We combined our stay with Nara, the former capital of Japan in the 8th century. Its accessibility (less than an hour by train from Kyoto) put it on the tourist trail, so don’t expect to be there by yourself. But despite the countless tour groups, we enjoyed our time in Nara.

The main attraction is probably Tōdai-ji, a Buddhist temple complex inaugurated in the year 752. Not only is it one of the world’s largest wooden buildings but it also happens to house the world’s largest bronze Buddha statue.

After eating some superb tonkatsu at Tonkatsu Ganko Nara, we took the train back to Kyoto. What followed there were three awesome days of sightseeing; temples, temples and some more. And mixed in between some great food, cozy bars and chilling by the river.

While I managed the take the above photos without too much of a crowd, here’s proof that we weren’t by ourselves. And keep in mind, it wasn’t even peak season.

And mixed in between were mostly teenagers looking for a good post for The Gram:

And as mentioned, the food was exceptional as well. Every. Single. Meal.

We really, really enjoyed the Kyoto vibe and our time in the city. A small achievement I managed while there was to get my driver’s license translated. With some European licenses you need a Japanese translation in order to rent a car. And while not conveniently located for tourists and it taking an hour, I was glad to have this out of the way in order to rent a car in Ishigaki a few days later.

In order to avoid starting our trip in one of the mega gateways of Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya), we set off in Hiroshima. From there we made our way overland through the tourist hotspots of Osaka, Kyoto, the Mount Fuji area and on to Tokyo. Since pretty much any Spring vacation needs a bit of beach time, we extended for a few days and flew down to the Yaeyama Islands to soak in the Okinawan spirit on Ishigaki.

It has been a fun two weeks and thanks to Japan’s great public transportation system not too hectic despite the few stops along the way.

Below is our itinerary:

Looking back, we’re pretty happy with the itinerary. Two weeks is way to short to see such a densely populated country with rich history and obviously only scratched the surface. However, given the time, we were happy with our choices. After last year’s spring vacation to Chengdu/Thailand/Singapore, we wanted to pace things a bit slower, especially since we covered most of the trip with public transport. Having multiple nights at all stops except Osaka was nice and we never felt that we spent too much time in a location. The only exception might be the Mount Fuji area where we got very unlucky with the weather and it actually snowed on the day we intended to go hiking.

Being end of March, it was still chilly apart from Ishigaki. We had to wear a jacket on most days and it was still too cold for wearing shorts. Just something to keep in mind should it matter to you.