We're travelling to Japan in October (for 2 weeks of a 3 week holiday) and I've come up with the following itinerary (not ideal) but there's a bit of a method to the madness. I spent some time (2 years) in Japan some years ago but my partner has never visited and so I am trying to combine an introductory trip with seeing a couple of friends and retracing some steps. We plan to get the 14 day rail JR pass given our current plans as I don't think it would work otherwise - not sure if this too ambitious though
Day 1 - Arrival Haneda around 7am - head directly to Nagano ( I used to live here)
Day 2 - visit Zenkoji and take a quick trip to Matsumoto to see Matsumoto Castle - stay 2nd night in Nagano
Day 3 - travel down to Kyoto (via Nagoya)
Day 4 - 6 Kyoto (visit sites in Kyoto area with including day trip to Nara and Kobe (quick visit with Japanese friend)
Day 7 - Head to Miyajima/Hiroshima via Himeji - spend night in Miyajima/Hiroshima
Day 8 - 9 - Head to Fukuoka - (meet another friend in the area and this is my favourite Japanese city - might squeeze in a trip to Nagasaki (never been) )
Day 10 - Head to Takayama ( spend night)
Day 11 - Head to Tokyo for 3 nights
Day 14 - We fly out of Haneda just after midnight
Is this all a bit too mad?
Thank you,
Andy