Im planning our first trip to Japan (from the UK) in early April to hopefully see the main sights and the cherry blossom over two weeks! It’s unlikely we will return to Japan (at least for a while) after this trip so we want to try see as much as possible!
Im quite interested in seeing a range of Japanese culture and food and my partner wants to see Disney while we are there. Ive put together a rough itinerary to get us started but it is really tough to know what we are missing / what is not worth the time to visit. Currently I have only planned 11 days as I expect as we start to flesh the ideas out we will end up adding a few things. Ive also not included travel time so that would easily be +2days.
My main concern is getting around Japan – I have looked at the JRPass but I dont think it makes sense for us as we would be only taking a couple of bullet trains. Would it be best for us to buy tickets per train rather than the pass?
Once we are there how difficult is it to access places in the cities? For example is Kiyomizu-dera difficult to get to? How easy is it to walk around the cities? Is public transport reasonably priced?
Traveling in early April I believe it should be peak cherry blossom season – how likely is it that we will struggle to book hotels / food this close to travelling?
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|Day|Location|Activity|
|:-|:-|:-|
|1|Tokyo|Disneyland|
|2|Tokyo|DisneySea|
|3|Tokyo|Shibuya Crossing, Meiji Shrine, Tokyo Sky Tree, Odaiba (Electronics district),|
|4|Tokyo|Asakusa (traditional Japan craft markets), teamLab Borderless digital art museum, travel to Kyoto via bullet train|
|5|Kyoto|Fushimi Inari-taisha (Gate Shrine), Kiyomizu-dera (Mountain Temple), Gion (geisha District)|
|6|Kyoto|Kyoto Imperial Palace, Nijo Castle, Maruyama Park|
|7|Kyoto|Arashiyama (Bamboo Forrest), Iwatayama Monkey Park,|
|8|Kyoto|Day Trip to Nara: Todai-ji (Buddha Temple), Nara Park,|
|9|Kyoto|Kyoto Ryoan-ji Temple (Rock Gardens) + Bullet train to Osaka|
|10|Osaka|Aquarium Kaiyukan (Large aquarium), Osaka Castle, Dotonbori (Nightlife area)|
|11|Osaka|Universal Studios + Super Mario World|
​
by Forum_Layman