Itinerary Check – March 28 – April 10, 2021 – Tokyo & Kyoto

17 comments

1. Consider getting a Disney vacation package. We spent 2.5 days at Disney after coming back from Kanazawa. Got into Tokyo around 11 and they took our luggage. started at DisneySea at 1 or so.

2. Totally agree with Tokyo Disney being non-negotiable. It’s totally awesome. I went to Disney Land as a child and have good memories. On recent trips to Japan’s we’ve been to Disney Sea and it’s brilliant for adults. 100% recommended.

   I wonder if your Tokyo days are a little packed. Maybe have stuff that you’re happy to miss if you get tired! Tokyo is BIG and it can take a while to get somewhere just due to the distance.

   Have fun, sounds like an awesome trip!

3. I have an almost identical trip planned for 3/20-4/3. At this point I’m having serious doubts that it happens.

   DisneySea should be non-negotiable, IMO it is the best Disney park; Disneyland is really a carbon copy of Anaheim’s.

4. I guess it can be nice to have the hotel for the second part somehow close to Disney, but If I don’t consider that, I would probably move a couple of the Tokyo days after Kyoto, especially the Shinjuku/Shibuya and Ikebukuro days, as they are more focused on shopping, so you will have to lug even more stuff all the way to Kyoto.

   On you Harajuku day, pass by Yoyogi park for cherry blossom.

   31 is not that packed, morning in Asakusa, should not be a problem to eat lunch there or closer to Ueno, do the museum (for sure you can spend more than 2 hours there) then Akihabara is right next to it. In any case, the museum close at 4 and Akihabara, stores would close around 8 to 10, so for sure you have at least 4-5 hours of shopping in Akihabara and there is arcades that close a bit later. You’ll have something to do all day, but it work.

   If you want to see a garden in Tokyo, why the Imperial Palace ? I would suggest Koishikawa koraken, Rikugi en or Shinjuku gyoen, instead, that are also nice cherry blossom spot. If you go for imperial palace, at least try to see chidorigafuchi too. Or you can check cherry blossom at Meguro river, it’s not too far from Shibuya (but it’s clearly not a garden, just trees along the river)

   You are right about JR Pass, no saving to be done for you, it will be better not to use it as you can buy a Nozomi ticket that is the faster train not available for JR Pass users.

   For your Kyoto stay, I would check to stay around Gion-Shijo or Karasuma station as most of your days you are interested to see things on the east side. Or maybe Sanjo station, it’s closer to the subway (easy to go to Kyoto station) and Keihan (for Fushimi inari). The only area that is further away is Arashiyama, but not terribly hard to go using Hankyu from Kawaramachi station. In any case, this general area, you might want to choose a hotel that is easier to access from the public transport, when you get in and out with your luggage, or closer to the station you will use for your visit or just close to things you want to see.

   The onsen day… yeah, maybe, it’s not the mos central place, but with the shuttle bus, that make it actually not that hard to reach. It might be a small detour on the return, but I would let my luggage at the hotel in the morning and ask them to keep them until you leave Kyoto, by doing that I would say you can be at Kyoto station for the shinkansen at 4:30 or 5, so can even get dinner before heading to take the shinkasen (or even buy a luchbox for the train).

5. You should add more items per day …. I went to japan with over 400 things to do and I’ll admit I though it was a lot so I though I’ll spreed it over a few days and I did most them in the first two days and just did random exploring . Which is not bad .

6. I didn’t think I wanting to go to the Imperial Palace and we went our last day. It’s beautiful! I recommend going.

7. Kyoto, visit the monkey park, it’s in the northwest of Kyoto called Iwatayama

8. Hey, hope this works out for you!

   * My biggest advice to first timers: Start walking now. Start doing 10k, 15k steps a day, build up if you can. I did 25k+ steps every day of my last trip (21 days).

   * Tokyo looks good, take your time, explore, enjoy yourselves. Highly recommend shaving shopping towards the end though.

   * I wouldn’t recommend the JR pass for this trip!

   * I was at the bamboo grove at 7am and saw like…6 people. Totally worth it.

   * I LOVED OTAGI NEBUTSU-JI! Such a fun little temple!

   * Golden Pavilion is awesome, maybe rent bikes to make it happen?

   * Slide Kyomizu-dera down to April 6th, spend the whole day exploring eastern Kyoto IMO, get dinner in Gion, etc.

