24 days - central Japan itinerary

Hi all,

I'm hoping that a kind-hearted soul could take a look at my husband and I's travel itinerary and tell me if there are any glaring issues before we start to book accommodation.

Background: We are trying to stay in a location and then do day trips from that location, where possible. We like to mosey around places gently and are looking to do interesting sites and scenery. There's a lot we'd like to see in Tokyo so we've scheduled quite a while there. We will likely be getting the 21-day JR pass.

1: arrive Osaka Kansai airport, shuttle boat to Kobe, overnight in Kobe
2: day in Kobe, overnight in Kobe
3: travel to Kyoto, overnight in Kyoto
4: day in Kyoto (arashiyama), overnight in Kyoto
5: day in Kyoto (Gion etc), overnight in Kyoto
6: day trip to Nara, overnight in Kyoto
7: travel to Kanazawa for the day, travel onward to Toyama, overnight in Toyama.
8: day trip to Takayama (possibly Shirakawa too? Not sure how close these are), overnight in Toyama
9: day trip to Kurobe, overnight in Toyama
10: Tatyama-Kurobe alpine route, onward to Matsumoto. Overnight in Matsumoto.
11: day in Matsumoto, overnight in Matsumoto
12: day trip to kamikochi, overnight in Matsumoto
13: day trip to Narai, overnight in Matsumoto
14: travel to Tokyo, overnight in Tokyo
15: day in Tokyo, overnight in Tokyo
16: day trip to Nikko, overnight in Tokyo
17: day in Tokyo, overnight in Tokyo
18: day in Tokyo, overnight in Tokyo
19: day in Tokyo, overnight in Tokyo
20: day trip to Hakone, overnight in Tokyo
21: day in Tokyo, overnight in Tokyo
22: day trip to kamakura, overnight in Tokyo
23: day in Tokyo, overnight in Tokyo
24: flight

Is there anything that looks really wrong here, or anything we've clearly missed out? (We decided against going further south than Kobe and I'm not particularly interested in going to Osaka which is why that's not featured.)

Thanks so much! :)

i would add one more day in kyoto.

not mount fuji?

Thanks for your reply hakata14 - we actually discussed adding another Kyoto day this morning! I think we'll do that :)

Re: Mount Fuji, we are visiting Hakoke where I've read there are reasonable views of it? We're not interested in climbing it in the middle of August and I've heard it's likely to be pretty hazy anyway in summer so we're not getting our hopes up! :p

Basically, I like your itinerary. Not too rushed and includes both rural and urban areas.

We will likely be getting the 21-day JR pass.

1. With this itinerary, I think nation-wide JR pass will not pay off. Use Hyperdia and calculate by yourself.

2. As hakata wrote, I think you may need to spend more nights outside of Tokyo.

3. August is very hot and humid. Nevertheless it is one of the most busy season for tourism, due to summer school holidays and Obon (13th to 15th). You may encounter difficulty to get the accommodation and the train reservation. During the Obon days, stay in a non-touristic place and don't do a long trip.

Thank you for your reply frog1954! :)

Basically, I like your itinerary. Not too rushed and includes both rural and urban areas.

That's great! Thanks for the feedback :)

1. With this itinerary, I think nation-wide JR pass will not pay off. Use Hyperdia and calculate by yourself.

I did consider doing that, however there are the possibilities that we might take additional trips out from Tokyo if we hear about somewhere great while we're there. Also, neither of us speak any Japanese at all and in a way it is a lot simpler to just have a single pass that allows us on any JR trains. You are right in that it might not work out as cost effective but it will be a lot less stress for us!

2. As hakata wrote, I think you may need to spend more nights outside of Tokyo.

Great, thanks for that! Any suggestions for anywhere interesting we've left out?

3. August is very hot and humid. Nevertheless it is one of the most busy season for tourism, due to summer school holidays and Obon (13th to 15th). You may encounter difficulty to get the accommodation and the train reservation. During the Obon days, stay in a non-touristic place and don't do a long trip.

Luckily we are arriving just after Obon so I'm hoping that we'll miss the really mad bits!

Seriously, familiarise yourself with Hyperdia.
It's likely that 30 mins spent on there (check out the Japan-Guide pages for help before you use the site) will pay huge dividends.
It is SO easy to buy individual tickets for trains. You don't need to speak Japanese.
Save your cash and spend it on any of the amazing and unique things that Japan has to offer.

Hi Winter Visitor, okay I will trust you that it is an easy process and do that then! :)

Honestly, it is.
Check out the guidance on the main Japan Guide website (or elsewhere on the net) and in 10
Minutes you'll have all the tips to see how Hyperdia works.
Make a spreadsheet and note down the fares and journey times and costs for the main journeys you plan to make (this will be useful to you, even if you do buy a pass, as it will help you with knowing whic train reservations you want to make - I generally capture screenshots of the Hyperdia timetable as I go along. This has departure times and train numbers, and is perfect to show booking clerks at JR offices when you want to make reservations and have no Japanese language skills).
Once you have costs for all the main journeys, you can put dates alongside them, and then you can look at whether it may be worthwhile getting a 7 or 14 day pass (i.e. do you have a period within your trip where you're going to be doing a lot of travelling?).
If you're travelling A LOT, it may well pay off to have a 21 day pass, but your itinerary doesn't look like that at present. Otherwise, a combination of a shorter pass and then individual tickets for the other days may pay off better. Also, doing this research may make you think about juggling your itinerary to put the main long (=expensive) trips in one 7 or 14 day period.
In any case, whether you buy a pass or not, doing this research will be helpful.

