Hey, ya’ll! First and foremost I want to thank everyone on this sub for all their helpful inputs and suggestions as words cannot describe how helpful r/JapanTravel has been in the formation of my itinerary.
My auntie, my cousin, and I will be visiting Japan for the very first time during the dates of May 18th to May 28th. I wanted your advice and insight or perhaps warnings, something I may have overlooked, anything that I could take into consideration. We’ll be departing/returning from/to LAX. A forewarning, unless stated otherwise, I have a plethora of places saved on Google Maps according to their areas, so if we find ourselves in a spot with free time I’ll be referencing it. In general, I wanted to keep this itinerary as open as possible, as previous travels have shown me the best experiences are usually the unplanned ones. However, I’m aware many places require reservations months in advance and have planned accordingly. We don’t have a main focus for this trip other than to see the transition and contrast between the largest city on the planet and the beautiful scenery Japan has to offer. There’s scenery throughout all of Japan but Sakurajima is calling me, I can feel it. Budget-wise, we’re not trying to penny-pinch, splurging is allowed. We’re spending about $800 on a hotel in Tokyo for 3 nights (although we might upgrade if there’s even any availability) and a little over $1,000 for 3 nights in Kyoto for a machiya. Still looking for lodging in Kagoshima for somewhere around that price range.
**May 18th – May 21st Tokyo**
Saturday, May 18th – Land in Tokyo around 3-4 pm. Arrive at the airport and do that whole schpeel ( I believe customs declaration and esims can be purchased before arrival?) Trek to our hotel in Shinjuku. Try our best to stay up until 8 pm to shift our sleep schedule. We’ll also be preparing a day or two in advance for the time change.
Sunday, May 19th – Nothing concrete. Just try to wake up as early as possible. Maybe explore Shinjuku and another city/ward (Shibuya? or do some shopping in Shimokitazawa? Are these two doable in one day?) to familiarize ourselves with the metro/subway system. Hit up some parks and temples. Maybe try to go to one of the views of Tokyo during sunset hour (Skytree is a priority solely based on the fact that it is the 3rd tallest structure in the world, love me a good tall structure).
Monday, May 20th – Hit up Koto City early (and I mean early) to have some sushi for breakfast at Sushi Dai. How long should we spend here? For queuing up and eating sushi. Afterward, hit up Teamlabs Planets early in the morning since we’re already there. After that, probably just make our way back to land. Maybe go back to the hotel in Shinjuku and nap, wake up, and check out another city/site somewhere throughout Tokyo.
Tuesday, May 21st – Explore more of Toyko early in the day, although many places don’t open until 10 am is what I’ve seen. Head out to Kyoto via Shinkansen around noon or 2 pm. It looks like it’ll be about a 4-hour ride more or less, and our check-in isn’t until 4 pm. We also could head out earlier in the day and that will give us more time to explore Kyoto. I’ll be keeping our lodging updated on our arrival time either way.
\*\*After Tokyo, I don’t have a set schedule other than our hotel check-in and check-out of Kyoto, so I’m still able to make substantial changes from here on, so any ideas are welcome. I am trying to avoid large groups (whatever that means), so routes like the Golden Triangle would not be in our interest at this time. Our lodging is within the Gion district. Also, I’ll probably look more into reservations at restaurants that we specifically want to try out in Kyoto closer to our dates there, but other than that, I have not heard of the need to reserve activities or sites in Kyoto, is this correct?\*\*
**May 21st – May 24th Kyoto**
Wednesday, May 22nd – Explore Kyoto. Checkout Arashiyama early in the day and bike to surrounding areas (Monkey Park, Adashino Nenbutsuji and its bamboo path, Saga Tariimoto, Gioji Temple),
Thursday, May 23rd – Visit Byodo-in on our way to Nara. Is this doable? Check out the temple in the morning and the deer in the later part of the day. We most definitely want to check out the deer.
Friday, May 24th – Fly out to Kagoshima earlier in the day. Pick up a rental car. Check into our hotel. Catch some views of Sakurajima, and maybe take a ferry to it if time allows.
**May 24th – May 27th Kagoshima**
Saturday, May 25th – Head out early and hike the Kaimondake volcano. Check out Flower Park Kagoshima. Head over to a sand bath onsen in Ibusuki, and maybe check out Chiringashima Suna no Michi Sand Path if time/tide allows.
Sunday, May 26th – Check out Kirishima and surrounding areas. I don’t have the exact name but there is a shrine or a temple, I have saved somewhere in my bookmarks/tabs that I for sure want to visit.
Monday, May 27th – Return the rental car. Fly to Tokyo. Nothing specific was planned out. Maybe stay in a capsule hotel for the experience? My cousin and I could stay up all night to begin to adjust our sleep schedules to LAX?
Tuesday, May 28th – Maybe hit up some stores for final souvenir shopping and say our goodbyes to Japan. Our return flight isn’t until 6 pm so we’ll probably head over to the airport around 3 pm or before.
Overall, how does this itinerary look? I know for Japan, it is recommended to stay within a certain region and get as much out of that region as possible, but for some reason, this just doesn’t sit right with me. Originally, this was supposed to be a solo trip and if it were for me alone, I would probably try to cram in as much as possible over multiple regions. However, I’ll be traveling with two more people, so I’ll be taking them into account and giving our group more time in between places. Additionally, I didn’t want to visit Osaka as it didn’t seem the right fit for me at this time, even though I’m sure it has its charm and whatnot. I’m aware we could’ve flown out of Osaka back to LAX but we’ll just do HND to LAX for now. Also, after planning this initial visit, I’m more than positive I will be returning so if I’m unable to see or do something now, I can always do so later. Honestly, it looks like there isn’t enough time in the world to see all of what Japan has to offer. I have never researched a place with so much history and culture. I look forward to our visit to Japan. Any input is welcomed! Furthermore, after having written this post down and reading what we have planned out so far, there are a couple of tweaks I could make, so this isn’t an official itinerary, it’s more of a soft official itinerary but it’s more of less what we’ll end up doing if no one has any objections or plan altering revelations.
As for transportation, I’m still looking at what’s more feasible, cost and time-wise, within and between “bases”. We for sure want to take the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. I think it might make more sense to just individually buy the bullet train tickets. But we plan on doing public transportation within Tokyo and Kyoto and renting a car in Kagoshima. As far as driving, honestly, it’s our best bet to check out the spots we want to hit up without sacrificing too much time. I’m still going to do a deep dive into the logistics of this as a non-Japanese speaker. I’ve read similar experiences of good and bad driving in Japan. It seems Japanese people are much more polite when it comes to driving? Not so much in the country side? Also, google maps tends to be inaccurate sometimes? Kagoshima is not as crowded as Kyoto or Tokyo? My cousin would be passenger and he’s agreed to read up on Japanese road rules/symbols even though most of them are in English to help me out with driving, and I plan on looking at our routes on multiple sights and looking for parking. I still need to weigh out the risks but we’re leaning more toward the rental car option.
And we’re definitely learning some Japanese, at least the basics to help us out in our travels or to possibly excuse ourselves for any social norms broken unintentionally.
Also, my apologies if this post seemed all over the place. Some of these other posts on this sub are so clean and organized, but I want to get other’s insights before any more time passes, to adjust our itinerary accordingly. It’s past my bedtime, but I will try to reply asap! Tysm!
Finally, seeing how much advice I was able to gain from other’s experiences inspired me to document this trip so I’ll be able to offer other people similar advice. I plan on reporting back to this sub after my trip.
by Manonthegalaxy