My wife & I were planning our first trip to Japan, hopefully taking place in mid-October if the pricing of the trip works out. If not then likely in Spring of next year (esp if airfare keeps going up this year). We’d be flying from the west coast of the US and cultural/historical sites and nature are our main interests on the trip.
I haven’t included most hotel/shopping locations for the most part unless they were important parts of the itinerary and we would probably just fill in based on how we felt. I’ve tried to keep things centered around only couple activities per day, and being mindful of the shorter daylight hours during late fall.
Any feedback or identification of naive-parts of the itinerary are greatly appreciated since I’m sure I’ve overlooked things.
**Day 0** **Fly into Osaka**
* Rent pocket wifi & check into hotel, no major activities planned
**Day 1** **Osaka ->Kyoto**
* Train to Kyoto, no major plans in case of jet lag
* Shopping (Pokemon Center Kyoto)
**Day** **2** **Kyoto**
* Rengeo-in (Sanjusangendo)
* Kamo river to Gion area
**Day 3 Kyoto**
* Imperial Palace
* Old Mitsui Family Shimogamo Villa
* Tadasu-no-Mori Forest
* Shimogamo-jinja Shrine
**Day 4 Kyoto**
* Day trip to Uji via train
* Byodoin Temple
* Uji Bridge and main street
* Uji Jinja Shrine
**Day 5 Mt Hiei** \- We were planning to do a mix of cable car/rope-way and hiking (likely on the downhill decent). Had not decided between which direction to ascend/descend on yet (Kyoto vs Biwa side)
* Enryaku-ji
**Day 6 Hikone**
* Hikone Castle
* Yumekyobashi Castle Road
* Hachiman-bori Moat
**Day 7 Lake Biwa/Otsu**
* Seta no Karahashi Bridge
* Mangetsu-ji Ukimido (Floating Hall)
* Take the train farther up to the Shiga or Hira station to see the larger part of the lake
**Day 8** **Himeji & Kurashiki**
* Shinkansen from Kyoto to Himeji
* Himeji Castle & Kokoen Garden
* Shinkansen from Himeji to Okayama
* Local line from Okayama station to Kurashiki station
**Day 9** **Kurashiki**
* Kurashiki Bikan Canal Area – sightseeing
* Rest day otherwise
**Day 10 Kurashiki**
The canal area looked very charming to spend another day in and I considered this a flexible day in case we found something else in the area to do
* Shopping + relaxing day
* Miffy Kitchen
**Day 11** \- **Travel to Matsuyama**
* I was debating either renting a car for the day vs taking the train to Mastuyama via the Yosan Limited express as a 1 day car rental looks to be nearly the same cost as 2 train tickets, but would require almost as much time driving as the train would.
* Matsuyama Castle
* Matsuyama City Park + Archaeological Museum (time permitting)
**Day 12 Matsuyama**
* Dogo Onsen & Area (exterior only)
* Yu Shrine
* Ishiteji Temple
**Day 13: Matsuyama to Iyo to Ozu**
* Yosan Line Local Uwajima – we wanted to take train along the the Inland sea for sightseeing purposes. We were not looking to take the Ioynana Monogatari tourist train, and it seems the local line runs this way during the week (instead of the Uchiko branch)
* Ozu Castle
* Tomisuyama Park + Garyu Sanso
**Day 14: Uchiko**
* Yokaichi Old town district
* Ochiko-Za Tour
**Day 15: Uchiko**
* Satoyama Walking Tour
* Workshop class (paper making or blacksmithing)
**Day 16: Uchiko to Beppu to Yufuin**
* Train to Yawatahama, bus from Yawatahama station to Ferry terminal
* Ferry to Beppu
* Pick up rental car at Beppu Toyota near ferry terminal
* Drive to Yufuin via E10/E34 Expressway
* Likely stay at ryokan while in Yufuin
**Day 17: Yufuin**
* Kinrin Lake
* Yufuin Floral Village
* Miffy Kitchen
* Main street
**Day 18: Yufuin to Hyuga**
* Via E24 to E10 Expressway
* Omi-jinja Shrine
* Leaving room for pit stops along the way
* Stay the night in Hyuga
**Day 19: Hyuga to Miyazaki City**
* Mihokogaura Bay
* Mimitsu Old Town
**Day 20: Miyazaki City**
* Udo Jingu + Miyazaki Shrine (Morning)
* Miyakoh Botanical Gardens Aoshima
* Devil’s Washboard+Aoshima Shrine @ 3-4pm Low Tide
**Day 21 Kobayashi**
* PokeLid at Nojirikopia
* Ikoma plateau (even if the flowers aren’t blooming)
**Day 22: Miyazaki City**
* Miyazaki Prefectural Saitobaru Archaeological Museum + Saitobaru Burial Mound (Miyazaki City)
* Florante Miyazaki (Miyazaki Botanical Garden)
* Awakigahara Forest Park
**Day 23: Miyazaki**
\*this day would be a flex day before we left
**Day 24** **Fly from Miyazaki to Tokyo**
* For now it looks like Tokyo will be cheaper to fly back to the US from vs KIX
* Stay overnight
**Day 25** Fly back to US
There were a few points I was most indecisive on:
1. Would it make more sense to go to Shiga first before Kyoto? Its slightly more travel upon arriving, but less back and forth-ing to Kyoto each day
2. Train vs car to Ehime (as listed above)
3. If one of the extra days in Miyazaki should be allocated to Shikoku or spent trying to spend a day or two in Kagoshima before flying back from there.
2 comments
I don’t think it’s worth it to rent a car for one day to go to Matsuyama. It will take some time to take the car, and I think you need to pay an extra if you want to give back the car at a different shop (usually you need to go back to the shop you rented the car from)
If you have time I would recommend to go to okudogo, it’s an hotel which has an open air bath surrounded by a forest, but you don’t have to stay at the hotel to go to the onsen : https://www.okudogo.co.jp/spa/. You can get there by bus from Matsuyama (~26 minutes), but for non-guests it’s opened until 8pm (7pm last entry) so it might be short.
Two full day in Kurashiki is a bit much. You can still check Okayama, cycle around Kibi, something like that.
Did you consider cost of dropping car in a different city, toll and gas on top of car rental cost?
You have to check Umagase in Hyuga, also stop by sea cross and Sanpo. That place was really beautiful. A bit of a pain to do without a car… but you will have one.
For an extra place in Miyazaki, maybe Obi castle in Nichinan.