Japan Itinerary (Hokkaido and Honshu)

Hey Everyone,
After Ifve read lots of tips and recommendations, Ifve wanted to get your opinion for our itinerary, we are really undecided about few days, and wefll really appreciate your help.

Day 1 – Landing at Osaka and riding to Kyoto in the afternoon (09/29)
2 – Kyoto
3 – Kyoto (10/01)
4 – Kyoto (or Nara)
5 – Kyoto in the morning and then riding to Hiroshima, traveling to Miyajima (10/03)
6 – Hiroshima – Mazda tour and Peace Park and then riding to Kanazawa (10/04)
7 – Kanazawa (10/05)
8 – Japanese Alps travel to Matsumoto
9 – Another day in the Japanese Alps (Are there any day treks there at that season?)
10 – Kiso Valley (10/08)
11 – Tokyo
12 – Tokyo (FujiQ Highland)
13 – Tokyo
14 – Tokyo
15 – Tokyo
16 – Tokyo (10/14)
17 – Tokyo in the morning and flight in the afternoon

Our questions are:
1. Knowing my wife and I, wefll be quite exhausted from the museums and temples after seeing a few of them. Is it recommended to deduct a day from Kyoto? I understand that when you are going to Japan you want to get some culture, but we really need nature sightseeing on our trip. Are there any day trips that you would recommend in the Japanese Alps? Did anyone spread his trip to the Japanese Alps to Matsumoto to 2 days- maybe in Kamikochi, and stopped to travel in the areas in the middle?
2. Kiso Valley – any recommended day trips?
3. Before arriving to Osaka, wefll be traveling in Hokkaido. We have there full 6 days, and we have some doubts if we should lengthen our trip there for 7 days, and deduct Kiso Valley/Kyoto/Tokyo?
4. At Hokkaido, we want to travel in Daisetsuzan National Park, Akan National Park and Shiretoko National Park for 6 days. Is it ambitious? Should we lengthen to 7 days? Should we deduct one of the National Parks? If so, which one?

Day 6 is too rushed.

D5 = Kyoto to Hiroshima = 1.5 hour + more time to get to Miyajima + Miyajima sightseeing.
D6 = Mazda Museum + inner Hiroshima City area + 4.5 hours of travel.

Unless you are planning on arriving very late evening to Kanazawa?

I'd try to add a day in Hiroshima if possible. And use that day just to travel from Hiroshima to Kanazawa. Maybe stop at Okayama/Kobe/Himeji along the way to sightsee and break up the journey.

Personally, if it were me, I would see if you could fly from Hokkaido to Hiroshima and start there. It seems odd to travel further West before coming back East when you're already going to be flying so it's not a must work within my rail pass issue.

In terms of Kyoto and nature, I want to stress now, I am not a hard core hiker but....

Kurama and Kibune are both lovely and involve a hike, it takes about 1 hour and is quite peaceful.

Enryakuji/Hieizan is a lovely temple high above Kyoto. If you're feeling energetic you can hike down from the top of the mountain to I think Otsu on the other side. I have a friend who did that hie by accident.

Fushimi Inari lets you climb up a small mountain while walking under torii gates and you can hike from there to Tofukuji, though I personally have not done it.

While only a 20-30 minute mountain climb, my daughter loved the monkeys at the Arashiyama Monkey Park.

So there are places in Kyoto which mix nature with temples and shrines. I do understand how you ca get templed out.

I took the ropeway up, but followed the trail down Mt. Misen on Miyajiama. It took me about 45 minutes.

I've not yet done any day trips in the Japanese Alps and we're trying the easier walk around Kamikochi on our upcoming trip.

But yes, I would try to fly into either Hiroshima or if that won't work Fukuoka, and start at Hiroshima and then work East back to Tokyo.

rkold - Thank you very much for your post, it really helped us.

rkold - Thank you very much for your post, it really helped us.