Hello everyone! I recently booked tickets to Japan (hopefully I won’t have to move reservations due to restrictions by then) and I wanted to get some advice if I might be overpacking what to do during my days or not (I think maps might be deceiving me in how feasible these are), feel free to leave suggestions on the cities I’ll be assisting to as well!
**20/3 (Tokyo)**: Arrival , with my flight landing at 5PM I don’t expect to do much besides arriving at the hotel and maybe walking on its surrounding streets and getting some food, if even that as I expect to be wrecked after 36 hours of travelling.
**21/3-22/3 (Tokyo)**: visiting Hachiko’s statue, Yoyogi park, Meiji Jingu shrine & gardens, Shinjuku Gyoen, Hotel Otani gardens, Toyokawa Inari Tokyo Betsuin and visiting Kabuchiko. I doubt I can pull it off all in a day so I’ll leave as a 2 parter just in case.
**23/3 (Tokyo)**: Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo Garden, Kitanomaru park, Edo castle ruins, Hibiya park, Hama Rykiu gardens and teamlab planets. Originally I wanted to include borderless as well but that seems to be closing on August and there’s no confirmed dates for it’s reopening elsewhere in central Tokyo so I’ll leave it out.
**24/3-25/3 (Tokyo)**: Kyu-Furukawa Gardens, Rikugien Garden, Koishikawa Korakuen, Nezu Shrine, Ueno park, Yushima Tenmangu. I also have written down as maybes the national museum of nature and science and Tokyo national museum which are close to Ueno park.
**26/3 (Tokyo)**: Asakusa, Senso Ji Temple & Nakamise Shopping Street, Akibahara, dinner at Kirby cafe. Don’t see anything too bad about this day outside of making sure I have reservations for the Kirb cafe.
**27/3 (Tokyo -> Kyoto)**: not sure yet if I’ll leave early out of Tokyo or a bit later to not have conflicting arrival times at the place I plan to rent, but I would at least start visiting the Kyoto Gyoen, Toji and Nijo Castle.
**28/3 (Kyoto)**: Kyoto botanical garden, Enkoji temple, and anything I might have missed on the arrival day at Kyoto. I have written down Kamigamo Shrine and Shugakuin Imperial Villa as maybes, but the latter being a guided tour only makes me more iffy on whether I want to do it or not. Sounds like I could pack more into this day if the cross the latter tbh.
**29/3-30/3 (Kyoto)**: Ginkakuji Temple, Shinnyodo Temple, Philosopher’s Walk, Honen-in, Eikando Zenrinji Temple, Nanzen-ji Temple, Maruyama Park, Shoren-in Temple, Chion-in Temple, Shogunzuka Seiryuden Temple, Kennin-ji Temple, Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Sannenzaka Ninenzaka, Nishi Honganji. I’m probably underestimating how much this is packing for just 2 days.
**31/3 (Kyoto)**: Kinkakuji Temple, Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, Ninna-ji Temple, Jingoji Temple. Not sure how friendly it’ll be for someone with very basic japanese knowledge to go out of the way to Jingoji, but being out of the city is the main reason why I set this as a whole day of activities.
**1/4 (Kyoto)**: Toyosato High school. 100% will move some activities here as I doubt that’ll take longer than a morning trip as there’s not much to do there.
**2/4 (Kyoto)**: Daikaku-ji Temple, Gio-ji Temple, Nisonin, Jojakkoji Temple, Okochi Sanso Garden, Arashiyama Park (Kameyama Area), Hogonin Temple, Tenryuji Temple, Kyoto Arashiyama Hanatouro. Packed day but things don’t feel that far away from each other all things considered, maybe it could do with an extra day.
**3/4 (Kyoto)**: Mount Kurama, Kifune Shrine, Kurama-dera. Giving it a whole day due to the distance from Kyoto to the mount, but I could pack a few activities from the other days here.
**4/4 (Nara)**: Nara Park, Todai-ji temple, Yoshikien, Kasuga Grand Shrine, Manyo Botanical Garden, Rokuen, Ukimido, Mt Kasuga Primeval Forest, Mt. Wakakusa. Mostly gonna spend the day all over the park facilities and go back to my Kyoto hosting afterwards. I have written down Akishinodera Temple, Enjyouji Temple and Yagyu Kaido as maybes, the first one sounds like a plausible place to go to, but the later 2 seem quite out of the way, maybe they’re better off getting their own day of visit or being crossed out entirely?
**5/4 (Himeji)**: Himeji Castle, Koko-en, Himeji Park, Shoshazan Engyoji, Mt Shosha hiking.
**6/4-9/4**: I planned to keep these as Kyoto days in case the previous activities take too long for a day, but outside of going to Osaka to visit the castle and spend some time walking around the city I feel I’m dry of ideas on what else to do there. I haven’t booked a place yet so I could just go back to Tokyo earlier than intended and find something else to do should that prove to be unnecessary. I don’t think I’ve seen any other cities around the area that I’d be too interested to visit to consider using these days for that (ie: Hiroshima).
**10/4 (Kyoto->Tokyo)**: going back to Tokyo to not stress as much when it’s time to start heading back to the airport. No real plans on what to do there.
**11/4 (Tokyo)**: I’ll likely just spend the day to see if I do any shopping and see if I find any fun omiyages.
**12/4 (Tokyo)**: the flight won’t depart until 5PM so I could likely spend the morning making some last walks preparing for that 30-ish hours trip back home.
If there’s no issues with a few more questions. I’ve read on other users itineraries that the JRP is only preferred for the bullet train, so getting something like Suica would be preferable during my stay in Tokyo and I get the 14 day JRP for the visit to other cities right?
