Wanted to get peoples thoughts on my planned itinerary for spring 2024. Leaving from the London, UK. I’m currently planning on going solo. Im male and will be 26 when I go. I’m into all the anime and manga culture as well as the historical aspects of Japan. I don’t drink and not much of a life night person so any suggestions on what to do in the evenings would be welcome. The order of days in Tokyo and Kyoto can be shuffled around. I have put Kyoto first so it overlaps with the cherry blossom season and then the remaining 2 weeks won’t overlap with the Japanese holidays so it should be less busy.
Day 1: Arrive -> Tokyo -> Kyoto
– Arrive at one of Tokyo’s airports
– If enough time spend 2 hrs wandering Tokyo.
– Get Shinkansen to Kyoto
– Relax rest of the day to recover from jet leg.
Day 2: Kyoto
– Higashiyama Jisho-ji
– Philosopher’s Path
– Nanzen-ji Temple
– Keage Incline
– Heian Shrine
– Explore Gion and Yasaka Shrine
Day 3: Kyoto
– Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama
– Togetsu-kyo Bridge
– Tenryu-ji Temple
– Arashiyama Bamboo Forest
– From here I though I might play it by ear. I might go on the sagano scenic railway but it doesn’t appear to be much on the other side of the line. Alternatively, might go to Giouji Temple, Saga Toriimoto Preserved Street and Daikakuji Temple.
– would like to spend the evening in the area but not sure what to do.
Day 4: Kyoto/ Himeji
– Half day trip to Himeji castle
– Ninna-ji
– Ryōan-ji
– Kinkaku-ji
Might do the temples first and then go to Kyoto palace and Nijō Castle instead. If anyone has any suggestions on where a better time/place to go to Himeji castle would be let me know.
Day 5: Kyoto
– Kiyomizu-dera
– Higashiyam
– Hōkan-ji Temple
– Kōdaiji Temple
– Kenninji
Day6: Kyoto -> Onomichi
– Fushimi Inari Taisha
– trip to see Kyoto Animation studio if time.
– Tofukuji Temple
– get Shinkansen to Onomichi
– wander round Onomichi
Day 7: Onomichi -> 1st leg of shimanami kaido
– Cycle to Omishima island. What do people usually do with their luggage for the cycle? Are all Onomichi hotels/hostels have a forwarding service of luggage to matsuyama city? If so how were peoples experience with this?
– I’m not sure weather to stay overnight on omisima island or go to Ōkunoshima (Rabbit) island and stay overnight as I’m not sure I’ll have enough time to get to Ōkunoshima spend 2 hrs and get the last ferry back to omishima? I’m not someone who exercises regularly, I’m not out of shape but not in shape either and based on what I’ve heard it’s better to split the cycle over two days.
Day 8: shimanami kaido 2nd leg-> Matsuyama city
– Finish the cycle to Imabari station
– Get train to Matsuyama city
– Might go to Dogo Onsen and have a walk around.
Day 9: Matsuyama city -> Hiroshima
– Explore the area around Dogo Onsen if I have not yet.
– see Matsuyama castle
– take ferry to Hiroshima
Day 10: Hiroshima/Miyajima
– Explore Miyajima island
Day 11: Hiroshima -> Osaka
– see Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
– see Peace Memorial Park
– see Atomic Bomb Dome
– see Hiroshima castle
– see Shukkeien park
– Take Shinkansen to Osaka
Day 12: Osaka
– see Osaka Castle
– see Shitennoji temple
– see Shinsekai
– see Osaka Nipponbashi Denden Town
– see Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shopping Street
– see Kuromon Market
– see Dotonbori
Day 13: Day trip to Nara
– Kōfuku-ji
– Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsu-den) – Todaiji
– Nara Park
– Todaiji Nigatsudo
– Kasuga-taisha
– go to Hōryū-ji on the way back to Osaka if there is time.
– spend the evening in areas that I didn’t have time for the previous day or Umeda Sky Building for evening view.
Day 14: Osaka -> Fuji five lakes
– Might go back to Kyoto for a few hours for shopping.
– Head to Fuji five lakes
– stay at Ryokan
– explore Lake Kawaguchi
Day 15: Fuji five lakes -> Tokyo
– Chureito Pagoda
– Explore more lake kawaguchi
– go to Tokyo
Day 16: Tokyo
– Meiji Jingu
– Yoyogi Park
– Harajuku
– Shibuya/ shopping
Day 17: Tokyo
– Go to Roppongi hills for city view and see Tokyo tower
– Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
– Shinjuku: Hanazono Shrine and samurai museum (Are either of these two worth going to)
Day 18: Tokyo
– All day in Akihabara
– see Sensō-ji and Tokyo sky tree at night
Day 19: Tokyo
– see Sensō-ji during the morning
– Imperial Palace and gardens
– Odiaba to see Gundam statue and night view of rainbow bridge
Day 20: Day trip to kamakura and Yokohama
– Get train to Kamakura
– Hasedera
– Kamakura Daibutsu Buddha
– Daibutsu Hiking Trail
– Zeniarai Benzaiten Shrine
– Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū
– Komachi Dori
– Get train to Yokohama
– see giant gundam and explore Yokohama
Day 21: Tokyo -> leave
Head to airport
18 comments
In Kyoto, you must visit Nintendo. There’s not much to do there, but if you’re a nerd, you’ll want a photo in front of that building. Also don’t forget the old Nintendo building where there’s an English and Japanese version of the sign. Really beautiful.
