Hi all!
We arrive at HND April 6, 2023! Just in time for Sakura season! For our honeymoon. Super excited. We leave April 18, 2023 from KIX.
We are 30M and 28F
**Our hotels:**
**Tokyo: HOSHINOYA Tokyo**
**Oishi/Mt Fuji area: HOSHINOYA Fuji**
**Kyoto: Hotel Kanra**
**Osaka: Conrad Osaka**
Please check out our itinerary and we are open to any and all advice. Especially gems that can be found near our hotels
Below is a rough itinerary. List of questions in the itinerary but also re-stated at the bottom.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**>>>Tokyo:**
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**\*Thursday 6th: land 2pm, train to hotel (child day)**
​
1. Land 2PM, Immigration, SIM or Google Fi
2. Check-in to HOSHINOYA Tokyo
3. Pokemon Cafe and nearby for late lunch (light)
4. Back to hotel (or quick activity, would love a suggestion)
5. Ramen Street nearby for dinner (8 noodle shop street)
6. End night with High Five Bar
7. Sleep
**\*Friday 7th (more of a party night):**
​
1. Find an early breakfast spot or in hotel (would love suggestions near the hotel/chiyoda city)
2. Any popular smoothie places? Juice bars? Preferably in Chiyoda city or meguro city?
3. Meguro river walk with drinks and chill
4. earlier Lunch back at hotel
5. Chidori-ga-fuchi Moat with boat
6. \[\[If time check out palace and Ninomaru garden\]\]
7. Dinner near hotel
8. Virtu Bar to start
9. Atman Tokyo the Lounge Bar after
10. More nightlife? Is there a hip hop rap scene in Tokyo? Would be cool to go to a low-key club/party bar
**\*Saturday 8th (recover and picnic):**
​
1. Find a breakfast spot or in hotel (would love suggestions near the hotel/chiyoda city)
2. Shibuya Crossing & Starbucks
3. Yoyogi Park lunch picnic (take out food from restaurant and sake) or Otani garden or chinsanzo garden (anyone know if these two hotels allow guests that aren’t stay at the hotel to picnic?)
4. Check out the hotel gardens one at a time at least walk by and see
5. Back to hotel & get dinner
6. BAR HOSHI to end the night on a chill note
**\*Sunday 9th:**
​
1. All day DisneySea
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**>>>Mt. Fuji (this is supposed to be a super chill 2 days)**
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**\*Monday 10th:**
​
1. Breakfast at or near hotel
2. Travel to HOSHINOYA FUJI
3. Oishi Park & Lunch
4. Walk around
5. Relax back at hotel
6. Dinner at or near hotel
7. Drinks (or not) to wind down and sleep
**\*Tuesday 11th:**
​
1. Breakfast at or near hotel
2. Ice Caves
3. Walk around find lunch
4. What else is chill near by
5. Ropeway Gondola View Around 3-4pm (as late as possible close to end time)
6. Back to hotel area for dinner
7. Chill in the room & sleep
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**>>>Kyoto**
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**\*Wednesday 12th:**
​
1. Breakfast
2. Travel to Hotel Kanra
3. Relax.
4. Lunch at a good place
5. Kyoto tower
6. Dinner at a good place/izakaya on the way back
7. Clueless about Kyoto
**\*Thursday 13th:**
​
1. Breakfast
2. Travel to Nara Park & picnic lunch w/ deer
3. Todai-Ji & Nigatsudo
4. Isuien Garden
5. Dinner at Nara or Kyoto depending on time
6. Back to Kyoto to chill
**\*Friday 14th:**
​
1. Breakfast or Brunch
2. Lunch at a good place
3. Fushima Inari or Senbon Tori (or other Tori Gates location. What would be best to hike/walk?)
4. Dinner near gates or hotel
5. Go out/nightlife but nothing crazy, if we want
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**>>>Osaka**
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**\*Saturday 15th:**
​
1. Breakfast
2. Go to Conrad Osaka
3. Not sure what to do until evening except explore.
4. 40 sky bar & lounge at night
**\*Sunday 16th:**
​
1. Free day, maybe universal studios? But maybe not
\*\*\*Would like to do something extra special this day (we are doing our honeymoon on our 1 yr anniversary, and this is our anniversary day)
No/very light drinking for me this day because next day…..
