Hello! My friends and I are a group of 3 (1 female, 2 male) in our early 20s planning a trip to Japan in May 2023. Two of us have never been to Japan, and I’ve only visited twice briefly as a kid. This trip is **2 weeks total: 4 days in Tokyo, 6 days based in Kyoto (2 days in Tokyo, 4 days visiting other cities), and 4 days in Tokyo**.
All accommodation and flights have been booked, and I’m planning on booking restaurant reservations and attractions like teamLab Planets and Ghibli Museum as soon as they open for May tickets. I’ve tried to group activities based on geographic proximity while leaving enough time on most days to explore and wander randomly in the area (please tell me if I’m delusional though and I will revise it haha). Some days are more packed than others, but I do want to make those days as stress-free as possible.
The comment column below has day-specific questions or concerns that I haven’t been able to figure out yet, but I would also love any recommendations based on some things our group enjoys:
* Sukiyaki, ramen, sushi, udon (curating a list of places to try if we’re in the area, but have mostly left food options open to exploring day-of)
* Occasional bar hopping
* Tea, coffee
* Arcades
* Anime (though one of us is not an anime fan)
* Cars
* Pottery, printmaking
* Cooking and baking
**Itinerary**
|Day|Plan|Comment(s)|
|:-|:-|:-|
|5/18 Thursday|SJC to NRT via ZipAir, arrive at 3:30 PM and check-in to COCOSHUKU Asakusa Kuramae||
|5/19 Friday|Tsukiji Outer Market, teamLab Planets, Art Aquarium Museum, eat at Ginza Steak|Wanted to fit RED° TOKYO TOWER in here but it seems a bit out of the way, may or may not visit depending on time|
|5/20 Saturday|Sensoji, eat at Asakusa Imahan, Tokyo Skytree, Akihabara||
|5/21 Sunday|Ghibli Museum, Kichijoji, eat at Tamago no Ohanashi, Nakano Broadway||
|5/22 Monday|Activate 7-Day JR Pass, eat lunch on shinkansen to Kyoto, drop bags at Rinn Kyoto Station, train to Kameoka, Hozugawa River Cruise, Iwatayama Monkey Park, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, eat at Ramen Sen No Kaze|Not sure if we can do everything …looked into the timing of the river cruise and we’d have to make the 12 PM one in order to have time to visit the monkey park before it closes, but also unsure what other day we could finangle this to.|
|5/23 Tuesday|Kimono rental at Wakana, walk around Hanamikoji, Ninenzaka, Sannenzaka, Kiyomizu-dera, attend Camellia Flower Teahouse ceremony||
|5/24 Wednesday|Train to Nara, visit deer at Nara Park, sake tasting at Harushika Brewery, visit, Nakatanidou Mochi, Mochiidono Shopping Arcade, back to Kyoto|Happens to be the birthday of one of the friends in the group, still looking for something special we could do for him. Would appreciate any suggestions!|
|5/25 Thursday|Train to Hiroshima in the early morning, Hiroshima to Miyajimaguchi, Miyajimaguchi to Miyajima Island, Itsukushima-jinja Shrine, Yakigaki no Hayashi, Miyajima Ropeway, back to Hiroshima, Atomic Bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park, back to Kyoto|Definitely the most concerned about this day – seems like it might be too much to do both Hiroshima and Miyajima even with an early start, so would love advice on this!|
|5/28 Friday|Train to Nagoya, visit Nagoya Castle, eat at Hitsumabushi Bincho, visit Toyota Commemorative Museum, back to Kyoto||
|5/27 Saturday|Train to Osaka, stroll through Kuromon Market, play at Round1 Stadium Sennichimae, explore Dotonbori at night, back to Kyoto|I would LOVE to visit Osaka Aquarium on this day, but it looks pretty out of the way :(|
|5/28 Sunday|Shinkansen back to Tokyo, check-in to COCOSHUKU Shinjuku-Hanazono, Miyashita Park, visit Shibuya SKY for sunset||
|5/29 Monday|Tokyo DisneySea!||
|5/30 Tuesday|Shinjuku Gyoen, Cat Cafe Mocha Lounge, Omoide Yokocho||
|5/31 Wednesday|Free day to revisit anything before departing to NRT||
Thank you in advance!
3 comments
If you haven’t been before, beware the Ghibli Museum tickets can be difficult to get, especially if you are trying to get a specific day booked. I had 3 devices going the minute April tickets went live, I was looking at 4 different days and didn’t manage to book any tickets. I might just have been unlucky.
Ghibli Museum is closed for half of may, only days you could book are 27th 28th 29th and 31st.
Staying in the most expensive place in Japan for so long to take trains to other cities on most of the days seems like an odd choice, but you already booked your accomodations and I assume they aren’t refundable so it is what it is. There’s a reason Kyoto is so expensive, so I would recommend skipping all but 1 of those day trips and spending more time there.