Japan Trip in May 2021

30 comments

1. > Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Iwatayama Monkey Park, Gio-ju Temple, Adashino-Nembutso-ji, Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto Imperial Temple

   This is maybe technically possible, but too ambitious. You can visit Iwatayama and Tenryu-ji area and then skip over to northern Kyoto temple row, but visiting Gio-ji and Adashino Nenbutsuji makes the timeline, tight.

   Note that I assume that you mean Kyoto Imperial Palace and it is very unlikely that you will reach it before it closes.

   > 5/23

   Typically I do recommend starting with Kiyomizu-dera around 7am to avoid crowds.

   > 5/24

   This is only doable, if you start at Fushimi Inari around 6-6:30am.

   > castles

   Skip the ones listed, visit Himeji in the morning on your way to Hiroshima. Osaka, Hiroshima and Odawara are all concrete reconstructions (and Osaka is a very bad one at that).

   Switching hotels between Maihama and central Tokyo does not make much sense (and I would probably stick to central Tokyo).

2. I absolutely loved Disney Sea, but I feel like two days might feel a bit empty there. I was there one day and watched all the shows and went into all the rides except the toy story one- it was the middle of golden week too, so not too empty. Unless you really, really, really want to eat at multiple (overpriced and kinda meh) restaurants, could not live with maybe not hitting one of the rides or want to see the shows/parades twice, I think you’ll be better off spending an additional day in Kyoto. As the user above said, those days are a bit full, and you won’t get to enjoy your time nearly enough if you’re just racing from one sightseeing opp to the next.

3. My only comment is, have you ever travelled across that many time zones? I’ve been coming here from EST since 2005, and I still experience several days of jetlag everytime. Otherwise that’s a super travel plan!

4. I agree 100% with /u/mithdraug. To supplement their advice about scheduling, I’d say that you have a _ton_ of temples and shrines listed. I think I counted closed to 30? And some days are packed with almost nothing but them.

   Temple/shrine fatigue is a real thing for a lot of travelers to Japan, especially first-time travelers who haven’t yet figured out what they like in terms of sights there. This itinerary reads a lot closer to something I would do, and I’m a _goshuin_ hunter who has been traveling to Japan for years and makes crazy trips to the middle of nowhere just for temples/shrines.

   It might not happen, but be prepared for the possibility that you might get bored after the 10th temple/shrine and decide that it’s just not really your thing.

5. I don’t feel like it’s worth planning on going to that many temples and shrines. You’ll probably stumble upon lots of them just from wandering around anyway, and unless you’re genuinely really into visiting them you’ll probably get bored of them after a while.

   I’d personally just plan on visiting the ones you genuinely really want to go to, and then just see which other places you find when you’re there.

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7. I ‘v seen a number of planned itineraries for Japan lately, are y’all expecting that’s it’s possible to travel in the spring?

8. 2 days in Tokyo Disneysea, great choice! As a Disney lover myself, you’ll LOVE it! One day was definitely not enough for me. I’m sure you already know but Tokyo Disneyland has a whole new Beauty and the Beast area (and a Baymax ride) and it is absolutely beautiful!

   Make sure you get the Tokyo Disney Resort app so you can get fast passes, check out the wait times, nearby food, etc! 🙂

9. My suggestion from the experiences I had last autumn.

   I would suggest to split your sightseeing by areas,, especially in Kyoto which is full of beautiful sights but they might seem scattered. Of course my list of things to do at least in terms of temples and gardens was huge but in the end I went for a more streamlined list which would include some spots I felt were absolutely necessary to see instead of getting to all of them and feeling rushed like I got no time to actually enjoy it. It felt packed even like this but I had the time to just walk between some sights and experience some quiet Kyoto neighborhoods for example. My SO was also happy because he tends to lose his patience when I take him to a lot of sights in a row.

   In terms of temples, I saw some of the well known ones but also added in a walk to Ryoan-ji from Kinkaku-ji (spectacular Zen garden in Ryoan-ji, but the rest is also beautiful), Shoren-in (Higashiyama area), Kyomizu-dera in the proximity ( I saw it at sunset / night time and it was really beautiful especially with autumn colors but crowded as well), Tofuku-ji (beautiful Zen gardens as well as autumn scenery, don’t know about spring time). I did not do a lot of exploring around Sannen zaka and Yasaka as it was just too crowded. I would love to go back and also visit the Moss temple for which you need a special reservation ahead of time.

