Hello Everyone! *Italics contains question and concerns I would like thoughts on.*
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My friend and I will be going to Japan for the month of November and wanted to see what people’s thoughts on our itinerary were. We will be heading south from Sendai to Tokyo and then heading West to end up in Osaka. I will post a rough breakdown of where we’ll be and how many days we will be there, but the strict timing is meant to be flexible so we can truly have the travelling experience.
From locals in my area, it sounds like we’ll need a prepaid card for travel, though Japan Rail is cheaper to do individual train rides. The 21 day pass that we could use instead is overall more expensive, as we will be spending time periods of 5 to 7 days in different cities.
*We have already made reservations at Hotels for every night, as I was worried about a massive flux of visitors leaving us with only poor choices for hotels on the fly. They were all made through* *Agoda.com*\*, thought the prices we got for them are such steals that my anti-scam sense is being triggered. We even got a reservation at Ginzanso this way! Some advice please on this; is Agoda a good way to book, and is there any possible with the Ginzanso booking?\*
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Here’s a rough breakdown:
**Arrival 11-3 Night**
November 1st leaving the US and arriving in Osaka on the 3rd, losing a day. My time zone is 16 hours off from Japan, so leaving at 8AM would land us at 2AM our time, but 6 pm Japan time. We will stay in Osaka for 1 night before taking a local flight to Sendai airport. *Is this time math right?*
**Sendai 11-4 Night to 11-7 Morning**
Sendai is meant to be our place where we ride out jet lag, as well as give ourselves ample time to visit Miyagi Zao Fox Village, which is a distance away that we’ll figure out when we get there. 3 days unplanned in Sendai should give us time to acclimate to the time change, as well as the flexibility to satisfy our inner squirrels. A friend of ours is also meeting us here.
**Ginzanso Onsen Town 11-7 Night to 11-8 Morning**
We booked 1 night in Ginzanso for 3 people in 1 room through Agoda, which is still pretty expensive at almost $300 USD. *I’m nervous that it won’t be legitimate because their actual website doesn’t allow 3 people in a room, and there was barely any availability.*
The next day we’re off to Kusatsu Onsen, giving a day for travel time.
**Kusatsu Onsen 11-8 Night to 11-9 Morning**
Spending a night in another onsen ryokan, we will head out the next morning to Tokyo to spend 5 nights there.
**Tokyo 11-9 Night to 11-15 Morning**
We plan to spend more time in Tokyo to see specifically
* Shibuya Square
* Hachiko statue at Shibuya Station
* Akihabara Station
* Owl Cafe
* Maid Cafe
* Shinjuku Gyoen
* Tokyo Tower
* Imperial Palace
*Is the Imperial Palace open to the public? Or is it just closed for you to look pitifully at it through bars?*
After spending 6 nights in Tokyo, we leave on the morning of the 15th to travel by train to Kyoto
**Kyoto 11-15 Night to 11-22 Morning**
We also want to see more things in Kyoto, which I suspect might need more time than just 7 nights.
* Fushimi Inari Taishi- 100 Shrine Walk
* Kiyomizu-dera Temple- Japanese local recommended
* Kinkaku-Ji- Golden Temple
* Tenryu-Ji Garden- not strictly necessary, can be removed.
* Arashiyama Bamboo Forest + Monkeys. This can be visited together with Togetsu Kyo Bridge nearby
* Jonan-Gu – This temple is also near Nintendo Headquarters, and we really want to just take a picture outside the building.
Since there’s probably a lot of hiking, *any advice would be appreciated.*
We then depart for Kobe!
**Kobe 11-22 Night to 11-24 Morning**
Kobe Beef Ramen. Enough said.
Ending in Osaka…
**Osaka Night 11-24 to 12-1 Morning Departing back for the US**
Nintendo World is hype! Also Nara Village and Dotonbori are on the list. There’s a lot of unplanned space here for souvenir buying or anything else we want to do. I also saw that other posts recommended extra time in case of anything going awry, so this time in Osaka is meant for complete flexibility.
We also heard of something called the Amazing Pass, which lets you visit 40 attractions in one 3600 yen bundle. [https://www.osp.osaka-info.jp/en/](https://www.osp.osaka-info.jp/en/)
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This is our total trip itinerary, with hotels booked already.
*Thoughts? Advice? Tips and Tricks?*
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Arigatou Gozaimashita
Andante