Hello guys,
This will be our first trip to Japan this November and we’re pretty excited. I’ll be travelling with my wife and 4-year daughter. I don’t want to miss major tourist attractions, but at the same time I don’t want to rush things and spend most of time travelling from one place to another. I made the following itinerary and would love to hear from you guys.
Day 1 (Tokyo): Our flight (Cathay Pacific) will land at Narita International airport at around 21:20 (9:20 P.M). After completing all the formalities at the airport, we’ll take the shuttle provided by the hotel and check-in to our hotel (Nikko Narita) and stay there overnight because I think we don’t have much options because of our flight timings.
Day 2 (Tokyo): Checkout from the Nikko Narita and take airport limousine bus to Tokyo station or Ginza station. Check-in to Mercure Tokyo Ginza (or drop the luggage if they don’t allow early check-in) and start our journey. We’ll try to cover these places/tourist attractions on day 2:
1. Akihabara
2. Asakusa (Sensoji Temple, Nakamise Dori, Sumida Park)
3. If time allows then explore the Ginza area and have dinner there.
Day 3 (Tokyo):
1. Ueno Zoo and Park
2. Shibuya (Shibuya crossing, Hachikō Memorial Statue, Shibuya Sky, etc.)
Day 4 (Tokyo): Spend the entire day at DisneySea. I’m sure my daughter would love it.
Day 5 (Tokyo):
1. TeamLab Planats
2. Odabida Area and Tokyo Tower,
3. Explore the Shinjuku area
Day 6 (Tokyo): Day trip to either Nikko or Kawaguchi lake Japan
Advise needed: I think Nikko would require around 5 hours on train (including return journey to Tokyo). Would you recommend it especially while travelling with a young kid? Should I skip these day trips and spend more time in Tokyo instead. What to include on Day 6? Any suggestions?
Day 7 (Kyoto):
1. Take the Nozomi to Kyoto. Check-in to our hotel Gran Ms Kyoto or drop our luggage there.
2. Explore Gion:
a. Afternoon: Walk from Shijo Dori and and also visit Kenninji temple.
b. Evening: Hanami-koji Street to Yasaka Shrine, Maruyama Park, Gion Tatsumi Bridge, Shimbashi in the evening.
Advice needed: Did the above places are in correct order or they don’t make any sense (like too far from each other)?
Day 8 (Kyoto):
1. Kinkaku Ji in the morning.
2. Arashiyama (for the rest of the day): Togetsukyo Bridge, Iwatayama Monkey Park, Tenryuji Temple, Arashiyama Bamboo Groves, Okochi Sanso,
Advice needed: Again, I’m not sure that the places/tourist attractions I intend to cover in Arashiyama are in correct order or they don’t make any sense (like too far from each other)? If time allows, I would also like to do Sagano Scenic Railway. Should I do it first thing after reaching to Arashiyama station or after covering the above mentioned places?
Day 9 (Kyoto):
1. Ginkaku-ji
2. Fushimi Inari-taisha
Advice needed: If I’m not wrong, then there is a 1.5 – 2.0 hour hike to Fushimi Inari temple. Would you suggest to go all the way up especially with a 4-year kid?
Day 10 (Kyoto): A day trip to Nara.
Day 11 (Kyoto): Kiyomizu Dera and then half-day trip to Kobe City.
Advise needed: This would be our last day in Kyoto. Next day (day 12) we have an early morning flight from Kansai airport, so we’ll check-in to Washington Hotel Kansai Airport in late evening/night. Should we do the half-day trip to Kobe City or try to spend the rest of the time in Kyoto and include some other tourist attraction in Kyoto that we missed? My wife would like to include Universal Studios, but I’m in favor of spending time in Kyoto or some other city.
Sorry for the long post. I would really appreciate your advice. Thank you.
2 comments
Kobe City is not that interesting on a short visit in my opinion. Kyoto is really big–like you could spend 2 months and still discover new neighborhoods and shrines. I would try Sanjusangendo, Gosho, Tohji and other sites in Kyoto. Uji is another unique area around Kyoto.
You also don’t need to go to the top of Fushimi Inari. People often go a quarter or half up the hill, and that would make the trip easier for your daughter.
While Nikko might be a bit fat, Kawaguchiko will be 2h each way. Both are really nice options and fairly easy to do… when you do not have a kid. So if you are not sure about that, then it’s not as if it was hard to spend an extra day in Tokyo. You might want to search for some winter illumination.
Day 7… yeah, seems fine, everything is close enough that order does not really matter.
Day 8. Sagano Scenic Railway could make lot of sense to do first after Kinkaku-ji (and you likely want to book tickets in advance). Like take but/train to Saga-Arashiyama station, should be able to do it in just over 30 minutes from Kinkaku-ji, then ride the train right from there and return stop at the Torokko Arashiyama station, yeah, you want to book tickets both way in advance if you can. Then you would just do everything backward, starting by Okochi Sanso, the bamboo forest, etc.
I guess you could try to take the 1pm train, so you have 4 hours from opening of Kinkaku-ji to visit the temple, move to Arashiyama and eat lunch and you can take the same train to return (5 minutes later) and would arrive back at Arashiyama at 2pm, so about 3h before some attractions start to close and sun starting to set.
Or keep things in order and do the train at 5pm, but that is likely going to be in the dark.
Fushimi Inari-taisha, the big thing everybody want to see is the line of torii gates that is at the start, then the rest is mostly if you want to enjoy the hike. You might want to see how the kid (and yourself) feel about it on the day.
Not sure if Kobe would be my first choice… also, you might want to stay in Kyoto on the day you leave to go to the airport… otherwise what, you plan to bring your luggage to Kobe then go to the airport ? Would make more sense to leave luggage at the hotel, do Fushimi Inari first, then Ginkaku-ji, walk philosopher’s path, get back to hotel to grab your luggage and go to the airport.