I’m looking for some advice as I’m starting to create the outline for my trip to Japan this spring. This will be my second trip to Japan but I only stayed for a week the first time and was also younger and had the energy to fit like 100 things into one day.
Since my last visit I have travelled to other places for longer lengths of time and have become well aware of how easy it is to burn out really quickly and end up not enjoying the trip as much as I could have. Because of that I’m trying to give myself more time and a some breathing room for this trip so I can genuinely enjoy it.
I will be visiting the typical outside of Tokyo locations – Tokyo,Osaka,Kyoto,Nara,Hiroshima,Mijayama. I know most people say you can do this route in 14 days so I’m hoping the extra 6/7 days allows me to take my time exploring these places but also if I have a day where I feel too overwhelmed I can cut back on that day and take a breather.
**My question for you guys is would it be stupid to go straight to Hiroshima/Miyajima from Tokyo and work my way up to Osaka from there instead of doing Osaka/Kyoto/Nara first?**
The reason I ask is because the train ride between Hiroshima and Tokyo will be the longest regardless of which way I’m taking it and I would rather take advantage of it being in the first few days of my trip and still having that initial energy and momentum to not feel exhausted having to travel for that long.
From where I stand now, doing so doesn’t change what I plan to do in each location it just means that the further I get into my trip the less time I have to spend travelling between places.
So while doing so makes sense for my personal needs I want to know if there’s something I’m not considering by choosing to do this, like there’s a specific reason people recommend do to the route in this order?
Let me know your thoughts 🙂
4 comments
Hi!
One thing you can do, depending on how many days you planned to spend in Kansai is do is break it up so you do 2-3 days in Kyoto, then go to Hiroshima and then Hiroshima and then 2-3 days in Kyoto again. (or Osaka or Nara or where ever)
You could do the one long trip, I would not do it the day you arrive in Japan unless you are arriving VERY early and that point, why not look into a flight from Tokyo to Hiroshima or at least to Itami and shorten your travel some, I would especially look at the latter if you are flying into Narita and not Haneda.
In June 2019, I started in Kansai and flew from Narita to Itami on arrival. It was surprisingly easy and made my plane ticket cheaper than a round trip to Narita. I get that depending on where you live there are no easy directs to KIX, but I found changing for domestic flights at Narita not so bad.
It also might make sense financially to fly, since you don’t list your full itinerary so it’s unclear if any sort of rail pass will pay off. If you fly into the west, you could get a 5 day JR West Pass to cover the trip from Osaka to Hiroshima and back and then pay out of pocket for the trip from Kyoto to Tokyo, again this is assuming that is your only planned long distance travel.
I admit, while I have stayed over night in Hiroshima before, I more often than not just day trip it from Kyoto. I guess a lot would have to do with what your plans are.
Good luck!
You can go straight from Tokyo to Hiroshima, but be aware that entire day is going to be shot, as 5+ hours of shinkansen is a bit much. Considering jet lag, it might be worth packaging your travel all to one end or the other of your trip.
With 21 days, you can easily add in another city (kyushu/shikoku/kanazawa/fuji/nikko/other)
As already suggested. Replacing Tokyo – Hiroshima – Osaka – Kyoto with Tokyo – Kyoto – Hiroshima – Osaka would eliminate your long trip. Same travel time overall but no single long trip. Kyoto and Osaka are so close I can understand the convenience on the transfer day.
These are my suggestions from my own travel perspectives and certain assumptions since there are certain information you didn’t mention.
There are of cos 2 ways of travel from Tokyo to Hiroshima which is either plane or Shinkansen.
I will rather do long travel on the first 2 days due to the Fatigue from travel from your home country to Japan. I’m not sure where you are from but long flight travel tends to wear you out on arrival (as you age).
There are 2 international airports in Tokyo and if you arrive in Haneda, then taking another flight from HND to Hiroshima will be much easier since most of the domestic flights fly out from HND airport. But depending on your arrival time, if you arrive late at night then staying 1 night in Tokyo is inevitable. Flight time may be 1.5 hours but pre-flight will settle additional 2 hours and Hiroshima airport to the city will take you another hour. So that’s min 4.5 hours of travel.
Shinkansen will take you about 4 hours travel, from city to city. The JR pass will make it more worth while. You can book hotels next to the train station for ease of travel. You can buy JR pass online and make reservations. BUT you need to give yourself some time to retrieve your JR pass as there are usually long queues especially in airports (or go to city stations to collect instead). So planning is the key here.
You didn’t mention who you are travelling with as it does matter. If you are traveling alone or with another adult, it is much less hassle as compared to with kids. Japan has the best transportation but the popular stations are huge/complex and difficult to find your way around. I still get lost in Shinjuku station. I like to travel via Shinkansen. You can even buy bento set at 1000 yen +- in Tokyo Station and savour it while travelling at high speed. Shinkansen has more comfortable seats.
Your travel period is the Sakura season. You might want to be little flexible in your travel as the flowers bloom only for a week. You need to check out the online blooming forecast frequently.