About a year ago I put the feelers out here for a 10-11 day solo trip to Japan, and got some interesting help. Since then, I have expanded the trip to 14 days to get some time in Kyoto, and have half-jokingly discussed going with my dad. Between Grad school and finances, none of the friends I’ve talked to about the trip are willing or able to go the time of year I’m targeting (late November), and while I’m certainly desperate enough to go myself, it’s not something I’ve actually done before. He’s as much a newbie to international travel as I am. So here’s another draft, hoping for some input.
Other relevant deets: flying from the US, either Philly, Newark or JFK depending on what kind of deals we can get on airfare. I’ll be 28 by then, my dad will be 56. Neither of us presently speaks a word of Japanese.
**November 16:** Land in Haneda, sometime in the afternoon. I originally had figured on flying into Narita without doing any research, but based on proximity to the city I think Haneda is a lot easier with bags. I’ve decided the Tokyo Station area is probably the best for the variety of things I’d like to see. I’ve looked at one hotel in the Marunouchi area and an apartment-style place in East Ginza.
**November 17-19:** Exploring Tokyo. I’m aiming for Fall Colors, so definitely seeking gardens that aren’t too far from the Yamanote Loop like Shinjuku Goyen and Ueno Park. Those details I can work out later.
**November 20:** Traveling from Tokyo to Lake Kawaguchi. I have no idea where I’m staying there, but if budget allows I’d like something on the north shore so I can wake up early and walk to the lake to photogryMt Fuji (one of the two biggest things on my list to do).
**November 21-24:** This is a crossroads for me. I definitely want to spend Thursday the 23rd and Friday the 24th in Tokyo Disney. DisneySea is widely regarded as the best theme park in the world; my desire to visit it is the reason I started planning this adventure, and the opening of a major new expansion of the park (not to mention Tokyo Disneyland’s 40th anniversary) is a big part of why I’m desperate to go in 2023 specifically. So my initial plan was to take the afternoon train back to Tokyo on the 21st and spend the 22-24th at the resort (staying 4 nights at the Hilton Tokyo Bay). I figure one day for DisneySea, one for Disneyland (which there isn’t a good reason to skip if I’m already there) and half of a third day to pick up anything I missed (perhaps spending the second part of the day in Odaiba). However, this only gives me one chance to see My Fuji (the morning of the 21st), which has be considering shortening Disney to 2 days and adding a second night in the Five Lakes area. I’m not sure what I would use that extra day at Kawaguchi for, necessarily.
**November 25:** Take the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. I’ve looked at some places near Gion on both sides of the river, as I feel like the most significant things I’d like to see are in the central and east areas of the city.
**November 26-28:** Explore Kyoto. As a relatively new addition to the trip I’ve planned the least here. I’m not even sure if this is too many days or not. The more immersive cultural aspect of the city has me slightly intimidated as someone who hasn’t visited before and doesn’t want to be rude. But I’ve read some sample itineraries that start at Kyomizu and work their way north. I have expressly scheduled this leg of the trip last to be as close to the fall peak as possible.
**November 29:** Go home! Either by taking the train to Osaka and flying out of there or by going back to Tokyo and flying out of Haneda. I don’t know which is more expensive – such things are hard to price out this far in advance – but I noticed all the flights back to the East Coast out of Osaka go to Haneda first anyway.
I’ve plotted out the dates the way I have because my work always gives us the Friday after Thanksgiving off. Traveling back on the 29th gives me 4 days to recover from the trip before I return to work.
If there’s other details I’ve omitted, please ask. And thanks for reading all that!
1 comment
For gardens in Tokyo, I would say Koishikawa korakuen, not next to yamanote, but next to JR Chuo/Sobu line as well as metro station, also close to Tokyo Dome city where there is winter illumination. Rikugi-en close to Komagome on the Yamanote, the possibly have all color illumination, it’s also not too far from Kyu-Furukawa garden.
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>but I noticed all the flights back to the East Coast out of Osaka go to Haneda first anyway
Yes, because usually the only flights out of Osaka to the US are to the west coast anyway. In normal time you would have the option to fly KIX-LAX or KIX-SFO instead of flying to Tokyo first.
Concerning the ticket just check to buy a multi-city ticket as opposed as two one way tickets. You would also likely want to avoid buying a round trip to Tokyo and a single ticket for Osaka-Tokyo (two main reason is that all on same ticket and luggage is transferred and in case there is a problem and you miss the flight, you are covered, while on two individual tickets, it would be your responsibility to catch the second flight).
As for cost, if you see that round trip is the equivalent of 15 000 yen or more cheaper than a multi-city ticket, this mean that doing round trip + shinkansen ticket would be cheaper. For example, right now that would be 105USD, so if round trip Tokyo is 995$ and Multi city out of Osaka is 1150$, then the multi-city is 50$ more expensive in total. If it’s more expensive, it’s up to you to see if you prefer to return to Tokyo by shinkansen to save that money.