Hey All,
Been lurking on here for the past couple months which has been very helpful and also a bit intimidating! My partner and I have been traveling Southeast Asia for the past 7 months and decided to end our time abroad with a trip to Japan. I’ve put our current itinerary below along with a couple of questions and open to any and all feedback. For a bit more context, we aren’t interested in doing any amusement parks or team labs we are more interested in just taking in a bit of everything (landscapes, some shrines, food!, some culture).
**5/25:** Arrive NRT airport in Tokyo 8:35 PM and check in to Hotel Monterey Hanzomon
* Attempt to purchase 7 day JR Pass in airport? We looked into buying in advance but it seems they need to mail a voucher and already being abroad and in transit this doesn’t seem feasible for us.
* Our phones are unlocked and we’ve been using local sims while abroad so we are thinking of doing that/eSIM vs pocket WiFi since we can’t bundle and buy in advance with JR Pass. Thoughts?
**5/26:** Tokyo
* Shibuya Crossing
* Meiji Shrine & Yoyogi Park
* Accepting any lunch recommendations
* Explore Harajuku & Takeshita Street
* Find conveyor belt sushi place for dinner
* Golden Gai after dinner
**5/27:** Tokyo
* Sensoji Temple
* Explore Akihabar
* Imperial Palace
* Open afternoon
**5/28:** Tokyo
* Street Kart Tokyo Bay (I know it looks like a tourist trap but can’t help it looks fun)
* Toyosu Fish Market for lunch (is this a good idea? We decided against going there early for the tuna auction but thought we could do lunch since we would be in area for Tokyo Bay)
* Gundam Store
* Open afternoon
**5/29:** Transfer to Hakone
* Train to Odawara – purchase 2 day Hakone Free Pass
* Drop bags off at Onsen Hotel Gorakan
* Part of Hakone Loop (return to hotel by 5PM for dinner)
* We need to think more about best way to tackle the Hakone Loop over the 2 days we have there
**5/30:** Transfer to Kyoto
* Finish anything we missed on Hakone Loop yesterday
* Transfer to Kyoto via Odawara and check in at The OneFive Kyoto Shijo
* Anything else TBD based on when we arrive and check in
**5/31:** Kyoto
* Kiyomizu-dera temple early morning
* Higashiyama district and stroll through Nineizaka and Sanneizaka
* Maruyama Park
* Hanamikoji dori area in Gion district for dinner and drinks
**6/1:** Kyoto
* Fushimi Inari Taisha
* Sake in Fushimi Sake District
* Tofukuji temple for lunch
* Tofukuji Sando shopping street
**6/2:** Kyoto
* Arashiyama Bamboo Grove (early)
* Tenryuji Temple
* Togetsukyo Bridge
**6/3:** Day trip to Nara
* Nara Park
* Todaiji Temple
* Kasuga Taisha Shrine
* Naramachi district for lunch
* Horyuji Temple Complex
**6/4:** Transfer to Tokyo and fly out
* Check out of Kyoto hotel and take train to Tokyo
* Flight out of NRT at 8PM
Thank you in advance for any and all help! We have been trying to plan this rather quickly while traveling so feeling a bit overwhelmed currently and hoping this will help with some of that haha :).
5 comments
Regarding the JR Pass, if you buy it from the official website https://japanrailpass.net/en/purchase.html you can just show the staff the confirmation email instead of needing to receive a mailed voucher. The only downside is that it is a bit more expensive than buying a voucher from a third party, but the benefit is that you can reserve train seats before arriving in Japan.
I bought my JR Pass from japanrailpass.net (which I believe is the official website) and I was emailed a reference code, as opposed to a physical voucher. All I had to do was provide the reference code at the JR office – I was able to make all my reservations on the same website too.
Please don’t do the street kart, that annoys the locals so much and they smell up the entire street so so badly. They’re also super dangerous and just in general a big, big annoyance here.
You can send your JR pass to the hotel you will be staying at, I did this a week before arriving and it was there when we arrived. I booked through klook, book soon though because the prices are about to doible
We just did a very similar trip.
Bought our JRP online and reserved seats on line.
Used pocket Wi-Fi. Had sent to our hotel and dropped in mail at airport upon departure.
We thought Bamboo grove was meh. Be at Tenruyuji when it opens at 9am. You could probably fit in Kinkaku-ji afternoon of 6/2 since it’s close-ish. Not sure it’s a must see, but you’ll be close and it’s out of the way otherwise.
Definitely do Kiyomizu early, we had the place to ourselves.
We enjoyed Philosopher’s path and the garden at Ginkakuju a lot. We had a enjoyable and affordable sushi set lunch at Sushi Isimatu.
We listened to Sightseeing Japan podcast for the places we planned to go. Helpful because so tired of researching after traveling SEA for so long.
Step count was back up to 30k a day (spent 1mo in Japan) after being a little lower at the the end of SEA. We got tired, so allow for downtime. Also rented bikes for a day in KYŌTO give our feet a break.
We did not do fish market in Toyko. Kept reading it was crowded and $$.
Have fun.