Rescheduled our flights for the third time in as many years, but optimistic these will stick. Below is the itinerary I’ve been piecing together. I realized this evening we’ll be there during Golden Week but if we can get the hotels and supper reservations set, I think we’ll be okay. Open to any ideas in a given location!
**Thursday**- ORD to NRT, land 3:00pm in Tokyo. Stay awake on flight, pick up pocket Wi-Fi, and walk around Imperial Palace and East Gardens to stave off jet lag.
**Friday**- Senso-ji Temple & Asakusa District. Ueno Park. Maybe a fancy dinner someplace near here or our lodging at Hyatt Andaz?
**Saturday**- [Great Cycling Tour](https://www.tokyocycling.jp/) for most of the day, then wander around Golden Gai before Robot Restaurant in the evening.
**Sunday**- Digital Art Museum first thing in the morning. Then train to Hakone and settle into the ryokan. Want to make sure we have enough time to get situated before supper here.
**Monday**- Hakone Open Air Museum, enjoy amenities of nicer ryokan we booked.
**Tuesday**- Late morning train to Kyoto. Kiyomizu-dera Temple near our lodging.
**Wednesday**- Early morning walk through Arashiama Bamboo Groves. Then Adashino Nenbutsu-ji Temple and nearby bamboo paths. Steak Otsuka reservation?
**Thursday**- Similarly early hike through Fushimi Inari. Wander around Higashiama District. Yaska Shrine and Maruyama Park’s cherry blossoms at night.
**Friday**- Train to Nara Park, then onwards to Hiroshima.
**Saturday**- Memorial Peace Park, Miyajima, and Miyajima Brewing for beer and big oysters. Okonomi-mura for Okonomiyaki at night.
**Sunday**- Train back to Tokyo. Likely stopping at Himeji Castle on the way. Sounds like it would only take about 2-3 hours from getting off the train to getting back on?
Maybe a fancy dinner in Tokyo for our last night. Potentially wander around Akiharbara as it’s closed to traffic on Sundays.
**Monday**- 5:00pm flight NRT-ORD. Unsure what to do in the morning-evening. Staying at Hyatt Regency Tokyo so maybe wander around Shinjuku?
All in all, I’m trying to keep the trip more loose to allow for exploration. Though with Golden Week I may try to book more things in advance. Also interested in when the Spring 2022 baseball schedules would be released and may try to shoehorn that in. Purposefully trying touristy stuff in Kyoto on week days.
Also have some ramen places mapped out, as well as Savoy Azubu, Gram for pancakes, and DEN in Tokyo in mind for potential reservations.
8 comments
>Thursday- ORD to NRT, land 3:00pm in Tokyo. Stay awake on flight, pick up pocket Wi-Fi, and walk around Imperial Palace and East Gardens to stave off jet lag.
If you means literally around, then yes. But if you plan to walk inside, then, no, it’s very unlikely you will arrive before it closes for the day.
>Likely stopping at Himeji Castle on the way. Sounds like it would only take about 2-3 hours from getting off the train to getting back on?
Not during Golden Week.
>I realized this evening we’ll be there during Golden Week but if we can get the hotels and supper reservations set, I think we’ll be okay.
Depend on the day, you may want Shinkansen reservation locked in too.
>All in all, I’m trying to keep the trip more loose to allow for exploration.
This might not be a loose as you think if it’s Golden Week.
>Also interested in when the Spring 2022 baseball schedules would be released and may try to shoehorn that in.
I wouldn’t dare dream of adding this to your schedule until stadiums are back at full capacity, because as it is most teams are selling out to their season ticket holders and fan clubs.
Besides, to be completely honest, it isn’t going to be worth it until cheering/singing is allowed at pro sports here, and we don’t know if that will be from next season or sometime from the middle of next season.
I believe the Robot Restaurant is permanently closed. But who knows, maybe it’ll be resurrected when the tourists are back.
I feel this is way too much for only 10 days. If you had like 2 full weeks it would still be really full, but at least more reasonable.
>Yaska Shrine and Maruyama Park’s cherry blossoms at night.
If you’re going during Golden Week you’ll be about a month too late for cherry blossoms. If you’re lucky and come on the early side of Golden Week there might still be some at Kurama, Mt. Yoshino, or possibly Ohara, but central Kyoto usually peaks around the first week of April. And if you were to add any of those locations, you’d need even more time on an already packed schedule.
I agree with Gris that this is too much for 10 days. Bear in mind the sheer amount of walking you’ll be doing on top of all the train travel, you’ll be exhausted and needing a vacation from your vacation. I recommend dropping 1 location from your itinerary, likely Hakone, and give yourself more time in Kyoto especially considering you want to squeeze in day trips to Nara and Himeji. You need to give yourself more time and not squeeze in things so close as what if something happens like you miss a train, sprain your ankle, etc? You’ll end up missing things if something happens and your itinerary remains this tightly packed together.
The Robot Restaurant also closed permanently last summer.
Jeez, crossing central Japan twice in ten days? Way too cramped, and you’d be surprised how much of that 240 hours you’ll use up in a train or a bus. That Hiroshima day alone – have you even tried to simulate the whole day’s commute in Google Maps? Stay in Kanto. There’s a lot of stuff to do that won’t require you burning up time just to commute crazy distances.
This is very packed, and most stuff is open only open 9-5. what seemed to work for me was travel in evenings, be at stuff when it opens in the morning
I did a similar style on trip in 14 days and it felt rushed, maybe trim down some stuff
Dinner reservations may be difficult during Golden Week. Even if a reservation made, it’s not uncommon for gaijins to get an 🙅🏻♂️🙅🏻♀️ at entry. Sure, it can be worked around, but often helps if you speak Japanese.