23 Day Itinerary help - First timer

Hello, I have searched through some of the questions and cannot find a similar path/length to what my husband and I are looking at, and some assistance would be fantastic. We are looking at the below:

Arrive 6pm on 1/11/2017 - Tokyo (Narita)

4 nights in Tokyo – 1/11 to 5/11
2 nights in Kanazawa – 5/11 to 7/11
3 nights in Takayama – 7/11 to 10/11
4 nights in Kyoto – 10/11 to 14/11
1 night in Koyasan (Temple stay) – 14/11 to 15/11
3 nights in Osaka – 15/11 to 18/11
2 nights in Hiroshima – 18/11 to 20/11
1 night in Miyajima (Ryokan) – 20/11 to 21/11
2 nights in Tokyo – 21/11 to 23/11

Depart 7:30pm on 23/11/2017

We are also looking at day trips to Nikko, Shirakawa-go, Nara and potentially Kobe. I�fm hoping I�fve worked it out so that the longest travel day we have is between Takayama to Kyoto, and then Hiroshima (Miyajima) back to Tokyo. Please let me know if there are better/faster ways!

I understand we will be moving around and we are planning on getting the 21 day Japan rail pass to avoid any issues with travel dates.

To note, we are mostly interested in food! We want to experience as much culture as we can, however do not want to spend days on end looking at temples. We want to enjoy the holiday and not feel like we're rushing around all the time.

Thank you in advance!

You need to factor in travel times between cities when figuring the days you will have where you want to go. It will take, for example, just under three hours on Hokuriku Shinkansen to get from Tokyo Station to kanazawa. So there's half a day. I like to block out my itinerarys using time from getting on the first train to getting back to hotel at night. But there's lots of ways to do this. Just think days instead of nights when planning activities and time needed to do them. Your basic itinerary is refreshingly concise like an adult planned it. I suggest swapping the days allotted between Kanazawa and Takayama (Tak. is kind of a bucket list while Kanaz. is a rich banquet of Japanese urban culture, I think, better than Kyoto. (Now I've done it!!!)Nikko and Kobe or maybe Kobe plus Himeji are worthwhile day trips or worth a night in one or the other city. Kobe has some great food and music clubs, Himeji is a bit more sterile. As for Koyasan, remember it takes more than half a day in transit to get there (from Namba station, Osaka) and you will need the second day to return to the "world" after chanting and breakfast at your temple-stay. Hope some of this helps and have a great Japanese adventure.

hi flangelie,

the only thing you didn't mention in your post...was what you wanted people to help you with? do you want input on your itinerary? is it flexible? do you want suggestions as to what to add or leave out?

your itinerary looks very stock standard 1st timer visit - so much in fact it is almost identical to my 1st visit :)

you didn't mention how fast paced you wanted your trip to be but your listed itinerary looks really good and quite efficient.

based on what you said you'd like to do and to tweak the route effeciancy and include a couple more stops, i would adjust the following...

1 night in Tokyo – 1/11 to 5/11
3 nights in Takayama (day trip to Kamikochi{closes mid nov}, day trip to hidafurakawa)
1 night in Shirakawago (stay in a gassho house)
1 nights in Kanazawa (samurai district and top 3 japanese garden main things - easily done in a day)
3 nights in Kyoto (try and stay in /near the gion area - dress up like a geisha :) )
1 night in Hiroshima (leave kyoto very early and visit himeji castle on way to hiroshima)
1 night in Miyajima (Ryokan)
1 night in Osaka (break up osaka stay so you can leave luggage at same hotel who will mind it while u take an overnight bag to koyasan)
1 night in Koyasan (Temple stay)
2 nights in Osaka
4 nights in Tokyo

with the spare day, going back from osaka to tokyo, you could either:
1) overnight stay at nagoya (foodie paradise) or
2) overnight at hakone (maybe fuji views) or
3) get back to tokyo a day early and do a day or overnight at nikko

Depart 7:30pm on 23/11/2017

i hope this helps :)

Thank you for your replies!

AussieRonnie - sorry, I should have been more clear. I really just want to ensure that we are making the most of our trip and seeing some main highlights. We want to take it reasonably slow, and enjoy our time rather than rushing and having to travel places every single day.

