Mt Koya stay or 2 days in Kanazawa

Trip advice

Hello all,
My boyfriend and i are travelling to Japan next year from February 25th to March 16th. We have 2 days spare - does anybody have any reccomendations? We are worried hakone may be very busy and take a way from the feel we are after but it is still an option. We are contemplating staying at my koya for a night when we are at Osaka so extend it there and do an extra day in kyoto/tokyo. Or do we do Kanazawa for 2 days.


The plan so far:
* Tokyo - 5 days, (arrive into Haneda) - booked Yuen Hotel Shinjuku. We fly on the 25th from London and arrive on the 26th in the morning so hoping not to be too jet lagged.
* Kyoto - 3 days.
* Osaka - 3 days (including a day trip to Nara).
* Hiroshima - 2 days (with a day trip to Miyajima). Probably will fly back to Tokyo rather than using trains.
* Tokyo - 4days
Thanks

Hi. After more than 15 Japan trips omitting Koyasan, we stayed at Osaka a few nights last week to use it as a base.

While the area around hotel keihan grande was nice, and it was handy, I still find nothing really interesting in Osaka that I haven't found in other nicer places.

Koyasan wasn't particularly interesting to me. The graveyard walk is pleasant, otherwise it is a long trip for not a lot. I would have that as a day trip. We stayed at Yoshino the next night which I thought was more interesting.

Personally I would make your Nara visit a 2 night stay. We just stayed another 3 nights for probably the 8th time, it is somewhere we don't tire of. At the moment we are in Arashiyama, it is much better when you stay here (first time we have stayed in this part of Kyoto), and I would recommend more time in Kyoto too. Kanazawa is nice for the garden but while other regulars love it, I have never felt the desire to go back after spending a few days there probably a decade ago.

Have fun!

I think you could do both, actually, quite well. One night is enough at Koyasan, and the place is absolutely worth it - there really is no other place in the country like Okunoin (and if you want to see it at night too, be sure to pick a temple with no evening curfew).
https://youtu.be/uquvCbWANBo

Kanazawa is also a very good city to see, and it is better with two stays rather than just try to cram things into one.
https://youtu.be/riB-vzWNKLM

But with your plans, you have 9 days for Tokyo including any day trips - you could certainly pull some time off of all that for both Koyasan and Kanazawa. You could also pull time daytime off of Osaka - see it at night when it's at its best. Take a day and go see Himeji & Kobe.

I would remove Osaka and stay longer in Kyoto and do those side trips from there. No fan of Osaka myself (and I have been weeks in time during business trips but always escaped the town on weekends)

Koyasan at end Feb/early March sounds cold. Not sure I’d go there.

If you are afraid that Hakone will be too busy, what about Shuzenji in Izu peninsula instead for some onsen?
Or Kawazu where in late February there will be early sakura blooming.

Sorry , I know you asked a specific question about Koya, but I’m also going to say:
- 9 days in Tokyo is a lot
- ditto 4 days in Osaka (and 13 days in total in big cities is a lot of a lot)

If you felt minded to cut back on that big city time you could do a leisurely rural side trip as well as visit Kanazawa (I’m a big fan of Kanazawa).

If you carve out say 4 days for a Koya-plus trip, then you could stay a night in Koya and combine it with some of the places around Wakayama (maybe the coast, and beach/cave onsens, maybe the Wakayama fish market, maybe hike the Kumano Kodo for a day or two, or temples or the big waterfall…).

Way too much time in Tokyo and Osaka IMO (and as others have said). Splitting three nights between Kanazawa and Takayama will get you a lot more of the country. Also IMO Koya is way too over-rated. A long way to go to see more temples and the temple stays are expensive for what you get.
Japan is great for the things that make it unique. Osaka and parts of Tokyo have stuff you can do in many other places, my recommendation is to concentrate your time on things specific to Japan