hi! i humbly come forward as many before me have to ask people’s thoughts on the below draft itinerary. my partner and i will be visiting japan for the first time october 11–26, and we’ll have 14 full days. my main thoughts are: we want to do both the japan alps and the shimanami kaido cycling route, spend a decent amount of time in tokyo, and see some other cities along the way. but i’m unsure whether this is too ambitious, because other than tokyo and kyoto, we’re sleeping in a different city/hotel every night. so maybe some trims need to be made. we could skip the shimanami kaido, for instance, and spread everything else out + add some day trips, but i’m an avid cyclist and have read amazing about the SK, hence why i’ve been trying to see if we could fit it in…
Days 1–3: Arrive Haneda, 3 days 3 nights in Tokyo
Day 4: Morning shinkansen to Nagano; visit Togakushi; overnight in Nagano
Day 5: Zenkoji in morning; bus to Matsumoto, visit castle; overnight in Matsumoto
Day 5: Early-morning bus to Kamikochi for day hike; overnight in Hirayu Onsen
Day 6: Hirayu Onsen to Takayama; overnight in Takayama
Day 7: Takayama to Shirakawago, then on to Kanazawa; overnight in Kanazawa
Days 8–9: Shinkansen to Kyoto; two nights in Kyoto
Day 10: Kyoto to Onomichi; overnight in Onomichi
Days 11–12: Shimanami Kaido; first night on Omishima, second night in Matsuyama (and hitting Dogo Onsen)
Day 13: Matsuyama to Hiroshima, then on a plane to Tokyo; overnight in Tokyo
Day 14: Final day + night in Tokyo
Day 15: Fly out of Haneda in the afternoon
many thanks in advance for any thoughts and/or advice!
by akane-13