Hi everyone! I’m super excited to be planning my first trip to Japan with my husband April 22-May 7th of 2025. I was hoping to get some advice on our itinerary. Unfortunately my job is very demanding without built in vacation time, so we really like to make the most of our time off and tend to be pretty ambitious when we travel internationally. We are huge foodies and are also pretty nerdy so we are looking forward to diving into the video game/anime/ghibli experiences; however, we still want to ensure we are getting a good taste of the awesome cultural offerings. I am a bit nervous about the fact that we will be there during Golden Week and want to make sure we are planning as wisely as possible. The dates of our trip really aren’t flexible, maybe adding a day or two on the front or back end if really needed but it would come at the cost of working up to 15 days in a row before or after, which to me isn’t worth it. Lastly, I found it was much cheaper to fly home from Seoul than Tokyo and would be very excited to spend even a short time there. With all of this said, I’d greatly appreciate your thoughts on logistics of this schedule. Planning has been so difficult!
Tuesday Apr 22
Depart from Seattle
Wednesday Apr 23 (Tokyo 1)
Arrive @ 2:15p
GoKart tour @ 7pm (Shibuya)
Shibuya Sky observation deck after
Thursday Apr 24 (Tokyo 2)
DisneySea
Friday Apr 25 (Tokyo 3)
Studio ghibli museum in AM
Akihabara in PM
Saturday Apr 26 (Tokyo 4)
Kitanomaru garden and imperial palace
Teamlab borderless
Kabukicho in late afternoon and night
Don Quijote shopping
Godzilla stuff at Hotel Gracery Shinjuku
Bar hopping through Golden Gai
Samurai Restaurant for dinner
Maidreamin Cafe after
Sunday Apr 27 (Tokyo 5)
Mt Fuji day trip
Monday Apr 28 (Tokyo 6)
Asakusa
Kimono tea ceremony (10am start)
Walk to Senso-ji temple
Nakamise-dori street food
Tokyo sumo show (sad we won’t be there for the real sumo!!)
Meiji Shrine (if time) / Harajuku?
Tuesday Apr 29 (Tokyo—> Kyoto 1)
Samurai Ninja museum
Samurai Kenbu sword dancing show
Wednesday Apr 30 (Kyoto 2)
Arashiyama bamboo grove early morning Explore surrounding temples (Gioji, Tenryu-ji , okochi sanso)
Kinkakuji
Onsen/ryokan?
Thursday May 1 (Kyoto 3)
Ramen making class @ 11am
Nijo castle
Nishiki Market
Friday May 2 (Kyoto—> Osaka 1)
Nintendo store in train station
Osaka castle
Dotonbori for dinner
Moonshiner karaoke? Retro Game Bar Space Station?
Sat May 3 (Osaka 2)
Universal Studios
Sun May 4 (Nara/Osaka 3)
Feed deer at Nara Park
Watch mochi pounding
Back to Osaka, Pokémon Cafe
Mon May 5 (Osaka —> Seoul 1)
Korean air, land at 11:05am
Changdeokgung palace
Myeongdong for dinner/N Seoul tower
Tues May 6 (Seoul 2)
Gyeongbokung palace
Buckchon Hanok Village
Hongdae that evening
Wed May 7 (Seoul 3)
Starfield library
7/11 picnic/walk by River
Depart @ 7:20pm
by Prestigious_Kale1189