Intensive
Japan's Greatest Hits
Greatest hits, no padding, mostly trains.
- First visit
- Base cities: Tokyo · Kyoto · Osaka
- culture
- food
- urban
- history
Itinerary
The San'in Coast
- 12 nights
- Medium pace
- Returning visitor
Medium pace
The San'in coast is the Japan most visitors never reach: dune-backed Tottori, the grand shrine at Izumo, and the samurai and castle towns of Matsue and Hagi. A quiet westward run from Osaka out through Fukuoka.
Sand dunes, Japan's oldest shrine, castle towns the express trains skip.
Trip facts
- Length12 nights
- PaceMedium
- Designed forReturning visitor
- GatewaysIn via Osaka, out via Fukuoka
The route, city by city
Where you sleep and what each base is for. Load it into the planner to reshape the cities, dates, and day-by-day plan.
- Day 1Arrive
- Day 2Explore
Japan's food capital and most exuberant city - a working-class energy that takes eating very seriously.
- Day 3Travel in
- Day 4Explore
Home to Japan's only large sand dunes, a dramatic Sanin coastline, and enthusiastic Conan manga tourism.
- Day 5Travel in
- Day 6Day trip: Izumo
The 'city of water and samurai' - home to one of Japan's original twelve castles and sitting between two lakes on the San-in coast.
The ancient spiritual heart of Japan, home to Izumo Taisha - possibly Japan's oldest shrine, where all the gods of Japan meet in October.
- Day 7Travel in
- Day 8Day trip: Tsuwano
A remarkably intact castle town that produced an extraordinary number of Meiji Restoration leaders, with exceptional ceramics.
A tiny castle town in a mountain valley called the 'Little Kyoto of San-in', with carp-filled drainage channels and a hillside Inari shrine.
- Day 9Travel in
- Day 10Day trip: Miyajima
A city of extraordinary resilience - the atomic bomb memorial, its own okonomiyaki style, and the finest oysters in Japan.
The island shrine with a great torii gate standing in the sea - consistently voted Japan's most beautiful scenery.
- Day 11Travel in
- Day 12Depart
Japan's fastest-growing city and food capital of the west - Hakata ramen, yatai street stalls, and a young international energy.
Your JP Adventure
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