7 nights-Tokyo/Miyajima/Kyoto/Takayama

Hi, we are planning a short trip to Japan over spring break next March. We are two families (4 adults and 4 college students). Most of the group has exactly 7 nights in Japan, but my husband and I will stay for 4 additional nights. We like a good mix of entertainment, culture, history and activity. We prefer �gdoing�h over �gseeing.�h

The more I research the more challenging it is becoming trying to pack the essentials into 7 nights. Here is what I am thinking and I would love feedback to improve this itinerary (with regard to too much time, too little time, the order, etc.). We are getting the 7 day JR pass.

March 8: Arrive Tokyo-Haneda at 15:00. 3 p.m.
March 9: Tokyo--Explore the quirky side of Tokyo (Robot Restaurant, Maid Café, Shibuyu Crossing, Harajuku, MarioKart)
March 10: Miyajima--Train to Hiroshima. Musuem and Peace Park.
March 11: Kyoto--Miyajima in the morning. Train to Kyoto. Gion night tour.
March 12: Kyoto—Arashiyama and Iwatayama monkey park. Geisha experience.
March 13: Kyoto—Fushimi Inari Shrine and day trip to Nara. Omizutori Water Festival in the evening.
March 14: Takayama—train to Takayama. Explore area.
March 15: Train back to Tokyo-Narita for 17:50 flight. 5:50 pm

Questions: The final night of the Omizuri Water Festival is the 14th. Is it worth it to rearrange things to be there on the final night? Is this enough time in Takayama based on travel times? Would a different order work better? Like Tokyo>Takayama>Kyoto>Hiroshima?

Thanks so much for any feedback you can provide!

ufff... sounds like stress rather than vacation to me.

Okay, I admit that I am a specially slow traveller, but it looks like in the 8 days you are travelling you will be 50% of the time ON transportation and only 50% of the time DOING things.

The places you choose in each destination are also kind of the top 3 from Trip advisor or so.

I would go back to square one, get a good guide book or read up on this web page and restrict the travel to only 2 destinations. The most logical would be Tokyo and Kyoto only. (I personally would do even less, but I have been travelling a lot in Japan and do have time). You can then do day trips from there (if you have enough time to DO things in Himeiji (SEE castle and garden) , Kamakura (VISIT old temples and the Pacific ocean - potentially SWIM), Nikko (HIKE and visit temples), Nara (FEED the deer and SEE old architecture), Osaka (EAT).

Also if you get or not a 7 day JR pass (or some other pass) should be among the last steps in your planning. You don't want a ticket to dictate you where to go, right?

Potentially get an open jaw flight going into Tokyo and leaving e.g. from KIX (Osaka).

Enjoy planning your trip!

Thank you, LikeBike. I am definitely dropping Takamaya. I'm still hoping to do Hiroshima/Miyajima, but we'll see. We've booked flights, so those are locked in. We'll hold off on purchasing our ground transportation tickets until after we've finalized our itinerary. Thanks again for chiming in. It's super helpful!

For Miyajima, are you aware of the restauration works at the torii:?

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3450.html

I am no expert on Miyajima (only went once, nearly 25 years ago). Other people here on the forum do like it and suggest several places to visit including hiking up a small (?) hill/mountain. But just wanted to make sure you don't go to Miyajima ONLY to see the torii.

Dropping Takayama is going to help, as it needs additional time for access.
If what you want to see in Takayama is "old Japanese city", you could replace it with either
Imaicho: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4185.html
or Kurashiki: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5750.html

If you are after an onsen experience, you might just give it a try at Kurama: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3933.html
It combines nicely with a hike and visit to some temples in the rural outskirts of Kyoto.
(There are many other onsen places as well along your route)

Just popping in to say I don't know that Miyajima is as exciting as some people find it. If the torii is under reconstruction, then you have a long-ish train ride and a ferry trip out to a temple. Which is a perfectly nice temple. With deer. The hill walk is nice too, I'm told. The people who have the best experience there seem to be the ones who stay there overnight.

You could do Tokyo as a base for the seven days, do a day trip to either Nikko or Kamakura (or both-I'd pick the latter as it's closer, so many temples and shrines, and you get to see some ocean as well and head to Enoshima which is great), a day trip to Fuji five lakes or similar (I haven't been but some people like it) and then, the ones staying the extra four days could do a trip to Kyoto for a couple of nights. In Kyoto you can also see a lot of temples, water-bound torii on Lake Biwa, Hikone Castle and Himeji Castle if you like castles.

Have a wonderful time in Japan!

Thank you LikeBike and Who? for your suggestions and the heads' up about the shrine under reno. Hopefully it will be completed by next March!

The renovation timelines aren�ft known yet but it sounds that it will NOT be ready by March 2020.

