**Introduction:**
My wife and I are 28 years old going to Japan as first timers from the USA.
We are trying to put together some kind of itinerary so that we can guess how long we should stay in each area and get some lodgings booked. This is essentially the trip of our life so we want to make the most of it!
**Our Interests:**
1. Traditional culture and old style preserved areas
2. Natural beauty such as gardens and mountains/rural areas
3. Hiking and walking
4. Ryokan/Onsen/Farmhouses
5. Thrift shopping/Tokyo Shopping
6. Food
7. Anime sort of
Note: I get overwhelmed by too much big city (For example NYC) for too long but I’m interested in them
**Questions:**
1. This itinerary probably has too much, doesn’t it? What is your opinion on what we should take out? I wouldn’t be surprised if the feedback is that this is completely unrealistic.
2. Should we buy a JR pass (at the September prices) for the 3 weeks?
3. Is Shinjuku a bad place to stay during Halloween?
4. What sim card should we purchase? We are looking at switching to Google Fi for a month or 2.
5. My wife is concerned about ease of luggage transport for our more rural destinations. Is there a solution to make this happen? Should we be renting a car?
6. How should we handle the # of places we stay in the Japanese alps? Should we switch lodging for each destination within the Japanese alps or is there a decent base of operations?
**Rough Itinerary:**
**10/28-11/1 Tokyo**
Fly into Tokyo Haneda Airport at 3:25 PM local time. Eat something, get to hotel, and sleep. We are thinking of booking in Shinjuku because we want to be able to easily walk to the train station and food/drink in the evening. These days will probably be spent visiting popular Tokyo spots with maybe some shopping.
**11/1-11/4 Fussa**
We have some friends who live in Fussa on the western side of Tokyo. We will stay with them for these days and plan to do 1 or 2 day hikes west of Fussa, visit Hakone/Mt. Fuji, and go to some of their favorite local spots.
**11/4-11/10 Kyoto**
We want to see some popular Kyoto spots such as Fushimi-Inari, Kiyomizudera, Higashiyama, Ginkakuji, etc.
In addition, Kyoto seems like a good place base **day trips** from such as:
* Osaka
* Hiroshima
* Nara
* Mt Koya
That’s a lot of day trips and things to see so we’re probably either going to have to extend our stay or trim down our list.
**11/10-11/15 Japanese Alps**
Really loved to look of several areas in the Japanese Alps based on Japan Guide:
* Kanazawa walking day: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4213_kanazawa_full.html
* Shirakawa-go Traditional Farmhouse Stay
* Takayama walking day: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5912_takayama_full.html
* Kamikochi and/or Kiso Valley for hiking and seeing rural traditional areas
**11/15-11/17 Tokyo**
Get back to Tokyo, do some shopping or something, and fly out of Haneda in the evening of the 17th.
Thank you in advance for any help or insight you are able to provide!
1 comment
5 days for the Japanses alps are definitely not as bad as compared to a lot of itineraries here 😀 but still not a lot.
Realistically with travel time included you‘ll need a minimum of 2 nights in Kanazawa + 2 nights in Takayama. Shirakawago can be a half day stopover between Kanazawa and Takayama.
(Or if you insist on staying in Shirakawago it could be 1 night there and one night in Takayama)
This would leave you with one last night to spare. So I think you‘ll have to decide between Kamikochi and Kiso valley.
I visited both and it‘s a tough call but I think I‘d prefer going to Kamikochi again – combined with a night in one of the remote onsen towns like Hirayu onsen if you can manage to book a night in a ryokan there.