Me and my wife are planning what will be my 3rd and her 2nd trip to Japan for 2027. This will potentially be our last trip in general for a while as we will be looking at trying for kids after this. It will be a roughly 15 day trip. The non-negotiable visits are at least a day or two in Tokyo, getting a good Mt Fuji view (somehow due to weather and bad luck we never properly saw it last trip), a ryokan night, and at least 3 nights in Osaka as we felt we didn't give it enough time and really liked it.
Neither of us have visited any other Asian country and there's a bit of a sense of FOMO for that. We are both quite interested in South Korea and Taiwan. And so we are debating whether we want to do the entire 15 days in Japan, or do 10 days Japan and 5 days in another country. But I'm questioning if 5 days is even enough for a proper visit to these countries plus if it's worth the time lost for travel, customs, etc. On the Japan only itinerary it'd be shinkansen only (I much, much prefer the shinkansen to flying even if it takes extra time)
Still working on itineraries and this post is not about itinerary advice but here is two sample itineraries to show what the difference would be
All Japan-
2 days Tokyo with Kamakura day trip
4 days Osaka with a Kyoto day trip (possibly 1 night in Kyoto but tbd)
3 days Fukuoka with Nagasaki day trip
1 day Hiroshima and Miyajima
2 days Hakone in Ryokan
3 days Tokyo in a different neighborhood
Korea or Taipei combo-
3 days Tokyo, no day trip
1 day Hakone Ryokan
3 days Osaka with a Kyoto day trip
3 days Fukuoka with Nagasaki day trip. Fly from Fukuoka
5 days in Seoul or Taipei with day trips
Essentially, the All Japan itinerary allows us to move slower, day trip a little more, significantly more Tokyo time, extra Ryokan day, and add in an extra city such as Hiroshima or Kobe or something like that. There's also flexibility for an entirely different itinerary if we wanted to do Hokkaido or Kinosaki Onsen or something like that, I have like 4 potential itineraries worked out but I didn't want to make this an itinerary thread.
I have to guess there's some inherent bias for this sub towards choosing Japan, but I imagine a few of you did a combo trip and I'd love to hear any opinions on what you thought and if it was worth it or if you wish you did it differently
tl;dr- 15 days in Japan, or 10 days in Japan + 5 days in Seoul or Taipei? This is a return Japan trip but would be first time in Korea or Taiwan
by lot183