Two weeks is the sweet spot for central Japan — long enough to move slowly, short enough to stay energised. This itinerary traces the classic Golden Route and extends it into Hiroshima, Miyajima Island, and the underrated city of Kanazawa, giving you seven distinct destinations linked by the shinkansen. You will sleep in a different city every two or three nights, sample regional cooking at every stop, and return home having covered nearly every essential highlight the country has to offer. Book your flights well in advance, especially for autumn and cherry-blossom season.

The 14-day nationwide Japan Rail Pass costs approximately ¥80,000 (around USD 540) for Ordinary class and covers all shinkansen bullet trains except the Nozomi and Mizuho services. For this itinerary the pass pays for itself within the first few inter-city legs: a Tokyo–Kyoto bullet-train ticket alone retails at roughly ¥14,000 one way. Activate your pass on Day 1 at a JR Exchange Office at the airport and keep it active through your Hiroshima–Kanazawa–Tokyo return loop. Reserving seats in advance on popular trains costs nothing extra and saves stress on busy travel days.

Budget roughly USD 100–150 per person per day for mid-range accommodation, food, entrance fees, and local transport — more in Tokyo, slightly less in Kanazawa and Nara. Accommodation in major cities books out weeks ahead during peak seasons: late March to early April (sakura) and late October to mid-November (koyo autumn foliage) are the busiest periods. Use the app to compare hotels across all seven stops in one session and lock in rates early.

Arrive at Narita or Haneda and clear immigration with time to spare. Book an airport transfer to your hotel rather than navigating the rail network with heavy luggage on your first hour in the country. Tokyo rewards those who stay in central neighbourhoods: Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Asakusa each have their own rhythm and are connected by an efficient metro.

Senso-ji, Tokyo's oldest temple, dates to the seventh century and its famous Kaminarimon thunder gate is one of the most photographed sights in Japan. Arrive before 8 AM to see incense smoke rise through a quiet courtyard before the crowds gather. The Nakamise-dori shopping street leading to the main hall sells handmade crackers, fans, and sweets that make excellent early gifts.

Shibuya Crossing is the most theatrical pedestrian intersection on earth — stand on the elevated Shibuya Sky observation deck for an aerial view, then descend and cross it yourself at ground level. Shinjuku's Golden Gai laneway district packs hundreds of tiny bars into a few hundred metres of narrow alley; arrive after 9 PM when the neighbourhood truly wakes up. For Day 3 food, try a standing ramen counter in Shinjuku and finish with thick-cut wagyu skewers from a backstreet izakaya.

The Romancecar express from Shinjuku reaches Hakone-Yumoto in roughly 85 minutes — your JR Pass does not cover this private line, so factor in a ¥2,600 fare. Hakone sits inside a volcanic caldera and on clear days frames Fujisan (Mount Fuji) across Lake Ashi with almost impossible perfection. An onsen (hot spring) bath is non-negotiable here; most ryokan include two soaks per day in mineral-rich water.

Day 5 morning: take the Hakone Ropeway from Sounzan over the Owakudani volcanic valley, where you can eat black-shelled eggs boiled in sulphuric springs. The lake cruise from Togendai to Hakone-machi gives you forty minutes of Fuji panoramas over still water. Traveloka's activities page lists pre-bookable day tours from Tokyo to Hakone that include the ropeway and lake cruise.

Kyoto was Japan's imperial capital for over a millennium and holds more UNESCO-listed sites per square kilometre than almost anywhere on the planet. Three days is the minimum to feel you have scratched the surface; the ideal strategy is to divide the city into compass quadrants and assign a half-day to each. Stay as close to Gion as budget allows — this is the historic geisha district and walking its stone lanes at dusk, watching lanterns flicker in the doorways of old wooden machiya townhouses, is one of Japan's defining experiences.

