I am in the very preliminary stages of planning an eventual trip at some point in the next year or so. Lurking here has given me a LOT of ideas. This will be my first time ever traveling internationally and my second trip on a plane, to give a little context on that part. There are some things where i haven’t decided where they fit in the itinerary, and I definitely want to build in rest time – I don’t want to be all Go!Go!Go! but I don’t want to waste time either.
Day 0:
Arrive, check into hotel, crash if jetlagged and explore around hotel if not.
Day 1:
Shinjuku
Shinkjuku Gyoen National Garden
Tokyo Toy Museum?
Isetan
ARTINA Square Enix
Samurai Museum – Closed but may reopen eventually?
Tokyo Metropolitan Govt Building
Day 2:
Shibuya & Harajuku
Meiji-Jingu
Yoyogi Park
Owl Village Caf̩ Vs Hedgehog Caf̩ HARRY Рhard to decide!
Takeshita St
Sanrio Vivitix
Laforet & Sailor Moon store
Shibuya Scramble Square, Shibuya Sky
Hachiko Statue
Tokyo Anime Center?
Parco – Nintendo Tokyo
Animate Shibuya
Day 3:
Imperial Palace
Tokyo Tower
Akihabara
Ameyoko shopping street
Godzilla statue
Ueno?
Day 4:
Sunshine City, Ikebukuro.
Otome Rd. Mandarake. Pokemon center.
Milky Way Café?
Ueno?
I hear that Ikebukuro has more ‘girly’ anime shopping that Akihabara, which would probably be more my speed.
Day 5:
Asakusa
Kaminarimon Gate & Senso-ji
Tokyo Skytree- Kirby café if I can get it.
Yae Kimono rental here vs renting in Harajuku
Odaiba ferry
Teamlab PLANETS
Rainbow Bridge
Gundam Base Tokyo
Palette Town Pier (mainly for a Pokemon joke, I’m not going to lie)
Joyopolis?- I saw they had an Ace Attorney experience and got Very Excited before i noticed that it wasn’t one of the attractions with an English version available.
Day 6:
Hakone –Yunessun
Day 7:
Tokyo Disneysea? Shibuya/Harajuku pt 2 if not.
And there are a couple of places that I’m not sure about being worth it or if they are even possible. Has anyone been to the Toei Animation Museum and thinks it’s worth the visit? I’m really into anime so the idea of it appeals to me. And I know the Ghibli museum has basically decided they don’t need foreigners there, but I’m pretty sure I saw a post about someone outside of Japan managing to score tickets online – has there been more luck with that or was that just a fluke? I thought about adding a trip to Super Mario World but I think I can skip that and not have regrets.
I mainly plan on staying in Tokyo but I will be going to Hakone to go to Yunessun. I was going to make it a day trip just for the spa-park but now I’m wondering if I should/could add any more Hakone sites to the trip that day. Would that be feasible do you think? I have a little wiggle room, vacation time wise so i can add another day or two while fine tuning things.
I think my last thoughts are about the time of year to go. I get some time in Spring, Summer and Fall that I could make the trip happen in, so my main concerns are weather. Summer would be *most* convenient for the trip but I’ve heard such bad things about the humidity! most of what I’ve seen talks about August and September and not early June, though. Keeping in mind that I’m from Midwest America, would early June be unbearable if I decided on it? I am leaning towards Spring and maybe attempt to catch some sakura viewing, though.
So what do you think?
1 comment
Early June is the beginning of rainy season. It’s max humidity, often raining. The worst time for travelling. August and September will be very hot, but way less humid than June, barely any rain at all unless you hit a typhoon. Sakura blooms in the very end of March in Tokyo and ends blooming in a week.
Otherwise, there seem to be some geography mishmash, such as Godzilla statue (Shinjuku?) on the day when you are somewhere else. Perhaps worth to think how you get form one place to another place, to avoid spending most of the time riding train or walking.