Tokyo - Kagoshima 23-day Intinerary Review

Hi guys! Me and my best pal will arrive in Japan on April 2nd and planned to travel until April 25th 2018.

We did some research and we want to explore as much as possible during this trip. We looked into a lot of threads in this and other forums and ended with this intinerary:

April 2nd - Tokyo (half day, arrive on Haneda Airport)
April 3rd - Tokyo
April 4th - Tokyo
April 5th - Tokyo
April 6th - Tokyo (Day trip to Fuji 5 Lakes - Kawaguchiko)
April 7th - Tokyo (Day trip to Kamakura)
April 8th - Tokyo (Day trip to Nikko)
April 9th - Tokyo to Ise
April 10th - Ise to Takayama (via Nagoya)
April 11th - Takayama to Shirakawa-go, sleep in Kanazawa
April 12th - Kanazawa
April 13th - Kanazawa to Kyoto
April 14th - Kyoto
April 15th - Kyoto
April 16th - Kyoto (Day trip to Nara)
April 17th - Kyoto to Mt. Koya (Koyasan)
April 18th - Mt. Koya to Osaka
April 19th - Osaka to Hiroshima
April 20th - Hiroshima (Miyajima day-trip)
April 21th - Hiroshima to Kagoshima
April 22th - Kagoshima (Yukushima forest day-trip)
April 23th - Kagoshima to Himeji
April 24th - Himeji to Izu (Ito or Atami, we don't know yet which city)
April 25th - Izu to Haneda Airport (our flight back is at 4 p.m.)

Does this look fine? Any commentaries or eventual problems that we should be aware of?

Besides, does JR Pass covers the whole intinerary (aside from Yukushima ferry)?

Thank you very much!

Overall I think it looks fine. I was mainly wondering about this leg:
April 9th - Tokyo to Ise
April 10th - Ise to Takayama (via Nagoya)
April 11th - Takayama to Shirakawa-go, sleep in Kanazawa
April 12th - Kanazawa
April 13th - Kanazawa to Kyoto[
My idea would be Tokyo to Kanazawa by Shinkansen, then Shirakawa, Takayama, go through Nagoya to Ise and Ise to Kyoto. Potentially if you don�ft mind changing your hotel you could also do Ise to Nara, stay a night in Nara and the off to Kyoto.

Out of memory I would say that only the travel to Koya San and from Takayama to Shirakawa is not part of JR pass.

You might also consider to take an internal flight from Kagoshima back to Tokyo, that should reduce a bit your traveling hours (and do himeiji on your way down.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Yukushima and Izu - you haven't really allowed yourself with enough time to do much considering the total travel times allows to get to and from these locations in your itinerary.

If you cannot allocate more time to them, I would probably omit them so more time quality time can be had at other locations.

Agree with Hakata14.

If you spend 10 mins just checking out journey times on each of your legs (using hyperdia, or similar), and also just have a look at sunrise/sunset times, you'll maybe come to the conclusion that you're going to spend a lot of time on trains and leave yourself little daylight time to actually DO anything.

You appear to be going all the way to Kagoshima and back for little more than a day trip. Also, look into the travel times from Kagoshima to Yakushima....you're not leaving yourself much time to actually BE there.

Travel from Shirakawa Go to anywhere is not covered, whether you're going to Takayama, Toyama or Kanazawa. Buses around Kawaguchiko are also not covered, and I'm 99% sure you have to pay a supplemental fee when traveling on JR to Ise because you will be using some non JR tracks.

I agree with Winter Visitor, that some of your days you're just not going to have much time. Have you thought about flying from Kagoshima back to Kanto?

I like Like Blue's itinerary changes. I would fit Himeji into your trip before going to Hiroshima. I would prob skip Izu and Atami and add some more days elsewhere and end your trip by flying from Kagoshima to Haneda for your International flight.

Hey everyone! First of all, thank you SO MUCH for you a time and thoughts on this.
Since it's our first travel to Japan, we're trying to do everything at best and avoid potencial problems as you had already appointed (like time spent and else).

Based on your comments, I've rearranged our intinerary. Since we haven't booked any hotel yet, we're free and flexible to change stuff. We've reconsidered going to Kagoshima and Yukushima, as we don't want to fly back from there as we want to take maximum advantage of JR pass (since we'll buy the 21-day ticket)

We would be much appreciated if you have any more inputs to help us, because we ended with one day to arrange and we don't know how. Right now we have this:

