Your opinion on a 3 weeks trip to Japan
 

Hello there :)

Here is the thing: I am preparing a 3 weeks trip to japan at the very beginning of April and I would like to get your feebdack on the different cities I have planned to see.
Do not hesitate to tell me it seems to you I am planning too much for 3 weeks

Tokyo, 10 days with trips to:

• Nikko
• Yokohama
• Kamakura
• Mont Fuji

Kyoto, 5 days, with trips to:

• Nara
• Himeji
• Osaka

Then I have big doubts on the last 6-7 days that remain. I absolutely don't know in which city I should sleep visit the following cities:

• Kanazawa
• Shirakawa
• Takayama
• Kamikochi

> Would you recommand me Nagoya?

• Okayama
• Kurashiki
• Miyajima

> Would you recommand me Hiroshima?

Thanks in advance for your kind help

What kinds of things are you interested in?

I took a friend who majored in Buddhism in college, and after about 10 temples, each unique in their own right, between Tokyo, Hyogo, Nara, and Kyoto, he was pretty tired of going to temples. Make sure you have a variety of things going on.

Miyajima is worth seeing, not so much Hiroshima, not unless if you are interested to see the remains from the blast and to see the A-Bomb museum.

How do you planned on spending the first 10 days? I am guessing you will need about:
- 3 days total between Yokohama and Mount Fuji (Assuming you are going to Hakone and want to spend time at a onsen resort)
- 1 day Nikko
- 1 day Kamakura

That will give you 5 days to travel around the tokyo ward, including the standard Ginza, Roppongi, Akiba, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Odaiba, Ueno, Asakusa....... Should be enough

5 days is NOT going to cut it for Nara, Osaka and Himeji.

Nara is already almost 1 full day, you need another full day at Himeji, that will leave 3 for Osaka, do you plan on going to Kyoto? You will need at least 2 days in Kyoto

First of all, many thanks for your good advices.
I decided to drop Okayama and Kurashiki because I kind of felt it wouldn't worth it after all.

So here is the update:

Tokyo: 5 days to see the city
Daytrips from Tokyo to : Nikko, Kamakura, Hakone, Mount Fuji, Yokohama = 5 days

Kyoto: 3 days
Daytrips from Kyoto (using the train):
Nara, Osaka, Himeji
Kanazawa, Shirakawa, Takayama, (Kamikochi, if opened)
Miyajima, Hiroshima (not sure yet) = 9 days

All in all, that would make 3 weeks.
It seems pretty good to me now, what do you think?

I didn`t find much at Okayama.

doh, nevermind i didnt see your last post. but whatever...maybe it will help you anyway...


i went to most of the place you mentionned and here is my humble opinion.

I would spend:

7 days in Tokyo and the surroundings. Actually 5 days in Tokyo and the remaining 2 as side trip to Nikko, Kamakura, etc.) 10 days sure would be nice but i think that you should spend equal time in Kyoto since it has so much to offer. 5 busy day in Tokyo should be enuff as a first trip. Make it 6 days if your that much into huge metropolis and skip Nikko (which as some of the nicest temple ive ever seen in my life but doesnt have much more)

7 days in Kyoto and the surroundings. 5 days in Kyoto and 2 day trip

2 days in Osaka. Foods, nightclubs, peoples and lots of funs.

2 days in the Kamikochis area which includes Takayama and Matsumoto. (dunno about kamikochis in april since i hiked thru it in early summer from Matsumoto to Takayama)

These are usually side trips but i would rather use them as "arrive early -sleepover" checkpoints between major cities:

1 day to visit either Yamadera and Matsushima together from Tokyo or Nara, Uji and Fushimi-Inari from Kyoto. Both of these are amazing sights.

