Hello all!
My husband and I are hoping to get to visit Japan next spring for the cherry blossoms (fingers crossed the border opens up!). Would very much appreciate feedback on our current itinerary. I’ve been watching the sub for a little bit and have seen that people often try to cram too much into a day and I fear we’ve fallen into the same mistake but don’t know where to cut back.
3/18 (Day 1): Land in Tokyo late evening, check in hotel near Tokyo Station
3/19 (Day 2): Train to Nagano, monkey park, sake tasting
3/20 (Day 3): Zenkoji Temple, Togakushi Shrines
3/21 (Day 4): Matsumoto Castle, Matsumoto Merchant Houses, Food tour
3/22 (Day 5): Train to Tokyo, explore shinjuko around hotel, free time
3/23 (Day 6): DisneySea
3/24 (Day 7): Day Trip – Hakone/Fuji
3/25 (Day 8): Ghibli museum, Puroland
3/26 (Day 9): Imperial Palace, Tsukiji Food market, Hana-rihyo
3/27 (Day 10): Yanaka-Ginza, Nezu Shrine, Spa LaQua
3/28 (Day 11): National Museum, Ueno Park, Ameya-yokocho, Tashugu Shrine, Akihabara
3/29 (Day 12): Asakusa, Sensu-ji, Thunder Gate, Sky tree, teamLab
3/30 (Day 13): Omoide-yokucho, Metropolitan Government Building, Shinjuku goen, Meiji Shrine, Omote-sando, Nezu Museum
3/31 (Day 14): Shibuyu, Kit Kat Factory, Roppongi, Mori Art Museum, Nakameguru, Cream Puff Factory
4/1 (Day 15): Free Day – shopping & onsen
4/2 (Day 16): Train to Kyoto, hotel in Gion, Maruyama, Yasaka
4/3 (Day 17): Arashiyama bamboo, monkey park, Togetsukyo Bridge, Kinkaku-ji
4/4 (Day 18): Day Trip – Nara
4/5 (Day 19): Fushimi Inari, Tofuku-ji, Higashi Honan-ji
4/6 (Day 20): Ginkaku-ji, Path of Philosophy, Nanzen-ji, Heian Shrine, Kodaiji Shrine, Kiyumizudera
4/7 (Day 21): Day trip – Himeji Castle
4/8 (Day 22): Nishi market, Nijo-jo, Imperial palace
4/9 (Day 23): Flight home
I welcome any advice or recommendations you can give! While we’re both nerdy enough to want to check out places like Akihabara, we’re generally more interested in gardens/temples/shrines. And we burn out on museums somewhat quickly so expect those stops to be just highlight exhibits.
Our start/stop dates are generally fixed due to flights but we don’t have any hotels yet so all the interior stuff can move if you’ve got a suggestion!
We are aware that there is a festival at Fushimi Inari on 4/8. We’d like to visit it separetely from that, but if there’s time return for that as well.
Thank you!
Edit 6/24: Formatting
8 comments
Note: meiji shirne and omotesando are parts of Shibuya.
It’s very easy to just do all of them as one day.
It’s hard to read through your schedule, but one thing I noticed immediately is that you scheduled the National Museum on its holiday: Monday. So yeah, also check operating time of other places too.
if you feel your itinerary is full, then make priority and drop things midway if you see it is too much.
Some might be harder, I think especially day 12-13-14 that could benefit from reworking the prder (in mu opinion). To fit teamlab might be trickier, especially in that order. I would do teamlab first as it’s the thing that close first, while Skytree open later (can be a night view too). Can easily drop Gov. building as you already have Skytree and Mori tower, can start by Meiji shrine that open quite early and finish by Omoide yokocho (as some place only open at 5pm anyway) so in the middel likely omote-sando, nezu, shinjuku gyoen (or maybe museum that open at 10, then omote sando as some stores like omote sando hills only open at 11). Roppongi-Shibuya is tricky because of opening hours. Could do Meguro first thing in the morning, like until about 10am. Creampuff, is about 30 min from Naka-meguro, so you are there when it open at 10:30. Next Shibuya and Kit Kat (open at 11) and finish by Mori tower, and it should be good as it close at 10pm most of the days.