   I feel like the days for Osaka sightseeing could be even one but maybe that is just me. We stopped on our way from Kyoto to Osaka at Nara for a day and then went to Osaka and visited Dotonbori which was a culinary experience. Osaka is also so much cheaper in terms of accommodation than Kyoto. In the Kobe Osaka area do try to eat Kobe beef as it is just wonderful (we ate it in a tiny restaurant in Himeji in our second to last day of the trip).

   We went to Hakone on our way to Nagoya – Kyoto and made the main itinerary which I think you target for 5/31. We stayed in Odawara as we wanted to directly take the shinkansen from there and, let me tell you, there wasn’t a lot going on there so I think you can skip the castle and just go to your next destination when you check out of the ryokan. We went from Nagoya to Takayama in the Gifu region for close to 2 days and it was really pretty… Small city, historical village vibes, a lot of walking around and good weather, and beautiful nature spotted from the train. I would not call it an essential sight, but maybe check it out as well as Shirakawa go village (I felt these were mutually exclusive on a tight schedule so I plan on going to Shirakawa go next time).

   In terms of Tokyo sightseeing, I would only comment that 6/4 seems a bit crowded – the Palace gardens take some time and I heard that the Edo Tokyo museum is also very interesting! Please take into consideration that the visit schedule would not be not very extensive so you might not have time for 2 big museums in the same day, moving around etc. In Tokyo I also dedicated one afternoon to just walking around Yanaka to get a feel of a historical neighborhood.

   Hope it proves useful.

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11. nice i am also going may for 3 weeks, going to probably go to comiket, then go to kyoto to finish what i didn’t see last time, after that I will just take train south and explore or maybe all the way north
    i hope japan actually allows me in come may, and comiket is not cancelled again

12. One thing that if you can you really should do is Shimanami kaido. It’s super romantic and lovely and if you like cycling it’s quite brilliant
    [Shimanami Kaido](https://youtu.be/jVcf5iOszjc)

13. A few questions and comments:

    1. How did you decide on the Park Hyatt? Have you considered Andaz Tokyo or Hyatt Centric Ginza? Or even Grand Hyatt? Hyatt Centric Ginza is a newer hotel with an awesome breakfast and a great location. My understanding is that the Park Hyatt is out of the way.

    1. As one of the other posters mentioned, the jetlag is real. It will be almost impossible to much on the 1st and 2nd nights of the trip. I now see that you’re landing at 4:30am. I don’t think you will be able to function much that day even if you’re flying business or first class. If possible, find a flight that lands in the late afternoon instead of the early morning. I found that if I land in the late afternoon on day 1 (half day), my jetlag is gone on the night of day 3.

    1. Where does food fit in here? Would you like any food suggestions? What are you looking for and in what price range? Do you know how to use tabelog? The main reason I ask where food fits in is that you will want some lunch reservations (cheaper and smaller portions at nice restaurants — highly recommended) and some dinner reservations. You’ll want to make sure you’re budgeting time for reservations. You will also need to make reservations through the concierge and your nicer hotels.

    1. The Robot Restaurant is fun! Hopefully, you know, but it’s not a restaurant – don’t eat there.

    Yes, it makes sense to spend some time in Tokyo first. https://www.tofugu.com/japan/traveling-to-japan-for-the-first-time/

    Nara is not overrated. I’m glad that you have it on there. Have you heard of Mt. Koya (Koya-san)? That was one of the highlights of my first trip. You can find more information in the linked post.

    For must-do things, I think some of the food options are unique experiences — omakase sushi (try Kyubey for lunch for your first time in Tokyo), yakitori ([Hitomi in Kyoto] (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/travel/36-hours-in-kyoto-japan.html) is unbelievable and affordable), ramen (I’m partial to Ginza Kagari in Tokyo), yakiniku (Korean BBQ — I went to Yoroniku last time and plan on going to Nakahara next time), convenience stores like 7/11 and Lawson, and maybe pizza, tempura, or curry. There are also some really cool bars in Ginza (Mori Bar, Bar Orchard, Star Bar Ginza, Bar Hoshi).

14. Pretty good itinerary. I can see that you made a lot of research and planning.

    I really like that you start the first day slow with only looking around in the areas. I would do the same.20/5 : You can definitely explore one more area. Being 12h in Shinjuku might be too long. How about walking down from Shinjuku toward Shibuya/Harajuku station and walking torwards Roppongi. Just walking around and looking at all the areas. Shinjuku at night is really nice.

