2 week Itinerary 12/20-1/2 Tokyo – Kamakura – Fuji – Hakone – Kyoto – Osaka

Hello all! Extremely excited for my first trip to Japan. I’ve been waiting for about 10+ years, I’d say. This will also be my first international trip anywhere. I will be travelling with 3 of my closest friends. The itinerary is still coming along, but I also think our group is trying to not micro-plan every detail of the trip. We’re more focused on staying in an area and completing Google Map “pins” we’ve saved. Still, even though we intentionally have some free days, I can tell we can add more to the trip if we wanted. Specifically, Dec 29, 24, and 25 could use some meat. I’m also not sure if we can or even should do anything during the day on the 31st. Any advice at all would be really appreciated! Appreciate this sub–you guys have all been tremendous in helping plan my first trip. Thanks so much!

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Dec 20 – Narita Airport arrival at 4:30 JST

* Obtain JR pass, reserve NEX first. 7/11 atm for yen, obtain wifi router from Lawson.
* Arrive at Ueno hotel. Chill out and grab some ramen nearby.

Dec 21 – Ueno and Akihabara

* National Tokyo Museums, Ueno Park, then a 20 minute walk to spend the evening in Akihabara.

Dec 22 – Ueno and Skytree

* Sensoji Temple then Kappabashi. Take a long walk to Skytree and get a view at sunset.

Dec 23 – Shibuya and transfer

* Transfer from Ueno hotel to Shinjuku Airbnb. Shibuya scramble, then spend the day doing doing pins (Starbucks Reserve, Miyashita Park, Nonbei Yokocho, Yoyogi Park).

Dec 24 – Day trip to Kamakura

* Seems to be enough in this area for a day trip. Any suggestions are welcome, but I honestly just haven’t planned this day yet–I’m sure it won’t be too tough.

Dec 25 (Day 6) – Fuji

* Get a hostel in Kawaguchiko. We really want to see Aokigahara forest, so we plan to take a bus and possibly a tour of some of its caves. Spend the night in the Fuji area.

Dev 26 – Shinjuku

* Return to Airbnb and actually explore the area. Meiji jingu, government building, Omoide yokocho, general exploration of the area.

Dev 27 – Odaiba

* Spend the day in Odaiba until afternoon reservation at Teamlab Planets. Head over to Tokyo Red VR for the evening, and then try to catch some winter illuminations.

Dec 28 – Transfer to Hakone

* Open air museum, maybe some shopping. Spend most of the day at the ryokan.

Dec 29 – Transfer to Kyoto

* West Kyoto. Monkey park and bamboo grove, not too heavy of a day since we are transfering to a Kyoto Airbnb.

Dec 30 – Kiyomizudera and Fushimi Inari

* Kiyomizu, ninenzaka, Fushimi Inari, Gion, Eikando, Philosopher’s Path.

Dec 31 – Transfer to Osaka

* Transfer to Osaka Airbnb, not much daytime activity planned. We will be spending New Years at USJ!

Jan 1 – Osaka

* Recovery day. Most shops will be closed, so nothing planned.

Jan 2 – Shinkansen back to NRT.