Me and my 4 friends are planning on traveling to japan for 17 days last week of august to around mid September next year ( one of my friends already lives in japan )
we started to plan early as we don’t want to rush things last minute so here is a basic plan we have
# 5 days Tokyo we plan to do the following activates
* street Mario kart ( get a tour of the entire city )
* visit Akihabara
* shibuya crossing
* tokyo skytree
* senso jj temple
* shinjuku gyoen national garden
* Ghiblie museum
* sumo wrestling
if you guys have any other activities we can do within a 5 day period please do let me know.
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# 2 days Mt Fuji
this is self-explanatory we plan to climb the mountain and have a rest/explore the surrounding city if there is anything fun we can do within the Surrounding city do let me know
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# 3 days Kyoto
this is by far the most exciting place we want to visit with load of things to do here is a short list we think we can cover within 3 days
* Fushimi Inari shrine
* kinkakuji Temple
* Monkey park
* Nijo castle
* Arashiyama
* Tofuku Ji temple
* samurai and ninja museum
* kodai ji temple
* sannenzaka ninenzaka
* pontocho district
Now there are many temples in Kyoto so its hard to pick which ones are the best ones to visit and if there is anything we should add or remove from this let me know.
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# 2 days Osaka
Here are some of the things we plan on doing in Osaka
* universal studios
* street mario kart ( get a tour of the entire city )
* osaka Aquarium
* Osaka castle
if there are other thing we should try out do let me know
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# we have 5 days remaining
and now we dont know exactly what to do thats where you guys come in
* we throught about spending a day at nara
* going down to wakayama
* also going to hiroshima
* what would be the best places to visit during our last 5 days ?
# The budget will be around $2750 ( including flight tickets )
# Planning on staying in Air bnb and splitting the cost among us 5
# Transportation
as i mentioned at the start i have a friend who already lives in japan, tokyo so he will take us around to most places and also instead of using the trains to travel to another city we are planning on doing it by car as long drive / road trip
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so yea thats pretty much it if you guys could guide me what to add or remove and what to do in those last few days it would be helpful.
5 comments
Looks pretty good..
Sounds like a good plan to me. Not sure if you have taken this into consideration but one of the problems with driving everywhere, especially in Tokyo is looking for parking. Wouldn’t it be easier using public transport within in the city and just driving outside the city?
Most activities on your plan are all-year-round activities so you can do them any time. Activities that are not all-year-round are sumo matches and climbing Mt. Fuji. Not sure if the dates for next year have already been announced. That’s something you would have to look into to see if the dates match up with your schedule.
It’ll be hard to climb Fuji on set days. Wind/rain will affect if you can climb Fuji. Also, end of august is the season for storms. Obon is also in August so plan accordingly, it does get busy.
The budget seems pretty low tbh for the plans you have and the length of stay. Japan is expensive, especially when you’re in major cities. Driving may not necessarily be cheaper than trains, either. Im not sure if you’re renting or your friend has a car, but regardless tolls are crazy expensive and frequent in Japan last I checked. I went on a short, day road trip and ended up paying over 5000 yen in just tolls, not to mention gas and rental fees.
I don’t think there’s any sumo wrestling in August, but I might be wrong.
I’d add Kiyomizu temple to the list in Kyoto. I’ve never been big on temples, so would always choose to spend more time in Osaka over Kyoto myself, but Kiyomizu is worth a visit.
I would visit Dotonbori whilst in Osaka, maybe Shinsekai. You could also take a day trip to Kobe. It takes less than 30 minutes by train. The area around Kobe port is nice.
Also, Odaiba in Tokyo.