Hello! My husband and I are planning our first trip to Japan and wanted to get some feedback on our itinerary. In general, we are interested in exploring historic/cultural areas as well as nature/hiking. Culinary exploration is not one of our goals and nor any bars/clubs. We plan to mostly use grocery stores but do enjoy cafes and bakeries. Most of our day will be taken up by walking, we usually do 10-20 miles on the regular. I’ve also included some general questions below the itinerary.
Trip:
Arrive Narita airport Sept 30th 8pm – we have not decided on the specific area of Tokyo to stay but leaning toward Ueno given that is near the zoo as well as a quieter area.
1st – First day in Tokyo, plan for a more chill recovery day full of wandering, potentially going to the Ueno zoo
2nd – I’ve already booked a TeamLabs visit 10am but afterward checking out that area followed by traveling up to Nikko for the second leg of the trip. We will stay in the main town area.
3rd – First day in Nikko, since it will be a Thursday, we wanted to do the more packed areas up near Kegon Waterfalls. This day we were thinking of doing some hiking up into the different mountains. We plan to get the two-day extended pass to cover the bus rides up and back
4th – It will be a Friday so will head up to the Lake Chuzenji again but could do the ferry around the lake as well as check out the Ryuzu falls and the boardwalk
5th – Explore the local area in the town more and try to avoid the worst traffic on Saturday. Interested in recommendations for things to do beyond the shrines. We were interested in potentially doing a visit to a sake brewery here too.
6th – Travel to Kyoto, make stops along the way to break up the trip – suggestions welcomed. There seem to be two routes, one that can go up north and the other south to Tokyo and then west. We didn’t know how easy it would be to get on and off the train. We are happy to have the 4-5 hour trip be a 12-hour trip with breaks along the way.
7th – 10th stay in Kyoto, one day will be a trip down to Nara, otherwise we don't have too much planned beyond the standard historic sites
11th – travel to Fujikawaguchiko, a similar situation where we wouldn’t mind breaking up the trip on the travel day.Â
12-13th – stay in Fujikawaguchiko, we will plan to do some hiking as well as visit the shrines.
14th – travel to Tokyo, uncertain on the specific location, leaning toward a more big city, high rise stay
15th – full day in Tokyo, shopping time for duty-free cosmetics and figurines
16th – depart at 10pm from Narita airport, so most of the day will be available for more city exploration
General questions:
Luggage forwarding/train lockers – did anyone do this, how was their experience? We will have backpacks and plan to travel light so it isn’t a pain to move between places. However, especially on the days where we’ll be doing longer travel stints and stopping off at cities along the way, would storing the bigger backpacks at a train locker work well?
Any accommodation recommendations for: Nikko, Ueno, Kyoto, Fujikawaguchiko, etc are appreciated. We would prefer to stay at places that have a small kitchen and laundry abilities, leaning toward more airbnbs. Our budget is ~100-300$ per night
We are interested in doing a Ryokan, but don't really want to travel out to an isolated area where the only activity is the onsen. We also recognize that even when given the opportunity, we don't use hot tubs nor spend time at beaches.Â
Feedback is greatly appreciated!
by SexySmilodon