Background: This will be my 4th trip to Japan, my Japanese level is serviceable, I’ve done highly scheduled and planned out trips and near daily city/village hopping style trips. Food, hiking, views/scenery are what I’m looking for.
I’ve found that the highly scheduled type trips are suffocating and I hate having the expectation of needing to meet a check in/check out deadline or need to be at x location at y time. At the same time, I feel like just picking one location to base in and doing day trips back and forth just too time inefficient when I could just hop from place to place and see everything.
I would love to do a trip where I just go at my own pace and rock up somewhere and stay in a hostel or capsule hotel, stay longer at a place I found I like or just leave somewhere I felt was too boring. Having to book everything in advance is a pain if I want to shift things around mid trip. There will also be a couple of friends that I may or may not want to meet up and I’d like to be a bit flexible.
Would this work in Shikoku/Kyushu or will I be expected to pre book everything in advance? Any places you would recommend or nix? Or a more logical/reasonable way to visit the areas? (I’d be traveling with basically a single backpack carrying maybe 2-3 changes of clothes) Here is what I’m thinking of in terms of timelines:
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[https://i.imgur.com/XSDf8MU.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/XSDf8MU.jpg)
Trip duration: March 29th-April 23rd (24 full days, 25 nights)
March 29th Afternoon/Evening Fly in to Haneda, spend the night in **Tokyo** to unwind/reset from flight. (The main reason for flying into Tokyo and not say, Kansai or closer to Kyushu/Shikoku is because it’s a direct flight return flight, and I’ve had very bad experiences with canceled or delay flights with layovers, and would like to just not take the chance)
30th Noon/Afternoon Fly into **Kagoshima** (\~5hrs hotel to hotel?) spend 2 nights, (Check out izakayas, keep hearing about this Yataimura, 31st, 1 day for Sakurajima, explore the island, check out some parks) not too sure what else Kagoshima has really. Maybe visit the Meiji museum on April 1st?
April 1st Morning/Afternoon train to **Kumamoto** (1.5hr), I would like to rent a car and spend a few days driving around Mt. Aso (2nd), Takachiho gorge (3rd), and maybe squeeze in Kurokawa onsen somewhere in the middle? (maybe in one big circular loop?)
April 4th Train to **Nagasaki** (2.5hrs) 2 nights, visit the A-bomb museum, April 5th, Gunkanjima tour,
April 6th Train to **Fukuoka** (2hrs), spend a night, to be honest, so far nothing in Fukuoka really interests me, looks like a generic city, having been to Hiroshima, Osaka, and most of Tokyo, is there anything that stands out in Fukuoka that I should spend 2 nights in? It’s more of a stop over point for me as I want to hop from Fukuoka to Beppu. (I may or may not be hanging out with friends who may be in the area at the time I’m going)
\-Disclaimer, I’m not really sure of an efficient or easy way to get to and between Kyushu and Shikoku, if anyone knows of a better way to go about this please let me know. I’m not too sure on the transition from Nagasaki/Kyushu to Shikoku, the main thing I want to do there is the Shimanami Kaido
April 7th Train/Bus to **Beppu** (2.5hr), 1 night, onsen jigoku meguri, onsen hopping,
April 8th Ferry to Yawatahama, Yawatahama to **Matsuyama**, (3-4hrs?) 1 night, Dogo Onsen,
April 9th Matsuyama Castle, Ishiteji Temple, train to **Imabari** (1.5hr)
April 10th Rent a bike, explore the Shimanami Kaido, overnight on one of the islands,
April 11th, explore more of the islands, finish the night in **Onomichi**,
April 12th, Onomichi to **Kurashiki** (2hrs), spend a day there (spend a night here and rent a car instead of going to Takamatsu?)
April 13th-16th, Kurashiki/**Takamatsu**, rent a car, explore Iya valley, Okobe Gorge, Nagoro scarecrow village, a day each maybe, spend the night(s) in one of the hotels in the area. Return the car at the end. Fly out from Okayama to Tokyo.
April 16th-20th Nothing planned/Flex days. If I’m being a bit too unrealistic with the timelines or if there is a place I should dedicate an extra day to, I have 4-5 that I can use to shift things around.
April 20th-23rd I’d like to spend the last few days in **Tokyo** shopping
Thoughts?