Hi all, we’re planning a trip for mid-February 2022 – we’re hoping that restrictions will be more relaxed by then, and if they’re not we can at least use what we’ve learned to plan a trip once we’re able to travel again. We’re hoping that February will be a bit quieter as it’s pre-cherry blossom season, and we’re also more comfortable with cooler weather.
We’ve put a rough itinerary together below – there are activities in for each day that seem to be relatively easy to get to from one another – but other than things we’ll need to pre-book (e.g. Teamlab) we’re fine to be flexible and move things around.
We’ve booked some hotels on booking.com as they have free cancellation and you don’t have to pay until you check in – we’re thinking we’ll look again at what’s on offer in 6 months time once more hotels open up reservations. Closer to the time we might also knock off one of the hotel nights and book in for a night at a Ryokan instead.
I’d appreciate any advice about the itinerary – I also have some specific questions at the bottom I’d love to get some help with. Thanks!
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**Itinerary**
Day 1 – Land at Haneda in the afternoon, pick up rail pass etc., check in to Shinagawa Prince hotel – maybe explore the area around the hotel a bit and then catch up on sleep.
Day 2 – Meiji shrine, then explore Harajuku/Shibuya/maybe Shinjuku. Possibly a public garden (Koishikawa Korakuen or Rikugien?) to relax in the afternoon if we have time.
Day 3 – Senso-ji/Asakusa, Skytree, Tokyo National Museum – maybe explore Akihabara a bit if we have time.
Day 4 – Daytrip to Hakone for onsens – maybe book a private onsen at Hakone Yuryo? Explore more of Hakone depending on time. Could also do a Ryokan overnight here? I’d like to get a good view of Fuji without going too far out of our way, is there anywhere you can do that around Hakone?
Day 5 – Check out of Shinagawa Prince (or ryokan if we get one in Hakone), get the Shinkansen to Kyoto, drop our bags at Kyoto Kamanza hotel, explore Kyoto for the rest of the day. This hotel seems nice but is about 40 mins walk from the station – is it worth finding somewhere closer to the station?
Day 6 – Kyoto – some combination of Kinkakuji, Nanzenji temple, Fushimi Inari shrine.
Day 7 – Daytrip to Nara park/Todai-ji.
Day 8 – Possibly a daytrip to Hiroshima? I’d like to see the peace museum – I’d also like to see the Itsukushima shrine but it sounds like it’s under scaffolding for the foreseeable future, so might be worth saving for a later trip?
Day 9 – Check out of Kyoto Hotel – head to Osaka – drop bags at Swissotel Nankai Osaka – spend the rest of the day exploring Osaka, eating street food, etc.
Day 10 – Osaka Aquarium, Osaka Castle. Perhaps Umeda sky building?
Day 11 – Check out of Osaka Hotel, shinkansen back to Tokyo – drop bags at Pullman Hotel Tamachi – explore the area, etc.
Day 12 – Possibly head to one of the fish markets? Toyosu looks like it might be more interesting, is Tsukiji still worth seeing? Or maybe both? Maybe something like the Imperial Palace in the afternoon.
Day 13 – Odaiba – Teamlab Borderless/Planets, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.
Day 14 – Ghibli Museum. Then maybe back to Shinjuku to look around, get gifts/souvenirs/etc.?
Day 15 – Fly out from Haneda late morning.
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**Specific Questions**
– What’s our best option for train/subway travel passes? Most of our train travel is concentrated in the middle 7-8 days with the trip to Hakone and travel to Kyoto/Osaka/back to Tokyo. Is it worth trying to squeeze this into 7 days and just getting a 7 day JR pass? Both our hotels in Tokyo are on the Yamanote line so would be covered if we got a 14 day JR pass – would it be better to do that, or just get a 7 day and then get IC cards? I’m assuming we’d need IC cards anyway for any travel on non-JR subways.
– National Foundation Day falls within our trip – will public transport and tourist attractions be running normally?
– As mentioned above, is Hiroshima worth doing if the Itsukushima shrine is under renovation, or would it be better to spend that day in Kyoto (or somewhere else, like Himeiji?)
