Itinerary Help (Passes/Places of interest)

Hi everyone!

Will be backpacking with my sis this Nov 5 - 15. Our interests are a mix of culture / temples & shrines / nature / wandering & food.

We are unsure if the passes we have researched on would be the best. Also, open to any suggestions for places that we should not miss around the areas we are hitting.

[Thu 5 Nov]
1. Itami Airport (1240) - Buy ICOCA card
2. Limo Bus - Kyoto Station - Imadegawa (Airbnb)
3. Explore around accommodation
4. Funaoka Onsen (Optional)

[Fri 6 Nov: Kyoto]
Use: Kyoto City Subway One-day Pass
1. Arashiyama Monkey Forest - Togetsukyo Bridge
2. Explore area around Arashiyama town
3. Tenryuji Temple - Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
4. Nijo Castle

[Sat 7 Nov: Kyoto]
Use: Kyoto Sightseeing One-day Pass Card
1. Kyoto Gosho: Kyoto Imperial Palace
2. NIshiki Market - Fushimi Inari Shrine
3. Sanjusangendo Hall - Kiyomizudera
4. Ninen-zaka & Sannen-zaka Preserved Districts - Ishibei-koji Lane

[Sun 8 Nov: Kurama & Kibune]
Use: Kurama/Kibune Sansaku Chiketto
1. Kibune – Kurama hike
2. Kurama onsen

[Mon 9 Nov: Hiroshima/Miyajima]

Kansai Hiroshima Area Pass (5 days)
1. Itsukushima Shrine - Mount Misen
2. Peace Memorial Park & Museum

[Tue 10 Nov - Wed 11 Nov: Koyasan / Osaka]
Use: Koyasan World Heritage Pass
1. Muryokoin Temple (overnight stay)
2. Okonoin Tour (night/next morning)
3. Next morning: Temple Morning Ceremony
4. Koyasan - Chidoribashi (Airbnb)

[Thu 12 Nov: Nara/Uji/ShinImamiya]
1. Todaiji Temple - Nandaimon Gate - Kasuga Taisha Grand Shrine
2. Taiho-an Teahouse
3. Byodoin Temple - Uji-kami Jinja
4. Jan-Jan Yokocho Street
5. Exploring Shinsekai / Denden Town

[Fri 13 Nov: Iga Ueno / Nippombashi / Dotonbori / Shinsaibashi / Namba]
1. Iga-ryu Ninja Museum
2. Kuromon Ichiba Market
3. Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shopping Street
4. Dotonbori - Shinsaibashi

[Sat 14 Nov: Minoo Park / Umeda / Osaka]
1. Minoo Park (spend 1st half of day, nature walk)
2. Explore Umeda

[Sun 15 Nov: Suggestions welcome as to where to go]
1. Leave luggage at Shin-Osaka station
2. Reach KIX @ 1915 (Haruka Pass)

Thank you :)

Not sure if my itinerary is too detailed T_T
Have read around and my main concerns would be the passes.

Would appreciate if I can get some feedback.
Will the Kyoto City Subway One-day Pass and Kyoto Sightseeing One-day Pass Card be necessary for day 2 & 3?

re: kyoto

you can use the bus pass to get to arashiyama in kyoto, now that arashiyama is included in the pass zone. the subways in kyoto are less helpful than the buses, which hit all the sight-seeing spots. i've never gotten the subway pass myself, as we have always preferred to walk to things close enough or take the buses to where we are going, and i'm not sure which one will be more economical.

re: hiroshima

you will need to watch times if you are hoping to do both miyajima (where the shrine and mt. misen are) and the peace museum. if you want the best pictures of the shrine, you will want high tide, and you will want to check when this is (i visited in march, and it was a little before 11 am). the train will take you to the ferry for miyajima, but it's around a 30 minute ride. the hike up mt. misen took me maybe an hour or so to go up, though there is the option of the cable car for one or both directions (i would recommend hiking it, as it's quite nice). starting very early from hiroshima, i arrived at miyajima early in the morning and was done with the hike and lunch by 2 pm, so was back in hiroshima by 3pm. however, it might take you a little more time, and the peace museum closes at 6pm. tbh, i would recommend having two days in hiroshima - one for the city and museum, and one for miyajima and anything else - but i think it's possible to do in a single day if you are very careful with your time budgeting.

also, if you are interested in some more active things, i would highly recommend renting bicycles at onomichi station (about 1.5 hours from hiroshima) and biking all or part of the shimanami kaido, a bicycle course that goes out towards shikoku and covers 6 islands (about 70km). it's a day trip that is really worth doing, and is one of the best experiences i have had traveling here. if you want some more information, let me know or check out the trail on google. :)

I don't think you can buy an Icoca at ITM, but you won't need it anyway, so you can just buy it at Kyoto station.

If by "Haruka pass" you mean the Icoca & Haruka package, you cannot use it if you do only a one-way trip from Osaka to KIX. You can use a 1-day Kansai Area pass instead.

@kay

Thank you for your insights! I'm not very sure how far exactly the places are as this is my first time there. However, my sis has mentioned the Kyoto pass would be helpful as the places are quite far apart and as much as we would love to explore by foot, there would be time constraints.

For Hiroshima, we are open to hiking but once again if time doesnt permit we will take the cable car. Our accommodations have been booked way before, so we'll try to squeeze everything in a day.

The biking trail looks fun! But we don't really cycle well so maybe i'll keep it for my next trip. Thank you for the suggestion :)

@Firas
Thank you, didnt realize the haruka doesn't go from Osaka-KIX. We will probably buy the kansai area pass since its cheaper than the normal fare.