    23-24/5: Very weird alignment of temples. Why not make a day consisting of Fushimi and Kiyomizu walking torwards Pontocho/Maruyama Park(stopping around here) while marking off the other temples. I did it last year and it took me from 9-15:00 and I could slowly explore everything. If you go even earlier it might be enough for you to be done around 14:00. You can then go to the show.As for the other day just make a trip torwards the northen eastern side and take it more slowly. I would reccommend riding a bike so you have more time to look at the northern part of kyoto. But it’s up to you.

    28/5 since your take the train from kyoto to Hiroshima why not make a stop and visit Himeji castle(most beautiful one in Japan next to matsuyama castle) or make a stop in Kobe to eat the kobe beef(if you want)? then move torwards Hiroshima.29/5: I would suggest to see the tides regarding miyajima. You could have a much better view of nori gate. My suggestion also would be to go around 14:00 to miyajima so you can enjoy the sundown from the mountain. Enough time to hike up. There is not a lot of things to do in Miyajima. You could do other stuff like Hiroshima garden or museum in the morning.

    5/30-31: I would suggest you to skip odawara castle if you already saw Himeji. Also you could easily do the Hakone Ropeway and Owakudani after the open air museum. (we did it)And on the next day you could take the Cruise ship torwards south Hakone and walk torwards the hakone shrine(if you have enough time you could even walk around) and then take the bus back and train back to Tokyo. If you really want to see odawara castle you could see it when you go back since you need to go from odawara.You need 4h from Hiroshima to Hakone. Go early like 7:00 so you can do all of them. Or else you have to skip the cruise ship and hakone shrine which for me is a must see if you are already there.

    6/6: to be honest Ginza is boring. It’s a high end venue to shop. I really doubt that you could stand being in Ginza for more than 3h unless you are a big brand shopper(brand clothing is way more expansive than in the west) I would rather suggest you to visit Yokohama or walk around enoshima/Kamakura. If you really want to see Ginza be prepeared to see a lot of high end shopping centers.

    Also as other have suggested. Don’t force yourself to visit that many temple only for the point of having been there. It will get boring and repetitive after the 10th time. Trust me I did the whole Kyoto tour. Mark the must see around 3-4 a day and according to your mood skip some. There is always a next time to revisit. Don’t rush temples.

    With that said. I hope you can do it with your fiance next year in may. Let’s pray that we can still travel at that point.

15. Kyoto and shinjuku are both great. I did a similar journey with some friends. The robot restaurant was sooo fun! After you go to that I would highly recommend going to golden gai. It is a very interesting area where there are small pubs and restaurants the size of closets. Many very interesting people to meet. Between Tokyo and Kyoto I would highly recommend adding in nagano. There was a really great farm house we stayed at I can recommend if you like. There are beautiful onsens and snow monkeys. Oasaka was boring but Nara is great. Have fun!

16. To answer your bullet points;

    1. Yeah, that makes sense to me, it’s a nice short break from the 20+hours in transit you’re going to spend before heading to Kyoto/Osaka.

    2. If you plan to do everything in your list….yes, it’s too packed. If any day is too lite, probably your 5/20. The Ghibli museum is tiny, probably a 2 hour experience, the first time I went we were there close to 4 hours because we waited an hour to eat at the cafe, 1/2 day at most. Shinjuku / Robot restaurant is an evening/night activity, leaving your whole afternoon free.

    3. Find something to do with your evening in Kyoto, I enjoyed strolling around Kyoto at night (specifically around the Shijo-Kawaramachi station, there’s a lot of great restaurants and some small shopping streets (eg: Teramachi shopping street) that might be worth checking out, assuming it’s not far from where you’re staying, it’s also close to Pontocho which you had on a list another night.

    4. The only thing that seems missing to me is an observation point or two, but being from NYC maybe that’s less interesting? I’m from Florida where everything’s flat and I really enjoyed some of the observation deck city views, especially the open air rooftop at Mori tower in Tokyo and Umeda Sky in Osaka.

    Other general advice; switch your 6/5, 6/6 and 6/7 days around. Borderless can get VERY crowded at times. I went on a Monday after having a nice breakfast in the Tsukiji area and walking around the empty Hamarikyu gardens and found light crowds at borderless. Unless it’s changed, the main street through Akihabara is closed to cars Sunday afternoons and it’s more convenient to walk around.

    You may, or may not run into “temple fatigue” I had a similar plan my first trip, they really do start to feel same-y after a while. Your list is “busy”, don’t treat it all as “must do” items but more of a guideline and you’ll enjoy it more. For me, one of my favorite things about Japan is that getting lost or just exploring a neat looking alley, or new place you found is a lot of fun.

