Hello! My two friends and I are heading to Japan next week and I wanted to float our itinerary out here to see if anyone had any notes! We were lucky enough to get reservations for almost all the things that we wanted to see.
This is our first trip to Japan and the girls are mostly excited about clothes, beautiful sights, food, parks, and anime merch. We want to bring back a ton of souvenirs and experience as many cool things as we can while also not dying. Our only lodging is an AirBNB in the Ueno/Asakusa area and we'll be in the city almost the whole trip. The farthest away we're going is Nara Park and Zao Fox Village, which will both be single day trips.
Day 1
- Arrive in Haneda
- Acquire the Pasmo Card
- Train to Asakusa Station
- Make it to AirBNB
- Unpack
- Tears of relief
Day 2
- Recover (Our friends warned us that the jet lag is severe and that they were pretty ill for the first few days)
- Explore the immediate area
- Find closest konbini
Day 3
- Walk to/explore Ueno Park
- Tokyo National Museum
- Sanrio Characters Garden Cafe
- Head to Akihabara
- Animate
- Super Potato
- Eorzea Cafe
- Doll Point
- BOOKOFF
Day 4
- Train to teamLabs Borderless
- Tokyo Tower
- Hamarikyū Gardens
Day 5
- Train to Toshimaen for The Making of Harry Potter tour
- Stop at Ikebukuro on the way back
- Shopping at Sunshine City
- Pokemon Center
- Sanrio Cafe
Day 6
- Train to Yoyogi Park
- Kiddy Land
- Laforet Harajuku
- Closet Child
- HARRY Harajuku Terrace
Day 7
- Train to Shinjuku
- Godzilla Head
- Gigo Shinjuku Kabukicho
- Kinokuniya
- Teppan Baby
- Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Day 8
- Shinkansen to Zao Fox Village (if we can get train tickets the night before)
Day 9
- Train to Ginza
- Imperial Palace East National Gardens
- Kirby Cafe Petit
- HANDS Tokyo Store
- Tokyo Banana
- Uniqlo Ginza Flagship Store
- Pokemon Center
- Pokemon Cafe
Day 10
- Train to Shibuya
- Shibuya Crossing
- Hachiko Statue
- Pokemon Center
- Nintendo
- Disney
- Animate
Day 11
- Shinkansen to Nara Park (if we can get train tickets the night before)
Day 12
- Guide bus tour taking us to Hotel Gajoen Tokyo
- Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum
- Ghibli Museum
Day 13
- Free Day (Definitely want to see Senso-ji and Tokyo Skytree at some point, maybe here)
Day 14
- Free Day (If the weather is nice, I'd love to go to Arakurayama Sengen Park for the great view of Mt. Fuji!)
Day 15
- Flight home
- Tears of sadness
I'm also worried about a few things in particular:
- Weather. Our friends that just came back from Japan warned us that it's a LOT of walking, so I tried not to overbook us on any day. I want to leave some wiggle room so we can do whatever we feel like or take a break if we need it. Unfortunately according to the 10 day forecasts, it looks like its going to start raining the moment we get there, and literally never end. We're pretty bummed about that, but we're trying to be positive! I'd rather be soggy in Japan than dry and at work.
- On the other hand, are we making a mistake by barely leaving Tokyo? I wasn't confident that I'd be able to navigate the trains/buses/taxis so I was worried about going too far. It does suck to miss out on places like Osaka and Kyoto but the hope is that someday we'll be able to go back to Japan and be more comfortable exploring an even bigger radius. In hindsight, it feels like we've prioritized loot over sight seeing haha.
- Gluten free food. My one friend has celiac and cannot eat anything with wheat (which also includes soy sauce). She's printed out a card that we can show to staff to warn them of her allergy and I've marked off a handful of places that apparently have GF options, but not enough for 2 meals over 15 days. I guess we'll probably need to find some konbini food that she can eat and just be stocked up with snacks at all times.
Any notes or feedback would be much appreciated (about those things, or the trip in general)! We're all a little nervous.
by CJCon