(hopeful) 1 month Summer 2022 in Japan Itinerary Check + all the questions!

12 comments

1. Overall it looks fun! You’ve got some good stuff in there.

   I do have a few thoughts / recommendations.

   The Hakone as a day trip thing is not my favorite- it’s all wide spread enough that’s it’s a busy, long day. As well, you lose the best part of Hakone- staying in a ryokan and rocking the onsen.

   I love fushimi inari in the late afternoon/ evening. The sunset from the top is spectacular. I’ve done that five times myself!

   While arashiyama is neat and all, doing a one night stay there seems like too much trouble for too little gain. I’m not a fan of split stays in one city- it’s a pain.

   The 21st Century museum in Kanazawa is neat IF you like contemporary art. If not then I’d say skip it and do the Samurai House museum instead- it’s great.

   There are tons of fun bars on the west side of Katamachi for evening entertainment.

   Kanazawa to Tokyo to check in to Yokohama will be a long day. Maybe pencil in the Pokémon but feel flexible on the day.

   I like to have about three hours at Narita. Lines can get pretty wild there, or at least they have in the past. Who knows what it will look like when trave resumed. What time that is from Tokyo will depend on where you are staying and how you are making the transfer. #lovetheskyliner

2. Nakamise if only for the closed shutter, you could go just after 5pm. But if you want to go when it’s dark, then 7pm will be around sunset, so not totally nigh time feel, but it will get close to it.

   Hakone for sure I would recommend staying overnight as you can have the experience of a ryokan with a nice meal and onsen.

   The obvious daytrip for a hike is Mount Takao.

   Osaka Amazing pass is nice, as long as you do enough of the activities it offer, but I have a hard time to see how 2 days would make sense, especially as the first day (actually half day) is quite full and I have doubts you will be able to do everything.

   Usually I would say that there is no reason to stay overnight in Nara, but just for the festival it can make sense. If there was no festival, then it would make more sense to do Nara as a daytrip from Kyoto or Osaka.

   I personally love temple and shrines, so for me 3 in a day is just fine. However, there is a possibility that you will not like it that much, so just get some alternative ideas so you can do something else instead of visiting a lot of temple.

   Make no sense to change hotel in Kyoto, so do not change hotel to Arashiyama, unless you have a solid reason to do so.

   Monkey park is a bit of a hike and doing it in mid-day heat with a kid can be exhausting.

   If you are close to Kanazawa castle, I think they have illumination at night, so it can be cool.

   At what time do you want to be at the airport ? Depending on where you are in Tokyo, the airport is 1h to 1h30 by train. I would recommend to stay around Ueno station as it is a stop for the shinkansen from Kanazawa and you can take the Keisei Skyliner to the airport. Or if you are using the JR Pass, then it could make sense to find a place kind of close to Tokyo station, and use the JR Narita Express to the airport. I would probably try to be in the train roughly between 1 and 2 pm, so you can be at the airport 2-3 hours before the flight.

   As for JR Pass, with a quick calculation, 2 weeks seems to be a close call, this mean that there is little savings to be made. So yes, you can get it, but it is really not required. You could also just get and IC card to pay for all the local train and just buy the 4 shinkansen tickets you will need individually. The only argument I would see to really get it is if you are a spontaneous person that might decide to do an unplanned trip, like going to Hiroshima from Kyoto, so with the pass, that would just cost nothing.

3. I’ll get it out of the way and say Japan won’t be open in July.

   But if you do go or you push it back a year then a few things:

   * 8/1: Hakone day trip – I would recommend the an overnight ryokan stay. They can be pricey but its a nice experience. If you do stay overnight then push it back 8/5 – so go Tokyo > Hakone > Okayama
   * A 2 week rail pass will probably work out cheaper but the only way to know is to do the calculation of the individual trips. Check out [https://www.hyperdia.com/](https://www.hyperdia.com/) which will give you timetables and transit costs.
   * 8/11: Nara – you probably don’t need to stay overnight as Nara is an easy trip from Osaka, so it will save you the hassle of having to move luggage etc.
   * 8/15: Arashiyama – same as above, Arashiyama is in Kyoto so no need to change hotels

4. I would make the first part of the trip Tokyo -> Hakone -> Kyoto, as they are on the same Shinkansen line. Then do the other cities and fly out of Osaka. You’ll spend a lot less time on trains and more time actively seeing Japan. Hakone is definitely worth a night or two; perfect place for a ryokan.

5. The big one would be not moving accomodations between Osaka, Kyoto and Nara – just pick one and day trip to the other two. Even with a toddler, it’s doable, better than trying to haul suitcases AND the toddler from city to city.

   The second would be really planning and locking down your “transporting a tired toddler” plan – is kiddo tolerant of a baby carrier, do you guys have a gbpockit style stroller? etc. What’s the plan for confining and moving kiddo throughout the various attractions and train stations. Japan is not stroller friendly, so having one that can quickly be stored in a backpack or having a carrier is a must.

   Also mapping out all the major department stores with mother’s rooms and playgrounds would be prudent. There are several, the mother’s room won’t usually be on the ground floor though.

6. 1. Your husband can’t work if you’re there on a tourist visa. 2. I doubt Japan is allowing tourists in July.

