We are headed to Japan on October 12th for two weeks and have reserved flights and hotels and have a flexible itinerary of sites we want to see. I am usually an activity and restaurant reservation enthusiast but my work and personal life have been extremely stressful and I have not made any reservations. I am trying to be relaxed about our upcoming trip but keep seeing comments saying you need to reserve everything and I am curious if that is actually true for our situation.
We will be based in Kyoto (5), Tokyo (7), and Nikko (2) with day trips to Osaka and Nara. We are not interested in teamLab, Disney, Studio Ghibli, Pokémon, anime, animal cafes, etc. We are interested in historic sites/temples, art, dining (small udon shop to omakase), cocktails/bars, shopping, parks, live music or vinyl listening, and city exploring. The only activities I plan to book ahead are Shibuya Sky and an izakaya pub crawl in Shinjuku. Three of our nights will be spent in ryokans so dinners and breakfasts are taken care of those days. I plan to make one nice dinner reservation in Kyoto and one in Tokyo and leave the lunches and other nights open.
Should I be reserving lunches? Can we just walk into casual restaurants for dinner? Can I make reservations a day or two ahead of time? We have a list of foods we would like to try but no "must go" restaurants.
Are there attractions that fit our travel style that I am not thinking of to reserve ahead? I think most things we want to do you just show up…
My husband's only request is enjoy a live music/vinyl listening bar and taste Japanese whiskey – does not have to be same location. Any recommendations for spots in Tokyo? We like rock, alternative, chill electronic, and some pop.
by kitten_witch