Itinerary Advice

Hello guys,

My girlfriend and I have booked flights to Japan in April 2018, we want to see as much as possible. We have decided on getting the 14 Day JR Pass. I have booked our hotels but they are all free cancellation so can be easily changed. I have come up with an Itinerary that would allow us to cram a lot in but I've also tried to reduce the amount of travel time between each destination. I obviously know that it will be blossom season but it isn't the be all and end all for us at this stage. Here's our itinerary with a few things that we would like to see added in (in no particular order):

Monday 9th April 2018
Flight To Japan

Day 1/3 – Tuesday 10th -– Thursday 12th April 2018:
Tokyo (Arriving at Narita @ approx. 16:00 - Staying at Shibuya Granbell Hotel)
Ghibli Museum
Harajuku
Shinjuku
Tokyo Tower
Meji Shrine
Shibuya Crossing & Hachiko
Yoyogi Park
Shinjuku Gyoen
Metropolitan Government Building
Kabuchiko
Roppongi Hills (Evening)
Golden Gai (Evening)

Day 4 – Friday 13th April 2018:
Takayama (overnight stay at Spa Hotel Alpina Hida)
Takayama Matsui

Day 5 – Saturday 14th April 2018
Kanazawa (overnight stay at APA Hotel Katamachi)
Ken-Rouken
Kanazawa Castle
Samurai District
Omicho Market
21st Century Museum

Day 6/9 – Sunday 15th - Wednesday 18th April 2018
Kyoto (staying at Hotel Gracery Kyoto Sanjo)
Kinkaku-ji
Ginkaku-ji
Gion
Gion Kaburenjo (Miyako Odori)
To-Ji
Tea Ceremony (En)
Kyoto International Manga Museum
Monkey Park

Day 10 Thursday 19th April 2018
Nara (overnight stay at Hotel Chapel Classic)
Todai-ji
Deer Park
Horyu-ji

Day 11 – Friday 20th April 2018
Koyosan (overnight stay at Sekishoin)
Okunoin Cemetery – Torodo Hall & Kobo Daishi Mausoleum

Day 12 – Saturday 21st April 2018
Miyajima & Hiroshima (overnight stay at Miyajima Coral Hotel or Hotel Century21 Hiroshima)
Himeji Castle (en route)
Peace Park
Hiroshima Castle
Floating Torii gate
Itsukushima-jinja

Day 13 – Sunday 22nd April 2018
Osaka (overnight stay at ibis Styles Dotonbori)
Dotonbori
Osaka Castle

Day 14 – Monday 23rd April 2018
Lake Kawaguchiko (overnight stay at Fuji Onsenji Yumedono)
Ropeway
Arakurayama Sengen Shrine (Chureito Pagoda)
Oishi Park
Caves

Day 15 – Tuesday 24th April 2018
Lake Kawaguchiko or Tokyo (returning to stay in Tokyo at Park Hotel Tokyo Ginza that evening)

Day 16 – Wednesday 25th - Thursday 26th April 2018
Tokyo
Ginza
Akihabara
Asakusa
Senso-ji
Disneysea

Fly home to UK Thursday night (Flight approx. 22:00)

I know Osaka to Kawaguchiko is a little bit of a travel but we have a night booked in a 5* Ryokan and there isn't really anything similar in that area. The only other option would be switching to Hakone but I the views of Fuji aren't as good.

Also, I appreciate that Tokyo to Takayama is a decent slog as well. The only other option would be to skip Takayama and do either Matsumoto or an extra day in Kanazawa. I have no idea whether the festival will be worth it or not.

Does this sound sensible enough? Would you guys recommend chopping or changing anything to make better use of our time? Anything that we should potentially skip over? Or more time that should be dedicated somewhere else?

Thanks very much!

Hi Jaebucky,

I can commiserate with you on all the places and things you want to do, but to be honest I think your itinerary is going to be exhausting because there is just a lot in a short amount of time. I am assuming you plan to use a Rail Pass or are you planning buses to everywhere? I think paying out of pocket for trains might get very expensive.

So... assuming you have no issues with jetlag which is quite rare for someone traveling from so far, you're not going to get to Shibuya from Narita until after 17:30 at the earliest. You might get in closer to 18:00. You can maybe get a few things done that night but it's going to be limited because jetlag. You have all day on 11th in Tokyo, but the Ghibli Museum is going to take at least 3 of those hours and is a 15-30 minute trip from other things you want to see.

