A scroll film · 14 Mar – 2 Apr 2024
Twenty days in Japan
One bet: that cherry-blossom season would be worth building an entire trip on. Scroll — the loop tells itself.
scroll
Days 1–4 · Tokyo
Land, walk, repeat
Jet-lag theatre at Shibuya crossing, a bronze Buddha an hour south in Kamakura, and six alleys of matchbox bars we liked so much we came back on the last night.
Base: Shinjuku · day trips to Kamakura & Yokohama
Day 5 · Mt Fuji
The mountain is shy
Four hundred steps above Shimoyoshida the postcard assembles itself: snow cone, red pagoda, blossoms. Check the visibility forecast the night before; keep the day flexible.
Chūreitō Pagoda · free · hōtō for lunch
Days 6–8 · Osaka & Nara
Lunch at 285 km/h
The ekiben on the Shinkansen south is one of the trip’s events, not a means to an end. Then Dōtonbori at full neon, and deer that bow back in Nara.
Base: Namba · Kintetsu to Nara, ~45 min
Day 9 · Hiroshima & Miyajima
The heavy day, defended hardest
Two unhurried hours in the Peace Memorial Museum — direct, personal, devastating, as it should be. Then the counterweight: the torii floating off Miyajima at high tide.
Museum ¥200 · check the tide table
Days 10–16 · Kyoto
A week radiating out
Himeji’s keep in bloom on the way in, then Kyoto as the hub: gold-leaf Kanazawa, a yukata night in Kinosaki Onsen, tea in Uji, and ten thousand torii at dusk.
The splurge: one ryokan night, ~300 francs for two
Days 17–20 · Tokyo
The victory lap
Back where it started: lucky cats at Gōtokuji, vintage Shimokitazawa, one last night in Golden Gai. The loop closes.
14 towns · 19 nights · ~9,500 francs for two
Steal this trip
The whole plan, rated
Route, costs, transport, and an honest star for every stop — plus what we’d book earlier next time.
The photos are ours, except a Golden Gai frame from Wikimedia Commons — credits in the guide.