My Itinerary

I am not the kind of person that enjoys organized tours.  In all of my previous travels I have always planned my own itineraries and given myself enough flexibility to modify it based on who I meet along the way or what I see or hear about.  I like that mode of travel.  No umbilical cord to a tour operator.  I want my trips to be personal, of my own creation.

In researching Japan I have been using the following three sources as my main inputs to what I am going to see.

1) Lonely Planet Japan book.

What I have quickly determined is that my three weeks are not going to allow me to see as much of the country as I wish to, at least not at the pace I like to travel.  Reading my new bible (the Lonely Planet book) from cover to cover has introduced so many interesting destinations within Japan.  Tropical islands, beaches.  Amazing hikes.  Fishing villages.  Places that I now want to see.  What was I going to do?  

I am not the kind of person that would ever do Tokyo or Kyoto in two days.  I want to spend more days in the larger cities to get a sense of life there.  To have more lasting memories of the smells, the day-to-day, the stores, the transit systems, the streets.  Heck you could spend three weeks in these cities and you'd still be clueless to life in those cities.  But I at least want to get a sense...and two days doesn't cut it.  So I have had to cut out a heck of a lot of these destinations I have read about.  Out is Hiroshima.  Out is Nagasaki.  Out is Ise.  Out is the entire island of Kyushu....and many, many more.

So in the end, to satisfy my desires for this first trip to Japan (now we're talking...more trips to come at some point!) I have decided on the following.  It will give me enough time in Tokyo and Kyoto, will give me a taste of the Japanese Alps, will immerse me in Japanese culture and will give me what I hope will be two serene days in a temple.

October 23 to 28 in Tokyo.
October 28 to 30 in Nikko.
October 30 to November 1 in Takayama.
November 1 to 3 in Kanazawa.
November 3 to 8 in Kyoto.
November 8 to 10 in Nara.
November 10 to 12 in Koyasan.
November 12 to 13 in Tokyo.

This is still a whirlwind...no doubt.  But I am at least spending two nights in each town and five in Kyoto and Tokyo.  Good for a first taste of those islands I have always wanted to visit (well....really only one in the end, Honshu and only a small part of it at that).

I AM PUMPED!

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