Osaka as a base
 

Hello!

Returning to Japan for the first time in five years (last time did Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Yokohama).

I will be there from July 20-30. I need to end my trip in Tokyo and am looking forward to spending a few days there.

I am traveling alone and was originally was seriously considering Hokkaido, but the lack of budget-minded hotel rooms in Sapporo and difficulty getting around without a car made it look more and more daunting, especially since I only have a few days to plan this (last minute trip - I'm flying to Korea Thursday from NYC).

I am now considering Osaka (July 20-26) and using it as a base to go to:

Nada Sake District/Kobe
Naoshima & Inujima
Kinosaki Onsen


A few questions:

1) Is it possible to do Naoshima & Injuima in one day? Or should I go overnight and potentially pair it with Kurashika?

2) Any other suggestions of places to go from Osaka?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Also, feel free to talk me out of all of this and suggest somewhere else entirely. I haven't booked anything yet except my flight out of Tokyo on the 30th :)

I live near Osaka and love the Kansai area. You've got some good ideas. Just one thing to note, it's hot and muggy at the end of July. If you're OK with that, I'm sure that you'll have a good time. But the heat and humidity can be brutal until mid-September.

Appreciate the heads up. It sounds the same as NYC (where I'm from), so I should be fine, as long as there is air conditioning to pop into every now in again :).

Any thoughts on Naoshima/Inujima/Kurashika as an overnight trip? Or should I bag Kurashika and try to cram Naoshima/Injuima in one day?

Well, the summertime mugginess in Jpn is no joke. I don't know about NYC, but I used to live in Boston and Tokyo/Osaka summers are far worse. In fact, I find 110F in Phoenix easier to bear than 90F in Tokyo. Tokyo/Osaka summers are worse than HKG summers, actually. I'm not sure why. Feel like summer time in Tokyo/Osaka is getting worse and worse recently.

I'm not familiar with Naoshima and i don't know Inujima (I figured Injuima is a typo, but I've never heard of Inujima either). Kurashiki is a nice place to visit, but man walking around the town is going to be real hot and uncomfortable probably. Kinosaki Onsen is a nice place to spend a night, actually.

Other day trip possibilities from Osaka (that you haven't done yet) include Kanazawa, Hikone, Kobe, Himeji, Hiroshima/Miyajima. You can actually go cool off in the beach at Amanohashidate.

To cool off, do an overnight at Mt. Koya (Koya-san). The high elevation makes it a great spot for escaping the heat (which also means that you should make your reservations early).

There is a direct train from Osaka's Nankai Namba Station, probably the easiest way to get there.

If you go to Kurashiki (you'll want to take a walk along the shaded canals in the heat), be aware that Shin-Kurashiki, the station on the Shinkansen, is not near the historic district and is in fact several miles west. You have to transfer from the Shinkansen to the San'yo Main Line at Shin-Kurashiki or (to avoid backtracking) at Okayama.

I second the advice to pace yourself in the heat.When I was in Takamatsu (another possible day trip from Osaka), I walked the eight or ten blocks from my hotel to the Ritsurin Park (a famous formal garden) and survived the walk through the gardens, with the help of a snack stop, but when I finished, I realized I simply could not face another walk back to the hotel, so I grabbed a cab.

Japan's heat is not like that of New York or Boston. It's more humid, more like New Orleans, and Kansai, especially Kyoto, which is surrounded by mountains on three sides, has always seemed worse in this respect than Tokyo. I have always marveled that Japanese people in the old days wore multi-layered kimono instead of sarongs.

I'd suggest Okayama as an alternative to Osaka. There are several rewarding day trips from there, including the aforementioned Kurashiki. The local train from Okayama takes you straight to the historic area in about 15 minutes.

Both the famous Korakuen garden and Okayama Castle are right on the river so might be a bit cooler.

From Okayama, one could even do a day trip over the bridge to Shikoku on the Marine-liner.

This is interesting. I think I will spend overnight in Okayama. I will take the train there, drop my bag off at a hotel, do Naoshima/Inujima in one day and the second day do Okayama Castle/Garden; Kurashiki and Himeji.

Hiroshima, Miyajima, Mt. Koya and Amanohashidate are all very tempting, but I think I'll have to save them for a future trip.

As of right now it looks like:

20th - Arrive Osaka in evening
21st - Explore Osaka
22nd - Naoshima/Injima (overnight in Okayama)
23rd - Okayama Castle, Korakuen Gardens, Kurashiki and Himeji.
24th - Kobe/Nada
25th - Kinosaki (overnight there)
26th - Train to Tokyo (leave on the 30th)

Btw, very random, but Japan-Guide.com has been so unbelievably helpful. Big thumbs up to them!

