14 Day itinerary check (March 24th-April 8) – Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Himeji, Mt. Yoshino, Hakone/Fuji

Hey all!

Long time lurker on this sub, so I hope my itinerary isn’t a bust. This will be my fiancé and I’s first trip to Asia, and our honeymoon! Our plane tickets are already bought, but I’ve held off on booking hotels and such until we knew our locations for sure. There were a couple of 1 day, or half day itineraries I scraped from the internet in putting this completely together, so I would love all input possible, including if it sucks! For reference and dealing with jet-lag, we will be coming from the eastern United States. Also, as of right now, were planning on getting the JR pass, but now that I’ve finished this, I wanted to revisit it to make sure its worth it.

I’m not including small things like picking up pocket Wi-Fi and such, but just roughly how I imagine the days going. To preface, despite what might look like over-planning, I’m not super strict on it. That’s why I haven’t included exact times for places. I may like a place a lot and don’t want to be beholden to a time table. We of course would love to do everything, but maybe the days are already feasible? My fiancé and I are really looking to kind of immerse ourselves in the culture. Were both big on nature, not into partying but definitely enjoy a good bar, she’s more of a foodie than I am and she’s really looking forward to that part. Basically, we just want to enjoy our days, experience the culture, and see some of the best/unique that Japan has to offer.

\-March 24th, Friday. **Tokyo, Arrival**

5:10PM- Arrive at Haneda airport. Our flights already got pushed back so were landing later than we want, so I imagine we’ll have enough time to get through customs, clear the airport, catch the monorail towards where I’m thinking we may stay in Shibuya? Maybe walk around a couple blocks.

\-March 25th, Saturday. **Tokyo, Day 1**

* Yoyogi Park, Meiji Shrine, Takeshita Street, Cat Street, Hachiko Statue, Shibuya Crossing, Shibuya center gai, and Shibuya Sky.

\-March 26th, Sunday. **Tokyo, Day 2**

* Ueno Park, Kaminarimon gate, Nakamise Dori, Sensoji Temple, Sumida Park, and ending in Akihabara.

\-March 27th, Monday. **Kyoto, Day 3**

* Leave early in the morning for Kyoto on shinkansen. Store bags at station/hotel.
* Tenryuji, Bamboo Groves, Togetsukyo Bridge, Monkey Park. head back towards train station and rent E-Bikes to take to Kinkakuji, Ryoanji, and Ninnaji.

\-March 28th, Tuesday. **Kyoto, Day 4**

* Ginkakuji, Philosopher’s Path, Nanzenji, Keage Incline, Heian Shrine, Yasaka Shrine, Kodaiji Temple, Higashiyama Streets, and Kiyomizudera.

\-March 29th, Wednesday. **Nara, Day 5**

* We go to Nara this day.
* kofuku-ji chukondo, kofuku-ji, Nara park, Todai-ji Nandaimon gate & hall & Nigatsudo, Mt Wakakusa, Kasuga-Taisha.

March 30th, Thursday. **Kyoto, Day 6**

* All we have planned for this day is Fushimi Inari Taisha, Nishiki Market, and Nijo Castle.

March 31st, Friday. **Osaka, Day 7**

* Shinsekai, Nipponbashi Den Den Town, Kuromon Market, Doguyasuji Shotengai, Hozenji Yokocho, Dotonbori.

April 1st, Saturday. **Himeji-Osaka, Day 8**

* Travel to Himeji for part of the day.
* Mount Shosa, Himeji Castle, Kokoen Garden.
* Evening is Osaka

April 2nd, Sunday. **Yoshino-Osaka, Day 9**

* This day was harder to actually put places on paper, I didn’t see a ton listed on Mount Yoshino.
* Mt Yoshino, kinpusenji Temple, Yoshimizu-jinja Shrine.
* evening in Osaka.

April 3rd, Monday. **Osaka, Day 10**

* Osaka Castle, Umeda, Hep Five Ferris Wheel, Umeda Sky building, Osaka Aquarium.

April 4th, Tuesday. **Hakone-Fuji, Day 11**

* This is the day I have the biggest issue with and don’t know if it’s possible. We’d send our bigger luggage forward to our hotel in Tokyo.
* We’d leave Osaka early morning (7ish) and make our way to Hakone.
* we’d go up to Gora, then Owakudani, the Hakone Pirate Ship across Lake Ashi, possibly see heiwa no tori & Hakone shrine before doubling back to togendai and catching the bus to Gotemba station and then onto Kawaguchiko for a ryokan stay.

April 5th, Wednesday. **Fuji-Tokyo, Day 12**

* Spend most of the day in Fuji before heading to Tokyo.
* Oshino Hakkai, Chureito Pagoda, Mt. Fuji Panoramic Ropeway, Oishi Park, Fuji Sengen Shrine.
* evening in Tokyo

April 6th, Thursday. **Tokyo, Day 13**

* Teamlab Planets Tokyo, see the gundam statue, diver city/aqua city, Hamarikyu Garden, Art aquarium museum, zojo-ji, Tokyo Tower, Mori Art Museum, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower

April 7th, Friday. **Tokyo, Day 14**

* Free day to see something/eat something again, or see something we missed in a Tokyo day before.

April 8th, Saturday. **Tokyo, Departure**

* Departure at 3PM

​

For sake of clarity, I’m not counting arrival and departure days as actual full days and thus referred to simply as arrival and departure. I foresee the biggest issues being on day 11, and probably day 13 if we were to try and do everything listed, I think. We’ll probably put a couple of specific food places scheduled into some of these days, but I think right now our approach is just going to be to see what’s around us when we get hungry. I also tried to schedule the days so that we were doing an activity in the morning that wasn’t reliant on a business being opened since I imagine we’ll get about 8 ‘o’ clock starts to the day, and tried to group activities together. Would love all the feedback you have, or a recommendation for something in the area on a day that we don’t have listed, food recommendations, or even a better area for a young but not wild married couple to enjoy night life!

2 comments
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  2. >we’d go up to Gora, then Owakudani, the Hakone Pirate Ship across Lake Ashi, possibly see heiwa no tori & Hakone shrine before doubling back to togendai and catching the bus to Gotemba station and then onto Kawaguchiko for a ryokan stay.

    About everything up to this point was making sense… but that… no. First of all, you usually need to be at the ryokan for 5pm or 6pm MAX, depending on the ryokan. Kawaguchiko is like 2h by bus, so you would have to rush Hakone big time. I would just suggest to get a ryokan in Hakone instead. And do the loop in an order that will get you to the ryokan at the end of the day. Next day either go direct to Tokyo or spend a bit more time to finish visiting. If you really want to push it, maybe you can try to take the earliest but to Kawaguchiko if you want to spend the afternoon there.

    ​

    I would say no JR Pass. It would only make sense to me if you were leaving and returningto Tokyo area withing 7 days.

    I think it would be more expensive. You could use the JR West Kansai Area Pass for the Himeji day, but I would do it as a day trip from Osaka and not an inbetween from Kyoto to Osaka. That day you would want to get the Rapid train from Himeji from Osaka station (and doing it from Kyoto would not work as well), the pass does not allow the use of shinkansen, but from Osaka it does not make a big difference. [https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/pass/kansai/](https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/pass/kansai/)

    I would consider doing the Kyoto-Osaka switch on the day you visit Nara. Next day go to Yoshino. Those two days, use the Kintetsu 2 day pass [https://www.kintetsu.co.jp/foreign/english/ticket/](https://www.kintetsu.co.jp/foreign/english/ticket/)

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