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Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/21 22:51
Hi All,

I was hoping if you could give me some feedback on our Japan August 2015 trip and let us know if you think it is unrealistic or if you would change anything.

Here we go!

Saturday August 22nd land at Nagoya Chubu Airport 08:15 then travel to Hakata(Fukoaka) station
Sunday 23rd August 2015 travel to Nagasaki stay in Fukoaka
Monday 24th August 2015 travel to Hiroshima stay in Fukoaka
Tuesday 25th August 2015 travel to Dazaifu and Kumamoto stay in Fukoaka
Wednesday 26th August 2015 travel to Kagoshima and stay in Kagoshima near Kagoshima-Chuo station
Thursday 27th August 2015 travel by ferry to Yakushima and spend day in Yakushima then travel back to Fukoaka
Friday 28th August 2015 travel to Nagoya while spending half a day in Kobe to explore.
Saturday 29th August 2015 travel to Kanazawa then to Tokyo by shinkansen and then stay in Yokohama
Sunday 30th August 2015 - Day trip Hakone stay in yokohama
Monday 31st August 2015 spend the day in Yokohama
Tuesday 1st September 2015 day trip to Kyoto stay in Nagoya
Wednesday 2nd September 2015 day trip Osaka stay in Nagoya
Thursday 3rd September 2015 left as spare currently
Friday 4th September 2015 Spend day exploring Nagoya stay in Nagoya
Saturday 5th September catch 09:40 plane from Nagoya Chubu


We will be staying within 5 minutes walk of each main shinkansen station in each place we stay except for Nagoya so Nagoya Station, Hakata Station, Kagoshima-Chuo Station and about 10 minutes underground journey from Yokohama Station.

This is my third time visiting Japan and we intend to visit again so if you think that the plan may be too stressful or think we will be pushed for time in place we would really appreciate any help.

We also will have a 14 day JR pass each.

Thanks in advance

Jon & Xiaoran
by Rinupanu  

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/22 12:24
Monday 24th August 2015 travel to Hiroshima stay in Fukoaka
Why return to Fukuoka. You are crossing the same railtracks multiple times.
You can do Kyushu and then Honchu.

Thursday 27th August 2015 travel by ferry to Yakushima and spend day in Yakushima then travel back to Fukoaka
This is not enough time to explore Yakushima. You would need a good 3 days. There are many hiking trails, waterfalls and other attractions not listed on Japan Guide. Do google a Yakushima tour company for more information.

Friday 28th August 2015 travel to Nagoya while spending half a day in Kobe to explore.
You can get to Kanazawa via Kyoto, why not spend the night in Kyoto instead. Saves you some travelling time.

Saturday 29th August 2015 travel to Kanazawa then to Tokyo by shinkansen and then stay in Yokohama
Kanazawa requires about 2 to 3 days to immerse yourself in

Sunday 30th August 2015 - Day trip Hakone stay in yokohama
Monday 31st August 2015 spend the day in Yokohama
You seem to be rushing about much. Why the interest in Yokohama?

Tuesday 1st September 2015 day trip to Kyoto stay in Nagoya
Wednesday 2nd September 2015 day trip Osaka stay in Nagoya
Again, why do you want to stay in Nagoya. Have a friend there to put you up?
A day in Kyoto only?
You really seem to be showing a lot of love to Kyushu but Honchu seems to be taking the butt end

Friday 4th September 2015 Spend day exploring Nagoya stay in Nagoya
I am right aren't I? You have some free lodging in Nagoya.

If I were you, I would:
If I can fly into Kagoshima..., but if that is not possible...
Nagoya Airpot to Nagoya
Nagoya to Tokyo
Spend days one and two in Tokyo

Spend days three and four in Kanazawa

Spend days five and six in Kyoto. You can night out in Osaka for some night life and street food. Or you can night out in Kobe to see the view atop mount Rokko. Hotel should be near Kyoto station for access.

