Dear japan citizen and fellow travelers,
my girlfriend and myself are \~30 years old and currently traveling across south-east asia for the last 4 month. As we wanted to keep the “best” for last, our final country on this journey will be japan, where we’ll spend 28 days.
We’ve spend a lot of time reading the subreddit and checking other peoples Itinerary and the replies to those posts. Those were very helpful to us and set the base for our planning.
As we had a hard time putting this tougether, there is no detailed plan that provides a per day list of activities, because we want to keep things flexible (Rain, Happy Accidents, Rest). We definitly will need to pinpoint some of our activies to specific dates, as reservations are essential.
This will be a long post so i tried to format as best as i can. There are some questions at the very end. Thank you in advance for reading!
Overview:
|City|Nights|Dates|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Tokyo|5N|07.06-12.06|
|Kanazawa|1N|12.06-13.06|
|Kyoto|3N|13.06-16.06|
|Osaka|4N|16.06-20.06|
|Hiroshima|2N|20.06-22.06|
|Fukuoka|3N|22.06-25.06|
|Hakone|1N|25.06-26.06|
|Fujikawaguchiko|3N|26.06-29.06|
|Nikko|2N|29.06-01.07|
|Tokyo|4N|01.07-05.07|
Details:
|Tokyo|5N|07.06-12.06|
|:-|:-|:-|
**Shibuya:**
* mipig cafe, anakuma cafe
* Cat Street
* Hachiko
* Shibuya Crossing (+ view from Starbucks)
* Mejin-Shrine
* Takeshita Street
* Gotokuji Temple
* Sunset from Parco Rooftop
* Bonobo Club/Bar
**Shinjuku:**
* Nakano Broadway
* 2D Cafe
* Manenyu
* Omoide Yokocho
* Golden Gai
* Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (Viewing Platform)
* Deathmatch in Hell Bar
**Ueno & Akihabara:**
* Ueno Park
* Akihabara Electric Town
* Gigio Akihabara 3
* Dawn Avatar Roboter Cafe
* Pokemon Center & Cafe
* Vampire Cafe
**Ginza & Surrondings:**
* Zojo-ji Temple
* MORI Art Museum
* Ginza Art Aquarium Museum
* Hie Shrine
* Rainbow Bridge
* TeamLab Planets
* Odaiba Seaside Park
* Miraikan
* Caretta Shiodome (Viewing Platform)
* Tir na nOg (Bar)
|Kanazawa|1N|12.06-13.06|
|:-|:-|:-|
* **Activate JR Railpass 14 Days**
* Shirakawago
* train/bus to Takayama (Hida folk village as a substitute to Shirakawago if we can’t visit)
* Takayama Old town & Takayama Jinya
* Eat Hida beef and ramen
* Return to Kanazawa in the afternoon
* Kazuemachi Chaya District (teahouses)
* Dinner at Menya Taiga Ramen
* Kenrokuen Garden
* Kanazawa Castle Park
* Nagamachi Samurai District
* Higashi Chaya District
* Myoryu-Ji Ninja Temple
* Try Kanazawa Gold leaf food
* Have lunch at Omicho Fish Market (Ichinokura or conveyor belt sushi)”
|Kyoto|3N|13.06-16.06|
|:-|:-|:-|
* Daytrip Nara (Deer Park, Todaiji, Nakatanidou)
* Samurai Ninja Museum
* Arashiyama Bamboo Forest
* Gion
* Sanneizaka
* Nijo Castle
* Kyoto Imperial Palace
* Higashiyama Jisho-ji
* Kiyomizu-dera
* Kinkakuji
* Ginkakuji
* Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
* Fushimi Inari Taisha
* Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum
* Nishiki market
* Fushimi Inari Taisha
* Bike Hire (if good weather)
|Osaka|4N|16.06-20.06|
|:-|:-|:-|
* Osaka & Himeij Castle (Buy Ticket at Garden Attraction)
* Dōtonbori
* Katsuo-Ji
* Osaka Aquarium
* Hep Five Ferris Wheel
* Ohatsu Tenjin Shrine
* Umedo Sky Building
* Pokemon Center
* TeamLab Botanical Garden
* Spa World
* Shinsaibashi Suji
* PC and Retro bar Space Station, Pinball Arcade
* Namba Yasaka Jinja
* Osaka Shinsekai Street
* Tsutenkaku
* Shitenno-Ji
* Harukas 300
* Sumiyoshi Taisha
* Daytrip Kobe (Mount Rokko, Sannomiya, Kobe Beef Lunch, Kobe Harbor land, Nanking-machi, Herb Garden & Ropeway)
|Hiroshima|2N|20.06-22.06|
|:-|:-|:-|
* Ferry to Miyajima Island and Itsukushima shrine (try yakigaki oyster)
