Japan Itinerary Help Needed

I’d love to help if I can. I’ve visited Tokyo, Nara, Kyoto and Osaka. Can you give some more detail re what you are hoping to do in each destination? That’ll help with knowing about your timings.

These were cities that a friend who lived in Japan suggested. I have not researched deep enough yet to answer that question.

We like temples, photography, history, some museums, art museum (in Tokyo), the fall trees, parks, steam baths, cities and would like to see Mt. Fuji.

Thanks

I’d suggest you grab a guide book / look at tourist pages etc to get a feel for what you’d like to actually see. Also check out Trip Advisor for popular touristy things to do. We only had 2 weeks so we only went to a couple of places- but we like to stay in places a bit longer than most.
Japan is great - the people are so friendly and the country is so interesting.
If you have questions keep coming back k here!

Re your question for the passes- it really depends. For us, it was cheaper to buy point to point tickets but gif others the passes would’ve been better. You’ll need to add up the cost of your point to point tickets and compare to the cost of the pass. Be aware the pass doesn’t get you onto all of the shinkansen (bullet trains).

In regards to your knee implant, the question is how mobile are you? What is the range of motion in that knee? Can you fully flex it? If you sit down on the floor, can you get up easily? Try do that several times at home.

However, you might be able to find some ryokans with western beds, tables and chairs.

We did Nara on a day trip from Kyoto. You might consider staying in Kyoto to visit Nara.

When in Osaka, take the train to see the Himeji Castle, south of Osaka and Kobe. It is the largest castle in Japan and where the movie "You Only Live Twice" was made.

We loved staying near Tokyo Station at the HOTEL METROPOLITAN MARUNOUCHI. You can take the train from Narita to Tokyo Station and the hotel is walking distance (north) of the station.

Look at Kinosaki Onsen. It’s an amazing town with 7 different public hot spring onsen. It’s a 2-3 train ride from Osaka or Kyoto. We spent 2 nights there and think about going back some day.

We also did Nara as a day trip from Kyoto. Very quick to get there from Kyoto and easily covered Nara in a morning / afternoon. We then went from there to Osaka for dinner and back to Kyoto.
We spent one extra night in Osaka later in the trip. There are amazing crab restaurants there!!

We also visited Takayama and Nikko for a change of pace.

I was in Japan on Halloween back in 2016 and was in Tokyo that day so I wanted to comment on that part of your question. I am not sure from your question whether you are concerned and want to avoid Tokyo on that day or if you are asking should you make it a point to be there and not miss it, so I'll just tell you my experience.

We didn't have any trouble sightseeing that day, including Happo-En gardens and the Meiji Shrine. Some moderate crowds, but not unmanageable. Toward late afternoon you could feel things getting a little more crowded. I believe there was some kind of large "block party" (not sure how else to describe it as we did not attend) somewhere around the Shibuya district. There were LOTS of people dressed up and public transport started getting a little crazy. We dealt with this by heading out to Odaiba for the evening, which got us out of the main city and there was hardly anyone else there. We had a great time and had a fabulous dinner overlooking the bay in a restaurant that was nearly empty.

So whether you want to be a part of the big Halloween celebration, or if you are trying to avoid the crowds, there are ways to do both in Tokyo. I wouldn't stress too much about planning your trip around this holiday unless you specifically are wanting to be in Tokyo to be part of the holiday festivities. The city is large enough that you can stay out of the chaos if you want to.

I'd also suggest that you visit Koyasan if you have enough time (Mount Koya), it is a beautiful Bouddhist temple in somehow a mountain. very beautiful to visit and to see. Otherwise, I think that the number of days divided between your itinerary is balanced! I hope you'll have a great time and i'm pretty sure will.

The Japanese love to have an excuse to dress up in old time attire and march around the city during festivals. By accident we were in Osaka during the Tenjin Matsuri Festival about 10 years ago and it was incredible to see all these groups of men, women and children marching in a parade and carrying heavy floats on their shoulders. Sort of like the Rose Bowl parade except all carried by man or woman power. All were in costume marching and singing, some were dancing. It was quite a show. Then later we saw a similar performance in another city.