18 Days Japan in June

thegamer1907

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Hi all, need some advice for my 18 days japan trip in June for 2 person. We both are more interested in local culture and good food, less of shopping. We are also particularly interested in nice scenery, especially as I love to take landscape photography. There are 4 days that we have not decided where to go, and we are trying to look for nice natural scenic places to squeeze in that is convenient to get to by public transport. We will be getting the 14 day JR pass and Suica cards.

We are flying in to Tokyo Haneda airport on the first day, here is the rough plan:

Day 1 - 4 : Tokyo (Tokyo Disneyland, Shibuya, Akihabara, Asakusa, Odaiba etc.)
Day 5 - 6 : Yamanashi (Lake Kawaguchiko area, Oshino Hakkai etc. possibly Hakone area, not sure if can squeeze?)
Day 7 - 10 : Kyoto (Nara Deer Park area, Kyoto shrines and etc.)
Day 11 - 13 : Osaka
Day 14 - 17 : Not confirmed, wanted to go to Kobe and Hiroshima at first, but looking at other scenic options. Purpose to go Kobe is to try the beef, but if there are other better places to try the beef pls recommend.. Also Hiroshima now seems too out of the way and not many things to see other than the great Torii gate.
Day 18 : Tokyo last minute shopping and rest
Day 19 : Morning flight back to SG

As of now the plan is still very rough, we are open to changes and suggestions.
We will be staying mostly airbnb and hostels in the cities.
Any other tips/advice/suggestions will be most welcome.
Thanks in advance.
 
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apeape

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Maybe can go Tottori see theSand Dunes? I was looking at Hiroshima as well, but decided on Tottori. Kobe is also quite scenic leh, and romantic if you're into that kind of thing.
 

thegamer1907

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Maybe can go Tottori see theSand Dunes? I was looking at Hiroshima as well, but decided on Tottori. Kobe is also quite scenic leh, and romantic if you're into that kind of thing.

Thanks for the suggestions, will look up about Tottori. Do you have any suggestions on the scenic places in Kobe? I could not find much info about that which led me to think that Kobe did not have as much stuff.
 

deodorant

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Day 1 - 4 : Tokyo (Tokyo Disneyland, Shibuya, Akihabara, Asakusa, Odaiba etc.)
Day 14 - 17 : Purpose to go Kobe is to try the beef
Personally over 5 trips to Tokyo city itself I've spent more than 15 days there and still not bored. 2.5 days (after minusing one for Disney) you can hardly scratch the surface. But of course your interests are yours, mine are mine.

If you want to go Kobe just to eat Kobe ... then don't. Kobe beef is easily available in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, etc. Also, many wagyu connoisseurs would say that Ohmi, Matsuzaka, Sanda etc are better than Kobe, but I've never tried them so I dunno.
 

thegamer1907

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Personally over 5 trips to Tokyo city itself I've spent more than 15 days there and still not bored. 2.5 days (after minusing one for Disney) you can hardly scratch the surface. But of course your interests are yours, mine are mine.

If you want to go Kobe just to eat Kobe ... then don't. Kobe beef is easily available in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, etc. Also, many wagyu connoisseurs would say that Ohmi, Matsuzaka, Sanda etc are better than Kobe, but I've never tried them so I dunno.

thanks for the input.. we have decided to skip hiroshima and add one more day to tokyo, and for kobe, we will go for day trip from Osaka instead, since it is about 20 mins ride away only. Can share some great places to see in Tokyo? What is the main stuff you see in Tokyo that needs more than 15 days? We may not like shopping and etc but just want to know from different perspective since we have not been to Japan before.
 

apeape

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I saw a video by InternationalME on youtube and I though the Kobe Pier was a really scenic and romatic place to hang out. I haven't been there, but will be there in Nov.

I too find that Tokyo/Japan was not a bore and I definitely wanted to extend my stay. I don't speak for everyone but there's a charm in the city, thats more addictive than any cities I've been. But what do you really want to see? What is scenic to you? I'm also not much of a shopper, but I shopped alot during my time in Tokyo haha
 

thegamer1907

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thanks for the input guys, we are deciding to go for a short 2 days stopover at Kanazawa in place of Hiroshima. We plan to do a day tour from Kanazawa to Shirakawa-go. Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 

purpleberry

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For 18 days, I would divide my days as follows

8 - Tokyo with side trips to Hakone, Kamakura, Nikko, etc.
8 - Kyoto & Osaka, including Nara, Kobe, Himeji, etc.
2 - Maybe venture north of Kyoto such as Miyazu, Maizuru, etc.
 
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