Japan honeymoon

[itsbetterthanabox]

Looking for any tips on going to japan.
We are thinking for 10 days or 2 weeks maybe in march but open to other times if they are better/cheaper (it's not straight after wedding).
I was thinking of flying into Tokyo and staying there a few days then going to Kyoto for a few days. We'd love to stay somewhere else near the countryside as well for a couple of days with a private onsen. I was looking at hakone? Views of Fuji etc.
Budget is currently 4000 but can save a bit more. Willing to stay cheap in the cities then a couple of days of more luxury accom near mountains.
Any better ideas of places to go for the romantic relaxing part of the honeymoon? Is a place with onsen nice or is beach better? Or anything else?
Any hotel recommendations for any of the places would be great?
We are also vegetarian so any advice on that would be good too.
Thanks so much.

I honestly don't think your budget is enough for two. Does £4K include flights? Also vegetarian is a nightmare there because they don't really have many and everything is made with dashi (fish stock) etc. Any vegetarians I had visiting usually ended up eating just fries most places we went. I do have a Veggie friend living there but again, he often didn't eat when we'd go to a restaurant as they're be almost nothing on the menu in most places. Maybe pizza and if you got just vegetables at Korean BBQ with no sauce, or stick with Italian restaurants and high end hotels.... it's tough though! And the most amazing thing about Japan hands down is the food. Literally the best in the world.

Food issue and budget aside, I'd say 8 days Tokyo, 6 days Kyoto would be great. You can easily stay at a Ryokan with onsen in Kyoto but if you were looking to cut cost, go for somewhere other than Kyoto....just the more untouristy the less likely you'll find any vegetarian food. Oh and don't think telling a waiter in a restaurant you are vegetarian will be enough to stop them suggesting food based on hidden fish or meat!

Sekitei ryoken near Miyajima, Hiroshima was the best moment of our honeymoon 6 months ago. Lots of fish in the meals though! I've heard Hakone is wonderful too, but we just did Tokyo, Hiroshima region (rabbit island was amazing!) and Kyoto.
When are you visiting? We were there for cherry blossom season which was lovely but had lots of rain too. Can recommend a great airbnb in Tokyo if you want one too.

Yeah 4K including flights but we could save some more maybe up to 5.
Food wise we are thinking we will just turn a blind eye to fish sauce being in things while out there. I'm aware it'll be hard to avoid. It's just not eating actual meat and fish.

Yeah the airbnb recommendation would be great.

There are Indian and Italian restaurants where you can get vegetarian food.

Hakone is definitely worth a visit. We stayed in a traditional Japanese raioken (sp?) with an onsen. It was amazing. The food was traditional highend Japanese and an eye opener.... not veggie though. All served by a little old Japanese lady. You wear traditional dress and the setting is magical.

Kyoto was great too and def worth a visit. We caught the bullet train and used local trains whilst there.

Tokyo is another world and we loved it.

I think the cities won't be too bad looking at it but out of the way places will be hard.
So interested in japan but maybe another location would be better.

I think you will struggle to not have fish. It depends on how big the meat has to be to turn you off. There is tofu and eggs but most stuff has a bit of meat, discounting the dashi. DH was ok because he turned a blind eye to the mince and sausages in things like steamed eggs, noodles and okonomiyaki. He also said sashimi doesn't taste like meat. You might be lucky in finding more to eat. But be prepared that people don't understand vegetarianism.

There is shojin ryoji temple food, which is all vegetarian. I don't know where they are but maybe they are available too at special restaurants?

What I'm suggesting is look up places that have shojin riyori food and plan around that? Even rural areas should have temples? There might be quite a few that will offer food to visitors?

And DH managed to find a vegetarian bento on the train between Kyoto and Tokyo.

Hiroshima/ Miyajima was the highlight of my trip. You can get there on the Shinkansen in about 3 hours, which is a great Japanese experience in itself. If you buy the tickets as a tourist before you go you can usually get a better price than buying when you arrive.

