2nd time to japan in late nov to early dec

Hi all,

We are a 30ish couple in our second trip to japan, now with a 2 year old baby!. We were there two years ago in mid july, and that first trip was easier to make the itinerary. We were in july for 16 days, and were in tokyo, nikko, nagoya for sumo, kyoto (gion matsuri), nara, hiroshima + miyajima, Osaka (only had time to visit osaka castle), takayama, shirakawago and kanazawa.

We loved kyoto and we were very few days, counting that there was the matsuri, so we will stay many days there, also we plan to go to see momiji in this area at their peak. We wont make a rush, will take our time to visit everything. We are also planing some hikes, with a baby carry bag, we are used to it and we love nature.

Anyway, we are thinking this itinerary for our second trip 23 november to 11 Dec:

Nov23 Saturday fly to kansai airport

Nov24 Sunday arrive to kansai at 10h, stay in kyoto

25 kyoto

26 kyoto (one day trip to Nara)

27 kyoto

28 kyoto (half day trip to himeji)

29 kyoto .Maybe one morning we do the kurama-kibune trip.

30 Saturday koyasan. Travel in early morning to koyasan and overnight in temple

Dec 1 Sunday : Return to Osaka, sleep near namba station. We want to spend morning in expo park, and ramen expo. Then go back to city and explore with all the night lights.

2 We want to go to kiso valley. Will sleep in Nakatsugawa to make the train travel shorter.

3 bus to magome and walk to Tsumago. Spend night in ryokan around zone

4 matsumoto. Its a stopover, as the objective is to go to kawaguchiko to see mt fuji.

5 kawaguchiko! We will spend night there and want to see mt fuji, chueiro pagoda, etc.

6 spend morning in kawaguchiko then go to tokyo

7 Saturday tokyo

8 Sunday tokyo (sidetrip to kamakura)

9 tokyo (yokohama? i think may be interesting, chinatown, ramen museum...)

10 tokyo

11 back to barcelona :(


Last time we were stressed of being in tokyo, so maybe we can take one day from tokyo, and spend it elsewhere. (like, one more day in kyoto, or in the way getting into tokyo in any place). If we put one more day in kyoto, we will miss osaka ramen expo. Maybe its not worth it, we dont know. We love to eat, and we love ramen.


Thanks!!

Congratulations to this itinary. I am still shell shocked by an other itinary posted here earlier today, which has the poor traveller being on transports for about 75% of the time...

To your itinary, the only thought I had was, if you didn't like to stay in Tokyo, you could either stay in Kamakura (or Enoshima) this time, or in Yokohama. Probably Yokohama is the best place. City, but not too big (well, still much bigger than Barcelona), but you can have 1 - 2 days of sightseeing in Yokohama, then a day trip to Kamakura from there and then a day trip to Tokyo. Just an idea.

Accomodation might also just be slightly cheaper than in Tokyo, and it is really, really close anyway.

Enjoy your trip to Japan.

Late November is one of the busiest days in Kyoto. A few years ago it will be very difficult to find affordable rate rooms. But in recent years the hotel rooms in Kyoto is rapidly increasing so the hotel rate is going down and there still are some vacant rooms. I checked Hotels.com and found this new hotel which received good reviews (Hotels.com rate 9.4 which is quite high).

https://es.hoteles.com/ho867473984/?as-srs-report=HomePage%7CAutoS%7CH...

They provide free drink (coffee and soft drinks) and some sweets in the lounge, according to some blogs in Japanese.

We have been over about 3 times in late November. If you struggle with accomodation in Kyoto, it is really nice in Nara which personally I think is far nicer than Kyoto, and you might also get some full colour in Uji.

One trip we went on to Tsumago/Magome (stayed at Kisoji). If you are thinking it will be very cold, it actually wasnt - it was warmer than Kyoto at the time but then Kyoto is very cold in winter and very hot in summer.

I agree with the previous comment about staying in Kamakura. We like to stay at Enoshima our last few nights and then catch the NEX from Ofuna direct to the airport, though there are limited runs that go that far so you have to be careful with timing. This year we are staying the last few nights at Hakone Yumoto which I figure is a relatively easy 2 1/2 hours to the airport.

Thanks for the tips!
I'm looking about stay in yokohama or kamakura at least one night. Overnight at kamakura should be super cool. Plenty of hikes and things to do.

Thanks for the info about Tsumago-Magome weather, that was one of my questions, i didnt know what should I expect. The only thing i do not want is rain in that day.

I've checked and i've not been in Uji, i might put it in an itinerary for kyoto! And yes, kyoto should be full of tourists those days, but is the price i'll pay for enjoy kyoto in a different way.

Thanks everyone!

Cheers, if you stay at Kamakura a night, try to get off to Enoshima first thing in the morning. Fuji is usually visible before 8.30 or so in the morning and is really pretty over the water, after that it tends to get hazy.

The Tsumago walk is still doable in the rain I think. It is more a nice bushwalk than anything, and the waterfall is pretty enough. But I dont think it has ever rained when we were there that time of year.

I love Uji.

There are so many more hotel options in Kyoto than there use to be. Just since I started going back to Japan in 2016, I can't keep track of all the new hotels and apartotels that have opened up. I find reservations tend to open up between 8-5 months.

I would just caution to be realistic in terms of travel with a toddler. 2 is a little harder to travel with in my opinion vs. 1 because they want to be out and moving around a lot but they also get tired easily.

Good luck!