We’re hopefully going to Japan end October & November for 3 weeks on our honeymoon. We have a rough itinerary planned but have 5 nights left where we’re not sure what to do
Currently we have 15 nights out of 20 covered:
* 5 nights Tokyo (staying in Shibuya)
* Day 1: recover, gentle sightseeing around Shibuya
* Day 2: breakfast at fish market, Harakuju, Meiji-Jingu
* Day 3: Asakusa, Akihabara
* Day 4: TeamLab borderless, Ghibli museum (if accepting overseas visitors)
* Day 5: Flexbile
* 1 night Fuji (Kawaguchiko)
* Sightseeing bus and walks
* 1 night Hakone
* Hakone free pass for hiking & activities
* Overnight stay at a ryokan
* 3 nights Kyoto (including Nara day trip)
* Sightseeing
* Food tours & markets
* 1 day trip to Nara
* 3 nights Osaka
* Sightseeing & food
* 2 nights Hiroshima
* Sightseeing including dome and peace museum
* Day trip to Miyajima
That leaves 5 nights free. We weren’t sure whether to try to fit in the Japan Alps (Nagano or Matsumoto), or continue on to Fukuoka, or even spend more time in the places we’re going to already
We’d love to hear suggestions – the extra nights are flexible and can be squeezed in at any point in the trip. We like food, history, nature, walks so all suggestions welcome – thanks!
4 comments
I recommend adding extra days to Kyoto and maybe some extra days to Tokyo for the sake of taking day trips from Tokyo to nearby areas. Nagano is a little over two hours from Shinjuku station, making this a potential day trip that you can decide on when you’re in Japan based off of how you feel.
I also recommend using only one hotel for the Kansai region (where Nara, Kyoto, and Osaka are), and just transiting between them in the mornings. It’s really, really fast by shinkansen. Just make sure that hotel is near a good transit station, such as Shin-Osaka station. You could also take a day trip or two out to Kobe if you add days to this region as well. Also, if you end up getting bored of one city, it’s not a problem because you have the rest of Kansai to check out. Also other good day trips such as Kanazawa.
I’d put them into the Alps. You can do something like two Kanazawa, two Takayama, one Matsumoto and thats a solid little loop with some really fun stuff.
I would also combine Kawaguchiko and Hakone into two nights in Hakone. You will be moving around a lot those days, and the moving is on little busses. I just don’t think the split stay is worth it. Keep to Hakone, enjoy the loop and then rock on down to Kyoto.
Borderless closed and is planed to re-open in 2023. Planets is still open. I also do not like putting Ghibli and Planets on the same day, it’s not as if these two places are next to each other.
If you plan to do Kawaguchiko and Hakone, I would plan 3 days total (and use the Fuji-Hakone pass instead). Day one for Kawaguchiko, day 2 probably take the train in the morning to Gotemba outlets, then to Hakone to start the visit, third day to properly visit Hakone.
Here it really depend on what you plan to do in each Osaka and Kyoto, but doing 3 days in each, the day trip to Nara could make sense done from Osaka.
Both Nagano/Matsumoto and Fukuoka are nice options, they do have different things to offer. Fukuoka would be a bit more of the city vibe, they also have a teamlab exhibition, great history museum.
On the other side, Matsumoto got an original castle and great opportunity to see more nature for example with a trip in the mountain.
It would also not be remotely difficult to add more time around what you already planned, there is many daytrip options possible like Kawagoe, Kamakura, Nikko, Kobe, Himeji, Okayama, Kurashiki, Onomichi and much more, that are just around the area you will already visit.
Extra night in Fuji and Hakone (get a ryokan with a private onsen, it’s your honeymoon) then use the other days for Kyoto and/or Tokyo