Opinions on this 1 month Itinerary

Hey,

Could you please give your opinions on this Itinerary? I will going from the 21st October to 21st November. There are a couple things that are pretty important.

- I really like Tokyo and would like to spend an extended time there (Hence the period at the end). I also really like Kyoto.

- We are not very interested in Hiroshima but my partner would really like to go to the rabbit island nearby.

- We will get getting a 21 day rail pass which I think would link well with this (I think if we activate on the 24th, we will just make the 13th trip back to Tokyo? Please correct me if I am wrong)

- Partner would like to see the aquarium in Okinawa so I guess we headed there

- Would like to see Autumn colours if possible

21st- Get to Tokyo at 8am.

22nd- Day trip to Yokohama

23rd- Day trip to Nikko

24th- Head to Hakone early morning

25th- Head to Lake Kawaguchi at five lakes

26th- Explore at Lake Kawagushi

27th- Head early morning to Nagoya

28th- Explore at Nagoya

29th- Head early morning to Takayama

30th- Head early morning to Shirakawa then to Kanazawa

31st- Explore at Kanazawa

1st- Head early morning to Kyoto. Stop at Tukufu

2nd- Explore at Kyoto

3rd- Explore at Kyoto

4th- Day trip to Nara

5th- Explore at Kyoto

6th- Head early morning to Osaka and trip to Kobe at night for dinner

7th- Day trip to Himeji and explore Osaka

8th- Explore Osaka

9th- Flight early morning to Okinawa

10th- Explore Okinawa

11th- Fly back to Osaka and head to Hiroshima

12th- Explore Hiroshima and side trip to Rabbit Island

13th- Head back to Tokyo

14th- Tokyo

15th- Tokyo

16th- Tokyo

17th- Tokyo

18th- Tokyo

19th- Tokyo

20th- Tokyo

21st- Leave to Singapore

Thank you!

Hi!

Just out of curiosity did you run the numbers for a rail pass? Assuming you use seat reservations I am getting:

3540 between Tokyo and Odawara (I would personally be cheap and do a private line.. but
8090 between Mishima and Nagoya
5830 between Nagoya and Takayama
6700 between Kanazawa and Kyoto

I am not going to calculate out Kyoto to Nara (roundtrip) or Kyoto to Osaka because depending on where you are staying you might want to use a non JR train. From Osaka it makes much more sense to take a Special Rapid between Osaka and Kobe, since it will get you to the part of Kobe where most shops are (Sannomiya and Kobe Stations vs. the shinkansen goes through Shin-Kobe)

It's ~6 minutes longer from Osaka Station to Himeji via Special Rapid which costs 1490 yen one way.
You will need to pay to get from Osaka to whichever airport you are using but I am not sure if you are using Itami or KIX.

Personally, I would have flown from Okinawa to Fukuoka vs back to Osaka. Then bought a ticket from Hakata to Tokyo and done a stopover in Hiroshima. This would allow you to use the more frequent and faster Nozomi and flying into Fukuoka you're much closer to Hiroshima. Even so, I am getting 10,030 from Osaka to Hiroshima and 18360 from Hiroshima to Tokyo.

A 3 week pass is 59, 350

I'm getting 24160 between the 24th and the 3rd with a total of 52550 with the travel from Osaka to Hiroshima and Hiroshima back to Tokyo. You might just break even if you use a shinkansen to Himeji back and forth, but it just seems like you could have done this cheaper without a pass and flying into Fukuoka vs. Osaka since more than 1/2 of your train costs are Osaka to Hiroshima and Hiroshima to Tokyo. Heck you could have saved money flying into Osaka, buying a ticket to Hakata and stopping off at Hiroshima and flying from Fukuoka back to Tokyo.

Please be aware, depending on what you want to do, things might be closed in Kyoto on the 1st and the 2nd. Temples and shrines tend to be open, but museums, shops and restaurants might not be.

Good luck!

Yeah 21 day pass isnt gonna pay off itself.

I would also suggest flying to okinara form tokyo, then returning to osaka. Or vise versa.

Also bunny island can be accessed from the the osaka side. So no need to go to Hiroshima just for bunny island.

If you rearrange things, you could probably use a 14 day pass and make it work. Going to Yokohama is peanuts. For Nikko, you can use the Nikko Pass, and for the Fuji area, use the Fuji Hakone Pass.
It's unclear what you're going to Nagoya for. Every place has something, but it's one of the least interesting places. Even my taxi driver there was dissing the city to me. That said, Meiji Mura in Inuyama is absolutely marvelous.
For Shirakawago, I hope you're aware that there is no rail access there. You have to pay for the bus.
As for "not very interested in Hiroshima" I take it you are referring to the Peace Park/Museum, as if that were the only thing in the city - many people have that misconception. There is far more to explore beyond that if you are willing to look. The Shukkeien Garden is really beautiful, plus there is the "secret" jewel of the city - the Mitakidera Temple - which is simply stunning and completely unknown to most.
https://goo.gl/fAz4ax
Beyond the city, there is also Miyajima, plus Iwakuni is absolutely delightful.
https://youtu.be/0COOZXi66mM
Okunoshima (Bunny Island) though was all but not worth the time and trouble to get to. The rabbits are cute, but nothing like some travel videos hype the place. Some bring carrots or cabbage to feed them, but they seem to like the rabbit food a lot more (small bags on sale at the ferry office).
You have more than 7 days set for Tokyo - but 3-4 days may be enough unless you have a long list of places you're dying to see.
https://is.gd/D3QTIR

There are some other day trips you could take in addition to what you have - Kusatsu, Karuizawa, Nokogiriyama, Kamakura/Enoshima, the Ushiku Great Buddha, Takao, Okutama, and many others.

No visit to Japan is really complete without going to a hot spring at least once.