Hi guys!
My partner and I are about to do the thing many others plan to do this year: Go to Japan for the very first time to resurrect a pre-pandemic dream. We land in Tokyo on April 6 and will be staying near Miyashita Park. We’re from New York City and are primarily interested in people-watching, walking around, enjoying nature, drinking lots of coffee, and eating good food. Perhaps worth noting: I’ve never been outside of North America!
I’m trying to get a sense of whether my itinerary is dumb/overloaded/missing important stuff, since I’ve relied a lot on Google Maps-based daydreaming and YouTube to see me through the past three years, and may have come away with some random to-dos.
April 6:
\- Land at Haneda at 4pm, presumably panicking and jet-lagged. Pick up pocket WiFi or SIM cards, money, and go through customs.
\- Check into hotel and get dinner nearby if we’re up for it/go to 7/11 for snacks and crash if we aren’t.
April 7:
\- Get breakfast (I have a few places in mind) or go to a convenience store, explore until coffee shops I want to see open at 11-ish.
\- Try and see Shibuya Scramble, Harajuku, Shinjuku, and Shinokubo if we have the stamina, maybe go to a Taito Station. Probably Shinokubo for dinner.
April 8:
\- Food/Yoyogi Park, where there may or may not be the Wan Wan Festival going on? I wish to see many dogs in my travels. See Meiji Shrine
\- Go to Imperial Palace if there appears to be time/energy for it. Otherwise, head to Sensoji/Asakusa and maybe eat food around here
\- Tokyo National Museum/Ueno Park
\- Yanaka Ginza area for dinner before making our way back down to Shibuya. My partner is interested in seeing the local car seen, so was considering Akihabara at night?
April 9:
\- Head off to Okutama, which is a place we’re both interested in seeing but I don’t often see mentioned on this sub? Hike around and see beautiful things, go to a beer cafe.
\- I’m really interested in going to Ome to see Shiofune Kannon Temple
April 10:
\- This is a Monday, so I’m sort of logging it as a do-whatever day because many museums will be closed. Maybe hang around Shimokitazawa? Maybe go to Gotokuji Temple? Maybe Kichijoji?
April 11:
\- Hoping to go to the Edo Open Air Architectural Museum first thing, and explore the surrounding area. Head back to Shibuya that afternoon to drop off film for development at a local shop.
April 12:
\- Take it easy, get breakfast, say our goodbyes to Tokyo and check out at 2pm to head to the airport
3 comments
Would recommend sticking to just Shibuya and then Shinjuku on the same day. Both are closeby and there’s enough to do in Shibuya to last a good portion of the day, and then head to Shinjuku in the evening to bar hop or get dinner.
Harajuku can be fit to go after Meiji Jingu/Yoyogi Park. Imperial Palace is not very worth it in my opinion; you’d be better off heading straight to Asakusa instead of taking time to detour.
Finally, would recommend going to Odaiba, Tsukiji Fish Market for food, and Toyosu for the teamlab exhibit. Only about 40 mins-1 hour away from the city and very much worth it for the views and the shopping.
From Ohio and when we first went to Japan jet lag hit us hard and we crashed as soon as we got to the hotel in the early evening which meant we woke up at like 3-4am the next day. This was the perfect time to visit Tsukiji and start the trip with an awesome sushi breakfast in the outer market so I always recommend having something that will be open early planned for the first morning and don’t plan anything too late the first few days (i.e. Shibuya/Shinjuku are awesome at night.)
Your itinerary looks awesome. Especially if you can make it to a festival as these are a blast/unique.
The Imperial Palace makes for a good picture but isn’t super exciting besides that.
Have a great time!
I live in the northeast too and the jet lag flying there is not that bad for me.
The day before I force myself to go to sleep in the late afternoon/early evening and then wake up around midnight. I do all my last minute packing and overthinking and other things to keep myself awake. I then head off to the airport so that I get there the suggested three hours before my flight departs.
Once I am at the airport I flip anything I have that tells the time over to JST and I try my best to think in terms of JST even though it’s daylight when it should be dark.
By the time I am in the air and have eaten it’s around 2-3 AM JST and I try to go to sleep. I can usually get a few hours of mediocre sleep but once it’s around 8 AM JST I try to stay awake as best as possible. I land at around 3-4 PM feeling more like I had a crappy night’s sleep rather than having just got off a 14 hour flight.
I go to wherever it is I am staying and drop off my bags. Then I’ll go find something to eat and go for a walk – which is what I do at home most nights. I go to sleep a little earlier than I normally would at home and I (usually) sleep fairly well and wake up around the normal time that I wake up at home.
And for the most part that’s it. I am occasionally a little foggy in the afternoon and sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night but can go right back to sleep.
Flying back is what kills me and it’s about a week or so before I feel normal again.