Hi!
We are a couple who will be traveling to Japan for the first time. It has always been our dream to go to Japan and we are so excited to finally be going! I have done a lot of research, but I would really appreciate any feedback/advice on our itinerary and any recommendations. Our main hopes are to experience lots of good food, Japanese culture, and to see some autumn leaves. Flights and hotels are already booked.
I have a few specific questions as well –
1) Is it worth it to obtain the 14-day JR Pass? Is it worth it to get the green pass instead of the standard blue pass? We will likely have a total of 3-4 luggages (2 for our clothes, and 1-2 extra empty luggages for souvenirs to bring back).
2) I’m struggling to plan our days in Tokyo. There are just so many things to do. Any specific can’t miss recommendations? Do our days seem to make sense/doable in terms of vicinity of different activities?
**Day 1 – Arrival in Tokyo**
* Late afternoon: arrival at NRT
* Obtain pocket wifi, pick up JR Pass, get SUICA or PASMO cards
* Activate 14-day JR Pass
* NRT –> Tokyo via Narita Express (included in JR Pass)
* Check into hotel
* Dinner around the area
**Day 2 – Tokyo (Ginza, Ueno)**
* Tsujiki Fish Market
* Hamarikyu Gardens
* Ginza
* Art Aquarium (requires reservation)
* Shopping
* Lunch at Pokemon Cafe (requires reservation)
* Pokemon Center Tokyo DX
* Ueno
* Ueno Park / Shinobazuno Pond
* Ameyo Yochoko (street food/souvenirs)
* Tokyo Station
* Tokyo Ramen Street for dinner
**Day 3 – Tokyo (Asakusa, Akihabara)**
* Breakfast near hotel
* Asakusa
* Kimono rental
* Senso-ji Temple
* Nakamise-dori Street (melon pan, kibi dango, matcha ice cream)
* Return kimono rental
* Puppy cafe
* Akihabara (recs?)
* Owl cafe
* Dinner near hotel
* Omoide Yokocho
**Day 4 – Day Trip to Mt. Fuji**
* Breakfast at hotel
* Day trip to Mt. Fuji
* Mt. Fuji 5th station
* Lake Kawaguchi
* Oshino Hakkai
* Gotemba Premium Outlets
* Return to Tokyo from day trip
* Dinner near hotel
**Day 5 – Tokyo (Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya)**
* Breakfast at hotel
* Shinjuku
* Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
* Harajuku
* Takeshita Street
* Meiji Shrine
* Yoyogi Park
* Shibuya
* Hachiko statue at Shibuya Station
* Mega Don Quijote
* Shibuya Parco (Nintendo store)
* Shibuya Crossing (Mag’s Park to get overhead view of Shibuya Crossing)
* Shibuya Sky at sunset (needs reservations)
* Dinner at Gyokatsu Motomura or Fuunji Ramen
**Day 6 – Tokyo > Hakone**
* Breakfast at hotel, checkout
* Tokyo > Hakone (approx 2 hrs transportation)
* Shinkansen to Odawara Station, then activate Hakone 2-Day Free Pass for transportation
* Check into ryokan in Hakone
* Hakone Open Air Museum
* Gora Park / Hakone Craft Museum
* Onsen at ryokan
* Dinner
**Day 7 – Hakone**
* Breakfast at ryokan
* Hakone Loop
* Hakone Ropeway to Owakudani
* Lunch at Owakudani station
* Ropeway to Togendai
* Lake Ashi pirate ship cruise (needs tickets)
* Get off at Moto-Hakone stop to get to Hakone Shrine
* Dinner at Tamura Ginkatsutei Honten (tofu katsudon!)
* Return to ryokan
* Onsen/rest
**Day 8 – Hakone > Osaka**
* Breakfast at ryokan
* Hakone > Osaka (approx 4 hrs transportation)
* Check into Osaka hotel
* Due to limited time in Osaka, cannot decide which to do (recs?):
* Either:
* Osaka Aquarium (we love aquariums, and I heard this one is amazing!)
* OR
* Osaka Castle Park (not planning to actually enter the castle, just walk around the surrounding park)
* Shinsekai (try kushi katsu)
* Abeno Harukas 300 observation deck (needs tickets)
* Dotonburi (okonomiyaki, ramen, Uncle Riku’s cheesecake)
**Day 9 – Osaka (USJ all day)**
* Breakfast at hotel
* Universal Studios Japan
* Planning to get studio pass and express pass (any recs for which express pass is most worth it?)
