my full stay around convenience of getting to the airport on the last day and I certainly wouldn’t move locations just for the last night simply to facilitate getting to the airport (unless you have an extremely early flight, in which case it would probably be wiser to stay at an airport hotel anyway). Changing areas/hotels is time consuming and will eat into your sightseeing days, and I’m sure you can map out a reasonable transit plan to the airport from where ever you are staying in the city, again assuming you are not flying out at some very early or otherwise inconvenient hour. That said, I think the Tokyo Station area is totally fine to base in I just wouldn’t go out of my way to make sure I stay there just for this reason.
If your goal is to see Fuji, then do that. If your goal is onsen, do Hakone.
It doesn’t matter where you stay really. Tokyo transit is as perfect as it gets. Just stay close to a train station.
Kyoto is the heart of Japan but all Japan is great.
I’m pretty much doing your exact itinerary but in reverse (Tokyo to Kyoto) with one extra night. I added Skytree in place of the museum. Is there any particular reason you’re doing the museum?