My Finalized itinerary.. thoughts?

[godwine]

Hi All

I've finally complete my honeymoon plans below. Comments and suggestions welcome, if you think I've miss anything (Or if I should skip something), please let me know. Again, this trip is not really for me, but for my fiancee who want a relaxing trip to SEE Japan. Actully, I would like to visit the bamboo forest in Kyoto, does anyone know how to get there?

23-Oct Friday
Arrival in Japan at approximately 3:00 PM
Travel to Shin-Yokohama, spend the night there

24-Oct Saturday
Travel to Hakata on the 6:00AM train and arrive at roughly 12:00ish
Attend Hakata Okunchi at Kushida Shrine
Visit Canal City, maybe a bit of shopping there
Visit the Yatai at night

25-Oct Sunday
Travel to Hiroshima and arrive at arouind 10:00, check in to a hotel and leave our luggage there
Travel to Miyajima and spend half a day there
SPend the remainig of the day around Peace Park

26-Oct Monday
Travel to Himeji and spend the rest of the day visiting downtown Himeji and the Castle. May drop by the Japan Toy Museum

27-Oct Tuesday
Travel to Osaka, visit the Aquarium first, maybe take my faincee to the giant ferris wheel ride
Go up Umeda Sky to see the city from the Sky Garden.. view the sun set
Dinner at Dotonbori area

28-Oct Wenesday
Visit Koshien in the morning
Travel to Kobe for lunch, have a brief stop by the port area, maybe go up the Kobe tower
Travel back to Osaka to visit the Nissin instant noodle museum
If time permits, we will spend some time around Den Den and Amerikaku (probably skip anyways)

29-Oct Thursday
Travel to Kyoto in the morning
Visit: Kinkakuji, Ginkakuju Kiyomizudera, Sanjusangendou, Pontocho, Gion

30-Oct Friday
Sightseeing: Nara Park, Fushimi Inari, Nishiki Market

31-Oct Saturday
Eigamura, Kokedera (Saihoji), Tenryuji, Nijo Castle

01-Nov Sunday
Travel to Shin Yokohama
Visit the Ramen Museum in the morning
Head over to China Town and port area (maybe do lunch there)
Mid afternoon-evening, shopping, dinner at the Landmark Tower, go up to the tower before sun set and spend a few hours there to see it at night as well

02-Nov Monday
Travel to Hakone
The the Hakoneropeway to Lake Ashi, take the boat cruise to see Mount Fuji

03-Nov Tuesday
Attend the Hakone Daimyo Festival

04-Nov Wednesday
Travel to Tokyo
Attend the Tokyo Auto Show

05-Nov Thursday
Visit Ghibli Museum
Other Museum TBD (Maybe the Sword or Edo museum in the afternoon, haven't decide yet)

06-Nov Friday - Reserved day with my Uncle and Cousin's family
07-Nov Saturday - Reserved day with my Uncle and Cousin's family

08-Nov Sunday
Visit and shop around Shinjuku, Harajuku (I picked sunday so that she can also see the street vendor at Yoyogi) , Shibuya, Akiba

09-Nov Monday
Visit Daiba and museums in Daiba, do a bit of shopping at daiba

10-Nov Tuesday
Tokyo Tower, Roppongi, Ginza

11-Nov Wednesday
Akiba, Asakusa, Kappa Bashi, Asakusa Torinoichi (12th 12AM)

12-Nov Tuesday
Visit Ikebukuro (Sunshine City)
Open for suggestion

13-Nov Thursday Departure for HK

[samurai007]

I think staying overnight at a temple in Koya-san and having an early morning stroll through Okunoin would be very memorable.

You might also consider the scenic mountain route to Tokyo from Kansai... head to Takayama and see the Hida Folk Village, then spend the next day hiking in the Japan Alps area of Kamikochi, which is beautiful, and then go on to Matsumoto and see the famous black castle there before heading on to Tokyo.

Hida:


Kamikochi:

[godwine]

Originally Posted by samurai007

I think staying overnight at a temple in Koya-san and having an early morning stroll through Okunoin would be very memorable.

You might also consider the scenic mountain route to Tokyo from Kansai... head to Takayama and see the Hida Folk Village, then spend the next day hiking in the Japan Alps area of Kamikochi, which is beautiful, and then go on to Matsumoto and see the famous black castle there before heading on to Tokyo.

Hida:


Kamikochi:

Koya is a big no no, i showed her pictures of it, and she said its too creepy... but the rest sounds good... i have never been to Takayama before, i will have to change my schedule around if i do take up on your recommendation, base on my currenct schedule, what will you recommend? What do you think I should cancel or move around?

