Hi, I’m (28 M) going to Japan for a month (February 21 – March 21) and while I’ve been a couple times before this will be my first time doing solo travel. I’m spending the first week with family I have in Sendai, but after that I will be seeing various cities and sights.
The plan is to spend a week in Sendai, spend a week in the Kansai region (Osaka and Kobe), spend a couple days in Hiroshima, and then another couple days in Kyoto, and then finish with Tokyo.
I enjoy anime, Hololive, and Nintendo. For this trip, I hope to enjoy several Ryokans and get a mixture of tourism and everyday life experiences. I have several days that are free days or are dedicated to exploring the city. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get tickets to Hololive’s HoloFes event as a foreigner, but I’ve saved two of my later days for it in case I can get it.
Nothing but the flight tickets are bought as of now, so if anyone has any recommendations or anything seems tight or badly scheduled, please let me know. I plan to buy a JR pass, but don’t know if it’s better to do a 7-day or 21-day pass. Also not sure if Round 1 is worth visiting if I’m on my own. I’d love to do sports if possible. I saw that the anime band Raise a Suilen has a concert during my trip but I don’t think I can get it as a foreigner. If anyone knows if that’s possible, let me know.
Itinerary
Day 1 Tue- arrive in Tokyo at 4 PM, stay at a hotel
Day 2 Wed – travel from Tokyo to Sendai
Day 3 Thu – spend time with family
Day 4 Fri- spend time with family, spend the night at a ryokan
Day 5 Sat – spend time with family
Day 6 Sun – spend time with family
Day 7 Mon – travel from Sendai to Osaka. Spend the night at a ryokan
Day 8 Tue- travel from Osaka to Kobe, visit Mt. Rokko
Day 9 Wed – travel from Kobe back to Osaka, visit an animal cafe
Day 10 Thu – visit Universal Studios Japan
Day 11 Fri- explore Osaka
Day 12 Sat – visit Round 1
Day 13 Sun – FREE DAY
Day 14 Mon – travel from Osaka to Hiroshima
Day 15 Tue- explore hiroshima, visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
Day 16 Wed – travel from Hiroshima to Kyoto, spend the night at an onsen ryokan
Day 17 Thu – travel from Kyoto to Tokyo
Day 18 Fri- explore Shibuya, visit Shibuya Parco and One Piece store
Day 19 Sat – explore Ikebukuro, visit the Otome Road cosplay area
Day 20 Sun – explore Harajuku, visit the Jingu-bashi cosplay bridge
Day 21 Mon – explore Shinjuku & Ueno
Day 22 Tue- explore Nakano & Koenji
Day 23 Wed – explore Akihabara
Day 24 Thu – explore Odaiba, visit DECKS Tokyo Beach
Day 25 Fri- FREE DAY
Day 26 Sat – maybe HoloFes 4
Day 27 Sun – maybe HoloFes 4
Day 28 Mon -FREE DAY
Day 29 Tue – depart from Tokyo at 5 PM
1 comment
I’d recommend staying in Osaka and doing day trips to Kobe and Mt. Rokko. It’ll cut down on having to drag your luggage everywhere.
There’s a decent ryokan in Kyoto called Matsumoto Ryokan. It’s not super traditional but they have an “onsen” in the basement and it’s literally across the street from Kyoto station. It’s also affordable.