Fushimi Inari Taisha is free to enter and open around the clock, making a dawn start the best strategy before the tour groups arrive. Ten thousand vermillion torii gates spiral up the forested slopes of Mount Inari over a four-kilometre trail. Kiyomizu-dera temple clings to a hillside in eastern Kyoto and its wooden stage, built without a single nail according to tradition, overlooks a sea of maple and cherry trees.

The Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is best visited by 7 AM to walk the main path in relative quiet before crowds thicken. The nearby Tenryu-ji Zen garden's reflection pond, with Arashiyama's forested hills as borrowed scenery, is worth the ¥500 garden-only admission. Kinkaku-ji — the Golden Pavilion — needs no introduction; its gilded upper floors mirror perfectly in the still pond below. For Day 8 lunch, hunt down a bowl of tofu kaiseki in the Higashiyama district.

Nara is a 45-minute train ride from Kyoto and makes a deeply satisfying day trip. Over 1,000 semi-wild sika deer roam Nara Park freely, famously bowing for shika senbei (deer crackers). Todai-ji temple houses Daibutsu, a 15-metre bronze Buddha that is the largest in Japan, seated inside the world's largest wooden hall. Kasuga Taisha shrine, set deep in the park's cedar forest, glows with hundreds of stone and bronze lanterns lit twice a year during festival season.

For lunch, try kakinoha-zushi — vinegared rice and salmon or mackerel wrapped in persimmon leaves — a Nara speciality. Return to Kyoto or press onward to Osaka in the early evening.

Osaka operates on a different frequency from Kyoto: louder, hungrier, and unapologetically commercial. The city's unofficial motto, kuidaore — "eat yourself into bankruptcy" — tells you everything you need to know. Dotonbori is the neon-lit canal district where every third storefront sells takoyaki (octopus balls), okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes), or skewered kushikatsu (battered and deep-fried everything). Walk the canal boardwalk after dark when the giant mechanical crab signs and blazing screens reflect off the water.

Osaka Castle, rebuilt and museum-fitted, rises above cherry-tree moats and offers a panoramic city view from its eighth-floor observation deck. Check Traveloka promotions for Osaka hotel deals and activity bundles worth checking before you finalise bookings.

The shinkansen covers the 340 kilometres from Osaka to Hiroshima in under 90 minutes on your JR Pass. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Genbaku Dome constitute one of the most powerful and quietly devastating sites in the world. The Peace Memorial Museum (¥200 admission) documents the human cost through personal belongings, photographs, and survivor testimonies; allow two hours minimum and prepare to be moved.

Take the tram to Miyajimaguchi and ferry across to Miyajima Island in the afternoon. The torii gate of Itsukushima Shrine stands in tidal shallows and at high tide appears to float on open water — one of Japan's three canonical views and more extraordinary in person than in any image. Overnight in Hiroshima city and try Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki — layered rather than mixed, built over noodles on a flat iron griddle.

Kanazawa sits on the Sea of Japan coast and is reached from Hiroshima via a change at Osaka onto the Hokuriku shinkansen, about three and a half hours in total. The city escaped wartime bombing and retains intact samurai and geisha districts. Kenroku-en garden is considered one of Japan's three great landscape gardens. Higashi Chaya-gai is the best-preserved geisha entertainment district in Japan outside Kyoto. The Omicho covered market is packed with the freshest seafood on the itinerary: snow crab, nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch), and sweet local ebi shrimp. On the morning of Day 14, catch the Hokuriku shinkansen back to Tokyo for a final night or fly home direct from Kanazawa Airport.

Traveloka is Southeast Asia's leading travel platform, trusted by over 100 million users across the region. Everything on this 14-day itinerary — from Tokyo departure flights and Osaka hotel rooms to Hiroshima day-tour tickets — can be booked through a single app. The platform covers flights, hotels, activities and attraction tickets, car rental for flexible regional exploration, eSIM cards for seamless connectivity across Japan, and travel insurance to protect the whole journey. Download the app before you travel, check for bundle deals, and use promotions to lock in the best rates across all seven stops on this route.