Fiancé and I will be having our first Japan trip in early April. We have a rough plan and already booked all the hotels and flights, but feel that we don’t have a ton planned, especially while in Kyoto. Overall we want the trip to be more focused on just being immersed in a different culture rather than rushing to see everything. The trip will be 16 days long, going Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka. Any input would be greatly appreciated!
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Day 1 – arrive in Tokyo
\-We’re arriving around 3pm and are planning on just checking in to the hotel (in Shinjuku) and getting to bed early.
Day 2 – sleep in/ shop
\-Kappabashi street, maybe a shopping mall. explore
Day 3 – Ghibli
\-Either museum Ghibli or the theme park; it seems like these might not be available to foreigners and might not be worth it anyway
\-Kabukicho district at night
Day 4 – Disney
\-Tokyo Disney World
Day 5 – Shopping/Explore
\-Harajuku Street
\-Good dinner, looking for sushi recommendations
Day 6 – Train to Kyoto
\-Check into ryoken (kawamarachi district)
\-explore local area
Day 7 – Ryoken
\-We have nothing planned
Day 8 – Hotel change
\-Change to a hotel (also in kawamarachi)
\-Possible day trip to toyota museum
Day 9 – Shrines
\-Explore nearby shrines, possibly visit other parts of Kyoto
Day 10 – day trip
\-arashiyama bamboo forest
Day 11 – Geisha meal/tea ceremony
\-nothing is booked yet
Day 12 – day trip
\-nara park deer forest
Day 13 – day trip
\-Hameji castle
Day 14 – travel to Osaka
\-check into hotel
Day 15 – Osaka
\-aquarium
\-Nintendo store/pokemon center
Day 16 – Fancy dinner
\-All we want to do on this day is have a great meal before we leave. Maybe in kobe, or seafood in Osaka?
Day 17 – Fly out of Osaka
9 comments
Ghibli museum is great, but getting tickets as a foreigner isn’t straightforward. Use a service to buy them for you. It is more expensive, but the alternative is buying them in japan (and likely missing out).
We have similar itineraries! We booked https://www.camelliakyoto.com/ for the tea ceremony in Kyoto. It has good reviews and looks nice.
First, you do not want to go to bed early, if you do, you will wake up extremely early, than will want to go to bed early and you will take a long time to beat jet lag. I try to sleep a bit in the plane but when it’s about lunchtime in Japan (switch the hour on your phone when you get in the plane), then the goal is to not go to bed before you would usually back home. So if you usually go to bed at 11, then do the same. So first day just go the the hotel, check in then go walk a bit around, geed some food, even if just konbini snacks, etc. Next morning you also want to set alarm and wake up at the time you want to adjust to. From there is should be quite easy to be on Japanese time and not suffer too much from jet lag.
Someone posted this week about Ghibli park : [https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/zsf9ol/good_news_everyone_ghibli_park_to_begin/](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/zsf9ol/good_news_everyone_ghibli_park_to_begin/) so yes it should be possible, but if you do, should be a stop on the way to Kyoto and not a day trip from Tokyo.
Toyota Museum… you mean those in Nagoya ?… no do that at the same time as Ghibli park.
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Also, if you mention a good dinner in Kobe, I assume it would be for Kobe beef. In that case, 1. there is other high quality wagyu in Japan, Kobe beef is not the only option 2. You can get it anywhere, can be in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka… will always be the same quality 3. Kobe beef is produced in the south of Hyogo prefecture, so it is as local is you eat it in Himeji as it is if you eat it in Kobe. In other words, don’t go to Kobe if only to eat wagyu.
Ghibli museum is absoluetly worth it in my opinion (especially given it’s only 1,000 yen), however yes the issue is getting tickets if you are not a resident of Japan. People have used services and concierges to get them, or potentially buying them in Japan (can be hard since it can sell out quickly).
