My Husband and I are travelling from London to Japan for 2 weeks for our honeymoon and wanted some tips and suggestions on the itinerary.
Some days are more planned out than others, we wanted to leave some room for exploring and discovering places, any suggestions for those days are welcome though.
Thurs 31st Oct
- Fly from London and arrive in Tokyo Haneda airport on the Friday 1 Nov at 9am-ish
Fri 1st Nov
- I'm thinking to stay somewhere near Shibuya or Shinjuku as there are quite a few things we want to see/do around there – any suggestions?
- I'm assuming we will be jetlagged and I know this area is very busy but we want the opportunity to come back here for anything we are not able to do on our first day. I'm also wanting to forward our luggage to our Kyoto hotel, I'm assuming this will be easier if we are staying at a hotel rather than an air BnB but any suggestions would be welcome on this
- Walk around and explore the shopping areas (Loft, Nintendo and Don Quixote) maybe visit Togo Shrine and get some food
Sat 2nd
- Get the train to Ueno area and go to the park in the morning
- take a walk down to Akibara and explore the area in the early afternoon and grab some lunch – Maybe a maid cafe? would people recommend this or is it weird? Let me know your suggestions
- I was thinking we may travel over to Asakusa in the later afternoon to have dinner at the sumo stables and watch a practice – it's quite pricey so wanted to know if it's something people would recommend as we would have to book in advance
Sun 3rd
- Team Lab in the morning
- Explore Odaiba and maybe get some dinner there or near the hotel
Mon 4th
- Day trip to Kamakura and Enoshima
- Explore the area and see some of the sites like: Hokokuji Temple (Takedera Temple),kamakura hasadera, sea candle and park, Kotoku-in (Great Buddha of Kamakura) need to sort out the best route, may not have time to do all of them and I don't want to rush too much.
- I wanted to stay to see the Atami fireworks from Enoshima, I'm guessing you would be able to see them from there?
Tue 5th
- Disney/Disney Sea – mostly for Disney sea as I hear it's better and only in Japan
- Eat some over priced food in Disney most likely
- We will probably be tired after lots of walking around and have dinner either at Disney or near our hotel
- Ask hotel to send our big luggage to our Kyoto Hotel
Wed 6th
- Travel to Hakone and check in our over night bags
- book the private Onsen
- Explore Hakone until we can check into our room (open air museum/art museum/ropeway/venetian glass museum) and get some lunch
- Have dinner at the hotel and use the Onsen
Thurs 7th
- Breakfast at the hotel, check out and then check out any of the attractions we didn't see the day before
- Make our way to Kyoto, the hotel wont let us check in until 3, it's next to Kyoto-Kawaramachi Station so we will explore Pontocho and Gion during the day until the room is ready
- Maybe a food tour in the evening? any suggestions?
Fri 8th
- Go to Kurama-dera
- Kibune River
Sat 9th
- Early morning Fushimi Inari-taisha
- Walk through Kyoto from Inari to Nijo Castle
- Nijo Castle
Sun 10th
- Early morning Kiyomizu-dera Temple
- SAMURAI & NINJA MUSEUM
- Takashimaya Kyoto Store and shopping
Mon 11th
- Arashiyama bamboo forest
- Monkey Park Iwatayama
- Tenryu-ji Temple
- Senko-ji Temple
Tue 12th
- Travel to Osaka
- Osaka Castle + Osaka Castle Park in the morning/afternoon
- Dotombori District in the evening
Wed 13th
- Universal Studios Japan
- Kinopio's Cafe
- Observation deck or explore Osaka
Thurs 14th
- Isuien Garden + Nara Park
- Todai-ji Temple
- Nakatanidou + snacks
Fri 15th
- Our flight is at 11pm so we were thinking maybe to store our luggage at the station and go to Sakai and visit a knife factory before we go
by SPMRW
10 comments
For Nov 1st – Shibuya Sky has amazing views. Miyashita park is nice to stroll around.
For Nov 4 – This is a tight schedule. Prioritize what you want to see the most. Hokokuji temple is great but you will see a lot of temples during your visit overall. If you really want to make it work, from Kamakura station, take the bus to Hokokuji, then make your way down using a taxi to Kotoku-in, walk to Hasadera, then take the train to Enoshima Island to see the sea candle and watch the fireworks.
For Nov 7 – Try the Nishiki Night Market. A lot of options to go for, though a lot of items may be overpriced.
I admittedly didn’t get to read your entire itinerary, but if you get a chance to sneak down to Kobe from Osaka I would highly recommend it. Super cool place worth going.
Thanks for sharing!
The Atami fireworks are not visible from Enoshima. It’s about 40 kilometers on a straight line, and even from the highest spot on Enoshima you’d only be able to see maybe 25 km. There’s a peninsula between Atami City and Enoshima, too, on the direct line between the places.
November 4 (‘Culture Day’) is a major national holiday which will affect store hours, event schedules and demand. I’ve scheduled my November 2024 around that date which made my flights & hotel less expensive.
Thurs 7th.
You will most likely arrive via shinkansen on Kyoto station. Might I suggest what we did to fill the time in between our arrival 11am and check-in time 4pm: visit Kyoto Railway Museum! 😁
Also, I would very much recommend that you insert GEAR Theater on your Kyoto itinerary. 😻
Friday 15th
During our recent Japan trip, we were outbound at KIX 8pm. What we did was to check out early morning at our Osaka hotel, went to Osaka station to coin-locker our luggages, and did a day trip to Himeji.
Then went back to Osaka station for our things, then took the train to KIX from there…
I’d suggest staying around Otsuka or Sugamo. Both are along the Yamanote line and can get to Shinjuku and Shibuya easily.
I advise against staying at both just because both stations are pretty chaotic, and even as someone who’s travelled multiple times/has family there/can speak Japanese, it’s still a pain lol just my $0.02 on this.
Also are you flying out of KIX in Osaka? If so, you should be fine, but if you’re flying back out from Tokyo, I’d suggest maybe staying over in Tokyo for a night prior to departure.
OP, you can consider going on day tours for some of your itinerary e.g for Kamakura & Enoshima. The downside is you may not get to spend as much time on the places you want but it’s much less hassle, especially if the places of interest are far apart from one another. You can google them, look at their itinerary, and check the reviews to see if you are comfortable.
Also, seems like you’re not spending much time in Tokyo? Of course it’s up to your preference but didn’t see the typical Harajuku, Asakusa, etc from your itinerary
Hope you have a great time!!
Good shout with Kurama dera. It’s good to get off the tourist trail in Kyoto. There is a nice circular hike that links Kurama dera, Kifune Temple and the train station if you enjoy walking. It will take.you through some quaint small villages as well.
The villages are famous for having restaurants where you sit and eat on tables on stilts in the river – however they probably won’t have the outdoor terraces open at that time of year – nevertheless there are still great local places to stop on your hike and get an authentic kaiseki meal.