Reply To: My draft Thailand / Japan itinerary – suggestions please

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Very tight schedule. Bangkok to Japan is six-hour flight time. It’s either day time or night time flight to Tokyo (I think Osaka similar), so really you are looking at either day lost or at least morning lost.

Hakone is not really for teenagers unless they are open to nakedness with strangers and if you want to experience traditional onsen ryokan it’s a bit rushed with one-night stay as you can only check-in from 3-4pm, dinner is usually served at strict time (two slots normally), breakfast is very early and the check out is 10am, at most 11am. So no time to really enjoy the onsen properly. Avoid so-called onsen hotels such as Indigo Hakone, especially for first time. Nice as it looks it’s nothing compared to traditional ryokan service.

I’d possibly do 2 nights in Kyoto (anime museum and a few temples) then base myself in Osaka. You could do Arashiyama/Nara from there. Hiroshima could be done as a day trip from Osaka (1h30 on the shinkansen).

I would really concentrate on Tokyo. So much more stuff for teenagers.

There are a lot of suggestions on the forum posted by me and others, so have a search.

Hotels wise – Japanese chains can be cheaper than using points unless you want pampering and luxury, but you could have that for much cheaper in Thailand. The only place that I would highly recommend is HI&Suites Shin Osaka for new built, cheap rates and ease of access to shinkansen. Some other here disagree.