Reposting here as my post in the japan travel tips was removed and directed to post here.
My trip to Japan is in 17 days and to say I'm freaking out is an understatement. This is my first time out of the country and my anxiety is skyrocketing with trying to figure out what to do once I am there. I know the best thing to do is to not over-plan and leave plenty of time to wonder around but I am the only one in my group of friends I am going with who has an itinerary and I feel as if I'm putting too much thought into my plans. I have general times that I want to head to each area but am not going to follow them to a T. I made sure to only do 2-3 places per day so I'm not overwhelmed. Is this too much? Am I over planning?
- Tuesday: (Tokyo) Imperial palace, Tokyo tower, TeamLabs Planet (this is the only one I have a set time for because I bought tickets in advanced)
- Wednesday: (Travel day to Osaka) Osaka Castle, Tsutenkaku (observation deck)
- Thursday: (Osaka) Konohana Kan (Botanical Garden), Travel to Kyoto for the rest of the day, Kinkaku-ji, Arashiyama Bamboo Forest and surrounding areas
- Friday: (Travel to Kyoto) Higashiyama Jisho-Ji, Kyoto Imperial Castle, Nijo Castle
- Saturday: (Travel back to Tokyo) Tokyo National Museum, Electric town
- Sunday: (Tokyo) Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, Meiji Jingu, rest of the day wondering around Shibuya
- Monday: (Tokyo) Free time wondering around Shinjuku and Shibuya
I am limited on the locations in Kyoto and Osaka as I am going with a group and they had planned to stay in Osaka for 2 nights (Wednesday-Friday) and stay in Kyoto for 1 night (Friday-Saturday.) I personally wanted to spend more time in Kyoto to explore the temples so that is why on one of the days in Osaka I am traveling up to Kyoto. I also picked places per day based on location, so most places are actually near each other and are either in walking distance or a very short train ride away.
EDIT:
After reading the comments I made a few changes to my itinerary. I kept a few things because I absolutely want to try and go to these places if I am able to. These places are not set in stone and the times (aside from teamlabs) are flexible! Also adding times along with travel times to make more sense of commuting. Keep in mind, I am use to driving 40 minutes every day for work, so commuting is not an issue for me. Also, I am looking forward to taking my time with commuting so I can explore a bit!
- Tuesday:
- 10:00 – Sunshine City (anime mall.) This is actually near where I am staying in Tokyo and my boyfriend wants to try and visit! It honestly looks like a lot of fun and seems like a good start to the trip. We will have time to run and drop our stuff off at our villa before we go to our next place.
- 17:00 – TeamLabs Planet. Tickets are for 5pm, so I have it set to have us arrive around 4:30 to have time to wait in line. So we would need to leave the place we are staying at around 3:30 to make it around 4:30. This is the ONLY time that is set in stone because of the tickets.
- 20:40ish – Tokyo Tower. Ima be honest. I have no real desire to visit skytree. I looked, it just does not spark the same amount of excitement as Tokyo Tower does. This takes about 30-40 minutes to get there from teamlabs.
- Wednesday: (Travel day to Osaka)
- 07:45 – Leave Tokyo to arrive in Osaka around 11:00.
- 12:00 – Osaka Castle.
- 18:00 – Tsutenkaku (Observation deck.) This is about a 25 minute walk from where we are staying, and just seems cool. Once we are done there, we might go to Dotonbori but honestly don't care that much if we see it or not.
- Thursday: (Osaka) I'll be honest. I want to spend more time in Kyoto than Osaka. I do not care much for the city but want to spend as much time as I can in Kyoto exploring the temples and gardens because THAT is what I love.
- 09:30 – Kinkaku-ji. Planning on leaving where we are staying in Osaka around 7:30 to arrive around 9:30.
- 12:00 – Arashiyama Bamboo Forest and surrounding area. There is SO MUCH MORE THAN BAMBOO here that I want to explore. I have the whole afternoon here that I want to spend exploring. Between all the temples, gardens, I am SUPER excited for this area. Takes about an hour to get here from Kinkaku-ji.
- Friday: (Travel to Kyoto)
- 09:30 – Higashiyama Jisho-Ji. Will be leaving the place I am staying at 07:30.
- 12:00 – Kyoto Imperial Castle. Got a comment not to go here but honestly the surrounding area just looks so beautiful, I really do want to explore it. It takes about 20 minutes to get here from the Higashiyama Jisho-ji.
- 15:15ish – Nijo Castle. Again, this place is is just so beautiful?? Also about a 20 minute walk from the imperial castle.
- Saturday: (Travel back to Tokyo)
- 11:30 – Senso-ji. Decided to come here instead of the national museum. While I love museums, I feel like this place will be more worth it. Leaving Kyoto around 8am.
- 15:00 – Electric Town. Still really want to explore the shops around here, and it just looks like alot of fun. about 20 minutes to get here from the senso-ji.
- Sunday: (Tokyo)
- 10:00 – Shinjuku Gyoen Garden. About 40 minutes to get here.
- 13:00 – Meiji Jingu. I know these are two large gardens. But I am not planning on spending the whole day here, but walking around for a few hours seems fine for each place. Plus it's literally a 20 minute walk?
- ● ~16:00 Shibuya City. Just want to walk around for a little bit. I know this area is HUGE and I will be planning on spending the entire day here on Monday. There is so much I want to explore here though! Takes about 20ish minutes to get here from Meiji Jingu.
- Monday: (Tokyo) Free time wondering around Shinjuku and Shibuya
by winterstargamer