Trip from Tokyo to Hiroshima and Shirakawago

From Oct 10 to Oct 20 I am planning to travel with my parents to Hiroshima and Shirakawago. Do you have any suggestions for the plan in case we use JR pass? I have never been in Japan, so I really appreciated your advise. Thanks!

(Or if you have any better suggestion for the ideal location in autumn in Japan, please kindly advise me)

Hi Yuri,

Unfortunately, you have not detailed enough information for people to be able to give you advice. You need to provide such things as what other cities you are interested in, how fast paced you wish to travel etc.

Maybe look into the different itineraries suggest for a 10 or 11 day stay. research the different destinations on this site and try and decide which best interests you.

Once you find a basic travel plan, you can then tweak things and decide which JR pass or regional pass is most suitable.

Having said that, I can suggest a few things around shirakawago and hiroshima that you indicated you wish to visit:

Takayama is a great stay near shirakawago. You could do a day trip to shirakawago or stop overnight. if you stayed a couple of nights as a base, you could visit kamikochi (one of japan's most beautiful hiking / sightseeing regions) and also visit hidafurukawa (small town only 15 minutes from takayama - very old and beautiful)

After shirakawago, you could travel the short distance to kanazawa for the day or even night depending on how much time you have and THEN travel to kyoto! you asked what area would be good for autumn - kyoto is one of the best areas to see the beuty of the autumn colours.

staying at kyoto for at least a couple of days, you could use it as a base to visit osaka and / or nara and /or mt koyasan (holy mountain where u can stay the night in a temple)

from kyoto you could head down to hiroshima. check out the island of miyajima while you're there and again depending on your interests and time, you could visit the nearby town of onomichi where u can hire a bicycle and have a relaxing and beautiful ride over an inland sea. fantastic! then head back to tokyo with whatever time / days you have left. id probably go via hakone so you may get a chance for a quick look at mt fuji.

i hope this helps.

good luck and happy travels
ronnie