My husband and I are visiting Japan for two weeks starting April 13th. We’re very interested in food culture (restaurants, markets, bars, etc.) as well as history (museums, temples). Not interested in Disney or USJ.
**April 13th: Tokyo:** arrive Haneda around 5pm, check into hotel (Tsuki Tokyo), go out for Dinner and some drinks.
**April 14th: Tokyo:** Tsujiki market, Imperial Palace and gardens, Team Lab Borderless.
**April 15th: Tokyo:** move to Moxy Tokyo Kinshicho. Shibuya crossing, drinks at Park Hyatt, birthday dinner!! We haven’t chosen a restaurant for this night yet, but considering something on the nicer end.
**April 16th: Tokyo:** TBD
**April 17th:** train to **Hakone**, possibly purchase Hakone FreePass (worth it?) check in (Art Music Manatei). Breakfast and dinner included here.
**April 18th: Hakone:** Open air art museum, lunch at Itoh or Gora Brewery, cable car and ropeway to Owakudani.
**April 19th:** train to **Kyoto:** check in to hotel (Ace Hotel), bus to Hanshin Tigers baseball game (6pm).
**April 20th: Kyoto:** Bamboo Groves walk/hike, Tenryu-ji temple, Okochi- Sanso Villa. Suntory Whiskey museum and tasting 4pm.
**April 21st: Kyoto:** Nishiki market, Gion, possibly take the train to Nara for a few hours
We are on the waiting list for dinner at Noma all three nights we are staying here.
**April 22:** train to **Osaka:** check in (Fraser Residence Osaka), Osaka Castle, Dotonbori, Kuromon Ichiba Market
**April 23rd: Osaka:** day trip to Hiroshima, Peace Dome and Memorial, possibly Miyajima.
**April 24th:** train to **Tokyo:** check in (Yuenbettei Daita). The last three days of our trip we will be back in Tokyo. We plan on seeing and doing anything we missed the first few days. Our hotel is a ryokan so we will also be doing a lot of relaxing and soaking in the hot springs. Sky tower? Starbucks reserve roastery? Cup of Noodles museum?
What are the top museums we shouldn’t miss in Tokyo? There seem to be a lot of them.
I have a huge list of restaurants we’d like to visit, BUT would love suggestions for anything special (we eat everything).
Is the purpose of the pocket wifi or sim cards to avoid paying international roaming charges on data? We have AT&T and we usually just pay for the roaming while we travel. They cap their international roaming fees monthly, so it would only be $150 for both of us to use our phones the whole time. Not sure if there are other advantages or reasons for the pocket wifi.
Anything huge we’re missing here? Thanks in advance!
6 comments
I used a ubigi esim. 10G for US$19 for 2 weeks, I only used 5G and there’s plenty of very fast free wifi. $150 sounds VERY expensive
I’d put a all you can eat (tabehodai) yakiniku venue on your list, typically 4000円 per person for all the meet you can order for 100 minutes. Fun experience.
Hiroshima isn’t close to Osaka, even with the luxury of the Shinkansen, factoring in that travel and the streetcars to the park and walking, I cannot even think how’d you do the museum and Miyajima. Not only is the boat trip like a half hour to the island and another to return, but things close early on it. The museum closes at 5 too. You’d be super rushing, and those are places you want to soak in.
I used the AT&T International Day Pass too, and it worked pretty well. While expensive, all I did was turn on roaming and let au do the rest.
Isn’t Borderless closed? It closed permanently in Odaiba in August and was just set to be relocated in a nebulous “2023”. Is it opened again?? I’m going in a couple of weeks…
Edit: can’t find anything online. Planets is the current only open exhibit.
Be sure the ropeway to owakudani is open. be flexible and watch the weather, when it’s clear you can see fuji.
It takes ages to get to Nara and back from Kyoto so take a good look at the train schedules etc before you make the decision to just pop over for the afternoon. It also takes a while to get to the bamboo forest in Arashiyama. Also the idea of popping down to Hiroshima from Osaka (yikes) but someone else has already mentioned that.