Hello!
We (two people, late 20s from Europe) are going to Japan for 34 days in October-November 2023. We originally had this planned for autumn 2020 but obviously couldn’t go. I’ve been before (doing work and travel for nine months in 2014), my boyfriend hasn’t been. Our priorities are hiking, nature, onsen, and good food, while hitting the major cities and doing some touristy Japan-specific things (i.e. Pokemon Center, Ghibli museum), and also some retro gaming. We are trying to find a good balance between always planning enough to do (because we are both easily irritated when just wandering around aimlessly) without being exhausted after a week. Both are able-bodied and physically fit, so walking around a lot isn’t a problem. I speak Japanese around level N4, my boyfriend does not. We’ll be using 21 day JR Passes. We haven’t booked hotels yet.
TLDR itinerary version:
6 days in Kyoto: Temples, tea ceremony, cooking class3 days in Fukuoka: Parks, seaside, malls3 days in Beppu: Onsen, hiking2 days in Hiroshima: Peace park, food1 day on Miyajima: Hiking and relaxing1 day in Onomichi: Temple walk2 days in Imabari: Shimanami Kaido, Pilgrimage shrines2 days in Matsuyama: Onsen3 days in Osaka: Food, izakaya, Super Nintendo World3 days in Yunomine Onsen: Hiking3 days in Ise: Ise Grand shrine, Ago Bay5 days in Tokyo: Shopping, museums
Itinerary:
**Day 1 to 6: Kyoto**
Day 1: Arrival, travel to Kyoto
* We arrive at Tokyo Haneda at 8am
* Leisurely make our way to Kyoto via shinkansen
* stay awake until the evening, hit the 7-11 for snacks, sleep
Day 2: Kyoto
* Easy first day
* Philosopher’s Path
* Nishiki-Market
Day 3: Kyoto
* Fushimi Inari in the morning
* Take part in a tea ceremony in the afternoon
* Explore along the river in the evening, Sannenzaka
Day 4: Kyoto
* Arashiyama
Day 5: Kyoto
* Kiyomizu-dera in the morning
* Nijo Castle in the afternoon
Day 6: Kyoto
* Take a cooking class
* Do Karaoke
One of the Kyoto days might instead be used for a day trip to Himeji or Kurashiki, depending on feedback about whether we allocate to much time to individual things. If we find ourselves with time at our hands we’re thinking about visiting Kinkakuji and/or Ginkakuji. Wanted to stay at Khaosan but it closed down a few months ago.
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**Day 7 to 9: Fukuoka**
Day 7: Travel to Fukuoka
* activate JR Pass
* possibly Nokonoshima Island Park or Uminonakamichi Seaside Park
* eat at Sushiro
Day 8: Fukuoka
* work our way from west to east through the city on foot:
* Fukuoka seaside front with tower
* Ohori-koen and Japanese garden
* Terumo shrine
* Shintencho
* Canal City
* explore Hakata Station
Day 9: Fukuoka
* trip to Dazaifu
Fukuoka is the city I previously spend the longest time so I am really not worried about filling 3 days. This is mostly about hitting things that I have fond memories of. We will probably be staying around Ohori-koen.
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**Day 10 to 12: Beppu**
Day 10: Travel to Beppu
* Nothing specifically, just chilling in some nice onsen in Beppu
Day 11: Beppu
* Hiking Mt Yufu, then onsen
Day 12: Beppu
* Visit the hells, aquarium, and/or the monkey park
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**Day 13 to 15: Hiroshima, Miyajima**
Day 13: Travel to Hiroshima
* explore around the peace park, atomic bomb dome
* we are not planning to go to the museum, as I’ve been before and my boyfriend is not interested
* eat Okonomiyaki
Day 14: Hiroshima
* Mitaki temple
* this day might be superfluous, could be reallocated to another city?
Day 15: Travel to Miyajima
* explore the island
* stay overnight in a ryokan
In Hiroshima we will probably stay at J-Hoppers. Recommendations for a Miyajima ryokan appreciated.If we travel early enough from Beppu we might be able to hit most of what we want to do in Hiroshima during the rest of the arrival day, I suppose? (check in, peace park, mitaki, Okonomiyaki for dinner) However, that would mean that we change locations quite often if you have a look at the next stretch of the journey.
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**Day 16 to 20: Onomichi, Imabari, Matsuyama**
Day 16: Travel to Onomichi
* Temple walk
* ?
Day 17: Travel to Imabari
* travel to Imabari on bike via Shimanami Kaido
Day 18: Imabari
* visit senyu-ji temple
* ?
Day 19: Travel to Matsuyama
* ?
Day 20: Matsuyama
* visit Matsuyama castle
* Dogo Onsen
This part of the itinerary is rather empty. We are really keen on doing the Shimanami Kaido, but don’t necessarily want to spend a night at a different place for to many days back-to-back, because we’re worried that would be too taxing. Any recommendations or ideas how we could change things here?
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**Day 21 to 23: Osaka**
Day 21: Travel to Osaka
* travel will take about 4.5 hours, so really only planning afternoon and evening for this day
* Dotonbori, Don Quijote, Hozenji Yokocho, Shinsekai
* Visit an izakaya
* Tempura, Takoyaki
Day 22: Osaka
* Museum of Housing and Living/Open Air Museum of Old Japanese Farm Houses
* Osaka Castle (just the outside, found the inside rather disappointing last time)
* Den Den Town
* Okonomiyaki
* nightlife? Maybe a concert?
