Hi guys.
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Final edit for this post: So here is my revised rough draft of random shit i picked off the internet. I will work out trains to and from these places soon. mainly relying on the info from rome2rio
3/22 Land u/and Narita, make way to my hotel (APA hotel Shinjuku Gyoenma) then freeroam/chill
3/23 Head to Yokohama to see the gundam, and generally explore around there.
3/24 head to Odaiba to see the Unicorn gundam then free roam try to find Pachinko parlor
3/25 Leave early from hotel to go to Odawara to check into hotel (Odawara Terminal Hotel) and explore surrounding area.
3/26 Buy the 2 day pass and explore Hakone and make the loop starting at the lake and end in up in an onsen somewhere. IDK where
3/27 go to Yudate no Shishimai @ Suwa shrine of Sengokuhara and freestyle
3/28 head to Nagano hostel (Dot Hostel Nagano) free style and explore
3/29 go to Tusubame onsen freestyle and chill
3/30 Matsumoto Castle and find this place called Nawate street. to buy a knife from this guy [https://www.reddit.com/r/askjapan/comments/1allb8s/can\_someone\_tell\_me\_who\_made\_this\_knife/](https://www.reddit.com/r/askjapan/comments/1allb8s/can_someone_tell_me_who_made_this_knife/)
3/31 head to Kyoto cheap hotel (TBD) and find the Kiyomizo-dera springfest since thats the last night
4/1temples and explore kyoto
4/2 keep exploring and make it to the Kitano odori dance
4/3 transfer to a really nice Ryokan (Luxury hotel SOWAKA is what im thinking right now) and keep exploring kyoto
4/4 explore kyoto
4/5 check out and leave for Narita airport by 13:30-14:30 and then fly back to the US.
How does this sound? any improvements or substitutions?
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Edit to explain why: Ok, So My mother just died in December. I had been taking care of her for more than 13 years as her kidneys failed and as she sank into dementia. This really impacted my life of course and was the sole caretaker. Well, I missed out on the crazy cheap travel and honestly even as things opened back up my mother required more and more of my time. sSo in a way my pandemic just ended recently.
I had known about the moving gundam statue for a while but didnt know it was a limited time only. I literally just found out about this like 3 weeks ago. well I just cant miss this moment. I mean im getting older and have been a gundam fan for more than half my life so to be able to see a life size moving one and be able to draw on that memory as I watch the shows sounds like heaven to me. I had planned on taking 2 years to plan things out and learn the language, but the dead line of March 31 kinda really forces my hand. In the US I travel by just dropping in a town and sniffing out whats cool by talking to locals or reading flyers and such but the language barrier is going to kinda bust that way of traveling.
I also just kinda feel lost right now. i feel like ive got cabin fever of the soul and need to walk, to travel right now. I dont know where im supposed to be right now so why not go somewhere I want to go? Idk if who ever reads this understands me when I say since im lost I might as well wander. maybe im looking for something, maybe im running from something. In many ways for me, this trip is kinda like one big hike mentality, Im not going there to really go anywhere, Im going for the adventure… the journey. perhaps ive become bored in my life and desire to see something strange, new. I really dont like seafood but im going to eat a bunch of it while im there. “one must learn to eat the sweet as he eats the bitter” so i figure if there was anywhere that I should give seafood a shot is Japan.
I understand no one can see all of Japan. so that makes me ok with not having to see every must see place in japan. most of my travel planning does seem to kinda have me on the east side of the island and thats as good a system to start exploring as any. So please, send me somewhere.
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I basically chose cities i saw mentioned here on this sub, randomly picked amount of days to be there, booked some hotels, but have not booked trains yet. I am now trying to fill those days with super cool stuff. I’m going to be in japan for 12 days not counting arrival and departure days. I am coming into Japan for the purpose of seeing the moving Gundam statue. After I see This I kinda dont have anywhere special to go.
Here is my planning so far:
I have not purchase train tix
3/22-3/25 Tokyo>3/25-3/28 Odawara>3/28-3/31 Nagano>3/31-4/5 Kyoto>4/5 Narita Airport
(I just picked cities that were repeated on this forum)
2024/3/22 (fri) Land in Narita Tokyo at 14:00
go straight to my hotel in Shinjuku (booked). I heard theres some cool stuff to see around there but thats all Iknow so far.
3/23 (sat)
explore Shinjuku and (maybe explore something that gets recommended.)
3/24 (sun)
Go explore Yokohama and try my best to Locate the Gundam factory and then just explore aroundthere until my ticket times. (open to options for before or after that because im just free roaming)
3/25 (mon)
Travel to Odawara Hotel ( booked) thats very basic but close to the station. settle in and then explore Odawara.
I chose Odawara because as the second booking i was trying to cheap out and not stay in Hakone. especially with Hakone being a 38 min bus ride out. Did I mess up here? Should I rebook for a place in Hakone? how many days can i fill there?
3/26
hang around Hakone. I plan on buying the Hakone freepass and doing the loop, and hitting anonsen on the back half of the day before returning back to my Hotel area for the night (freestyle)
3/27
Undecided/no clue what to do on this day. Maybe go back to Hakone if i couldnt do it all in one daymaybe. but Im open to suggestions about where to travel to.
3/28
Travel to Nagano hostel (reserved). get settled in and free roam.
3/29
Not really sure what to do this day. (I chose Nagano because at first I thought Kusatsu would be tooexpensive, but now im thinking of tacking a one nighter at a basic place on the back end. taking aday from Kyoto)
3/30
More not really knowing what to do in Nagano. More onsens maybe
3/31 \*This is as far as I have currently booked\*
Traveling either to Kyoto or Kusatsu. originally I was going to go to Kyoto but now im thinking about doing an over nighter at Kusatsu before going to kyoto.
4/1
lets assume i went to Kusatsu. wake up explore (please suggest here) and leave for Kyoto Hotel (notbooked yet) I kinda want to do a really nice ryokan for a couple days. Like crazy nice.
4/2
Explore around my hotel and follow a few leads I have on Kyoto.
4/3
Travel across town to my cheap ass hotel and get settled in and back to exploring Kyoto
4/4
No clue what to do. im open to leaving the city and going other places.
4/5
check out of hotel and take a train to Narita airport and leave.
Does this sound like too much? Should I spend less time in one area or more in another? Please help me because I really want this trip to be awesome. I am extremely flexible and can also completely cancel bookings and go a different route.
Thanks in advance
Edited for train tix
by JapanDash