Hi all. My husband and I are doing 9 days in Japan in February. We have chosen Tokyo and Osaka as our bases instead of Tokyo, as big cities and good food is more our jam. Had a few questions on the plan.
We will be landing on 17th night – check into hotel. Staying in Ginza
Day 1: explore ginza and Shibuya. Hamarikyu garden, lunch at Sanshuya, head over to Shibuya for shibuya sky and do the crossing. Maybe do a Shibuya food walk for dinner?
Day 2: Day trip to Hakone. We have booked a group tour
Day 3: do teamlabs planets, then head to shinjuku. Have ramen at a menya mushashi branch for lunch, check out Taito station, roam around golden gai for dinner. Check out an izakaya
Day 4: sensoji temple and museums around Ueno park. Which ones do you recommend if we can do only two? We want to head back to ginza for dinner and check out a Michelin star restaurant. We are from a third world country, never been to Michelin star restaurants and our spending power is not too high. Thinking of Ginza Sushi Aoki. Do you recommend any others? (Good food, not very $$, can stretch upto $100 per head for the meal)
Day 5: head to Osaka. We want to treat Osaka more as a base for nearby places. Staying in a ryokan in umeda. Will explore the umeda area
Day 6: Nara day trip
Day 7: Kyoto day trip
Day 8: would it be worth doing a day trip to check out an onsen somewhere? Thinking of arima onsen in Kobe
Day 9: Explore Osaka during the day, fly out at night.
1 comment
To your Ueno question- I really loved the Tokyo National Museum and consider it a must-see. The National Art Museum and Science and Technology Museum are both good as well, but it depends on what kind of stuff you want to see and would enjoy- personally, I’m not much of an art person, so while the art museum was really wonderful it wasn’t my cup of tea.
As for day 7-8…personally, I’d spend both in Kyoto. It’s such a culturally rich and fascinating city, that it’s worth really taking in. If you hit a few sites all in one day you either won’t get the full experience or you’ll be very rushed and tired.