* Rabbit Island (Okunoshima)
* Okonomimura Okonomiyaki
* Memorial Park, Dome & Museum
|Fukuoka|3N|22.06-25.06|
|:-|:-|:-|
* Daytrip Beppu for Onsen
* Ohori Park and Ramen
* Shopping at Canal City and Hakata Kawabata Dori street
* Tenjin area
* dinner at Yatai-Mura by the river OR inner city Yatai for local vibe
* Seaside Momochi beach
* Forward our big Bags to the Hotel in Fujikawaguchiko
* **Last day of JR 14 day Railpass 25.06**
|Hakone|1N|25.06-26.06|
|:-|:-|:-|
* Late arrival Have Dinner and relax in Onsen
* Next Day Hakone Loop + Bus to Fujikawaguchiko
|Fujikawaguchiko|3N|26.06-39.06|
|:-|:-|:-|
* Saiko Iyashi no Sato Nemba
* Panoramic Ropeway
* Chureito Pagoda
* Fuji-Q Highland
* Eat Soup @ toto fudo
|Nikko|2N|29.06-01.07|
|:-|:-|:-|
* Edo wonderland
* toshogu shrine
* Tanozawa Villa
* Kegon Waterfall
* Onsen
* Sake Tasting
|Tokyo|4N|01.07-05.07|
|:-|:-|:-|
* Revisit Favourite Places
* Do things we missed on our first visit
* Spend some time at the arcades to ~~win some souveniers~~ spend some money and have fun
* Sumo Event (if possible and not too expensive)
**YOU MADE IT TO THE END !!**
We’re very happy about any feedback, tips, suggestions and recommendation you can provide 🙂
Also we’ve some addtional questions:
1. Is it worth to buy a Fuji Hakone Free Pass? If yes, when should we activate/use it?
2. Is there any other pass we should consider beside JR Rail pass and Fuji Hakone pass?
3. I’d like to book the JR Railpass via Klook and Deliver the exchange voucher to our Hotel in Tokyo. Is this possible?
4. Is there anything we should shift or are there any major flaws that we werent thinking about?
5. Is there anything we should book/reserve in advance beside the obviuos (popular restaurants/cafes, TeamLab) ?
Arigatou Gozaimasu
Best regards, Peter
2 comments
Firstly, just want to say that I love your itinerary. It’s very ambitious for a first trip, includes a lot of places that tourists don’t often visit and I think that’s very commendable.
Kyoto is a wonderful city unlike anywhere else in the world, and three nights isn’t really enough to take everything in. Bear in mind that a lot of temples and the like will start to close around 4 or 4:30, meaning that you will be pretty much forced to spread things out over a number of days unless you rush everywhere you go. Consider spending an extra day or two there instead of in Tokyo if you can, or at least moving your Nara daytrip forward to the Osaka wing of your itinerary: it’s easily accessible from both cities, and Osaka is a city best enjoyed at night in any case.
Like Osaka, Fukuoka is another city best enjoyed at night. Since you’re going to Hakone anyway (How are you getting to Hakone from Fukuoka btw? That’s a good 5 hours by train!) you may want to consider replacing Beppu with either Kumamoto or Nagasaki, or taking an extra day for daytripping. Nagasaki has similar vibes to Kobe (hilly, cosmopolitan city with lots of 19th Century European architecture and a great dessert culture) while Kumamoto has one of Japan’s best castles after Himeji, so I’d weigh up whether you enjoyed Kobe or Himeji more and then visit the destination most similar to that. Kagoshima is another excellent option, especially if you enjoy either Japanese history or gardens (Sengan-en is one of my favourite gardens in all of Japan.) All three are readily accessible from Hakata station. (1-2 hours.)
I’d also maybe consider spending an extra night in Kanazawa if you‘re thinking of seeing Takayama. Bear in mind it will take you around 2 hours to get there one way, so doing both it and Kanazawa in a single afternoon isn’t really viable.
Too much Tokyo. Far too much explore more kyushu