Tips from another thread I posted on having been last November

Awake due to jetlag! Japan is amazing in so many ways. My tips would be:

• buy a Japan rail pass which covers most transport including some Tokyo travel. But the pass before you leave and swap your voucher when you get there for the actual pass. It covers any "JR" trains including most bullet trains and you can hop on - we didn't bother with seat reservations
• fly into Haneda, half an hour to get into Tokyo central.
• we started in Tokyo but it's pretty hectic and overwhelming and as others have said the jet lag is a killer. If I went again I'd leave Tokyo on a train on arrival and go somewhere more relaxing first, and leave Tokyo for the end
• get enough cash. Foreign cards only accepted in some ATMs including post office and 7-11, and outside the cities you may not be able to get any cash. It's a cash based culture.
• re how easy it is to get around I think it depends on what you are used to. I live in London and am well traveled and found public transport easy - everything is in English in major cities on buses and subway etc. Stations all have helpful staff. I can see how Tokyo could be overwhelming if you're not used to thousands of people everywhere
• try to get a pocket wifi either from your hotel or Airbnb. Then you can use the trip advisor app to find restaurants where you are. Also if you pre load google maps (i.e. Open them and zoom in on where you are going) your maps will work without wifi.
• try to have a plan for Tokyo as its massive and we wasted quite a bit of time deciding what to do when jet lagged
• google "top 20 ryokans" - list just came out this week

-book quite far ahead for Kyoto as November is peak autumn leaves season and the city is full of Japanese, Chinese and other tourists. -in Kyoto many temples light up at night in November so it's a lovely time of year and not cold. We loved the Philosopher's walk and stopping at traditional tea houses for matcha and sweets

• Hiroshima is amazing and a fun modern city as well as having the atomic bomb museum and peace park. Highly recommended
• we organised everything ourselves and found it easy. You can find ryokan or hotels on booking.com that have free cancellation. We stayed in Airbnb in Tokyo and Kyoto and found that to be a really wonderful experience, but a hotel may be easier as they are often more centrally located and have staff on hand to help with any questions
• you'll love it. So jealous! Everyone is super polite and it's an amazing experience to be somewhere so different from our culture

Both me and my husband are vegetarians and we didnt find finding food tricky, although we did have pizza a few times and were in cities.

We did Kyoto, Kobe (I loved Kobe), Nagasaki, Tokyo. We planned Kyoto and Tokyo and then chose the others when we were out there. The rail pass was brilliant, assuming they still do it, so travelling was really easy and cheap.

I can't remember how much we spent but it wasn't anywhere near as expensive as I feared.

Ps we did two and a half weeks in November for two for £3000 all in - mostly airbnb accommodation and a couple of ryokan stays. We ate out all the time and didn't feel like we had scrimped

Look at the 'happy cow' website for a list of veggie restaurants and restaurants that have veggie options. DP is a veggie and it was a but annoying trying to find things he could eat sometimes. However he said he had the best veggie meal ever at a small restaurant in Kyoto - the owner pretty much digs up the veg and salad as you wait. I'll try to remember the name...

So helpful! Thank you.
If anyone can recommend specific hotels, ryokan or Airbnb that'd be great. Particularly with the airbnb I want to know they are good. Wary doing them so far away!

Japanese Guest Houses
Create Your Own Japanese Experience
JapaneseGuestHouses.com/

^^ This is where we booked through.

This is where we stayed.

• Ryokan: Senkei Annex Yamagaso JapaneseGuestHouses.com/ryokan-single/?ryokan=Senkei%20Annex%20Yamagaso

It was fab!

Been a couple of times, Japan is wonderful (especially Kyoto and the smaller mountain villages). Best trip was with Audley a few years ago www.audleytravel.com
They sorted an amazing trip for me and my sister, including ryokans. No idea what a trip would cost with them now though..

We went to Japan for our honeymoon - 10 days.
I think we spent about £4kish

Tokyo
Kyoto
Hiroshima
Osaka

Caught the bullet train and metros everywhere. It's an amazing place.

Sorry meant to come back to this one sooner,
Tokyo airbnb, fab hosts who give great advice on things to see, lovely space, 10 mins walk to good subway stop
www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/10011097
For Kyoto I do NOT recommend this one! Soulless and impossible to sleep, no curtains and bright emergency sign in bedroom! Definitely not honeymoon standard www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/9356876