Hi everyone,
This autumn, I will travel for the first time with my boyfriend to Japan. We will arrive at the 25th of October and travel back on the 9th of November.
Last week, I finally had some time to look further into what we want to see and where we want to go. That resulted in the travel plan below. We both love city life and cultural and art things to do, but we want to include some days in the nature as well. Although we booked the dates a bit random, we were quite excited to find out about the autumn colors. The weather forecast shows that in the beginning of November there might be autumn colors in the area of Nikko and that’s why we want to drive around for a couple of days.
Our plan atm:
* 25 oct: 9am arrive at Narita airport in Tokyo. Stay in Tokyo for 2 days, in Roppongi. My boyfriend turns 30 this day, special tips for where to celebrate this?
* 27 oct: hire a car and drive to mount Fuji, explore the lakes and stay at a hotel close to Lake Kawaguchi so we can visit the Maples Corridor at Kawaguchi-ko.
* 28 oct: Drive to Osaka and bring the car back there. As Halloween happens after this weekend, we expect to see some Halloween costumes on the streets of Amerika-Mura. We want to go out and party a bit there.
* 29 oct: Enjoy food in Osaka, visit Nishinomaru castle.
* 30 oct: travel to Kyoto with the train.
* 31 oct: biking around in Kyoto, visit the Philosopher’s road.
* 1 nov: travel to Kobe, stay there for 1 night and eat Wagyu
* 2 nov: travel to Okayama and visit the Kōrakuen, Okayama Castle and Nishigawa Green Road park
* 3 nov: daytrip to Naoshima, rent e-bikes and bike around the island. We are a bit in doubt if it is a very good or very bad idea to visit Noashima on the 3rd of november. Any ideas on that?
* 4 nov: travel back from Okayama to Nagoya and hire a car there. Drive to the Kiso Valley, make a hike there on the Nakasendo trail and stay in Tsumago
* 5 nov: Drive to Kamichochi national park, make a hike there. After that, visit Matsumoto and visit Matsumoto castle. End the day at Karuizawa and sleep there.
* 6 nov: Start the day early and drive to Nikko. Visit the shrines and the bridges and drive further to Lake Chüzenji. Stay there overnight.
* 7 nov: Drive back to Tokyo and hand in the car. Staying in Tokyo for 2 more nights, in Kabukichō.
* 8 nov: Shopping and visit
* 9 nov: Flight back home around 11am from Narita.
We are aware that travelling by train might be a lot quicker, but we do like the freedom of driving around with the car and deciding by ourselves where to stop.
Any suggestions and/or comments are very much appreciated! Thanks in advance. 🙂