How many days do you need in Japan?

Japan is four islands and about 1,900 miles (3,060 km) from end to end. Tokyo to Sapporo is further than London to Rome. The rail is so good that it tempts people into six cities in ten days, and the trip that results is a very efficient tour of railway stations.

The number that matters is not days, it is moves

Above one hotel change every two and a half days, a Japan trip starts to feel like work. This is the ratio we build to and it explains almost everything below.

A move in Japan is genuinely easy: your luggage goes ahead overnight for around $15 to $20 a bag, the train leaves on time, and you are in the next city centre in two hours. It still costs you the middle of a day, a check-in, and the hour it takes to work out where anything is. Four moves in fourteen days is comfortable. Seven is a job.

The second thing worth knowing is that adding days does not simply add cities. Adding days is what lets you have a rest day, and the rest day is the difference between remembering Japan fondly and remembering that you were tired.

Under eight days

One region only, and we mean it. Tokyo with a day trip to Hakone, Nikko or Kamakura, or Kyoto and Osaka with a day in Nara. Trying to do both properly in a week means spending your holiday on the Shinkansen.

If your week is fixed, we would generally choose Tokyo, because it holds four days easily and the day trips out of it are the best in the country. Our four days in Tokyo by neighbourhood is exactly that trip.

Two practical notes at this length. Jet lag eats a day and a half, so build the first afternoon around a park and an early dinner rather than a temple list. And at this length a nationwide rail pass is almost certainly the wrong purchase.

Ten days

The first length that works properly. Tokyo, Kyoto and one thing in between, usually Hakone for a first ryokan night and a chance at Fuji, or Kanazawa for the gardens and the craft district.

Three bases, two moves, and enough slack for an unplanned day in each city. This is a genuinely good trip and it is the length we build most often for people travelling from Europe with a fortnight of leave who lose two days to flying.

What you are giving up at ten days: Hiroshima and Miyajima, the alps, and the Kii peninsula. Any one of them can be swapped in for Kyoto’s second half, none of them can be added.

Fourteen days, the sweet spot

Fourteen days is where Japan stops being a list. The classic shape runs Tokyo for four nights, Hakone or the Fuji area for one, Kyoto for four, a night in Hiroshima with Miyajima after the day visitors have gone, Osaka for two, and a genuine rest day somewhere in the middle. That is classic Japan in 14 days.

Two weeks is also the length at which the better variations become possible:

• Through the alps. Tokyo, Takayama, Shirakawa-go, Kanazawa and Kyoto, which is where the classic route stops feeling classic.
• The Kii peninsula. Koyasan’s temple lodging and four days on the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail, framed by Tokyo and Kyoto.
• Setouchi. The art islands and the inland sea, slower and better for it.

At this length the ryokan question also settles itself. Two nights across two weeks, not seven. The second night is where you relax into it, and by the fourth most people want a normal breakfast and a chair.

Eighteen to twenty-one days

Three weeks opens the parts of Japan most visitors never see: Tohoku in the north, a proper stretch in Hokkaido, Kyushu’s volcanoes and onsen towns, or the Setouchi islands added to the classic route rather than swapped into it.

Three weeks is also when an internal flight starts to make sense. For Hokkaido or Kyushu, flying saves a day that is better spent on the ground, and domestic fares are reasonable.

The mistake at this length is treating the extra week as permission to add five more cities. We use it to add one region and three rest days, which is why deep Japan in 21 days has fewer stops per week than the fourteen day route does.

The cut-offs, stated plainly

• Under 8 days: one region. Do not add a second.
• 8 to 10 days: two bases plus one ryokan night in between.
• 12 to 16 days: the classic route with a rest day, or one of the good variations.
• Over 18 days: the classic route plus a genuine second region.
• Any length: three nights minimum in Tokyo and three in Kyoto if both are on the list.

What the season does to the arithmetic

The month changes the number of days you need more than most people expect.

Blossom, late March to early May. Peak weeks are crowded and expensive, and everything takes longer: entry queues, restaurant waits, full trains. Build in an extra day of slack, and read cherry blossom, region by region before you fix the dates.

Autumn, October and November. The same in Kyoto specifically, where the last two weeks of November are the domestic travel peak. Four Kyoto nights rather than three. See Kyoto in autumn.

Summer, June to August. Heat and humidity cost you the middle of every day in the cities, so a summer trip either needs more days or should move north and up into the alps and Hokkaido.

Winter, December to February. Short daylight tightens the days, and the snow regions are worth an extra night rather than a day trip.

Typhoon season, roughly August to October. Slack in the itinerary is what turns a disrupted day into a changed day. Our Tokyo office reworks the affected days and books the replacements.

What the length does to the rail budget

This is the point most people miss. The fewer moves you make, the worse a nationwide rail pass performs, and since the 2023 price change it frequently loses on exactly the itineraries we recommend, which are the ones with fewer, better-chosen legs. A compressed loop can still justify it. A ten day trip with two moves almost never does, and regional passes are often the better answer.

We price every itinerary both ways and show you the difference before you decide. The arithmetic on three real routes is in is the Japan Rail Pass still worth it.

What we would do with your dates

Tell us the days you actually have, including the two you will lose to flying and the day and a half you will lose to jet lag. We will tell you which Japan those days buy, and if the answer is that your ten days will not carry the itinerary you have drafted, we say so in the first email rather than after you have paid for it.

Every Japan trip we write is built by one of four people: Mai, our Head of Consulting, Sapir or Asaf, our Japan specialists, or Lior, who lives in Tokyo and runs our office there. The rest days are not padding, they are the part of the plan that our own office argues hardest for.

Plan this trip

Tell us how many days you have and we will tell you which Japan they buy, then build the outline around it. Free, and with no obligation.

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Keep reading

• Japan: the complete guide to planning your trip
• How much does two weeks in Japan really cost?
• Is the Japan Rail Pass still worth it?
• What we would skip in Japan
• Classic Japan in 14 days
• All our Japan trips

Frequently asked questions