Hello! We are a 29 and 32 year old active couple, travelling to Japan in Feburary for approx. 18 days from Denmark. Our wish list of cities and activities is quite extensive and some cuts have had to be made, so hoping to get some feedback here. (So far we have cut Nara, Nagasaki, Kanazawa & Nagoya)
Mostly we are concerned that we don’t have much ‘rest’ time included, and that we might have to drop another city. The pacing of our trip is based around wanting to be in Osaka and Toyko at least one of each weekend’s night, and to have some time in nature.
**Day 0 – Feburary 18th-**depart from Denmark, flying overnight and arriving at Narita airport the morning of Feburary 19th.
**Day 1-6 Toyko with daytrips**
* Toyko with sidetrips, probably Kamakura, Kawazu, and Nikko. Thinking of staying in Nikko overnight
* Studio Ghibli and Team Lab museum
* Temples, shrines, Ueno park
* Plum festival
* Sky tower
*
Nezu museum & garden
*
Imperial palace
*
National art centre tokyo
* Roppongi hills
* The golden gai
* General exploring of different districts (I have this in more substantial detail but don’t want to overwhelm the post by posting everything!)
* Friday & Saturday night bar hopping/ later nights
**Day 7 Toyko to Hiroshima**
* bullet train to Hiroshima around midday then work our way back up to Toyko gradually over the remainder of the trip, since this is where our flight home will depart from
* Arrive at hotel in the evening.
* Find dinner and relax
**Day 8**
* Hiroshima Peace memorial muesum
* Peace park
* Itsukushima Jinja
**Day 9 Hiroshima to Osaka**
* Arrive in Osaka and check into hotel
* Explore Osaka, paticuarly vintage clothes shopping and that kind of thing in Minami
* Dontombori area for dinner
**Day 10-12 Osaka with day trips**
* Osaka city walk round 2. Like to explore and get lost in new places so will probably walk along the river and just look for coffee for a while
* Osaka castle
* Dinner in Dontombori area
* Day trip to Kobe
* Day trip to Kyoto
* Possibly a trip to the bamboo forest, but probably no time for this unless we turn the day trip into Kyoto into an overnight trip
**Day 14 Osaka to Hakone**
* arrive and stay in onsen. It is a long journey so we won’t arrive until the evening
**Day 15 – 16 Hakone and 5 lakes area**
* take in the nature, this is the main lazy nature and relaxing part of this trip so happy to have no trips or major activities other
**Day 17 leave Hakone and return to Toyko for our final night**
*Last night*
**Day 18** Depart Narita, fly back to Denmark
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3 comments
Daytrip to Kyoto made me laugh. Kyoto has so much more to do vs Osaka. I can’t imagine doing less than a day there. If you’re doing less than a day in Kyoto, I wouldn’t recommend the Bamboo forest. It’s cool but it would not be in my top 5 of things to visit in Kyoto
Honestly I thought about planning my trips but I just plan on the go. thinking about what I should do depending on my body condition, sleep etc.
Of course if you want to see something specific you should go for it but for other places you should just relax.
I am planning a visit for the plum blossoms in 2024 as well. What I would have done is to visit Kawazu in Izu for early sakura, Atami for their plum blossoms and Suzuka near Nagoya for their famous plum blossoms as well. Then you will need to maximise the passes you will need.