Rough Itinerary Check: First Time Japan December/January 2022/23

16 comments

1. Looks great! My only recommendation is if you like to hike there is a great walk up to Jodo ji nanamawaricho which can be found by walking to the left of the entrance of Higashiyama Jisho-ji (near the philosopher’s path) then just keep going up – amazing views of all of Kyoto, particularly good at sunset.

2. Day 5

   You can ride a gondola to reach a “higher place” On lake kawaguchiko and the views is great, also there’s a famous soba restaurant on Kawaguchiko but I forgot the name, sorry.

   Also if you planning going to Kawaguchiko, I suggest that you should watch/looking for the day’s weather, if it cloudy you will not be able to see Mt. Fuji

3. 1) based on your current itinerary, I don’t think the full JR pass will be worth it because you’re really only doing one long trip. An alternative you can look at are the regional JR passes like Kansai-wide pass. I usually use the link below to calculate prices and then see if it’s worth to get the full pass or not.

   [Rail Pass Calculator](https://www.japan-guide.com/railpass/)

   2. While a trip to Hokkaido would be really nice in the winter, getting around might be a hassle. It also takes a lot longer to travel from Tokyo to up north so you’ll be spending more time transiting then actually doing something. Going south to Kansai will be less travel time which means more time to do stuff. Also with the weather, Kansai would be better.

   3. The New Year might affect some places because they might be closed so may have to readjust plans accordingly.

   4. I’ll edit/reply later on with recommendations of places to eat or do as they’re flagged in lists on my google maps.

4. >Day Three, Thu, 22nd Dec

   You didn’t ask but I wanted to include, if you’re into coffee, on the west edge of the park is Little Naps Coffee Stand that’s absolutely wonderful, and then a bit more south (still on the west side of the park) is Fuglen Tokyo. The first is a shoebox in size, the latter is going to take you back to the 60’s with the design aesthetic. By day it’s a wonderful coffee bar, as day turns into night it’s a wine bar.

5. Not a bad trip at all, you’ve got some really fun things in here. Some thoughts-

   As another poster noted- you probably won’t need a JR Pass. The 14 day pass wouldn’t quite break even as you have things right now.

   You should be fine for the New Years holiday. Just know that rates go up, and a lot is closed over those days. The temples and shrines are open (and according to Japan Guide Himeji-jo IS miraculously open on the the 31st) so there isn’t NOTHING to do. Just be prepared for restaurants and shops to be closed or quiet and temples and shrines to be NUTS.

   Hokkaido in the winter is mostly for winter sports. If you aren’t going to the snow festival, cranes or Niseko, I’d say you can skip it. (Now the summer on the other hand…)

   I am personally not a fan of day trips to Kawaguchiko. It’s a long trip, its not the easiest place to get around, and as another poster noted- you may not even see mount Fuji! I’d much rather go either there or Hakone for a night or two, stay in a ryokan and get some hot springs action going. Then if you DO get a clear day, the Fuji view is a nice bonus. But you’ve still got some great experiences to fall back on. You could probably combine your Shibuya and Shinjuku days to make this work. While most people on this sub like to cram too much in one day, you probably don’t need a full day for each neighborhood.

   Team Lab Borderless will be shut by December, but Planets is still open.

   I do think that the Hiroshima day trip is impossible- getting to see downtown Hiroshima, Miyajima AND Kure while day tripping in from Osaka is not going to happen. Honestly, even doing that all in one day while staying in Hiroshima probably wouldn’t work. I think you’ll want to pick either Kure or Miyajima and go from there.

   Another thing to think about is reserved seats. Trains can get busy over new years, and standing for a long Shinkansen journey is not my favorite! Plan a few of the journeys out ahead of time, and buy tickets while you are in Tokyo. This will save your legs!

   Have a great time, and make the proper sacrifices for Japan to open.

6. Try to go to Nagasaki. I loved it and the Aokigahara

7. Places might be closed from December 29 – Jan 3rd so research transportation and attractions deeply.

8. Shrines will be busy from New Years Eve to the first couple days of the new year. So if you want to avoid the crowds you can probably adjust your itinerary to avoid shrines in that period. Also markets will be incredibly busy on new years eve as well with people trying to buy items for new years meals.

   Also note that the 25th while not a holiday, it is considered a big night for couples restaurants and other evening places will be pretty busy. TeamLabs could have long lines so might want to move that to another day.

   You might want to look into just flying out of Osaka vs taking a train back to Tokyo. You could be saving money and a travel day.