– In general, we haven’t planned in too many pre-booked activities like tours, as we’d prefer to leave our options open and not have to rush around to be in specific places at specific times. Is there anything we’d miss out on with this approach? I guess we’d prefer to avoid things we could do easily in other countries like brewery tours.
25 comments
is it worth finding somewhere closer to the station?
Maybe…. see what subway routes or busses run the way to the hotel, I will say the busses can be confusing in Kyoto so see what the trek is to get there.
For the IC card vs JR pass in Tokyo, IC card all the way imo not worth the extra cost and with the extra walking you can do between the usual tourist places to see you don’t have to take the subway each time. I see the JR pass as useless in Tokyo.
Yeah I’d say form what I have gathered from reading a bunch of these over time that Hiroshima is a place you need to sleep over or you’ll be rushing around trying to see everything before having to head back to the train and will be a whirlwind of just checking things off a list rather than actually seeing things and taking them in
Don’t plan anything in stone yet lots of things to happen by 2022 to see what’s open
I suggest looking up a JR pass calculators that’ll tell you if it’s worth it for your itinerary. Based upon what I’ve looked at in the past, with that itinerary, you’re just right at the threshold where the 7 day pays off.
I wouldn’t use it around Tokyo. Just get a suica or passmo and use that. (I think you have to go up to the attendant every time you want to use the JR pass for local city trains to get in. The convenience of the ic card makes it superior just for that simple fact.)
Personally for a 15 day trip, I would probably focus on stuff in the 3 main cities you are going to be in and not any day trips, especially the Hiroshima one. There is so much you can see in Kyoto and Osaka and you’d be looking at least 3 hours round trip travel there and back. If you are set on Hiroshima I would plan to spend a night. Himeji is more of a day trip (30-40min each way from Osaka) and I would do that if you are looking to do something for just a day.
You will need a pasmo or suica card in addition to the rail pass, you can just add money to those as needed, but you will definitely be taking plenty of non-JR trains.
It would save you money to try to squeeze all your longer travel into a 7 day if possible. Just going Tokyo-Kyoto- Osaka and back to Tokyo I think a 7 day pass saves you over 15,000 yen. Just google “JR pass calculator” and punch in your trip and it will calculate all of that for you, including the differences in savings between a 7 and 14.
Hakone is more difficult to get around on trains only. I did a day trip tour to Hakone and Fuji that I would suggest if you are looking to do something like that for a day trip. We got on a Bus at a hotel in Shinjuku, took it to the top of Fuji, took a boat across Lake Ashi, took the Hakone ropeway and then they dropped us off at the station with a Shinkansen ticket back to Tokyo. I am usually not into guided tours like this, but this one made the Fuji/Hakone experience much easier. If you didn’t want to do that, I would suggest doing a night in Hakone on the way to Kyoto.
Regarding your Kyoto Hotel being 40 min walk from Kyoto station, that isn’t a big deal as there are a lot closer stations than that to your hotel. I would suggest using google maps transit directions to determine closest station to all your hotels and use that station as your reference point for directions. Looks like Karasume Oike station is about 8 min walk from your hotel.
For staying in Kyoto 4 nights but only leaving 1.5 days to explore seems rushed. There is much to see in both Tokyo and Kyoto and this itinerary feels like it’s just skimming the surface.
A Day trip to Hiroshima is always my favorite things to do – and is sooo worth it with the JR Pass. The large toori isn’t available to see, which is a disappointment, so it definitely may be a pass. But if you don’t plan on returning to Japan for a while, I would highly recommend still making the trip for primary the Peace Museums and perhaps short trip to Miyajima.
Kyoto has many things to do, so if you decide to use that day to explore Kyoto, or Himeji as your suggested, that would still be a great use of time. With only 2-3 days in Kyoto, I would suggest only staying in Kyoto just to cut out the transportation time. You could fill it up with trip to Kiyomizu-dera and Gion district sightseeing areas.
I’ll give some advice here sort of piecemeal.
