Fall Japan Trip

[burkhartdesu]

In 2007 I went to Japan for nearly two months in the heat of summer- and although the trip was awesome, the humidity killed me! As a result, me and my girlfriend plan on going in fall 2010 for 30+ days- I'm kind of planning ahead. I want to go from Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka, etc- all the way south to Hiroshima...

yet, I digress.... but I do have a few questions!

I've never been to Northern Japan, and I was wondering if it would be worth it to go to Sapporo to see a little bit of Hokkaido. Is Hokkaido accessible by shinkansen? What major tourist destinations are there?

What are the prime Fall months/days?

What major festivals are in Fall?

We plan on staying mainly in Ryokans (budget Ryokans, at that) aswell as Hostels, with the occasional Western style hotel.

Anyone have any suggestions on how long I should stay at each location? I appreciate both rural and metropolitan lifestyle, so maybe someone can give me one of these:
Tokyo Days #-#
Kyoto: Days #-#
etc.


Heh, thanks!

[godwine]

Originally Posted by burkhartdesu

In 2007 I went to Japan for nearly two months in the heat of summer- and although the trip was awesome, the humidity killed me! As a result, me and my girlfriend plan on going in fall 2010 for 30+ days- I'm kind of planning ahead. I want to go from Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka, etc- all the way south to Hiroshima...

yet, I digress.... but I do have a few questions!

I've never been to Northern Japan, and I was wondering if it would be worth it to go to Sapporo to see a little bit of Hokkaido. Is Hokkaido accessible by shinkansen? What major tourist destinations are there?

What are the prime Fall months/days?

What major festivals are in Fall?

We plan on staying mainly in Ryokans (budget Ryokans, at that) aswell as Hostels, with the occasional Western style hotel.

Anyone have any suggestions on how long I should stay at each location? I appreciate both rural and metropolitan lifestyle, so maybe someone can give me one of these:
Tokyo Days #-#
Kyoto: Days #-#
etc.


Heh, thanks!

Hello,

This really depends on what you want to see. When you say "Fall" what month are you thinking? It still gets quite warm and humid even around September/October, so if you want really mild weather, it may have to be after that

JR Hyperdia suggest that you can get to Furano (a city in Hokkaido) by train (Enter the station name) but its not through Shinkansen. There are just the 2 major cities in Hokkaido, Furano and Sapporo. Sapporor is nice, but it has nothing more than what Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka can offer, while Furano is only nice during Spring, and its not a destination that will last you more than a day or 2. If you ski and are going during winter, then thats a different story

Here are a couple of sites you can look up concerning various festival activities (Matsuri):

JNTO Website | Find a Location | Festivals & Events

Japan Atlas: Festivals

Japanese festivals - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are many things to see in Tokyo, everyone will have a different view as to how long is needed. For me, Tokyo won't take more than a week, including Yokohama. While Kyoto is going to be around 3 days or so. Kyoto doesn't offer the Metropolitan lifestyle as much as Tokyo or Osaka, if thats what you really prefer, you probably want to spend more time in Osaka around Umeda or Namba. Kobe and Nagoya also give you a bit of that great metropolitan experience (More so Kobe, around Sannomiya), and of course, Yokohama and Tokyo will definitely give you that

30 days is a very long time. Do consider going to Hakata or even Kagoshima in Kyushu if you can. You probably only need around 4 days to cover both destination including travel time