Hello,
We are a group of 3 adults (F/M/M in our 30s) and we are going to be visiting Japan arriving on Oct/06 and departing on Oct/20.
This is actually my second trip to Japan, but the others’ first trip. As such, we are trying to keep a balance between things they “can’t miss” on their first visit and new things for me to explore as well. During my first trip, I did the typical Tokyo, Kyoto (+Nara day trip), and Osaka route (+ Takayama, we didn’t do Shirakawa-go). I realize that this new route is very similar, but there were many things I couldn’t do on my first trip, so I don’t mind revisiting these cities.
Our interests are all over the place. We are interested in food, history, architecture, anime, video games, and tech. My boyfriend would also like to see live shamisen, but I haven’t been able to find anything yet.
I tried to limit the must-sees to 3 per day, but let me know if anything looks too crazy or empty.
**Tokyo**
Day 0 (Friday) – Check in to our hotel in Asakusa. We arrive at 3 PM so the plan is just to grab something to eat, buy some necessities at the kombini and crash.
Day 1 (Saturday) – There are two ways this could go:
Plan A) If we wake up super early, check out Sensoji without the crowds, grab some food in Nakamise-dori when the shops open. Take the Sumida Riverwalk up to Tokyo Skytree, lunch at Kirby Cafe (will try to get reservations). Explore Tokyo Solamachi. At night, head out to Minato area for Tokyo Tower views.
Plan B) If we don’t wake super early due to jetlag, we will head straight to Tokyo Skytree for shopping and Kirby Cafe, then explore Sensoji at night.
Day 2 (Sunday) – Ueno and Akihabara:
* Head to Ueno Park and explore a museum. Still unsure as to which one to pick, but we’re leaning towards the Tokyo National Museum. I really wanted to do the Edo-Tokyo Museum, but it’s closed. I figure the Tokyo National Museum would be the second best? **Looking for recs on this**.
* Lunch at the Dawn Avatar Robot Cafe (if I secure reservations).
* Spend the rest of Sunday afternoon/night exploring Akihabara.
**Kyoto**
Day 3 (Monday) – Take the shinkansen to Kyoto, hoping to get to our hotel in Higashiyama by 1:30 PM.
* Take bus up to Ginkakuji
* Walk down the Philosopher’s path to Nanzenji
* Dinner in Pontocho Alley
Day 4 (Tuesday) – Gion
* Early morning to explore Gion, Kiyomizudera
* Free time
* Stroll through Gion Shimbashi at night
Day 5 (Wednesday) – Uji and Nara Park (???)
* Tea tour at Uji, it’s supposed to be done by 2 PM, ending in Byodo-in.
* Head to Nara and explore Nara Park and Todaiji.
* Dinner and back to hotel
**Do you think this is doable? Not really looking to explore Nara, more interested in the deer**
**Osaka**
Day 6 (Thursday) – Check in to Osaka hotel in Namba
* Take train from Kyoto to Osaka, plan to get to Osaka by 3 PM (check-in time)
* Do laundry, rest
* Explore Shinsekai (walking distance to hotel)
* teamLab Botanical Garden
Day 7 (Friday)
* Osaka Castle during the morning
* Osaka Aquarium during afternoon
* Dotonbori at night
**Kanazawa**
Day 8 & 9 (Saturday & Sunday) – Grouping these two together because by now we will probably need some rest, will distribute these activities as we see fit:
* Kenroku-en Garden
* Stroll through Nagamachi and visit Nomura Clan samurai house
* Dinner at Higashi Chaya District
* Chill at Ryokan
* Maybe Shirakawa-go on Sunday if we’re not dead?
**Tokyo**
Day 10 (Monday) – head out early to Tokyo, staying in Shibuya for final leg of the trip
* Mori Art Museum
* Explore Roppongi
Day 11 (Tuesday) – Unsure. I am considering either a day trip to Nikko (looking for fall foliage mid-October) or Kawaguchiko if the mountain is visible. **How easy would it be to get bus tickets last minute to Kawaguchiko?**
Day 12 (Wednesday) – explore Shibuya
* Shibuya Crossing
* Shibuya Sky (get reservations)
* Ghibli Museum
* Looking for some sort of music performance for the evening/night. **Any recs?**
Day 13 (Thursday) – explore Shinjuku
* Harajuku (if we get there early)
* Shinjuku Gyoen
* Omoide Yokocho
Day 14 (Friday) – last day. Taking it easy before heading back home.
Any general recommendations? Would love to do Hakone, but I’m not sure what to move around. Would you recommend swapping Kanazawa with Hakone? Then again, that would be during the weekend and I’m not sure how enjoyable that would be.
Thanks!
5 comments
Just a quick add, as I don’t have a lot of time to give more feedback- but I do recommend the National Museum in Tokyo. It’s massive and has a ton of interesting stuff, almost like visiting the Smithsonian in the US.
Hakone during the weekend sounds awful. You could do a long day trip there on Day 11?
Mid-October foliage in Nikko is only at the high altitudes (Chuzenjiko / Yumoto areas), too tight for a day trip.
Day 5 – yes going to Uji and Nara is 1 day is fine if only seeing those things in Nara.
Kyoto/Osaka – with your itinerary you can probably just stay in 1 location and travel to the other. They are only 30 mins apart.
Hakone or Kanazawa is up to you. I prefer Kanazawa but it is similar to Kyoto so if you want a different experience go for Hakone.
We haven’t been yet but we have this on our list for Kanazawa: https://fukushima-sangenten.com/activity/
It’s a shamisen store that offers people the experience of learning to play a simple song on a shamisen. Might be a good fit for your boyfriend!
Just a comment about Nara – I was there last week and the deer experience gets old really fast. I’m also from a place with a lot of deer in the area so you might find it more interesting than I did. I actually really enjoyed the Great Buddha hall and other temples in the area and the Nakatanidou Mochi Shop was cool to watch and only took 10 minutes of our time, so I would recommend taking an extra couple hours to explore the area.