    In three trips, I’ve never run into jet lag going to Japan, I found it easy to acclimate to the change by trips to following the airlines “dinner, sleep and breakfast” routines, but I’ve always arrived late afternoon and went to bed after a big meal at around 6pm, waking up fresh the next day.

17. I’d schedule exploring kichijoji which is right next to ghibli. Bunch of cool shops and little restaurants.

    Schedule more time with no clear agenda getting lost and exploring.

18. I think you are American given that you said you lived in NYC but is that flight arrival time a guess? 4:30AM arrival is gonna be tough to not completely go insane before you can even check into your hotel. Not sure if you have ever felt jet lag before but it’s real or even just being on a flight that long will drain you. While I had zero or VERY minor jet lag when I landed in Japan it was real when I got home. But the reason I bring up the landing time is look for a late afternoon flight landing time if you can. By the time you get out of the airport and into the hotel it’ll be early evening to allow you to check into your hotel, grab food and then go walking if you have the energy, and then come back to a nice bed waiting for you. Just makes the time difference a lot more bearable.

    Also don’t let the negative stories you might read about robot restaurant deter you it’s fucking great and was a fun experience if you have a CSR tickets are $33 with chase points. Just don’t bother buying any food or drinks, not worth it.

    Also I read in a comment you aren’t interested in seeing the skylines or something? Even if you have lived in NYC I feel like Japanese city skylines are something else entirely else to be seen. The sheer mass size of Tokyo is something to not miss on the 52nd floor.

    For number 2 bullet I would say don’t feel the need to see all the tourist attractions. Every city you’re going to is full of hidden gems. Walking around any major Japanese city is always fun and an adventure on it’s own and shouldn’t be missed as there’s a lot you can just randomly come across that isn’t on some travel guide or YouTube.

    Also look into using the Airport limousine bus from the airport to the Park Hyatt since that is a major hotel I know that there is a bus route that will directly stop there. Trust me it’s more enjoyable sitting on the bus being taken directly to your hotel than lugging everything trough the massively packed Japan subway routes. Which by the time you get out of the airport (as you flight stands now) you might even hit Tokyo rush hour which is gonna be hell if you got luggage with you.

19. If you like Shrines and Temples I highly recommend getting Goshuin book and collect the seal from each one you visit.

    I loved my book, it’s a work of art with the beautiful calligraphy, and I was excited for every shrine just to get another seal.

    P.S I think you might be a bit lucky for May being possible at the moment – I honestly hope it is all alright! I want to go then too! – But I don’t want you to get your heart set on this and then be disappointed, or loose your money which might make a future trip impossible.

20. I, out of habbit, were falling over your post and something jumped out for me…

    5/22 and following in Kyoto up until osaka

    Those are very VERY ambitious schedules. Do I think its impossible? Maybe not technically, but practically? I think so, yes, you cant fit that in one day. At least not of you actually want to experience the destinations and not just check a box “been there” for like a minute before running on…

21. If you are spending 3 days at Tokyo Disney, I’d recommend one of the on-site hotels rather than offsite.

    Tokyo Disney and Universal are unique to their American counterparts as all the guests know how to use all the systems available to them. So they will be there early before the park opens. They know how to use fast pass and which rides to go on etc.

    The park packages (hotel, tickets, FP) do sell out when they are available for TDR (I think they publish them 6 months in advance).

22. 1. Kind of ok. Going to Hakone from Hiroshima is close to 5 hours, so you will have to start the day quite early to have time to do things in Hakone. One option you could consider is to do Kyoto, Hiroshima, Osaka, this way it make Hakone much closer, so more time to visit there. The only thing is that it add one more accommodation.
    2. You might have days that are a bit full. For me the key is to be able to make priority and be able to drop thing instead of rushing to see everything. You might also want to make sure things you want to see are in the same area. For example, in Tokyo, 6/4 is a bit all over the place. Skytree should go with Senso-ji as they are closer to each other.

    Oh, and check schedule of places, 6/7 is a monday. Shinjuku Gyoen is close on monday.

23. I would definitely try Ichiran ramen. It’s a unique experience and the best ramen I’ve ever had in my life (I’ve been to Japan about 3 times now). I would also highly suggest going to Mt. Fuji for the day and also really take advantage of the cherry blossoms. Maybe look into spring festivals, they’re supposed to be beautiful. I would definitely focus more on the experiences than the fancy stuff like the robot restaurant. Japan is full of culture and you don’t always have to fork it out to really experience it 🙂

24. My boyfriend and I went in Apr/March before everything shut down this year and stayed just in Tokyo. I recommend missing the Robot Show, it’s fun but you can see basically everything shown online and spending more time exploring the city is more worth your time, imo. I’d also try to fit in Mario Karting around the city if you can, it requires an international drivers license, which takes about 15 minutes and $30 to obtain before going on the trip. It’s exciting and fun and a great way to see the city.