Looks pretty good.
Some things to consider:
Day 2 is doable, but it all depends how much time you spend along the way. Personally, I like to spend a lot of time at temples and shrines exploring everything and taking photos.
Day 4: Kyoto/ Himeji
Seems too busy, going all the way out to Himeji, then hitting 3 major temples in Kyoto. I wouldn’t want to rush those places. Also, if you’re heading to Himeji, why not stop by Kobe?
Cycling days – I can’t speak for that. Maybe someone else here has some ideas.
Day 12 will be very busy, but doable.
Day 13 – Nara Park isn’t a separate park. It refers to the whole area where there are various temples, shrines, museums, and tame deer. Probably not possible to do everything on your list. You can’t miss Todaiji, Kasugataisha, or Horyuji. Those three would make a full day.
Day 16: Tokyo – Yoyogi Park sucks, in my opinion. Nothing special there unless there’s a particular event going on that day.
Day 20 – That’ll be busy, and there are even more temples and shrines to see in Kamakura that you’ll miss out on.
Good luck!
If you want to start in Kyoto, I recommend flying into Kansai Airport in Osaka instead of Tokyo. Transportation from Kansai Airport to Kyoto Station is about $20. Unless you find it cheaper to book a round trip flight for Tokyo.
Amazing plan .
I’m jealous–this is very similar to the trip we planned for our honeymoon. We planned in in early 2021 for April 2022 thinking that surely the restrictions will be over by then…
You seem to have a pretty good itinerary. I don’t see this on the list I would also go to the Kyoto Animation museum. It was really Kool to see how some anime is created. Has History of some of the first anime ever created.
https://www.kyotomm.jp/en/
One more thing I recommend is staying at Airbnbs this was something I did when I went back in 2018 and it made me feel more like I lived there. Had really good hosts with lots of recommendations from them. Also they provided a hotspot which came in handy becuz US phone service in Japan just sucked.
Last thing I recommend is to plan out the route for the day. This took a really long time to do with Google maps but saved sooooooo much time for me. It helped me not go in circles around town and I finished all the things I wanted with time to just spare and walk around. I used the addresses of the Airbnb’s and planned activities based on how far they were from the place. Again super tedious and takes a long time but was 100% worth it.
Why don’t you just fly to Osaka and go to Kyoto? Sinkansen is expensive
Too much on your daily program.
Way too many temples for just tourists purpose. After about 3-5 major temples, all others will start to merge into each other just like many churches in Europe, tall arch, stained glasses, statues, some marble coffins. Some locations of temples are pretty, worth visiting, but if it’s just for some “temple” visits, 3 is enough.
I would first consider getting direct to Osaka, either direct flight or with a connection in Tokyo. Just get a multi-city ticket and return home from Tokyo.
You can do Himeji on the way to Onomichi instead. It’s on the way and you can keep the rest of the things in Kyoto together.
Going to Kawaguchiko from Kyoto/Osaka is not my favorite option as it will take some time. Keep in mind that if you stay at a ryokan, you check-in is relatively early.
I think the samurai museum is closed, not sure if it will re-open and the Yokohama Gundan is a temporary thing, so it might be close when you get to Japan.
Going to Akihabara in the morning does not make much sense, same is true for any shopping area in the morning as store only open at 10-11am.
Hanazono-jinja is ok, but nothing special, especially after all the temple and shrines you will have visited in Kyoto.
Going to Senso-ji twice does not make much sense either. If you want to see it during the day and night, then go on the same day. Like go at the end of the day before sunset, then Skytree and back to Senso-ji and maybe even get dinner in the area.
I saw some cherry blossom spot in the itinerary, but you can easily add some more, like Sumida park next to Senso-ji.
Some days might have a lot of things, so I would recommend to not rush to see everything at all cost, just take your time and enjoy where you are and what you are experiencing.
For Tokyo – add in Nakano Broadway (it’s like akihabara but all vintage anime and manga, rather than current), plus ikibukuro was worth the visit imo (more otome things, but there’s also a big Pokemon centre). I’ve spent half a day min for nakano each time I’ve visited as it’s my favourite by far for picking up 90s/00s manga and anime collectibles
Make sure to buy an ic card (Pasomo, Suica, etc) and put 5000 yen on it. It’s accepted on most buses and metros. Also it can be used at restaurants and vending machines around the station.