I also have written down some animal cafes as possible short visits for breathers, but outside of most of them being in Shinjuku I’m not sure how ethical these are for wilder critters like owls, or worthwhile to spend half an hour on them instead of elsewhere. Apologizes in advance if my wording and formatting weren’t the best, or if my plans were a tad stupefying for more veteran travellers, and thank you for reading and any advice given too!
7 comments
Commenting to follow as we’re going the same dates and doing similar things albeit different days.
🙂
>I expect to be wrecked after 36 hours of travelling.
What ? 36 hours of travelling… where do you travel from for it to take that long ? Like do you have to drive for hours to reach the airport ? that seems a lot.
I think that you have a lot daily, so I would advise to not try to do everything, just take your time and enjoy what you are doing. If you try to do everything at all cost, you will be exhausted.
Tokyo National Museum, that is literally in Ueno Park, is a great history museum and that alone can take hours, so I doubt you can do all the things you listed before that. Not convinces about Yushima tenjin as this shrine is more known for plum blossom, and it’s not so special.
Going to Kyoto, don’t mind going early, you can just put your bag in a coin locker at the station. While hotel usually don’t let you check-in early, they do usually let people bring their luggage in advance.
While I understand you want to see cherry blossom, I feel that you have a lot of gardens. Thing is, cherry blossom is not only in gardens and parks, there is different streets lined with cherry tree that are really beautiful.
You also have a lot of temple and shrines, so while I personally love it, you should be aware that for many people after a couple, they get tired of it and they kind of all look the same. So you might want to plan some alternative to just temples in Kyoto in case you end up not liking it that much.
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Suica or Pasmo is just super convenient to pay for almost all transit, so regardless of other pass, you usually want one.
As for JR Pass… no, you do not want one. The only reason to get a pass is to save money, and I do not think you would. Round trip Tokyo-Kyoto is roughly under 30 000 yen and the round trip Himeji-Kyoto on the shinkansen is 9000 yen. So you would need to use for 8000 just to make it even.
Nara will be about 1500, Osaka can be 1000, but both would likely make more sense to go using non-jr train, for example using Kintetsu to go to Nara. And local train within Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka is fairly cheap, so not enough to even make you save money. Finally, if you do not use the JR Pass, you can use the faster Nozomi shinkansen.
Again, the only reason to use the JR Pass is to save money, and you are not going to. Actually if you want to save money, only use local and rapid train to go to Himeji (no shinkansen) for only 2400 yen using the [Kansai Area Pass](https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/pass/kansai/) for 1 day, yes it will take longer, but will be cheaper.
And no, the JR Pass is not “only preferred for the bullet train”. If you have a valid pass, you can absolutely use any local JR train with it. It’s just that shinkansen is the most expensive, so this is where you have the most potential to save money. For example it would make absolutely no sense to use the JR Pass only for Tokyo only as you would likely need to take the train over 100 times to save some money and you would be limited to JR, as it is not valid on the subway or on any of the private railway.
21/3-22/3 This is more of a single day plan. Also, Meiji Jingu gardens are not really that great in late March and are rather known for azalea (late April)/irises (June).
24/3-25/3: Kyu-Furukawa Gardens is a big skip in late March. This is a garden that is famous for roses and azaleas and is best visited during Golden Week and early May.
28/3: Kyoto Botanical Garden is famous for late cherry blossom (mid-April). Enkoji is rather famous for autumn foliage.
29/3-30/3: Honestly, this is very doable.
31/3: Jingoji is fairly easily reachable by a fairly frequent bus.
1/4: Considering location of Former Toyosato Elementary High School, you’d probably want to combine it with a visit to Hikone castle and its garden (which is a well-worthy cherry blossom spot on its own).
2/4: This is undoable during a single during (certainly with regard to Daikaku-ji and with Hanami crowds I doubt that you’ll get through the rest of itinerary).
4/4: Frankly, I would cross off Mt. Wakakusa off the list – this would be already a long day if you visit Ukimido and Manyo Botanical Garden in addition to the typical Kofuku-ji-Todai-ji-Kasuga Taisha itinerary.
5/4: Word of advice: during autumn foliage season Himeji castle is crowded and you’d do very well to just do main features of castle and Koko-en in time to be able to visit Engyo-ji. Note that with Mt. Shosha, you are on a fairly tight schedule not to get yourself locked in.
> I’m not sure how ethical these are for wilder critters like owls
Owl cafe = bad news. There is no way to make an ethical owl cafe.
Timeout Tokyo has published fairly recently [article on animal cafes](https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/restaurants/the-top-10-animal-cafes-in-tokyo) and Neco Republic also does have good reputation.
I personally think your too long in Kyoto. 3 days there is plenty, I’d recommend you either spend more time in Osaka or zip down to Hiroshima.
Do you enjoy art and architecture? You could use the extra days for an overnight to Naoshima Island. Rent bikes. Ride around the island. Visit the many museums…you can even stay inside of one and walk around it after hours if you’re a guest.
I am sure others will also point out but after a few temples you may start losing interest, unless you are a researcher. Mount Kurama does not require a day even if you include the Kurama Onsen, it is a half half a day trip, the area is not that far from the city. Note: Kibune kawadoko river restaurants are great but as far as I know they start operations in May.
If you are in Tokyo for Sakura, Chidorigafuchi Moat 千鳥ケ淵, cherry blossoms road in Nakano area, Zenpukuji River are some hidden spots. Also my personal favourites are in Saitama, Motoara River Cherry Blossom Avenue 元荒川の桜並木 (1 hour from Shibuya sta) and Gongendo Tsutsumi 権現堂堤 (1.5 hour from Shibuya sta). You can skip other not so interesting places to visit these place for half a day trip.