Day 23: Osaka
* Super Nintendo World
Osaka is the newest addition to the itinerary because I don’t have particularly fond memories of the city from my latest visit. However, that was totally on my mental state and not on the city, so it’s getting a second chance! I’d like to explore Japan’s nightlife at least once but its not our typical scene even in our own country, so any tips of where to go are appreciated. Also just want to stuff my face with great food, but definitely tempure and takoyaki. Any comments about the museums?
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**Day 24 to 26: Yunomine Onsen**
Day 24, 25, 26: Travel to Yunomine Onsen
* Hiking (Hongu Loop) and onsen
This is definitely the place we want to go that I see the least in other itineraries. Really looking forward to the old town and all the nature, especially after changing places so often and hitting Osaka. We know its a lot of travel to and from there, but its worth it to us. The next part (Ise) mostly happened because Yunomine Onsen is so far out and we wanted another stop before Tokyo.
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**Day 27 to 29: Ise**
Day 27: Travel to Ise
* travelling will really take most of the day, around 6 hours
Day 28: Ise
* Grand shrine
* Meoto Iwa
Day 29: Ise
* Ago Bay: Yokoyama Observation Deck, Kashikojima
Any recommendations welcome here. If you have alternative suggestions to Ise generally for something between Yunomine Onsen and Tokyo, shoot. There’s nothing specifically about Ise that we really feel the need to see or do, even though Ago Bay looks very nice.
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**Day 30 to 34: Tokyo**
Day 30 to 34: Travel to Tokyo
* Nintendo Store
* Ghibli museum
* Ikebukuro, Akihabara
* TeamLab
* Evangelion Store
* Mori Art Museum
* Mori Garden
* Book Off
* DAISO
* Sunshine City
* Takeshita-dori
* Daikanyama T-site
* Shimokitazawa
* Pokemon Center
* Starbucks Tokyo Roastery
* Meiji, Gotokuji, Sensoji
* if the dates line up: Asakusa Tori-no-ichi Fair
* possibly a day trip to Kawaguchi/Fuji
Not structured at all yet, see question 2. Basically none of these things are must-do’s for either of us. Buying souvenirs and things we want to take home in general is priority number 1. We are then leaving during the night from day 34 to “day 35” just after midnight. Would love visiting quieter areas with some nice cafés or something, but also don’t really want to tourist-support the gentrification of former residential areas.
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Questions:
1. Would love to see a play or go to a concert. Any venue recommendations that are easy to book tickets for tourists? I’ve researched a traditional theatre before that offered translations via a tablet but it seemed from their website that they aren’t doing it currently.
2. What area would you recommend to stay in Tokyo? It’s the city I find it the hardest to mentally navigate, even though (or maybe because) there’s so much material out there.
3. The Ghibli Theme Park is further out from Tokyo than I expected and will not be fully open by the time we are travelling. I know nobody can decide for us but input for whether you think its worth it for people I’d describe as “casual fans” is appreciated.
4. There’s lot of possibility for day trips, e.g. Himeji/Kobe/Naoshima from Kyoto, Mount Ago/Mount Kongo/Minoo Park hikes from Osaka, Hakone/Kamakura/Mount Takao from Tokyo. Any you think, considering we rather enjoy nature vs crowds and the season (autumn), that we should definitely consider further?
5. Anything in any of the cities you find absolutely essential we haven’t mentioned?
6. Recommendations for your favourite cafés, public parks (especially considering fall colours), retro gaming or book stores in any city?
7. Any recommendations for gyms that offer cheap day passes? Couldn’t find anything below \~30€/$ per person. At that rate we’ll rather use calisthenics equipment in parks.
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Thanks so much for reading this long post. We are looking forward to any input, answers, or recommendations!
4 comments
Day 1 is super light (you can take a power nap on the Shinkansen) and I find jetlag recovery to be easier if I’m out and about in daylight. Maybe go to Nijo Castle or take a walk around Higashiyama temples? You can use the ‘saved’ half day on Day 5 to go to Himeji.
Days 28 and 29 can be merged into one unless you are very into the cultural significance of the Ise shrines and plan to linger there a lot; Meteo Iwa is much smaller than it looks on most pictures. Between those and Day 14, I would try to hang out a bit more around the Kii peninsula because it is so time-consuming to get to (Nachi falls is fun, Kii-Katsuura has some really nice ryokan, etc.).
Mt Takao is really fun on a clear fall day between the colors and the view of Mt Fuji at the end. If you take the cable car up and down (it only goes halfway so you still have to do hard work, you just skip the most boring part) it can be a half-day trip and fits around other Tokyo activities.
The Yufu area is really charming and it has some great shops and restaurants. 2 things though:
1. It basically all closes at 17:00 or 18:00. Gets pretty hard to find dining if you are here in the evening.
2. Some of the onsens require you to get a private spot if you have tattoos.
Enjoy your adventure!
If you are going to hike Yufudake, stay the night in Yufuin. Lots of good onsen there and different feeling than The much larger Beppu and all the tour busses going through.
with over a month of time in japan, I think it would be a shame to miss Kinkakuji
Your Kyoto days are in general rather light, you could be a little more
Arashiyama can be a full day, usually its monkey, bamboo… that wont be a full day.
when near kiyomizudera, explore more of higashiyama. its one of the best spots for tourists (not in so few others, but in POIs for the area)
when you do philosophers path, maybe ginkakuji is close enough to hop in?
not sure you have a 3 day hiroshima plan there. maybe 2 days? That would free up some time for Himeji castle+kokoen garden (half a day)
when you have seen the outside of Himeji, its easier to skip Osaka castle. Be aware, Himeji castle inside is empty, I dont recommend going in. Hiroshima castle inside was more rewarding. Nijojo as well