April 2nd - Tokyo (half day, arrive on Haneda Airport)
April 3rd - Tokyo
April 4th - Tokyo
April 5th - Tokyo
April 6th - Tokyo
April 7th - Tokyo (Day trip to Fuji 5 Lakes - Kawaguchiko)
April 8th - Tokyo (Day trip to Kamakura)
April 9th - Tokyo (Day trip to Nikko)
April 10th - Tokyo to Kanazawa
April 11th - Kanazawa
April 12th - Kanazawa to Shirakawa-go, sleep in Takayama
April 13th - Takayama
April 14th - Takayama to Ise, sleep in Nara
April 15th - Nara, sleep in Kyoto
April 16th - Kyoto
April 17th - Kyoto
April 18th - Kyoto
April 19th - Kyoto to Koya-san, sleep in Mt. Koya
April 20th - Koyasan to Osaka
April 21th - Osaka to Himeji Castle, sleep in Hiroshima
April 22th - Hiroshima
April 23th - Hiroshima (Miyajima-day trip or sleep there?)
April 24th - Vacant day
April 25th - Need to be in Haneda airport at noon

Our idea is to going back to Tokyo from Hiroshima in a slow pace, so we can take advantage at best from our JR pass. Do you have any suggestions of places we could visit/sleep at our way back to Haneda? We can replace one day from Tokyo or even do Kanazawa in one day if needed ir order to go back from Hiroshima.

Thank you very very much!

A few problems with your new itinerary

#1) The Takayama Festival is April 14+15, trying to find some place for the nights of 12 and 13 might be difficult and reservations for those dates might be limited.

and

#2) Even if you catch a 9:38 Hida out of Takayama, you're not going to reach Ise until 14:05. If you try to leave Ise at 17:13, and want to mostly use JR, you're not going to reach Nara until 20:15. If you want to pay completely out of pocket for the private Kintetsu line you can drop it down to 120 minutes of travel but it will cost you 3000 yen.

Rather than trying to spend large amounts of time on train to maximize you railpass. You should plan itineray to maximize you enjoyment.

Having a look at you revised itineray. You'd be better of with a couple of days in Tokyo. Then use a 14 day pass. And end the holiday again for a couple of days in Tokyo.

Nikko Kamakura Fuji 5 Lakes dont need the rail pass as cheaper option are out there for day trips. Saving money using a smaller railpass.

Thanks again rkold and hataka14 for your inputs!

Considering the train times for Ise, the Takayama festival (there are almost no places to sleep already) and the possibility to go with a 14-day pass instead of a 21-day, we ended with something like this:

April 2nd (half day, arrive at Haneda at 2pm) to April 07th - Tokyo (without side trips)
April 8th to 9th - Kanazawa
April 9th to 10th - Shirakawa-go, sleep in Takayama
April 10th to 11th -Takayama
April 11th to 13th - Kyoto
April 13th to 14th - Day trip to Ise Shrines (based in Kyoto, we'll head only for Geku and Naiku, as Toba would be more difficult to see)
April 14th to 15th - Day trip to Nara (easy, no need to move luggage)
April 15th to 16th - Hiroshima
April 16th to 17th - Day trip to Miyajima (or it's better to overnight there?)
April 17th to 18th - Himeji Castle, sleep in Osaka
April 18th to 19th - Osaka
April 19th to 20th - Koya-san (sleep at temple)
April 20th to 21st - Tokyo
April 21st to 22nd - Day trip to Kawaguchi-ko (want to see Shiba-sakura festival)
April 22nd to 23rd - Day trip to Kamakura
April 23rd to 24th - Day trip to Nikko
April 25th - Haneda airport at noon

I think this intinerary now covers all the issues we had, right? Any comments still?

Again, thank you VERY MUCH for your time.

April 20th to 21st - Tokyo
April 21st to 22nd - Day trip to Kawaguchi-ko (want to see Shiba-sakura festival)
April 22nd to 23rd - Day trip to Kamakura

JUst a minor thought, but what about to base yourself for this leg (or part of it) not in Tokyo but maybe Odawara or Hakone or Gotemba... No need to get to Tokyo just to go backwards again to Fujigoko on the next day.

If you dint mind changing hotels once more you might also consider to sleep in the province Of of Nara for the days in Ise and Nara instead of Kyoto. Would expect that to be slightly cheaper than Kyoto.

We're evaluating the possobility of base in Odawara or Gotemba.
There's no places available in Takayama at our time, and we're thinking in swiching days past-Osaka and then go straight for one of those cities.

Would do sometjing like Osaka - Kanazawa - Takayama - Gotemba/Odawara.

I know it's tough but there are almost no places to rest given Takayama Festival week. Any problems with this change that we might be aware of?

Thanks again!

ON your original plan you wanted to go down to Kyushu. Would it be an idea to drop Takayama and Kanazawa completely and add Kyushu back in? Just an idea. Or just Osaka-Kanazawa-Tokyo. You could even add Nagano on the way between Kanazawa and Tokyo.

Just an idea if Takayama is too challenging for the accommodation.

I'd agree with the above. If you cannot access certain places due to accommodation issues. then your decision is made for you. Omit those places and extend you stay elsewhere.