Re: JR Pass – Ultimately once you have your trip a bit more nailed down, check out some of the JR pass calculators to figure out whether it is worth it. However, I can absolutely tell you that going from a 7 day to a 14 day pass primarily for intra-Tokyo travel is NOT worth it. The rates on local JR lines like the Yamanote line are marginal and are also covered under pretty much all IC cards (I have liked Pasmo best personally). You will absolutely want an IC no matter what and you should get it as soon as you get to Tokyo as it has a lot of uses (and it’s essentially free as you can get your deposit and any remaining funds back at the end of your stay).
Re: Hiroshima – I would not recommend a day-trip to Hiroshima, Hiroshima is *much* better as an overnight destination. In a day trip scenario you will blow so much time on trains and transportation you won’t end up enjoying it as much. And as far as the Itsukushima shrine goes, that is part of a trip to Miyajima, which *definitely* cannot be done in one day from Kyoto as it adds even more transportation in the form of a ferry ride and more trains from Hiroshima to said Ferry. My advice personally would be to spend two nights in Hiroshima instead of the two nights in Osaka. Osaka can definitely be a full day trip from Kyoto, and unlike Hiroshima, is very easy to get to, even using non-bullet trains (much cheaper) it’s less than an hour. 2 nights in Hiroshima will give you time to spend a day exploring the city and the Peace Park (which, fwiw, is fabulous, and in my personal opinion, is a must visit for anyone coming from the US, it’s important to know the sobering history of the atomic bombs and WWII), and another full day spent on Miyajima, which has *way* more than just the Itsukushima shrine to offer (climb Mt. Misen, visit the Daisho-in temple, just explore/wander the island).
Regarding your question about travel style, I think you have the right attitude. Carefully plan things like which cities to visit, and city-to-city transportation. But don’t overplan or overbook with pre-planned activities. Often just wandering in cities/neighborhoods in Japan can bring many of the most rewarding experiences. And lots of planned activities can be reserved once you’re already there and have a feeling on what you want to do. I’ve had luck booking things like AirBNB experiences the day before. That said, once you start drilling down to a more specific itinerary, if you have specific things that are high on your list, do double-check things like access to make sure you don’t need a ticket in advance (Ghibli museum in particular you need to book months in advance).
Lastly, I’ll give you the advice I often give here regarding Fushimi Inari. First of all, do not miss it, it is wonderful. Shoot to go early or late in the day (I’ve loved hiking it before and right up to Sunset) to avoid crowds. Budget ~4+ hours of time to really explore the area and climb up to the top of Mt. Inari. Fushimi Inari is not something you can really experience in 90 minutes.
I think that you should consider adding a walking tour to your travel on your first day in Japan/Tokyo and maybe too in Kyoto. I have done free tours in many countries but my best experience ever with it was on Japan,on January 2020. Because of Japan’s wonderful, giving and polite culture there are a lot of non profit organizations where you can put your travel dates and they can,if available, connect you with a local who will spend a whole day with you and you will only have to pay his/hers public transportation and food expenses for the day. I met two very dedicated and wonderful guides,very different from each other but both wonderful,one in Tokyo on my first day on Japan and another one on the first day on Kyoto. I really can’t describe how valuable was all the information and insights both gave me and specially the moment they gave it to me,on my first day on both cities helping me to situate myself and my family in the country and the city. The experience was actually so good I still today message sometimes with my first guide,a charming 75 years old tokyo resident and always recommend this kind of “free tour” with a local as the best way possible to start any travel on Japan and start discovering the japanase culture.
I actually did this and ended seeing/visiting in the first day what I had actually planned for 2 days in Tokyo and then replanned the next days being able to include more visits so I would suggest you to make a preliminary planning and after doing the free tour you can reeschedule. (Normally when contacting with the guides they ask you what you would like to visit during the visit but you can ask for a first day mix as I did in order to get showed the most popular/common things and some insider locations you guide may know)
These are the organizations I contacted with if you decide to do it but they are only an example,from what I saw there are a lot of them.
http://www.tokyofreeguide.org
http://kyotofreeguide.sakura.ne.jp
One thing that’s good to know is that every large train station has lockers available for bags and luggage. I usually travel light, but I’ve never had any problems finding one big enough to fit a good size suitcase when I needed one. It definitely makes it easier to travel around the city if you don’t have your hotel nearby or it’s not check in time yet.
