Food-oriented itinerary

Hello lovely people!

So my wife and I are planning a 14 day trip that is centered around food in Japan during the last 2 weeks of May.

We are huge fans of the cuisine and are so excited to try more regions to get to know regional cuisine.

Do you think this itinerary is too crazy? And lmk if you guys have any suggestions for us for any adjustment.

Arrive Tokyo Day 0

Tokyo Day 1-3

Kanazawa Day 4-5

Kyoto + Osaka Day 6-10

Fly to Sapporo Day 11-13

Fly to Tokyo day 13

Fly back home (Los Angeles) Day 14

You want come to japan to taste more regional cuisine ,so you must go to buffet restaurant,where you have more than 100 items to taste for a fixed price, so
Day 1= Tokyo station buffet
Day 2 =Luxe dining hapuna, intercontinental
Day 3 =Tokyo bay shiomi prince hotel

You must taste ramen ,sushi, tempura, soba, okonomiyaki, shabu shabu, yakitori, yakiniku

The itinerary sounds quite normal and not too hectic.

Hi!

Food is fantastic everywhere in Japan (at least where we have been). I would consider temperature first. Mid to late May has been getting very hot the last few times we went, so I would look to spend as little time as possible in Tokyo and actually look to get some altitude, or sea breezes.

So I would be looking at Karuizawa and maybe Kamikochi for cooler areas (you tend to get a lot of freshwater fish, bracken etc in those areas). For ryokans, we have stayed at Tsuruya at Karuizawa a few times (very nice), and Onsen Hotel at Kamikochi a few times (also very nice).

If you wanted to try more seaside, the Izu Peninsula is handy to Tokyo and Hakone. I like Ito there, and Shuzenji. We actually stayed a few nights at a tiny town next to Atami and the food was fantastic at the ryokan, then moved on to Shuzenji which was spectacular. I thought Ito looked like the most interesting place to stay coastal.

Of course Kyoto is known for its cuisine (careful of heat, it is like Satan's armpit there though it depends on the year), and Nara is great as well. Osaka is also known for its cuisine but I've not really enjoyed my time there so I dont know much about good places to stay.

I think this schedule is fine, but if it's me,
Tokyo Day 1-2
Fly to Tokyo day 12
Tokyo Day 13
to
I'm worried about my flight being delayed or canceled.
Alternatively, take the bullet train from Hakodate instead of flying.

Any reason you excluded Kyushu or Okinawa for food? All the location you have listed are all very similar. While Kyushu and Okinawa have korean/Chinese influences and differ from majority of the rest of Japan.

You need to go to somewhere inland and stay in a nice ryokan to try kaiseki food with mountain vegetables, ayu fish, etc.

In fact, if you're really wanting to focus on food, I think you need to book a few ryokan stays, and mix that up with more everyday/cheap food (ramen, okonomiyaki, gyudon, katsu, etc.) And kaiten sushi, of course.

But really, you can do all these things in lots of places around Japan. There's no need to go to Kobe to eat wagyu, for instance, and the Kanazawa fish market gives you a lot of what you might be going to the fish markets in Tokyo or the general market in Kyoto for. We had a great few days in Wakayama for instance, visiting a brilliant fish market where they did live whole-tuna-cutting demo's, and had excellent food, and then we went to a soy sauce manufacturer the next day, and also a miso maker.