Hello! I’m traveling to Japan for the first time with my wife. LGBTQ+, 30s, no kids.
We leave the US March 30th early morning and land at Haneda around 4PM JST on March 31st. We will leave via Haneda 6PM JST on April 11th to return to the US.
We are not heavily into shrines but do want to see some of the historical sites, are into theme parks, video games, food, and shopping. I have a rough itinerary mapped out but am struggling to solidify it as I’m worried I’m missing out on something important, trying to do too much or too little, or certain things would perhaps fit better elsewhere. I know I’m losing some important time to the theme park but they’re one of our favorite things to do – but I could potentially just do one day and primarily focus on the Sea and use the other day for more time in Tokyo to explore. Any thoughts appreciated, but particularly wondering if 1. I should make time for Hiroshima, 2. if I need to change some plans to allow more time in Tokyo and 3. if anything would fit better on different days?
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Day 1: Arrival (March 31st)
\-Stay in AirBNB (Shibuya area)
\-Mostly stay in area, eat / explore / settle
\-Possibly Shibuya Sky
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Day 2: Tokyo (April 1)
\-Shibuya crossing (wondering if I should just move this up to day 1, or if I should move sky down to here too?)
\-Harujuku – eat at PomPomPurin cafe, Takeshita Dori Street
\-Shinjuku – Shinjuku Gyoen, drinks, Alice in Wonderland cafe (not doing piss alley as one is vegetarian)
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Day 3: Tokyo (April 2)
\- Tsukiji Outer Market for sushi breakfast
\- teamLab Planets
\-Sensoji temple
\-Sumida Park – this was recommended as an excellent cherry blossom spot, but not sure if I have too many parks on here?
\-Skytree – unsure if I need this and Shibuya Sky but I think views might be different enough to justify?
\-Ueno Park
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Day 4: Hakone (April 3)
\-Check out of AirBNB, staying at a traditional ryokan 30 mins from station
\- Owakudani
\-Mountain view cart
\-Onsen
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Day 5: Tokyo Disneyland (April 4th)
\-Check out of ryokan, staying on property
\-Disneyland side
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Day 6: Tokyo DisneySea (April 5th)
\-DisneySea
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Day 7: Kyoto (April 6th)
\-Staying in Kyoto hotel, about 15-20 mins from station
\-Golden pavilion
\-Bamboo grove / Arashiyama
\-Monkey park – willing to skip this if recommended as I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews online
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Day 8: Kyoto (April 7th)
\- Nishiki market
\- Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka
\- Kyomizu-dera Temple
\- Fushimi Inari Shrine
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Day 9: Nara / Osaka (April 8th)
\-Staying in Kyoto still, day trip
\-Nara – deer park then on to Osaka
\-Osaka castle
\-Dotonbori Street
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Day 10: Kyoto (this is where I would potentially add in a morning trip to Hiroshima) (April 9th)
\-Philosopher’s path
\-Hanamikoji, Gion
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Day 11: Tokyo (April 10th)
\-Staying in hotel in Akihabara
\-Planning on spending most of the day here in arcades and video game shops, Game Panic arcade, Don Quijote, etc
\-Round One in Ikebukuro , exploring area as well
\-Worth noting by video games the main interest is in rhythm based games such as Popn, Taiko, Beatmania etc so hoping to find those in arcades
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Day 12: Tokyo (April 11th)
\-Stationary store Maruzen Nihombashi (wife loves fountain pens)
\-Ginza shopping
\-Get to Haneda
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Overall I feel like I could probably cut some parks/ shrines but I’m not sure which are best to go. I am wondering if I should make time for a day trip to Hiroshima from Kyoto in the morning, but if so I’m not sure what I need to prioritize to make sure I see everything else in the time I would have there. Alternatively, I could go back to Tokyo early to allow for more time as well.