* Mainly going for Super Nintendo World but do plan to try to go through most of the rest of the park
* Dinner in Dotonbori
* If did not have time to go to Abeno Harukas 300 observation deck yesterday, go here today instead
**Day 10 – Osaka > Nara (day trip) > Kyoto**
* Breakfast at hotel
* Check out of Osaka hotel
* Osaka > Nara for day trip on the way to Kyoto
* Nara Park
* Isui-en Garden
* Nakatanidou for famous mocha pounding
* Todaiji Temple
* Harushika Brewery Sake tasting
* Nara > Kyoto
* Check into Kyoto hotel
* Dinner (hoping to get reservations for Kichi Kichi Omurice)
**Day 10 – Kyoto (Arashiyama area, Kinkaku-ji)**
* Breakfast at hotel
* Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
* Arashiyama Monkey Iwatayama Park
* Sagano Romantic Train
* Rilakkuma Tea House
* Kimono Forest
* Tenyru-Ji Temple
* Kinkaku-ji temple
* Dinner near hotel
**Day 11 – Kyoto (Fushimi Inari, Nishiki, Kiyomizu-dera, Gion)**
* Breakfast at hotel
* Fushimi Inari Shrine
* Explore Nishiki Market
* Lunch here, or nearby Ramen Sen No Kaze
* Kiyomizu-dera Temple
* Nearby Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka streets for street food
* Dinner in Gion District / Pontocho Alley
**Day 12 – Kyoto > Tokyo**
* Breakfast at hotel
* Check out of Kyoto hotel
* Shinkansen from Kyoto > Tokyo (approx 2.5 hrs transportation)
* Check into hotel in Shinjuku
* TeamLab Planets? (will require reservations)
* Dinner near hotel
* Rest
**Day 13 – Tokyo > NRT (Departure from Japan)**
* Breakfast at hotel
* Tokyo > NRT via Narita Express (last day for JR pass), bye Japan! :’)
Thank you so much in advance! Would greatly appreciate recs/feedback!
3 comments
1 bring less clothes, do your laundry, bring less luggage. Green car give you a bit more space in the seat, but not that much more, in my opinion not worth the cost.
7 first days are not worth a week of pass. Use romancecar to hakone instead.
The 7 next barely save money.
I would not use the pass at all, take the Nex round trip discount ticket and ride the Nozomi back to Tokyo.
This all sounds totally doable! I’m on my last day in Osaka now after doing almost all of this so here’s my tips:
Re: JR pass: use a calculator to see if it’s worth it. It ended up being barely worth it for us to do a 14 day pass and we upgraded to green. The extra legroom was pretty nice for the price and it was convenient. Plus, it let us use the local train in Osaka a bunch and some other places. We also ended up using more Shinkansen than planned and could just walk on.
For Tokyo, we mostly just picked an area and then tried to stay in that spot all day.
For example, teamlab planets day, we started in Odaiba and just worked our way towards Tokyo teleport station and the giant Gundam/mall. Lots of cool stuff to do in there by the way.
Art aquarium doesn’t require reservations as far as I know. We walked up and got tickets and went straight in on a rainy Sunday when people would likely go. It’s a bit tricky to find the ticket machine, so just ask for some help and they’ll do it for you (I think it’s one level up or down from the actual entrance?)
Shibuya Sky absolutely needs reservations. I’d recommend the 5:00 ticket so you can catch the sunset view. I don’t think it’s worth waiting for the corner shot. It’s like an hour wait and you have to buy the photo. Just find other friendly tourists to trade shots with. Also, you can go down and grab some drinks at the cafe and watch all the lights come on around 6:00.
Teamlab Planets also needs reservations. Try to hit up the Gundam/mall while you’re in Odaiba anyway.
Echo the laundry suggestion. I brought ~7 days worth of clothes. Did laundry halfway through and wore clothes I bought.
USJ:
Absolutely get the express pass. Some lines showed 240 minute waits! We got the Hogwarts/Nintendo world express pass that was Harry Potter area around 10:20-11:50 then Nintendo World 12:20-1:40 (or something like that). Definitely recommend those two places early as they get super busy. Honestly, Super Nintendo World rides were kind of meh, but the area is super fun to walk around.
For rides, Hollywood Dream is awesome and you can use your express pass (we had that or Jaws as our “premium ride”) at any time. Wasn’t really clear to us that it was express eligible. Same deal for the other non-times rides. Highly recommend Jurassic Park: flying dinosaur. You go headfirst!!
ALSO! Check out the “No Limit! Party” parade. It starts every day at 2pm. I had no clue what it was and just got lucky and stumbled across it. It was awesome. Great performance and tons of cool universal/Nintendo stuff.
Nara:
Definitely check out Daibutsu at Todaiji first. It’s usually the most popular place. The combo pass to the museum is cool too. But also make sure to check out Nigatsudo after. Go past the Ashoka pillar, don’t fall down the Nekodan steps or you’ll turn into a cat, go past the bell tower and up the steps to Nigatsudo for a cool view over the park.
Hakone:
The boat doesn’t need a reservation as far as I know. It leaves every 20 minutes. We just showed our phones and hopped on. Plenty of space. Be ready to take some buses and make sure you check the schedule. Getting back to Odawara from Hakone-ko wasn’t bad, but we had to wait for a bit for the bus. Guess you could boat back to togendai and ropeway?
Osaka: we didn’t do the castle. Actually doing the aquarium tomorrow. Instead, we had lunch at KKR hotel. 12th floor has a great restaurant with some cheap options for how nice it is. And if you get there at 5:30 when they open, they’ll likely have a table? We didn’t have reservations anyway, but they also didn’t speak much English so had to fumble through some Japanese there. Try to get/ask for a window seat. The sunset view of Osaka castle and the city is absolutely gorgeous.
Hope these tips help. Have fun!!
The lake ashi pirate ship is included in the hakone day pass. They will offer you too upgrade to first class for better ship view but it’s optional. Shops close early in hakone.