Itinerary advice central Honshu (Kanto/Chobu)

Dear all

First of all: thanks to all of you for the numerous posts and articles on this site. This page provided us with great insights and useful advices regarding our upcoming trip to Japan. Although dozens of questions could be answered by the existing content of this site, we're still stuck with the general planning of our itinerary and were wondering whether someone could help us sorting things out.

We're a couple (age 29) visiting Japan for two weeks in second half of October for the first time. Our rough itinerary:

4 nights Tokyo
2 nights in either Hakone or Fuji Five Lakes area
2 nights somewhere rural/countryside (Kanto or Chubu)
4 nights Kyoto
1 night Osaka

We're primarily looking for advice on the middle part of our trip. Any recommendations on:

1. Whether to go to Hakone or Fuji Five Lakes area to get some good views on Mt. Fuji, decent hiking and beautiful scenery?
2. Where to go to visit a genuine old town, experience a traditional ryokan and enjoy some laid back country life, scenery, maybe paired with a good autumn athmosphere? We came across Nikko, Takayama or Kiso Valley (Magome/Tsumago) but dont know which one to focus on. Any advice/experiences?

Thank you all in advance and have a nice day!

Hi! Just with Hakone, it is very nice but I tend to think you can have more fun in an area like Kamakura and Enoshima which also has views of Fuji (when you are lucky). But I havent stayed in the five lakes area, so I cant comment to that.

With the middle part of your trip, I'd choose Takayama over Tsumago/Magome. Takayama has more to do for 2 nights. The Tsumago/Magome trail is interesting as a bushwalk, not really much more than that and I'd prefer the old Takayama town, though Magome is really pretty. But with Takayama you could spend time at Shirakawa as well, so on balance I think it is a better bet.

Other nice towns we've been to for ryokan stays are Hikone (near Kyoto), Bessho Onsen (near Nagano), and Karuizawa (closer to Tokyo). Tsuruya Ryokan at Karuizawa is excellent and caters well to first timers, it is one of my favorite places to stay.

Hi there

Thank you for your reply and suggestions.

I've checked on Takayama more in detail. Does it really offer that much more compared to the Kiso Valley? My concern is just that getting from Hakone back to Tokyo, then to Nagoya and transferring to Takayama will take at least 5.5hrs (waiting/transfer time not included yet). To be fair: getting to Tsumago/Magome will only be abt one hour faster. The old town of Takayama and the Shirakawago village certainly do look nice though...anyway, I ve heard from friends that Takayama and Shirakawago (dozens of buses daily...) are simply overcrowded with tourist. Can you confirm that? Is it the same with the Kiso Valley?

Has anyone been to both Fuji Five Lakes and Hakone to get a idea of which one to focus on if it has to be either one of them? (I suppose splitting 1night Hakone and 1night Fuji Five Lakes doesnt make sense and is difficult in terms of transportation isnt it?)

I've been to Hakone and Five Lakes area (Lake Kawaguchi to be specific), and I'd say for hiking go to Hakone, and for better view of Mt. Fuji (closer in distance) go to Lake Kawaguchi :)

You might be able to see Mt. Fuji in Hakone area from places like the Hakone Ropeway and atop Mt. Komagatake (on another ropeway), and in Lake Kawaguchi, you might be able to view it from a lake cruise, up a small ropeway, or simply sitting on the north shore of Lake Kawaguchi.

For hiking, Hakone offers a range of good hiking courses. On the other hand, in Lake Kawaguchi area, I found the road along the lake a bit difficult to walk on (many cars zipping by) that we decided to just take the bus along. The longer ride to some caves near another lake nearby was interesting though.

You could go one night in Hakone then travel to Lake Kawaguchi for another night in Lake Kawaguchi area.

Hi, you can see Mt Fuji from parts of Hakone area. In fact the iconic image of Hakone has Fuji in the background. Hakone has the merit of an active volcano to explore. You could easily fill 2 days in Hakone.
Fuji 5 lakes area is very pretty with the best views of the mountain. Kawaguchiko is very beautiful with several sites of interest and Saki lake has caves etc to keep you interested. The area can fill 2 days easily.
Investigate the pages on this website and chose based on them, either way I think you'll has a great time. Don't try to do both though and waste more time travelling.

As for rural towns/villages, the last half of October is ideal for autumn colour in Nikko and Takayama but I think Nikko can be reached in 2-3 hours from Tokyo. It has some rural onsen villages where you can stay in Ryokan and the scenery by Chuzenjiko is sublime. That would be my recommendation and a better place for a two/three day trip than Takayama (due to distance) and Kiso valley (due to amount to do).
You could look at the user reports on this website for more ideas and info.
Regards, Rick