Planning a trip to Japan. Would love some advice and suggestions!

26 comments

1. One suggestion, instead of doing a round trip back to Tokyo. Consider flying into Tokyo and then out of Osaka or the other way around. As this will save the cost of the Shinkansen back to Tokyo and not waste half the day going between Osaka and Tokyo.

   If you want lunch after visting Teamlab Borderless, just head over to DiverCity mall. As the entrance behind the giant Gundam statue has a very nice food court or head up stair to the restaurant floor for conveyor belt sushi or all you can eat Kushiage and kushikatsu.

2. If I had only 9 days I wouldnt do Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. I’d either spend the whole time in Tokyo with a few day trips to places like Kamakura or I’d spend the whole time in the Kansai area

3. Have you factored in travel time? Tokyo > Nagano is 1.5 hours, then you have to take a bus to/from Jigokudani, so I don’t think you’ll get everything on your list done for Nagano. I would advise travelling to Nagano the night before.

   Vending machines are good for drinks, but very few of them are one-stop shops for lunch.

   I think you are trying to fit too much into a short trip. I would advise skipping Nagano and Magome in favour of more time in Kyoto, and slowing the pace a bit.

4. There quite a bit of moving around and not much time spend in each city, so that require good planning on transportation. But I guess you want to make the most of it.

   Day 1 : I am not sure if you day one is the day you fly in or the first full day. If full day, for sure you can plan more. If you plan to do Meguro night time, you might want to go to Pokemon cafe first.

   Day 2 : Oshinomura is next to Kawaguchiko, I would personally move it to next day and stay in a ryokan in Kawaguchiko to enjoy a onsen there.

   Day 3 : Looking for park or garden? If garden, Hama Rikyu would be an option, it’s next to Shiodome station, that is a station on the Yurikomome line that go to odaiba.

   Day 4 : This it what I would change, instead of Nagano, go to Matsumoto. There is an original castle in Matsumoto, instead of a castle that is almost all ruin apart from two rebuilt gates. And arguably better than Osaka castle that is a concrete reconstruction. If you really want to see monkey, there is also a monkey park in Arashiyama. Matumoto is also closer to Magome. I guess you would do the hike then straight to Kyoto to sleep there to have a full day to visit Kyoto. Well, that is my opinion, unless you are an hyper fan of the Sanada clan, if that is the case, Nagano and Osaka castle make a bit more sense.

   Day 7 : Considering you plan to spend only two days in Kansai, why not both in Kyoto. I think that Matsumoto castle can replace Osaka castle, and Shitenno-ji, of all temples where you could go, I did not find it especially memorable. Oh, yes, for sur totally worth it if you are in the area, for example if you check Shin Sekai before, that for me (along with Dotonbori) is much more emblematic of Osaka than Shitenno-ji.

   An the end of this day is when it get complicated to me. If if you are to stop at Arima Onsen, that is in Kobe, then you have to leave Osaka not too late, to be at the ryokan probably around 5pm. (that is also a bit unfortunate as Osaka is known to have a nice nightlife). Actually, the tricky part is that if you go to a ryokan, you will probably eat breakfast around 8, so maybe in the train at 9, so you are not in Tokyo before 12:30. By that time, you can do the museum in Ueno park then when they are close, Kawaii Monster, but no way you can do Gotoku-ji. Actually, it’s not the most direct, but it would not be terribly hard to go there on the same day as Ghibli Museum, as it should not take all day to do it. If the idea is to have a onsen in you itinerary, then with Kawaguchiko you would already have one.

5. be careful if you want to see sakura. They bloom at different times every year and they bloom at different times in different places.

6. you can go around temple more than your plan between 9:00 to 5:00.
   And Tokyo is nice place. But totally you should see Mt Fuji with cherry blossom in Shizuoka where is on your way to head Kyoto.
   I’m very confident how nice Mt Fuji is.
   Because of my town.
   Also you can enjoy sushi in Shizuoka but 1 days is enough.

7. TeamLab is hella cool! but if you’re only going to do one; Borderless is nice however Planets is so much more immersive and impressive. Borderless is instagram heaven, but Planets is so much more than a photo op

8. Pokemon cafe food isn’t very good, looks nice but doesn’t taste great but for a Pokemon lover it’s great and book before.

   I loved the Poke Centers and I’m an adult 😅 bought so much merchandise

   If you can, go to Nara Park from Kyoto that was such a cool experience

   Buy a JR pass and avoid taxis (super expensive)

   I’d advise two weeks and you could even reach and explore Hiroshima

9. What kind of foods do you like? (I’m a foodie so it would be my top priority, haha!) I would recommend Yakiniku Black Hole (like a mini bbq of meat and veg on the table), Genki Sushi is fun, cheap and delicious, Dancing Crab is a messy but fun experience with an element of “wtf? oh ok! :)”. Also, Yoshinoya is a great cheap place for breakfast!

   I can see you’re going to Kawaii Monster Cafe. That was interesting, and the food was great. The Science Museum was also a lot of fun!

   Other things you might want to consider:

   Robot Restaurant (pricey but a must do! Like a robot rave!)

