We would like to share a high level overview of our trip (June 29-July 10) and see if it is reasonable. We are first timers.
Secondly, we would love opinions on a hether we have too much time in Kyoto and not enough in Tokyo or Osaka. Is temple fatigue real? I imagine we can fatigue on historic stuff after a while in Kyoto, and an extra day in Tokyo/Osaka may be more exciting or open up additional neighborhoods to hit.
Do you recommend a rebalancing before we book our hotels? I’ve wanted to visit Tokyo for so long, that it was a bit shocking to see that (naturally) we were ending up with ~4 days each split across 3 cities, not counting travel time!
* Day 1 – arrive in Tokyo, go through customs at Haneda (1:30pm EST) and just get situated at our hotel and surrounding area. No expectations.
* Day 2 – Tokyo (Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, etc.). Lots of shopping and exploring; huge list of stores to browse around and have fun in.
* Day 3 – Tokyo (Asakusa, Ginza, Akiba, etc.)
* Day 4 – More Tokyo, Travel to Hakone for private Onsen hotel, cable car, open air museum?
* Day 5 – More Hakone relaxation, Travel to Kyoto
* Day 6 – Kyoto – all touristy spots, Gion, Fushimi Inari, arashiyama, markets, castle gardens, etc.
* Day 7 – Nara day trip (I hear this is realistically a half-day trip?) deer park, Kasuga Taisha, Todai-ji Temple, Harushika Sake Brewery, return to Kyoto for nightlight exploration
* Day 8 – More Kyoto attractions, Travel to Osaka
* Day 9 – Osaka – Dotonbori, Umeda Sky Building, Kurumon Ichiba Market, Osaka Castle, shopping street explorations
* Day 10 – More Osaka, Travel to Tokyo
* Day 11 – Tokyo – more exploration of Tokyo neighborhoods – maybe Odaiba, or Nakameguro and some other places?
* Day 12 – Tokyo – maybe hit some places we missed in Shinjuku/Shibuya?
by nichijouuuu