Have fun planning your trip. i know i had a lot.

agree to most of your points, except for Kyoto. 5 days in Kyoto is overkill. I was able to see all the major temples, gion AND shopping district in 3 days. I would imagine 5 days can also include Nara and Fushimi Inarai. Actually, I did Nara and Fushimi Inari in 1 day

I also did Nara, Kamakura and Fushimi Inari on the same day and was satisfied. I agree you could see most of the major sights of Kyoto in 3 days but there is also a lot more to see. It all depends on what is it you fancy most.

But if your a culture/japan history addict like me you might consider staying longer. For me 6 days was barely enuff in Kyoto. Then again, i spent 1 complere day exploring some monkey mountains, residential area (with castle like houses) and bamboo forest nearby and another one in a neverending Matsuri. I wish i visited the city a bit more as i spent most of my time visiting shrines and temples. But ill go back anyway.

have fun

Raisthlin, I never heard of Yamadera / Matsushima / Uji and Fushimi-Inari before
I'll take a look at it

Many thanks for your replies!

no problems. here is some links to pictures i took on these place. (scroll down to see the gallery, text is in french, and open any images to enlarge them. Then you can click on the images border to navigate)


Yamadera and Matsushima

Fushimi-Inari One of my favorite place.

Raisthlin

Hi Enea,
may I ask how much it will cost it to you?

Thank you,

Yeron,

Are you asking about the cost of an overall trip to Japan? That really depends on several things, like what kind of hotels you want to live at, the transportation mode you are using, whether you are using a rail pass or not and the kind of places that you will be going to

In general, this is a simple breakdown of budget that I usually work against every time I go to Japan

- Food - 1000-1500 yen per meal on an average. Though, there was a day when I lived off of convenience store food. I managed to get away with just over 900 yen on a full day on food

- drinks - this will be the killer piece for traveler, especially if you are like me who walk a lot and drinks a lot. Vending machine drinks range from 120-250 yen a bottle

- Transportation - I usually use a rail pass. But if you prefer to pay per ride, assume it will be an average of 360 yen per ride. Some can be as low as 190 yen while some can go up to 540 yen.. so average it

- Hotel - I stay at business hotels and cheap small hotels usually. These cost around 4000-6000 yen per person per night. Rarely you maybe able to find something around 2700 yen per person per night. I also stay at traditional ryokan when I am around Onsen town, these are mostly "resort", so they average at around 8000-12000 yen per peron per night

- Attractions - Most shrines and temples are around 300-500 yen for adult admittance, and for other attractions like Land Mark towner's observatory and such, those will be around 1800-2400yen per person

Again these are just rough figures. I don't have 2008 data as I didn't go to japan last year due to work issues...

Seems expensive

Yep, those prices are pretty accurate, though I'd make a few alterations (though I haven't been there in many years now...)

Food: I was able to get good meals for 500-900 yen many times. Domburi, soba, zosui, ramen, even a tonkatsu or kara'age teishoku often won't be over 1000 yen if you look for a cheaper place, typically in smaller cities and towns (Tokyo will be more expensive many times, but even there you can probably find bargains...)

Drinks: Try getting a large bottle of your favorite drink at a supermarket or conbini, and just carry it in your backpack... it'll save you a lot of money instead of always buying can after can from machines. Also, never buy drinks in a restaurant, it'll be 300-600 yen per drink!

Train tickets: Those are prices for subways or short trips... it can range much higher for longer trips by train.

Hotels: I was able to find some ryokan for as little as 5000-6000 yen when I was there. Again, try to stay off the beaten tourist path, either by location or season, to find better deals.

Kurashiki's worth stopping by if you're in the area, but I wouldn't make a long detour to get to it. I was lucky enough to have a combination of good weather and a betrothed couple out and about having their wedding photos taken, and their family were very flattered when I asked if it would be alright if I could take a couple of shots too.

We went round so-called "samurai town" in about an hour. It's partially spoiled by the whacking great, ugly, Western art museum that's been built there, and the moment you're off the main, tourist-attraction street those overhead wires poke their ugly heads out again.



Niiiice! :eek: