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Day-by-Day Japan Itineraries

Complete multi-day routes built from the spots already on this site, not written as a separate travel-agency product — every stop is timed, every train, bus or ferry leg between stops is written out with journey length, and every reservation that has to be made before you leave home is flagged in a booking checklist rather than left for you to discover mid-trip. Each route also names where to base each night, which is often not the most obvious city, and explains what that choice actually buys you in transit time saved or crowds avoided the next morning.

These are not generic "top things to do" lists reordered into a schedule. A route is built day by day around realistic pacing — how long a stop actually takes once you account for the walk from the station, not just the headline attraction — and flagged with the season it works best in, since several of these routes lean on a specific window (fresh snow, cherry blossom, autumn color) that changes the experience considerably outside it. Read day one of any route for free; the remaining days, along with the transit legs, lodging notes and daily budget breakdown, unlock with Premium.

7 routes43 planned days193 timed stops

5 days

Kansai

Balanced pace28 stops

Kansai in 5 Days — The Quiet Side of the Golden Route

Kyoto, Nara, Himeji and Osaka, sequenced to miss the crowds

Kyoto ×2 nights → Nara → Himeji & Kobe → Osaka

Fushimi Inari's upper torii tunnels at first light, before the day's first coach arrives
Daitoku-ji's Zen sub-temples during the hours when Kinkaku-ji is impassable
Nara Park at 7am, when the deer outnumber the visitors

Late May–early June and late September–early NovemberRoughly ¥95,000–150,000 per person for five days excluding international flights

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6 days

Kyushu

Balanced pace32 stops

Kyushu in 6 Days — Volcano, Onsen and the Christian Coast

Fukuoka to Beppu the long way, through Nagasaki and the Aso caldera

Fukuoka ×2 → Nagasaki → Shimabara & Kumamoto → Aso & Kurokawa → Yufuin & Beppu

Hakata's yatai — open-air food stalls set up on the pavement at dusk, a licensed tradition that has nearly died out everywhere else in Japan
The Itoshima coast: a torii standing in the sea, a waterfall gorge, and cafés that exist because of the surf, not the tour buses
Nagasaki read as one continuous story, from the Dutch trading island to the peace park

October–November and April–MayAbout ¥120,000–190,000 per person for six days excluding flights, assuming two ryokan nights and a rental car for days 4–6.

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5 days

Chubu & Hokuriku

Balanced pace23 stops

Japan Alps to the Sea of Japan — 5 Days

Matsumoto, Kamikochi, Takayama, Shirakawa-go and Kanazawa in one line

Matsumoto → Kamikochi → Takayama ×2 → Shirakawa-go → Kanazawa ×2

Matsumoto Castle — an original 16th-century keep in black lacquer, with the Alps behind it
Kamikochi's Azusa river valley, where private cars have been banned since 1975
Takayama's morning markets and the Sanmachi merchant streets before the day-trippers arrive

Late May–early June and early–mid OctoberAbout ¥110,000–170,000 per person for five days excluding flights. Buses are the major transport cost and they are all reservable.

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5 days

Tohoku

Relaxed pace20 stops

Tohoku in 5 Days — The Quiet North

Matsushima, the golden hall of Hiraizumi, Oirase gorge and Nyuto's baths

Sendai & Matsushima → Hiraizumi → Oirase & Lake Towada → Hirosaki & Aomori → Kakunodate & Nyuto Onsen

Matsushima Bay's 260 pine-topped islands — one of the classic 'three views of Japan'
Chusonji's Konjikido: a 12th-century hall covered inside and out in gold leaf, preserved under its own protective building
The Oirase gorge — 8 km of moss, beech forest and waterfalls beside a stream you can see the bottom of

Late September to early November — the Oirase gorge peaks around October 20–28About ¥110,000–160,000 per person for five days excluding flights, including one night at a Nyuto Onsen inn with meals.

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7 days

Kanto to Kansai

Balanced pace35 stops

The Golden Route in 7 Days — Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka

The classic first trip, sequenced so the famous sights are the quiet part of your day

Tokyo ×2 nights → Hakone → Kyoto ×2 nights → Nara day trip → Osaka

Senso-ji's main hall at 7am, hours before Nakamise-dori becomes a river of people
Hakone's crater valley, pirate-boat lake and open-air sculpture park as one loop, ending in a hot spring
Fushimi Inari's upper torii tunnels before the first train of tourists arrives

Late March–early April and late October–early December are the two best windows; May and late September are the safest all-roundRoughly ¥140,000–230,000 per person for seven days excluding international flights. Accommodation is over half of that, and the Hakone night is the single most variable line.

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5 days

Kyushu

Balanced pace20 stops

5 Days in Kyushu — Volcanoes, Sand Baths and the Myth Coast

Kagoshima to Takachiho, through the half of Kyushu the tour buses skip

Kagoshima ×2 nights → Kirishima → Miyazaki & the Nichinan coast → Takachiho

Sakurajima erupting on a normal Tuesday, seen from a public foot bath across the bay
Being buried to the neck in volcanically heated black sand at Ibusuki, in a yukata, on a beach
A samurai street in Chiran where seven private Edo gardens are still maintained by the families who own them

Late October–early December and March–early MayRoughly ¥90,000–150,000 per person for five days excluding flights to Kagoshima. A rental car for days 2–5 is ¥25,000–35,000 including fuel and tolls, and it is the difference between this route working and not.

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10 days

San'in, Setouchi & Shikoku

Balanced pace35 stops

10 Days Beyond the Golden Route — San'in, Setouchi and Shikoku

For the second trip: the Japan Sea coast, the inland sea, and the island the trains barely reach

Izumo → Iwami Ginzan → Matsue ×2 → Tottori → Kurashiki → Naoshima → Takamatsu → Iya Valley → Kochi → Matsuyama

Izumo Taisha, where by tradition every god in Japan gathers each October — a shrine older than the written records that mention it
Iwami Ginzan: a UNESCO silver mine that once produced a third of the world's silver, now a forest walk through a village of 400 people
Adachi Museum's garden, ranked Japan's finest for two decades, and viewable only through windows framed as paintings

April–early June and October–NovemberRoughly ¥180,000–290,000 per person for ten days excluding international flights. Rail is a bigger line than on any other route here

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What each route contains

Hour-by-hour stops

Arrival times and how long to allow, ordered to miss the coach crowds rather than join them.

Every transit leg

The actual train, bus or ferry between stops, with journey time and the ones that need reserving.

Where to sleep, and why

Which town to base in each night — usually not the obvious one — and what that choice buys you.

Daily budgets

Admissions, transport and food per day, plus a trip-level breakdown of where the money goes.

Booking checklist

What must be reserved before you leave home, in the order that constrains the rest.

Flex notes

How to cut the route to three days, extend it to seven, or run it in winter.

Journey times, fares and opening hours are written from each spot's own access information and are typical rather than guaranteed. Timetables, seasonal closures and volcanic access levels change — confirm the legs that your day depends on before you travel.