9. As I said in other comment, I would consider getting the [Kansai – Hiroshima Area Pass](https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/pass/kansai_hiroshima/) and buy individual tickets for Tokyo-Osaka. I would also consider flying in Tokyo and out of Osaka, especially as there is direct flights KIX0-LAX, so it will save you time in the train and even if the plane ticket is more expensive, you would have less to pay for the train.

   If you absolutely want to see snow, ok, maybe go to Hokkaido, but I do not feel it is especially worth the time and money it will cost to go for a couple of days.

   Yes, temple and shrines are busy during new year, if you go at a temple at midnight, there will be some ceremonies. It is also a tradition to go to a temple the first day of the year to pray for good luck. One thing you might want to look for if you want to check out temples and shrines around new year is to do a shichifufujin meguri the idea is to visit 7 temples/shrines dedicated to the 7 gods of luck. They often offer some thematic shuin (a calligraphy of the temple). If that is something you might be interest in, let me know I can give you specific links for one arount Kyoto.

   It could happen that some attraction will close around new year, so check the schedules. Small shops and restaurant, especially those that are family run, might close the first days of the year, so especially if you are not in big cities, you might notice more things that are close.

   Yoyogi park for me is an easy skip. There is good reasons to go, that is to see cherry blossom or to do some people watching during the weekend in the warmer months. So in December, unless you want to go for a run in the park, just don’t go, Yoyogi park is just a park, not a garden, for that you have Shinjuku Gyoen in your list and if you want one more, H ama Rikyu is next to Tsujkiji. Instead of Yoyogi park, I would rather go to Meiji-jingu that is right next to it.

   Check the order of what you want to do, for example Shibuya and Shinjuku are mostly shopping and even nightlife area, so considering shops only open at 10 or 11 am, you should avoid shopping oriented area in the morning, so go to the garden first, it open at 9am, then go to shinjuku. Same for Shibuya, go to Meiji-jingu first (of Yoyogi park if you really want to go).

   Kawaguchiko, you can just go walk around the lake, you can hike or take the ropeway up the mountain, there is also Chureito pagoda that is popular (but you have to be at one specific spot to have the famous view you see on pictures, so I might not recommend it that much), there is also Fuji Q Highland amusement park.

   TeamLalp Borderless is closing at the end of August and Planets will also eventually close, so just keep an eye open for a new exhibition that might be coming to replace them.

   Considering you only plan one real day in Osaka, you might as well just stay in Kyoto the whole time and just do Osaka as a day trip, but of course it’s ok if you want to have a vibe of the night in both cities.

   Miyajima and Hiroshima in a single day is possible, but it will be a full and long day, it is unrealistic do to Kure too on that day.

10. The first seven days are quite chill and leisurely, then the back half is jam packed – can you maybe have a few days in Tokyo at the start, then a few days at the end to spread out your more relaxed days?

    It would be good to get a bit more detail on Shibuya/Shinjuku plans – for me these are mostly nightlife destinations but they are good for shopping too.

    Day 14 is impossible as others have said.

    NYD/NYE will have an impact no matter where you are but it will be lessened in a big city as opposed to in the regions.

    I love travelling in December, but temper your expectations of the gardens given the season.

11. Yeah….that’s too much stuff most days. Also no way you can do day 14 in one day. I lived in Yamaguchi and have been to Hiroshima many times. The ferry takes while to get to the island and things take while to get too.

12. Shops and restaurants will close during New Year Holiday, make sure you got a plan b for this.

13. Probably won’t be an issue as you’re from the US and all under the drinking age there but it’s worth noting that the drinking age is 20 in Japan so just keep that in mind for the 19 year olds in the party.

    When you come to book flights try and see if you can book it so you fly back from KIX (Kansas International) rather than NRT as it’ll save you getting the train back to Tokyo. But also if you do fly back from Tokyo I’m not sure I’d plan to get the train back on the same day as your flight, you won’t know what time it is for a start (I’m assuming you haven’t booked them yet as we still don’t know when Japan will reopen for tourism) and it’s going to make for an extremely long day traveling there, then going through the airport, and then getting on a long haul flight.

    Consider staying the entire portion of your Kansai trip in one city. Osaka and Kyoto are so close (<15 minutes by Shinkansen, 30 minutes by rapid train) that it makes little sense to split your accommodation between both cities. Especially when you seem to only have one day for actually sightseeing in Osaka and the rest are allocated to day trips.