Happy planning!

That's really helpful advice, thank you for taking the time to help me out Winter Visitor!

You don't even have to buy individual tickets to get around. A IC card allow you to sotre money and use it to travel from A to B. To tap the card going to a gate/barrier at A and you do the same at exit B.

Very easy to get one and the machine to add more money if needed can be selected to be used a english.

These cards will get you travelling around Osaka/Kyoto/Tokyo without issues. Both on trains and buses.

That way you could purpose a 14 day JR pass and use it on the middle 14 days, with the IC card for the first 3-4 days and the last 3-4 days. You'd have to work out your own itinerary as to when to start your 14 day pass.

While you can see Mt Fuji from Hakone, it isn't the best viewing location. Kawaguchi in the Five lakes area is closer for better viewing. You not need to climb the mountain. And if has some temples and lake cruise to add to the day's attractions also.

That's great, thank you for your helpful suggestions hakata14!

That's a looooooot of time you have for Tokyo alone..... I would personally try to re-write the itinerary and consider either extending Kyoto and Kanazawa, or Osaka (or other places) rather than putting half your trip in Tokyo alone.

Day trip to Takayama - I would at least stay overnight here.

It's odd. Lots of people love to spend (what, to me, would be)a really long time in Tokyo, and to take day trips from there.
For me, I live in a huge city, so (whilst of course Tokyo has excellent things to do) I bias my trips to smaller places. But if I lived in a quieter place then maybe the craziness of Tokyo would be a big attraction for me.

I would also not tend to do day trips from a fixed base. I prefer to travel light and to change hotels and stay the night in the town I'm visiting. Often, IMHO, I find that chilling in a town when all the day trippers have gone home can show me another side of the town. Also, I'd rather not spend (say) 2 hours travelling there and another 2 hrs back in the same day. But this sort of thing is very much down to personal taste...

The only thing I'd say is that *if* you're choosing to stay in Tokyo because you think it's difficult or time-consuming to find hotels in smaller towns then that isn't the case. Booking.com, or any of the several other similar sites, have really good coverage in Japan and there's pretty much always a range of cheap business hotels within easy walking reach of train stations, so hopping from town to town in Japan is as easy as anything. I think it's easier (and often cheaper) to do this in Japan than it is in my home country (UK).

24 days is an excellent length of time for a holiday. If you wanted to, you could really see many different sides of Japan in that time and not be too rushed. But we all have different speeds of travel and different things we want to see and do. I try to treat every trip as if it may be my last chance to go to Japan and so I tend to keep moving and aim for variety - but I seem to keep coming back ;0) !!

I think you are spending too long in Tokyo and missing one of the most important parts of Japan - Hiroshima and Miyajima.
Each trip to Japan - about 9 I think we feel we have perfected our travels. We now prefer to base ourselves in a city and do day trips from there on the Shinkansen. The shinkansen is so easy and fast that we find we get about easier and faster this way, we dont have to pack up and move each day, we know where our hotel is and how to get there from the station. This doesn't work as well when in country areas as the trains are much slower.
We don't like big cities so only allocating one day in Tokyo and thats only because I am taking 4 people who are first time to Japan travellers. Our itinerary to give you an idea of our plans
Day 1 - overnight in airport hotel
Day 2 - Narita area including outdoor museum and festival that night.
Day 3 - travel to Yokohama for a cruise around Japan 7 nights.
Day 10 - Train to Gora (mt fuji /hakone area) 2 nights.
Day 12 - train to Okayama 5 nights. During this time we will be going to Hiroshima on 2 days only 40 mins train and Shikoku and other day trips.
day 17 - train to Kyoto for 3 nights including Nara
day 20 - train to Utsunomiya 3 nights during which time we will go to Nikko for a day, and Tokyo for a day - using a goodwill guide to help get around.
day 21 - utsunomiya to airport.
We have found staying out of the main cities is that we get more of a feel for true Japan and also bonus of cheaper hotels. eg we are staying at Utsunomiya my stays 3 nights for 16,850 yen for 2 people total.
Takayama is one of my favourite places, definately try to overnight there, we have stayed at a shrine basic but so nice to stay at authentic Japanese accommodation. We have decided to visit Nikko at the expense of Takayama this time.
Even though we will be using JR trains on 10 days we will still be buying a 14 day pass as doing the sums it worked out cheaper even though our time in Kyoto and Hakone will be wasted days on the pass. We will be activating the pass once we get off the ship. I did look into a 7 day pass plus regional passes but JR 14 day was easier and cheaper. Use hyperdia its wonderful.
Hope this helps.

24days trip in Japan
I think your trip is well done and you will be satisfied. However, as a Japanese I would recommend followings;

If this is first time traveling in Japan. you might want to focus on Kyoto, Hiroshima, Tokyo for this time. of course there are more interesting places in Japan, so please come back Japan! That makes whole trip more relaxing and you can understand Japan in depth.