This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/zymox808 on 2025-07-19 21:58:15+00:00.
Appreciate all the advice and info here and on other subreddits that helped with shaping our itinerary. Sharing our experience to pass it forward, so someone else may find it helpful for their plans/ideas.
Context:
- Two teenagers who have never been to Japan. They want to see some of the sites posted on social media. Two parents who have been to Japan before and want to avoid crazy tourist spots.
- Minimize backtracking as much as possible.
- Index towards public transportation. No car rental.
11 day/10 Night Itinerary:
- Narita (1 night)
- Overnight at hotel near airport, with early morning flight out to Hiroshima. Its cheaper and faster than taking shinkansen.
- The optimal food option (cost, variety, quality, and effort) is to eat at Narita airport. Terminal 3 has a pretty good food court before security.
- Hiroshima (2 nights)
- Peace Park and Museum: Solemn experience, worth it.
- Miyajima: Floating Tori Gate and Mt. Misen. The ropeway up to Mt. Misen was closed due to maintenance, thus we hiked up. There is no water up on top except for two vending machines. Plan accordingly.
- Shotengai: Are shopping street/arcades typically with a covered roof. Can find one in most Japanese cities has numerous dining and shopping options. Hiroshima Hondori shotengai has lots of shopping and dining options.
- Kotohira (1 night)
- Ritsurin Garden in Takamatsu: Visited in the morning, few visitors, amazing Japanese Garden.
- Kotohira Shrine (Konpira-san/Kotohiragu): This was a hidden gem, visited near closing and early in the morning. Very tranquil, not many tourists, there are many steps to climb.
- There are numerous good rykoans with onsen and kaiseki here.
- Himeji (1 night)
- Himeji Castle: Very impressive castle and grounds, you also get a small discount if you have any of the major JR rail pass.
- Himeji shotengai, between station and castle. Seems to closed down earlier than other shotengai. Maybe caters more to the tourist vising for the day.
- Kyoto (3 nights)
- Kobe: Day trip going from Himeji to Kyoto. Visited Nunobiki Herb Garden just right next to the station. Enjoyable, nothing too amazing. Took the ropeway up, hiked down. Thought the hike down was more enjoyable, i.e. waterfalls, quietness, nature.
- Osaka: We bypassed it except for a night trip to visit Dotonbori.
- Almost every sightseeing place we went to in the Kyoto/Osaka/Nara area were heavily packed with tourists. Tour buses were ubiquitous here. Early morning is best bet to avoid crowd, but there will still be tourists like us.
- Tokyo (2 nights)
- Ueno Station: Based near here due to plan to ride Keishi Skyliner back to airport.
- Teamlab Borderless: Great experience. More enjoyable if take time to slow down and immerse/interact with the exhibit.
- By this point, the teens were scarred from the heavy touristy spots in Kyoto/Osaka, so changed plan to avoid super crowded areas and focused on shopping and enjoying the food.
Transportation Passes:
- Kansai Hiroshima Area Pass: The transportation cost between Hiroshima and Kyoto was comparable with or without the pass. However, the flexibility that the pass provided was what worked for us as we could hop on any JR train (including shinkansen) without spending time booking individual tickets. This saved a lot of time.
- Tokyo Metro 24, 48 or 72H Pass: As others have mentioned this was not a slam dunk decision. It only works on Tokyo Metro and Toei subway lines. Not on JR trains or buses. We got it and worked for us as we were based near Ueno station which has two metro lines there. It let us hit shopping areas away from the more touristy places. It required transferring multiple lines, but gave flexibility on when to make the transfer.
- Google Map: Is a very useful app, but doesn't filter by what pass you have and you'll need to know pass limitation outside of the app. We tried other apps and none were as good as Google Map with routing and on time info.
- Kyoto <> Nara is serviced by two rail companies (JR and Kintetsu). JR rail pass only works on JR and not Kintetus. Google Maps would route us on both companies in a single trip.
- Tokyo Metro and Toei subway lines are designated by a single letter, such as G = Ginza line, while JR lines are designated by two letters, such as JY = Yamanote line. Found setting Google Map filter (Options > Prefer = Subway) helped a lot but would suggest JR lines even in that setting.
Heat and humidity is oppressive in the summer:
- After experiencing first day of heat, we adjusted our plan to sight see in the morning and travel/shop/veg in the afternoon with another possible sightseeing trip in the evening. We adjusted the itinerary to build in slack for rest due to heat.
- Bring lots of quick dry clothes, not cotton. You are gonna sweat profusely. Can wash the quick dry overnight, wring it out with a towel and hang, should be dry by morning. However, I ended up doing it in the morning as the slightly damp clothes provided a nice cooling effect.
- Pack Light: We forward our large luggage to Kyoto and packed what we needed for first segment of trip in our backpacks. To keep backpack light, we had two quick dry outfits each. Used luggage lockers to store backpacks when day tripping and don't have a hotel.
Hope this travel report helps and happy traveling.