Hello there. So I’m currently in the preliminary stages of planning a trip to Japan for the second half of November 2023. I was originally planning on a trip to Tokyo in May 2020, I even had a hotel and flight secured for the trip. But for obvious reasons that never happened, so I’m trying a second attempt late this year. I was originally thinking of doing this over the summer but looking around I saw the autumn isn’t that bad of a time to visit. And I guess November is in the heart of the trees changing their colors so that could be an extra benefit to travel. Also, I’m picking November because with the Thanksgiving holiday I’ll get two free days off that I don’t have to use vacation days for. I have some airline credit available from my aborted trip back in 2020 so I can use some of that for the flight prices between my hometown of Indianapolis and Tokyo. So I’ll be flying between those two cities, I’ve already considered doing an open-jaw idea with Tokyo and Osaka and the price works out better flying in and out of Tokyo.
Anyways, it will just be me traveling to Japan alone, at 35 years old. I like the idea of being in control of my general plans. Normally I’m up early in the morning and out exploring as soon as I can. I rather be walking around and sightseeing most of the day. I’ve tried to do some travel on my own in the past years with me doing two weeks in Paris and London last year. I’m pretty good at getting around and exploring different places so I see Tokyo and Japan as a good challenge. I’m going to try to show a detailed itinerary of my current plans for this trip.
My main objectives in this whole trip are to see some of the iconic sights of the country, exploring the urban layout of the cities, the flashing lights, big screens, just the general vibe of Tokyo and to a smaller extent Kyoto and Osaka. I also wouldn’t mind see some general nature whether it be in parks or somewhere in the outdoors but close by to the main cities.
**Sun. Nov. 12** – Arrive in Tokyo in the afternoon, given that I’ll be tired likely I like to get a hotel in the area around Tokyo Station. I don’t plan on doing much that evening, probably going to bed early and waking up early. I will only be here for one night.
**Mon. Nov. 13** – Wake up early and explore a little around Tokyo Station area and around the Imperial Palace (probably not go inside though.) I just want to see a little of Tokyo before I prepare to ride the Shinkansen train to Kyoto, maybe around 12:00 noon. Upon arrival in Kyoto I’ll get a hotel around the station there and get my bearings for the area. The Kyoto hotel will be for five nights from Monday through Saturday morning and will be my base of operations in the Kansai region.
**Tue. Nov. 14** \- First day in Kyoto. Strange as it may sound, I’d like to book some sort of tour around Kyoto, maybe a small group. I like the idea of an English-speaking tour explaining bits of Kyoto and going around the famous attractions in the city. What places I would see would depend on what kind of tour I end up getting but I’ll shop around
**Wed. Nov. 15** – I’ll use the second day in Kyoto for filling in some of the gaps from what I don’t see on the first day. I can’t be more specific because this will depend on what I do on the first day. In Kyoto I generally want to see the famous temples and shrines, the one with the red tori gates up the mountain, the bamboo grove, the imperial palace, Kyoto Castle and the Gion District. If my tour on the first day covers a lot of these then I may choose this day to return to some sights that I may want to explore more or cover some more areas that I haven’t done yet.
**Thu. Nov. 16** – This would be the third day in Kyoto and again will fill in any leftover gaps of places of interest that I may have not reached on the first two days. I am pretty quick at exploring and seeing places though so it may be possible that I’ve seen what I’ve wanted to see in Kyoto by this point. So I may take a train south to Nara and explore the tourist sites around there. I hear Kyoto is an interesting place to visit so I want to ensure I have time to explore it, but I also want to be flexible with my time and factor in the possibility that I may be finished by Thursday.
**Fri. Nov. 17** – On this day I’d like to explore Osaka, taking the train down from Kyoto. Mainly the city center area, the Osaka Castle and the Dotombori District. Again I’ll be walking around and just taking in whatever I see, whatever looks interesting and neat to explore.
**Sat. Nov. 18** – Take the Shinkansen from Kyoto back to Tokyo, probably in the morning so I can spend the second half of the day in Tokyo. I like to get a hotel in the Shinjuku area. I may spend the afternoon exploring that section of the city and likewise get a taste of the night scene that evening. This would be an evening to see the flashing lights and sounds of the city. I’m not the kind of person who will be out partying or being social necessarily, but the night scenes in Tokyo look very fascinating to explore nonetheless.
**Sun. Nov. 19** – This day would be for getting acquainted more with Tokyo. I’ll probably stay around Shinjuku plus see Harajuku and Shibuya. Of interest would be the Meiji Shrine and parks in that area, around Shinjuku as well. I’m hoping with the autumn colors it would look pretty nice.
**Mon. Nov. 20** – A day trip out to the Mt. Fuji Five Lakes area. I’m thinking of joining a small group tour out to that region. Again like with the Kyoto stuff I wouldn’t mind some guiding around this area to get as much as I can see from that area. I figure the autumn colors would make it look scenic all around.
**Tue. Nov. 21** – I figure this day can be used for the Ueno/Asakusa area over toward the Tokyo Skytree. This would involve the temples and shrines in that area and also the Tokyo National Museum which looks interesting to visit. I’m thinking of finishing off in the Akihabara area and exploring that area which looks very interesting.
**Wed. Nov. 22** – This day will mainly be for more the Imperial Palace area, maybe do a tour this time, plus more of the Ginza area and Roppongi area. I would be interested in seeing the teamLab Borderless if it is open by that point as I understand it’s going to be there. That looked very interesting when I was planning for the original 2020 trip. Since I’ll be seeing some of this area on the day I take the train to Kyoto I will bypass that stuff on this day.
**Thu. Nov. 23** – A second day trip up to Nikko. Again I’m thinking of a small group tour up that way to take care of the transportation. I’m aware that this is Thanksgiving Day in both the U.S. and Japan so I suppose I would like to know if visiting Nikko on that day would even be a good idea. If not I may move this day trip to Friday. Still, it would be an interesting day to see the sights there. I would be interested in seeing the main temples and some of the scenery around Nikko on that day. I wouldn’t mind being guided for this stuff and not have to fumble around with transportation and logistics.
**Fri. Nov. 24** – My last full day in Tokyo. The plans for this day would be dependent on what I haven’t covered yet, but perhaps a final evening exploring the night scenery around Shinjuku and Shibuya would be a nice sendoff from Tokyo. I would call this an odds-and-ends sort of day.
**Sat. Nov. 25** – Fly home from Tokyo, in the afternoon I believe and thanks to the international date line I’ll arrive in Indianapolis on Saturday evening and still have time for a late Thanksgiving meal with my family on Saturday evening or Sunday.
So with that all out of the way I do have some questions to gage what works here and what could be worked on. It’s still many months away but I like to have a plan way out ahead so I can focus on what I can do and what I can’t do.
1. The main question is whether or not this sounds reasonable? I mean, it looks fine to me and I think I can handle the walking around for this sort of thing, but time wise is this alright and not going to be rushing things?
2. My plan is to get an IC card for the subways which I believe one can work for Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka subways as long as I reload them. As for the Shinkansen trains, can those tickets be gotten online or must I get them at the station and can I do so the day of travel?
3. I think my Kyoto days work but will the six days in Tokyo (with two day trips) be doable?
4. Is Osaka okay for the one day? It looks interesting but can that be better used with Kyoto or Nara?
5. This is stupid I know, but what should the weather/nature be like that time of the year? Am I correct in hearing that November’s a good time to visit Japan?