Travelling from Australia end of March to mid April 2025, active family. Boys are not interested in anime/ghibli/pokemon/Harry Potter – thankfully as fitting that in aswell would be so difficult! Interested in seeing main sights as first time visitors / not too many temples / food / experiences. Flying into Tokyo, out of Osaka.
General outline so far is…
Tokyo – 6 nights
Day 0 – Arrive early evening, travel to Hotel in Shinjuku near Shinjuku Station
Day 1 – Meiji Shrine, Take-Shita Street, Shibuya, Shibuya Sky [definitely Jordan World of Flight]
Day 2 – TeamLab Borderless, stop by Tokyo Tower in area, afternoon / evening in Shinjuku [Shinjuku Gyoen, Metropolitan Government building], evening in Shinjuku
Day 3 – Tuesday – DisneySea – we are not huge Disney fans FYI
Day 4 – Asakusa, TeamLab Planets, Ninja Tokyo for dinner
Day 5 – Day trip to Lake Kawaguchi, likely with private driver – will change to Hakkone if weather not good? Or not worth it either if cloudy?
Day 6 – travel to Kyoto mid-morning
I would love to fit in a Sumo experience here (noting dates don’t align to Tournament) but can’t seem to find time. Would really love to do both TeamLab experiences.
Kyoto – 4 nights
Day 6 – Arrive after lunch, Nishiki market, walk around Gion in evening, Yasaka Shrine lit up at night
Day 7 – Arashiyama, Kinkakuji Golden Pavilion late afternoon, Pontocho Alley in evening
Day 8 – Kiyomizu-dera, Sannezaka and Ninenzaka Streets, Yasaka Pagoda, Muruyama Park
Day 9 – Fushimi Inari Shrine, Samurai experience at Waraku samurai house, Nido Castle [if time], Fire Ramen
Day 10 – Leave for Hiroshima
Hiroshima – 2 nights
Day 10 – Hiroshima
Day 11 – Miyajima Island
Osaka – 4 nights
Day 12 – Himeji Castle on way home from Hiroshima
Day 13 – Friday – universal studios – will buy Express Passes.
Day 14 – Osaka day – still to build out – Dotombori early evening, night
Day 15 – Nara day trip
Day 16 – round 1 stadium, leave very late tonight – thinking aquarium as this gets good reviews.
Maybe there is a highly rated sumo experience in Osaka we can do as we have plenty of time here?
I’m happy to change ANYTHING. Flights booked but everything else provisional.
I have too much time in Osaka, I know, but I was trying to do USJ on a weekday (albeit Friday) so if I steal a day off Osaka I will be left doing USJ on a weekend. We will be getting Express Passes so does it matter to keep to a weekday?
Otherwise I could extend in Tokyo or do 2 nights Hakkone/Fuji…but another check in/move….and likely car hire logistics, but possible this far out with plenty of time to research. I don’t think I will extend Kyoto as that’s enough temples/shrines for us!
Any ideas?
by Elegant_Attitude8750
