Hello! I’ve posted in the past, but now I’ve got a much more solid grasp of what my group of 2 wants to do and when we’ll be going. We’ll be aiming to hit the fall foliage, and either leaving on Thanksgiving (11/23) or the Thursday before (11/16). I’m not sure if there will be any issues with traveling on or trying to see various places on Thanksgiving–I know there’s a national holiday in Japan that day, but I had a hard time seeing what would be closed, if anything.
One thing of note: The other person in my group will have had a year’s recovery from foot surgery as of the trip, and we don’t want to push it too much. Ideally we can rest about every 15 minutes of a walk, if that helps, and walk for no more than 30 minutes at a time. I did plug in my destinations into transit calculators, but if something looks like it’s cutting too close, or I’ve been too light on our activities, please let me know!
And finally, the table below only has 10 days planned out. The 11th day is one that we may or may not be able to get time off for, but we’re hoping we do. If so, which city do you think it’d be best served? We’re interested in museums, live performances, and craft-making. We have been to Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka once before on a bit of a whirlwind tour–this is us taking a bit more time where we’re interested and seeing new sights.
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|Day|Location/Transit|Activities|Homebase|Notes/Questions|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|Thurs|Plane|Plane|Plane||
|Fri|(Tokyo) NRT -> Hotel|Check-in at hotel in the evening, get a bite to eat nearby, and rest.|Hotel by Shimbashi, Shinjuku, or Ueno ST.||
|Sat|(Tokyo) Hotel -> Kichijoji -> Toyosu|Explore Kichijoji and the Ghibli Museum in the morning/early afternoon. Hit Teamlab Planets in the evening.|//||
|Sun|(Tokyo) Hotel -> Kamakura/Enoshima -> Roppongi|Explore Kamakura and Enoshima for most of the day. See the Mori Art Museum and its observation area at night.|//||
|Mon|(Tokyo) Hotel -> Tokyo DisneySea|DisneySea all day.|//||
|Tues|(Hiroshima) Hotel -> Hiroshima -> Miyajima|Take the early bullet train to Hiroshima and explore Peace Park. Check-in to a ryokan and explore Miyajima for the rest of the afternoon/evening.|A Miyajima ryokan.|Are there any Miyajima ryokan you’d recommend, or will any do?|
|Wed|(Kyoto) Miyashima -> Himeji -> Gion|Take another early bullet train to Himeji to tour Himeji castle for the morning and afternoon. Check-in to the hotel in Gion by the late afternoon and see Kiyomizudera’s nighttime illumination.|A Gion hotel.|This is the portion of the trip I’m most concerned by, with two back-to-back bullet trains. Is there any better way to do this?|
|Thurs|(Kyoto) Hotel -> Sakyō|Walk the Philosopher’s path from Nazenji to Ginkakuji in the morning, and see Kinkakuji later in the day.|//||
|Fri|(Kyoto/Osaka) Hotel -> Fushimi -> Osaka|Hike at Fushimi Inari in the morning (as far as we can), and see Dotonbori in the afternoon/evening.|//|Is there anything in particular in Osaka we could fit in our limited time there?|
|Sat|(Kyoto) Hotel -> Kobe -> KIX|If time permits, hit up Kobe in the morning for a final goodbye before heading to the airport.|//|Kobe is not a priority, but if flight times work out, it seemed like a good small destination to visit that doesn’t go too far out of the way.|
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