Day seven is spent travelling from Kyoto to Hiroshima. Along the way stop by Himeji castle, and Okayama garden. Leave your luggage at a station locker. The castle round trip to the station takes about two hours. The garden about three.
You should be able to reach Hiroshima before nightfalls. Grab an okonomiyaki dinner plus rent a bicycle (one near the station north exit) to get to the peace park.
If you are speedy you can do the cycling on day eight and do Miyajima on this day instead.

Day eight is spent on Miyajima. The island is nice to explore in the morning and nicer to see at night. Take the night shinkansen to Fukuoka. There are trains leaving Hiroshima till after ten. So no worries.

Days nine and ten and eleven are for Fukuoka, Nagasaki, and Kagoshima.
Fukuoka has little to offer besides the amazing ramen and yatai stalls. Since the stalls only open after the sunsets, you can use the day to explore Nagasaki and Kagoshima.
If hot spring interest you, you can stay at Saga onsen in Arita prefecture. As it is inbetween Nagasaki and Fukuoka it is a conveninet location.
If you have spare time, you can pop by Sakurajima or Ibusuki from Kagoshima. Or go to Kumamoto. As a hot spring lover I would recommend to go to Ibusuki.

Day twelve is for Beppu onsen. Stay at Suginoi hotel.
After all that travelling, a day being a pancake chilling is amazing.

Day thirteen and fourteen and the morning of fifteen are for going to Nagoya. A city with an amazing science museum if nothing else. If that doesn't strike your fancy. Spend day thirteen in some other place in Kyushu as written above. Just make sure to spend day fourteen on the train back to Nagoya to fully utilise the 14 day JR Pass.

I have removed Yakushima for the reasons stated above. If you shuffle some places, you can put it in, though in my opinion Yakushima is not anything fantastic. If you want nature, there is always Hokkaido, Okinawa. Hell, why might as well get lost in some Tohoku forest.

Kobe has little to offer. It is another bustling city.

I ended this trip in Kyushu, but if you want you can do it in reverse and end it in Tokyo. Tokyo has more souvenier options but since you've been to Japan before I took the liberty of rearrnaging your itinerary so you can stuff your bags with Kyushu goodies. Namely snacks from beppu onsen and ramen packets from the various ramen chain stalls in Fukuoka. (Daruma ramen, Ichiran Ramen, Ippudo Ramen... etc)
by joshua hugh (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/22 13:29
Have you booked all of your accommodation yet? That trip looks rushed, and the one suggested by Joshua looks a bit more paced. Having just arrived home from three weeks touring I'll add a few comments.

I remember Nagoya airport is a modest distance from the main shinkansen station, and getting to Hakata isn't a problem for day 1 (probably with the simple change at Shin-Osaka.

24th August - Hiroshima. Quite doable in a day, both the Peace Museum (being renovated at the moment but still worth visiting, and the park, A-dome and hypocentre). Miyajima will use a bit more time (train/ferry return) and you can easily spend several hours there depending on if you want to look at everything or the main points of interest. My recent guests took about 2.5 hours on the island before we headded back to the mainland. The trains/ferries run really regularly.

Have not been to Dazaifu or Kumamoto. But a night at Beppu in the Suginoi (with the banquet plan) is fun (free bus from the train station, onsen (sep and mixed), and a good bowling alley).

26th August - Kagoshima. Solaria Nishitetsu Hotel is across the street from the station and we paid US120/night. While Kagoshima is famous for noodles, have the black pork (oshii!). Also consider Chrian Museum (remembering the kamikaze pilots) or Ibusuki for the hot sand bath (and the tourist train for views along the coast). The local volcano you will probably see from the hotel. Easy to spend more time here.

28th August - another travel day. You could probably stop off in Osaka and knock that off the list. Alternatively (as Joshua suggests) visit Himeji - hope the crowds are not too big.

29th August - to Kanazawa. The train takes a while, but you could still get a decent amount of time to visit Kenrokoen and the castle next door. The new Hokoriku shinkansen still has the "new car" smell but is very popular so make sure you reserve your seats early. Yes you can get back to Yokoham in a day, but it's getting exhausting.

