Hi! My girlfriend and I will be visiting Japan next year from the US (Late November – Early December) for the first time. The trip should be about 14 days total. My current split (not in chronological order) is about 6 and a half days in Tokyo, 1 day in Osaka just for Super Nintendo World, 1 day in Nikko, 1 day in Nara, and 3 and a half days in Kyoto. None of this is final, I am in the early stages of planning- might be interested in adding a day trip to either Yudanaka for the snow monkeys or a day trip to see Mount Fuji- would have to lose a day in either Tokyo or Kyoto though.
My main concern for help at the moment is if anyone could help me figure out how best to organize my days based on what places/attractions we want to visit. I am getting overwhelmed trying to group them by area and was wondering if anyone with more experience wouldn’t might helping a bit. Below are all the possible places that we have found while researching so far and would like to visit during our trip, organized by city (not in order, as I haven’t figured out logistics of traveling between cities with trains and other travel yet, so I’m not sure the most efficient way to go about all the locations yet- that is my next battle to conquer lol).
Also, I have barely researched any restaurants/food yet, so there are very few on here, but I plan to research that soon.
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TOKYO (6.5 days)
* Shibuya Crossing
* Hachiko Statue
* Takeshita Street shopping
* Ginza District shopping
* SkyTree
* National Art Center
* Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo
* Nintendo Store
* Pokémon Café
* Tokyo National Museum
* Rikugien Garden (would love to go preferably whenever it is least busy, planning on proposing to my girlfriend there 🙂 !!!)
* Snoopy Museum
* Antique Life Jin shopping
* Tatsuro Sushi for dinner one night
* Studio Ghibli Museum
* Shimokitazawa neighborhood (vintage shopping)
* Art Aquarium Tokyo
* Tsukiji Outer Market
* Shibuya Sky
* Gashapon Department Store, Ikebukuro Main Store
* Gotokuji Temple
* Hie shrine
* Taito Station Akihabara
* Shibuya Blue cave Christmas lights? (need to research this more)
* Super Potato Akihabara Branch
* Golden Gai
* 7/11
* KFC
* Ueno Park
* Shopping at LOFT
* Any suggestions on which temples/shrines/museums should be a must-see for a first time trip?
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OSAKA (day trip)
* Super Nintendo World (this should be all we do in Osaka, will just be a day trip from Tokyo)
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NIKKO (day trip)
* Rinno-ji Temple
* Shinkyo Bridge
* Any suggestions for Nikko? Have done less research here compared to other cities so far
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NARA (day trip)
* Deer Park
* This will likely just be a relaxing day trip hanging around Deer Park, maybe doing some shopping around, but any suggestions for sights to see in Nara would be appreciated!
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KYOTO (3.5 days)
* Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
* Tofukuji Temple
* Sagano Romantic Train
* Kiyomizu Dera Temple
* Sannezaka shopping street
* Kinkakuji Temple
* Iwatayama Monkey Park
Any suggestions or thoughts are greatly appreciated, as I am still in the early stages of planning and know this is kinda all over the place! Thoughts on these locations for a first time trip? Anything important I might be missing? Anything that’s not worth it? Obviously we can only go so many places in 14 days, but still lol! Thank you in advance for any help! 🙂
5 comments
Osaka should be a day trip from Kyoto not Tokyo
I would skip on the snow monkey park, first because it’s quote out of the way to do one thing, second I’m not sure if it would be snowing when you’re there. Unless it is its not worth it. A trip to monkey Park in kyoto will be exactly the same. Good luck on your proposal, if I were to suggest a place to propose it would be somewhere in either kyoto or mount fuji. Both those places have a magical feel to them especially in autumn
I would put Osaka, Kyoto, Nara all together if I was you. It’s to save your time and money. It doesn’t make sense to me to come to Osaka from Tokyo for one day.
And if you are coming to Japan late November, I would recommend you going to Kyoto first in order to enjoy the peak of autumn leaves. It may be a bit late in early December.
As someone who truly loves Osaka, your itinerary made me a bit sad… But that’s okay. Everyone’s preferences are very different. 🙂
For Kyoto, you could definitely group Arashiyama bamboo garden, the sagano romantic train, and the Iwatayama monkey park together. They’re all in Arashiyama. You could also Kinkakuji to this day as well! This is like Northwestern Kyoto.
Your other Kyoto activities are all in eastern Kyoto, and could also be a separate day. This includes Kiyomizu dera, sannenzaka, and I believe tofukuji as well.
Put all your points into Google My Maps. Then go from there. Your days will make much more sense