Hello folks!! You may recall my original rough itinerary that went on for a mile with details, and you may be proud to discover that my original plan has been completely butchered and my husband and I have an entirely new itinerary, finalized with hotel stays and experiences booked!! I wanted to provide my itinerary to perhaps inspire some of you looking to begin detailing your own trip– and I want to suggest you start planning NOW if you’re intending to travel in May. You will see why shortly:
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Day One: Airport & Tokyo
Arrive at airport, eat, and make a beeline for our hotel. We understand that our first day will probably be a total write-off because of jet lag and exhaustion from travel (flying from Canada). If we somehow get a sudden burst of energy, we will simply explore our general area with no real plan.
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Day Two: Tokyo
Exploring Shibuya!! We have a few stops along our way, such as the Nintendo Store, the Hachiko Statue, and Gotokuji Temple (lucky cat temple– a little further out from Shibuya). I have kept Tokyo very loosely planned because I realized planning everything down to scheduled washroom breaks is almost guaranteed to end in disaster because Tokyo has SO much to see and do, it’s better to just experience whatever catches your eye. Not to mention we will still be recovering from jet lag, so keeping things loose will probably be better for us so we don’t get too exhausted or overwhelmed.
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Day Three: Tokyo
IMPORTANT NOTE: THE THIRD WEEKEND OF MAY WILL APPARENTLY HAVE A VERY LARGE FESTIVAL HAPPENING. My husband and I did NOT know this before we booked our tickets, but apparently Tokyo will be very busy this particular weekend. Keep this in mind as you’re planning to book for hotels.
This day we will essentially be making a big loop around Chiyoda by exploring several spots just outside of it. This includes visiting a ninja house/restaurant, visiting the art aquarium, and going to NAKED FLOWERS FOR YOU, another teamlabs exhibit (from my understanding anyway).
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Day Four: Tokyo
Same area as day three, still very loosely planned. May still book something like a food tour or something similar for this day, or we may partake in the festival activities. That alone is enough to fill a full day.
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Day Five: Tokyo
Alright, we know Tokyo has a lot to do but we can’t pinpoint everything. This day won’t have anything planned at all so we can either wander, tie up some loose ends we didn’t get the chance to take care of yet, or just relax at our hotel. After so many days exploring the city, we could probably go for a bit of a break before taking off to our next city.
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Day Six: Kyoto
Waking up bright and early and making a beeline for the Shinkansen. This is the day we will be activating our 7-Day JR Passes. We’ll be dropping our bags off at our hotel and then take our time to wander the city. We don’t intend to visit any big tourist spots like Arashiyama Bamboo Forest on our first day because we know the crowds will be insane. BONUS: [Enjoy this website, which is a population forecast for Kyoto to prevent overcrowding](https://global.kyoto.travel/en/comfort/)
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Day Seven: Kyoto
Waking up bright and early to beat the crowds and heading straight to the bamboo forest and monkey park. From my understanding, there’s a bit of a hike for the monkey park anyway, so doing this earlier in the day before it gets hotter would probably be best regardless. After this, we have little planned aside from visiting a tea shop for me to stock up. We would also like to visit an onsen after so much walking and escaping Tokyo.
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Day Eight: Kyoto
Ah yes, a day with a plan!! We actually have a tea ceremony scheduled on this day. IF YOU ARE ALSO LOOKING TO BOOK FOR A TEA CEREMONY, DO IT NOW. I just so happened to click on the website for the place we were looking to do our ceremony and I discovered almost every day in May was already partially booked. If you are looking to book at a place such as Camellia Flower/Garden, I highly suggest you do so now, as slots are already starting to fill.
After the tea ceremony, we intend to rent a kimono and explore Gion, taking several pictures along the way. We will likely visit a couple shrines. My husband also INSISTS we visit Nintendo HQ, despite the fact it cannot be toured and it is just one big, chunky grey building. However, this is the hill he has chosen to die on, so to the grey cube we go.
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Day Nine: Kyoto
Waking up and making a beeline yet again because we have booked a wonderful experience doing a traditional book binding workshop!! This is honestly one of the biggest highlights for me. I am so excited to learn a traditional craft and take home my book as a beautiful souvenir. The Imperial Palace and Kitanu Tenmangu Shrine are both very close-by, so we will likely explore those spots as well after our class.
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Day Ten: Koyasan
Waking up bright and early and heading straight to Koyasan. I was very excited to find this cute little gem, especially to get away from the cities. The photos alone are just gorgeous and it seems like a day in this area can be dedicated to just exploring the natural beauty of the area, as well as the temples. We have booked a night in one of the temples and we intend to wake up early the next morning to spectate the monk’s morning rituals. They welcome spectators and participants, so I’m really looking forward to observing it. IF YOU ARE ALSO INTERESTED IN GOING TO KOYASAN AND STAYING IN A TEMPLE: rooms are VERY limited as of right now. I looked at three temples for our stay and all three had very few affordable rooms remaining. All I saw left were deluxe family rooms that can sleep six, or large luxury rooms that also sleep six. There were maybe five rooms I saw that were an appropriate size for just a couple, so if you intend to go to Koyasan, look into rooms now. We found ours on Expedia I believe. They also seem to be very tattoo-friendly 🙂
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Day Eleven: Osaka
Immediately after the morning rituals, we’re heading straight to Osaka. We have absolutely nothing planned other than having a beautiful supper in the food capital. We intend to try Wagyu beef and let our lives be changed forever. Aside from this, we will just be wandering the city. We would like to hunt down a crane game arcade for something a little different.
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Day Twelve: Osaka & Tokyo
This is the last day our JR Pass is active, so we have to return to Tokyo. However, since we have so little time in Osaka, we want to push taking the Shinkansen as long as possible so we can explore a couple final places before saying goodbye. Upon our arrival in Tokyo, we won’t be long trying to get some sleep before we wake up early once more to head to the airport.
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Day Thirteen: Airport
Crying a few tears and taking off in the morning. Praying that all the tea and knives and souvenirs fit into our suitcases and we aren’t overweight. Saying goodbye and probably begin planning trip number two since there’s still so much we didn’t get the chance to do.
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So that is it!! That is our wonderful trip planned FAR more freely than our original itinerary, with a few changes to locations as well. I hope some of you avail of the tips I threw in if you’re planning on flying in May like us. Have fun folks B)
2 comments
I do not know of a festival that make Tokyo that much more busy… but actually if there is a festival, that could be something really cool to see. I think it’s more of a good thing than a bad thing that there is a festival when you are there.
NAKED FLOWERS FOR YOU is a digital art exhibition by a completely different group called Naked.
teamLab still have their Planets exhibition open and at an unknown date, Borderless will re-open in Toranomon-Azabudai.
Nintendo former HQ… better than a tour, you could book a night there as it’s not a hotel.
I did not know about the Festival in May. That explains why the same hotel for two days is the same as my other four days there.