My husband and I (we are an American gay couple) will be traveling to Japan for the first time. We have done a lot of research, watching YouTube videos, reading reviews…etc. I think we have put together a pretty good itinerary that balances sightseeing as well as flexibility. But we actually leave this Friday, so I’m posting our itinerary just as a sanity check and to see if anyone has any ideas for things we should do that aren’t on our list.
In general, we’re not big drinkers (and actually neither of us eat seafood – one is a general dislike, the other is an allergy to shellfish) so we haven’t made as many restaurant reservations/plans as we plan to just sort of play it by ear. We’re actually excited about trying lots of foods in the 7-11s, Family Marts, and Lawsons. I also really want to go to Coco Ichibans for Japanese curry.
We like seeing the big touristy destinations but we also like the smaller, unknown experiences as well.
We think we’re totally going to be into random gashapon and vending machines so any recommendations on those would be appreciated! We also want to visit a Pachinko parlor or two!
We plan on staying in Tokyo one night (the night our flight arrives), Osaka for 3 nights, Kinosaki Onsen for 2 nights, and then Tokyo for 9 nights (split between two locations).
We also both have iPhones and are planning on loading up virtual Suica cards and using our phones/watches in all of the local train stations. As well as probably using it wherever it is accepted. We have international credit cards/debit cards that don’t charge foreign transaction fees, so we should be fine with that too.
We are also renting a mobile wifi hotspot from Ninja for our entire time in Japan.
**Questions:**
* *Where do you get Bento boxes for the train?*
* *Are there good non-seafood Bento boxes available?*
* *Any other delicious Japanese snacks we should take with us on the train?*
* *Any restaurant recommendations for any of the areas that we’re visiting that aren’t fishy?*
* *We would like to do one of: Tokyo Tower, Shibuya Sky, or Tokyo Skytree. Any recommendations on which one is best?*
**Day 0 – Arrive at Haneda:**
* Arrive \~9:30pm
* Staying at First Cabin Haneda for the first night
* We didn’t want to mess about finding a hotel for one night just to then have to get on a train. And we wanted to experience a capsule hotel, so this is win-win. We’ll get up in the morning and take the airport train to Shinagawa
**Day 1 – Train to Osaka:**
* (Yes, we are immediately training to a different city our first day in Japan. Due to a small blunder, we got tickets to see Ed Sheeran in Osaka – not Tokyo like we thought – but actually we’re working with it and it’s going to allow us to see some other cities before Tokyo)
* 10am Shinkansen from Shinagawa to Shin-Osaka
* Arrive \~10/10:30am
* Local train from Shin-Osaka to Namba Station
* Walk to hotel (\~10 minutes) and drop bags off
* Local train from Namba to Dome-mae
* Attend Ed Sheeran concert at Kyocera Dome Osaka
* Local train back to Namba, walk to hotel, check-in, sleep
**Day 2 – Osaka:**
* We don’t have a ton planned
* We want to walk around Donbori
* Would like to buy some Nippon Made Onitsuka Tiger shoes while there
* Possibly walk around Shensikai
* Note: Since we won’t eat fish, I think we’re still ok to try Okonomiyaki (as long as we don’t choose fishy ingredients). We also want to try kushikatsu.
* *Any other Osaka-specific foods we have to try?*
**Day 3 – Kyoto:**
* \~9am take local train from Namba station to Shin-Osaka station
* Bullet train from Shin-Osaka to Kyoto Station
* Local train from Kyoto Station to Inari Station
* Arrive at Fushimi Inari Taisha \~10am. Spend a few hours walking through the Torii gates
* Local train from Fushimi Inari Station to Gion-Shijo station
* Walk around the Gion district, down to Higashiyama district.
* Visit Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Stay and watch sunset.
