Hi everyone, it will be my and my friend's first time in Japan this November and I have finally managed to put together a rough day by day itinerary for our trip. Reading so many different itineraries that people have posted here has definitely helped with creating ours, and now it's my time to ask for suggestions or opinions and see if it's doable. I also had some general questions but I left these at the end. Thank you in advance for reading this! 😀
- We will be arriving in Tokyo on the 7th of November (lunch time) and leaving on the evening of the 23rd of November.
- Our hotel in Tokyo is very close to Kanda station and close-ish to Tokyo Station
- We have not yet booked accommodation in the other cities in case there are changes to the number of days we plan on staying in each place
- You'll see that I have written some things in bold – it's because I'm not sure if it fits well in the schedule, or whether it's worth visiting so would appreciate any help with that
Tokyo Day 1 – Thursday
Arrive at 1:40pm at the airport
Get to the hotel at around 3-4pm
Walk around Tokyo station area to eat
Walk around Akihabara at night and then sleep
Tokyo Day 2 – Friday
Imperial Palace
Go to Ueno and walk around
Visit Asakusa
Walk around Tokyo Skytree area
Tokyo Day 3 – Saturday
Go to Ikebukuro (Sunshine City, Bandai Namco, Pokemon Centre)
Go to Ghibli Museum
Shinjuku and Kabukicho during the evening and night
Tokyo Day 4 – Sunday
Yoyogi Park
Meiji Jingu
Shibuya – some shopping, see the crossing
Go to Ebisu (there are some nice food places but it's not mandatory)
Come back to Shibuya and do Shibuya Sky
Tokyo Day 5 – Monday
Tsukiji Market in the morning
Pokemon Cafe (if we can get a booking)
teamlab Borderless/Planets (would love to do both but don't think we have time)
Tokyo Tower
Walk around Ginza
Mt. Fuji – Day trip – Tuesday
Arrive to Mt Fuji in the morning
See Naruto x Boruto Parok
Walk around the streets for a bit (e.g., Kanadorii)
Chureito Pagoda
Arakurayama Sengen
Rent bikes and ride around Lake Kawaguchi
Go to Oshino Hakkai (if time but not sure)
Return bikes
Hakone – Day trip – Wednesday
Take Bus from Mt Fuji to Hakone in the morning
Walk around, do a bit of hiking/walking if weather permitting
Hakone Shrine
Take pirate ship on lake Ashi
Stay in Ryokan/place with an Onsen for the night
Kyoto Day 1 – Thursday
Leave early and take Shinkansen
Walk around the centre of Kyoto
Eat in Nishiki market
See temples and shrines in the area and Nijo Castle
Kyoto Day 2 – Friday
Arashiyama and exploring that area
Traditional Tea service (any recommendations?)
Return to the centre in the evening, eat and explore
Kyoto Day 3 – Saturday
Fushimi Inari
Nanzen-Ji
Philosopher's Path
See any temples/shrines we missed (Is Bishamondo Temple worth the trip?)
Kyoto Day 4 – Sunday
Day trip either to Kifune Shrine or Uji (we would like to do both but don't think we have time, we would appreciate suggestions and opinions about this)
Get to Osaka in the evening
Osaka Day 1 – Monday
Umeda Sky Building
Eat nearby, grab some sweets
Osaka Castle
Dotonbori at night
Osaka Day 2 – Tuesday
Nara Park
Round One arcade in the evening
Osaka Day 3 – Wednesday
Kurumon Market (worth it?)
Shopping, eating
Namba Yasaka
Sennichimae Doguyasuji
Sinsaibashi-Suji
Dotonbori again for food
Hiroshima Day 1 – Thursday
Arrive early morning
Hiroshima Castle
Atomic Bomb Dome
Children's Peace Monument
Peace Memorial Park
Walk around Hondori
Hiroshima Day 2 – Friday
Go to Itsukushima Jinja
walk around, see the shrines
Head back to Tokyo during the evening
Tokyo Leaving Day – Saturday
Last minute shopping and food
Head to the airport and leave at 7:30pm
Now, some other questions I had were:
- Is it better to do the parks, shrines and castles during the weekend rather than during the week? And do shibuya, shinjuku, harajuku during the week?
- In your opinion, is it worth it to do any museums? Aware that we don't have any in our itinerary but would also like to be outside as much as possible
- interested to know if I crammed too much in the latter days and it's looking too empty on the first days? Specifically the day in Fuji
- want to do Ghibli museum but it's quite out there, any recommendations in which day to do this?
- To me Kyoto seems a bit rushed/all over the place, there's also the tea service that I think would be nice to do but not sure where to fit everything
by Hopeful_Shorty3