Japan itinerary in 21 days: three unhurried weeks

Three weeks is the itinerary for those who want to go beyond the usual circuits. It keeps the Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka backbone and the most popular extensions (Hakone for Fuji, Hiroshima and Miyajima), but adds cities that few first-time travellers know and that often end up being the favourite memories: Nikko, Kanazawa and Fukuoka.

It is a one-way trip, from east to west: you arrive in Tokyo and leave from Fukuoka (an "open jaw" ticket), so you do not repeat a single Shinkansen leg. With the JR Pass it is worth doing the maths without being guided by intuition: although the trip lasts three weeks, this route moves without backtracking and the big journeys are spread across the 21 days, so the pass is not always worth it. We break it down in the budget section.

If three weeks seems too much or you prefer to concentrate the trip, the 14-day itinerary covers the essentials plus Hakone and Hiroshima without the secondary cities.

Days 1–4: Tokyo

The same start as any route: a light arrival day because of jet lag, a day for modern Tokyo (Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku), another for the traditional side (Asakusa, Ueno, Akihabara) and a flexible fourth for Ginza, Odaiba or neighbourhoods such as Yanaka and Shimokitazawa.

Day 5: Nikko

2 hours from Tokyo on the Tobu Limited Express. The Tosho-gu complex, with its golden carvings and the mausoleum of the shogun Tokugawa, is the most ornate in Japan. If the weather is kind, the Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji complete the day. One night outside Tokyo before continuing west.

Day 6: Hakone

Back to the Tokyo area to take the Romancecar to Hakone (90 min). A loop with a funicular, a ropeway over Owakudani and a boat across Lake Ashi, with Mount Fuji in the background. A night in a ryokan with an onsen.

Days 7–8: Kanazawa

From Hakone you go back to Odawara or Tokyo and take the Hokuriku Kagayaki Shinkansen to Kanazawa (2h30 from Tokyo). Two days for the Kenroku-en garden — one of the three most beautiful in Japan —, the Higashi Chaya geisha district, the Nagamachi samurai district and the Omicho market with seafood from the Sea of Japan.

Days 9–12: Kyoto (with a day trip to Nara)

Four full days: the south with Fushimi Inari at dawn, the west with Arashiyama and its bamboo grove, the north with Kinkaku-ji and Ryoan-ji, and a day for the day trip to Nara (the deer of the park and the Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji, 45 min by train). Gion at sunset any afternoon.

Days 13–14: Hiroshima and Miyajima

Shinkansen to Hiroshima (about 1h40 from Kyoto). The Peace Memorial Park and its museum on the first day; the island of Miyajima and the floating torii of the Itsukushima shrine on the second, arriving early to avoid the groups.

Days 15–17: Osaka

Three days for the food capital: the castle, Shinsekai, the Kuromon Ichiba market and, above all, eating around Dotonbori and Namba. There is a spare day for a trip to Kobe (Kobe beef, 30 min) or to Himeji Castle.

Days 18–21: Fukuoka and return flight

Sanyo Shinkansen to Fukuoka (about 2h20 from Shin-Osaka on the Nozomi or Mizuho). The capital of Kyushu closes the trip with its Hakata ramen and the yatai (street stalls by the Naka river). There is room for a trip to Kokura Castle or to Dazaifu. On the last day, the return flight from Fukuoka airport, 5 minutes from Hakata station by metro.

Estimate for one person in mid-season, with mid-range accommodation (a 3-star hotel or a quality hostel). In April and November prices rise by 30–40%. These are indicative figures, not a fixed budget.

The JR Pass deserves an honest calculation, because for this route it is not the automatic bet it seems. The long legs the pass covers (Tokyo–Kanazawa about 14,000 ¥, Kanazawa–Kyoto about 7,000 ¥, Kyoto–Hiroshima about 12,000 ¥, Hiroshima–Osaka about 10,500 ¥ and Osaka–Fukuoka about 15,700 ¥) add up to around 59,000 ¥ bought individually. Adding the local JR (Yamanote in Tokyo, the day trip to Nara, the JR ferry to Miyajima) it comes to around 65,000–68,000 ¥. That is below the 21-day pass, which costs 100,000 ¥ (about 545 €): for this route individual tickets are usually cheaper. Bear in mind too that neither Nikko (Tobu line) nor Hakone (Odakyu Romancecar) is covered by the JR Pass. The 21-day pass only pays off if you add big detours — Hokkaido, Tohoku or a lot of back-and-forth — that push up the kilometres by train. Check it with your exact route in the JR Pass calculator, review the updated prices in the JR Pass guide and work out the cash to bring with the yen converter.

Eight stops in 21 days mean eight hotel bookings (or seven, if you leave Nikko as a day trip without an overnight). On a long trip it is worth thinking about the accommodation strategy with a bit more care than on a short getaway:

• Book the bottlenecks first, leave the rest flexible. The Hakone ryokan and the Kyoto hotels in sakura or momiji season sell out months in advance and rise a lot in price: lock them in as soon as you have dates. In big cities like Osaka or Fukuoka you find a bed almost always, so you can leave them for later or even adjust them on the fly.
• Mix accommodation types on purpose. Three weeks give room to vary: a night of ryokan with an onsen and a kaiseki dinner in Hakone, practical and cheap business hotels in the transit cities, and a slightly better hotel in Kyoto or Osaka where you spend more nights in a row. Alternating keeps the budget from spiralling and breaks the monotony.
• Choose the area well, not just the price. On the 3–4 night stops, sleeping near a main station saves you daily transfers with luggage. We have the detail by city in where to stay in Tokyo and in Kyoto or Osaka, where to stay.
• Use the long stops as a base. With four nights in Kyoto you do not need to change hotel to go to Nara or Fushimi Inari: you go out and come back the same day. The same in Osaka with Kobe or Himeji. Each change of accommodation costs a morning of check-out and transfer, so the fewer bases you have, the more real travel time you gain.

If you travel in April or November, do not wait: in those weeks accommodation is the first thing to sell out and what most increases the cost of the trip. Outside high season you have much more room to improvise.

Twenty-one days give total freedom to build the trip to your taste. Some variants that work well:

• Prefer mountains to cities? Swap Fukuoka for Takayama and the village of Shirakawa-go, or for the Japanese Alps.
• Have a stop to spare? Drop Nikko or Kanazawa and spread those days between Kyoto and Osaka, which always appreciate more time.
• Want beach and nature? From Fukuoka it is easy to continue into Kyushu (Beppu and its onsen, Yakushima) if you extend even further.
• Travelling with children? Reserve an Osaka day for Universal Studios and reduce the number of temples in a row. Ideas in Japan with kids.

The fastest way to adapt it is to say how many days you have, how many of you there are, your budget and your pace: from there the nights are distributed between cities, the costs are estimated and the hotel links are generated automatically.