# EDIT: I messed up the title… it should be March 15 – 29th!
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My fiancee and I are getting married in late February, and are travelling from Ireland to Asia through the month of March for our honeymoon (we basically dropped the wedding in favour of this – a much better spend of the money, we reckon!).
We will be spending two weeks in Vietnam/Taiwan first so will be over the jetlag, rested and ready to run ourselves off our feet for the two weeks we are in Japan. We are planning for kids not long after, so as this is likely our only real chance to get Japan on our own terms we are willing to kill ourselves and pay for it after! I made sure that our Osaka and Tokyo hotels had swimming pools to help us recover at the end of (or morning after) some of the more strenuous days. I am curious if the below seems unrealistic or manageable ; I have slowed the pace a little from around March 20-24th to give us some time to recover.
Apologies in advance if I butchered any spellings of places!
# OSAKA (March 15-20)
**March 15** \- plane arrives 6pm from Taipei. Hotel is right by Namba Station (a lifesaver for our ‘day trips’ below). Nothing big on this evening, just check in to hotel, then check out Dotonbori/Americamura and get a feel of the place, maybe try Bar Naruto. Possibly take a gander over to Tenma after dark if we are feeling up to it.
**March 16** **- day trip to Himeji & Kobe**. Leave early so we can first go and check Himeji Castle for 9am which does not seem much further on (2hrs from Namba). Then double back to Kobe for about 12-1pm, check out the huge herb garden and view from the mountain top. Come down and take a stroll around Chinatown and some sake distilleries/bars. Go to a good kobe beef place (recommendations welcome by the way!), then get the train back to our hotel in Osaka.
**March 17th** \- Osaka Aquarium in the morning, then return to Namba area and see Shitennoji-ji / the general area afternoon… make it to Teamlab Botanical Garden for sunset, then back up to Abenu Harukas sky garden/Tennoji Park/Shinsekai at night… maybe get to Spa World (which seems almost 24hrs) if we still have the energy at the end of it.
**March 18th – day trip to Hiroshima.** This city seems quite compact which is nice. We plan to get up out early enough to arrive by about 10am, to walk to Shukkeien Gardens from the station (about 1km), then walk on to the castle (another 1km), and to make it to the Peace done/Park (about 2km south) for about 1-2pm. Get the 1 hour boat out to Itukushima at about 4pm to see the shrine for sunset at 6.30pm-ish, then get the 1 hour boat back at about 7.30pm. Walk or tram about 2km back to the station, and get the 9.30 train back to Namba for about 11.30pm. Eat at/near to Hiroshima station if time permits, or street food back in Dotonbori Osaka at night if not.
**March 19th – day trip to Nara**… the day of pain, as this place does not seem nearly as compact! The plan is to arrive by about 9-10am, go to Heijo Palace and the Park around it… then make the trip to Todai-Ji and Isuien Garden/Nara Park for the afternoon. Take a quick walk in some of Mt. Kasuga Primeval Forest, and then make it to Naramachi for sunset (or night, if we cannot get there in time). Eat out in Nara, and get a train back to Osaka again. We are likely to cover 20km+ walking on this day, it’s going to hurt!
**March 20th** \- A more relaxed day to recover from Hiroshima & Nara. Try to make it to Osaka Castle if we can and then get to the sumo in the afternoon. If we have the energy, back to Tenma at night. If not, then Dotonbori.
# KYOTO (March 21-22)
**March 21** \- We are staying very close to Gion as she has a big hang up on geishas. We plan to get the 1hr train up to Kyoto and arrive around midday. Get the train to Kyoto Botanical Gardens, then down Tetsugaku No Michi/Philisopher’s Walk if cherry blossoms are out, and then down again to Fushimi Inari Shrine in the evening (or earlier if no cherry blossoms). Geisha hunting/spotting like a weirdo with herself at night.
**March 22** \- Head east to Arashiyama Bamboo Forest followed by Kimono Forest for most of the day. Back to Gion, back to geisha watching lunacy.
*\*NOTE: are there any specific highly recommended historical buildings in Kyoto people would recommend? There are an absolute tonne of them and we don’t have much time, so otherwise are just popping into ones nearby other things we are doing (largely around Gion/Arashiyama/Philosopher’s Walk).*
# MOUNT FUJI (March 23)
**March 23** \- We originally planned to go straight to Tokyo, but thought this would be nice to see a little more of the countryside, get a good view of Mt. Fuji. Basically, we leave Kyoto quite early, get the bullet train to just east of Shizuoka, then a bus that kind of laps around the west of Mt Fuji to Fujiyoshida – about 5-6 hours travel in total. Stay the night, relax, enjoy the view.
# TOKYO (March 24-29)
Arrive about 12-1pm after a 2hr bus from Mt. Fuji. We are staying in Aoyama so are kind of situated nicely in between a lot of things on our list, and can hit up some things like Shinjuku Gyoen, Meiji Jingu, etc at our own leisure as they walking distance from us and in between our hotel and areas we will be visiting.
Also, not everything is an absolute ‘must do’ below, many of them are more things we would like to do in the area but can drop some of if we get tight for time. If there are any things people would suggest to remove or even add on, please let me know!
**March 24** \- this is the one day I have planned as we only have half a day. Go check out Kappabashi and Akihabara, and then Senso-ji at night when it is much quieter and looks better lit up in my opinion).
**March 25th** \- Tsujiki market early in the morning to beat the crowds, then on to Koto for Teamlab Planets and Miraikan Museum of Emerging Science. Up to Chiyoda in the afternoon for the Imperial Palace and general area. Finally, down to Roppongi in the evening/night for the National Art Centre and Mori Tower/Art Museum after dark. Also maybe Tokyo Tower if time permits (but more likely some bars or clubs).
**March 26th** \- Shinjuku/Shibuya: Yayoi Kusama museum and the general area in the day… off to Shibuya (Takeshita Street, the big crossing, and Shibuya Sky for when it is getting dark), then return to Shinjuku for Golden Gai briefly followed by Omoide Yokocho, and maybe some places like Bar Benfiddich for a drink or two if we are able to.
**March 27th -** Up quite early to go to Nakano Broadway, followed by Edo Open Air Museum, then back to Ghibli Museum, and finally a nice walk through Inokashira Park before hitting up Harmonica Yokocho.
**March 28th** \- Kind of an open day here, I am leaning towards a Yokohama day trip or some cherry blossom walks or even leaving some space for things we have missed, but am open to any suggestions!
**March 29th** \- Some more time to catch anything we missed or really want to go back to, hopefully also Teamlab Borderless Museum which is due to reopen in February if we have not managed to squeeze it in the previous days. Our flight takes off 10.30pm from Narita, so we aim to be at airport for about 7.30pm, meaning we will leave from Tokyo 5.30-6pm.
***QUESTION:*** *Is it also true that hotels will send your baggage to the airport for you, and if so how much does it cost/where or how do you pick it up at Narita? We are only bringing a backpack each to Vietnam but expect to amass stuff as we go, while all our flights included check in bags into the cost anyway so we figure we might as well take advantage of it. The one thing I am dreading is even attempting to use the Tokyo subway at that hour with a suitcase and half expect we would simply not be allowed, so if this is true about baggage services it would be a real game changer.*
Any helps, suggestions, criticisms, or anything else would be much appreciated. Thanks!!
by BenderRodriguez14