Actually, do check when things you want to see open/close and some also have close day. Like Shinjuku gyoen close Monday, Mori art museum close at 5pm on Tuesday, etc.
If you are into garden, then add Koishikawakorakuen next to spa laqua.
I would also replace your day 15 that is free day/onsen to make Hakone a 2 day one night between Tokyo and Kyoto. Ship luggage to Kyoto, only bring a day pack. Visit Hakone, relax. Next morning you can take it slowly if you want, onsen again, so make it your slow day and take the train to Kyoto, then next day you have a full day for your first in Kyoto and you can probably do a bit of Higashiyama on that day so you might take a bit of advance on things planned for philosopher’s path day.
Do you fly in Tokyo out Osaka ?
If you do, I would consider doing Nagano/Matsumoto after the whole Tokyo part, return to Tokyo for a night (even if just to break the train ride from Matsumoto to Hakone) then Hakone night, Kyoto. The goal would be to use th JR Pass 7 days. First day of the pass to got to Nagano, last to go to Kyoto. That I think would save you about 4000 yen.
You can also check to get the JR West Kansai area pass 1 day to do Himeji for 2400 yen. The downside is that it takes 90 minutes on the rapid train that it allow you to use (no shinkansen, no limited express) instead of the 50 minutes of the shinkansen, that is 5200 yen each way.
And if you fly out to KIX, you could always get the 2 day pass and do Himeji the day before you fly out, so the Haruka ticket would cost the 2200 for the extra day on the pass instead of 3200 for a normal ticket. The other option is Icoca+haruka deal, but you need a icoca ic card, . Yu would likely already have a Suica/pasmo from Tokyo. Actually, you could still get it, the deposit on the card + Haruka ticket is 2300 yen and one option is to take the kansai one pass, that is a icoca with a cool design and 2500 yen charged on it, so you only have to use it a bit for local train like ride to Nara (using kintetsu, because it’s better) than JR, or for you konbini purchase, and load the Haruka discount ticket on it, for the 100 yen it would cost, that is a cool souvenir is you ask me.
If you fly out of Tokyo, then the consideration about the pass are likely to be completely to recalculate.
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If there is anything not clear (or you want links to the pass I named), feel free to ask (might have been a bit technical on the pass)
My friends and I wanna go during that time too. Are you planning to book your tickets now or are you gonna wait things out?
Day 7: Hopefully it’s either Hakone or Fuji Five Lakes area, otherwise this would be extremely silly.
Day 13: It would make a lot more sense starting from Meiji Jingu and Harajuku, and then moving to Shinjuku via Shinjuku Gyoen
Day 14: Generally, it makes much more sense to start from either Shimo-Kitazawa or Shibuya and finish things in Mori Tower.
Nagano deserves an extra day imho. Togakushi 100% deserves a full day, it’s huge and the atmosphere does not lend itself to hurrying and scheduling, but Zenkoji is totally worth it too so best not sacrifice that entirely. I admit I’m not sure which day seems the most superfluous though.
In Kyoto: on day 17, do Kinkakuji early and spend the rest of the day in Arashiyama. The best things about Arashiyama, imho, are a bit set back from the main drag and are sometimes overlooked by people in a hurry – Toriimoto, Adashino Nembutsuji, that area.
On a more general note – it feels like your Kyoto days follow a bit of a pattern, no? Temples are great, sure, but maybe going to one inner-city temple after another for several days straight might get a bit repetitive and it might be worth switching out one of the days for something like Kurama/Ohara/Takao.
If you’re worried about cramming too much into one day, Kodaiji can very easily be moved to the Gion day, but if you just want that first afternoon to be relaxed more than anything I quite understand.
Is this a good itinerary for a first time in Japan?
I’m trying to plan a trip around the same time for next year, but have barely started (no tickets or anything) because of Covid uncertainties.
81% as of end of March for this year are half as good as I have been and will again be over in a bit!