Hello!
I will be traveling to Japan with my brother from December 28th to January 13th. This is our first time traveling Internationally, and we're very much excited for the upcoming trip. We have a decent amount of our itinerary planned out, but as we are doing this with no experience, I was hoping to get some help in polishing it up.
We have a few goals that pertain to locations not listed here, such as visiting at least one unique shrine per day. To avoid cluttering the post with all of the potential candidates I've marked down, I will leave them out here.
We are both extremely into the retro/anime/arcade/electronic side of things, however we also don't want our trip to consist of purely running around arcades/looking at retro games, manga, or other products. This is a trip we've spent years saving and planning for, and we want to have memorable experiences!
Our flights/hotels have already been booked and paid for. At this time, we do not plan to switch hotels during the trip. Our hotel is located in the southern part of Kanda, Tokyo.
Day 0 (Arrival):
We will be landing around 4-5 in the afternoon, likely tired from the air ride. Our only goals for this day are to check in and settle into our rooms, walk around the Kanda area, and visit a shrine or two while we take everything in.
December 30th, Day 1 (Koto City):
- Comiket (An event on my Brother's bucket list)
- TeamLabs Digital Art Museum
- Sega Tokyo Joypolis (if time permits, not a high priority)
December 31st, Day 2 (Minato City):
We are aware that many places will be closed from 12/31~1/2, so today and tomorrow are left pretty open to whatever we are able to do. I think these would be great days to simply roam around and take in the sights of Tokyo as a whole, although without entering many stores. Some ideas we've had are:
- Visit Tokyo Tower
- Explore Upper-Minato City Area
- Either stay up for New Years or get up early for the first sunrise
January 1st, Day 3:
Like the previous day, this is overall relatively open for us to wander and explore. From the research I've done, we may be able to explore Tokyo Station, some stores in Akihabara, or just go by the hour and discover what's available.
January 2nd, Day 4 (Day Trip to Chiba/Funabashi):
We've planned several day trips out of Tokyo to explore more of Japan, but I feel like this one is lacking the most.
- Picking Strawberries could be a fun activity, but we aren't sure on how to go about this.
- Otherwise, this trip would be visiting a lot of "shopping" locations such as Daiso Giga or Book Off, as well as the Pokémon Center. If there's anything I could add to this area (experiences, etc.), please let me know!
January 3rd, Day 5 (Shibuya City):
- Cat Cafe (looking at Nyafe Melange, but we really just want to experience one)
- Pokemon Center Shibuya/Nintendo Tokyo
- Live House (looking at TOKIO TOKYO)
- Arcades
January 4th, Day 6 (Shinjuku and Nakano City):
- Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
- Square Enix HQ
- Handful of shopping locations (BOOKOFF, Hobby Land, etc.)
- Namco TOKYO
January 5th, Day 7 (Ueno and Akihabara):
We might be able to avoid trains on this day, as our hotel is ~15 minutes from Akihabara and ~30 from Ueno.
- Ueno Park
- Multiple Shrines
- Explore Akihabara (From what I understand, on Sunday afternoons the streets are closed and we are able to roam around freely)
January 6th, Day 8 (Day Trip to Kamakura):
- Hokokuji Bamboo Forest
- Kamakura Museum of History and Culture
- Enoshima Iwaya Cave
- Enoshima Benzaiten Nakamise Dori
January 7th, Day 9 (Yokohama City):
- Cup Noodles Museum
- Check out the Gundam (if it's still there)
- Manga Cafe/Shopping
- Chinatown
January 8th, Day 10 (Day Trip to Hakone):
Ideally we will get to see Mt. Fuji, and we're going to keep a close eye on forecasts to potentially move this day around for a better chance. If we don't end up seeing Fuji though, we still can enjoy the day in Hakone. Our plan for this day is very unfinished, so there's not much to write unfortunately.
- Relax in an Onsen
January 9th, Day 11 (Empty Day):
- We haven't filled this day yet, and still need to figure out what we want to do.
January 10th, Day 12 (Half-Day Trip to Kawagoe City):
- Explore the city
- See Candy Row (our family runs a candy store, so getting to see unique products would be a cool experience)
January 11th, Day 13 (Empty Day):
- Another empty day. There's plenty of Tokyo we haven't explored though, so we likely will plan for new cities.
January 12th, Day 14 (Free Day):
Last full day in Japan, and we can decide on the spot what we want to do. If there was a cool arcade or game store we wanted to go back to, now's the day to do it!
January 13th, Day 15 (Final Day):
Essentially a full day, our flight leaves around 7 PM. We will checkout of our hotel by 11 AM and find somewhere we can securely store our luggage so we may have a final walk/meal, then head to the airport to return home.
Overall, I feel like despite some of our plans our days will still be very open, but I'm also not against it. Having a rigid schedule would be too stressful, and we're here to enjoy our time and explore/find/see places as we go. We did consider moving to Osaka partway through the trip, however after some more discussion we decided to stick around in the Tokyo area and keep Osaka completely new for a potential second trip, giving us something to look forward to.
Thank you!
by Willing_Path2990