Itinerary check for US couple first time in Japan (14 days)

7 comments

1. maybe check the fare if you can just depart in either haneda or narita instead of going back to osaka.

   in day 3. usually universal studio takes up the whole day.

2. Day 3 is not doable – most you can do during that day is USJ + Umeda at night (that’s how we did it too). You want to be at USJ an hour prior to opening. You can move the castle to Day 4 as it’s quite light first thing when they open. And about the aquarium… I don’t know when you could squeeze that in as well.

   Day 5 – I assume you’re forwarding your luggage to Kyoto? You can’t walk around Nara with your suitcases, along with it being inconvenient you won’t be able to take it into temples or carry it on the park trails near the deer.

   Day 9 – Do be aware that Kinkakuji temple is far away compared to everything else and it’s gonna take a while to get there and back. Recommendation is check out of hotel in the morning, leave your bags with them and come back before traveling to pick them up.

   My overall recommendation is group stuff by area or district (both in Tokyo and the other cities). You don’t want to lose time just going from point A to point B just to realize point C was near point A to begin with. Use google maps to simulate travel times to make it work out best for you.

   Have a great trip!

   LE: please tell me your flight is not the same day that you’re traveling back from Tokyo to KIX. Don’t risk it this way, be back for your flight a day before is the recommendation. Luggage you can forward via Yamato directly to the airport.

3. – Assume you are aware Osaka castle is rebuilt so inside it’s like a museum with elevator; Himeiji is the real castle preserved from hundreds of years ago
   – USJ could be very crowded with longer lines than US (CA/Florida) without too many specials now that Nintendo Land is also available in LA. Agree with other post that you are stuffing too many things on Day 3 while Day 4 seems to have some space
   – Nara day trip is good; done that 3-4 times 🙂
   – Arashiyama- Tenryuji and its connecting Bamboo forest is recommended; the rest is more up for personal taste
   – Higashiyama (where Kiyomizu dera is located): from Kiyomizu dera you could walk to Kodaiji, which I think is one of the most under-discovered temples in Kyoto even close to tourist sights, then from there walk past Yasaka shrine to Gion. Maruyama park is skippable and the main time spent would be Kiyomizu dera, Kodaiji, Gion, and the path that connects those areas together (super nice walk). I would also combine Nishiki market to your Gion visit if you pace it right so you don’t have an awkward Day 9 itinerary while trying to go to three different places and need to travel to Tokyo
   – If the above frees up some time for Day 8 I would highly recommend visiting Jisho Ji (also known as Gingaku Ji); it has a bit more wabisabi feel vs glamorous Kinkakuji and the philosopher path nearby is nice. Time permitting I recommend spending time at Kyoto station underground shopping (Parco) and the high floor bridge for a romantic evening
   – TeamLab is highly recommended; make sure you book reservation in advance
   – I think Sky Tree and Tokyo Tower are a bit redundant and personally I like Tokyo Tower more for the nearby nature walk (and if you could book it in advance Tofuya Ukai is recommended)
   – Art Aquarium is way over priced and not satisfying even for fish lover. I saw a much better exhibition in Nijo castle but it was limited time event
   – There is nothing too special about Yoyogi park but Meiji Jingu is very nice if that’s what you are after in that area
   – Tokyo Disney Sea is the best Disney theme park in the world IMO (I have been to almost all of them) and much more unique than USJ vs the US offerings. I would recommend combining Tokyo tower with day 10/12/14 and free up a day for this
   – If time permits, I highly recommend a day trip to Hakone. Prob more than Tokyo Disney Sea.

4. I would recommend trying to plot out routes in Google Maps for each day. I actually initially had a very similar schedule to your Day 10 but ended up having to drop Skytree due to the route required too many transfers. Honestly it might be a better to end Day 12 (or if you go to Asakusa) as its much easier and less transfers

5. Take some time to think about luggage management with your trip.

   What luggage are you bringing? If you’re bringing checked bags (and you probably will be) then your transitions between hotels is something to look and and decide how you want to proceed.

   Japan has great luggage management options in terms of luggage forwarding even between cities. Be aware that sending luggage takes time and it isn’t instantaneous. When we sent our luggage from Tokyo to Kyoto they wanted two days (at minimum and there was a possibility that it might take three days) for the transit time. For us that wasn’t a big deal since we had two nights in Hakone on the way to Kyoto.

   Bringing luggage on the shinkasen is very doable. So that is a viable option if you don’t mind bringing your luggage to the shinkasen station from wherever you’re staying. Bringing larger luggage around can be a challenge though. The sidewalks in Japan are covered with bumps and guidance lines for the visually impaired which makes walking luggage with wheels a little inconvenient at times. Happily bringing luggage onto subway trains (or other local trains) isn’t that big of a deal as long as you’re doing it on off-peak times.

   From looking at your Itinerary you have to decide on your luggage (both checked bags and carry-on) for day 1 to day 2. You have no accommodation listed for night 1 so I’m uncertain what your thinking is there.

