Hello everyone!
My wife and I are traveling to Japan for the first time next Spring. We are looking for feedback and recommendations on our itinerary.
Our plan right now is a rough list of things we want to do in each city, we are not intending on doing them all (just as much as possible). Hoping to have some guidance before we set out what to do on each specific day.
All recommendations around the cities we are planning to visit, the days we are spending in each area, and general travel tips are welcome.
Hope to make this a special trip as my wife really loves Japan and it’s really into anime, art, design, and Japanese culture. On my end I’m more into gaming, Nintendo/Pokemon and history.
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#####**Day 1 (03/22)**
Travel day. Land in Tokyo from Chicago around 3pm.
Check in at the hotel, explore, have dinner and mostly rest.
#####**Day 2-3 (03/23, 03/24)**
Tokyo > Hakone
Check out from the hotel and leave for Hakone and stay at a Ryokan. We would mostly rest and recover from jetlag for the next couple of days.
Things we will try to do:
* Hakone loop
* Hot springs
* Explore
#####**Day 4-5 (03/25, 03/26)**
Hakone > Nagoya
The idea is to go to the Ghibli Park, hopefully it’s open for tourists, if not we would probably go directly to Kyoto and add a day for exploring it more.
In Nagoya:
* Explore
* Ghibli Park
Ghibli Park > Kyoto
At the end of 03/26 we would go to Kyoto, check-in at a hotel in the Gion District, and maybe explore and have dinner.
#####**Day 6-9 (03/27 – 03/29)**
This is everything we plan on doing around kyoto (hopefully staying in the same place)
* Explore Kyoto
* Tea ceremony
* Samurai Experience
* Monkey Park
* Manga Museum
* A couple of temples
* Arashiyama Museums
* Kyoto International Manga Museum
* Samurai & ninja museum (hopefully it’s open)
* Shopping in the Shijo district
* Ponto-cho
* Monkey park Iwatayama
* Kiyomizu-dera Temple
* Kennen-ji temple
* Kinkakuji Temple
* Fushimiri Inari Shrine
* Torii Gates (we read is under construction, hopefully open by this time)
* Yasaka Shrine
* Ishibei-koji Lane
* Nijo Castle
* Kyoto botanical garden
* Walk The Philosopher’s Path
* Nazen-ji and Ginkaku-ji
* Kodai-ji Temple
* Maruyama Park
* Sagano Scenic Railway
* Kamogawa River
* Hanami-Koji
#####**Day 10 (03/30)**
Kyoto > Nara > Osaka
Stop in Nara on our way to Osaka. Mostly around the park.
In Nara Park:
* Isui-en Garden
* Toda-ji Temple
* Meet the deers
* Hike Mount Wakakusa (maybe)
* Nara National Museum
* Higashimuki Shopping Arcade
* Kasuga Grand Shrine
Once in Osaka will check into a hotel, maybe explore a little and have dinner.
#####**Day 11-13 (03-31 – 04/02)**
Continue exploring Osaka
Universal studios (just one day for Mario World)
Day trip to Kobe
#####**Day 14 (04/03)**
Osaka > Himeji > Naoshima
Explore Himeji on our way to Naoshima.
In Himeji:
* Himeji Castle,
* Mount Shosha
* Koko-en Garden
Once we are in Naoshima, we would check into a hotel, if it’s early and we have energy, maybe explore some of the places set on Day 15 (if they’re open as we read a lot of them are closed on Mondays).
#####**Day 15 (04/04)**
Explore only Naoshima island:
* Benesse House
* Chichu Art Museum
* Lee Ufan Museum
* Yayoi Kusama’s Yellow Pumpkin (if open by then)
* Some Art House Projects at Honmura port and the Ando Museum
* Miyanoura port:
* Yayoi Kusama’s Red Pumpkin
* The Bunraku Puppet
* Naoshima Pavilion
* Public Bath I Love You
#####**Day 16 (04/05)**
Naoshima > Hiroshima
* Peace Memorial Park
* Peace Memorial Museum
* Atomic Bomb Dome
* Hiroshima Castle
* Shukkeien Garden
#####**Day 17 (04/06)**
Hiroshima > Fukuoka > Tokyo
Day trip to Fukuoka and probably fly back to Tokyo
Fukuoka:
* Canal City
* Uminonakamichi Seaside Park
* Yatai (food stalls) in Tenjin and Nakasu-Kawabata
* Tochoji Temple
* Fukuoka Castle Ruins
#####**Day 18 to (04/07 – 04/12)**
Explore Tokyo
We have MANY things we want to do in Tokyo so won’t list them all here but this are the most important ones:
* Ghibli Museum
* General shopping, nintendo stuff, manga, everything and the sink
* Akihabara
* Ueno Park
* Hama-rikyu
* Team lab
* Mt Takao
* Many more
#####**Last day (04/13)**
Fly back home
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We definitely want to see a Sakura festival and know it depends on dates/location so we are looking to be flexible. If you have any tips on how to plan for this and locations that you recommend.
These are some of the other things we want to do but really don’t have any particular place in mind:
* Tea ceremony (maybe Kyoto)
* See a sumo wrestling match
* Kabuki performance (or similar)
* Samurai experience, wield a real kataka
* Geisha spring dances
Thanks for reading this wall of text, any and all feedback and recommendations are welcome.
As a side note, my wife is currently learning Japanese. She would hopefully be at A1 High, hopefully she can practice on this trip.
1 comment
Sumo is a bit tricky to arrange as the dates are quite limited so it depends on if you can get tickets and if there is a tournament during that frame.
For your dates – You would need to get tickets for the latter half of the march tournament. March 12, 2023.March 26, 2023 and it is in Osaka so youd have to rearrange your itinerary to match it.
Tickets for that period are usually in high demand but not impossible to obtain. [https://sumo.pia.jp/en/](https://sumo.pia.jp/en/) you would need to buy online from this link – which is the official purchase link.
Tickets go on sale in February