Hi All! I’m planning a trip with my partner to Japan in April next year. We’re both first time travellers to Japan and we’re on the chill side, so what we’d want to do is to take time and slowly explore/walk around areas of Japan instead of rushing from place to place.
We plan to fly into KIX and spend a couple of days each at Osaka & Kyoto, before going to Tokyo for the remaining half of our trip. Below is our rough itinerary:
**Day 1, Osaka**
* Arrive early morning via KIX, expect to be jet-lagged, breakfast, travel to Hotel to leave luggage
* Walk around locally, see Atomic Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial Park/Museum (?)
* Check in Hotel, may need a Nap if jet-lagged
* Dotonbori at evening/night
**Day 2, Osaka**
* Take train to Himeji castle and explore
* Nipponbashi shopping district
**Day 3, Osaka > Kyoto**
* Breakfast at Hotel nearby
* Train to Kyoto
* wander around and check out Kyoto
* Pontocho Alley
**Day 4, Kyoto**
* Take a morning train to Nara
* See the main sights, Kofuku-ji, Nara Park (Deers !), Isuien Garden, etc
* Late afternoon or evening train back to Kyoto
**Day 5, Kyoto**
* Head to Fushimi Inari for the morning
* Spend the afternoon wandering in Arashiyama
**Day 6, Kyoto > Tokyo**
* Wander around Kyoto for morning period, take train from Kyoto to Tokyo in noon (about 4 hours ride?)
* Find Hotel to check in
* Explore major shops/malls maybe for evening or chill nearby Hotel if tired
**Day 7, Tokyo**
* Yoyogi park
* Shibuya scramble square
* Explore Shibuya area (shibuya crossing?)
**Day 8, Tokyo**
* Travel to Shinjuku
* SHINJUKU GYOEN GARDEN
* Free time
**Day 9, Tokyo**
* Odaiba
* small worlds tokyo
* Tokyo big sights
* Gundam base Tokyo
**Day 10, Tokyo**
* Tokyo skytree area
* Ikebukuro area, including Sunshine City/Sunshine Aquarium/Pokemon Mega Center Tokyo
* Akihabara (anime town)
**Day 11, Tokyo**
* Yokohama area exploration
* Gundam factory yokohama (moving gundam)
**Day 12, Tokyo**
* Ghilbi museum (if we can get tickets), if not, free time and will probably find something else to add in
**Day 13, Tokyo**
* Buffer/Free time/Revisit places if any
**Day 14, Tokyo**
* Check out of Hotel
* travel to airport
* flight home
**Some questions/advice needed**
1) What are the recommended Train pass to get, if any?
2) Would the time spent in Osaka & Kyoto be too rushed given that its only 2-3 days there?
3) We would ideally like to spend a day at a Ryokan, I’ve read online that Hakone is a good place but so is Kyoto, any advice or recommendations on this and how to slot it into our trip?
4) Any other tips and recommendations are greatly appreciated!
2 comments
Some first thoughts
Day 1. Maybe a mistake but the atomic bomb dome is not in Osaka. It’s in Hiroshima.
Day 5. Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama are quite far apart. Not undoable to combine them but there are more logical combinations.
Day 10. This day is too busy and the locations are far apart. Skytree + Akihabara is possible but I would do Ikebukuro on another day if I were you. Sunshine City also has a nice view up top so it would be a view overkill to put them both in one day. Also both Skytree and Sunshine City have big shopping centers attached to them.
I would recommend visiting Ikebukuro as a separate destination at the end of your trip. The reason is that Ikebukuro has most of the shops you can find in Shinjuku, Shibuya as well, but a little less crowded and a bit more laidback especially when you avoid the weekend. There are two huge department stores Tobu and Seibu + a Parco. There are big Uniqlo and MUJI stores here as well. You can do your souvenir and last minute shopping very well here + enjoy the aquarium, pokemon center and other attractions of Sunshine City. Last year I went and visited Gachapon World. That was a unique experience as well.
Atomic Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial are in Hiroshima, which is a considerable distance from Osaka. I wouldn’t think it’s worth going there when you just got to Japan (jetlag/travel fatigue) and not for so short a visit. Maybe you were thinking of other Osaka tourist spots?