   Day 5 is a luggage mess. While you can store luggage in storage lockers getting one big enough to hold two (four?) checked bags and two carry-ons is unlikely. You’re more likely looking at trying to find two large lockers and maybe even two large and one medium. Finding that many unused lockers at a single locker array isn’t guaranteed. We had a plan to use a storage locker for our two carry-ons one time and it took us almost an hour to find a storage locker that was available – everything else was being used.

   You could try luggage forwarding on Day 4 to send the luggage (checked bags) onwards to Kyoto for Day 5 check-in. You could also send your luggage on Day 5 to Day 9’s Tokyo hotel. You’d be without your checked bags for four days in Kyoto but you’d also not have to move them around and on Day 5 AND Day 9. Luggage forward has a cost to it based on the size of your bags and where it’s going.

   Your last luggage moving day is Day 15 – from the hotel all the way back to Osaka’s KIX. Depending on where your Hotel is you might want to consider taking a taxi to the train station. Since you want to visit Ueno Park that morning, check if your hotel is willing to hold your luggage until you’re back. As in, get up, check-out, leave your luggage behind, go to the park, come back to the hotel, get your luggage, and then start on the journey to KIX.

   If that’s something you really want to do (go from Tokyo to KIX) then do a sanity check for how long it’ll take to get there. Getting to Shin-Osaka from Tokyo station is either 2.5 hours or 3 hours. That doesn’t sound too bad! Except you have to add in travel time to Tokyo Station (probably half an hour or a bit longer depending on where in Tokyo you are and remember you’re moving your luggage with you.) I’ll assume the 2.5 hour travel time (taking the Nozomi) as your train time. Add in half an hour or so for navigating to your train platform (with luggage, waiting for the train arrival, physically moving through the station) you’re looking at 3.5 hours of travel time to get to Shin-Osaka.

   Ltd Exp Haruka (train from Shin-Osaka to KIX) runs 5 times a day = more wait time .

   This all means that to go from Tokyo to KIX you’re looking at 5 hours (or more) of travel. Without knowing when your flight out is that may mean leaving Tokyo too early in the day to visit the park you wanted to.

6. If you’re going to universal studios then that can be the only thing you do on day three.

   Move Osaka castle and the aquarium to day 4. You are already going to be going to Dotonbori at night which is good, but there’s nothing special in the daytime. You can add the sky building if you want at night, but again it’s not so fantastic

   Move Kinkakuji to day 6 since it’s in the neighborhood kind of.

   Are you planning to go to the sky tree in the evening? If so that’s OK, but everything else you are doing is in Odaiba, I think it’s better to stay in Odaiba to see the night view of the rainbow bridge instead of going to the sky tree. I would move the sky tree to day 12 together with Akihabara since it’s a little closer together

   Is it really not possible to fly out of Tokyo instead of going back to Osaka? That seems like a pain

7. That looks intense to me.
   Not sure I’d be able to keep up.

   But, idk if it’s bad. You can always adjust on the fly.
   Agree with others that Universal is a day itself.
   Do you have your tickets already?

   At Tokyo Disney they limited the number of people who could come into the park daily and we were unprepared. We had to scramble each day to try to find tickets, the hotel tried to help but they suggested we go find… vending machines at convenience stores.

   So my wife was up at 5am traveling to multiple convenience stores looking for tickets to Disney world. Wasn’t the most awesome thing. The hotel was able to get us tickets on some mornings, about 50% of the time and this was a Disney hotel.

   Even though we were staying at a Disney hotel it was a mess. Multiple days we were not able to source tickets, and 5 min after we were told no tickets for the day, we watched a lady and her kids get tickets from the very same counter we just asked for tickets and were told no at.

   We complained.
   Then the hotel manager came over and found us tickets that day. No idea what was happening. We quit that place and left for Kyoto which was way more Japanese and much more relaxing, but it was not without it’s pitfalls. This was a pretty expensive place and we were still not able to get into the restaurant for dinner or breakfast certain days, due to covid restrictions on the number of people allowed.

   Our last night there the hotel apologized and gave us (7 of us) a private dining room and a personalized chef for a few hours, was not cheap, but at least we were able to have some fun together and try some really interesting food we otherwise never would. First time I had foie gras. It was alright. I ended up sick with covid here lol. Multiple days lost in bed.
   What can you do?

   This was just a few months ago. Idk if everything is the same, but be wary of your ability to actually get into things unless you have the tickets for whatever you want to do in advance. Everywhere we went it was the same situation. We probably only did about 50-60% of what we planned just because we couldn’t get in, or didn’t want to wait around for hours to see if we could get in.

   The easiest things to get into were things like Osaka castle. Touristy things were tough.

   Not sure if universal is the same, but if you can buy your tickets now for whatever it is you want to do, I’d def do that.

   Edit: Nintendo land was completely impossible to source tickets to for us. Def want to get in advance if at all possible. Anything like that, where you know a lot of people are going… highly recommend you get tix before you leave if possible.

   All of this is assuming they are still limiting numbers in due to covid. We were there around Christmas. In all honesty, was kinda a sh*tshow. Not my first time in Japan but def the most hectic/troublesome.