Hey all,
My boyfriend and I are leaving for Japan in a week and looking for some insight on our rough plans. This is my 2nd visit and his 3rd. Our first visit, we stayed in Shinjuku for 2 weeks in the same hotel. There was plenty to do and we had a great time! His 2nd trip, he did the classic Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka combo and enjoyed it. This time, we’re wanting to see more rural areas of Japan. We’re struggling with what to do on the last leg of our trip and it’s coming up fast.
Here’s what we have roughly so far:
Day 1-5 – Shinjuku, Tokyo. The only thing we have concretely planned is DisneySea the 3rd day. We’re planning on exploring around our hotel and doing some things we haven’t gotten to do yet. This includes Tokyo National Museum, Toy Museum, Shin-Okubo, Kabuchiko Tower, and possibly Mt. Takao.
Day 5-9 – Chuo Ward, Osaka. Likely doing Dotonbori, Osaka Castle, Abeno Hakuras, shrines, Cup Noodle Museum, a day trip to Nara. Considering doing a day trip to Kobe as well.
Day 9-11 – Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto. Mostly temples and shrines, Gion, Monkey Park, Nishiki Market. Considering a Kibune or Kurama day trip.
This leaves day 11-15 still unplanned. We considered spending day 11-14 in Sapporo for the Autumn Festival and coming back to Tokyo for the last night and our return flight. Would Sapporo be worth it or should we finish the trip out in Tokyo or elsewhere?
Any thoughts/suggestions for rural trips out of these locations are appreciated!
5 comments
The autumn festival sounds cool! I hear there’s a crazy amount of food from all over Hokkaido!
Sapporo is fab but none of what you’ve described is rural, which is fine as well but just noting it’s not what you said you were hoping to do
Curve ball idea: If you go back to Tokyo take the Super Azusa train from Shinjuku to Matsumoto, Nagano for a few days.
Have you considered going towards Kanazawa /Takayama to visit shirakawago? If you make Kanazawa or Takayama your base you can do that easily.
Going back to Tokyo from there is relatively easy.
The autumn festival in Sapporo sounds interesting too
Are you using JR? It will take about 9+ hours from Tokyo to Sapporo.
I enjoyed heading out to Kagoshima and Ibusuki for a 2-day trip. If you leave from Osaka, it’s a 4-hour ride on the Shinkansen there, and a 7- or 8-hour return trip to Tokyo.
The best part of Kagoshima is Sakurajima, a live volcanic island. There’s a hop-on/hop-off loop bus that winds its way up to an observatory and you can spend the entire day doing mini-hikes before taking the ferry back to Kagoshima City.
From Kagoshima, you can take a local train to Ibusuki to use the sand bath there (budget about 0.5 day total). It’s an onsen with the option of being buried in very warm volcanic sand by the sea side. It did wonders for my back! https://youtu.be/vuXYq9POsYU?si=pf_WDBDuglZmOE7u