Hey everyone, looking to get an itinerary check for part of my trip to Kyoto/Osaka.
I will be traveling with my girlfriend (her first time and my third time visiting) and our priorities are to mainly see Kyoto during the cherry blossom season (late march/early april) in addition to one day spent in Universal Studios.
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**Main questions:**
1. Are there any days that seem too packed/rushed for what we are trying to accomplish? Am I leaving ample time between locations for exploration
2. Any other reccs for cherry blossoming viewing spots around Kyoto and Osaka?
3. We planned to hit Kyoto on Friday in attempt to beat cherry blossom viewing crowds but this makes it so that we are visiting Universal studios on a Sunday instead. Are we correct in this logic for crowd minimization or will it be worse to schedule Universal Studios on a weekend vs visiting Cherry blossom sites on weekend.
4. How important is it to have an express pass for Universal Studios? We currently have it planned on a Sunday but I’m debating switching it to Friday instead in an effort to dodge crowds (see question 3)
5. Any other spots that we are missing or can fit into the schedule? It’s my girlfriend’s first time in Japan and I want to make sure all my bases are covered
Thanks again for all the help everyone, the itenerary is below. Cheers!
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**Thursday 3/30 – Osaka Arrival Day**
8:00 AM Arrive
11:00 AM Drop off Luggage
1:00 PM Lunch
3:00 PM Osaka Castle + Cherry Blossoms
5:00 PM Checkin Airbnb
6:00 PM TeamLab Botanical Garden
9:00 PM Dotonbori for dinner?!
11:00 PM Sleep!
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**Friday 3/31 – Kyoto Cherry Blossom Day**
8:00 AM wakeup! early start day
9:30 AM Kiyomizu Temple
11:30 AM Keage Incline
1:00 PM Lunch
3:00 PM Fushimi Inari (Shrine Hallway) or Arashiyama + Tenryu-ji Garden
6:30 PM Maruyama Park (night time cherry blossom festival for dinner)
9:00 PM Free Slot
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**Saturday 4/1 – Nara/Kyoto Day**
9:00 AM Sleep in more day
10:00 AM Train to Nara
11:00 AM Nara Park for deer!
12:30 PM Lunch
2:30 PM Tōdai-ji
4:00 PM Head to Kyoto
5:00 PM Fushimi Inari (Shrine Hallway) or Arashiyama + Botanical Garden
7:30 PM Dinner
11:00 PM Sleep!
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**Sunday 4/2 – Universal Studios Day**
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**Monday 4/3 – Head to Tokyo (another 6 days in tokyo)**
4 comments
saturday 4/1 you can move everything up an hour, you won’t be spending an hour and a half with the deer, they’re everywhere they stink and they will bite you. go straight to todai-ji, you’ll see a few hundred deer on your way, also go to the museum next to todai-ji.
> beat cherry blossom viewing crowds
Kiyomizudera at 9:30am on any day is going to be very crowded, either get up much much earlier (should be easy with US West Coast jetlag) or go to a much less popular temple. Kiyomizudera opens at 6:30am.
For Friday night’s free slot, go for a stroll around Gion.
You should check the opening & closing times of places you want to visit.
There will be a few things here and there open around 5 pm in Arashiyama but not a great deal. The neighborhood pretty much shuts down from about 5.
Kyoto Botanical Garden also close at 5pm.
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