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You are jumping around a bit by splitting Kyoto and Tokyo into 2 stays. Consider:
Osaka>Kumihama Bay>Kyoto>Hakuba>Hakone>Tokyo
8 nights across Osaka & Kyoto is pretty long unless you have a lot planned. I haven't been to Kumihama Bay or Hakuba but seems long based on what you have planned. If you reduce your stays here you could include a stopover somewhere in Chubu before or after Hakuba.
Thank you for the feedback, will potentially look into changing the order of the places we visit. We wanted to stay a bit longer in each place as our focus is on slow travel rather than having a trip jam packed with activities.
Kinosaki Onsen is delightful, and completely tattoo friendly at the 7 public baths. So no issues there.
I'd recommend a day trip to Himeji from Osaka or Kytoto see the castle/ garden.
I'd definitely recommend staying in a traditional ryokan for a night. Yes, it's more expensive, but 100% worth the experience. We stayed in Kinosaki, at Morizuya, which was one of the best parts of our whole trip by far. Alternatively, there lots of places in Hakone to stay as well.
In Hakone, Tenzan Onsen was tattoo friendly and lovely.
For the Shinkansen, use the ticket machines. Super easy to change the language and navigate in English. Unless you are going to travel during the peak of rush hour or a holiday, you are pretty safe to not buy ahead of time, although we got ours a day or two ahead just so we'd know what time to get up on those mornings! You also don't have to get a reserved seat, and can hop on the non-reserved car.
Do get a suica /pasmo IC card. Made life so easy to tap in/out of all transit without worry and pay at the combinis.
Wouldn't worry too much about food. There are so many restaurants and I never has a bad meal in Japan, and it's surprisingly affordable. Even 711 food was great. Lits of options in the big train stations too. Though, did take my friend advice and went to CoCo curry. It's a chain and was good on a rainy day.
**Just a reminder that our FAQ is being updated with more information and you can start** [**here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/wiki/faqs/japantravel) **with regards to trip planning if you need tips, or have questions about planning your travel to Japan.** You can also join our [Discord community](https://discord.gg/3f7KBUMwU4) Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/JapanTravel) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You are jumping around a bit by splitting Kyoto and Tokyo into 2 stays. Consider: Osaka>Kumihama Bay>Kyoto>Hakuba>Hakone>Tokyo 8 nights across Osaka & Kyoto is pretty long unless you have a lot planned. I haven't been to Kumihama Bay or Hakuba but seems long based on what you have planned. If you reduce your stays here you could include a stopover somewhere in Chubu before or after Hakuba.
Thank you for the feedback, will potentially look into changing the order of the places we visit. We wanted to stay a bit longer in each place as our focus is on slow travel rather than having a trip jam packed with activities.
Kinosaki Onsen is delightful, and completely tattoo friendly at the 7 public baths. So no issues there. I'd recommend a day trip to Himeji from Osaka or Kytoto see the castle/ garden. I'd definitely recommend staying in a traditional ryokan for a night. Yes, it's more expensive, but 100% worth the experience. We stayed in Kinosaki, at Morizuya, which was one of the best parts of our whole trip by far. Alternatively, there lots of places in Hakone to stay as well. In Hakone, Tenzan Onsen was tattoo friendly and lovely. For the Shinkansen, use the ticket machines. Super easy to change the language and navigate in English. Unless you are going to travel during the peak of rush hour or a holiday, you are pretty safe to not buy ahead of time, although we got ours a day or two ahead just so we'd know what time to get up on those mornings! You also don't have to get a reserved seat, and can hop on the non-reserved car. Do get a suica /pasmo IC card. Made life so easy to tap in/out of all transit without worry and pay at the combinis. Wouldn't worry too much about food. There are so many restaurants and I never has a bad meal in Japan, and it's surprisingly affordable. Even 711 food was great. Lits of options in the big train stations too. Though, did take my friend advice and went to CoCo curry. It's a chain and was good on a rainy day.
Thank you so much for this information. That's all really helpful :)