Hi everyone,
A (27M) 1st time travel to Japan Solo and I need your help to check my 1st draft, if things doesn’t make sense in term of places and time wise, please suggest a better way for me. This might help but my hobbies are camping, nature, anime, food. Love Mont Fuji but looks like May isn’t the best time to hike. Any suggestions help!
**May 12 (TOKYO)**
* 2:10 PM: Land at Narita Airport (NRT)
* 3:00 PM: Collect Pocket Wife, JR Pass, Welcome Su**ic**a card
* 4:30 PM: Use Keisei Skyliner Express (41 minutes) to Tokyo instead of JR Express (81 minutes)
* 5:20 PM: Check in Hotel in Roppongi, Tokyo
* 6:00 PM: Walk around to find food (will take suggestions)
* 8:00 PM: Posibly visit Tokyo Tower or Tokyo SkyTree
* 10:00 PM: Go back to the hotel
**May 13**
* 8:00 AM: eat breakfast nearby cafe probably (will take suggestion)
* 9:30 AM: meet up with a friend at Akihabara
* 10:00 AM: Senso-Ji Temple
* 12:30 PM: Visit Maid Cafe or Animal Cafe (will take suggestion)
* 1:30 PM: More exploration anime, arcade, Kanda Myojin Shrine, SEGA Store, Yodobashi Akihabara
* 5:00 PM: Maid Cafe or Animal Cafe or SquareEnix cafe (will take suggestion)
* 6:30 PM: Head to Pokemon Center
* 9:00 PM: Walk around then back to the hotel
**May 14**
* 8:00 AM: breakfast different nearby cafe (will take suggestion)
* 9:00 AM: Head to Shinjuku National Garden
* 10:30 AM: Head to Pokemon Center Store
* 11:00 AM: head to Ryu No Miyako Inshokugai: Shinjuku
* 12:15 PM: head to Shibuya Cross Street
* 12:30 AM: head to that one big Starbucks at Shibuya
* 1:30 PM: Harajuku Street in Shibuya
* 3:30 PM: head to TeamLab Planets Tokyo
* 5:30 PM: eat food around there??? (will take suggestion)
* 6:30 PM: head to Tokyo Art Aquarium Museum
* 9:00 PM: back to the hotel
**May 15**
* 8:00 AM: breakfast at nearby cafe (will take suggestion)
* 9:00 AM: Head to Ginza District
* 10:00 AM: Sony Park then explore
* 12:30 PM: Lunch somewhere??? (will take suggestion)
* 1:30 PM: Ginza Art Aquarium Museum
* 3:30 PM: Bandai Namco Store
* 5:30 PM: Eat dinner at nearby place??? (will take suggestion)
* 7:00 PM: head back to hotel early to get ready for Kyoto tomorrow
**May 16 (KYOTO)**
* 9:30 AM: ACTIVATE JR Pass, avoid rush hour, take 4 hours train to Kyoto, eat on train for the experience
* 2:00 PM: eat Snacks
* 3:00 PM: Check in hotel (don’t know where yet)
* 4:00 PM: Kyoto Botanical Gardens
* 5:30 PM: dinner
* 6:30 PM: more late night exploration
**May 17**
* 8:00 AM: Eat breakfat at Nishiki Market and explore there
* 10:00 AM: Gion district, Machiya Starbucks, Sannenzaka & Ninenzaka
* 12:30 PM: Matcha House
* 1:30 PM: Fushimi Inari red Shrine, will try to make it to the top
* 4:30 PM: dinner at Pontocho Alley / Hanamachi
* 6:00 PM: Onsen??
* 9:00 PM: back to the hotel
**May 18**
* 8:00 AM: Eat Breakfast at nearby place (will take suggestion)
* 9:00 AM: head to Bamboo Forest
* 12:15 PM: lunch?? (will take suggestion)
* 1:15 PM: Arashiyama Monkey Park
* 3:15 PM: Eikando Zenrinji Temple
* 5:30 PM: Dinner?? (will take suggestion)
* 6:30 PM: more explore, maybe Onsen??
