Itinerary check! 17 nights across Japan

9 comments

1. Going all that way to Kumamoto only for a day doesn’t really seem worthwhile, especially as there doesn’t seem to be anything you want to see in particular there. If you want to see a castle, go to Himeji as it’s castle is an original while the one at Kumamoto is mainly a poorly-executed concrete reconstruction.

   Don’t go to animal cafes – Japan unfortunately has much inferior animal protection laws than most other rich countries.

2. I’m a tour guide in Tokyo, Kamakura and Hakone. Your itinerary is not realistic.

3. Day 11/12 are madness. Unless you have a very deep and very personal connection to Kumamoto it is absolutely not worth that degree of detour. And Akiyoshido cave is very nice but likewise not worth that degree of detour for so little time spent in the area (plus, unless you are a geologist, all limestone caverns look close enough to one another).

   If you really must go to Kumamoto, shift Hakone to the start of the trip, delete the cave, do Kumamoto on the equivalent of Day 17, and fly KMJ-Tokyo. Domestic flying in Japan is very civilized and otherwise it simply wastes so much time and money on the train.

4. Please do not go to animal cafes. Japan does not have good animal welfare infrastructure. Regardless of what the animals are, if you’re handling them it’s not good for them. They are not pets in animal cafes. They’re frightened, ill-cared for animals being pawed by whosoever forks out the money to do so. (Ueno Zoo, too, doesn’t have the best conditions.)

   If I were you, I’d just put all of your Shibuya things on the same day. It’s not all that big a place, and, though it’s fine for a while, you’ll be missing other places if you spend all your time there.

5. omoide yokocho for lunch? tf?

6. You are going to love hakone.

7. I love Kumamoto and Kyushu in general, and I’m happy you and your fiancee are planning to visit. However, I feel like I need to put your planned itinerary into some perspective.

   It will take you three hours minimum to travel from Osaka to Kumamoto.

   It will take you about the same length of time to go from *Osaka* to Hakone, *if* you take one Shinkansen to Nagoya, another to Odawara, and then change there for an express.

   You are planning on commuting from Osaka, to Kumamoto, and then from Kumamoto straight to Hakone. Think about that for a second. Even if you are willing to sit on a train for a *minimum* of six hours you’d have to factor in the cost of travelling across 3 separate JR regions on three or four Shinkansen plus the express train to Hakone. Unless you opt for the expensive JR National Pass, you’re looking at close to 30k yen minimum just for the Kumamoto-Hakone leg. If you do opt for the national pass, then you have to structure all your previous rail trips on other days around its time limitations, unless you want to pay for *those* trips upfront also.

   I would never discourage anyone from visiting Kumamoto, but if you’re going to visit then you need to radically restructure your itinerary around it. For starters, **don’t fly into Tokyo unless you absolutely have to**. **Fly into Fukuoka if you can, and Osaka if you must,** and then use Fukuoka as your base to explore Kyushu. (Kumamoto is about 30 mins away from Fukuoka by train, and this also opens the door to seeing other cool places like Hiroshima, Kagoshima and Nagasaki.) You can then proceed to Osaka and Kyoto via Shinkansen, and then make your way to Tokyo. It might suit you best to do Hakone at the very end, taking the Romancecar from Shinjuku and back and then flying out of Haneda.

   Consider that while you may have to pay a little extra for flights, accommodation in Fukuoka is much cheaper than in Tokyo, and if you don’t mind spending a night somewhere in Hokuriku (where hotels also tend to be reasonably priced) you can do all this minus Hakone on regional JR passes (Sanyo-Sanin Northern Kyushu plus Hokuriku Arch) for the fraction of the cost of either the National JR Pass or flying domestic. Depending on where in the world you’re based, you could potentially make considerable savings in both time and money by reorienting your itinerary this way.

   This does depend on being able to fly to a non-Tokyo airport though, which I concede may not be an option for everybody.

8. Maybe it’s just your splurge accommodation, but note that 3 nights in a ryokan with private onsen could likely cost as much as your flight tickets, assuming coming from the US or EU. We stayed at one in November and it was well north of $500 a night. If your honeymoon budget allows for it, go for it, but just to put it out there.

9. > Day 16: Hakone to Tokyo – Mt. Fuji Panoramic Ropeway – Chureito Pagoda – Fuji Q Highland – stay at hotel in Kawasaki

   If you are going for the roller coasters, Fuji Q Highland itself can account for an entire day, even with priority tickets for the roller coasters. And Fuji Q, Kawaguchiko and Fuji-san stations all have accommodation, so travellling to Kawasaki is pointless.