March 12th could use some work (better places to go - drop the monkeys), and dropping Takayama eases the travel and pace. You could do two nights in Hiroshima and shuffle the Kyoto dates by one day. I would not recommend Fushimi Inari and Nara on the same day. A 7-day rail pass will be an economical way of travelling for the 2nd to 8th day.

Thanks, JapanCustomTours, for chiming in. We were interested in the monkeys because we want to make sure that we are doing more than just visiting shrines and temples. We will have 4 older teens with us, so the challenge is coming up with a varied itinerary that isn't too much of one thing. So if we can come up with a great mix of outdoor adventures, shrines, culture, and activities, our crew will be happier. We also tend to prefer smaller, charming places, than big cities. I'm wondering if maybe we should do something like 2 nights in Tokyo, 1 night in Hakone, 1 night in Hiroshima, 3 nights in Kyoto. Or maybe we need to drop Hiroshima (that leaves me VERY conflicted)...

Hi, I take it you are getting rail passes. If you werent I'd drop Kyoto altogether and concentrate on places closer to Tokyo. Like Who? mentioned, Kamakura and Enoshima are great. I would go there over the crowds in Kyoto any day, though there isnt as much to see.

Not to disagree with JapanCustomTours, but on your tight schedule I think you could do Fushimi Inari and Nara on the same day. While I would rather spend 3 days in Nara than 3 days in Kyoto, if you arent spending time overnight at Nara you could pretty easily get there earlyish (say 9), see the main sights, then stop at Fushimi Inari at say 3 or 4 in the afternoon and get a bit of the way through it. Really, after the first 2 hundred or so tori it isnt that exciting and there is nothing to see at the top. Stay away from Fushimi Inari at lunch time as it is ferally busy and unpleasantly crowded.

But personally if I had 7 days and wanted to spend a day or two in Tokyo, I'd consider : Kamakura/Enoshima (best to stay overnight, might get Fuji views in the morning), Hakone (I'd recommend staying at Tonosawa which is very foresty and anime-ish, but only a few minutes walk from town), maybe see the (fake) castle at Odawarra, even better, see a real castle at Matsumoto, maybe Nikko.

We've been to Japan a fair bit over the last several years and Hakone gets bumped every trip, for something we think will be more interesting/authentic (for want of a better word)/ or just fun.

You might see Mt Fuji from a train, or the top of a building, but planning on seeing it at any time is a bit of a hit and miss activity.

Which is my long way of suggesting dropping Hakone.

I'm a bit of a bore for (Lake) Biwa, which features floating tori, and if you want some hiking Enryakuji is pretty good.

Also good for a solid walk is Mt Takao, just outside Tokyo, from where you might see Mt Fuji and you can soak in the onsen before jumping back on the train.

Have a wonderful time in Japan.

Just too many locations for seven days.

Stay in Tokyo and do closer locations.

I would also suggest dropping Hakone - actually over-rated IMO and too many people I take there actually do not like it.

I recommend against Fushimi Inari and Nara on the same day because of the JR train scheduling. From Fushimi Inari is the local train rather than the express, and it takes longer (and less comfortable). Plus, unless you are doing a short Nara visit it does easily fill the whole day.

Understood about the monkeys. At least in March the weather isn't hot for the hike up the hill (and the view is good). If you needed some variety for the teens, the Train Museum is actually pretty good (and not a temple or shrine). They might like the Toei Studio Movie Park - I think some of the attractions are aimed at a younger audience, but certainly enough adults visit. The Manga Museum sounds good, but when you get there people find it is almost entirely in Japanese (was my last visit), so not quite as interesting if you can't read.

As for keeping/dropping spots Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kyoto in a 8D/7N trip is not too much to fit in. You could simply do Tokyo/Kyoto as an alternative.

The large torii gate at Miyajima is estimated to take one year to complete. Work only started in the last month.

Everyone, I appreciate your responses so much! My gut tells me that Miyajima would be more interesting than Hakone, but if the shrine is still under renovation, will we be disappointed? Or is the island still a great place to visit even if we don't get the perfect photo op of the shrine? Also, we aren't hung up on Hakone specifically, but we do want to visit a beautiful, natural, outdoor onsen. It seems that a lot of onsens have ugly views, or are indoors, so we mainly want to visit one that is beautiful, outdoors AND convenient. :) Would Kakura meet those requirements? Also, thanks to some great feedback, we've learned that the Sumo tournament will take place in Osaka during our time. What are thoughts on trying to squeeze in a visit to the tournament? Obviously, we'll have to drop something, but this seems like a unique experience that could be a lot of fun.

Regarding the sumo tournament. I am not sure how hard it is to get a ticket. For Tokyo it�fs nearly impossible. I tried twice. This year I tried within seconds of the presale opening and the webpage crashed. Within 15 min I was in a conbini to try from there and the machine didn�ft work either. I have to admit that I tried for a weekend. For a weekday and in Osaka it might be slightly easier. But you must do a reservation. That opens a few months before. So you can easily decide once you have secured your tickets.