   * Doing Fushimi as early as possible, go to Nara after, spend the afternoon there/eat dinner there.

9. Shibuya is missing the famous Takeshita Doori.

   National Musuem is doable in two hours if you only plan to see the Special Exhibit plus one more like the historical Samurai exhibits. The General Exhibit is something you can kind of skip because it just is a lot of Buddha artifacts and may not interest you.

   Akihabara depends on how buildings you want to visit, and many of them are of individual shops on each floor and not an entire company. All shops are loaded with anime goods, but few good showings are Sofmap. If you want to dig individual goods, maybe the Akihabara Culture Zone or the Kotobukiya building.

   Also try to go see the life size Gundam if you can make it to Odaiba. I recommend the last 5PM showing because the light up effects contrast really well with sunset and may not show up as well earlier in the day. The Gundam Base and the Diver City shopping plaza behind the statue is also something worth a visit.

10. I know you’re not gonna be here for long, but I’d try to work in a day of rest somewhere. You’re going to be doing an insane amount of walking plus jet lag. When my family visited a few years back, we had to rebel against my father to get a day off. I just remember being crazy tired. Definitely bring a really good comfy pair of shoes.

    You may also want to add Nakano Broadway as a destination in Tokyo if you like nerdy stuff. It’s got a ton of tiny shops and you can find some really interesting things there.

    Check online before you go for themed cafes, too! There are a few permanent ones (like Pokémon and sailor moon), but there are often pop ups as well. The food is never the best, but it makes for a fun instagram picture.

11. I would consider adding Osaka and Nara to your trip. Osaka is quite a bit more manageable if you plan to do some walking. I find the street food scene there to be god-tier. Nara is a small town with cool temples and docile reindeer that is unlike anything I’ve experienced in terms of human to animal coexistence.

    Nara is between Tokyo and Osaka and could be a cool day trip from either city.

12. Every Spring, the geisha of Kyoto perform their cherry blossom dances in an old traditional theatre in Kyoto, this is called Miyako Odori. I highly recommend it, its not expensive and very beautiful.

    When I went to Kyoto I wanted to see geisha or maiko but i didnt feel comfortable joining the tourists (lurking through the streets of Gion, waiting around every corner to follow and photograph them). Miyako Odori was a great way to take a peek into the culture and admire their costumes and music.

13. Don’t forget nakano Broadway! And if you’ve been to other Disney parks, the main park could be skipped…it’s all stuff you’ve seen. Disney sea is unique though def check that out. And hit Osaka if there’s time. Oh, and I can’t stress this enough……coco curry. don’t worry about seeing it all, after going one time, you’ll want to go back!

14. You probably already know this but Fushimi Inari is actually open 24/7. During the day it is much busier than if you go in the late evening/early nighttime. I am not a fan of huge crowds where you can’t move about freely or get a good look at all the cool stuff you want to see, so I was really happy we chose to go in the evening instead. The whole temple lit up at night looks really cool. Also, if you do the walk up to the look-off point it is really beautiful to see it all the city lights. We didn’t do the whole 2 hour hike, so if you’re planning to do that you would probably want to do it during the day. I’m not sure that the trail past the look off point is well lit.

    We also did the Philosopher’s Path and it was something I really enjoyed. We started at the silver pavillion and then went to a bunch of other shrines along the way. We also threw in a visit to Nishiki market that day if that’s something you’re interested in.

15. Your itinerary looks pretty good actually!

    Random tips :

    I would include a zen garden in Kyoto, you might not need to plan a day for it as an hour or 2 might be more than enough but keep that at the back of your mind if you want to take a break but continue exploring for the day, specially if it’s raining as most of them have a shed and hearing the water drops against the wooden shed and looking at the zen garden is an amazingly “Kyoto” experience. (in my opinion at least!)

    If it’s your thing, check what flea markets are in the area/cities when you’re around. I’m yet to find a cooler flea market than the ones I went to in Japan, filled with treasures.

16. Philosophers Path wasn’t worth the time to me. I’d recommend going to Nara instead, or any other more worthwhile activity.

    JR 7-day pass is usually close to breaking even vs. a Tokyo-Kyoto round trip. Check [hyperdia.com](https://hyperdia.com) for train prices on the routes you might take 1st-7th.

17. In Kyoto, consider staying at the Morris Hostel. You can get private rooms and it’s less expensive than a hotel. For food in Kyoto, you HAVE to try Ramen Sen No Kaze— best ramen I had in Japan.