**\*Monday 17th:**
​
1. Heavy breakfast
2. Tebori via a master! For a many many hour session
3. Do something we missed?
4. Dinner
5. Sky bar again?
6. Sleep
\*Tuesday 18:
​
1. Breakfast
2. Lunch
3. Fly back at around 4pm
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
**Summary of Questions?**
**TOKYO**
​
1. What are the best breakfast/lunch/dinner places near Chiyoda City or Meguro City or Shibuya?
2. Any good smoothies or juice bars in Chiyoda City or Meguro City?
3. Does Otani garden and Chinzanso garden allow non-hotel-guests? Can we picnic there?
4. Any night life options? Rap/hip hop scene? Hookah/shisha bars?
**MT. FUJI/OISHI AREA**
​
1. Places to eat in general around HOSHINOYA Fuji/Oishi area?
2. What are some relaxing things to do here?
**KYOTO**
​
1. Places to eat near Hotel Kanra/Shimogyo Ward?
2. Places that we need to see?
3. Good places to eat in NARA?
4. Best Tori Gates walk/hike?
5. Best bars/nightlife?
6. **BONUS**: Any haunted places? We love scares. I heard Kyoto is haunted, but my coworker could have been messing with me.
**OSAKA**
​
1. Places to eat near Conrad Osaka?
2. Things to do in Osaka in general? I hear it’s livelier than Kyoto. We’d love to go out after my tattoo Saturday night (but nowhere too crowded, don’t want to risk anything?
**ALSO**, what are the best **shopping** places in any of these cities/areas?
5 comments
For breakfast, what I usually do is go get something at a convenience store. If you want a restaurant, I think that some family restaurant type serve breakfast as well as some fastfood places. If you want to go to a nice cafe, then many would just open at 10-11am. You might also be able to find something at a bakery is you do not want to go to a convenience store.
8 – If you go to Yoyogi park, might as well check Meiji-jingu and Harajuku.
14 – … senbon tori is as Fushimi Inari-taisha. You likely want to get there early to beat the crowd, don’t go after lunch. If you go early enough, you can spend the afternoon around Higashiyama.
For shopping, it might depend what kind of shopping. Tokyo for sure places like Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Ginza, Akihabara. In Osaka around Osaka/Umeda station, Shinsaibashi, Namba, Nipponbashi (Denden town).
You seems to be almost more interested by food than by sight/attractions, so you might want to check Nishiki market in Kyoto, for example Fushii Inari in the morning, get lunch at Nishiki then go check Higashiyama. In Osaka there is also Kuromon Ichiba market.
If you want to see sakura, consider coming earlier. Full bloom between Osaka and Tokyo is typically between March 15 and March 25. Sakura doesnt stick around either, so by April 6, you have a very slim chance of seeing any.
Eating breakfast out is not really a thing in Japan. Often it’s just a coffee and pastry chain or stopping by the conbini or a pastry shop for something light. Hotels will serve breakfast as they are catering to travelers. But finding a restaurant like you would in America is difficult.
Traveling to Fuji to Kyoto is about 2 hours by bullet-train. This might be a issue if you are late to the station. I advise to take early train to have more free time during morning for activities. Beware that Nara isn’t in Kyoto and it is a 48 mins away.
Make sure your hotels has early booking or allows to keep luggage till check in. You can keep luggage at train stations for 2 to 3 days in paid lockers. Sizes and numbers of lockers are limited at smaller stations.
Make sure you have a way to take souvenirs home. By getting another bag there or mailing it home.
Kyoto Sights:
Kyoto Imperial Palace
Kiyomizu-dera
Toji
Kyoto Railway Museum
Nijō Castle
Kinkaku-ji
Chiyoda, Meguro and Shibuya are quite large so its a bit hard to narrow down best of anything in those places. Do you have types of cuisines or foods you are interested in trying? Also do you have any budget ranges? Restaurants can get pretty expensive.
Sakura season is quite busy for people doing flower viewing parties especially on weekends. You may have to start early in the morning to scope out a good spot or try on weekdays. I would also try and be as flexible as possible since it is hard to predict when the sakura is in full bloom. It is also not guaranteed that there will still be flowers blooming by the time you arrive in Japan.
For places to eat near he Conrad you’d probably want to try to Umeda area otherwise I’d honestly suggest taking the subway to Namba/Dotenbori or Shinsekai area those will have a lot more interesting options.
For shopping in Tokyo
High Fashion: Ginza, Aoyama/Omotesando, Roppongi
General fashion: Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku
Electronics: Akihabara, Shinjuku
Otaku goods: Akihabara, Ikebukuro, Nakano Broadway
These is kind of a generalization and there is a lot of overlap in the various neighborhoods
Also since you’re staying at the Hoshinoya in Tokyo you’d probably want to take advantage of the rooftop hot springs.