30th August - Hakone. Why?

31st August - Yokohama. Are you thinking of the factory ferry tour or the noodle factory (make you own special mix :)

1st to 3rd September - Nagoya. While you have Kyoto down for a day, I've spent weeks/months visiting and keep finding new things to visit. It is a bit spreadout so Kinkakuji and Kodaiji are on opposite sides of town. Inari is really easy to get to as is Toji. Have you done Todaiji in Nara yet?

4th September - Nagoya. The Maglev railway park is one of the top attractions in Japan, and Meiji Mura historic village is an interesting visit (about an hour out of the central city).

Also close are Matsumoto and Hikone casltes - also in the top four in the country, but without Himeji crowds.

As this is your third trip, I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun.
by JapanCustomTours rate this post as useful

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/22 21:05
Hi,

Thanks very much for your replies.

Just a few points we forgot to mention.

The reason for staying in Nagoya for the second week and then coming back to Nagoya is because we want to pack light so we were going to send most of our luggage (2-4 suitcases) empty with taqbin ( not sure if spelt correctly?) to hotel in Nagoya where they can keep our luggage and they would agree to hold all of our luggage until we arrive back near the end of the trip after Yokohama.

The reason for staying in Fukuoka for almost 6 days was because of convenience for travelling to different places and again we can keep our luggage there, on our last trip we only had two suitcases and this proved quite inconvenient for us when travelling so we would rather not have the luggage with us, if anyone can recommend a better way of doing this that would be great, the reason for so much luggage is so we can bring back as much goodies as possible :)

We have been on to Japan before , spent around a month there we have already been to the following places;

Kyoto - some of the main attraction that is the reason the going back to discover more
Osaka - main centre Namba etc
Tokyo - most of the main attractions
miyajima (not been to Hiroshima )
Nara

First of all in response to Joshua.

Monday 24th Aug, reason for travelling to Hiroshima and then Fukuoka is because of convenience .

Thursday 27th August yakushima, we are going to take your comments into consideration and do some research we may possibly leave this for another trip.

Friday 28th August - we are considering staying in Kyoto your plan makes more sense.

Saturday 29th- I agree

Sunday/Monday 30/31st as mentioned above staying in Yokohama because of convenience.


Again in response to Nagoya is because we have cheap deals available on certain hotels next to the main train station and is convenient in terms of luggage etc. welcome to better options / opinions.
by Rinupanu rate this post as useful

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/22 21:12
In response to Japan custom tours.

We have booked some of the accommodation but this can be easily changed / cancelled.

Getting from Chubb airport looks quite easy just 3 trains and the hotel is situated right next to Jakarta station.

Thanks for the recommendations

In answer to hakone is because we want to get a good view of mt Fuji because admittedly I have never seen it as it's always been bad weather.

Thanks for all your comments and any further comments/ criticism / recommendations would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Jon & Xiaoran
by Rinupanu rate this post as useful

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/22 22:38
I see Jakarta there
Am I seeing things?
I sort of like placing luggage in major train stations. It's kept there indefinitely. Plus it saves the time required to travel back to the hotel. Though after a certain number of days you would have to head to security counter to collect your luggage.

For goodies to buy back I find Kyushu and Tokyo to be best
Perhaps placing your spare luggage bags in a midpoint city to be best
by Joshua Hugh (guest) rate this post as useful

Miyajima 2015/4/23 00:42
"miyajima (not been to Hiroshima )" ???
How can you get to Miyajima and not go through Hiroshima?

I agree with others. I only looked at the first few days, but from Fukuoka to Nagasaki for a day trip is pushing it.
I went from Fukuoka to Nagasaki, stayed one night, then to Shimabara, took the ferry to Kumamoto. then you could go to Kagoshima easily.
Back and forth from Fukuoka is not a good plan.
by Dick H rate this post as useful

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/23 00:53
We went through Hiroshima but we haven't been around and explored Hiroshima we just went to Miyajima.
by Rinupanu rate this post as useful

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/23 08:18
Ah, now I understand. I've been fortunate to see Fuji many times in different seasons from the train and the local weather usually results in cloud. Actually going to Fuji (5th station) is, I think, disappointing (but that's a personal opinion).