On the 13th, you're leaving for Takayama, unless you leave earlier than 9:10, the earliest you are going to get to Takayama is 14:10.

On the 14th, you want to go to Kanazawa. the first train out is at 9:40 and you won't get to Kanazawa until nearly 13:00. You can take the 11:00 Hida and get there at 13:09 because the 9:40 is a local. There are buses from Takayama to Kanzawa, but they are about 3 hours and will cost you 3500 yen additional. You'd need to look at the schedule to see what works. But suffice it to say, I think you would have a hard time seeing everything on your list in Kanazawa between 11:00-17:00 unless you are just checking things off a to do box and the only way to get there before 13:00 is to pay out of pocket for a bus.

Your time in Kyoto seems do-able as does your time in Nara.

The trip from Nara to Koyasan is pretty slow and the trip from Koyasan back to Osaka is going to take you around 2.5 hours according to Japan-Guide, it's then going to take you another 2 hours to get to Hiroshima. That doesn't include trying to stop at Himeji. It's close to 4.5 hours from Koya-san to Hiroshima just going there straight and with relatively good transfers. The trip could be longer. There is no way you are going to be able to do Himeji, Miyajima and Hiroshima in 1 day. Heck, unless you are staying the night before in Hiroshima, I don't think you could Miyajima and Hiroshima in 1 day let alone Himeji.

April 22nd is really empty. Sure you can try to get some of the things you wanted to do on the 21st in that day, but you'll need to be super careful with timing since it's a 2 hour trip between Hiroshima and Shin-Osaka and there will only be 1 (sometimes 2) trains an hour.

On April 23rd if you take the 9:43 Hikari from Shin-Osaka to Mishima you can get there at 11:55, which would give you 15 minutes to catch the bus from Mishima to Kawaguchiko and arrive there at 13:45. That is probably the fastest way to get from Osaka to Kawaguchiko. The bus will cost you additional money. You won't be getting a lot done in Kawaguchiko that day and if you're paying for a 5 star ryokan, I'd personally want to spend as much time there as possible! I know I plan to do that when I stay at 5 star ryokan.

So I would assume April 24th you will be doing a lot in Kawaguchiko.

For April 25+26, I think you're going to have a hard time getting everything in. Disney Sea takes up a good portion of the day unless you want to just walk around the park to see a theme park. I went on a very quiet day where it rained a lot and many rides still had 1 hour long lines.

There are no guarantees when it comes to seeing Fuji. I've personally never seen Fuji from Hakone, but I've seen Fuji fairly regularly from Tokyo itself, I'm just lucky that way.

Koya-san is awesome but Koya-san to Miyajima/Hiroshima is really far and I feel odd saying this, but maybe you need more time in Tokyo. I think if it were me I would cut your Miyajima/Hiroshima day and cut your Koya-san day.

So I would possibly look into paying out of pocket and do something more like:

April 13 Takayama (without a pass you can do the Nozomi, it makes a difference!)
April 14th Kanazawa 2 nights (use the bus and do a stopover in ShirakawaGo on the way)
April 15-19th (Kyoto)
April 20th Nara
April 21st still travel to Mishima to do Fuji 5 Lakes
And then go to Tokyo from late in the day on the 22nd until you leave on the 26th or see if you can do two days in Fuji 5 Lakes and have a break there.

If you want do Himeji still, add another day to Kyoto, it's only about 90 minutes from Kyoto and you can get a Kansai wide pass for the day to cover the expense.

If you want to get a 2 week pass and make it worth your while, you might be able to do so, but you'd need to change your itinerary more.

BTW if you don't have any tickets yet have you thought about an open jaw and flying into KIX and out of Tokyo? You could do Studio Ghibli when you swing back through Tokyo at the end of your trip.

Good luck!

rkold is RIGHT ON THE SPOT!

I thought to write comments as well, but really he/she has already said it all:
Try to reduce things so that you can actually enjoy Japan. The day after Koyasan is totally unrealistic. The other days are packed, and only doable if you just take a picture in front of each place you want to visit.
If Takayama is THE matsuri and you have secured a room, then I would not skip that. Kanazawa is nice, but you will need to cut something. E.g. Kanazawa or Koyasan, or the ride down to Hiroshima (or Fuji 5 lakes).

