Hi All,
Firstly I want to thank this sub for the wealth of resources and support I’ve received during my anxious last minute planning of this trip. We are very appreciative!
Our flight lands in Haneda in 2 days so wanted to have one final sense-check of our trip plans to see if there is anything out of whack or if there’s anything we can pre-book / setup before we arrive to make things easier.
Please note, we are quite chilled travellers who don’t thrive from a packed plan so we are most likely going to have a rough outline and decide things the night before.
* Dec 21: Land in HND:
* Pickup pocket wifi from Ninja desk
* Send our bags (carry on) to Osaka hotel
* Go straight to get Shinkansen to Osaka
* Dec 21-25: Stay in Osaka (Namba) region
* Lots of food
* Day trip to Nara – Should we do this on our last day in Osaka and go straight from Nara to Kyoto? Is it worth using luggage transfer service to Kyoto?
* Dec 25 – Jan 1: Stay in Kyoto
* We have two hotel bookings here and need to cancel one. It’s between Cross Hotel Kyoto or Nohga Hotel Kiyomizu Kyoto. Ideally we would stay in the latter as it’s cheaper, but unsure if we would appreciate the location of Cross Hotel Kyoto more for walkability. We are from a major city where walking 10 mins to a train station is easy + considered a quick walk for us.
* Want to see Himeji Castle / Kimono Forest/ Arashiyama / Philosophers path etc etc. We are aware that it will be the holiday period so any advice on how to order things would be appreciated. For example, should we save Arashiyama for the end of December when things get more crowded..or should we start with it?
* We plan on waking up at 5/6am to vist Arashiyama and avoid crowds
* Jan 1 – 11: Toyko (with 1 night in Hakone maybe)
* We currently have a reservation in Gora for 1 night on Jan 5th so we were planning to split Tokyo into staying in Akasaka first, then either Ueno or Shinagawa (have IHG points to spend at the IC there).
* Jan 1 – Jan 5: Stay in Tokyo – Akasaka area
* We haven’t got strict plans for Tokyo yet. Wanted to go to teamLab planet and figure out other things during our flight.
* HELP: It will still be NY celebration here so any recommendations of what we should prioritise during this period?
* Jan 5-6: Stay in Gora, Hakone
* Arrive around lunchtime on Jan 5, explore area, cable car etc
* Leave afternoon of 6th
* Jan 6-11: Tokyo (Shinagawa or Ueno):
* Visit Ueno and Akihabara (huge anime nerd)
* Have booked the yayoi kusama museum
* Anything we should prioritise here that we wont be able to do during the holiday period?
How does the above sound? Is it fair to say we don’t need a JR pass for this trip?
Is there anything outside of the pocket wifi that we should be pre-booking now? Or any major sites/museums etc in the areas that we are visiting that is worth booking in advance?
Thanks so much in advance!