I will be spending 9 days in Japan this October and wanted to expirence as much as possible as this will be my first time outside the US. I want to mostly explore Tokyo and a little of Osaka. I really like Japanese food, anime, and games. Please let me know if this itinerary covers all the must see locations and if I’ll actually have the time to get everything done.
Day 1
Fly into Tokyo
Hotel in Tokyo for 7 days
Explore Koto
– teamLab Planets Tokyo
– Small Worlds Tokyo
– Legoland Discovery Center
– DiverCity Tokyo Plaza
– Unicorn Gundom Statue
– Tokyo Joypolis
Day 2
Explore Chiyoda
– Pokemon Cafe
– Donguri Republic
– Imperial Palace
– Tokyo Skytree
– Senso-ji
– Tokyo National Museum
Explore Akihabara
– Don Quijote Akihabara
– MoCHA Akihabara Store
– Maidcafe Maidreamin Akihabara idol-dori Store
– Animate Akihabara
Day 3
Explore Suginami
– Ghibli Museum
– Nakano Broadway
Explore Toshima
– Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo
– SKY CIRCUS Sunshine 60 Observation Deck
Explore Shinjuku
– Tsurutontan Shinjuku
– ARNIA Square Enix
– Shinjuku Golden Gai
– Omoide Yokocho
– Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observation room
Day 4
Tokyo Disneyland
Day 5
Tokyo DisneySea
Day 6
Explore Shibuya
– Meiji Jingu
– Nintendo Tokyo
– Hachiko Memorial Statue
– Nezu Museum
Explore Minato
– Tokyo Tower
Day 7
Train from Tokyo to Osaka
Hotel in Osaka for 2 day
Explore Osaka
– Osaka Aquarium
– Osaka Castle
– Dotonbori
– Nanba
– Osaka Nipponbashi Denden
– Tsutenkaku
– SHINSEKAI
Day 8
Universal studios Osaka
Day 9
Train from Osaka to Toyko
Fly back to the US
4 comments
Make sure you go to the places you want to see the most early in the day. You’re going to be like Cartman at Casa Bonita most days if you’re trying to do every single bullet.
Imo you can skip Disneyland and just go to Disney sea. 9 days isn’t a lot and Disneyland is pretty much the same as Disneyland in the US. Disney sea on the other hand is something thats unique to japan.
Also, for pokemon cafe make sure you reserve early because you need a reservation and it really fills up.
Day 3. Interestingly, none of the thing you listed in Suginami is in Suginami. Ghibli is in Mitaka and Nakano Broadway is in Nakano. Suginami is just between these two places.
Several of your days have much more than I think you can do in a single day. If those are idea and you are find with not doing everything, then ok, but if it’s a must do everything type of itinerary, some days it will not be enjoyable and you will have to run from one place to the other.
Days 2, 3, and 7 look too rushed to me. Just Skytree, Asakusa, and Akihabara could take up an entire day. Shinjuku and Ikebukuro are two of the biggest districts in Tokyo, so doing them all in the same day with Nakano and the Ghibli Museum (which you probably can’t get tickets to at the moment unless you know someone who lives in Japan) is unreasonable. Nanba is a huge area, so you could spend several days there if you really wanted to. Visiting two of Osaka’s main districts and several tourists attractions is too ambitious.