Hello! My Fiancée and I are in our Mid 30’s and are headed to Japan for our Honeymoon. She’s been before but its my first time! We are big food lovers, I am a chef and want to explore the cuisine in japan; she’s basically the type to eat her way through every city we visit to the point where I’ve had to tell her we need to stop eating for our health’s sake!
For this trip I’m hoping to do some active things that get us moving between each meal. Lunch we want to explore and munch on highly recommended local cuisine and for dinner, she wants to eat “cant miss” places which include as many Michelin Stars as she can collect while we are there.
We could have planned a bit better, but we are getting in and out of NRT. I wish we had the foresight to land in Osaka and leave out of Narita but the tickets were purchased first and we built our itinerary after.
We would really appreciate everyone’s help to add some ideas here, we are having a few days that we’re finding hard to fill. If there are some fun activities and or intermediate/advanced Japanese cooking classes, that would be amazing. Any tours or other excursions are appreciated too!
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**May 7** **Travel from LAX to NRT**
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**May 8 (Monday)**
**(14:30)** **Arrive NRT at 2:30 pm**
**(??:??)** **Travel to Kyoto appx 4 hrs**
**(16:00) Check into The Thousands Kyoto**
**(18:00) Pound Kyoto Emimae**
**Kyoto tower, Senbon Torii, Fushimi inari shrine**
**(22:00) Ginjo Ramen Kubota**
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**May 9 (Tuesday)**
**(08:00)** **Ararshiyama Bamboo Forrest**
**(10:00) Kyocafe Chacha**
**Nonomiya Jinja Shrine, Romantic Train Ride, Hozugawa Boat Tour**
**(14:00) Unagi Hirokawa**
**Monkey Park Hirokawa**
**(20:00)** **Otsuka \[reservations needed\]**
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**May 10 (Wednesday)**
**(09:00) Kiyomizu-Dera Temple**
**(11:00) KatsuKura Tonkatsu Main**
**(12:00) Shinkyogoku Shopping, Samurai Museum,**
**(00:00) ?**
**(00:00) Kyoto Mameshiba Café**
**(20:00) Premium Pound Gion**
**(00:00) Hanatouro Bridge,**
**(22:00) Gion Alleys**
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**May 11 (Thursday)**
**(09:00)** **Kurasu Coffee Kyoto**
**(10:00)** **Kyoto Botanical Gardens**
**(00:00) Kinkaju-ji**
**(00:00) Kyoto Imperial Palace**
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**May 12 (Friday)**
**(09:00)** **Travel to Osaka**
**(10:00) Arrive at Conrad, Drop Bags**
**(10:30)** **Osaka Castle**
**(12:00)** **Umeda Sky Bldg**
**(00:00)** **Lunch? Sushi?**
**(19:00) Dinner?**
**(20:00) Glico Man, street food, drinks etc**
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*May 13 (Saturday – Meeting friends who live in Tokyo for the evening)*
*(11:00) Travel to Tokyo* *appx 4 hours*
*(15:00) arrive in Tokyo, Check in Grand Hyatt Tokyo*
*(16:00)* *Gyopao Gyoza Roppongi*
*(17:00) Mori Art Museum*
*(19:00) Dinner Recs*
*(21:00) Night life*
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*May 14 (Sunday – Tokyo Friends will be hanging out a bit here and there)*
*(10:00)* *owl café fukurou*
*(11:00) Ueno Park*
*(12:00)* *Juromaru Akihabara*
*(13:00)* *Chuo-Dori Ave*
*(00:00)* *Tapas Molucular Bar*
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May 15 (Monday)
(00:00) teamlabs Tokyo
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**May 16 (Tuesday)**
**(10:00) Travel to Haokone**
**(12:00) Check into Hakone Kowakien Ten-Yu**
**(00:00) ?**
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**May 17** (Wednesday)
**(11:00) Travel to Tokyo**
**(15:00) Check in to The Prince Gallery Tokyo**
**(??:??)**
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May 18 (Friday)
(11:00) Check out, Travel to airport
(14:00) Flight to LA
2 comments
If you put Hakone as a stop between Osaka and Tokyo, you’ll have one less set of check in/out and luggage movements. You get off at Odawara station and it’s a short local train trip.
A cheap way to collect Michelin stars in Tokyo would be to hit up the starred ramen shops. Nakiryu is a bit out of the way but Hototogisu is in Shinjuku and Hashigo is in Ginza. Also hit up Shinjuku Kappo Nakajima for lunch someday, depending on how you feel about sardines.
For fancier Michelin places for dinner it depends on your budget I guess. Most of the 3-star places in Tokyo aren’t insanely difficult to book. I really want to try Sazenka although I was unable to make a reservation last time I visited.