I did manage to go once to the sumo tournament in Fukuoka and enjoyed it:
http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2017/11/day-56-sumo-in-fukuoka....

For onsen, do you want to spend a full day + night in an onsen, or just visit a nice one for a few hours? I personally love onsen and could spend days in them, but in your rushes itinerary there isn�ft that much time. Plus I am not sure how your teenagers will feel about being naked with everyone else including one parent. I would have been perfectly fine but I come from a country where nude public (mixed) bathing is relatively common. In Japan it is mainly segregated bathing. Only in some fairly remote (mountain) onsen you get mixed bathing.

Hi!

I'm an anti-Hakone person. Unless you have someone in your group that is really keen to do different types of transport, I find Hakone dull. The onsen are nice and if you like cheezy and have people shy about being naked, there is Yunessun the bathing suit "onsen" but I just find for the time it takes you to get there Hakone is only so fun and I think it's sort of expensive for what it is.

We didn't make it to Imachio, but the Kashihara area near Osaka is super nice, super convenient, and not very heavily touristed by foreigners yet so it just feels less crowded. Fushimi Inari is a mob scene. We got there before 8:00 am and it was still very crowded in the lower areas. By the time we left close to noon it was Tokyo Disney level crowded.

What are your teens interested in? We went to Akame Falls to do ninja training. There are several onsen ryokan nearby with outdoor onsen. It's only about 1 hour from Osaka but feels a world away. We stayed in Kashihara which was so much quieter than Osaka and Kyoto. There is some sort of VR ninja training in Tokyo. We might try that in the future.

My daughter loved visiting the monkeys in Arashiyama. She also likes cat cafes and feeding the deer in Nara. She liked Miyajima but the torii wasn't being worked on while we were there. I heard from some tourists who were there 2 weeks ago that the restoration work isn't constant and I think was mostly being done at low tide. We talked about it while visiting Fushimi Inari.

We did some crafts at the Kyoto Handicraft Center this past trip. Depending on your teen they might enjoy that.

I'm a big flower viewing fan, so in March I would want to go Mito to see Kairakuen but flowers are not everyone's thing.

I like onsen, but I admit, I don't have the patience to just onsen all day. I need more activity. I'm a relative faster tourer than some on this forum.

Be aware depending on where you are starting from jet lag could be an issue.

Good luck!

Thank you, rkold, for your feedback! That was super helpful! We sound like very similar travelers. We, too, are pretty fast travelers (so much to see, so little time). I love the suggestion for ninja training. We did Gladiator School when we were in Rome and my girls loved it. The handcrafts sound fun too. As do the cat cafes, etc. I also agree that I can't sit around in an onsen for long, and certainly wouldn't give up a day for it. We will definitely drop Hakone, but I'm leaning toward keeping Miyajima/Hiroshima for one night. Again, thanks for the suggestions.

Hi!

Glad to help. :)

There are: cat, dog, otter, rabbit, and hedgehog cafes in Kyoto. There are probably even more animals but those are the ones we specifically passed while shopping. We almost did the hedgehog one, but did two cat ones instead. I am not sure how I feel about the otter cafe.

There are several different places with ninja training depending on what specifically you want. Thanks to @WinterVisitor here, we specifically just did this one: http://ninja-valley.com/tourism.html on Monday. The area is beautiful. Ninja training was REALLY hard. My athletic child did much better than me.

There are a lot of craft options in Kyoto. My child is still in grade school/elementary and she specifically wanted to paint a fan. We had previously made a fan in Marugame, but she didn't get to design the fan herself and the Handicraft Center specifically had fan painting. We also did cloisonne because it was hot and humid and the Handicraft Center is air conditioned. (Kyoto definitely seemed worse this Summer!) I've seen places offering lots of fabric activities as well. She also made some sort of coaster using powder at the Pokemon Center, so now we have a traditionally made Eevee coaster.


Good luck!

Sumo tickets are very hard to get - I missed out the last couple of tournaments, but I've been often enough (and to each of the four venues over the years), but mostly now I get to see it on tv. Still, if you can secure tickets, it makes for great entertainment even if you only know a little - arena seats are more comfortable for westerners, but good seats are still around the US70-80 mark.

At Miyajima, the work on the torii (thanks for the update regarding one year of work) does not really affect the shrine. For me, Itsukushima Shrine is actually one of the more dull places in Japan and I avoid going in (no need), and there are other interesting things to see/do on the island. Daishoin temple is much better. Combined with the ropeway and/or hiking you can easily spend a day there (plus some yummy food). For the last year we have mainly been doing Miyajima as a half day combined with Iwakuni - but that's a bit trickier to build in for a first visit.