14 Day Itinerary Spring 2022 advice!

15 comments

1. Do Aki and monster Cafe on the same day so you can also have time to go explore Shibuya. The Yamamoto line will take you all those places. There’s faster line if you want to cut between.

2. Day 2 “train to Tokyo” is strange, because you will already be in Tokyo. If you mean Tokyo station, you actually do not have to go to Tokyo station to reach Odaiba. Just check Google maps to plan any train move.

   Day 6 is, in my opinion, a really bad idea. First you will literally have to pay 300$ in train ticket to go to USJ, and you do not have a full day as it will take a good 3h30 from Shinjuku to USJ, so total of 7 hours of train in the day.

   I would highly advise to do 1 week in Tokyo and 1 week in Kyoto/Osaka. You can also land in Tokyo and leave Japan from Osaka. This will save you one trip from Osaka back to Tokyo.

   Most of your days are quite light, so you can either add more things to do, or plan all your days in a similar fashion, that should leave enough time to explore more area. For example, only having kawaii monster cafe in one day mean you have lot of time left, so you can easily go around Harajuku and Shibuya.

   Also, having plans to go to one place each day is not a huge commitment, plans are easy to change anyway. I personally think that having no plan at all for half your trip is not a good idea. It’s much more easy to change plan on the go than find things to do.

   Onsen, there is not any in Shinjuku. Your best bet would be Kawaguchiko or Hakone and you should stop for a night to properly enjoy a Ryokan with kaisei meal. Hakone is easy to access from Shinjuku, but this is still 1h30 to 2h to reach the ryokan and Kawakucjiko is 2h. The easiest in my opinion is probably to stop by Hakone on the way to Osaka. So go to Hakone, visit, night at the ryokan and next morning finish visiting and go to Osaka. I would take that day relax and do USJ the next day.

   There is other options in Kansai, for example Arima onsen.

3. The problem with this itinerary is that you don’t get to visit Kyoto. I would highly recommend trying to stay a few days in Kyoto. Also, I wouldn’t make base on Tokyo, maybe you can find some places to accomodate in Osaka or Kyoto. If you have the time, I suggest you to visit mount Koya, it was one of my favorite places when I traveled to Japan last year.

4. Day 4: plan something else you properbly won’t spend the whole day there.

   if you want some inspiration check out:

   Kamakura – very tourist heavy but this area has all the shrines and temples close together, there are also nice hiking trails

   Toshogu shrine of nikko – the grave of Tokugawa with an amazing surrounding of forest and buildings, last time i visited it was under renovation, it should be done by now and be nice and shiny.

   Japan open air folk house museum (nihon minkaen) – a collection of houses from different generations, they collect them all from japon and bring them to this place in order to preserve them, which is a really cool idea, we even saw a house getting shipped to the location. There is staff and volunteers which keep the firepits lit tell stories and keep the place clean, or do workshop stuff around the place.

   Nokogiriyama ropeway to Ishidaibutsu (Nihon-ji) – It’s a temple complex on a mountain from you can see izu oshima, yokosuka, yokohama and mount fuji (on a clear day :P) it’s a great from from the top of the mountain and a really nice hike with an old stone quarry, the “view of hell” a trail of loads and loads of little buddha statues a lot of nature and at the end the big stone buddha

   ​

   so i think this will get you some stuff to look up for now! have fun 😛

5. Day 3 Ghibli is probably difficult. It is a small museum, so the amount of tickets they will issue is so limited. Also, local citizens have a priority to buy tickets.

   Day 7onsen, let me introduce some famous place as follows.
   Near Tokyo
   -Hakone – the most famous sightseeing area near Tokyo. Museums, lake cruising and climbing up the mountain by train, ropeway and cable car.
   -Nikko – Known as a famous Buddhist temple, beautiful water falls and a lake.
   -Atami – beautiful sea and delicious seafood
   -Kusatsu
   -Ikaho
   Near Osaka
   -Kinosaki
   -Arima
   -Shirahama

6. My biggest regret when I went last year was not planning Kyoto into the trip! We had planned an itinerary this year with Kyoto but of course that didn’t happen. 😭 If you do decide to add Kyoto, then I would definitely add Nara too!

