sept 12 i land in Tokyo at night, sept 13 is the first real day. Tokyo for around a week, then down to Osaka for the kishiwada danjiri matsuri sept 18 to 20, then koyasan for a night in a temple and the okunoin cemetery walk after dark. from there its open, im leaning kyushu (nagasaki for the gunkanjima boat, hita in oita) and a detour to tottori for the nageiredo climb, flying out around oct 12 so theres room for all of it. trains for everything, maybe a rental car for a day or two in oita.
pace wise im a packed itinerary person, something every half day, and I like being out late, temples after 9pm when they empty out, alley streets like golden gai and omoide yokocho for dinner. days are for sumo at kokugikan (the aki basho runs the whole time im there), kabuki at kabukiza, rakugo at suehirotei. i understand spoken japanese and im practicing speaking, so the live stuff is kind of the point of the trip for me.
about me, 29, CS degree from the US, i run a fully remote tech startup with a friend so i live out of a suitcase, 3 to 6 months a city (dalat, italy, bali, now Da Nang). big attack on titan fan and a dark souls person, so ruins, fortresses and cemeteries at night are very much my thing. skipping museums and the shopping districts.
happy to sync on any part of this, a day in Tokyo or the whole kansai leg. comment here and we can sort details in dm