Hello,
My Boyfriend and I will be travelling around Japan from the 14th of April until the 30th of April. There are so many places we'd like to see, so we have a pretty packed itinerary. We realise this will mean it's not a very relaxing holiday and we're wondering if it's worth trying to see so many places, or if it'll be more enjoyable to skip a few so we can relax a bit more.
Here is our itinerary:
Day 1: Arrive in Tokyo at 6:30pm
Day 2: Tokyo
Day 3: Tokyo
Day 4: Tokyo to Mt Fuji
Day 5: Mt Fuji to Matsumoto
Day 6: Matsumoto (will hopefully catch the cherry blossoms here!)
Day 7: Matsumoto to Kanazawa
Day 8: Kanazawa
Day 9: Kanazawa to Shirakawa-go to Takayama
Day 10: Takayama to Kyoto
Day 11: Kyoto
Day 12: Kyoto
Day 13: Kyoto to Nara (day trip)
Day 14: Kyoto to Hiroshima + Miyajima island
Day 15: Hiroshima to Kitakyushu wisteria garden (?) to Osaka
Day 16: Osaka
Day 17: Fly home from Osaka at 9pm
Any help would be much appreciated as neither of us have been to Japan before.
Thanks!
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Comments
It's ambitious but doable. You could use a 14 day pass for Days 3-16.
Current forecasts for Matsumoto predict peak blooming between April 15-23.
If you're landing at Narita for Tokyo, the cheapest way in is the 1000 yen bus.
http://accessnarita.jp/en/home/
If you want to use a Tokyo subway, you might consider a 2 or 3 day subway pass.
http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/ticket/value/travel/index.html#anc03
Since you're with your boyfriend, you might try staying at some Love Hotels - they are inexpensive and across the country. For Tokyo, you might look at:
https://www.tsunagujapan.com/10-phenomenal-luxury-love-hotels-in-tokyo-to-beat-high-priced-counterparts/
Just remember you can't leave til you really leave, so bring some food and drinks in with you.
For Fuji, you need to decide between the Hakone area or Fuji 5 Lakes area. For the latter, you might catch the shibazakura.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6919.html
or
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5200.html
Either way, a regional pass can help.
http://www.odakyu.jp/english/deels/
You'll also have to pay for the bus to go to/from Shirakawago. A farmhouse stay there would be very memorable.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5950.html
The Kawachi Fujien Wisteria garden though is very dicey. You just can't go there, buy a ticket and go in. They've been swamped in the last few years and now require advanced ticket purchases at convenience stores. These old threads have more info.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4881.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+124397
If you find it too much to deal with, you could always go a bit farther to Fukuoka and see the Nanzoin Temple. It is free, much easier to get to, and absolutely mind blowing - not to mention completely unknown to all the so-called tourism "experts".
http://www.thejapanfaq.com/fukpic.html
Since you are already seeing Tokyo, you can largely skip Osaka during the day. After the temples of Kyoto close down around 5 PM, you can zip over to Osaka for the evening. At night the city comes alive and has some great places to see, such as Dotonbori, plus the night views from the Umeda Sky Bldg and Abeno Harukas Bldg are wonderful.
On another evening, you could also go and see Kobe.
With the day you save, you could see nearby Himeji, with Japan's finest castle and Kokoen Garden next door.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3500.html
Also since it's your first time, you should go to a hot spring at least once, as well as stay at a Japanese inn or ryokan for at least a night. Ryokan range from inexpensive to exorbitant; the latter often are at a hot spring. You might look at these for cheap:
http://www2.dango.ne.jp/kimi/ryokan.html
http://www.tamaryokan.com
http://www.libertyhouse.gr.jp
http://www.tokyoryokan.com
And these for some more upscale places:
https://www.tsunagujapan.com/20-reasonably-priced-hotels-and-ryokan-in-osaka/
www.ryokan.or.jp/english/
www.japaneseinngroup.com/
www.japaneseguesthouses.com/
http://selected-ryokan.com/ryokan
Aside from all the above, some cheap hotels are business hotel chains. They are quiet, decent, clean, have free internet, and throw in breakfast for free. Some chains are:
https://www.choicehotels.com/japan/comfort-inn
http://www.toyoko-inn.com/eng/
http://www.superhoteljapan.com/en/
http://www.hotel123.co.jp/english/index.html
http://www.route-inn.co.jp/english/
http://www.hotel-guest1.com/eng/
http://www.stayto.jp/en/
For buying yen, the easiest way would simply use your ATM card at a Japanese 7-11 or post office.
http://www.jp-bank.japanpost.jp/en/ias/en_ias_index.html
http://www.sevenbank.co.jp/intlcard/card2.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2208.html
You can also see what Japanese money looks like at
http://www.thejapanfaq.com/japanfaq1c.html
Note that you can not use
1 or 5 yen coins in vending machines and phones.
You can see previews of some of the best places to see in Japan on:
https://www.youtube.com/user/thejapanfaq/videos
Hope that helps.
We're thinking that we might slow it down a bit and skip either Kanazawa or Takayama. Do you have an opinion on which one is more worthwhile seeing?
I really wanted to see the Kawachi Fuji garden but it sounds like it's quite hard to get to and to organise. We'd be there around the 28th of April, so is that too early to see the wisteria anyway?
Thanks again!
For the wisteria, the best time is typically the first week of May. You could see some, but likely miss the peak.
Be aware also that your last couple of days will be the start of Golden Week, which is a very busy holiday season in Japan. If you have the JR Pass you should definitely consider making seat reservations for the train you want to take ahead of time - with the pass it's free and you can do so from any JR office.