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Where to go for a night after Miyajima 2019/10/2 23:32
Hey all.
Going to Japan for 21 days in November (14th - 6th)
Super excited and have been booking things all this week. I've come to a roadblock at the moment however as I don't know where to go after Miyajima. Essentially my plan looks like this:

15th - 19th (TOKYO) - 4 Days
19th - 21st (KYOTO) - 2
21st - 25th (OSAKA) - 4
25th - 27th (HIROSHIMA) - 2
27th - 28th (MIYAJIMA) - 1
28th - 29th (???) - 1
29th - 1st (Hakone) - 2
1nd - 3rd (Fujikawaguchiko) - 2
3rd - 6th (TOKYO) - 3

I saw some people say to go to either Onomichi, Okayama, Kurashiki or Himeji, which will break up the train ride to Hakone somewhat. However, I'm looking for a more indepth reasoning of which to go to and which would be best for just 1 day. It seems that the train from some of these to Hakone will be nearly 5 hours so I don't know which would be best. Also if somewhere else entirely is better then please do let me know :)

Also any feedback on the timing of everything would be great, most places are booked but can be cancelled until a certain date.
Finally, would I be wise getting the 2 week JR RailPass to activate after we leave Tokyo initially?
Thanks so much!
by Party Boy (guest)  

Re: Where to go for a night after Miyajima 2019/10/3 14:06
gooday, I would go somewhere that will break up the fairly long trip from Miyajima (nice!) to Hakone (also nice!).

What I reckon is Hikone https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7000.html

Hikone is a very nice smallish town on lake Biwa, just near Maibara which is the shinkansen stop after Kyoto heading north east. It has a great original castle and garden, and some good hotels - last time we stayed at Hikone Castle View Resort which is very good. also if you wait on the platform at Maibara some of the shinkansen go straight through and virtually pull your teeth out of your head, worthwhile sticking around for 5 minutes for that.
by Lazy Pious (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Where to go for a night after Miyajima 2019/10/3 14:26
I'm going to second Hikone.

I really like Okayama and Himeji, but they're not going to do as much to break up the trip, since they're still a long trip to Hakone, in particularly Okayama is really not breaking up the trip much. Onomichi might be super interesting, but I suspect it also isn't really shortening the trip at all since Shin-Onomichi is only served by the least frequent and slowest Kodama trains, so I'm not even sure it saves you time over Hiroshima proper.

Hikone is not a shinkansen stop, but there are frequent trains to Maibara which is also a frequent Hikari stop. Maibara is also further east than Kyoto so decently well on the way to Hakone.

To me, the only other option that might make sense would be Nagoya. But I wouldn't go there unless you really like urban locations. It has a nice art museum, a rebuilt castle and lots of shopping, so again, it's really best if you want to be somewhere urban.

Good luck!
by rkold rate this post as useful

Re: Where to go for a night after Miyajima 2019/10/3 14:48
If the main aim is to break up the trip, Hikone sounds like the best option. You could either take a non Shinkansen there from Kyoto or back from Maibara (nite that not all Shinkansen stop at Maibara), but with a JR pass you arenft allowed anyway to take Nozomi so maybe all jr pass compatible Shinkansen stop in Maibara???

Hikone is definitely a nice place.

However the other places you list are also nice. So it may depend on your personal choice of the attractions you want to see.

An alternative idea is to move Kyoto or Osaka to after Miyajima. It would break up the trip to Hakone as well and youfd have a few days instead of 1 night only.

Btw, you might want to consider staying only in Kyoto or only in Osaka and do all the sightseeing you are planning from one of these locations. Also in my eyes you have too many days in Osaka compared to Kyoto but you might have a good reason for that.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

by LikeBike (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Where to go for a night after Miyajima 2019/10/3 19:43
@Lazy Pious Thanks for the suggestion, I'm going to look into Hikone now!

@rkold Cheers! Yeah all the places I listed look great but still look like the train ride to Hakone would be like 5 hours unfortunately :( I do like urban locations but Hikone looks a bit more relaxed which might be nice!

@LikeBike Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately we can't move Osaka and Kyoto. There are 4 of us going (2 friends, girlfriend and myself), and my friends will only be there for 8 days and they want to see Kyoto and Osaka, so we will have to go there first and then my girlfriend and I will be moving to Hiroshima etc.
Again, the reason for the split between Osaka and Kyoto was because friends want to see both of them before they leave. Also a few extra days in Osaka so we can do the day trips to Kobe/Nara.
by Party Boy (guest) rate this post as useful

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