Itinerary – 25 days Nov/Dec – Tokyo, Kyoto, Kumano Kodo, Osaka, Takayama

Hello all! My boyfriend and I are travelling to Japan this year for 25 days (20th November – 14th December) and we are *so* excited! Most of our itinerary plan is based on advice from this subreddit.

A bit about us: We love exploring nature and are outdoorsy/active people (hiking is a good chunk of our planned itinerary and we plan to visit a few climbing gyms in Tokyo). We are interested in local culture and food, and have tried to balance seeing a mix of smaller traditional towns, big-city sights, and Buddhist and Shinto shrines/temples.

We have a few specific questions about the trip listed at the end of our itinerary, but would also appreciate if people had general recommendations on our trip feasibility.

*We have booked accommodation in all locations but everything is still free to cancel if needed.*

**Nov 20th (day 1):** Flight to **Tokyo** arrives in the afternoon. Travel to accommodation in Shibuya.

**Nov 21st – 23rd (day 2, 3, 4): Tokyo**. These days will include exploring the main sights/doing activities in Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Shibuya, and taking a day trip to Lake Kawaguchiko during the fall festival there (if it’s still running?) to see Mt Fuji. Ideally we’ll do the Mt. Fuji trip whichever day has the best weather, but would probably avoid going on the Labour Day public holiday? Note: jet lag will be minimal coming from our country, so we can hit the ground running.

**Nov 24th (day 5): Tokyo > Kyoto.** Not planning anything too intentional here as it’s a travel day.

**Nov 25th – 28th (day 6, 7, 8, 9): Kyoto.** Really looking forward to seeing the fall foliage and evening light displays at temples in the area. Also interested in Gion and doing a tea tasting/ceremony. On one of these days (likely in the weekend) we will do a day trip to Nara for more fall sights and deer. Aside from getting up early to beat the crowds, are there any tips for ‘surviving’ this busy period in Kyoto?

**Nov 29th (day 10): Kumano Kodo day 1.** Travel Kyoto > Tanabe (store suitcases at the Tanabe tourist information centre) > Takijiri-oji. Begin hike from Takijiri-oji to Takahara \~3 hours. Stay the night in Takahara at Kirinosato Takahara.

**Nov 30th (day 11): Kumano Kodo day 2.** Walk from Takahara to Chikatsuyu-oji \~7 hours. Stay the night in Chikatsuyu.

**Dec 1st (day 12): Kumano Kodo day 3.** Walk from Chikatsuyu-oji to Hongu Taisha \~9 hours (will bus from Chikatsuyu to Tsugizakura-oji in the morning to shorten this walk to fit within daylight hours). Explore the shrine, and bus to Kawayu Onsen and stay the night. The sennin-buro onsen opens this night, which will be nice for some likely sore muscles at this point.

**Dec 2nd (day 13): Kumano Kodo day 4.** Take the earliest bus from Kawayu onsen to Koguchi. Walk from Koguchi back to Kawayu onsen \~6 hours. Stay the night at the same Kawayu accommodation. We’ve picked to stay in the Hongu area two nights rather than staying overnight in Koguchi for a couple reasons. 1) We’ve had to book our Kumano Kodo accommodation ourselves rather than through the official website, and Koguchi has little independent online booking availability. We submitted a booking request through the official Kumano website a month ago and have not heard back, and have seen a few posts lately about the booking team being severely overloaded. We don’t want to leave this up to chance! 2) We get to spend a second night in the Sennin-buro onsen, this time lit-up with lanterns at night as it’s a Saturday night.

**Dec 3rd (day 14): Kumano Kodo day 5.** Early bus + trains from Kawayu onsen to Katsuura via Shingu. Depending on transport timing and how the prior days have gone, we’ll stop by Yunomine Onsen, Hongu Taisha, or Hayatama Taisha in Shingu. Stay the night in Katsuura. No actual ‘hiking’ today.

**Dec 4th (day 15): Kumano Kodo day 6.** Short \~1 hour walk to Nachi Taisha in the morning. Explore, and then at midday bus to Tanabe, pick up suitcases, train to Osaka.

**Dec 5th (day 16): Osaka.** We’re interested in seeing Dotonbori at night (we enjoy trying new foods), but other than that don’t have much on the must-do list in Osaka. We’re tempted to do a day trip to Hiroshima, but that will depend on how tired we’re feeling after finishing the Kumano Kodo. If you had to pick, would you go for a Hiroshima day trip or a full day in Osaka? The historical importance of Hiroshima combined with already getting big city vibes from Tokyo draws us toward Hiroshima.

**Dec 6th (day 17): Osaka** (**Koyasan** overnight trip, leaving suitcases at our Osaka hotel). Staying at Joki-in Shukubo, and will join the evening graveyard tour. We tried to organise the temple-stay to be immediately after the Kumano Kodo, but there does not seem to be any direct public transport connecting the two. That’s why we’ve opted to shift our gear to Osaka and use it as a base for the overnight Koyasan trip.

**Dec 7th (day 18): Osaka** (return from **Koyasan** visit). Spend the morning exploring more of Koyasan and attending the morning rituals. Once back in Osaka, visit Shinsekai for dinner.

**Dec 8th (day 19): Osaka > Takayama.** Arrive around midday, explore the old town and try Wagyu beef. Takayama came highly recommended by a friend, so we’re quite excited about heading here.

**Dec 9th (day 20): Takayama.** Have a few options for this day, could do more old-town exploring and visit Hida village or do a day-trip to Shirakawago.

**Dec 10th (day 21): Takayama > Tokyo.** Staying in the Akihabara district. Will visit sights in the area depending on how the day progresses.

**Dec 11th – 13th (day 22, 23, 24): Tokyo.** Across these days we will explore Akihabara, Asakusa, go bouldering at b-pump, shop for gifts, and ideally do a day trip to Nikko on whatever day has the best weather.

**Dec 14th (day 25): Tokyo > Narita Airport.** As it’s a travel day, we haven’t planned anything and will likely just be grabbing food and jumping on the train to Narita Airport.

Questions:

1. Would a combination of regional JR passes make more sense than a 21 day JR pass for our route? The JR Pass calculator said the 21 day pass would be cost effective (based on old pricing and including day trips to Lake Kawaguchi, Nikko, and Nara – left Hiroshima out as we’re undecided on that trip), but it doesn’t cover all of our days. If using the JR pass we’d most likely activate it the day of our first day trip from Tokyo (around \~day 2 or 3), meaning the pass would last most of the trip but not include our transport to/from Narita Airport and some Tokyo days. Really open to any and all suggestions regarding transport, figuring this out has been tricky.
2. For those that have done the Kumano Kodo, did you find that you had enough time to explore Hongu Taisha at then end of the day of walking from Tsugizakura-oji? If it was too tight, how much time would you allocate for exploring the temple? Also any other Kumano Kodo tips, especially from people that have booked independently of the booking website would be much appreciated.
3. I am allergic to cod, but not any other types of fish or seafood (weird, I know). How commonly is cod used in meals, and is it easily avoidable? It seems like Salmon, Tuna, Mackerel, and other seafoods are more popular from my research.
4. For Tokyo day trips, we’re prioritising going to Lake Kawaguchi to see Mt Fuji in the first few days of the trip to try catch the last of the fall foliage there. We’re very excited about Nikko, but decided to put it within our last few Tokyo days because the fall foliage will already be gone in that area by the time we arrive in November. Is Nikko still worthwhile to visit in early December, particularly given we will have visited many temples by this point? (We know it’ll be cold, along with Koyasan!).

Thank you to anyone that has time to give their insight, this subreddit is invaluable.