Itinerary Check! November 8 – 27 Long awaited Honeymoon Trip

After a couple months of lurking I think my partner and I (both 31) have a framework done! This will be our long awaited Honeymoon (married in the midst of COVID in 2020). We’ve been to Tokyo and Osaka in the past and we both agreed that our main priority is food, Gundam(myself) and maintain leisure.

With that in mind, here’s the itinerary we have so far!

Nov 8 – land in Tokyo (we’ll be flying in from HK, so jet lag won’t be a problem),

* Ship our big luggage to Sapporo Hotel
* Thinking of either staying in a hotel close by the airport or somewhere easily accessible to the airport

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Nov 9 – Fly from HND to CTS

* Train to Sapporo
* Rest/Spend the day roaming around Susukino area

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Nov 10 – Sapporo (we are planning to get a hotel in the Susukino area)

* Nijo Market
* Tanukikoji
* Odori Park
* Shiroikoibito Park

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Nov 11 – Day trip to Otaru

* Open to any suggestions

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Nov 12 – Decision between spending 1 more day in Sapporo or heading to Noboribetsu for Onsen (We would activate our 14day JR pass when we go to Noboribetsu)

* Ship big luggage to Hakodate (if we are not spending another day in Sapporo)
* Would we have more things to explore in Sapporo? we’re both not heavy drinkers but can enjoy one or two drinks a night

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Nov 13 – Travel Noboribetsu for Onsen + explore Jigokundani (again this can be on Nov 12 instead) / Travel to Hakodate

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Nov 14 – Travel to Hakodate (if we didn’t stay an extra night in Sapporo, we would spend it in Hakodate instead)

* Ship luggage to Tokyo
* Mount Hakodate
* Open to any other suggestions especially if we’re spending another day here

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Nov 15 – Travel to Tokyo (staying in Shinjuku)

* Trying to keep the day light, unsure how we will feel after the long train ride
* Shibuya Sky
* Parco
* Omoide Yokocho
* Kabukicho

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Nov 16 – Tokyo

* Ship luggage to Osaka
* Team Labs
* Odaiba
* Not much else planned for this day, we’ll be flying out from Haneda so we can wait on the souvenirs

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Nov 17 – Travel to Hakone

* Hakone private onsen (open to suggestion, we look at a few but nothing eye catching yet)

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Nov 18 – Fuji lake day trip

* Originally we wanted to stay at a ryokan with private onsen + view of Mt Fuji but the prices don’t seem to justify it (unless anyone has a good recommendation)
* Hope to see Mt Fuji
* Relax back at onsen in hakone

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Nov 19 – Travel to Osaka

* We decided to make our base in Osaka because we plan on going Universal and instead of hotel hopping we’ll just make day trips to Kyoto
* Dotonburi

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Nov 20 – Universal Studios

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Nov 21 – Kobe day trip

* Himeji Castle in the morning
* Kobe Harborland area
* Looking for recommendations for Kobe Beef
* Travel back to Osaka

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Nov 22 – Kyoto day trip

* Nishiki Market
* Samurai & Ninja Museum (worth it?)
* Tamba Kameyama Castle Ruins
* Kinkaku-ji (by the time we get here, it’ll be later in the afternoon, would it still be crowded?)
* Nijo-jo Castle

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Nov 23 – Nara + Kyoto day trip

* Deer park
* To-ji Temple
* Toei Kyoto Studio Park (I know it’s quite far, but I would like to see the Evangelion)
* Keeping this open for other suggestions

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Nov 24 – Hiroshima/Miyajima day trip

* Is it doable in 1 day assuming we head back to Osaka at night?
* Ship luggage to Tokyo

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Nov 25 – Travel back to Tokyo

* Cup Noodle Museum
* Gundam Factory Yokohama
* Maybe Chinatown to find food open for suggestions

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Nov 26 – Tokyo

* Nakano Broadway
* Mandarake
* Ikebukuro
* Don Quijote

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Nov 27 – Last Minute Shopping

* Flight at 9:00pm so we have some time in the morning to spend, nothing too crazy and may just end up going to the airport early and use the ANA lounge!

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Please note we’re not big nature people so too many temples may become boring to us. We decided we didn’t want to go to Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama bamboo forest/Monkey Park because of time constraint.

We both enjoyed Osaka more than Tokyo in our previous trips, we’ve been to Disney and Universal before and decided we want to go Universal more.

It will be our first time in Sapporo, Kobe, Hiroshima and Kyoto. Please give more suggestions on those areas!

After reading about the luggage transport service, we’re ok with spending the extra $ on shipping it to the different cities rather than lugging them on the trains, we haven’t booked our flight from HND to CTS yet so if that flight allows for 1 checked bag we don’t have to send it the first night.

Lastly, this is our honeymoon so we want to try to keep the stress level of traveling to a minimum and not overpack the trip. A couple of days that are intense is ok as long as we don’t feel like we’re rushing to everywhere and rushing out.

Thank you for everyone’s time in reading our post and your input + criticisms!

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Edit: added in some more thoughts as I’m browsing other’s itinerary