Wife and I had planned on going in April and booked flights and hotels last September. Then I knocked her up! Now this is turning into a bit of a baby-moon. Wife will be 5-6 mos pregnant (we have clearance from our OB, we are relatively active esp. biking) and wife is young and healthy, pregnancy otherwise good (so far). Things like eating sushi once, and going in onsen once are apparently fine per OB. We have money to spend extra for things like taxi, etc, to make her comfortable.
We are morning people and don’t really drink alcohol or like..go to clubs, etc. Interests are good food (some Michelin experiences but as long as tasty doesn’t matter to us), culture/art, and nature. We usually find that we make it through parks/museums relatively quickly…we’re not the type of people that walk from display to display and stick around for like…hours. Pls let us know about restaurants/activities, esp in Tokyo. Want to run this by the group please/thanks!
**4/11 Day 1 – Osaka: Arrive KIX**
* 4p get to hotel (near Osaka-Umeda Stn)
* 5:30p Umeda sky building
* *Osaka style Okonomiyaki recs?*
* 7:30p Botanical Gardens Teamlab
**4/12 Day 2 – Hiroshima Day-trip, Osaka night tour**
* 6:30a Drop luggage for Yamoto
* 7a Shinkansen to Hiroshima (arrive 8:30a)
* Breakfast: *?get some Momiji Manju & coffee and head to museum (recs?)*
* 9:30a Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum + Peace Memorial Park
* *Lunch: 1145a Hiroshima Okonomiyaki (Nagataya?)*
* 1:30p Shinkansen back to Osaka
* 5-9p Walking Osaka evening: Dotonbori, Americamuri, etc
**4/13 Day 3 – Osaka Castle & Aquarium, Kyoto**
* 7:30a – metro to Osaka castle, walk the grounds grounds, go into castle at 9
* *Brunch: Asakara Good Store (any other recs for quick bite around castle?)*
* 11:30a – Osaka aquarium
* 3:15p Shinkansen to kyoto
* 4p check into Kyoto hotel (Close to Kyoto national museum)
* *Dinner 5p Monk (?take a taxi)*
* evening walk around philosophers path
**4/14 Day 4 – Basic Kyoto tourism**
* 8-4p organized Kyoto tour w/car: Kinkakuji Temple, Nijo Castle, Nishiki Market, Arashiyama bamboo grove
* 6p Kiyomizu-dera (seems not too far from hotel)
* *Dinner: 8p Kobe Beef Steak Moriya Goin*
**4/15 Day 5 – Kyoto nature stuff**
* 8:15a e-biking tour (Toji, Honganji Temple, Takase Canal, Gion, Tofukuji Temple, Fushimi Inari Shrine)
* 1:30p – Sagano train and Hozugwa river (2:00 train and 3:00 boat booked….is it advisable to get a cab in between? worried about wife standing on the shuttle bus)
* *Dinner: 7:30p Kikunoi Roan*
**4/16 Day 6 – Kintsugi and Nara**
* 9:30a Kintsugi class
* 12p Train to Nara
* *?lunch in nara recs*
* 1:30-4p Yoshiken garden, Toodai-Ji, Kofuku-ji
* 4:20p Mochi at Nakatanidou
* 4:50p Train to kyoto
* 6p – free evening (figured we could do Pontocho)
**4/17-4/19 – Lake Kawaguchi**
* We are basically just hanging out and hiking, biking etc. for a couple days.
* any recs appreciated (onsens, sights)
* Really looking to see if we are squeezing in too much from here onwards.
**4/19 – Day 8: Tokyo**
* 12p get into hotel (near Shimbashi station)
* 1-3p Ginza walking/shopping
* 4p Ghibli museum (is best way to get out here via metro?)
* 7:30 Shibuya for ramen
**4/20 – Day 9: East side**
* *Breakfast 8a- Tsumuji (wanted to try a Japanese breakfast)*
* 9-3p – Ueno park, Senso-ji, Skytree, wanted to check out akioki2k540, maybe kappabashi for a knife
* any other recs for shopping, etc in the area?
* 6-10p Shibuya Saysky, Omoide yochoko, Golden Gai for street food and people watching
* really wanted to eat a bunch of small things and walk around, etc – recs?
**4/21 – Day 10: Cooking class, evening sushi**
* 10a Cooking class in Shibuya
* 2p Meiji Jingu shrine
* *Snack: 3p Azuki to Kouri*
* 4p Shinjuku Gyoen Gardens
* *Dinner: 6p Sushi Shin*
**4/22 – Day 11: Second to last day**
* 10a-1p Harajuku architecture tour
* *1:30p Harry Harajuku Terrace (otter cafe)*
* 3p Hotel New Otani gardens walk
* 5p Nakameguro/Roppongi/Shimbashi
* Start in Nakameguro Starbucks Reserve and slowly make our way to Roppongi, and then ?shimbashi for a bit before making it back to hotel wanted street food or multiple quick bites if possible – recs?
**4/23 – Day 12: Teamlab and Depart NRT**
* 9a Teamlab Planets (was thinking about taking cab to/fro…is this foolish? 15m drive vs. 45m metro)
* 12p Wrap things up at hotel and get out to NRT
* 5p depart NRT
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General questions
1. is it sacrilege to skip the imperial gardens/ruins in Tokyo?
2. Akihabara doesnt really seem to appeal to us, we’re not really as into discount electronic stuff, retro video games, or anime (i mean that stuff’s cool but we have access to that in the States & online… idk if its worth time away from other things). Are there any cutting-edge electronics stores in this area? anything else really worth exploring here?
3. is a Suica card compatable in all cities listed?
4. is there a convenient way to get a taxi (i know about Go app, any others?) so that we have the destination already communicated to the driver?