12-Day Itinerary - Hiroshima & Miyajima?

Hi Japanfs experts and friends,

20+ years ago my wife and I visited Japan for 10 days combining my business trip with sightseeing. We stayed in hotels in Tokyo and Kyoto, and took one-day trips with JR Pass to Kamakura, Nikko, Nara, Osaka, and spent one night in ryokan at Hakone. It was a great experience. Now my wife and I (50+) and our 16-year-old daughter are planning our trip to Japan for 12 days /12 nights on October 4-16, 2023, aiming to see some major attractions.

We will fly in and out from Haneda airport, and considering to stay again a few days in Tokyo and Kyoto, and take one-day trips with JR Pass to Kamakura, Nikko, Nara, Himeji.

We are thinking to skip Osaka and Hakone (other places seem more impressive).

Not sure if it is worth to include Hiroshima and Miyajima. The island of Miyajima looks very nice, and we know the sad story of Hiroshima, but visiting these places seem to require 2days/2nights, so we wonder if we better add these 2 days/nights for Tokyo, Kyoto and their surroundings.

On one hand we would like to see as much as possible, on other hand not to make it too much fast-paced.

If Hiroshima and Miyajima are included, our itinerary may look like this:

Arrival to Haneda 09:50am
Haneda – Tokyo – Hiroshima -
Miyajima (2N)
Kyoto (5N): with day trips Himeji, Nara,
Tokyo (4N): with day trips Kamakura, Nikko,
Haneda (1N)
Departure from Haneda 09:40am
-------------------------------------
12 days / 12 nights

If Hiroshima and Miyajima are excluded, our itinerary may look like this:

Arrival to Haneda 09:50am
Tokyo (5N): with day trips Kamakura, Nikko,
Kyoto (6N): with day trips Himeji, Nara,
Haneda (1N)
Departure from Haneda 09:40am
-------------------------------------
12 days / 12 nights

-Would you recommend to include or exclude Hiroshima & Miyajima?
-Would you recommend to include any other places into our 12 days / 12 nights trip?
-Any other suggestions?

We would be grateful for your advice. Many thanks!
Alec

Maybe Miyajima would be good, get off shore breezes as it might be still a little warm then. It has been a long time since I was there, but there isnt a massive amount of things to do there, unless you want to go up Mt Misen. Travel there isnt so bad, it is mainly on the shinkansen though you end up in tunnels for a long time.

But personally I would turn those 2 nights into 2 nights at Nara instead of a daytrip. Nicer deer, much more to see. Recommend Nara Hotel (old section) for a special treat.

For your daytrip, maybe Hikone instead? Nice castle overlooking Lake Biwa

It ultimately is your decision how fast paced your trip shall be.
But if you are on the edge, I think I wouldnft go to Hiroshima/Miyajima.

That first day seems to be very long, depending where you are coming from. But unless you are coming from Korea or Taiwan, you are adding to a long intercontinental flight an other many, many hours in the train to get down to Hiroshima. (Itfs a long train ride in any case but with JRP you are barred from the faster Shinkansen)
You could look into an open jaw flight and see if you can fly to Hiroshima.
(You could do open jaw to Osaka even if Hiroshima doesnft stay. Then you wouldnft gneedh a JRP. )

Regarding JRP, the price from October gets up steeply, but you can still buy at the old price and use it in October.

For a 12-day trip, I would probably exclude Hiroshima as the expense/reward pay-off isn't quite there. Heading south after a 9:50 a.m. arrival you would not be getting into Hiroshima until after 3 p.m. at earliest and you essentially lose that whole first day.
You would do your Tokyo days at the beginning, then Kyoto before returning to Tokyo/Haneda for your early flight on the last day.
Regarding the rail pass, with six nights in Kyoto the 7-day pass (at current prices) would not save you much for the round trip and even the Himeji day-trip isn't that expensive. Yes, you might save a little. The 14-day pass is way too expensive for your travels, and after the price increase - forget it.

If this is your first Japan trip. I would omit Hiroshima. 6 days each at Tokyo and Kyoto would be better. As you already have quite a few side trips you wanna do.

We just came back from a family trip to Japan in early July. The traveling team included two granddaughters, aged 15 and 13.

Miyajima is a delightful island to visit and was a highlight for the grandkids. Skip Hiroshima and just visit Miyajima, then you may do it leisurely as a day trip from Kyoto without changing hotels.

You may leave Kyoto on an 8:xx am Shinkansen to Hiroshima, connect to the local JR Sanyo line and then a ferry, arriving in Miyajima before noon. Leave Miyajima around 4, reverse your steps and take the 6:xx pm Shinkansen from Hiroshima back to Kyoto. You may even have time to take a tram ride in downtown Hiroshima.

