Geographic Trip Plan

First attempt at a plan for a trip to Japan in March and April of 2005.

A large portion of the trip is very simple when laid out geographically, as there is a pretty continuous line from either Fukuoka or Hiroshima (West) to Tokyo (East), with most of we want to see along the Sanyo/Tokaido train lines.



Suggested Trip Plan:

We will probably land at Narita (though Kansai and Central Japan International Airport are options too), and rest a day (I suspect the flight with be exhausting). There are showers available at both terminals of Narita now so you can freshen up for 300 yen.

Possibly catch the tail end of plum blossoms at Hanegi Park
Optionally travel to Mito city as a side trip (returning to Tokyo) to see plum blossoms at Kairakuen

Possibly do a couple of Sakura/Tokyo sites right away to kill time if cherry blossoms are late this year

Either store some luggage in Tokyo hotel, or travel to Kyoto and store it in a Kyoto hotel

Travel to the farthest South and West we plan to go. Do this once by bullet train, long trip.

Optionally Kyushu for Fukuoka-Hakata (hakata silk), Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Arita Porcelain, and Kumamoto Castle, then bullet train to Hiroshima.

Hiroshima, travel to see Miyajima Island, especially the Itsukushima Shrine (overnight stay)
Hiroshima Peace Park, then bullet train to Okayama

Visit to Okayama's Korakuen Gardens and overnight stay,
Optional side trip from Okayama to Matsue
Optional Shikoku side trip from Okayama
then bullet train to Himeji

Himeji Castle (this one I must see - but it will only take a couple of hours), bullet train to Kobe

Kobe just for an evening and overnight stay (awesome restaurants including a shabu-shabu meal for you because I love you). If we like it, stay a day as well, do modern shopping and light tourism in Kobe, and a second glorious restaurant meal. Train to Osaka (very short run).
National Bunraku Theatre is in Chuo-ko (which I think is a suburb of Kobe or Osaka)

Osaka: Castle (optional), Ring of Fire Aquarium (stunning), Museum of Oriental Ceramics.
potentially a second day, and a glass shrouded boat ride down a river.
If cherry blossoms are in bloom in Osaka, the Mint Museum grounds are worth a visit.
Overnight stays in Osaka, if any, will be in fancy/expensive modern hotel: New Otani Osaka
Train to Kyoto (another very short run).

Kyoto becomes a place to hang out for several days. Lots to do. If our luggage is there, we may even fo Uji and Nara and Lake Biwa as side trips from Kyoto where we come back to our stuff each night.

If we do anything on Shikoku, we make it a few days side-trip from Kyoto/Osaka/Kobe.

From Kyoto things get interesting.
Takayama and Kanazawa are both farther from Kyoto than a day trip will allow. They are both interesting enough to warrant overnight side-trips. They are both easier to reach by car than by train. Yet, Takayama wants to be done specifically on April 14th and 15th (for the festival) - which puts it towards the end of the trip...

Mount Koyo?

Side trip from Kyoto to Kanazawa

Side trip from Nagoya to see Takayama (or delay this until the end and backtrack to Nagoya to do Takayama).

So a likely possibility is to rent a car and do Uji/Nara one day,
Lake Biwa then Kanazawa the next two days and return the car.
Move all our luggage back to Tokyo, do a few more days. Perhaps do Nikko and/or Kamakura from Tokyo.
Optionally do the long range bullet train to Sendai and Mastushima to see the awesome stuff there.

Then go back to Takayama for the festival just before leaving Japan.

I am starting to lean away from going all the way to Towada... but I am willing to hear your thoughts.