Recommendations? Your experience of whether things on the list so far are worth going to or not? I will be there in March next year for just over 2 weeks. Might make side trips to Kobe/Hiroshima too (or other places people recommend). Basically we fly out to Osaka, have 5 free days, then 5 days booked in Kyoto, then another five days afterwards. I hadn’t really extensively researched places because I wanted to wait until it was firmly booked.
On the list so far:
Eat large amounts of food (I am vegetarian, travelling with vegan friend)
Just wander round and look at things, we are both aimless wanderers
Kyoto (for 5 nights- included in trip)
Castle
Old buildings and streets
The palace (if they have tickets available)
Lots of different temples
Cherry/plum blossom if it’s out yet
Lantern festival (on at the same time we’re there)
A free tour of a sake brewery is included in the holiday
Tokyo (not booked accomm yet):
The palace
Meiji shrine
Edo-Tokyo museum
Ghibli museum
Osaka (not booked accomm yet)
Castle
Aquarium
Noodle museum
My #1 recommendation for Japan is Miyajima (island next to Hiroshima). It’s like the picture-perfect image of Japan i had in my head, but didn’t actually think existed before i went.
My friend from school lived in Japan for 5 years working as a teacher just outside Hiroshima. I think she went there a lot. There was definitely an island she’s a big fan of. Are there lots of deer there?
We got there in the evening (when all the tourists get the boat back to the mainland) and stayed in a ryokan (the only one of the trip due to my budget), did a night walk with everything quiet and illuminated. In the morn got the cable har up the mountain, then a 3 hour walk down through villages and temples. Pretty much a perfect 24 hours…