Hi! Have been reading a lot of itineraries here, with great and helpful comments. Thought I would give it a try with our itinerary as well.
We are a couple mid 30s and a (when travelling) 10-11month baby. Main goal will be to try as much food we can and to check the main tourist attractions. The baby will of course impact our plans, this is also our first longer trip. From reading other posts we will have 1-2 main focuses during a day and be very open to change. We will have 13 nights divided as 5,3,4,1 in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Narita (airport).
Dates: 27/3-9/4
Have tried to map out restaurants/cafes in each area on google maps so we at least have some options beforehand but will adapt if needed. As we probably won’t be able to queue for 1h+ with baby.
We will also have lunch as our ”main” meal of the day, cheaper and hopefully less stressful with baby to not disturb others. Some days are more built around our lunch reservations :)To save time we will probably take taxi a lot instead of subway.
Sorry for wall of text!
—— Day 1: Tokyo 27/3 ——
Arrive from Europe, 18:00. Flying ANA first class (award), very excited for this! Taxi to hotel (15h flight, with all luggage and baby we thought this would be the least stressful option). Staying at Conrad Tokyo (hilton points). Check-in, eat room service/Konbini and sleep.
—— Day 2: Tokyo 28/3 ——
Quite open day, we will see how jetlag is.
Plan is:
-Taxi or subway to Sensoji Temple and spend 2-3h in temple+Nakamise street and surrounding area.
-Some food places to try: Bentisuru (probably won’t make this), Suzukien Asakusa, Asakusa Kagetsudō, Komugi No Dorei, Funawa, Imo pippi.
-Taxi (10min) or walk (30min) to Ueno Park. Spend 1-2h in park and surrounding area. Also eat lunch here.
-Rest of the day free. Option to check out area around hotel or one of: Chidorigafuchi Park, Hamarikyu Gardens, Meji Shrine, Harajuku (to get more time on later days in this area). Could check Akihabara but neither of us see this as priority.
—— Day 3: Tokyo 29/3 ——
Taxi/Subway to Shinjuku station. Maybe arrive 0930-10, hard to tell with jetlag.
-3D billboard, any special exit for this if we are heading to the park after?
-Gyoen park (1-2h)
10-15min Sendagaya exit to entrance Meji+10-15 to main shrine. (30-50min)
-Meji Shrine (1-1.5h) – maybe other day
-Harajuku area.
Lunch at Kaiten Sushi Onodera. If we feel time is to short we will take taxi directly to Shibuya.
-Shibuya crossing, Hachiko statue
-If time, shopping. But will probably go back on later days.
-Shibuya sky (approx 17, will see what tickets we can get)
-Taxi/subway to hotel
Do you think this is doable? Could do Meji another day maybe.
—— Day 4: Tokyo 30/3 ——
In no specific order
-Ginza/hotel area
-Hamarikyu park (not that prioritized)
-Bakerys+cafes
-Chidorigafuchi Park
-Imperial Palace (not that prioritized)
-Lunch 11:30 at Kyubey.
-Shibuya?
Nothing more planned, open if there is something we want to do. Rest at hotel (pool, afternoon tea).
—— Day 5: Tokyo 31/3 ——
Taxi 5-10min to Azabudai Hills
-Teamlab Borderless
Depends on which time we can book, either early or late afternoon
-Lunch 13:00 Bifteck Kawamura Ginza
Afternoon/morning open, Shibuya/Shinjuku/Harajuku?
-Send all luggage to Osaka hotel
—— Day 6: Tokyo->Osaka 1/4 ——
-Tsukiji market (1-3h)
-Time if anything else we have missed
-Bullet ride to Osaka -> probably arrive late, check-in to hotel (Cross hotel Osaka). Nothing more planned
—— Day 7: Osaka 2/4 ——
-Taxi/subway to Osaka Castle (2-3h)
-Kema Sakuranomiya Park (1-2h?)
-Taxi/subway Osaka station
-Lunch at some point here. Stroll in the area, Umeda-area+Umeda sky if we have time
-Back to hotel
-Dinner around Dotonbori
—— Day 8: Osaka 3/4 ——
-Shinsekai market, maybe Tower of knives (these can be skipped)
-Kuromon market
-Shinsaibashi
-Dotonbori
-Send luggage to Kyoto hotel
—— Day 9: Osaka->Kyoto 4/4 ——
-Travel to Kyoto, not sure long this will take. Hotel -> Osaka station -> Kawaramachi station. Have set this to 1.5-2h, we probably will take taxi to Osaka station. But assume we will get lost for a while here 🙂
-Lunch at Kiyama (not booked yet) or Nishiki Market.
-Check in, The Royal Park Hotel Kyoto Sanjo.
-Stroll in hotel area, walk along Pontocho.
—— Day 10: Kyoto 5/4 ——
-Nishiki market, Shopping
-Taxi to Ginkaku-temple
-Walk down Philosopher’s Path to Nanzen temple (2-3h?)
-If time Keage Incline and/or taxi to Nijo castle
—— Day 11: Kyoto 6/4 ——
-Taxi to Kiyomizu-dera (hopefully early!)
-Kiyomizu-dera (2h)
-Walk along Sannenzaka, Ninenzaka, shopping
-Hokan-ji, Ryozen Kannon, Ishibei-koji Lane, Maruyama Park, Yaska Shrine, Gion corner, Shinbashi-dori
All this are along the same path as I understand, I assume we won’t stay long at each site. Doable? In google maps the route take 40min. We have nothing else planned for rest of the day.
—— Day 12: Kyoto 7/4 ——
-Fukushima Inari (2-3h). Will probably not do the hike.
-Lunch at Misono
-Check in at Seikoro Ryokan – 15:00. Spend rest of evning here or close to the Ryokan.
-Send luggage to Narita hotel
—— Day 13: Kyoto 8/4 ——
-Open if we missed anything. One option is Arashiyama but after reading lot of comments that it is not worth the trip (at least the bamboo) we probably will skip this.
-Any suggestions? Nijo castle perhaps.
-Option to take half-day in Tokyo as well
Travel to Tokyo (Shinagawa station) -> N’EX to Narita airport -> Shuttle to Hilton Narita
——Day 14 9/4——
Travel home, flight leaves 13:30 so rather sleep close to airport.
NRT-TPE-VIE, EVA Air (biz). We have 6h at TPE airport but think this is to short to leave airport?
We left out some day-trips due to baby, e.g Nara, Kobe etc. Also not sure regarding Shinjuku, seems this would better at evning/night without baby 🙂 So have not planned a lot of time there.
Thankful for all input!