*Reposting with more detail. Apologies Mods!*
We are finalizing our itinerary and its mostly looking incredible but due to a schedule change we now have an empty day towards the end of our trip that we’re not sure how to fill.
We’re looking for a day trip that can take us (a little) off the beaten path either into the countryside or a smaller town as the bulk of our trip is in the big cities.
​
**Starting from:** Osaka
**Date:** Saturday 21st October
**Our combined interests:** Food, Dessert, History (especially Sengoku for me), Cats, Whisky, Stationary, Cutesy Stuff, Gaming
**Budget:** We have JR passes and are happy to pay for taxis to get to places if they’re not immediately accessible by foot from a station.
​
**Some of what we’re already doing on this trip in between eating, shopping and playing arcade games:**
* Kawagoe
* Teamlab Planets
* Yayoi Kusama Museum
* Sekigahara Battle Festival
* Nagoya Castle
* Hakone
* Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum
* Nara
​
**What we’ve already considered:**
We are already going to Nara on this trip and have been to Kyoto on a previous trip so those are sorted. We’re not interested in theme parks or visiting any other major cities for the day. Again, we’re looking for ideas that might not be on the obvious “Top 10 Day Trips”. appreciated.
​
**Other info:**
We are pretty open to anything except extensive hiking. We’ll be travelling in October so places with indoor and outdoor sights are appreciated. We’re really looking for somewhere to wander around with multiple smaller points of interest rather than one major sight. Currently our favourite suggestion is going to Omihachiman and Azuchi for a mix of scenery, desserts and history but we’d love your suggestions.
Thank you so much!
4 comments
Himeji castle, Cup noodle museum, Nara (deer and temples) are what I can think of off the top of my head.
You can do Uji which is close to Nara.
From Osaka you can also do mino park/falls
Kobe, koyasan , himeji castle
If you got Omihachiman as an option, another canal town is Kurashiki, near Okayama. You can also check out Okayama korakuen
Distance wise, it’s a little farther from Osaka than Omihachiman (roughly 1.25-1.5 hours) since you need to use non Nozomi/Mizuho trains.
Something closer is Arimaonsen + Kobe. Arimaonsen is about an hour away from Osaka. (Kobe just 30 minutes away)
Arimaosen is compact and has two public onsens
Kobe is similar to Osaka. For history, it has Kitanocho area which has western style buildings. And there’s a decent amount of activities in the city (chinatown, port area, nunobiki herb gardens, Kobe animal kingdom, etc)
I’m going to Kobe from Osaka in September. Seems like plenty to see and do there. Since you have the JR pass you can even hit up Himeji a little bit further since it is highly rated compared to Osaka castle.