7. 8/5: Kamakura is an easy day trip from Tokyo! It was the capital for a while so it’s got a very similar vibe to Kyoto, but with a beach. The Kamakura city website has a good hike, but it’d be difficult to stop and hit every temple on the way.

   In general Paulo in Tokyo has good what to see videos. He also has a kid about your age and has some videos on traveling with toddlers, definitely worth checking out.

8. Hello, a Japanese national here.

   Be prepared for the unbearable heat and humidity. Even locals get dehydrated/heat strokes… particularly children and the elderly.

   If Japan actually opens up completely to tourists, you should expect there to be more tourists than any previous years (since millions like you have had to postpone their trips for 2+ years due to the pandemic).

   It may be helpful to honestly hire a tour guide in certain popular areas, as the peak summer travel seasons make it difficult even for Japanese people to navigate and find the “hidden gems”.

   That being said, it is a beautiful country with so much to do, see, and eat.

   Good luck!

9. So I think it’s smart not to over schedule things. Honestly I find Tokyo insufferable in terms of weather in July, but if you’re used to hot and humid then you may have less of an issue. During the summer I basically scurry from air conditioned museum to air conditioned cafe. And eat lots of cold treats 😆

   With a toddler I’d be extra worried about overheating, so keep an eye out for kid-friendly shopping center, indoor play areas, etc as places to escape the heat.

   To that end, if you have some Japanese (or can use the translate function) I recommend following “mappy_map_” on Instagram. They post awesome kid friendly parks, cafes, and attractions in the Kanto area. I have a toddler and live in Yokohama and it’s been a useful account for me!

   Also, download “Mamapapamap,” I haven’t used it in Tokyo yet, but it provides locations of lactation rooms, changing tables, etc with pictures too! Some places are super toddler friendly (little kid sized toilets, standing changing areas), but others are less so (squat toilets only, no trash cans, etc). It really depends. I’m in the middle of toilet training our toddler here so this sort of thing is on my mind!

10. Where do you live? ie: what is your climate?

    Even if Japan is open by July – I think that would be absurdly paranoid of them, but I can’t discount it.. most of Japan (Tokyo-south) can be over 40c. If you are not accustomed to the climate, you will be a rotisserie chicken 12 hours a day.

    I have visited Japan many times, and make a point never to go there June-July-August. It’s as bad as Texas in the summer. Sept-Oct is great, but also often serious typhoon season. April-May I find is the ideal, but clearly they have not opened up yet. November-December are also good averaging 10-15c in Tokyo, with only occasional dips down to or below freezing in Tohoku and Hokkaido. It can still be t-shirts and shorts in Kyushu, especially if you’re a crazy foreigner.

    Regarding the JR Pass; yes you should use Hyperdia to calculate a few individual trips to be sure, but the general rule of thumb is 2x intercity roundtrips/week to make the JR Pass cost-effective. So if you aren’t travelling 4 times between cities in 2 weeks, don’t bother. The pass DOES offer local JR transit free, but that’s only a few dollars a day. The only other advantage is being able to hop on and go without reservations – the JR Pass is essentially a non-reserved, anywhere, anytime seat, again not really much benefit unless you’re travelling all the time. I use the JR Pass for daytripping from Tokyo – to Osaka or Sendai for the day and back.

    Travelling with toddler: I have no kids, but check out *airport takkyubin & hotel takkyubin,* Kuroneko Yamato couriers (and others) offer next-day luggage delivery to/from the airport and hotels. so if you can go overnight without your full suitcase, you can pack it up when leaving, leave your suitcase at the front desk when checking out and get it delivered to your next hotel.. or to the airport at the end, for only around $20-30 each. I often use this to ship the extra stuff being shipped home to the airport early, as they can store it up to a week before your flight; box it up and ship to Narita, pick it up at the airport terminal and roll it directly to check-in.

    I will say (no offense) I am not a fan of this itinerary; it is far too busy and structured, like a package tour with a tour guide, covering dozens of checkboxes and actually experiencing very little. Let me guess, your husband is an engineer right?

    About half of these items could just go away entirely, and the fact you have multiple items scheduled every day for 3 weeks means total exhaustion. I would strongly suggest plotting out a half-dozen MUST-SEE items, and leaving the rest to plan out on-demand over the day before. Some things like the Ghibli Museum require tickets purchased ***in advance***, so MUST be planned, but most of these are free or on-demand.

11. Be prepared to sweat more than you ever have in your life.

12. As others have mentioned, end of July/August is unbearably hot and humid most of the time. I live in Tokyo and travel around with my toddler and for us the key is to have a stroller decked out with sunshade, cooling blankets, cooling seat covers and a fan. Tokyo is surprisingly accommodating if you are going around with a stroller, but it will add time to all your travel since the elevators are usually not the quickest way to make transfers or get out of a station. I like having a big sturdy stroller for bigger trips since we can put some of our luggage under it, but most days I use a super lightweight stroller that I can collapse one handed. I recommend using the Tokyo Accessibility site to plan out any travel between destinations so you are better prepared on how to get around complicated stations via only elevators.

    Japan has some really cool stuff catered towards babies/toddlers/young kids so it might be nice to add things like that to your itinerary. Maybe places like Hapipi Land, Kodomo no Kuni, Eric Carle Playpark for example. I think I saw someone mention Mt Takao as a good day trip and I can confirm it’s great with a toddler. You can take strollers on the cable car and there’s a hiking path that’s stroller friendly.