Hey everyone! It’s going to be my first time travelling to Japan in early June this year. I have did a lot of research and also read up a lot of threads here in this subreddit hoping to plan a decent itinerary.
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**Context**
I will be heading there with my partner and we both love Japanese cuisine and hence, that would be a big part of our trip. Main interests would also include sightseeing/hiking and also fun & games (i.e. Go-kart, entertainment center that has arcade games). We only have a 1 hour time difference from Japan so there won’t be any issues. We will also be getting the 14 day pass as we are travelling quite abit.
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# Tokyo (Day 1 to 6)
**Day 1 (Tues)** \- Arrive at Narita Airport at 9AM.
* Get SUICA card + JR Pass
* Get SIM card
* Catch Narita Express and stop at Shinjuku
* Head to Onsen Ryokan Yuen Shinjuku to put off our bags
* Grab lunch around Shinjuku
* Head to Harajuku and explore for the rest of the day and grab dinner
**Day 2 (Wed)**
* MoMA Design Store Omotesando
* Ikebukuro
* Capyneko Café
* Ghilbli Museum
* Big Donki near Shibuya
**Day 3 (Thur)**
* Head to Mount Tateyama via shinkansen and explore.
* Stay the night.
**Day 4 (Fri)**
* Head back to Tokyo from Tateyama
* Head to Hotel to drop off bags
* Omakase @ Manten Sushi Marunouchi
* Tokyo skytree
* Asakusa – Sensojui temple
* Akihabara
**Day 5 (Sat)**
* Tsukji Market
* Owl Café ‘Fukurou’
* Rest of itinerary tbc
**Day 6 (Sun)**
* Tsujihan Nihonbashi for meal
* MUJI Ginza Flagship store
* Shopping – Uniqlo etc
* Imperial palace garden
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# Kyoto (Day 7 to 9)
**Day 7 (Mon)**
* Take the shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto (\~3hours)
* Drop off bags at hotel
* Take shinkansen to Nara park (\~1hr)
* Explore Nara park
**Day 8 (Tues)**
* Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
* Segano Romantic Train
* Arashiyama Monkey Park
* Kyozuan
* Nearby arashiyama shopping district
**Day 9 (Wed)**
* Fushimi Inari/senbon Torii
* Wife & Husband
* Gion
* Nishiki Market
* Maccha House
# Osaka (Day 10 to 13)
**Day 10 (Thu)**
* Take shinkansen to Osaka
* Drop bags at hotel
* Kurumon Ichiba Market
* Shinsekai
* Dotonbori
* Rikuro’s Namba main store
**Day 11 (Fri)**
* Round 1 stadium sennichimae
* Takoyaki juhachibna dotonbori
* Hozenki Yokocho
* Ebisubashi
* Go-kart
**Day 12 (Sat)**
* USJ
* Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan
**Day 13 (Sun)**
* Tbc itinerary – perhaps explore any remaining places we want to. Free and easy
* Take the evening shinkansen (\~5pm) to Narita airport. About a 5 hours ride.
* Spend the night in Narita airport, find a spot to sleep.
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# Narita Airport (Day 14)
* Flight at 8:15am.
* Enter lounge at 7am to shower/grab some food.
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Would this itinerary be too packed? On days that we don’t need to travel from one province to another, we are planning to leave the hotel around 1030am or 11am (likely 11am). Any suggestions and responses would be appreciated! Thank you! 😀
11 comments
Narita Airport closes at night. You’ll need to find an airport hotel nearby.
Also, please tell me you only got a 7-day JR Pass?
The Shinkansen doesn’t go to Nara. You will need to take the JR Nara Line. Also, I’d try to combine Nara and Fushimi Inari and Nara on the same day so you can add more Kyoto temples. Fushimi Inari is on the Nara Line.
You will have an amazing time. Japan is such a calm, safe, beautiful and amazing place. Take some time to just wander and soak up the vibe!
Your flight is at 8:15am, the lounge won’t be open before you have to board the flight.
I can’t see anybody spending only half a day at USJ. It’s big and the queues are long on weekends.
On Day 2, I’d recommend going to the Donki in ikebukuro rather than Shibuya. The Shibuya one is crazy busy, and the tax free line gets really long.
You can put a Suica card on your phone or even an Apple Watch rather than using the physical card. Beeping your watch at the subway is so much easier than using the physical card. Many places in the Tokyo area accept Suica to pay for things (food, shopping) so it’s good for more than transport. In Kyoto/Nara/Osaka there weren’t places that took Suica and having PayPay would have been better, though credit cards still work and of course cash. Some mom and pop type restaurants only take cash (and these were some of our favorites) so make sure to have cash. 7-11, Family Mart, and Lawson’s were reliable places to find an ATM.
USJ needs a full day. As for go-karts, if you are referring to the Mario carts that run on public roads, be aware that these are considered to be a nuisance by locals. You’ll get dirty looks for that.
If you like animals at all and have a western ideal of animal welfare. I very much do not recommend animal cafes, it’ll make you pretty sad for them (maybe some cat cafes are probably fine).
This advice isn’t born of some ethereal ideal of “animals should be in the wild”. I mean I don’t think chaining owls to fake trees trapped in a tiny darkened tokyo-sized apartment is a good time for them.
I’ve been to one in the past and that’s what it was. Multiple times a owl would fall off, and then hanged by it’s leg flapping around like crazy until a staff member rescued it and put it back on it’s assigned branch that it’s chained to.
That and a few other small stories about seeing trained animals treated badly for entertainment.
You’ll have a better time with the deer at Nara, at least they get to walk about outside.
I know you have the JR-pass, but taking the Kintetsu train from Kyoto station to Nara has the better location in Nara to the park and temples.
Also you don’t have to take the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Osaka, it just maybe easier to take the JR Special Rapid (30 minutes instead of 20), depending on where your hotel is too. However if you have a lot of luggage, it may be better to take the Shinkansen.
Hi!
When you say Mt. Tateyama, are you saying you want to do the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine route or do you mean something else?
I think some people might be missing that part of your trip since going Tokyo to Nagano, Toyama to Tokyo, and a round trip between Tokyo and Kansai, probably does tip you into a 14 day pass being worth it (at least if you order it from a travel agency and get the lower price than from JR direct.) You’re going to be spending 20,000 yen alone doing the Tokyo to Nagano and Toyama back to Tokyo leg.
I think doing USJ and the aquarium will be quite hard in one day.
Unless you have specific reservations for things, it might make more sense to do: Tokyo to Nagano (go to Alpine route stay overnight) then go to Toyama, then from Toyama got to Kanazawa and from there take the train to Kyoto. It seems silly to backtrack over two hours from Toyama to Tokyo, when you can go 20 minutes onwards to Kanazawa and still have a 2.5 hour trip to Kyoto. You could also then save some money by getting the Arch Pass (though you would need to calculate it out, you might be better off without any pass!) for the trip and could then just pay out of pocket for the trip from Osaka back to Tokyo and then have a few days in Tokyo before your last night in Narita. It also might make it so you can visit USJ on a non-week end, assuming you do not have tickets ahead of time or express passes ahead of time.
It would definitely save you money and time.
Good luck!