Thank you for the suggested itinerary, we are not that keen on spending one night here and one night there as it gets quite exhausting.

I guess my main queries about my itinerary are:

-Are we trying to do too much?
-Is the travel time between the places we have organised too long or quite standard?
-Should we swap some of the visits around to be better?
-Are the nights we are staying too long/short for some areas?

Really just so we can lock it all in and start booking accommodation!

Cheers

If you're interested in food, you really should stay more nights in a ryokan, IMHO.

Unless you're going to splurge on a kaiseki restaurant, you won't get the sort of food experience that you have in a ryokan (and, in any case, the whole combo of baths, yukata, total relaxation, and awesome food isn't on offer in restaurants).

For my money, I'd try to stay in ryokans in countryside areas, rather than city ones (as the baths and views are generally better - plus you get more variety of local food. Sansai, ayu, etc). Plus, there are loads of food options in cities, so you may well want to eat out.

3 nights in Takayama (even with a trip to Shirakawa) is quite a lot. You could fit a trip to the Oku-Hida region for one night in a great ryokan, for instance. you'd probably spend less/the same as on a ryokan in Miyajima (generally quite pricy because it's such a popular place). I've stayed in one of the nicer/more expensive places in Miyajima and it was average-to-good, but not spectacular for what it cost.

I'd also try to fit at least one night in a minshuku, for food that's still unique, but is a bit more homestyle. You could do that in Kanazawa, for example (and Kanazawa food is awesome! You MUST have lunch in Omicho market if you like seafood.)

You could also overnight in Shirakawa en route from Takayama to Kanazawa. Staying in a gassho-zukuri, especially one where they cook over an irori, is a great experience, and the food is homestyle but worthwhile.

We (love onsen and) have a big interest in Japanese food. On a 23-day trip, I'd be looking to stay in a ryokan 4 or 5 times. The kaiseki meals are the ones I remember most from all our trips, and are the ones that you just can't get in my home country (even if paying extortionate prices).

We typically stay in cheap business hotels/minshuku for most nights, and then fit in a ryokan stay every 3-5 days. Also, maybe try to get a mix of maybe one really special ryokan, a couple of mid-priced ones, and a cheaper one. This will give you a feel for the subtle differences in quality of the simpler food items (e.g. really good nori, or really good tofu). When a ryokan does really good food, it's not just that it cooks with more expensive ingredients, it's that it takes lots of care with ALL it's ingredients.

N.B. I'd recommend NOT to stay two nights in the same ryokan (in order to get more variety of food), even if you're staying in the same area.

hi again flangelie,

the itinerary i suggested is pretty much the same as yours with a few order tweaks to make a more efficient travel route. i understand what u mean about night staying one night here and there being exhausting but unless your familiar with the area, you wouldnt realise that many 1 nights i changed were because the next day is very close eg. miyajima is in hiroshima and takayama to shirakawago is a 40min trip. the osaka 1 night then koyasan 1 night followed by osaka again is actually more convenient as you wouldnt normally stay more than 1 night in koyasan. having the same hotel to go back to after koyasan is very attractive, sometimes they will even have the same room and of course the benefit of having your luggage kept there.

3 days in takayama is not too much - well i guess by definition opinions are subjective. i mentioned some day trips u could do using takayama as a base. remember kamikochi closes approx nov 17 each year depending on weather and it is consistently voted one of the most beautiful parts of japan. takayama has some fantastic budget, mid and high end restaurants. too many to try all. hida beef being the regions specialty.

good luck! :)

I think fitting in another night in a ryokan around Takayama is a really good idea – both for the food and the experience.
I also understand not wanting to switch hotels/places to sleep too many times that can really get exhausting, you already have quite a few locations and different accommodations on your original itinerary (though no more than usual for such a trip).

The suggestion from AussieRonnie where you go to Koyasan in between stays at Osaka (or Kyoto, depending on how close to the station you are staying in either city) is a valid one. You can stay a few nights at a hotel/hostel, go to Koyasan and go back to the same hotel for one more night before travelling onwards. It is really convenient that you can store your luggage there and only take what you need for one night with you. Also, the hotel/hostel is already familiar, you know the way there so it�fs not much effort to go back there. It�fs really liberating to not be dragging suitcases along all the time.