Ghibli Park, on the other hand, is not in Tokyo, it’s in Nagoya. If you have JR Pass, a day trip via the Shinkansen would, in theory, be possible albiet it would be a long day just for the park. If you don’t have a JR Pass, I personally wouldn’t pay for a trip down to Nagoya just for the park. As you’ve heard, this is the park that is potentially not worth it, especially as it’s not fully finished yet. However, they recently announced that international ticket sales will open for admission in March, albiet extremely limited at first.
Most people coming here for an itinerary review: pack activities worth 3 days into one morning
These guys: consider a 1/2 hour activity plenty for the day
As far as recommendations go: do your own research before asking for help. If you’re looking for a guide doing all the work for you, pay one.
Can’t comment much on the activities, since you seem to be into theme parks and I don’t know much about them, but couple of things which might make your trip better:
1. Kappbashi is worth going in the morning, everything closes down early. Also, avoid Sundays and Mondays, since everything will be closed. Besides, Kappabashi is a walking distance away from Asakusa, so it is a common sense to visit it there. Also, there are no shopping malls near Kappabashi. Shinjuku has a lot of shopping, just not the malls.
2. Don’t go to Kabukicho at night. If you’re just going through it’s fine, but unless you know exactly which establishment is safe you should not be entering them. Kabukicho is notorious for extortion.
3. Toyota museum in Kyoto looks to be out of place. Maybe I just don’t know something, but I think that Toyota museum is in Aichi, which is in the middle between Tokyo and Kyoto. Besides, they seem to have suspended tours for now.
3. Day 14 looks like a whole day travel to Osaka, while in fact it’s a nearby town of Kyoto. There isn’t much to travel.
4. Osaka isn’t particularly famous for seafood, but it’s a large city and you might find some fancy dinners. Just make sure you find it in advance and make a reservation. Most fancy places aren’t easy to just walk in and dine.
I recommend the following places for Kyoto. sanjusangendo, Imperial Museum, Kiyomizu, Kodaiji, Kannon Ryozen, Maruyama park, Yasaka Shrine, Nijojo, Kinkakuji, Arashiyama, Fushimi Inari.
Kawaramachi is a great place for restaurants and bars.
Have fun!
You should check out some of the sample 2 or 3 day itineraries and, if you scroll down a bit, the special interest itineraries to see what you’d like to add in.
– [Tokyo Districts](https://trulytokyo.com/tokyo-districts/)
– [Kyoto Districts](https://www.insidekyoto.com/kyoto-districts)
– [Osaka Districts](https://insideosaka.com/osaka-districts/)
– [Save the places you want to visit in Google maps.](https://www.theunconventionalroute.com/google-maps-saved-places/)
– Then, zoom out and see where those places are lumped together. Do *that* specific district/area in the morning and shift to another district/area in the afternoon. This way you don’t lose time/money criss-crossing the city.
– See how long it will take to travel via public transit (or walking if within the same area) between your sites. You need to account for travel time and add in an extra 15- 20 minutes from what Google Maps says as you may get turned around looking for your entrance/exit or platform in the subway/train stations.
– Be sure you check opening hours/days in Google maps too. You don’t want to show up at 8 am to Akihabara only to find all the shops closed or to a museum on a Monday as that is often (but not always) a closed day.
– [Truly Tokyo: Itineraries](https://trulytokyo.com/tokyo-itineraries/)
– [Inside Kyoto: Itineraries](https://www.insidekyoto.com/kyoto-itineraries)
– [Inside Osaka: Itineraries](https://insideosaka.com/osaka-itineraries/)
>Kabukicho district at night
If you know what you’re doing or where you’re going, or if you are with someone you know and trust and who knows what he’s doing or where he’s going… why not. There are some good eateries and a lot of fun places to visit.
Otherwise, just, at most, go through (it’s not “physically dangerous” if you’re careful enough), but don’t trust any of the many apparently nice people that will kindly invite you to their bars. Or just go if you like living dangerously, but don’t take any credit card with you…