Itinerary for Oct 22 Tokyo,Kyoto, Osaka, Sapporo

22 comments

1. I don’t have any advice but, have a good time!

2. Fingers crossed it opens this year !

3. I wouldn’t plan any trips unless they state “borders are open to tourists”

4. No other notes than I am STOKED that Koyasan is on your itinerary.

5. JR Pass, do not take it at the airport is there is a line, you have a couple of days to change it elsewhere in Tokyo before you start using it as I assume you will only take 14 days pass. Do not waste time in line at the airport for that.

   I guess that things are not especially in order in the day as the Tokyo National museum is inside of Ueno park, so obviously you will do these two at the same time and not going to Senso-ji in-between.

   Ghibli day will depend on the time you can get in the museum. You would probably want to get the earliest you can then go to Sunshine city and finish the day in Akihabara. You do not really want to start by Akiba because stores open around 10-11 am and they close later in the day, so make more sense to finish the day there than to get out of the Museum at 5pm and have nothing to do.

   Instead of two day trips to Hiroshima and Himeji, I would stop by Himeji on the way to Hiroshima and sleep there for a night. You can even leave your luggage in Osaka when you do. And as I assume you would fly to Sapporo, why not check the price to fly out of Hiroshima instead of Osaka.

   I am not sure I would waste a full day in a ferry to move between Hokkaido and Tokyo. If anything, I do not understand why you would spend extra money for the ferry when you can use your JR Pass to return to Tokyo on the train.

   I would also consider moving some of the Tokyo days from the start to put them at the end, especially days you think you might do some shopping.

6. Have fun. I hope the virus clears up by the end of summer. Make sure any tickets you buy are refundable.

   Looking over your schedule, it looks pretty good, but Day 5 – Sounds rushed, as you’ll probably want half a day in Akihabara (depending on how much you like that kind of stuff), and it takes a while to get out to the Ghibli Museum.

7. Looks awesome. I hope they open their borders soon

8. Wow! Can you plan my vacation too? 😄 This is great. What’s a JR pass?

9. If you can and have time, you must go GoKarting around Tokyo! You dress up in character onesies and go for a drive. It’s the best way to see a lot of the city! Highly recommend.

10. I think ghibli, ikebukuro, and akihibara might be too much for one day.

    I’m not sure if you’re a fan of anime/manga at all, but you could easily spend a whole day in ikebukuro or akihibrara.

11. For your Osaka to Sapporo journey— I highly recommend flying.

    Domestic air travel in Japan is really underrated for foreign tourists, it’s faster and more affordable than conventional ground transportation like buses or high speed rail.

    All of the LCC Airlines (Low Cost Carriers) are based out of KIX Kansai Airport and you can fly with the likes of Peach or Jetstar Japan for as little as ¥5,800 JPY or 〜$50 USD. Carry on baggage included. One way.

    You can take a coach bus for roughly ¥1,500 〜 ¥2,000 from JR Kyoto station ALL the way to Kansai Airport with no stops in between, direct express service that takes about 1h30m on a good day. You can also take the same coach service from Osaka Station etc…

    You’ll arrive at Chitose airport and you can take the train directly into Sapporo city, hassle free, affordable and bilingual Japanese / English signage to guide you.

    On the way back to Tokyo the plane is still more affordable and faster, but I imagine you want to experience the Shinkansen and spend your last bit of time in Tokyo before taking your flight home. However for the Osaka — Hokkaido journey you should really consider flying. It’ll save you a lot of time and money!

    If you want some links and more info feel free to DM me 🙂

    At the moment Japan is still banning Students, Interns, Workers, Spouses and Dependants etc… With valid immigration documents, there’s over 300,000+ people waiting to enter Japan for their studies or carriers— opening for tourism is optimistic at best for the end of 2022 sadly… :’/

12. I found an agency locally that provided me with the JR rail pass and pocket wifi to save the effort before going to Japan. Saved me some time and confusion when I landed. Trip looks fun! Good luck

13. I want to recommend the Kirin brewery tour and skip cosmo world. It’s free and it’s the best beer tour I’ve been on ever, including Sapporo and Asahi which were pretty meh.

14. No Skytree? Also if you’re gonna be in Osaka you gotta check out Tsutankaku in Shinsekai.

    Just a tip too, since you’re using JR Pass, you can use Google Maps to pinpoint every railway and time along the lines it covers so you can maximize how much you can do, but get a pasmo just in case and keep some extra yen handy since some places you want to get to might not have a jr line that goes to it, and the alternative could be hoofing it with your luggage. From personal experience it’s not the most fun lugging a suitcase around like that and becoming a sweaty mess lol

15. Is it true we have to quarantine when we arrive? or is this false information. Coming from the united-states

16. In Kyoto, check out Kinkakuji and Ryoanji. They are right next to each other. While Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion Temple) is more famous, Ryoan-Ji has one of the earliest Zen Rock Gardens. It was very peaceful, and with a distinct appearance.

    In Tokyo, near Ueno Park, I loved Ameyoko street, lots of small Izakaya and Beer stalls open up, and its fun to walk around.

17. For Universal, I would highly recommend getting an Express Pass that guarantees entry to Super Nintendo World, because as of right now I believe it is doing a lottery system so if you don’t get in that day then you are screwed.

18. Since you mentioned Ghibli, they’re opening the theme park this year. 1/Nov/2022.

19. Go check out the life sized gundam at Yokohama!

20. if it’s something you’d be interested, keep in mind that whisky distillery tours are a thing.

    The nikka tour (sendai) was great, and while i can’t speak to the yamazaki tour (due to it being sold out both times i was in japan), i’ve heard nothing but good things about it. (this is close to the osaka/kyoto area)

21. I’m also looking to book this October. I still have credit from my original trip which was supposed to be April of 2020.

    Fingers crossed the border will open by summertime.

22. FYI, some cell phone carriers have an international program where they charge you per day. Last time I went to Japan, I just activated it and the price was pretty close to buying the WIFI card. Also, if you don’t use it for a day, they don’t charge you.