Second trip to Japan this time focusing on Tokyo and Takayama for their spring festival.
Hoping to get some feedback on additional, less well known places that wouldn’t necessarily be found on a “top 10 things to do” list as well as a few other things I’ll mention in the itinerary. We’re planning on focusing on different cities in Tokyo each day to make the most of travel out to that area but what we do each day may change based on the cherry blossom situation and when/where we decide to hanami.
I’m following Moshi Moshi Nippon to see if any Hatsune Miku or Genshin Impact cafes are planned while we’re there but would also appreciate any ideas on where to get info for upcoming anime cafés. Thanks in advance!
April 5
Arrive Narita at 1500. Hotel for April 5-10 is in Shinjuku so probably won’t do too much this day; walk around a bit to get bearings and find dinner/drinks.
April 6 – Shinjuku
Shopping: Tokyo Hands, Books Kinokuniya, Isetan Shinjuku, Kingdom Note, Takashimaya Shinjuku to get food to go for hanami or maybe one of the food places on our list.
Culture: Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden for Hanami
Food/Drink: YYG Brewery & Beer Garden, Watering Hole, Shinjuku Golden Gai, Omoide Yokocho, Eggslut Shinjuku.
I really want to try Chouchin (chicken uterus with proto-egg) yakitori and felt Omoide Yokocho might be the area. I’ve also read different vendors in Omoide and Golden Gai aren’t very welcoming of foreigners or just not able to take care of English speakers. I speak very little Japanese but could at least point and request “Sore, onegaishimasu.”
April 7
We have tickets for the Ghibli Museum at noon. Bought them from a third party before it was announced they’d be selling to foreigners again. Is there anything else to see or do in this area? Otherwise we’ll head back toward Tokyo center and do some of our Shibuya list.
April 8 – Shibuya
Shopping: Akihabara, Disney Store, Cat Street, Shibuya Loft, Shosaikan
Food/Drink: Tokyo Whisky Library,Café Accueil Ebisu, Am Stram Gram, Another 8
Culture: Meiji Shrine, Meguro river for cherry blossom view, Tokyo Tower today or tomorrow
April 9 – Taito & Sumida
Shopping: Tomato Fabrics and surrounding fabric district, Kappabashi Dougu Street, Kakimori
Food/Drink: Asukusa Imahan for shabu shabu and there is a katsu place we loved on our last trip we’re going to find again.
Culture: Tokyo National Museum, Sensoji Temple, Tokyo Skytree
April 10 and 11– Check out of Shinjuku hotel to Tokyo Disney. Activate 7 day JR Pass on the 10th since I’m concerned about waiting until the day before we leave for Takayama to reserve Shinkansen and Hida line tickets with how busy it may be with everyone going up for their spring festival. Will get these tickets at the station when I activate the pass before going to Disney.
Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea – one better to visit on Monday vs Tuesday?
April 12 – Check out and stay at Tokyo Station Ginza
Ginza day
Shopping: Muji Ginza, Itoya, Maruzen Hihombashi
Food/Drink: Tonkatsu Marugo, Maach Ecute, Sweets Paradise, Mixology Laboratory, A Happy Pancake
Culture: TeamLab Planets, Imperial Palace East Gardens (worth trying to get into a tour for the interior?), Chidorigafuchi Park.
April 13 – To Takayama
Shinkansen via Nagoya or Toyama: Is one better/ more scenic knowing we can’t use the Nozomi train on the Nagoya route? Both look to be similar total trip duration to arrive in Takayama.
Hida Folk Village, Squirrel Forrest, Harada Sake Brewery, Teddy Bear Museum.
Dinner at Sakurajaya – planning on trying to make reservation as soon as we get in country on 4/5.
April 14 to 15
Takayama spring matsuri. Hie Shrine, Shiroyama Park
Food: Kyoka, Center4 Hamburgers, Matsuki Sushi, Hida Yansa, Menya Shirakawa
April 16 – Return to Shinjuku hotel
May take alternate route back to Tokyo.
Shopping: Ikebukoro
April 17 – 18
Nothing on the books yet. Considering hiking Mt Kobo, Ueno zoo, catch up on anything we weren’t able to do before. Might need some help with fleshing out our last two days more.
1 comment
> Books Kinokuniya
I’d suggest looking to Tsutaya also. The have some really nice well designed book stores like the one in Daikanyama and Ginza Six.
> We have tickets for the Ghibli Museum at noon. Bought them from a third party before it was announced they’d be selling to foreigners again. Is there anything else to see or do in this area?
Shirohige cream puff factory is kinda close by. If you’re into Ghibli you gotta get the Totoro cream puffs.
> Activate 7 day JR Pass on the 10th since I’m concerned about waiting until the day before we leave for Takayama to reserve Shinkansen and Hida line tickets with how busy it may be with everyone going up for their spring festival.
If you buy your JR pass directly from JR you’ll have access to a special site to book train tickets immediately.