   I agree with the other poster who mentioned that you probably won’t need to spend a whole day in Akihabara. We were super excited to go there but unfortunately were quite overwhelmed by it when we got there. We went on a super hot sweaty day and it was really crowded so we got exhausted and fed up pretty quickly so didn’t spend long there. There was a nice little temple nearby though.
   I much preferred Ikebukuro! I would definitely squeeze that in if you have time in one of your days. It has lots of western food options and malls and arcades but I really liked the vibe there.
   Also don’t forget to visit Harajuku, if you don’t like the crowds there’s loads of little areas nearby to wonder around and get lost in 😍

7. Following because I’m hoping to go well…it was this year until you know….

8. I have a really nice onsen to recommand but
   1) idk if you can stay there overnight or not
   2) it’s located near Mt. Takao about 45min away from Shinjuku with the metro.
   What I did when I visited this onsen is that I first hiked Mt. Takao and then took the cable cars back down and when to relax at the onsen (literally located right next to the metro station!) The onsen was really really nice, with outdoor baths, I highly recommend it. I know it might not exactly be what you were looking for but it is a nice day trip!

   (Also if you’re looking for hotel recommendations for Shinjuku, I stayed in a capsule hotel called Nine Hours, it was pretty neat, super cheap, I was happy with my stay. But just FYI, if you stay there for more than a day, you will have to “check out” at 9 or 10am and check back in around 6pm or any time after that i believe. But the staff is super nice and will keep any suitcase or luggage for you. Feel free to DM me if you want any more info or anything!)

9. >Day 6: Travel to Osaka for universal studios then go back

   >Planning to use the shinkansen to get to Osaka but I think booking two separate accommodations so I can stay there an extra day would make my head explode.

   It’s roughly a 6 hour round trip to Osaka even using the Shinkansen (more like 7-8 if you’re not coming directly from Tokyo or Shinagawa stations and take into account that USJ is nowhere near Shin-Osaka). You’ll waste at least half the day just in transit if you do this (not to mention the monetary cost). ***More importantly, I would argue that there’s actually more to do in Kansai (the region of which Osaka is a part) than there is around Tokyo.*** Going just for one a day trip (especially one that only entails seeing an American theme park) is completely asinine. Kansai the most historically and culturally rich area of the entire country and I truly cannot recommend recommend going there enough, but if you do, I would spend more of your trip there than in Tokyo.

10. If you are looking for hidden Gems and unusual things to see/do consider visiting places that are less touristy and more authentic.
    For example – Niigata or Kanazawa.
    Both have many things to offer and are just a short (just 2 hours) ride by shinkansen from Tokyo…

    If you need ideas in Niigata, PM me.

11. Personally, I’d suggest you to change Kawaii Monster Cafe for a visit to old towns in Tokyo like Yanaka or Nezu, so you’ll have seen old and modern Tokyo (since you’re going to Shinjuku and Akihabara). I don’t know if I’m the only one here who found Kawaii Monster Cafe pretty disappointing. Not trying to be a bummer, just sharing my opinion and the ones from friends who went there.

    Also, I’m sure you already know, but just in case remember you have to purchase your tickets to Ghibli Museum a month in advance.

12. If you’re going to Osaka, stay there a day or two. Check out the city and go to Kyoto. Also look into some other day trips like nara, nikko, kamakura, etc

13. Unfortunately, [the Kawaii Monster Cafe is closing at the end of January 2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/kky6zu/kawaii_monster_cafe_to_close_on_jan_31_2021/).

14. I know it’s been more than a week since you’ve posted this, but the Kawaii Monster Cafe seems to have closed, in case you didn’t know. [https://twitter.com/KAWAIIMONSTERCA/status/1343014009230901249](https://twitter.com/KAWAIIMONSTERCA/status/1343014009230901249?fbclid=IwAR33B56IwsLqsJJML-oVvneOEKecpoI9TV1y87LtPC6_0o1A1YErwgjC46Q)

15. Do Akihabara on a weekday and on a time before kids are out of schools if you like to go to the arcades. We had a blast at the arcades when the kids were still in school, it was basically empty.