Edit: Also, you said that you’re not interested in brewery tours, but the Yamazaki distillery tour near Kyoto is well worth it if you’re into that sort of thing. You have to make a reservation ahead of time but the tour itself is free. The tasting bar is not free, but it was well worth the money.
https://www.google.com/maps/placelists/list/Q38tlDfNbl93yqWbyQ0_mPnN7hj3rA
If you see that the office to exchange pass have a long line, just change it later, you can do in several stations in Tokyo.
For garden, both are good choices, but I would probably do Koishika korakuen, they have different kind of plum, and February is time for plum blossom.
I think you should really do ryokan in Hakone and get to Kyoto from there the next day. View on Mount Fuji, usually from south of lake Ashi, like Hakone Onshi park, as well as the ropeway to Owakudani. If you do the loop, consider using the Hakone Free Pass, you would naturally be close to both location. One thing you should consider is send your luggage from Tokyo to Kyoto, so you only have to bring a small bag with a single change of cloth when going to Hakone.
The Kyoto hotel is not too bad, you can reach Kyoto station in 15 minutes is you use the subway and there is also a bus going close to the calste. I did stay close to Kyoto station when I went but If I go again, I would probably check to stay around Kawaramachi, Gion or Sanjo station as it’s probably more interesting later in the day than the area close to Nijo castle.
Not sure on what you like, but considering just one full day in Kyoto, you might as well only stay in Osaka and go Kyoto as a day trip. I would say that at least two full day in Kyoto is required just to touch the highlight. You could add one day in Kyoto, and take more to visit Osaka on day 11. You can try to leave your luggage at the hotel for the day, or bring it at a station and put in in coin locker.
Doing Miyajima and Hiroshima (in that order) is possible as a day trip, but a busy day, while the torii is a famous sight, the island is still nice without it.
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For JR Pass, if you really consider Hiroshima (or any extra long distance day trip, like Himeji), yes, squeeze the moment you go to Kyoto (from Hakone or Tokyo) and back to Tokyo within 7 days.
If you want to do Kyoto-Osaka only, then you can just ignore the JR Pass and buy individual shinkansen tickets and it will not be a big difference. The advantage is that you can get any train you want, like use Kintetsu to go to Nara (closer to the park) and you can stay any number of day you want.
JR Pass is a total waste of money if you use for local train only, so absolutely do not get a 14 days. Local JR train and subways are cheap. You do not NEED IC cards, it just make payment easier (so yes, would recommend using it). Even if you calculate it would be worth the 14 days if you go to Hiroshima, it’s even more worth it if you can manage it with a 7 days pass and pay the local train with IC card.
For Hakone, really consider the Hakone Free Pass if you plan to do the look (boat, ropeway, bus and local train included). If you go to Kyoto from Hakone, then you can buy the romancecar ticket form Shinjuku to Hakone and the pass from Odawara.
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National Holiday in general can make changes in attractions schedule (some can close, other can open but close one of the week day after), train schedule can be the weekend schedule instead of week day schedule.
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I think Miyajima is still fine, but if you seriously consider a second trip to Japan, for sure you can save if for later and properly allocate one day for Miyajima and one for Hiroshima. In any case I would try to change things to add one day in Kyoto. Yes, Himeji would also be an option (many people like to do it with Kobe too).
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I think it’s fine not to plan too much things that require reservation, make things more flexible. As for the comment about brewery, I’ve never heard of sake brewery outside of Japan 😉 but more seriously, I kind of understand that you want to spend the limited time you have one more unique to Japan experience.
I noticed you have “drop luggage of at XYZ hotel”. I’d consider using luggage shipment of it’s within your budget, it was a huge stress reliever on our trip, we just had one hotel send our main luggage to the other.
I found in Osaka I was able to use my JR pass for most of my inter-city rail travel since we were able to use the JR lines a lot more frequently. In Tokyo we had to rely a lot more on Suica. Suica can also be used for non train expenses and you *may* be able to get a rebate (we just hung into ours because we want to eventually do a return trip) so I’d recommend just having one on you just in case, it’s much easier than buying individual tickets.
