One of my goals for this long trip in Japan was to get a very broad view of many places in the country. This is something that I haven't been doing during my previous shorter trips — partly because I wanted to spend more time in the big cities (Tokyo, Osaka), and partly because I was traveling with first time visitors the last 2 years. So I went all out when scheduling this year's trip: going through 10 different cities and crossing through the whole country.
May 9 - May 18: Tokyo & Remote Work
I'm starting the trip in the most boring way possible: spending around 10 days in the Tokyo Metropolis. I'm not actually going to be fully on vacation just yet. Instead, I'll be working around 5 work days from the Google Tokyo office in Roppongi.
This will give me some time to re-adjust to the pace of life, meet some friends who live there in the evenings, do some shopping, and of course get through jet lag! All that without taking actual time off, since I'll still be doing full work days (maybe slightly shifted to match my Zürich-based colleagues' time zone a bit better).
But I'm not just sitting there getting bored in Tokyo of course. I'm also moving around the area for at least two day trips: one in the Miyagi Prefecture to go see the Zao Fox Village, and one to the Nikko National Park (which has been on my to-do list for about 3 years by now!).
May 19 - May 22: Kansai Region
Another area I've been to a lot already: in the past few years, I've visited most of the big tourist highlights around: Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, and even Himeji a bit further east. But there's still more to do around!
On the way to Osaka (where I'll be staying for the 4 nights), I'm stopping halfway through to go visit a beautiful small town called Gujo Hachiman, well known for its very nice riverside, and also a producer of the plastic food replicas one can see all over the country.
The other days will be spent doing a bit more tourism in Kyoto and around (for example, visiting the Iwatayama Monkey Park), and traveling to a small island / art installation called Naoshima (where I'll be renting a bike and visiting a few museums).
May 23: Hiroshima
While I'll technically be staying in Hiroshima, the plan so far is to spend most of the time on a small closeby island called Miyajima instead. Plenty of walking to do, shrines to visit, giant Torii gates, and apparently also a lot of free roaming deers.
May 24: Fukuoka
Fukuoka is the largest city on Kyushu, the country's big southern island. I'm stopping there for a day, walking around in parks, and doing general tourist-y sightseeing. This is mostly a stop-over on the way to my next destination...
May 25 & 26: Yakushima
Yakushima is a small forest island off the southern coast of Japan. One of its main attractions is the Shiratani Unsuikyo Ravine, featuring a series of hiking paths in the place which served as inspiration to Studio Ghibli when animating Princess Mononoke. Many of the trees in the forest are more than 1000 years old!
May 27: Flying Across Japan
Leaving off Yakushima on May 27th, I'm going back to Fukuoka Airport and taking a flight to the other side of the country. Destination: New Chitose Airport near Sapporo, on the northern island of Hokkaido!
May 28 - May 31: Hokkaido
My trip to Hokkaido is going to be focused on 3 cities:
Sapporo, the largest city of the region, known of course for its beer!
Hakodate, a port city built around the Mount Hakodate. From what I've seen, the views are amazing from there.
And finally, a rest day in the hot springs town of Noboribetsu. I will be staying at the Noboribetsu Grand Hotel, which is possibly the biggest Onsen in all of Japan.
June 1 - June 2: Sendai
I will be staying for two days around Sendai, the capital of the Miyagi Prefecture. While I don't have too much planned around the city itself at this point, I will be making two interesting side trips:
To the Yamadera temple, up a staircase of 1000 steps to an amazing viewpoint on the mountains of the Miyagi prefecture.
And to Tashirojima, an island with 6 times more cats than humans!
June 3 - June 7: Back to Tokyo!
And finally, from Sendai, heading back to Tokyo for the last 5 days of the trip. From there, I'll be doing a lot of half-day or full day trips, mostly centered around the theme of "nice views" and "fun hikes":
Nokogiriyama, a mountain featuring a 30m tall statue of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy, as well as 1500 smaller statues of Buddhist disciples.
Shiraito Falls, a beautiful waterfall near Mount Fuji.
And probably some more!
To summarize, here is a map with all the places I'm planning to go to during this next month:
Wish me luck!