I live in Tokyo, and this coming September I’m planning to take a extended holiday traveling around Japan with my partner. We speak very little japanese (been here for 3 months) but enough to get by.
We’ve asked some friends about ideal destinations at that time of the year, and they gave us some ideas, but they tend to be too rural and, according to them, not so fun if we’re not able to drive.
So far the only clear destination is Kyoto, but beyond that we’d like to go somewhere seaside, with good food and interesting architecture/history, ideally with good hiking and nature but still accessible and navigable by public transport.
Sorry if this is a bit too open ended, it’s hard to judge which areas require driving to get around so I just need that initial push 🙂
Thanks!
8 comments
Is this your first time travelling in Japan? You can safely pick anywhere you from from major tourism website and it’s probably not going to be a miss.
Tons of website about travelling in Japan, e.g. [https://www.japan-guide.com/](https://www.japan-guide.com/) , and most of them focused on using public transportion.
Ishigaki would be good. Exploring the main island maybe difficult without a car (I think they have a bus system though?), but from the Jetty Port at the center you can get to all the small surrounding islands.
Good seafood? Interesting architecture? Accessible nature? Check out Hakodate. https://www.hakodate.travel/en/
Kanazawa is a good bet for the history/food part, and Toyama has some great seaside stuff by tram (Iwase) or rail (Himi and Amaharashi). The local rail from Toyama to Kurobe has some nice sea views, and from there is the railway that goes to Kurobe Gorge…some hiking around there.
You seem new here, so just in case: september is peak typhoon season. Watch the news regularly before and during your trip and stay safe.
You could consider a tohoku/Hakodate your. With the JR east pass you can minimise the travel cost, and you can reasonably easily reach enough of the cool spots for a first trip. There’s also the Michinoku Coastal Trail for some (light) hiking.
Kagoshima, you can use the tram to get anywhere, most things are walking distance from the main shopping area and it’s a brisk walk or tram ride to the main train station to go a bit further out and the bus station has cityview buses running and a bus to get to a few further out places from the centre
Given the current hellscape Sapporo.