    Personally my preference is to stay in Osaka as I like the food and the nightlife more and there’s more things to do that aren’t just seeing shrines. I know some people can’t get enough of Kyoto but for me I don’t think I could spend more than a couple of days there before shrine fatigue would start to set in. There’s some truly impressive ones but you have to be really into it for them to not blur together after a point. There’s a group of you going so I’d make sure everyone is fully on board with it. I went to Italy with a friend who was much more into Churches than I and while I could appreciate an amount of them we definitely saw far too many for me to properly care about most of them. I’m not trying to put you off but I think staying in Osaka gives a bit more flexibility as you can always increase or reduce the amount of time you spend in Kyoto on the fly (or break it up between different days). Alternately I’d recommend just staying in Kyoto if you’re certain about spending the time there and just doing a day trip to Osaka.

    With regards to Osaka I’d personally skip the castle. It’s alright but it’s a post war reconstruction at the end of the day and you’ve already got more impressive castles on your list of things to see. I’d recommend the aquarium instead. It’s a bit of a different activity and it’s one of the largest in the world so the exhibits are suitably impressive. Every friend I’ve taken there has loved it, even the one who wasn’t sure about going to an aquarium in the middle of our big Japan trip.

    Finally I’d consider building a bit of flexibility in. It’s good to go in with things you want to see and do so you’re not just sat around in the hotel all day wasting time. But equally it’s good not to have a regimented list of stuff you’ll do on each specific day. You might find when you get there that you don’t feel like doing a particular activity on a particular day, or the thing you wanted to do is closed, or that you don’t have enough time to fit something in, or you discover something you want to do which you didn’t know about but don’t have any time to allocate to it. Just be prepared to shuffle stuff around if you need to and don’t stress too much about fitting absolutely everything in.

14. If Japan is open before then it’ll probably close for the winter since winter is becoming covid season.

15. Some suggestions: Imperial Palace has a long line and takes away 3-4hrs. It is kind of boring TBH and you are locked into a free tour that is pretty meh. There is only a couple good shots you can get from the bridge but pale in comparison to other castles. Since you are going to Himeji and Osaka castle, this can be skipped. I’d go from Tsukiji market to Ginza then explore parts of Tokyo Station. Also you can walk to Harajuku from Yoyogi park. For shibuya, there is an excellent view from shibuya scramble mall. The popular Uobei sushi conveyor belt restaurant is also in shibuya (100Y sushi plates and more catered to westerners). I also recommend If you want a cool experience, there is an inexpensive shiba inu puppy cafe there. Day 4, I would prob flip the order and do shinjuku at night. It really shines at night being the nightlife part of town. I did the robot show in shinjuku. It was a tourist trap. You may like it if you are into what the west thinks of japan. It looks like you are into anime since you listed Den Den and Akihabara. I also recommend Nakano Broadway. Most of hiroshima in one day is too much IMO. Miyajima is no easy hike. After the cable car takes you up, you still have to hike 20-30 minutes up to the summit. You also need to get to the Ferry terminal in hiroshima.

    I did the tokyo/kyoto/osaka/hiroshima circuit a similar timeframe on a 14 day JR pass:

    Tokyo 3 days

    Kyoto 3 days

    Hiroshima 3 days

    Osaka 3 days

    Tokyo 2 days

    Really need to buffer days during travel. It is a high speed train but the logistics of traveling checking-in/checking-out makes it much more tiring.

16. One thing to know is that in December you’ll find lots of winter illuminations all over Japan. We went for the illuminations in Osaka this past December (we are currently living in Japan) and they were great. For this reason plus all the great nightlife I’d definitely suggest just staying in Osaka. You could do your day trip, come back to the hotel for a rest, go see an illumination which are mostly free, have dinner and drinks out in Amerika-mura or Dotonbori. We stayed at the [Cross Hotel Osaka](http://www.booking.com/Share-GQtgP1d) and found it to be a great location for shopping, restaurants, and nightlife. Check for updated info on 2022/23 illuminations closer to your date of travel. Just Google ‘illuminations + city name + year’

    – [Visiting Japan During New Years](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2276.html)
    – [Best Winter Illuminations in Kansai](https://jw-webmagazine.com/best-winter-illumination-spots-in-osaka-d19f1d509a4e/)
    – [Tokyo Winter Illumination Guide 2021/22](https://jw-webmagazine.com/tokyo-winter-illumination-guide-2017-2018-13d71df4af67/)
    – [Top 10 Bars and Nightlife in Osaka](https://bnc.lt/gtCg/v40W02baapb)
    – [10 Foreigner Friendly Bars and Clubs in Osaka](https://travel.gaijinpot.com/japan-sightseeing-essentials/top-10-foreigner-friendly-bars-and-clubs-in-osaka/)

    Happy Planning!