* Walk back down through Higashiyama
* Bullet train back from Kyoto to Osaka (last train at 10:30pm)
* Local train back to Namba station
* Walk to our hotel, sleep
**Day 4 – Train to Kinosaki Onsen:**
* Checkout of hotel by 9am
* Train from Namba station to Osaka station
* \~10am Ltd. Express Train from Osaka to Kinosakionsen Station
* Arrive Kinosaki Onsen \~1pm
* Walk to our Ryokan and drop bags off
* Walk around Kinosaki Onsen
* Go to appt at Iroha Yukata to rent Yukatas
* *Do you think they’ll have Yukatas to fit large men? Will it be too cold for them anyway?*
* Potentially visit Onsens that are closed on Thursdays
* Go to Ryokan, sleep
**Day 5 – Kinosaki Onsen:**
* Wake up
* Coffee/breakfast
* Onsen
* Go up Kinosaki Onsen Ropeway
* Have coffee at summit
* Throw clay disks at summit
* Visit Sensoji Temple on the way down
* More Onsens
* Back to Ryokan, sleep
**Day 6 – Train to Tokyo:**
* Checkout by 10am
* Store bags at Ryokan OR Train station lockers
* Final walk around Kinoski
* Maybe final Onsen
* Grab a bento box for the train
* \~2:30 Train from Kinosakionsen Station to Tokyo Station
* Transfer to Shinkansen at Kyoto
* Arrive Tokyo \~7:30/8pm
* Local train from Tokyo Station to Shinjuku
* Check in at hotel in Kabukicho
* Walk around Kabukicho
* Back to hotel, sleep
**Day 7 – Shinjuku/Kabukicho:**
* Explore Shinjuku and Kabukicho
* Visit Kabukicho tower
* Shinjuku omoide yokocho for izukayas and snacks and drinks
* Visit gay Shinjuku at night
* Aiiro Cafe
* Tokyo Eagle
* *Any other lesser-known gay destinations in Shinjuku we have to see?*
* Find gashapon, pachinko, or weird vending machines
**Day 8 – Shibuya/Harajuku:**
* Local Train to Shibuya
* Explore Shibuya/Harajuku
* We have a lunch reservation at Kumachan Onsen, which is a hot pot restaurant.
* Walk Takeshita dori street
* We want to get the rainbow sandwich from Le Shiner, because of course we do
* Visit the Mega Don Quixote
* Shibuya Sky
* Shibuya scramble
* We are going to try to make a reservation at Hikiniku to Come for dinner
* Local Train back to Shinjuku
**Day 9 – Akihabara:**
* \~10am Local train to Akihabara
* Visit Kodobashi Akiba electronics store
* Visit Mandarake for bara manga
* Visit the creepy vending machine area in Akihabara
* Eat yakatori dinner at Shimonya
* Local train back to Shinjuku. Go to hotel and sleep.
**Day 10 – Ginza East:**
* (We’re changing hotels this day, so we purposefully left it as a light day with not much planned. However, we should have plenty of time to fit other things in)
* \~10am Local train from Shinjuku to Tokyo Station
* Walk to new hotel and drop bags off
* Reservation at Teamlab Planets for 5:30pm
* Dinner somewhere
* Chill evening at hotel
* *Anything else we should fit into this day given where we’re going to be?*
**Day 11 – Disneyland:**
* Leave hotel by 8am
* Local train from Hatchobori Station to Maihama Station
* Disney all day
* Local train back to hotel
* Sleep
**Day 12 – Concert @ Tokyo Dome:**
* Sleep in
* \~10am Local train to Tokyo Dome area and explore
* Taylor Swift concert all afternoon/evening
* Local train back to hotel
**Day 13 – DisneySea:**
* Leave hotel by 8am
* Local train from Hatchobori Station to Maihama Station
* DisneySea all day
* Local train back to hotel
* Sleep
**Day 14 – TBD:**
* We have a full day before our flight
* *What should we do this day??*
* We left it as a buffer day in case there was something else we wanted to go back to, or do something entirely new that we discover while we’re there
**Day 15 – Flight Home:**
* Our flight is at 10:25am, so we are likely going to get up and checkout around 5am and then local train back to Haneda