Japan · Itinerary · Updated September 2026
10 days in Japan: Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima done properly
Ten days is where the classic Tokyo–Kyoto–Hiroshima route stops being a cliché and starts being correct: enough time to stay four nights in two cities rather than three nights in four. Fares and fees checked September 2026.
Length
10 days
Budget
¥235,100 / $1,467
per person, mid-range, no rail pass
Best season
Oct–Nov, Mar–May
Autumn colour or blossom; avoid Golden Week
Stops
5
two hotels, one line west
The route
Four nights in Tokyo, four in Kyoto with Nara and Osaka reached from it, then west along the Sanyo line to Himeji, Hiroshima and Miyajima.
Day by day
Days 1–4 · Tokyo
Four nights, one district a day
Tokyo is not a city you see, it is a set of districts you choose between. Four nights takes one a day without sprinting: Yanaka and Nezu for the old low city, Shimokitazawa or Koenji for secondhand shops and small live rooms, Tsukiji Outer Market early, and an evening in Shinjuku's Omoide Yokocho. Resist the day trips. Nikko and Kamakura deserve their own trip and cost you the city you flew here for.
Sleep: Shinjuku or Shibuya for transport, Yanaka for quiet, Asakusa for cheap.
Days 5–8 · Kyoto
Four nights, and go early or go late
Tokyo to Kyoto on the Tokaido shinkansen, ¥13,320 non-reserved. Four nights is the number: Kyoto punishes a rushed visit because everything good about it happens before eight in the morning or after dark. Fushimi Inari is free and never closes, which is the only way to have the torii tunnels to yourself. Kiyomizu-dera is ¥500 and worth the first entry of the day. Arashiyama before eight, Gion and Pontocho after dark, and the Philosopher's Path whenever it is not raining.
Sleep: Downtown near Karasuma. Kyoto's lodging tax rose in March 2026, see below.
Day 7 or 8 · Nara
The day trip that earns a whole day
Forty minutes from Kyoto on the Nara line, and one of the two days you spend out of the city. Todai-ji's Great Buddha Hall is the largest wooden building most people will stand in, Kasuga Taisha is a corridor of stone lanterns, and the deer will take your map. Osaka is the other option: thirty minutes the other way, best after dark for Dotonbori and kushikatsu, and you still sleep in Kyoto.
Sleep: Kyoto. Moving hotels for one night here is not worth the packing.
Day 9 · Himeji
The castle, and a decision about ¥2,500
An hour west of Kyoto, on the way to Hiroshima. Himeji is the finest surviving castle in Japan, but from March 2026 non-resident adults pay ¥2,500 rather than ¥1,000, one of the clearest cases of Japan's new dual pricing. Under-18s are free regardless. Koko-en garden next door costs a fraction. Bags in a station locker, two hours on site, back on the Sanyo line by mid-afternoon.
Sleep: Nowhere. This is the day you move from Kyoto to Hiroshima.
Day 10 · Hiroshima & Miyajima
The museum first, the island after
Kyoto to Hiroshima is ¥10,770 non-reserved. The Peace Memorial Museum is ¥200 and needs two hours you should not try to shorten; go first, before the island, not after. Then the ferry to Miyajima for Itsukushima's floating torii, ¥300 for the shrine plus a ¥180 island visitor tax on arrival. Check the tide table: high water floats the gate, low water lets you walk out to it, and both are worth seeing if you know which you are getting.
Sleep: Hiroshima near the station, then fly home from there or run back to Tokyo.
Best things to do on this route
If you cut the trip short, these are the ones to keep.
- 01
Fushimi Inari at night
Free, unstaffed, open twenty-four hours. The only way to walk the torii tunnels without a queue, and the lanterns are lit.
- 02
Todai-ji's Great Buddha Hall
The scale does not photograph. Go in the first hour and the hall is nearly empty.
- 03
The Peace Memorial Museum
¥200 and the most important two hours of the trip. Do not schedule anything demanding afterwards.
- 04
Tsukiji Outer Market at seven
The inner market moved to Toyosu; the outer one stayed and is where you actually want to eat.
- 05
Arashiyama before eight
The bamboo grove is a corridor of people by nine and genuinely quiet at seven-thirty.
- 06
Yanaka on foot
The part of Tokyo the war and the bubble both mostly missed. A cemetery, a shopping street and no towers.
Where to stay
Neighbourhoods rather than specific hotels. Prices move, areas don't.
