Hello all!
We (married couple) are planning our first international vacation to Japan! We wanted some general consensus on whether or not the trip layout made sense (geographically as well as in terms of our interests).
To be more clear on what we enjoy, in no particular order:
* Anime
* Video Games
* History / Culture
* Architecture
* Temples
* Theme Parks
* Bars
* Sight-seeing locations
* Shopping
With those things in mind, we are definitely interested in any suggestions of alternative activities. Other things we were interested in, but can no longer do:
* Kawaii Monster Cafe – Closed
* Robot Restaurant – Closed
* Sumo Wrestling – Off-season
* Teamlab Borderless – Closed
* Ghibli Theme Park – Unable to get tickets
* Kabukiza – No longer offering English translations
Lastly, we made the itinerary with the thought that we’d try to hit as many of these things as possible. But they are not “hard requirements”. If it turns out we have too much or enjoy 1 place in particular, we would forgo the rest of the activities for the day.
Anyways, without further ado…
**Sunday June 11th (Travel)**
* Nothing in particular
**Monday June 12th (Tokyo)**
* Samurai Museum
* Yoyogi Park
* Meiji Jingu Shrine
* Harry’s Hedgehog Cafe
* Metropolitan Government Building
* Tokyo Tower
**Tuesday June 13th (Tokyo)**
* Sanrio Puroland or make a day of visiting all the One Piece Statues
**Wednesday June 14th (Tokyo)**
* Ghibli Museum
* Inokashira Park
* Nakano Broadway
* Golden Gai
**Thursday June 15th (Kyoto)**
* Togetsukyo Bridge
* Tenryuji Temple
* Nijo Castle
* Bamboo Groves
* Monkey Park Iwatayama
**Friday June 16th (Kyoto)**
* Tea Ceremony Maikoya
* Kiyomizudera
* Higashiyama District
* Kodaiji Temple
* Kenninji Temple
* Gion
**Saturday June 17th (Nara)**
* Fushimi Inari
* Nara Deer Park
* Todaiji Temple
**Sunday June 18th (Osaka)**
* Osaka Castle
* Osaka Aquarium
* Kamigata Ukiyoe Museum
* Ferris Wheel
**Monday June 19th (Osaka)**
* Meeting up with a friend
* Cup Noodle Museum
* Abeno Harukas
* Dotonbori
**Tuesday June 20th (Osaka)**
* Universal Studios Japan
**Wednesday June 21st (Tokyo)**
* Tokyo BigSight
* Joypolis
* Teamlab Planets
**Thursday June 22nd (Tokyo)**
* Disneyland Japan
**Friday June 23rd (Tokyo)**
* Disney Sea
**Saturday June 24th (Tokyo)**
* Ueno Zoo
* Maid Cafe or Square Enix Cafe
* GiGo Arcade
* Akihabara Shopping
* Pokemon Center DX
* Dinner at Pokemon Cafe
* Shibuya Crossing
* Shibuya Sky
**Sunday June 25th (Tokyo)**
* Nintendo Store
* Mega Don Quixote
* One Piece Store Mugiwara
* Shirohage Cream Puff Factory
* Tokyo Skytree
* Dinner at Kirby Cafe
**Monday June 26th (Travel)**
* Nothing in particular
~~**EDIT: I have replied to all comments, but they are showing up as deleted. 😰 I hope this goes through, I don’t know what’s happening.**~~
Edit 2: Mods fixed this for me but it looks like I got downvoted quite a bit. Sorry about the confusion, we really appreciate all of the responses!!
7 comments
You still have a shot at getting Studio Ghibli tickets, they open up sales 1 month before hand. As foreigners we can only go to one section of the park.
TeamLabs Borderless is closed but there’s TeamLabs Plants in Tokyo, near the Nihonbashi area
Give yourself plenty of transit time, navigating some of the stations can be a little tricky especially when there’s a lot of people there. Easy to miss trains and have to grab the next one. I just got back from Japan on Saturday.
Personally I think it’s fine to watch kabuki without any translation. Just get the cheap one act tickets and look up the story ahead of time so you have a general idea of what’s going on. You get a nice little taste of kabuki.
Samurai museum, closed.
teamLab planets is your alternative until Borderless reopen, but you already have it.
Seems that Robot Restaurant is not totally dead but no idea if where or when it will be back.
Some days like 15 are in an order that make no sense.
The cream puffs are in n the other side of the city compared to Skytree.
Looks like a fun trip!
I’m assuming the days activities are not listed in order, but if so you may want to look at your travel routes a bit to save extra walking/going back and forth between areas.
Make sure you have reservations for the theme cafes, especially Pokemon Cafe. They’re really popular.
Are you travelling by shinkansen? Be prepared for travel to/from Kyoto & Osaka area to take up some time. By the time you’ve found your platform in a huge station, taken a 2 hour train, and found your way out of the station to your new hotel, it can be a 3-4 hour experience. I usually leave a half day without activities due to this.
Make sure you’ve done your Disney research – They’re not run by Disney parks and have a whole different system, so if you’re not prepped with the app etc in advance, it can be a pain. That said the parks are a blast 🙂
id do more research about your transportation in kyoto. we just did that and the monkey park closes pretty early and is a little bit of a trek from kyoto station, as well as a hike up to the top, so it takes awhile. then you walk back down to the bamboo forest so in all i’d block about 3-4 hours for just that portion. same for your first day in tokyo. Id also say I could spend a whole day at Nakano broadway but a lot of the shops are only open 12-6 so keep that in mind! otherwise looks like a fabulous itinerary!! have fun!
One quick suggestion as we are currently in Kyoto. The Bamboo grove in Arashiyama is PACKED even 8 AM with people taking 30 minutes to take a selfie. We went also to Adashino Nenbutsuji temple (also in Arashiyama, short bus ride) and enjoyed it much more without even a single person there, plus the temple is beautiful.