TRIP QUESTION!!! | Asia Forum | Fodor's Travel Talk Forums

by amstumacher

Certainly the trip from Tokyo to Nagasaki is highly possible. But I'm puzzling about why you would want to spend five days on a cruise (having joined it late) when most of the remaining time is either at sea or in Kyushu (Kagoshima and Fukuoka)--which you have already reached from Tokyo and could see readily by other means. It seems as if the only value the cruise has is to get you to China to begin a week's travel there, with a day stop in Korea en route. Maybe I'm missing something, or else I don't fully appreciate what it means to be "cruise people," but why bother with the cruise at all?

We went from Kyoto to Himiji Castle to Hiroshima and Miyajima Island and back to Kyoto in a long day, several years back. Very easy and well worth even that short of trip! We had a wonderful time that day. Left Kyoto at 7 got to Himiji Castle as the castle opened, did the tour and had lunch in town, caught 11:30am train to Hiroshima, road the tram to the "A" Dome and the park then took the tram/local train and ferry the Miyajima Island spent several hours touring the temple and park and the sunset behind the Tori Gate and had an early dinner, took the ferry and local train back to the station, caught the fast train to Kyoto and were at the hotel by 9pm. I would suggest adding at least Hiroshima/Miyajima for a night stop over. The Island is at its best in the late afternoon and early morning which works well for traveling by train. You can then see the other sights on the way to and from the island.( I suggest the "A" Dome and park, the castle and a the gardens near by are the best and easy to do in a few hours. You can walk from one to the other. We didn't do the Museum in Hiroshima as we had previously been to the one in Nagasaki.) With some care in planning with the train schedules, you could also work in a stop in Himiji on the way from Kyoto to Hiroshima, you need about two hours to get from the station (walking) see the castle and get back. It is a beautiful castle...

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