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Anyone Been On Holiday To Japan?

9 replies

MarmaladeSandwich7 · 27/06/2026 08:49

I really want to go in cherry blossom season. Need to start saving as I gather flights are pretty expensive? Just wondering if anyone has any recommendations for where to visit, accommodation, food etc & also where to avoid?

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MagicThanks · 27/06/2026 08:50

No but bumping and following - I’d love to take my Dd to Japan!

katscamel · 27/06/2026 08:58

I've been twice but not during cherry blossom. Last time I went was for 3 weeks and was in Yokohama, Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. I'd suggest at least a week in Tokyo as there is so much to see.

Tonissister · 27/06/2026 09:09

We did, in cherry blossom season and it was gorgeous.

Places we loved: Nara - the temples and the deer you can feed rice cakes to.
Kyoto - Golden Pavilion, Fushimi Inari Tori-gates temple and woodland, geisha district, markets, zen gardens
Mount Koya - holy mountain - we stayed at a Buddhist temple on top
Arashiyama - fed wild baby monkeys on the mountain (humans stand in a cage and monkeys come to you if they want), the golden galleon lake ride and bamboo forest
The Samurai path with its waterwheels and rice paddies and tiny medieval villages
Tokyo - all the modern robots in hotels, stations, out and about, the art galleries, amazing shopping, parks, Ghibli museum
Hakone for hot springs onsen baths and the sculpture park, the cable car to the sulphur springs

The food is amazing - noodle bars in the geisha district, Korean BBQ in Tokyo, formal 7 course dinners in Hakone, fresh sushi in Tokyo fish market and grilled skewers in Omoide Yokocho, black sesame ice cream in Kyoto market. Even the 7-11 did great skewers and pork steamed buns for a few pence.

I wish we had seen: Mount Fuji closer up; Hiroshima (no one else wanted to go); the art/cat/rabbit islands; the hot springs monkeys.

I massively recommend Inside Japan. We designed our own itinerary and they put it together for us - booked all the hotels, major train journeys and events. This meant we didn't need tour guides and could travel at our own pace.

Best holiday ever.

yorknotes · 27/06/2026 09:20

We have just booked with Trailfinders (self guided) for next Easter. Super excited! The flights are not cheap. We are flying in to Tokyo (5 days) - Hakone - Takayama - Kyoto - Hiroshima - Osaka. We fly out of Osaka. Looking forward to reading recommendations.

Dokushozanmai · 27/06/2026 09:21

Another rec for Inside Japan. We went to Tokyo (highly recommend the Teamlab Borderless which was amazing), Kyoto, Hiroshima and Hakone. It was all fabulous - at Hiroshima we had a day in Miyajima which was one of the highlights of a great trip.

We all really enjoyed it and plan to go back - DH and I to go to Nara and the art gallery at Naoshima while our grown up children go back to Tokyo because we didn’t spend enough time in Akihabara….

TheBirdintheCave · 27/06/2026 09:27

We’ve been twice (May/June and September) but avoided cherry blossom season due to expense. It’s an incredible place and we can’t wait to go back when the kids are old enough :D

FeltCarrot · 27/06/2026 09:31

The cherry blossom forecast can change according to the weather, We went mid march a couple of years ago and the forecast changed so much when we were there, We had sleet and sunshine in Kyoto for example.

MarmaladeSandwich7 · 27/06/2026 20:27

Thanks everyone. I want to go even more now!

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