Trip Report – Our first 14 days trip to Japan! (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nara, Kanazawa)

# Intro

Hey everyone!

I want to share my itinerary and plan that my friend and I followed recently. We’ve went through a lot of reddit posts, youtube videos and websites before our trip. I’ve lurked this subreddit a lot, so I want to give something back.

First, take my advice _(the most important one)_ when planning your trip to Japan. Don’t stress and don’t overthink too much. Japan is pretty beautiful, and even if you explore it without a detailed itinerary I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy it.

# Summary

We came from Serbia, Europe to Narita **on 7th of November** and left Japan on **20th of November**. Our itinerary was really casually planned, and everything was flexible. What we wanted is not to stress about not managing to visit everything we wanted, and to see on the spot what should we visit. Also, it’s worth mentioning, we had over 22k steps every day which wasn’t a problem since we hike a lot and go to gym regularly.

We had 20-30kg suitcase per person, so we planned out for our trip to have three “battle-stations” in order to avoid moving a lot with our suitcases. Our battle-stations were in Tokyo, one in Osaka, and lastly again Tokyo.

So here’s a short list per days:

1. Tokyo
2. Tokyo
3. Tokyo
4. Osaka
5. Kyoto
6. Kyoto
7. Hiroshima
8. Nara
9. Kanazawa
10. Tokyo
11. Tokyo
12. Hakone
13. Tokyo

# Details

## Day 1. Tokyo Arrival.

This is the day that we didn’t plan because we arrived around 4PM. We had a checklist of thing to do on Narita.

– SIM Card
– Pick up the 14-day Japan Rail Pass (that we bought through https://www.japanrailpass-reservation.net/ website)
– SUICA
– Exchange some small amount of dollars to yen

We picked up our JRPass and got some cash, but we didn’t get the SIM or SUICA. Which was a mistake, because later on we had to find a station which had SUICA, and buy a SIM inside BIC Camera store. We took 15GB SIM card each which was more than enough.
We took the Narita Express to Tokyo, and got to the hotel in Akasaka. NEX was empty, and the airport was like a ghost town.

## Day 2. Tokyo.

We went to:

– Shibuya
– Meiji Jingu
– Aoyama Cemetery.

In the evening we went to Roppongi.

## Day 3. Tokyo.

We went to see the Imperial Palace (well, an entrance at least since it was closed for visitors). After that we went to the gardens of the imperial palace and took a metro to Ginza. Hama-rikyu garden and Tsukiji Outer market were our stops.

After getting something to eat in the market, we wondered around Ginza. Then, metro line to Shinjuku and then back to hotel.

## Day 4. Trip to Osaka and Osaka.

This is the day where we packed in the morning and took a shinkansen to Osaka for the very first time (we reserved tickets). Shinkansen arrives to Shin-Osaka, and almost all of our destinations in the upcoming days are all requiring shinkansen. So, we reserved a hotel near Osaka station. Kita Ward to be precise.

When we got to the Osaka, after we left our suitcases in the hotel, Osaka Castle was our destination. After it, Tsutenkaku and Nanba district.

## Day 5 Finally Kyoto.

This is the most packed and physically demanding day.

We didn’t plan our transportation to Kyoto at all. Google maps always gave us the directions and instructions how to get there fast.

First we went to the To-Ji temple and then back to the Kyoto Station. We took the train to the Fushimi Inari Shrine. Mt. Inari is beautiful and worth the hike.

Don’t be lazy and just spend your time at the bottom of the mountain, the path to the top is less crowded and has better spots. We walked to the Kiyomizu-dera which was astonishing and worth the tickets. After that, we explored the Higashiyama District and walked to the Kyoto Station.

## Day 6 Kyoto Again.

First we went from Osaka to Kyoto Main Station and then to Saga-Arashiyama Station to get tickets for Sagano Sight-Seeing Tram in the evening. After that we went to see Kinkaku Ji.
We took the bus two times that day. Kyoto Imperial Palace is a must see, and the free audio guide is good. In the evening we took the Sight-Seeing Tram and wandered around the downtown in Kyoto.

## Day 7 Hiroshima.

We took Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Hiroshima (We reserved tickets). We didn’t use any transportation in Hiroshima at all.

We visited a lot of important places in this order:

– Hiroshima Castle
– Atomic Bomb Dome
– Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
– Hiroshima Downtown
– Hijiyama.

Two older women were guiding us on Hijiyama and talked with us about Hiroshima. One of them survived atomic bombing and showed us the best viewpoint. Hijiyama Military Cemetery has one of the best viewpoint I’ve been to in Japan.