[samurai007]

Well, you have quite a few days looking around Tokyo, including 1 that's open to suggestion. Going this route will probably take a total of 2 1/2 or 3 days. I'd figure 1 day to get to Takayama from Kyoto and see the Hida folk village, 1 day to hike in Kamikochi and then get to Mastumoto, and 1 day to visit Matsumoto castle and get to Tokyo. That's what I did, pretty much (though I went to Kanazawa to see the park there first, and then traveled from Kanazawa to Takayama.) Since you need to be in Hakone on the 3rd to see the festival, I'd do this:

On Oct 28th, skip Koshien stadium and Kobe, instead seeing the museum in the morning in Osaka and then traveling to Kyoto a day early and seeing Kokedera (Saihoji) and Tenryuji that you had planned for the 31st, plus whatever else you have time for.

On Oct 31, Since you arrived in Kyoto a day early, you can now depart a day early, traveling to Takayama in the morning and seeing the Hida Folk village and old town.

Nov 1, take a bus to Kamikochi, hike there during the day, and take another bus in the evening to Matsumoto.

Nov 2, see Matumoto Castle if you like (replacing Nijo Castle, which I think you could skip... Matsumoto Castle is considered 1 of the 3 best in Japan, along with Himeji and Kumamoto Castles), travel to Hakone in the afternoon. If you'd rather skip the castle, you could make it in time to take the ropeline to Lake Ashi that day. If not, you could do it on the afternoon of the 3rd, or on the 4th before going to Tokyo/Yokohama, but that'd mean missing the auto show (was that something you were really interested in seeing?)

Nov 3rd, you're in place to see the festival in Hakone.

On the 4th, you can see Lake Ashi if you haven't yet, or head to Yokohama and see the sights you wanted to see there.

This side trip will take a bit of time, but it's a wild, unspoiled part of Japan that is a stark contrast to the big cities and carefully groomed temple gardens. I think you'd enjoy it! If needed, I'd try and combine some of the Tokyo days to make room for it, but then, I was not a big fan of Tokyo...

More info on Kamikochi:
Kamikochi Travel Guide

Takayama:
Takayama Travel: Old Town

Hida:
Takayama Travel: Hida Folk Village (Hida no Sato)

[Nyororin]

Sort of disappointing that you`ll pass through Nagoya more than once, but will make no stops here.
Strange how everyone skips this area...

[godwine]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

Sort of disappointing that you`ll pass through Nagoya more than once, but will make no stops here.
Strange how everyone skips this area...

I've been to Nagoya a couple of times, I also showed her pictures that I took when I was there, as well as Japan Guide's recommendation, she wasn't interested.

What will you recommend if we make a stop at nagoya?

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by godwine

I've been to Nagoya a couple of times, I also showed her pictures that I took when I was there, as well as Japan Guide's recommendation, she wasn't interested.

What will you recommend if we make a stop at nagoya?

It`s not so much that I had specific suggestions. I was really just commenting on the pattern of people passing through and never stopping.
It seems to be really common. But... since you asked...

Atsuta is quite a great place to visit if they are giving the "special tours" during the time period - a rare chance to go into the deeper parts of the shrine.
Nagoya castle kind of sucks (it looks nice from the outside but that`s about it...) but if you go outside Nagoya - Inuyama castle is absolutely stunning. Arimatsu is a great place to walk through, old old style city streets, etc. Plus there is the Toyota museum nearby.

It really depends on what you would want to see, but this area is huge on history - Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga are both from this area... And they put a lot of money at the time into making lots of various things.

Oh, and also the oldest wooden multi-tiered temple tower in Japan is just around the corner from where I live.

[godwine]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

It`s not so much that I had specific suggestions. I was really just commenting on the pattern of people passing through and never stopping.
It seems to be really common. But... since you asked...

Atsuta is quite a great place to visit if they are giving the "special tours" during the time period - a rare chance to go into the deeper parts of the shrine.
Nagoya castle kind of sucks (it looks nice from the outside but that`s about it...) but if you go outside Nagoya - Inuyama castle is absolutely stunning. Arimatsu is a great place to walk through, old old style city streets, etc. Plus there is the Toyota museum nearby.

It really depends on what you would want to see, but this area is huge on history - Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga are both from this area... And they put a lot of money at the time into making lots of various things.

Oh, and also the oldest wooden multi-tiered temple tower in Japan is just around the corner from where I live.

Maybe we can meet up and you can give me a guided tour :P

I will check with her, as far as castle is concern, while they are different they are also very similar, so I figured the stop at Himeji maybe enough. I thought she would be interested to see the toyota museum since she is an engineer, but she didn't show one bit of interest at all.....