We are travelling to Japan for 2 weeks; 23 of March to 4th of April.
Most of our itinerary is planned already but I would like some final advice!
Itinerary summary:
day 1:
arrive to Osaka, have lunch and travel to Kyoto to our hotel to rest after a long trip
day 2:
visit north Higashiyama, then Nishiki market for lunch, finally stroll through Ponto-cho for the night
day 3:
south Higashiyama, tea ceremony, kaiseki lunch and Gion during the night
day 4:
change hotels, visit fushimi inari in the morning then travel to Nara for the rest of the day
day 5:
fully booked (GetYourGuide) day trip tour to Hiroshima and Miyajima
day 6:
Visit arashiyama, Kinkaku-ji, Daitoku-ji, rest to prepare for next day travel
day 7:
travel to Hakone Gora, relax in the hotel for the rest of the day
day 8:
start early for the Hakone round trip, pick our bags and travel to Tokyo by night
day 9:
full day visiting Gyoen Gardens, Yoyogi, Shinjuku, Shibuya
day 10:
(not yet planned) full day drip to Nikko
day 11:
akahibara, ueno park, asakusa, tokyo skytree
day 12:
teamlabs, lunch at hachigou ginza, afternoon in nakameguro and either roppongi or kitazawa
day 13: fly back from Tokyo Haneda
I appreciate some people have suggested that 6 days in Kyoto might be a bit to much but there is actually quite a lot to see and 2 of the days we’ll be away on day trips. Maybe it might have been best to stay a day in Hiroshima but I didn’t want to change accommodation all the time and thought that by booking an organised trip it would make things easier anyway. Others have suggested staying in Osaka but I seemed to prefer the Kyoto vibes and since we would be spending some time in Tokyo as well, I didn’t want to spent even more days in a big city. Hopefully skipping Osaka is not too bad!
My final question is whether we should be spending one more night in Hakone (or even perhaps travelling to Lake Kawaguchi, though I understand there’s a bit of fuss in getting there and might not be even that worth it if Fuji is not visible). I feel getting there late on the first day and doing the round-trip next morning before travelling to Tokyo might be a bit too rushed and it would be nice to rest for a couple of days there.
On the other hand I would definitely like to have at least 3 full days in Tokyo. While people have suggested this is more than enough for your first time in Japan, I’d like to spend some time in Tokyo. Coming from London I do appreciate big city vibes and Tokyo will definitely be a very different experience to London. Given this, we probably don’t have enough days to both stay an additional day in Hakone and do a day trip from Tokyo.
Nikko looks amazing, the shrine is very unique and the nature looks very nice too. I understand it is quite cold during that period and might not be the best place for sakura spotting, on the contrary it’s supposed to be amazing during autumn.
Do you think it would still be worth visiting Nikko or would Kyoto and Hakone are already offering quite enough in terms of culture (shrine viewing) and nature? Would it perhaps be better to spend an additional day in Hakone instead? Or would visiting Kamakura instead be the final piece in our amazing first trip to Japan?
Thanks for any suggestions 🙂
by ngkostoulas