## Day 8 Nara.

Google Maps said to go to the Tsuruhashi and take Kintetsu Nara line. Here we made a mistake, cause that line isn’t covered by the JapanRailPass. We realized that while we were on that station. So we got into this situation where there were like 6 different people that worked on that station that helped us. We couldn’t pass the gate for some reason, and the staff had to resolve the trouble with the pass and IC card for us. So we took the JR line to Tennoji station and then we got on the train covered by JapanRailPass to Nara.

We didn’t use any transportation in Nara.

List of places that we visited:

– Kōfuku-ji
– Nara Park
– Kasuga-Taisha
– Mt. Wakakusa
– Tōdai-ji.

Mt. Wakakusa was definitely worth it. On a beautiful day, the view is amazing.

## Day 9 Kanazawa.

To get to Kanazawa from Osaka we used Thunderbird Limited Express (we reserved tickets). It took two and a half hours, but the scenery was really worth it. Kanazawa is a really pretty city and we didn’t use any public transportation.

We visited:

– Marunouchi
– Kenroku-en
– Ōmichō Market
– Higashi Chaya District

In Higashi Chaya you can climb to the Hosenji Temple for a really pretty viewpoint.

## Day 10 Back to Tokyo.

We are moving to our final battle-station. First we had to take a train like always from Osaka to Shin-Osaka, and then Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Tokyo (We reserved tickets). Our hotel was in Ueno near Akihabara. We used this day to explore Akihabara and relax before our active upcoming days.

## Day 11 Disneyland Tokyo.

Nothing special to add here, we reserved our tickets one month in advance. Disneyland was great, and we didn’t regret it.

## Day 12 Hakone

I will be honest here. This was totally adventurous and unorganized day. We didn’t plan out this one better. Please, if you plan to go to Hakone, do your research before your trip.

We followed google maps directions. From Tokyo Station we took Shinkansen to Odawara. In Odawara, google maps told us to take the bus. We spoke with the bus driver he told us “This bus goes, but this bus slow and expensive.” We saw some really beautiful sceneries and lost around hour to get to Motohakone-ko station. Not to mention that the trip cost us 1320¥. We bought some food and coffee in the 7-11 and headed to the Hakone Shrine. Then we followed a trail/road to the Togendai. Lake is beautiful and sometimes you can see Fuji. Then we took the cable car from Togendai to Ōwakudani. After that we took the cable car to Gora.

_Now the adventure begins._

We realized that in Gora there’s nothing really interesting to see and do, and to get back to Togendai we would have to but again the ticket, since we bought a one-way one. I said, no way – and we started going towards Miyanoshita. It was fun getting lost in this part of the Japan. We took the bus back to Odawara and went back to the hotel.

## Day 13 Tokyo

In the morning we visited Sensō-ji and Ueno Park.
We really loved Shinjuku so we went back and did some shopping before packing.

## Day 14 Trip back home.

Took Narita Express from Tokyo Station and got to Narita really early.

# Useful stuff
– We reserved all trains via https://www.japanrailpass-reservation.net/
– We reserved almost all tickets whenever we used Shinkansen. Sometimes, we were lazy and just got onto the unreserved car and there were free seats.
– If you see something that you want to buy as a souvenir, buy it. Every time I saw something interesting I told myself – Hm, I’ll buy it next time when I see it somewhere in some souvenir shop. I didn’t see it.
– Eki Stamps are awesome. It’s an awesome side quest/hobby to do while in Japan. I’ve got a booklet with a lot of cool stamps, a really cool memory.
– Suica is sold only on JR stations, which may not be close to your hotel in Tokyo.
– We didn’t use Suica that much, JRPass covered 80% of the public transport that we used. Around 2500¥ of balance we have spent.
– Google Maps used us pretty well when it comes to finding where to eat
– Offline maps and Camera feature in Google Translate are lifesavers.
– Japanese people really don’t know English. It was really rare to find someone who speaks it good.
– Vending machines and 7/11 stores are your best friends.
– Buses have an interesting way of paying for a ticket. Read about it before you get on it.
– Shinkansen and NEX has rules about the oversized luggage. My suitcase was just a few centimeters below the limit and I had no issues anywhere. (155cm, limit was 160cm)

If anyone has any question, or you think that it would be helpful to add something more – I’ll be happy to answer all questions and add more info to this post.

Ps. It’s getting late here, I’ll format this post and add relevant google maps links tomorrow. 🙂