21 days in Japan itinerary check

I’ll be in Japan for the first time from May 11 to May 31st.

Will be coming after being a month and a half in the Philipines, so hopefully jet lag won’t be an issue, I’ll be traveling solo.

I’ll be arriving at 12:00PM at NRT.

These are my notes so far:

|Day|Place|Relevant activities|Notes|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|1|Narita|Move to Tokyo, wherever I’ll be staying for the first 9-11 days|Possibly Staying in Shinjuku|
|2|Shibuya|Crossing, Shibuya 109, Hachiko Statue, Shibuya Hikarie, Shibuya PARCO, Don Quijote, Dogenzaka, Shibuya Cultural Center Owada (Planetarium), Uobei Sushi|Maybe visit Harajuku?|
|3|Ikebukuro|Sunshine-doriSunshine CityNerima|Maybe check Meiji Shrine as well here?|
|4|Asakusa, Akihabara|Sensoji temple in the morning, Akihabara stores in the afternoon||
|5|Odaiba|TeamLab MUSEUMS Statue of liberty replica Gundam Base||
|6|Shinjuku, Nakano|Whatever I haven’t visited the previous days when doing back to the Hotel: Kabukichou, Golden Gai, Toho Cinema|Will probably check Nakano Broadway this day|
|7|Hakone|Long trip, try to see Mt Fuji and Hakone Shrine|Maybe a Ryokan?|
|8|Free day|||
|9|Kamakura, Yokohama|Kamakura Daibutsu, Hokokuji Temple|check MinatoMirai and Nissin Cup Noodle Musseum in Yokohama if possible|
|10|Kanazawa, Shirakawa-go|Nothing concrete here, explore the places|Possibly stay here but leave baggage in Tokyo|
|11|Takayama|Takayama showa-kan Museum|Maybe use this day to travel to Kyoto|
|12|Kyoto|First day here after a lot of travel so I’ll take it easy? check Fushimi Inari Shrine here|Should I stay in Osaka?|
|13|Arashiyama|Bamboo Grove, Monkey park, Kinkakuji, Kyoto Tower||
|14|Osaka|Acuarium, Shinsekai||
|15|Osaka again|Universal Studios Japan||
|16|Nara|Kōfuku-ji, Deer Park, Todaiji temple||
|17|Kobe|Try Kobe beef if I can afford it||

I have some extra days with pretty much nothing planned (18-20, I’ll be leaving on day 21 at 1:15pm), so here’s a few questions:

* Should I add more stuff or is this too crowded? First time in another country so I don’t really have much of a frame of reference.
* Where should I stay? Currently I’m planning on staying in Shinjuku for Tokyo (with a possible 1 day stay in Shirakawa-go if the trip there is too tiring) and Osaka for stuff around Kyoto, but I have nothing concrete yet.
* What should I do with the extra days? maybe spend an extra day in one place, or add another one that I haven’t considered? I’m into Anime/manga/videogames if that helps, but any cool place that I missed is also appreciated. I didn’t add Hiroshima and Miyajima Island so that might be an option, maybe even go to Hokkaido or Okinawa? Love the idea, but it might be too much.
* Any corrections to activities listed, I tried to guide myself with a map and different travel guides, but I might have missed something
* Is JR pass worth it for this? I assume not, but asking just in case.

by Shinigami-Hunter

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