Is there any reason why Kinosaki appeals to you so much? It is a nice onsen, probably one of the best ones near Kansai. But it's not easy to get to, and doing Kobe-Kinosaki-Tokyo will make for a big detour. If you just want to do a nice onsen and you're not hung up on Kinosaki, there're other ones that are less out of the way... such as Yamashiro Onsen. If you do Yamashiro Onsen, you could even check out Kanazawa a bit en route to Tokyo.

I'm not tied to Kinosaki. Originally I was considering Noboribetsu when I was going to Hokkaido, but upon further investigation I was turned off by it and how it's operated like a factory. It seems like Kinosaki is more of a traditional onsen town to get the "full onsen experience".

Yamashiro looks quite nice!! I am open to suggestions for onsens. I was disappointed I didn't get to go to one on my last trip.

P.S. Now I'm considering the following -- I realized the above was silly:

20th - Arrive Osaka in evening
21st - Explore Osaka
22nd - Kobe/Nada
23rd - Naoshima/Inujima (overnight in Okayama)
24th - Okayama Castle, Korakuen Gardens, Kurashiki and Himeji. (Shinkansen/JR to Kinosaki)
25th - Kinosaki
26th - Morning train to Tokyo

You've got a lot packed into 24th. Are you sure you can do all that and still get to Kinosaki at an okay time? I'm looking at the train schedule from Himeji to Kinosaki, and there're only two express trains in the entire PM. One leaves Himeji at 1.25pm which gets you to Kinosaki at perfect time, the other one leaves at 7.21pm which is way too late. When you stay at an onsen ryokan, ideally you'd arrive at least a couple hours before dinner time. And if you get there past 8pm, you have most likely missed the dinner.

Btw, wrt Noboribetsu, I understand what you are saying. If you hate ginormous hotels in the bubble-era mold, then you will not be a fan. Then again, that doesn't matter so much when you're soaking in the onsen. Noboribetu's onsen quality and water volume are pretty good, way better than anything you'll find around Kansai. I've been to onsens all throughout Jpn, and Noboribetsu to me is among the top 5. I first went 2 yrs ago. Now I can't stop going there. This summer will be my third time in as many summers.

Interesting. Is there an onsen town you recommend instead. Maybe outside Tokyo like Nikko, Kusatsu or any of the ones by Mt. Fuji?

Kusatsu is great, and it's easiest to get there from Tokyo by highway bus. Great onsen, with a vibrant onsen town feel. But your experience will also depend on where you stay and how much you spend. Up in that area, Manza is also well known for great onsen and moreover the high altitude up there makes for an ideal spot in the summertime (Manza Prince offers bus pickup from Karuizawa station). Shima Onsen's probably a bit off the beaten path for foreigners, but is highly-regarded. Ikaho Onsen has that quintessential onsen town feel, although not easy to get to by train. I really love Hakone, and it's the best onsen area that's easily accessible from Tokyo by train. But there're many hotels/ryokans in Hakone to choose from, and the onsen quality varies greatly depending on where you stay at. There have been many discussions on hotels in Hakone on FT. Atami and Ito have lots of onsen places, but again the quality varies from one hotel to another. There're lots of great onsen places elsewhere throughout Izu peninsula, but some of the best ones are in parts that are not easy to get to (eg, Sagasawa Onsen).

Anyways, making onsen recs is never easy because there're so many choices with so many variables including your budget and room availability (which will be a major issue if you're looking at a mere 2-3 weeks down the road). I would encourage you to do your onsen stay between Sun-Thu for better availability and rates.

This is unbelievably helpful! Thank you! I will do some more digging. :) :)

I know you said where you stay affects your time greatly, but don't most of these places have day passes? So if I stay at a more moderately priced ryoken, I can still use the facilities at a more luxury ryoken? I might be totally wrong on this. :confused:

Also I'm now in a Hakone internet spiral. Any recommendations off the top of your head? haha

Hyatt Regency is $263/night but I'm afraid it'll be way too western.

It's true that many onsen hotels allow non-guests to use the onsen facilities for a small fee. If you're on a tight budget, I suppose you could stay at a cheap place and go use the onsen at a more expensive place. And actually certain onsen towns are more conducive to onsen hopping... Kinosaki and Gero Onsen are the two that I can think of. But keep in mind that: 1).not all places allow this; 2).many places that allow this will limit the day-user access to only certain hours of the day (eg, noon-6pm, etc); 3).this sort of takes away from the whole onsen lodging experience. Wrt the latter, the whole experience of staying at an onsen hotel/ryokan is to change into yukata from check-in till check-out, thoroughly enjoy the ryokan experience, to go soak in the onsen on premises whenever you feel like it, and then enjoy meals and lounge in the room in between dips. If you're staying at one place but then you have to go to another place for onsen, then it may not be a very relaxing experience. Then again, you can only do what your budget allows. But you should be able to find something somewhere in the ~20,000yen range/night at an acceptable ryokan with decent onsen, dinner and breakfast included.