I didn’t find it particularly cold in most of the cities you mentioned (didn’t do Hakone personally) February but it was kind of rainy so plan for that. It wasn’t a problem for us at all but just something to be aware of
The Kyoto & Osaka part seems pretty rushed so I would skip the Hiroshima say trip and use that time to explore Kyoto. Also consider just basing yourself in Kyoto and doing Osaka as a day trip as it’s only 30 mins away.
Solid itinerary and planning, but a bit excessive on the day trips, imo. Nara Park and Todai-ji are 90 minute trips, each, at best in my experience. In Osaka and Kyoto in particular you’re going to want to give yourself a full day with no plans and just explore. Osaka in particular is a city that is best enjoyed aimlessly wandering. That said, maybe move Osaka Aquarium and Osaka Castle to the latter bits of day 9 if possible? Day 10 would be a good time to give yourself a break and get around. There’s more than a day’s worth of stuff in Shinsaibashi/Nanba alone.
Check out the gardens behind the Prince Sakura, across the street to the north of the Shinagawa Prince – lovely place to relax
Don’t spend more time on trains than you need to;
– Fly into Tokyo and out of Osaka (or vise versa), that way you don’t have to backtrack.
– Don’t do Hakone as a day trip. Spend a night, then continue on to Kyoto.
I did a Hiroshima day trip and it was gorgeous! It was cherry blossom season though. Still lots to see there but overall city isn’t as big. Maybe see baseball game when there? Or do Kyoto if less rushing around is more your style. JR pass was amazing.
Get the 7 days JR pass. Use it on your fifth day. One way trip using Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka cost aroung 14k yen. A round trip will cost around 28k yen. JR pass cost 29110 yen if i remember correctly. So using JR pass for a round trip between Tokyo and Osaka is already worth the money. Also from day 5 until your pass expired, you can use JR pass for a day trip around Kansai region with Osaka/Kyoto as your base (preferably Osaka). You can visit Himeji/Nara/Kobe/Hiroshima/Iwakuni, all covered with JR pass.
Go see the naked man festival in Nagoya.
It’s in the city of Konomiya/inazawa.
13.02.2022
Get an IC card as soon as possible after you arrive and top it up. This is for travel in the major cities. You can get the 7 day JR Pass and activate it on day 5, this will cover your Shinkansen journeys and stuff like travel to Nara on JR regional lines. Otherwise just use the IC Card, im fairly sure in all the places you mentioned it is accepted on all services. If you happen to take a JR line while in a city during the pass validity (Osaka loop for example) then you can show it at the booth next to the ticket gates and pass straight through.
When you order your JR pass, you could also order an IC card with some budget on it (depending on the website?).
Having access to internet through your smartphone is also very usefull for planning the transportation, finding your way around town, looking for places to eat at and such. For example, when taking a train, Google Maps can tell you what deck you need to go to.
I used a data-only smart card for this. It was also delivered together with the JR pass and IC card. Just landing in Japan, popping the card in and you got internet.
since the hiroshima shrine is under renovation kinda sorta mostly for the olympics, and your plan is a year out, I’d say, see again in december if its still under construction and has a “finished in x weeks date” or not. I think it is possible, but not guaranteed, that in a year, the renovations are done.
First of all, best of luck with your trip!
* February will be quieter, but when I went in March a few years ago, it was downright cold. Like I had to buy a jacket day one. Be prepared!
* Highly recommend a ryokan stay, and splurge a little. Very cool and unique experience.
* Both of those gardens are great! Koishikawa Korkuen makes the most sense imo.
* I’ve never been to Hakone, but generally speaking, don’t get your heart set on seeing Fuji. I’ve only seen it once while taking the shinkansen to Nagoya. It likes to hide in the clouds.
* I stayed in an Air BnB close to Kyoto Kamanza hotel, it’s a good location! Within walking distance of plenty of sights, and any of the farther ones are a train ride away.
* I always recommend this, but put Fushimi Inari and Nara together on the same day and get an early start. Inari is on the way to Nara.
* I’ll echo what others have said, Hiroshima is an overnight trip. Miyajima is still worth the visit, even with the scaffolding up. I’d save Hiroshima for a later trip!
