10 days trip to Japan in February

13 comments

1. i’ll be there around the same time and we have a very similar itinerary! i can’t provide much insight but im interested to see what others have to say 😊 enjoy your trip!

2. There is no way you will achieve close to what you are hoping for on your first full day there. The jet lag discussion is subjective, but you will be exhausted for the first day + once arriving there.

   If you’ve not been to big crushing Asian cities, used to the ‘way things are in Japan’.. the money..the using IC cards… the overwhelmingness of all the options and ways of doing things, it takes some time. While I don’t know you nor your travel habits and likes/ dislikes..it takes me several days to adjust. ‘Hitting the ground running’ if this is your first time to a large Asian city is challenging (assuming you cannot speak nor read Kanji/Jaoanese)

   And -I just read you have two younger people in tow- yeah, cut your schedule down. [The national Ryokan website](https://www.ryokan.or.jp/english/) could help you. The route you are taking is ultra popular and if you look through this sub and r/japantraveltips you will see people posting similar questions as to yours

   Edit: due to the enormous interest in visiting post Covid, I would research about attaining tickets for the attractions such as Harry Potter, Ghibli and so on

3. I wouldn’t split Gion over two days unless you want to see them during the day and the evening; eg. Kiyomizu-dera Temple is the end point of Sannenzaka Path. I would instead split the days between Arashiyama and Gion.

4. How old are the kiddos?

   The imperial palace is nice to look at but kids would find it pretty boring. If kiddos like fish, the market might be fun but you have to go first thing in the morning. I wouldn’t say it’s a must do for kids though.

   The uniqlos have the same stock across the city most of the time, so I would just do one. The muji flagship is cool though. If your kiddos are in school, there is a shop where you can have completely custom journals/notebooks made for a reasonable price. They’re very pretty. I’ll edit this reply when I’m back on desktop and can grab the address.
   edit: https://kakimori.com/en/pages/order-notebook

   You are better off going to fushimi Inari taisha, Then kiyomizu dera. Then book the last tour of the day for the Kyoto palace. It’s much more interesting than the Tokyo palace, but I would not do it if the kids are under 7. Older than 7 may appreciate it. If you decide to do Nijo castle instead, the audio tour sticks are 100% worth the rental fees as they give a TON of info and context in English.

   If you try and get an imperial palace tour in between the two temples, you will essentially be crossing the city twice in one day and adding tons of unnecessary travel Time, as Kiyomizu dera is on the way from Fushimi Inari.

   I would recommend seeing if you could do Sunshine City on one of the days. It has an aquarium, arcade, play areas and a Pokémon store, among other things.

   There is also a big arcade and game complex in Odaiba, with miniature world nearby and the museum of emerging science and tech which is something to consider.

5. How old are your children? If they’re younger than two or in their late teens, you should be OK. Otherwise, it does not seem as if you’re doing anything that might interest children until Day 6, from which you’ve got three straight days involving things that appeal strongly to kids.

   Your Day 2 seems far too ambitious: I’d advise maybe trying Tsukiji Market in the morning (if your jet lag has you awake at 4 AM) and Shibuya in the afternoon and leaving it at that.

   Day 7 seems like too much for adults, let alone with a group of four. You’ve got six different train trips to places spread all over town.

6. Day 4 is too much with travel as well.

7. Since your flight back is in the evening, Id recommend spending days 1-6 in Tokyo and 7-9 in Kyoto and then on Day 10 take the train from Kyoto to Narita Airport.

8. IMO, there’s too much. 10 days is not enough for this. Traveling to each thing will eat your day up and the exhaustion will make things not as enjoyable.

   Limit the amount of temples you see unless they are absolutely necessary. There are so many and you don’t want them to blend together!

9. Ginza uniqlo is honestly enough. You don’t need to go to another haha. The line for the observation deck for the metropolitan building gets long so get there at least 30 minutes before. I’d save that day for a clear day so you can see Fuji with the sunset.

10. FYI – the Harry Potter studios is about 4 hours and then you also need to eat and drink, so plan to eat before or after

11. Why don’t you do 4d Tokyo 4d Kyoto and 2d Osaka and fly out via KIX?

    Saves you time and money for one trip on the shinkansen plus you get to see one more city.

12. seems too packed but if you split activities into “must do” and “nice if there is time”, then it may be okay.

    i think you have things kids would like (at least all 3 of mine would), but check out Tokyo Chapter’s site for more on what to do with kiddos.

13. As others have noted your itinerary is very ambitious, I would say pick one or two things you want to do the most on that list (per day) and then let the other things be an if you have time thing. I would highly recommend looking into the luggage moving service some (if not all) the hotels have , i haven’t found one that didn’t offer it but I’ve only stayed at large hotels. It will be a life saver when moving around especially going up and down stairs, thing to note about this the luggage can take up to 24 hours to catch up. So if you do that I would take a backpack with at least one change of clothes just in case. I’ve been to Japan 4 times and will be going back for trip number 5 next Jan/Feb for the Sapporo Winter festival and they way my friends and I plan are spreadsheets with the different prefectures and things each of us finds interesting that we would want to do. Then we base our day on 1 central location we all agree with and plan out what’s around it that’s quick/easy to get to. Planning our days like this has been very successful for us but may not be for everyone.