Hi folks! I’ve been lurking here a bit, checking out other people’s itineraries, taking tips, but I finally broke down and though I’d post mine and get some help/thoughts. I’m trying to go to Japan for the first time roughly two weeks in July of 2022 with a small group of friends, but realistically it will probably end up just being me, my sister, and maybe another friend. The going plan is 9 days in Tokyo, 2 or 3 days in Kyoto, and 3 or 4 in Osaka. We’re going through Tripmasters for this trip, so we can adjust things. This is a really rough itinerary made with 9 days in Tokyo, 2 in Kyoto, 4 in Osaka as the plan. I just made a list of things I wanted to do and see, then tried to break it down into things that were in the same neighborhood so as not to spend all day on the train if I wanted to do things on opposite ends of the city. I’m trying for a mix of new and traditional stuff to keep things a little varied. Ok, enough rambling!
Day -1-Fly to Japan
Day 1 A-Land, get to hotel, maybe dinner, sleep
Day 2-Hanozono Shrine,Gyoen National Garden,Mandarake,Metro Govt building observation deck,Kabukicho/Golden Gai for dinner/bars
Day 3-Takeshita st, Meiji Jingu Shrine, Shibuya Crossing, Ribera Steakhouse
Day 4-Bus to Fuji,Climb Mt Fuji
Day 5-Descend Mt Fuji, Fuji Q maybe
Day 6-Tokyo Disney Sea
Day 7-Akihabara, Super Potato, Kappabashi Street, Nishi Sando Street, Senso Ji Temple, Asakusa Shrine, Tokyo Skytree,Asakusa Pier/water bus to Odaiba (Is this one too overloaded? Would it make more sense to do Odaiba early then take the water bus to Asakusa?)
Day 8-Ghibli Museum/Nakano Broadway Mall
Day 9- Free day, maybe check out certain areas again or check out something recommended here
Day 10-train to Kyoto, find hotel,Kinkaku ji Temple,Fushimi Inari, Nishiki market
Day 11-Arashiyama bamboo forest,Philosopher’s Path,Kyoto tower
Day 12-train to Osaka, find hotel, Tezuka museum, Minoo park, Shinsekai
Day 13-Super Mario World, Dotonbori
Day 14-Nijigen No Mori theme park
Day 15-Osaka Castle or Hiroshima
Day 16- Fly home
Thank you for any help on this, it is definitely welcome and appreciated.
4 comments
You may not be able to enjoy Fuji Q on Day 5. When I visited the theme park, it was an all day thing. You’ll spend more time waiting in lines than anything unless you are lucky and can score some fast passes. I’d pass on it especially if you’re going to Disney Sea the next day. Take it easy; your feet will thank you.
Day 6 looks jam packed. I don’t know if you folks are really into anime but explore Akihabara can take up to 3-4 hours especially if you make purchases. You can spend about 2 hours in Asakusa looking around and another 2 in Skytree. I’ve caught the water bus from Asakusa to Odaiba in the late afternoon and would up visiting Odaiba again on another day because I thought there was just way too much to see and do in 3 hours.
Feel that day 7 is quite full and would probably be better to split it with day 9.
Your split of Kyoto is quite… debatable. Both days you have 3 area that are not close from each other, so I would personally change how you group things. For example, Bamboo forest and Kinkaku-ji are closer than the other locations (actually, maybe Kinkaku-ji first because of opening hours), then finish the day at Kyoto Tower (unless you have a strong reason for it, I would personally do a night view from an observation deck in Osaka instead). Fushimi Inari early in the morning to beat the crowd, then make your way to Nishiki market and Philosopher’s path. At least if you keep the same locations, this order would make more sense to me.
Tezuka Museum, if it’s what I think of, is in Takarazuka, so it will take some time to reach from Osaka. I would personally not do it the day you change hotel or you could even consider to stay in Osaka all the time and take the train to Kyoto for the two days you want to be there.
Nijigen no mori, is there a specific thing you want to see ? I’ve heard that the Naruto park is really intended for kids and older people will feel a bit silly doing the kid games.
If you are to do Hiroshima (that probably have more value than a concrete castle), it can even be paired with Himeji castle. If you can be at Himeji when the castle open, bento box for lunch in the train, peace museum in afternoon, okonomiyaki for dinner and return to Osaka. It’s a busy day, but possible.
Don’t plan on doing anything after descending Fuji. It’s exhausting. One option could be to send your bags from Tokyo to Kyoto and go directly from Fuji to Kyoto via Fujinomiya trail descent. I did this and it worked out great, actually, letting me avoid a lot of backtracking, etc.
Also, Fuji Rock Festival is the end of July of you’re into that sort of thing.
FYI: Mid-late July is a MASSIVE festival season in Kansai. This includes the Gion Festival (all of July, but especially the 15th-17th and 22nd-24th), Tenjin Festival (July 24th-25th), Motomiya Festival (July 21st-22nd), and Mitarashi Festival (last 10 or so days of July). The Gion and Tenjin Fesitvals in particular are two of Japan’s three largest festivals, and are among the only good reasons I can think of to suffer through the heat of summer if going at another time of year is feasible. August also has some major fireworks festivals, Gozan-no-Okuribi, and Toro Nagashi. Also, if you’re around towards the end of the month I highly recommend Kobo-san at Toji on the 21st and/or Tenjin-san at Kitanotenmangu on the 25th.
Ordinarily I recommend roughly a full week just for a quick run-through of the highlights of Kansai, but given the sweltering heat of the late summer and the extra time needed for festivals, I would give it more like 10 full days if you’re going around this time (again, just as a starting point). Right now you have about 5 days set aside for this, which I think would be pretty tight even just for the highlights during a time of year when the weather is much nicer and there were no special events going on.****
Whatever the case may be, I think 2 days is too short for Kyoto. I usually recommend 3 as a minimum, but more would be ideal (again, especially in the heat of summer). Not only is there too much ground to cover in just 2 days even if you’re only doing the highlights, what makes Kyoto truly special is not just the most famous stuff, and if you only do that you miss a lot of the experience.
Other than that, I would skip both Osaka Castle and Hiroshima. Osaka Castle is a concrete reconstruction and quite skippable unless you have a specific interest in its long and significant history, have tons of time to spend in Kansai (like months), or are visiting around cherry blossom season. If you want to see a much better castle, Himeji is easily doable as a day trip from Kyoto or Osaka and combines very well with an afternoon/evening in Kobe on the way back. It also has some of the best gardens in the country (Koko-en), which are practically free if you get the combined garden/castle ticket. Alternatively (or additionally) Hikone is between Nagoya and Kyoto and the shores of Lake Biwa. Both of those are authentic 17th-century constructions and Himeji is the most iconic castle in the entire country. Hirsohima, on the other hand, is both too far and too big to recommend doing as a day trip.