Pretty much every first Japan trip is some mix of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. They're two and a half hours apart by shinkansen, and every blog has a different opinion on the split. Here's ours, with the reasoning attached so you can disagree properly.
The splits that work
- 7 days: Tokyo 4, Kyoto 3. Don't stay in Osaka — you can taste it in an evening from Kyoto. It's 15 minutes to Umeda on the rapid train, ¥580, no reservation.
- 10 days: Tokyo 4, Kyoto 4, Osaka 2. Now Osaka earns its own bed — Dotonbori at midnight is a different city from Dotonbori on a day trip.
- 14 days: Tokyo 5, Kyoto 4, Osaka 3, plus a proper day trip from each: Kamakura, Nara, and Himeji or Kobe.
Why Kyoto gets more days than you'd expect
Kyoto shuts early. Most temples close between 4:30 and 5:30pm, so a Kyoto "day" is really 9-to-5 where a Tokyo day runs past midnight. Three Kyoto days hold about as much as two Tokyo days.
And the famous spots — Fushimi Inari, Kiyomizu-dera, the bamboo grove — are only really bearable before 9am, which costs you a morning each. This is exactly why generic itineraries overpack Kyoto afternoons: the listicle doesn't know the temple closes at 4:30. It's also the thing our planner's self-check catches most often.
The one-night mistake
The tempting version: Tokyo → one night in Hakone → Kyoto → one night in Osaka → fly home. Don't.
Every hotel change costs a real half-day — pack, check out, haul bags, check in, figure out where you are again. Two one-night stays burn a full day of a ten-day trip. The itinerary feels efficient and is slower.
Rule of thumb: no stop under two nights. If a place only deserves one, it's a day trip. (The planner applies this automatically if you tell it you'd rather not keep changing hotels.)
Which way to fly
In through Tokyo, out through Osaka (Kansai) if the fares are close — it saves the 2.5-hour backtrack. If you have to round-trip through Tokyo, put Tokyo at both ends: jetlagged-arrival Tokyo is for wandering, last-night Tokyo is for the shopping you sensibly put off.
Or just have it built
Give the planner your total days and pick your cities — it weighs the split by each city's real depth, plans around the shinkansen leg, and keeps each day's stops in one zone. You see Japan instead of the inside of trains.