You may look up the Shinkansen train timetable on this JRWest site, https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/timetable/#timetable

Hi Japanfs experts and friends,

Many thanks for all your comments and valuable suggestions.

When considering to travel from Tokyo/Haneda to Hiroshima/Miyajima on our first day in Japan, our logic was as follows:

we will start our trip in Germany at 10:00am, +16 hours flights, arriving to Haneda next day at 09:50am. After 16 hours travelling with no or little sleep (because of the day-flight) our first day in Japan will be sleepy anyway, so we thought we better spend it dozing in the shinkansen to Hiroshima/Miyajima rather than heavy-headed walking in Tokyo.

We considered this option only if Hiroshima/Miyajima is really worth visiting, so we use our first gsleepyh day in Japan for travelling, – Bad idea?

If you say that other places may be as much interesting and take less time to reach, than we better do as many of your suggested:

our 6 days in Tokyo at the beginning, then 5 days Kyoto before returning to Tokyo/Haneda for last night before our early flight on the last day.

While staying in hotels in Tokyo and Kyoto, we can make 1-2 day trips to Kamakura, Nikko, Himeji, Nara, Hikone. Does this sound like a plan?

Many thanks!
Alec

Hey Alec!

I can see the logic in your plan but to be honest I think you will be sick of being cooped up and will prefer to stretch your legs on day 1.

I wouldnt go all the way to Miyajima unless you think that Hiroshima itself would hold some sort of significance for you. I wasnt expecting it to, as we were aiming for Miyajima, but when we stopped at Peace Park and you see the observatory, it is pretty affecting. but then I come from a country which doesnt really show any scars from any war.

You are thinking of Kamakura anyway, I would recommend Enoshima which is off it (there is a bridge you can walk across). I prefer Enoshima to Miyajima anyway. The big attraction to Miyajima is the Tori on the water, but tbh it looks awful when the tide is out. If you want to stay at a ryokan hotel there, we like Iwamotoro Honkan. I havent been for a few years, but it was always nice and you can get views of Mt Fuji usually earlyish in the morning, during breakfast.

Tokyo and Kyoto as bases is good, the only comment I would make about that is that they tend to be very expensive. That said if you are booking 3 - 5 nights in a stretch, the price comes down.

Around October the 14th (Saturday), the gap between the high and low tides will be large, which may bring you a chance to watch Itsukushima Shrinefs Grand Torii Gate at significantly different tide levels.

You can visit Kobe and Himeji on your way to Hiroshima and Miyajima.

Kobe is known well for its night views.

It takes less than one hour to get from Kyoto to Sannomiya in Kobe on a JR Special Rapid, and less than 30 minutes to get from Shin-Kobe to Himeji by the Shinkansen.

Staying in Kobe for the previous night may allow you to get to the entrance of Himeji Castlefs Main Keep
before many visitors make a long queue.

[Details of my suggestion]

October the 12th (Thursday)
: Kyoto sightseeing.
: Getting to Sannomiya (in Kobe)
before sunset (at 5:30 p.m.).
: Seeing a night scape of Kobe.
: Staying near Shin-Kobe Station.

October the 13th (Friday)
: Getting to Himeji in the (early) morning.
: Visiting Himeji Castle,
maybe also Koko-en Garden.
: Getting to Miyajima in the afternoon.
: Miyajima sightseeing.
: Staying in Miyajima.

October the 14th (Saturday)
: Getting to Hiroshima before noon.
: Visiting facilities and monuments in Peace Park.
: Heading to Shinagawa (in Tokyo) in the evening.
: Staying near Haneda Airport.

October the 15th (Sunday)
: Tokyo sightseeing.
: Staying near Haneda Airport.

October the 16th (Monday)
: Getting to Haneda Airport in the early morning.
: Flying out from Haneda Airport.

Hi Lazy Pious, Hi Omotenashi,

Many thanks for your comments and suggestions. It is also our concern that travelling to Hiroshima/Miyajima on our first day in Japan may be too much, especially after 16 hour flyght from Germany with no or little sleep because of the day-flight. Following your suggestions, we will stay first days in Tokyo. Hiroshima itself seems to have no significance to us, so we are considering now to visit Miyajima only, or perhaps even skip both Hiroshima and Miyajima, and stay 6 days in Tokyo at the beginning, then 5 days Kyoto, and then 1 night in Haneda before our early flight on the last day.

Many thanks for your suggestions and advice

Alec