Hi everyone!
My wife and I are traveling to Japan for our honeymoon a month from now and it’ll be our first trip. I’m both extremely excited and nervous at the same time.
We are going to treat this trip as if it’ll be our only chance to go to Japan, so I’m hoping to make the most of our days there. At the same time, it is our honeymoon, and we want to enjoy everything rather than spend the whole trip exhausted.
Hopefully we chose a good time between Golden Week and the rough summer weather. We live in Florida, so the humidity hopefully won’t be too much of an issue.
We are in our early 30s and in pretty good shape, so walking shouldn’t be an issue. We did purchase the JR Pass, so that’ll help of course.
My wife is pescatarian, so we’ve already printed out and laminated cards to have ready at restaurants. From what I’ve read, eating pescatarian over there is significantly easier than vegetarian or vegan.
Housing and transportation should be covered, but nothing is set for food other than trying everything. Raman, sushi, kushiyaki, okonomiyaki, etc.
As for general interests, we just really want to enjoy the culture and experiencing living in the country for a while. The wife is a big coffee drinker. I’d love to check out the nerdy things like Godzilla, retro video games, and some anime.
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
Day 1: May 22 – Arrival in Tokyo
· Arrive at Haneda Airport (HND) at 3:25 PM JST
· Activate Ubigi eSIM within the app
· Obtain JR Pass using JR Pass Exchange Order voucher
· Obtain Suica IC cards for each of us
· Transfer to hotel, Grand Nikko Tokyo Bay Maihama
· Grab dinner and explore the Ikspiari area
Day 2: May 23 – Tokyo DisneySea
· Arrive at Tokyo DisneySea by 8:00 AM
· Return to hotel in Maihama for the evening
Day 3: May 24 – Tokyo to Kyoto
· Check out of the hotel and take Maihama Station to Tokyo Station
· Take a shinkansen to Kyoto
· Check into Kyoto Hotel
· Visit Nijo Castle and the Kyoto Imperial Palace
Day 4: May 25 – Kyoto (Hiroshima)
· Day trip to Hiroshima
· Take the ferry to Miyajima
· Visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum
· Return to Kyoto for the evening
Day 5: May 26 – Kyoto
· Check in to Ryokan
· Reserve private onsen bath
· Explore the Fushimi Inari Shrine
· Visit the Kiyomizu-dera temple
Day 6: May 27 – Osaka
· Check out of Ryokan and take train to Osaka
· Check into Osaka Hotel
· Explore the city
· Shinsekai neighborhood
· Jan Jan Yokocho arcade
Day 7: May 28 – Osaka (Nara)
· Take a day trip to Nara
· Visit the Todai-ji temple and the Kasuga-taisha shrine
· Return to Osaka for the evening
Day 8: May 29 – Osaka
· Visit the Osaka Castle
· Umeda Sky Building
· Shitennoji Buddhist temple
· Explore the Dotonbori area
Day 9: May 30 – Tokyo
· Take a shinkansen back to Tokyo
· Check into the Shinjuku Airbnb
· Explore Shibuya
· Visit the Hachiko Monument
· Take in the view from the Shibuya Sky observation deck at Miyashita Park
Day 10: May 31 – Shibuya
· Shibuya Crossing
· Shibuya Parco Mall
· Uobei Sushi conveyor belt
· Visit Senso-Ji temple
· Visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building’s 45th floor observation deck
Day 11: June 1 – Harajuku
· Visit Harajuku
· Visit the mini pig café (make appointment)
· Yoyogi Park
· Meiji Shrine behind Harajuku station
· Takeshita Street
Day 12: June 2 – Shinjuku
· Nakano Broadway at Sun City Mall
· Check out Godzilla on the top of the Gracery Hotel/Toho cinema building
· Golden Gai vs Omoide Yokocho?
Day 13: June 3 – Asakusa and Akihabara
· Check into Akihabara Hotel
· Explore TeamLab Planets (make reservation)
· Red Tokyo Tower (VR Center)
· Visit Akihabara
· Explore Super Potato
· Visit mAAch ecute Kanda Manseibashi
Day 14: June 4 – Departure from Tokyo
· Store luggage in the lobby and check out of the hotel
· Visit Asakusa and check out the Tokyo Skytree
· Visit the Sensoji Temple
· Pick up the luggage from the hotel and head to Haneda Airport by 2:30 PM
· Depart from Tokyo at 6:25 PM JST and head back home
3 comments
Can you switch Disney-sea to another day, because you might be feeling jet lagged and not feel like standing and waiting for rides?
You are forgetting about jet lag. You will not be wanting to explore Tokyo on the night of your arrival, or go to an amusement park the next day. Give yourself a few easy days after arrival while you recover from the flights and adjust to the time zone.
It probably would be better to do your day trip to Hiroshima from Osaka, as the train trip there will be a bit shorter. I’d suggest playing with different options in Google Maps or similar.
Changing hotels in cities is usually a waste of time. Remember that it takes time to pack up your room, check out, travel to the new hotel, check in, and unpack your luggage.
I found Nara to be a snooze, particularly the deer park. OTOH, I thought Tsurumi Ryokuchi park in Osaka was wonderful, but that’s just me. If you’re a fan of okonomiyaki, Kiji in the basement of the Umeda Sky is excellent.
IMO, you’re trying to do too much with the Peace Memorial Museum AND Miyajima on the same day, especially as a day trip from Kyoto.
First of all, Hiroshima is a 2-hour train trip from Kyoto. That’s 4 hours of just travel, roundtrip. The Peace memorial is 10-20 minute ride/walk from Hiroshima Station. To use your JR Pass to get to Miyajima, you have to take a 30 minute train from Hiroshima to Miyajimaguchi, then a ferry to Miyajima. That’s a lot of backing and forthing, but if you’re young and energetic, go for it.
Secondly, I just got back from Japan and both Hiroshima and Miyajima were insanely crowded. We stayed overnight on Miyajima and I can tell you, the difference between early morning before the tourists arrive and midday, is night and day. Getting up early and taking the ferry will yield you the opportunity to experience some tranquility, otherwise forget it.
I’m ambivalent about the Peace Memorial Museum. On one hand, it’s an important milestone in the course of civilization and should be given the time and respect it deserves. On the other hand, it’s quite large and attracts huge crowds, including tour groups and school groups and you end up shuffling along with (largely unmasked) crowds, and are unable to spend a significant amount of time at any one exhibit and you’ll be jostled and jabbed.