Enjoy the trip - Nagoya is underrated - I'll be there in July for the sumo :)
by JapanCustomTours rate this post as useful

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/23 10:27
I don't think that nagoya is underrated so much so that it is surrounded by and the midpoint between Tokyo, Fuji, Kanazawa, Kyoto, and Osaka. Too many other great places for people to want to stop by. If it was placed somewhere in Kyushu or Shikoku, i am sure it would have greater prominence.
by joshua hugh (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/23 20:59
Thanks for replies, going to make some serious changes it seems, I heard it's rare to get luggage holders in stations these days? Do you know of any in the Fukoaka area? Or know if a service like taqbin is easy to use?

People only seem to go to Nagoya for one or two days, I would have imagined it is an interesting place to visit.
by Rinupanu rate this post as useful

Takyubin 2015/4/24 00:53
Hotels will usually help you to forward your luggage to your next hotel.
by Dick H rate this post as useful

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/24 10:12
I dont find it rare. My pops used the one at Hakata station. After which we went to Yakushima, Miyazaki, and too many other places.

When we returned the locker was freed up (more than 3 days) and we just had to find some guy to go to the security room and we had to pay for the extra days (no fine). Just ask the tourism office on the ground floor. The second floor has a ramen area with various famed fukuoka ramen. Or you could try the ramen museum at the canal city. Though, i would still place ichiran at the top of my list.

by joshua hugh (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/27 03:59
Thanks very much for the information and suggestions it has helped a lot and has helped us to fit more in because as you said before, what's the point in covering the same tracks twice?

Here is our updated itinerary, please let me know what you think.

Saturday August 22nd land at Nagoya Chubu Airport 08:15 then travel to Hakata(Fukoaka) station stay in Fukoaka
Sunday 23rd August 2015 travel to kumamoto and dazaifu stay in fukoaka
Monday 24th August 2015 travel to Nagasaki stay in Nagasaki
Tuesday 25th August 2015 travel to Kagoshima stay in Kagoshima
Wednesday 26th August 2015 travel to Hiroshima and stay in Hiroshima
Thursday 27th August 2015 Hiroshima Day trip stay in Hiroshima
Friday 28th August 2015 Leave Hirshima early and get to Himeji Castle to beat the crowds after this spend a little bit of time in Kobe and then stay in Kyoto
Saturday 29th August 2015 Kyoto Kiyomizu shrine & Sanjusangen-do stay in Kyoto
Sunday 30th August 2015 - Kyoto - still deciding stay in Kyoto
Monday 31st August 2015 Yokohama Day trip, china town and Kirin beer factory, spend some time relaxing stay in Yokohama
Tuesday 1st September 2015 day trip to Kamakura then stay in Yokohama
Wednesday 2nd September 2015 day trip Hakone and then stay in Nagoya
Thursday 3rd September 2015 Nagoya
Friday 4th September 2015 Spend day Nagoya
Saturday 5th September catch 09:40 plane from Nagoya Chubu

Thanks

Jon & Xiaoran
by Rinupanu rate this post as useful

Re: Itinerary August/September 2015 14 days 2015/4/27 10:00
I find that one day in Kagoshima is insufficient. Though, Ibusuki may be only slightly over an hour away, the trains are infrequent, and by the time you visit the onsen and tour around, you probably would miss the train. (I think it is a only one train on one track going up and down)

Furthermore, Sakurajima is also limited by the ferry that departs. It is possible to do Kagoshima in one and half to two days. Considering taking the train in from and train out, you do not have that amount of time. I recommend skipping Kagoshima entirely or skipping elsewhere to complete Kagoshima.

I think you don't want to feel "Ah, i wish i could have done this or that."

You could also do a Kagoshima/Yakushima/Miyazaki/Okinawa trip in the future.
by joshua hugh (guest) rate this post as useful

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