25. Hello fellow May 2021 hopeful! We had to postpone our honeymoon this year and are planning our trip for almost the same days as you! (5/15 – 6/5). Best of luck for both of us! 😀

    This will be my third trip to Japan (my husband’s second) and I do have some broad feedback:

    – Don’t forget to consider jet lag. It’s impossible to avoid (there are steps you can take to reduce it, but you will be tired!).

    – You will also be walking more than you’ve ever done in your life. For nearly three weeks straight. I don’t want to make assumptions about your physical routine, but I LOVE walking and holy crap was I exhausted. There was stuff I wanted to do and there was no way my legs were cooperating any more.

    – Consider taking a half day (or full day!) to go to an onsen. GO GO GO can really cloud the experience. We loved the Odaiba Oedo-Onsen. Not a very traditional experience, but it was excellent for my husband (the onsen thing made him nervous) and it was super fun! It was a really nice, relaxing day.

    – I would HIGHLY recommend saving at least one day without any plans. My favorite days in our trip two years ago were the last two. We had no plans. We just went back to places we had enjoyed and wanted to experience more (Nakano Broadway! Akihabara!), including a few restaurants we liked. It was so so nice. Like I can’t even tell you.

26. Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials.

    This is more of a tongue in cheek comment but since you’re on your honeymoon…I’m assuming that there will be lots of sexy times. One of the more unique things in Japan (that you’ll likely not experience anywhere in the US) is the existence of love hotels. If you guys get tired of sightseeing, it would probably a funny/unique couple hour experience that’s a bit different than just the stereotypical high end hotel romantic experience

27. Some of the things you mention in your plan are hard to fully enjoy in just one day. Like Akihabara – i have spent nearly a week there and i am not done with the place just yet.

    I have but the deepest respect for your planning, but keep in mind that many of things on your list are very time consuming and i am not even talking about the transportation between them.

    I have been to Japan several times and been to many of these places that you speak of, but i could never have managed it in one trip and still enjoy it.

    I would skip things like universal studios. Overrated and you will spend most of your time just waiting in line. Spend some more time exploring Osaka instead. But that is just my opinion.

28. horrible idea to travel half way across the planet to spend 3 days in a disney theme park when Japan has so much more to offer

29. I mean, each to their own. But you are American so the theme park thing shouldn’t be rare to you. Please don’t go to japan and waste 4 days out of 17 on a totally non authentic Japanese experience. The food is shit in the parks, the rides are just like anywhere else, and all you will do is end up queuing for hours and spend a whole day only to go on a couple of rides. Plus i was underwhelmed with Disney sea. Disney land itself was much better.

    Tokyo is one of the most incredible cities in the world. You could spend a year there and do something different everyday. There’s also an abundance of day trips outside of the city worth exploring. Don’t regret missing out on those over a Disney experience.

    Also with Hiroshima, I’d recommend staying the night on Miyajima if you can. It’s a pretty cool island.

30. We did our honeymoon in Japan back in December 2019, it was the first time for both of us, so I’ll just give some general thoughts based on our (amazing) experience. We did a total of 15 days, so I think you have a bit longer.

    * We were *exhausted* on our arrival day. We arrived in the afternoon and just passed out in the hotel room. If you have the energy to explore, then more power to you! We definitely did not.

    * We did Tokyo -> Osaka -> Kobe day trip -> Kyoto -> Last day in Tokyo. We ended up being *so so* happy that we had Kyoto at the end, because it was a very different vibe from the other cities (much quieter, more relaxed) and was a much-needed opportunity to have very slow, cozy days to recover. We probably skipped half the things on our Kyoto itinerary in favor of just chilling in coffee shops and sleeping in, etc. It was cold and drizzly and just so cozy. You may not have the option to move Kyoto (or you may not want to), but our experience with it this way was just great.

    * We skipped at least one thing from our itinerary each day. I intentionally “over” planned so we could have plenty of options, but there were absolutely days where we wanted to just wander some shopping streets, sit for some coffee, chill in a park, etc. So just have a conversation about being prepared to be flexible in dropping things from the schedule. We were really glad we could agree on that.