First time to Japan itinerary

9 comments

1. I don’t know why you would split your Tokyo nights into two separate stays.

   If I were you, I’d spend the five nights in Tokyo at the beginning or the end, but not both. You can easily get a train from Nagoya to Tokyo on last day in time for the 4pm flight. This also eliminates the “not sure what to do” problem with having dead time after checking out of a Tokyo hotel on the last day.

2. Definitely go to Oasis 21! It takes like 5 seconds to see everything up there, but the area down below in Sakae is so cute!! One of my favorite areas to eat dinner outside! Beneath the tower with it all lit up… gorgeous!! Sakae for shopping is great too.

3. Looks good and flexible. On 22nd roam around Marunouchi/Imperial palace/Diet/ Kioicho. Visit Ginza at night, much more stunning.

4. Don’t worry about price difference between Itoya and Sekaido – I doubt it’s much different. Neither of them are exactly discount stores per se. Just go to whichever is more convenient for you.

5. You forgot todai-ji in Nara and shibuya sky (advanced reservations required). Also team lab planets is about to sell out for your dates.
   Disney sea Tokyo at the end with fast passes

6. I agree with splitting Tokyo in two, you can focus shopping on the second part. I also prefer not having to do too much train the day I leave.

   Last day ask if they can keep your luggage, just visit/shop nearby and return to pick luggage, or else drop it in a coin locker and take it back before going to the airport. You also do not have to leave the hotel at 12 because it’s check out limit,

   You can move your luggage yourself, luggage delivery is only an option.

7. As evidenced in the responses there are multiple opinions and thoughts on how to structure a trip to Japan regarding Tokyo. When we went we split Tokyo into two – arrival and departure. We did this because we knew that we’d be buying a fair bit of stuff (and going to Anime Japan) so to make our lives easier we came back to Tokyo and finished our trip there.

   It makes no difference in terms of JR Pass (if you’re getting one even) or whatever if you split time in Tokyo up or not. Your traveling between cities period is going to be the same either way – the only difference is when you start the JR Pass which is something that you decide.

   Having experienced a pretty wild travel day on the way back from Japan due to a flight delay – I would not suggest traveling from another city to Tokyo on flying out day unless you’re okay with really long travel days. That’s just adding extra travel time onto a long travel day already – why do that to yourself? While on paper it says that the extra travel time is under two hours when you add in transit time to and from the station, wrangling your luggage, and the rest of it that’s likely to be closer to two and a half hours to three hours of travel time tacked onto your travel day. I get that some people want to clump all that travel together so it’s all done at once. That’s a fair choice. I’d rather be more relaxed and remove potential stresses from major travel days.

   Going back to it, if you are staying in Tokyo on your final day you can ask your hotel to hold your bags after check-out and then go out without your bags. This is hotel dependent but it is a fairly common thing that a lot of hotels offer. We were able to do it on our last day (we checked out at like 9am and picked up our bags at around 4pm.)

   My first thought when seeing your Itinerary is that it looks good although you may want to take into consideration wait times and local travel times between locations. If you’re going to eat at popular or semi-popular places you’re looking at waiting in line for up to two hours (for a popular place) or half an hour (for a semi-popular place.) That kind of lining up time is normal so padding your itinerary to take that into consideration will make your life less stressful. Even at stores there can be line-ups for random things. For events / displays / attractions then expect more lines.

   In terms of using luggage forward services: no, it is not necessary. It IS convenient. Only you can decide if the convenience is worth the fee of doing it. On our trip we forwarded our luggage from Tokyo (where we stayed our first night) to Kyoto and then from Kyoto to our last hotel in Tokyo. This gave us access to our checked bags more or less halfway through our trip (and after Ghibli Park) so we were able to tuck away all our purchases up to that point.

8. I dunno who you are, but my wife & I almost have same itinerary! I wonder if we will see each other, but like…not no. Haha. Have a good trip, maybe I see you in Osaka!

9. If it were me I’d take some stuff from Day 1 and shift it to your free/unsure space in Day 2. You’ll be tired and all of those neighbourhoods have a lot to see and do.