It is ideal to spend 3 days in Kyoto or Osaka. We chose Osaka due to proximity with bullet train station connecting Himeji, Hiroshima down south. You will anyway end up travelling to the other city half the time. Nara is somewhere midway on a triangle. Kyoto is full of temples, quite a contrast to modern Osaka. Prominent places to cover around Kyoto- Osaka include the two cities themselves, Himeji, Hiroshima. We cover the Takayama-Toyama- Nagano regions separately
Places to cover around Kyoto- Osaka
Nara
Nara has a loop line tourist bus that connects station to important attractions. There are local JR buses that connect some important places, covered by JR pass, but hard to follow since names and routes are written in Japanese only
Near Todaiji temple, you can see deers bowing to people expecting to get fed with crackers! They roam freely around the temples in the area
Todaiji temple was quite impressive- with huge wooden statues and buildings, one of the largest Buddha statues- a must visit.
We also visited Kasuga Taisha Shrine which could be skipped honestly. The only stand out thing here was a dark room full of lanterns that show hoe erstwhile era looked like
We were short of time to visit Byodoin in Uji, that features on 10 yen coin
Arashiyama Bamboo grove
While the reviews were mixed, we quite liked the place. We reached quite late in the evening after it was dark, so could not experience it fully. The bamboo trees are quite long and thick., with the streets in authentic Kyoto style. We had heard it is lit at night on full moon days, but it was not- could be only 1-2 full moon festive nights in the year
Dotonbori Osaka
Quite a happening place with storms of people shopping even late night. Osaka Namba station has an exit right into streets of Dotonbori. You can see animated buildings with moving crabs, noodles and what not. There are many tax free shops. Kitkats were the cheapest here- 298 yen + taxes for 10 pieces and 198+ taxes for 7 pieces
We skipped Osaka castle as we were short of time, maybe next time
Kyoto
The city is full of temples – you will have to prioritize basis how much time you have. We picked 3 distinct main temples- Kinkakuji for its golden structure, Kiyomizudera for its wooden- traditional structure and Fushima Inari for its Tori gates. We had some time, so ended up visiting Ginkakuji temple which was average
We ended up taking JR Haruka Hello Kitty trains often from Osaka Tennoji to Kyoto to avoid multiple transfers. These trains are covered by JR pass, but need a reservation. Although they run once in 30 minutes only, they were still better off vs multiple connections to reach Osaka otherwise
Kinkakuji shrine
Golden colored temple, quite small in size and you are not allowed to go in. Most people take a photo and move on, but still worth visiting since it is one of its kind
Kiyomizudera
Quite an impressive complex with authentic Kyoto styled shrines. The reed roofs reminded us of temples in Bali.
We took an Uber from Kinkakuji to Kiyomizudera (4k Yen) as an exception, given the bad connections, walking required in between and 90 minute time required to reach there through public transport. If you want to stick to public transport, you can go to Kyoto station from Kinkakuji temple and take 100 bus to Kiyomizudera which does not reflect all the time on Google for some reason. You will still have to walk 20-30 minutes to reach the temple, so Uber was a good option only for this place
Ginkakuji
A wooden temple on the likes of Kinkakuji built by the grandson of Ashikaga Yoshimasa who built Kinkakuji temple. The shrine is famous for moss gardens, but there are better moss gardens elsewhere to be honest, like in Kanazawa
The cherry tree lined Philosophers path is just next to temple entrance- quite marvelous during spring season
Fushima Inari
Quite different compared to other temples of Kyoto. You can see thousand orange Tori gates that lead all the way to mountain top. It was raining heavily when we went there, so we came back halfway. Many reviews suggest visiting this shrine in the evening when crowds are thinner, given it is open and lit at night
Himeji castle
Supposed to be the best one in Japan. The castle is definitely impressive. We liked the cherry gardens outside so much that we spent all the time we had there. We had heard the castle is not very impressive from the inside and it takes atleast 3 hours to cover it, so skipped going in. The cherry gardens were in full bloom, creating a carpet of pink on the ground- it was heavenly to just sit there, soak and absorb the scene
Itsukushima shrine– Miyajima
Has the famous floating Tori that gets submerged in high tide. You can see deer roaming around here, but in smaller numbers compared to Nara. Ensure you go to Daisho-in shrine about 15 minutes from Itsukushima shrine, which has a cave filled with lamps on the roofs
The cable cars to Mt. Misen had stopped due to heavy rains when we went
Hiroshima-Atomic Bomb dome
One of the buildings that part-survived the bombing, has not been restored. It is converted to a memorial of the unfortunate incident. The city has progressed so much that is difficult to believe it was flattened only 80 years ago
We stayed at Fairfield Osaka Namba and covered Kyoto through day trips