Thread: Osaka or Tokyo?
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samurai007 (Offline)
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Posts: 890
Join Date: Oct 2007
07-19-2009, 04:04 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wagamama View Post
thanks for the advice...i 'll check them out
By the way isn't Hiroshima and Osaka ways apart?is it still worth traveling that much,even if 18 days is all we got?
Using ju-hachi kippus, I took a 9 day trip through western Japan:

Day 1: Travel to Himeji and visit castle, then go on to Hiroshima, see peace park and shopping area.

Day 2: Visit Miyajima Island all day.

Day 3: Travel to Fukuoka, see some of that city, have real Hakata Ramen dinner.

Day 4: Explore historical sites near Fukuoka.

Day 5: Travel to Nagasaki, see some sights there and the city of Saga on the way.

Day 6: Spend whole day looking around Nagasaki.

Day 7: Spend another whole day looking around Nagasaki

Day 8: Travel to Matsuyama by train and ferry, visit Dogo Onsen that evening.

Day 9: See more of Matsuyama, then travel back to Kansai area.


As you can see, there's quite a bit of travel time involved, since I was using local trains. But I was able to do that schedule in 9 days, which means even if you wanted to take an extended trip like this you'd still have another 9 days to see Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Koya-san, etc.

A shorter excursion you might take would be 1 day to Kanazawa, see the park there, then 1 day to Takayama, spend the rest of the day plus 1 whole day seeing the town and Hida Folk village, then 1 day hiking in the Japan Alps, and return the following day. That'd take 5 days total.

Or you could take a trip around the Kii peninsula, visiting Nagoya, Ise shrine, Nachi, Shirahama, etc.

Personally, I believe you should think about a short trip like this that lets you visit some other places and see the countryside. With 18 days, I think you have enough time to fit 1 such trip into your schedule, if you want. But on the other hand, if you consider spending quite a bit of time on trains to be wasted time rather than sightseeing, and would rather spend more days walking around Kyoto or Osaka or something, that's fine too. I just figured I'd offer some realistic itineraries if you're interested.


JET Program, 1996-98, Wakayama-ken, Hashimoto-shi

Link to pictures from my time in Japan
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