14 Day Solo Itinerary May 14-28, first solo trip 18M

HI there!. I’m heading to Japan in mid-May as my first solo trip ever, I am 18M and graduating high school this June. I don’t enjoy trying to cram my time, and especially this being my first solo trip and not to be overwhelmed, I will be only staying in Tokyo and Kyoto, visiting Nara and Osaka on day trips from Kyoto. I also am not going super scheduled with my itinerary, as some things still need to be planned out as well as wanting to allow this trip to be as relaxing as possible. Any tips/advice is super appreciated!

Some notes:

\- since I am 18 and I also don’t drink much in general, I won’t be spending too much time indulging in night life, and I’m hoping to just head to bed early and have early mornings, hopefully catching some solid sunrises in the process

\- I will be staying in Tokyo for a few days and then heading to Kyoto, then returning to Tokyo for a longer stretch to make shopping easier as well. Im a big anime and video game fan so that’ll be a big focus of my time in Tokyo

\- When choosing where to stay in Tokyo for my second stretch I thought it would be nice to stay in Ueno, as the hotels were cheaper, it should be less busy, and theres easy access to Akihabara where I will be doing a lot of shopping.

5/14: Arrive at Haneda around 7pm, (might pick up pocket wifi, unsure if I will be using that or eSim), take the train to my hotel located near Shinjuku Station and pass out

5/15: Grab breakfast, visit Shinjuku Gyoen garden, Meiji Jingu shrine, Yoyogi park. Head Shibuya/Harajuku for lunch, see Shibuya crossing and shop in Harajuku, Shibuya sky at somepoint before/around sunset. Find some dinner, and head back to hotel.

5/16: Head into central Tokyo to check out Ginza, maybe Pokemon Center/Pokemon Café if I book for this day but probably not. Generally relaxed day, explore central Tokyo and find some good eats, try Ichiran even though many say its overrated, and try Japanese McDonalds. Head to Tokyo Tower at some point to take some photos, and head back to hotel.

5/17: Grab a snack from the nearest konbini and take shinkansen early-ish in the morning headed to Kyoto. Should arrive in Kyoto anytime between 10am-1pm. Leave baggage at hotel, located in downtown Kyoto, and do some relaxed exploring of Gion and Kawaramachi, visit Nijo castle, and then check out Nishiki market.

5/18: Fushimi Inari Day! I love a good hike and plan on setting out earlier in the morning to avoid crowds, and I will be going all the way to the summit. I believe there are some food stalls on the trail, so hopefully they are open on my descent down. I’ve heard this can take anywhere from 3-4 hours so I should be done by 12-1. I’ll then head to Kiyomizudera, and hopefully get some good photoshoots while also exploring the area around it. Then I’ll head to Maruyama Park and see Yasaka Shrine. This place is a 35 minute walk from my hotel, so I think I’ll just walk through Gion on my way back, and find a place to eat before I get to my hotels.

5/19: Nara day trip! Take the train in the morning around 7-8 and head to Nara. Really just going to try and wind down this day, see Nara Park and Yoshikien Garden, and explore the area on foot as much as possible, head back on the train to Kyoto after dinner in Nara.

5/20: Spend most of the day in Arashiyama. Walk through the bamboo forest, visit the monkey park, and ride the Sagano Sight Seeing Train. After the round trip on the train, I’ll visit some of the temples such as Tenryu-ji and walk across the Togetsukoyo Bridge. Any food recommendations in Arashiyama would be great!

The next 2 days (5/21 and 5/22) I need advice on. These are my last 2 days in Kyoto, I want to do a day trip to Osaka for one and the other will be visiting Kinkakuji, Kyoto Imperial Palace, Ginkakuji and Nanzenji.

For Osaka my main sights to see was the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan and Osaka castle, finishing the day with Dotonbori at night. I know weekends can get quite crowded in any tourist area, so would it be better visiting Osaka on Sunday the 21st or Monday the 22nd.

5/23: Head back to Tokyo via shinkansen in the morning, arrive at hotel in Ueno between 11 and 1. Drop my bags and head to Asakusa to visit the senso-ji temple. If I am able to get a Kirby Café Reservation for this day I would then walk to Tokyo Skytree for some photos along with the café, before heading back to my hotel and exploring the area around my hotel a bit.

Some of these days/activities may move around, dependant on if I can get a pokemon café reservation on the days I want.

5/24: Start the day with a quick breakfast then head to Rikugien gardens for a morning stroll. From there I’ll head to Sunshine City Mall for the pokemon center and Nintendo store. Unsure how much time will be spent here, will grab some food and shop before heading back to my hotel, dropping my purchases, and heading out to see Akihabara at night, trying to find some food and while admiring the lights.

5/25: Head out to Odaiba for teamLab planets as well as DiverCity Tokyo plaza. Go to team labs first, spend a few hours in the exhibit, then either walk or transit to DiverCity to see the gundam statue as well as checking out the gundam base there. After that, I’ll head back to my hotel and drop my things before going back to Akihabara to do some shopping. I have a few stores I’d like to visit, but mostly I’d like to explore.

5/26: Small trip to Yokohama to see the moving Gundam and the gundam factory as a whole, I may walk around the area a bit but that’s really all I want to do there, one of my bucket list items when visiting. The rest of the day is a flex day in general. I may go back to Ginza or Harajuku to do some shopping, and probably will go see the Tokyo Imperial Palace

5/27: Some more shopping this day, heading to Nakano broadway as it opens, not planning on spending too much time there but really interested to see if I can find some cool stuff, specifically trying to find anything Xenoblade related as it’s one of my favourite game series that doesn’t get much merchandise in the west. After that I’ll head back to akihabara and continue the hunt, dedicating this whole day before I leave to shopping.

5/28: My flight back to Vancouver is at 10PM, so I have some time to kill before I catch the train back. Will probably do some last minute shopping/exploring, in case theres something I missed or needed to go back for. One concern is that if I want to be at Haneda at 7PM, that means I’ll be riding Tokyo metro with a suitcase during a really busy time, is there any tips for this??

Please leave comments/questions/suggestions if you have any!

Notes: Was able to get a pokemon cafe reservation for the 16th of May, and a Kirby Cafe reservation for the 25th of May