As someone else posted day 4 is way too busy. I would move Himeji castle to the day you travel to Hiroshima. Also almost all the temples and palaces in Kyoto and most shrines generally close at 4 or 5 with last entry a half hour before. Some shrines are open 24 hours though, including the Fushimi Inari shrine. I’d recommend doing that at night one day, it’s pretty tranquil and you get great views of Kyoto lit up. Also for Kyoto if you’re walking around to these places make sure you stay focused on where you’re going. It’s very easy to side tracked at all the random temples and shrines. Saying that though I’d recommend walking as much possible, you get to see some interesting stuff.
For day 20 I’d recommend picking one of Kamakura or Yokohama. Kamakura is called Kyoto of the east so if you want more temples go there.
If you have any more questions feel free to ask.
Also each major city has a Pokemon center with an exclusive Pikachu that’s worth checking out.
Try and go to Yoyogi park on a sunday. You’ll see the Elvis crowd and lots of other fun stuff
Day 4: I would visit Himeji on the way Onomichi. This would be a very rushed day, because even if you start with the Himeji-jo at 8:30am, you will most likely won’t get to northern Kyoto before 2:30pm. So just visiting northern Kyoto temples, Nijo-jo or Nishiki Market would make a lot more sense.
Day 5: This is essentially half-day’s worth of itinerary, so adding Tofukuji and Fushimi Inari at the end of the day might make a lot of sense.
Day 6: I would visit Himeji (castle and Koko-en) on the way to Onomichi.
Day 7: You can use TA-Q-BIN to send your lugagge to Matsuyama/Hiroshima.
Day 11: This is perhaps a half-day’s worth of itinerary and to be honest Hiroshima Castle is perfectly skippable. You may be able to book a Mazda Museum tour in the morning, if you are interested. Otherwise stopping in Okayama (Korakuen), or Kobe (Shin-Kobe Ropeway area, Chinatown) on the way to Osaka might make sense.
Day 12: If something is blooming than visiting the castle (gardens) makes sense. Otherwise, it’s a bad concrete “reconstruction” with an average museum focused on Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Day 13: Visiting Horyu-ji might be very rushed and only realistically possible if you start with Kasuga Taisha early in the morning.
Day 14: If you want to stay in the ryokan (with a private onsen) for the experience than Shuzenji, Ito, or Hakone might work better (with Fuji Five Lakes day trip out of Tokyo) since it will take around 6 hours to get from Osaka to Kawaguchiko area (via Mishima and bus, or via Shin-Yokohama multiple transfers.
Day 16: Frankly, I would have combined much of day 16 and day 17 together (incorporating Shinjuku Gyoen in the plans)
Day 17: Samurai Museum is closed and nobody knows, whether it will open again – the exhibits were 90%+ on loan from the members of the society, so re-opening is not that assured.
Day 18: Even if you are the biggest anime/electronics fan, whole day in Akihabara is perhaps too much. I would probably try to incorporate at least Ameya Yokocho at some points and consider that good food options in Akihabara are severely limited.
Day 19: I would skip Imperial Palace Gardens since they make no sense logistically (perhaps visit very nice Hamarikyu Gardens instead and have a tea in a pavillion there?). I would say that if you really want to visit the area, then it’s a good place to walk around after a flight (especially with Tokyo Ramen Street for lunch) on day 1.
> I have put Kyoto first so it overlaps with the cherry blossom season
Note that while Kansai’s and Kanto’s cherry blossom season is skewed incrasingly towards late March, a very late season might result in you missing the peak blossom entire season. Kyoto and Osaka are known for quite few very good late blooming spots (Osaka Mint Bureau, Kyoto Botanical Gardens) and Tokyo also has late-blooming varieties at Shinjuku Gyoen or Hamarikyu Gardens.
Honestly looks like a great trip! It just makes me think about how even 21 days isn’t enough time to do everything. Heck, a year isn’t enough time. You’re hitting a ton of the best stuff, you’ll love it. My only advice would be try to slow it down a bit if you can, give yourself more time to enjoy the things you do. But I suspect that’ll happen naturally while you’re traveling.
On day 3, consider skipping Arashiyama bamboo forest (it is overcrowded to the point that it is completely unenjoyable) and replacing it with both Adashino Nenbutsu-ji (which has a smaller but much less crowded bamboo forest) and Otagi Nenbutsjlu-ji which in my personal opinion is the most wonderful temple in all of Kyoto.
I love this idea. I’m planning on going with my husband in 2025, knowing that the tourism will boom in the next year or two after COVID so I’m already trying to plan on what to do so I don’t get too overwhelmed by it when the time comes.
Thanks for the ideas, and places to go that wasn’t on my list at first! I’m planning to go to Matsumoto, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Tokyo (last so it’s easier for us to just walk around there and take out time sightseeing so we’re not too tired when we get back home)