Everyone was SO helpful planning the Tokyo portion of my trip end of May with my 6 year old boy, so I'm hoping I'll get just as much feedback on this post too. Thank you in advance.
I am wanting to visit and support the smaller towns in Japan and not just visit the same 3 places everyone funnels their money to – there are SO many beautiful places rarely mentioned it seems.
My original plan was Tokyo, take the Romance Train to Hakone and do the loop and stay overnight in Hakone before going on to Kyoto and then to Aso – was going to do that all via trains/buses. As I'm looking at the Ito Peninsula, there are so many cool spots I'd love to check out (Ito, etc) and can get there on the Saphir Odoriko train which looks epic.
So my options are:
A.) romance train to hakone stay the night, continue on as mentioned above.
B.) romance train to hakone and do the loop but then rent a car in Atami and drive the rest of the trip, return car to same place and train back to the city for our flights home
C.) skip hakone all together, take the saphir odoriko train from tokyo to atami and rent a car from there and continue on…could possibly even do a couple of the sights in Hakone this way eventhough it would be backtracking.
The ropeway in Hakone looks cool and I'm sure my son would get a kick out of the pirate ship as well as the themed hot springs (looks family friendly), and the outdoor art museum but I'm sure we will be shrined out and it looks like it can be pretty touristy/crowded.
Originally wanted to make it all the way down to Kagoshima but I tend to be very naive when I first set out on my planning. Any help is appreciated. For context from when we leave Tokyo in the morning to head south, we have 6 full days before we head home.
by Ambk17