Not sure if rkold already wrote this, but at a ryokan you are expected to arrive around 17:00 to have dinner at maybe around 18:00, so take that into consideration for your day traveling to Kawaguchiko. I think a ryokan stay is totally advisable, but ryokan is about slow traveling and enjoying the food. If you just sleep there, there is no need to dish out all the money and you could just take a standard hotel.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Aww, thanks @LikeBike and I'm a woman. :)

So... assuming you can't change your flights, you already have the two week pass and you have the reservation in Takayama... a modified itinerary. You will be paying for some things out of pocket, like buses, but you were willing to pay to visit Koya-san which was going to be out of pocket as well...

Like @LikeBike said, most 5 stars ryokan serve dinner at a set time and expect you to check in between 15:00 and 17:00 and many have check out by 10:00 the next morning. Outside of ryokan towns like Kinosaki onsen, where people walk around in yukata in the evening, most people spend most of their time at their ryokan after checking in. Also many places known for ryokans everything closes down by 17:00.

This itinerary might be a little fast paced for some but should be do-able and allows for some changing of plans based on weather/hitting things faster or slower. In the case of your pass you can either start it on the 10th, or get a discounted round trip on the NEX and pay out of pocket. This is also assuming you are not traveling with young children. This itinerary will get most of the things you wanted outside Koya which is just really out of the way.

Arrive NRT April 10th overnight Tokyo
April 11 visit Shinjuku Gyoen and maybe Yoyogi or Ueno, depends on sakura timing take a late train from Tokyo to Kanazawa like the 18:24 arriving in Kanazawa at 20:55 which is fine for most hotels (night Kanzawa)
April 12 sightsee Kanazawa (night Kanazawa)
April 13 Pay out of pocket and take the bus to Shirakawa Go and spend a little time there before going to Takayama, enjoy the matsuri (night there)
April 14 see anything you missed in Takayama or just take train to Kyoto
April 15, 16, 17, 18 in Kyoto
April 19th check out of Kyoto and head to Miyajima for the day. (I did this June 2017) over night Hiroshima
April 20th visit peace park and castle night Osaka
April 21st Night Lake Kawaguchi (if it costs more on Sat night add this as a night in either: Hiroshima, Kyoto or Osaka your choice)
April 22nd night Lake Kawaguchi (either spend a 2nd night there or use this as your one night, otherwise spend the night in Tokyo)
April 23-April 26 Tokyo.

Your 14 day pass will expire on either April 23rd or April 24 with this itinerary depending on when you start it. You must be back in the Kanto area by then because that is the expensive train fare. But there is some flexibility. If you want to give up Lake Kawaguchiko there are some fancy hotels with onsen on Miyajima. They do book up. Nara is an easy day trip from Kyoto or Osaka, depending on which one you have less to do in. Himeji is also an easy day trip. If you leave early enough from Kyoto you could do Himeji then Hiroshima )peace park and castle and then the next day do an early trip to Miyajima and then back to Shin-Osaka. I think you will possibly be there sakura season or at least the tail end of it, so Himeji will be super busy.

Good luck!

Hi,

I agree with rkold and Likebike in their comments about your itinerary. It's very jam-packed and "highly ambitious". You did not factor in jetlag, getting lost, missing trains, enjoying a place more than you anticipated thus spent longer time, etc..

I just wanted to point out that the Takayama festival is actually on 14-15th April (not the 13th), and that if you plan to travel to Kanazawa on 14th then you will miss the peak of the festival.

So if attending the festival is important to you, I would skip Kanazawa, because it's pointless! You won't have time to enjoy either Takayama or Kanazawa. If seeing Kanazawa is more important than the festival then drop Takayama and stay 2 nights in it.

In regards Osaka, are you there for a night so you can travel to Kawaguchiko? Because you can it do a day rom Kyoto.

You are changing hotels a lot in this itinerary, kind of on a daily basis in some sections.

Check hyperdia website to get an idea about travel time between your destinations. The above comments about Himeji are very true....it's not "on the way" as such.

I would advice on dropping some destinations and spending more time in places that are on the top of your list in order to enjoy them better.

In regards Studio Ghibli, make sure you you get the tickets in advance. Booking for April starts on 1/1/2018 on JTB website (tickets valid for a specified date), and 10th March on Lawson's (tickets valid for a specified date and time of entry). Check Studio Ghibli website for details.

Enjoy your travel to Japan