   Visiting Hakone (beautiful place)

   Karaoke (not sure if it’s your thing but a private booth and nomihodai (all-you-can-drink) is great fun!

   Golden Gai (series of small bars. Can get to know other tourists/Japanese folks)

   VR Arcade (the horror VR game was terrifying, would definitely do again!)

   Joypolis (Arcade/inside amusement park)

   Tokyo Hands is also a big shopping centre with a food court at the bottom.

   Also, if you like to soak after a long day, bath products like sachet bubble bath and salts are also incredible in Japan.

   I’m actually doing a scrapbook on my time in Japan and have posted a few pages on the things I’ve mentioned in r/scrapbooking. Take a look if you’re interested, it’ll give you more of an idea of what to expect 🙂

   Have an awesome time!

10. Make sure to check if some of your activities are actually operating/how altered hours of operation before you plan out your days.

11. Hello, long time japan resident. I’d totally recommend the Nakasendo walk. I go once every other year or so. You’d need to come back from Nagano down to Matsumoto, then change there for a slow but scenic train towards to Nagiso. Get on the short connecting bus from Nagiso station to Tsumago and after exploring Tsumago and having lunch, begin your 7 km walk on the old nakasendo route from Tsumago to Magome. Once you get to Magome enjoy the amazing views and maybe stay in the temple ( search for 万福庵 永昌寺) or some other place you like the look of. The next morning you’ve got another walk down hill through paddy fields and cute houses overlooked by lots of shrikes, grey wagtails and duarian redstarts (if you’re up on your birds). You also get to walk on some picturesque preserved parts of the old road that still exist in the forests. Eventually you end up in another post town called Ochiai on the outskirts of Nakatsugawa. If you’re happy walkers I’d then just commit to walking all the way to Nakatsugawa station but there are busses to do that bit (in theory). (Don’t expect taxis or ubers.) From there you can get a fast train to Osaka. Keep your eyes out for the ruins of Naegi Castle over the river once you get to Nakatsugawa as well – it’s not worth the hike over there if you don’t speak japanese but it looks good perched on the hillside.

    Anyway you just need two nights – one in Nagano or Matsumoto, and one in Magome.

    (Your bailout plan if bad weather makes waking completely unattractive could be to get a bus from Matsumoto to Takayama and look around there before heading to Osaka. But it’s quite doable in light rain.)

12. Tokyo:
    Hachiko Exit of Shibuya Station and the surrounding area is a must see in Tokyo. It’s the classic, massively crowded crosswalk that you see in literally any Tokyo reference.
    It’s a pretty quick walk from there to Harajuku, which is the fun fashion district of Tokyo. Look for Takeshita Dori street and walk down to see tons of crazy stores and wild outfits. The end of the street will bring you to harajuku station and right next to it is Meiji Jingu and Yoyogi Park so there’s even more fun things to see if you feel like waking some more.

    Kyoto:
    I hate to say it, but kinkakuji is a total tourist trap and isn’t much in comparison to many other temples/shrines. It’s just the golden pavilion and not much else. It can be done quickly but if you’re tight on time I truly say isn’t not that important to see. Fushimi Inari shrine is my absolute favorite place in Kyoto. It has over 10,000 ‘gates’ lining the path up the mountain and is photographically stunning and just awe inspiring. You could spend hours there if you wanted but you don’t have to. Arashiyama isn’t bad, there’s a lot of little shops and there’s a fantastic monkey viewing spot with hundreds. Even though I have my favorites, I think the #1 must see in Kyoto is Kiyomizudera at night if they’re doing a light up during that time. It’s stunning. I think it’d be nice during the day but it’s breathtaking at night. There’s also tons of lovely shops surrounding it.

    I lived in Yokohama and worked in Tokyo for a year and a half and visit annually so I have tons more suggestions if you have specific types of things you’d like to see and do. Lmk! Have fun!

13. Since you are going to Kyoto, can try out ‘Menbaka Fire Ramen Place’. Ramen and the experience, both were fantastic.

14. Isn’t japan closed for travel??

15. Also credit cards are only used in the larger establishments..most places use cash. 7-11’s are everywhere and are easy places to get cash.

16. *quietly screenshots itinerary*

17. No tipping in Japan! They would think that strange..

18. Take me with you

19. My suggestion whenever I see a time-frame shorter than 12-14 days long is “Stay in one region.” I think you’d enjoy your time most if you’re not constantly traveling between cities – and with an itinerary like this, you will be always in the process of moving somewhere, checking in somewhere, getting settled somewhere. Based on my experience, I’d do Tokyo with a couple day trips – Go north for a day, and perhaps a day trip to Yokohama or something.

    Just my two-cents.

20. You’re trying to do WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too much for a trip this short. There is easily enough on here to fill a trip of two full weeks or more. On a first trip of this length, pick either Kanto (Tokyo area) or Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka area) and skip Nagano and Magome altogether. My preference between the two would definitely be Kansai, but you really can’t go wrong with either one.

