Will be visiting Japan in December, specifically Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and back to the Narita airport through Hakone. I will be most grateful if you can give me some tips! Note that some parts of the itinerary may not be as clear since I am there for other reasons too, which annoyingly could not be confirmed quickly.
12 Dec: Arrive at Narita 5pm. Travel to hotel at Ueno region. Visit Tokyo skytree and Akhibara at night. Dinner at oyster place at Tokyo skytree.
13 Dec: Occupied in the morning for other reasons and not sure what time it ends. After the event, visit Sanrio puroland (30 minutes away) for a short trip. Go to Harajuku and Shibuya, probably reach at 5pm or 6pm. Thermae-yu hotspring at later night after dinner and shopping (10pm). Return to hotel at Ueno area.
14 Dec: I may be occupied tentatively. May have to take a trip to Sendai. Any suggestions of what to do there? If the day trip is not needed, I will spend the day shopping at Shibuya, etc.
15 Dec: Spend entire day at Disneysea.
16 Dec: Senso-ji temple visit. Ginza shopping. Back to hotel at 4pm for work.
17 Dec: Wake up earlier in the morning to visit Tsukiji outer market. Go to Teamlab planets at 10am. Finish and take train to Osaka by 1pm. Check in at hotel at Namba region. Visit Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. Shop at Dotonbori district near hotel.
18 Dec onwards: I have not finished planning and could ask in a separate post. Thanks!
Please let me know how I can improve!
2 comments
Some of your days seem packed, and it seems like maybe you haven’t taken into consideration how long travel time actually is between places or how long things might take.
Dec 12: By the time you get to Ueno from the airport, it could be close to 7 or 8pm already. Then getting over to Skytree will take time, and the last admission up the tower is 8pm. So you could miss it entirely. You’ll want to check the times on the restaurant, too, since a lot of restaurants close quite early, so even if you do make it to Skytree, it might be closing by the time you get down the tower. By the time you do all of this, it could be close to 10pm or 11pm, and you may not want to head down to Akiba (a lot of stuff will be closing up by then). It might be better to ditch Skytree entirely that night and just head over to Akiba for dinner after you get to Ueno.
Dec 17: If your Planets tickets are for 10am, making a 1pm train to Osaka might be tight. People usually spend 1-2 hours at Planets, and don’t underestimate the time it takes to get to and from Odaiba or around Tokyo Station. It’ll likely be 30-40 minutes. It’s not _not_ doable, but keep an eye on the clock. Even with the fastest Shinkansen, it’s 2.5 hours to Shin-Osaka, and then probably another 30 minutes down to your hotel in Namba, then maybe 30-40 minutes over to the aquarium. So you might not get there until close to 5pm, and it closes at 7pm, so keep that in mind.
If you end up having more free time in your schedule, I would pace out these heavy days.
Sendai is not heavy on attractions, but they got a really convenient sightseeing bus that just goes around town stopping at all the interesting spots. We bought a day ticket a couple of years ago and just hopped on and off at places that looked interesting.