Itinerary for 2 weeks trip: 12-25-22 to 01-06-23

5 comments

1. Question, where/what is Tennoji ? the only thing I could find is a temple in Yanaka cemetery.

   Shibuya/Harajuku is not really a morning place. Stores usually open at 10 or 11am. What can make sense is to go to Meiji-jingu first as it open quite early, then you can start shopping around Harajuku and Shibuya, but you might end up spending a bit of the afternoon in that area.

   It does not make sense to keep your Tokyo accommodation when going to the ryokan, would make more sense to check-out and put your luggage in a coin locker before you return. Or just ask hotel to keep luggage for a day.

   For onsen ryokan in an area with view on Mount Fuji, the most obvious place are Kawaguchiko or Hakone.

   Tokyo Tower would not be my choice of observation deck, I would rather go to Roppongi Hills Mori Tower or Shibuya Sky.

   Highly recommend to book shinkansen tickets in advance, you should be able to do it on the Smart-Ex website (the app will not be available for you) [https://smart-ex.jp/en/index.php](https://smart-ex.jp/en/index.php)

   Why accommodation near Tofuku-ji in Kyoto ? I would personally recommend somewhere around Kawaramachi and Gion.

   Kiyomizu-dera can be placed in afternoon of the 23 and do Gion after. Keep only Ginkaku-ji and Ginkaku-ji for the 23 and you can add option of the philosopher’s path and other temple/shrines in that area.

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   You know, even if you have more things in your plan, it does not mean that you have to do everything. I personally prefer to have a bit more options and it is totally fine to not do everything. I also find it a bit interesting that for Tokyo, you mostly have general neighborhoods and no specific attractions, while in Kyoto you mostly have really specific attractions. One thing you can do is list an area and a couple of options of things to do there. For example in Kyoto, you can write Higashiyama and put optional things like Kiyomizu-dera, Yasaka pagoda, Sannenzaka, Kodai-ji, Yasaka-jinja, Gion. You can also note the location you want to see in priority and also be open to find more things while there.

2. I’d suggest moving your Ryokan stay as part of your transit between the Kanto and Kansai areas. That will open up a lot more areas between the two regions to get a ryokan. However, it may be price prohibitive during new years to do that. Also traveling on New Years eve could be fairly crowded.

   While Tokyo Tower will be crowded on New Years Eve I would say the peak is going to be the following morning with people trying to get a view of the first sunrise of the the year. Also in regards to New Years, while you will see western style celebrations that occur, I consider this to be more of a family holiday and not so much partying. You will see more activity around shinto shrines starting in the evening and lasting for 3 or 4 days afterwards. Lots foods stands will be open around shrines. Since you have a lot of temple/shrine visits immediately after new years you may be impacted by the crowds.

   Keep your mornings focused on visiting parks/shrines/temples as stores typically open later in the day in the 10-11am range.

3. For 30/12 – if you enjoyed Akihabara but want to go somewhere else for geek culture then check out Ikebukuro.

4. If you’re going to Tennoji in yanaka you should do the seven lucky gods pilgrimage route or go over to yanaka Ginza for some shopping. Or pair it with a trip to the ueno area.

   I do like temples and that one’s a nice one you’re gonna want something else to do it’s not very big.

5. >Also, we have the idea to see some Pokemon Centers (the one in ODAIBA, etc) and try to find geek shops.

   Just as an FYI – in case you weren’t aware – the Pokemon centres are all pretty similar. Only mentioning it so that you don’t travel out of you way to go to one if you are expecting there to be a fair amount of difference between them. Top tip though – if you go to Sunshine City’s pokemon centre, there are some shops right across the road from the Sunshine City complex – believe it was a KBooks – where you could get tons of pokemon and other plushies for a good price (compared to pokemon centre). I like to get one pokemon from the centre just to say I did, but then buy the others from the likes of KBooks and Mandarake, etc.

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   >12-28-22 Afternoon – Akihabara

   12-30-22 Morning – Free half morning, surely to return to Akihabara

   Is there a reason you’re not just going to plan Akiba for 1 full day if you’re intending on returning?

   On a separate tangent – I’m a bit curious to hear how Akiba is now post-covid as it seems like a lot of the parts that I personally loved about Akiba (mainly the arcades) have now gone away. Would be interesting to see if you can still get a full, quality day there like you could pre-covid.

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   >12-31-22 Afternoon – Tokio tower visit (I guess it will be fully crowded, any thoughs?)

   Genuinely be hard to predict in that we don’t know who will/won’t be allowed in in terms of tourism. If it’s completely open – however – I would plan that it would be busy as the second people *can* visit Japan freely, they *will*…and in mass.

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   >01-06-23 Morning – Take off back to Spain

   Just to check – you’re flying into Tokyo and out of Osaka – correct? If not, I wouldn’t plan to head back to Tokyo on the day you head out.