* I’ll also echo checking out Himeji for a day trip instead!
* The aquarium in Osaka is awesome, show up early! Check out the castle grounds but don’t bother going in. If you’re looking for city views, pay to go up in Harukas. I caught the [sunset](https://i.imgur.com/hPbDpsU.jpg) there and it was incredible.
* For the JR pass, I think planning around the 7 day pass will do you the most good.
* I’ve found that avoiding tours brings me the most joy in travel, but this is totally a personal preference. I like “getting lost”. Some people prefer more structure, and a trip like this can be overwhelming!
If you are going to Toyosu fish market, you probably don’t need to go to Tsukiji unless you really love sashimi/sushi. Toyosu fish market isn’t open on Sundays or national holidays (in February they are on 11th and 23rd). In my experience fish markets will also close for things like typhoons, but typhoons typically only show up from May to October.
My personal favorite way to travel between Tokyo and Osaka is by taking an overnight bus; downsides are obvious, but if you can sleep on a bus, you really save a lot of time and money. On the other hand, it really is worthwhile to experience riding a shinkansen once; if an overnight bus still interests you, going from Osaka to Tokyo might be best if you are taking Willer Bus- the Osaka Willer bus terminal is nice.
I personally like Osaka more than Tokyo, but Tokyo has more in the way of English language signage, particularly in their subways.
Stay in Kanto and the surrounding prefectures, save Kansai and Hiroshima for a later trip. Your itinerary looks too busy and the train rides from Tokyo to Osaka to Hiroshima and back will add up to at least one full day. Leaving Kansai and Hiroshima for a later trip also means you can use the bang-for-money JR West Kansai Hiroshima Pass to better explore the area.
For the positives – February is ume season. Go up to Mito in Ibaraki for the biggest ume grove and enjoy this really underrated flower.
OK, here goes!
First up, JR passes. It looks like a 7-day pass would be worth it *if and only if* you did go to Hiroshima or another shinkansen-based destination between days 5 and 11. Otherwise, it seems like your best bet would be to use one of JR Tokai’s [discounted return tickets](https://www.jrtours.co.jp/en/flex/kyoto/#fee) starting from day 5. It would mean you would have to go from Osaka to Kyoto by local train on your way back before taking the shinkansen, but that is not a long or expensive journey at all, especially seeing as you’d already be travelling some distance from your hotel in Namba to Shin-Osaka if you did it normally. It would also prevent you from taking large luggage on the shinkansen, but as others have mentioned, the Kuroneko takuhaibin service means you don’t have to do that anyway.
National Foundation Day is a pretty understated holiday and not too much happens. The transport operates as if it were an ordinary *Sunday*. Some restaurants and a small number of attractions might close but it shouldn’t be any more risk than coming on a random day of the week and finding your place has chosen that day as its weekly day off.
Whether or not Hiroshima is worth doing entirely depends on how important the Peace Museum and anything else you want to see there are for you. If it’s a site that feels particularly important to you, then go ahead. Otherwise there are most likely better shrines to visit than a scaffolded Itsukushima, and Kyoto has its own peace museum which is surprisingly good and located not too far from Kinkakuji and Ryoanji.
Other than that, a couple of Kyoto tips. Kinkakuji is probably the single most awkward of the main Kyoto attractions to get to. If you had two days in Kyoto, you could combine it with something closer (Myoshinji, Ninnaji, Arashiyama, even Ginkakuji) and then leave yourself more time to do southeastern things like Nanzenji (good pick btw) and Gion without hurrying around.
Also, stick with your current hotel! The Kyoto station area is the least Kyoto ish bit of Kyoto as it were; not the main downtown anyway (that would be around Shijo Kawaramachi); and not actually needed to visit Nara or most outlying Kyoto attractions. The Kamanza looks better, it’s further towards ‘proper’ Kyoto, and easier to reach downtown and Higashiyama from. Oh, and if you can speak some Japanese, I’m a fan of the izakaya on the SE corner of Kamanza and Marutamachi streets opposite the road to the prefectural office.
Enjoy! Here’s hoping this bloody virus retreats before Feb of ’22.