Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto and Osaka: the most seamless route

Travel west, and only west

The single rule that makes this route work: go in one direction. Tokyo, then the mountains, then Kyoto, then Osaka, then fly home from Kansai. Every stop is further west than the last. You never cover the same track twice.

The common alternative — Tokyo, Kyoto, back to Hakone, back to Tokyo — is on many itineraries because people book a return flight into Haneda or Narita before planning anything else. That one decision adds around five hours of unnecessary travel and a wasted final night. Book an open-jaw flight: in to Tokyo, out of Osaka Kansai. It usually costs the same.

Where Hakone actually fits

Hakone sits between Tokyo and the Shinkansen line, which is what makes it so convenient — you are not detouring, you are stopping on the way.

From Shinjuku, the Odakyu Romancecar runs directly to Hakone-Yumoto in roughly 85 minutes. It is a reserved-seat train, comfortable, and the front seats look straight down the track. When you leave Hakone, you go down to Odawara, which is on the Tokaido Shinkansen line, and continue west to Kyoto from there.

One night or two?

Two, if you are staying somewhere worth staying. Hakone's appeal is a ryokan with a private onsen bath, kaiseki dinner served in your room, and nothing to do. One night means you arrive, bathe, eat, sleep and leave — which is a lot of movement for one bath.

One night is defensible if you are on ten days rather than fourteen and Kyoto matters more to you.

Hakone or the Fuji Five Lakes?

They are not the same trip, and the choice comes down to what you want.

If your priority is the seamless route, take Hakone. If you have come a very long way and seeing Fuji properly is the point, take Kawaguchiko and accept the less elegant connection.

Kyoto: base yourself correctly

Kyoto rewards choosing your district more than any other city in Japan, because moving across it is slow. The city's subway is two lines; the buses are crowded and stop constantly.

• Around Kyoto Station — best for onward travel and day trips, weakest for atmosphere.
• Gion and Higashiyama — the Kyoto people picture. Walk out of your hotel into it.
• Karasuma and Nakagyo — central, best for restaurants, well connected.
• Arashiyama — beautiful, and inconveniently far from everything else.

For a first visit I put people in Higashiyama or Nakagyo, and never in Arashiyama.

Kyoto to Osaka is not a travel day

Kyoto and Osaka are fifteen minutes apart on the Shinkansen, and around thirty on the regular JR line. This has two consequences most itineraries miss.

First, you do not need the Shinkansen. The special rapid service costs a fraction of the price and takes half an hour.

Second, and more usefully: you can eat dinner in Osaka and sleep in Kyoto. Osaka's food is the reason to go, and it is at its best in the evening. If Osaka does not otherwise appeal to you, do not give it two nights — give it one long evening from a Kyoto base.

The sequence, with luggage

Every move goes one direction, every long move is covered by forwarding, and the only luggage you handle personally is a small bag for one or two nights. That is what "seamless" means in practice — not fewer trains, but never carrying anything heavy onto one.