    Overall, you have budgeted basically zero time to explore or shop or just stop and smell the roses (especially outside of Tokyo). There are absolutely amazing things within walking distance of places you’re planning on visiting, but you’re in such a rush to go half-way across the country to find something else that you’re not giving yourself enough time to do things in the place you’ll already be.

    >Location: Nagano

    None of these things are anywhere near each other. Even if you had a car, you’d be lucky to get to more than 2 of these.

    >Location: Kyoto

    I generally recommend 3 full days just as a starting point for Kyoto. You’re basically skipping 95% of the city, including it’s single most famous sightseeing area (Higashiyama/Gion) and you’re doing it during cherry blossom season (all the more reason to stick around longer). I would also say that if you’re making the trip all the way to Osaka and Kyoto, you’d be absolutely nuts to skip Nara and Himeji, which is why I usually recommend 6 full days ***AS A MINIMUM STARTING POINT*** for Kansai.

    See also: [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/5wgxa1/best_way_to_group_these_sites_in_kyoto/dea059y/?context=3&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=Kyoto&utm_content=t1_fiq1j7p) for some ideas about arranging days in Kyoto. My general advice is to break the city into areas and do as much on foot or bicycle as possible. Since you’ll be there during cherry blossom season I also highly recommend taking advantage of the night openings/illuminations that are held throughout the city (e.g., at Kiyomizu-dera, Kodai-ji, Shoren-in, and Nijo-jo), as well as partaking in Hanami in Maruyama Park in the evening.

    >Location: Osaka

    With as limited as your time is, I would probably cut everything you have planned on this day. If you really only have one day for Osaka (keeping in mind that it’s a city the size of New York), I would pick Umeda or Tenjinbashisuji to start with (or possibly Osaka Castle, but only for the cherry blossoms–the keep is just a concrete reconstruction). After that, I’d head over to Kurmon, walk from there down to Shinsekai (I generally consider this unskippable for first time Osaka visitors) through DenDen Town, eating at either Kuromon or Shinsekai, then walking over to Abenoharukas (Japan’s tallest building) if you’re interested, and then heading back to Namba/Dotonbori/Shinsaibashi when it’s starting to get dark, perhaps doing Namba Parks while you’re in the area. This is an absolutely packed day, but it’s a good single-day Osaka experience.

21. May I ask what your budget for a trip like this is? I am planning something similar.

22. One day in Kyoto isn’t enough.

    There are soooo many mind-blowing sites in that city, and some great inexpensive places to eat. We found Kyoto to be the most reasonably priced city overall in Japan, despite it being a predominantly tourist area.

23. Oc depends a lot on your interests. Kyoto totally deserves more days imo. If you can, stay for two/three days to enjoy it better. Personally, I love Kyoto more than Tokyo for its traditional atmosphere and places like Gion, Pontocho, filosophers walk (beautiful in hanami with sakura blossoms) and so many big and small temples and shrines.
    Kamakura is also good. It’s a beautiful city near the sea, with its temples and the buddha statue it’s worth for a one day trip from Tokyo.

24. I like the idea but as efficient as public transportation I would pick a single city and explore within. My daughter and I did 9 days in Tokyo last fall and honestly it wasn’t enough time. If you are itching to get out of the city I recommend Mount Takao.

25. I agree with others that you’re trying to do too much with your limited time budget. Ideally you want to stick to either Tokyo or Kansai (Osaka/Kyoto/Nara/Kobe/etc.), but I think with some optimization it could be possible to do both.

    If there’s still flexibility on flights (and assuming flying out of US), some carriers offer some late night/midnight departures out of US, which would buy you an extra day/half day in Japan, as well as some flexibility. (ANA/NH has one out of LAX that lands in Japan at 5am. AA also has a flight with a similar schedule) For example, you could catch the shinkansen the same day and start the trip in Kansai for 3/4 days. Same principle applies for the flight leaving Japan. There are flights which depart around midnight, which gets you another half day where you can comfortably spend the afternoon in Tokyo, and also offers flexibility on ending the trip in Kansai to take the shinkansen to Tokyo the same day your flight departs.

    If you still choose to do both Kansai and Tokyo, I would not spend less than 3 days in either. For Kansai, stick to staying in one city (probably Osaka or maybe Kyoto) and use the train for day trips to the other. They’re within 30 minutes of each other by train.

    If you’re doing both and depending on how much luggage you have, there are luggage storage/delivery services available and can be useful. This can be useful in cases where you might start your trip in Tokyo, spend 3-4 days in Kansai, then on the last day just rail back to Tokyo and fly out on the same day. Your hotel probably would offer this service, or at worse you have to take it to the convenience store down the street. This service can deliver your luggage to be picked up at a pick up counter at the airport your departing from on your day of departure, so you don’t have to lug it around during all your train transfers. It’s even more stressful during rush hour as local trains can get really packed. Another thing I like to do to avoid that w/o paying out the nose for the full cab fare to the airport is taking a cab to a major train station that has a direct train to the airport. This is especially true if you have 2/3 people to split the fare.

26. This isn’t an activity suggestion but getting Tori Paitan Ramen at Ginza Kagari will change your life. Food adventures are the best adventures.