* 9:00 PM: back to hotel
**May 19 (OSAKA)**
* 9:00 AM: Use train head Osaka
* 10:00 AM: Head to Dontonbori
* 11:00 AM: Eat Black Takoyaki, Handmade Butterman Food
* 1pm – 3pm ???
* 3:00 PM: Check in at Hotel, dont know where yet????
* 5:00 PM: go back to Dontobori, eat Unagi bowl?? or Squid Pancake (will take suggestion)
* 6:00 PM: Still stay at Dontobori to explore night life
**May 20-21?????**
* Maybe to Nara then Hakone for Onsen???
**May 22**
* 8:00 AM: Start heading back to Narita Airport (4 hours train ride)
* 12:00 PM: Chill at Airport until departure at 2:40pm
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**Questions:**
1. I plan to bring a big luggage with me, I don’t bring a lot of stuffs but will bring back home a lot of souvenirs, hence the big luggage, limit is 23kg for ZIPAIR airline. How should I move this luggage? I heard of Yamato is best but how does it work?
2. The reason I’m staying at Tokyo the longest because they have English so I can be more confident of not knowing much Japanese. I will learn some common phrases and have Google Translate App with me but do Kyoto, Osaka and Hakone have people speak English as well?
3. I heard that there aren’t that many JR lines in Tokyo so is it wise pay tickets as I go to not activate the JR Pass until I take train to Kyoto?
4. I’m not too worry about food because there’s 7/11 but I always try to eat local food every time I travel so what restaurants/cafes are a must-try in each city?
I will make another post to update this draft after taking suggestions. Appreciate all the helps!
3 comments
I’m driving at the moment, so I will reply in detail later but the main flaw I see is your starting your day to early at 8am hardly anything will be open most touristy places don’t open till 10-11 even noon. and places like Gion, and dotonbori are definitely evening spots
1. You tell your hotel and they can schedule pickup and delivery of luggage.
2. They “have English”… train have as much English in Kyoto/Osaka, many restaurants will also have English menu, but regardless of the place, there is not that many good English speakers, even in Tokyo.
3. Well, there is some really convenient JR lines in Tokyo, it just does no go everywhere. However, local train are cheaper and usually do not justify a JR pass. It will be much cheaper to pay for individual rides with Suica than an extra week on the pass.
4. I never plan restaurant and I am usually able to find stuff on the spot or by using Google Maps.
ok i’m home from work now. here’s my input
4:30 PM: Use Keisei Skyliner Express (41 minutes) to Tokyo instead of JR Express (81 minutes)
5:20 PM: Check in Hotel in Roppongi, Tokyo
you’re not accounting for the additional half hour or so from Ueno to Roppongi, plus walk to your hotel.
9:30am there is nothing open in akihabara other than mcdonalds and probably yodobashi camera
maid cafes are kinda gross and exploitative, animal cafes are definitely gross and exploitative.
Ginza is the most boring part of Tokyo I’ve found, it’s all super high end restaurants, and couture womens shops and office buildings.
17th 8am theres going to be very little open in nishiki market and honestly you can just skip it, just your normal everyday mall, nothing worth seeing there.
Gion you don’t do in the morning, it’s a place you walk around in the evening
Fushimi Inari is a place you do in the morning, earlier the less crowded, i’ve heard 6-7am is prime
Arashiyama doesn’t take that long to see, maybe 3-4 hours tops. the monkey park is one hell of a fucking hike up the mountain. if it’s rainy skip it.
don’t do dotonbori in the morning or afternoon, nothing to see here that time of day, go see osaka castle instead, then dotonbori in the evening.
last but **most important**. you need to leave osaka on the 21st, and be back in Tokyo already the day you fly out. do not risk taking the 8am train from osaka only for some train delay to happen and you miss your flight.