Tokyo: Shinjuku, Shibuya or Yanaka
Shinjuku and Shibuya buy transport; Yanaka and Asakusa buy quiet and a lower rate. Business hotels are the practical mid-range.
Kyoto: downtown near Karasuma
Central, two subway lines, walkable to Gion. The most expensive bed on this route and now the steepest lodging tax.
Hiroshima: station or Peace Park
One night only, so choose for your onward connection rather than the view.
What it cost
Per person, 10 days. International flights not included.
| Category | Cost |
|---|---|
| Accommodation: 9 nights | ¥99,000 / $618 |
| Food and drink | ¥55,000 / $343 |
| Intercity transport: point-to-point tickets, no pass | ¥42,500 / $265 |
| Activities and entry fees | ¥13,000 / $81 |
| Local transport and day trips | ¥10,000 / $62 |
| SIM, laundry, coin lockers, everything else | ¥9,000 / $56 |
| Lodging tax and the ¥3,000 departure tax | ¥6,600 / $41 |
| Total | ¥235,100 / $1,467 |
Converted at ¥160.27 to the dollar, checked 2 September 2026. About ¥23,500 a day. Slightly more per day than the 14-day route, and the reason is worth knowing. The Tokyo–Hiroshima return is a fixed cost of roughly ¥31,700 whether you spread it over ten days or fourteen, so a shorter trip carries the same long legs over fewer days. Japan works the opposite way to a country like Thailand, where the long routes are the ones that add the expensive set-pieces.
Getting around
The rail pass still does not pay
Tokyo–Kyoto ¥13,320, Kyoto–Hiroshima ¥10,770, Hiroshima–Tokyo ¥18,380: about ¥42,500, or ¥50,000 with local trains. A 7-day pass is ¥50,000 and does not cover ten days; the 14-day pass is ¥80,000. Neither wins. This route is shorter than the 14-day one and the answer is the same, which is the useful thing to know before you buy.
Prices rise on 1 October 2026
The 7-day pass goes from ¥50,000 to ¥53,000, the 14-day from ¥80,000 to ¥84,000, the 21-day from ¥100,000 to ¥105,000. If you are buying one regardless, buy before then. The old price holds for travel afterwards.
Nozomi costs extra even with a pass
A pass covers Hikari and Sakura outright, but the fastest Nozomi and Mizuho services carry a supplement: ¥4,960 between Tokyo and Kyoto or Shin-Osaka, ¥6,500 Tokyo to Hiroshima. The slower trains run the same lines for nothing extra and cost you about twenty minutes.
Regional tickets usually beat the national pass
JR West and the other regional companies sell foreign-visitor tickets covering one corridor for far less than the national pass. Stacking two of them across a route like this is almost always cheaper than one pass covering everything.
Packing notes
The things that are annoying to find locally, or that people forget.
- Cash. Japan is far more card-friendly than it was, but temple entries, coin lockers and small restaurants are still cash-only. 7-Eleven ATMs take foreign cards reliably.
- Shoes you can take off one-handed. You will do it several times a day.
- A day bag small enough for a station coin locker. That is how you do Himeji or Nara without dragging luggage.
- An IC card, Suica or Pasmo, both available as phone passes. Covers subways, buses and convenience stores nationwide.
- Layers rather than a coat. Trains and restaurants are heated hard in winter and chilled hard in summer.
- Your passport every day. Required for tax-free purchases and for the regional rail tickets sold only to foreign visitors.
This is the Golden Route, and at ten days that is correct
The 14-day itinerary exists to leave this corridor: it goes into the Alps for Takayama and Kanazawa, which is the best part of that trip and the reason to take the extra four days.
Ten days cannot afford it. Takayama and Kanazawa are four nights and two transfers, and taking them out of this route would leave three nights in Tokyo, three in Kyoto and a rushed run west, which is how a good trip becomes a schedule.
So the Alps come out whole, and the four nights go back into Tokyo and Kyoto rather than being spread thinner. What you get is four nights in each of the two cities that most reward them, and one clean line west with Himeji on the way. Nothing is cut short; one region is simply not visited.
That makes this the classic route, and the classic route is classic for a reason. The mistake is not doing Tokyo–Kyoto–Hiroshima in ten days. The mistake is doing Tokyo–Kyoto–Hiroshima–Osaka–Hakone–Nikko in ten days.