We are planning to visit Japan as a family with two teenagers in December. We’ve started to book accommodation but I just wanted to make sure that the itinerary was good. This will be our first time visiting so we don’t really know entirely what to expect.
So far we have a rough itinerary of activities so the itinerary is currently pretty flexible if we decide to do something else while we are there. We have some attractions that we are interested in visiting in the itinerary. We have booked most of the early accommodation so far.
We are mostly concerned if some of the travel times are pointlessly long (suxh as from takayama to tokyo) due to poor planning in the order that we visit the towns. Additionally, we were wondering if the itinerary seems reasonable to complete within a 19 day period.
Our itinerary is as follows:
Days 1-6 – Tokyo:
* Tokyo National Museum
* Tokyo DisneySea
* TeamLab Planets
* imperial palace/gardens
* Akihabara
* Tsukiji fish market (outer market)
* possible visit to Ghibli museum if tickets available
* day trip to Hakone
* possible day trips to Nikko/Gala Yuzawa ski resort
* shrines around Tokyo
Day 6 – Travel from Tokyo to Kyoto
Days 6-11 – Kyoto:
* Fushimi Inari Shrine
* day trip to Nara
* Nishiki markets
* Imperial palace
* Nijo castle
* Arashiyama bamboo grove
* Kinkaku-ji
* other temples/shrines
Day 11 – Travel to Koya-san
Days 11-12 – Koya-san:
* Temple stay overnight
* Okunoin cemetary
* other shrines around Koya-san
Day 12 – travel to Osaka
Days 12-13 – Osaka:
* visit Osaka aquarium
* Dotonbori
Day 13 – travel to Hiroshima:
Days 13-15 – Hiroshima:
* peace memorial
* Mazda museum/factory
* Miyajima floating torii gate
Day 15 – travel to kanazawa:
Days 15-17 – Kanazawa:
* kenrokuen landscape garden
* nagamachi samurai district
* 21st century contemporary museum
* suzuki museum
* kanazawa castle
Day 17 – travel to Takayama:
Days 17-18 – Takayama:
* old town
Day 18 – Travel to Tokyo
Days 18-19 – Tokyo:
* small things we missed when we were in Tokyo for the first time
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
