Myself (F, 27) and my husband (M, 27) are going to Japan 7-21 October this year for the first time and we are so excited! For context, we love a mixture of good food, culture, city, nature and wildlife. We like the idea of doing a bit of everything but we’re not super obsessed with going to loads and loads of shrines/temples. We’re also both very active (love walking) and we always push ourselves to the limit with holidays to do and see as much as possible (we don’t care about resting!). We are more than willing to get up early and do long days, as this may be our first and last time in Japan for a very long time. With that in mind, I was hoping for some feedback on our rough itinerary below, thanks in advance. We also have some general questions which I’ll add at the end.
Sat 7 and Sun 8 Oct
– Travelling/jet lagged/sleeping!
– Arrival in Tokyo
Mon 9 Oct – Tokyo
– Metropolitan Gov Office view
– Omoide Yokochu
– Meiji Jingu Shrine
– Walk around Harajuku
Tues 10 Oct – Hakone day trip
– Travel to Hakone in the morning
– Ashino-Ko lake round trip (with the different modes of transport)
– Hakone-Jinja Shrine
-Travel back to Tokyo in the evening
Wed 11 Oct – Tokyo
– Takao-San walk
– Shibuya Crossing and view from Starbucks
Thurs 12 Oct – Nikko
– Travel to Nikko in the morning
Some combination of parts of the below:
– Toshogu, Rinnoji and Taiyuin
– Shinkyo Bridge
– Kirifuri Falls
– Kanmangafuchi Abyss
– Urami Falls
– Stay overnight (maybe in a ryokan)
Fri 13 Oct – Kyoto
– Travel to Kyoto in the morning
– Nijo Castle
– Nishiki Market
– Kinkaku-Ji
Sat 14 Oct – Kyoto
– Higashiyama Jisho-ji
– Philosopher’s Path
– Maruyama Park
– Wander about Gion (tea with a geisha?)
Sun 15 Oct – Hiroshima day trip
– Travel to Hiroshima in the morning
– Museum
– Peace Memorial Park
– Atomic Bomb Dome
– Miyajima Island (floating tori gate, ropeway, deer)
– Shukkei-en Garden
– Travel back to Kyoto in evening
Mon 16 Oct – Kyoto
– Arashiyama
– Kameyama Park
– Fushimi Inara Taisha and walk to Mt Inari-san
Tues 17 Oct – Nara day trip
– Travel to Nara in the morning
– Daibutsu
– Gardens/walks/deer
– Travel back to Kyoto in the evening
Wed 18 Oct – Tokyo
– Travel to Tokyo in the morning
– Senso-Ji Temple
– Tokyo Sky Tree
– Tokyo National Museum and/or Hamarikyu Garden
Thurs 19 Oct – Tokyo
– DisneySea
Fri 20 Oct – Tokyo
– The Imperial Palace
– Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens
– Atre Kichijoji food hall
Sat 21 Oct – travelling home
Questions:
– what do you think of the itinerary? Are we missing anything obvious?
– are we doing the wrong thing by missing out Osaka?
– would a 14 or 7 day JR pass be worth it? I understand it has limited use in cities?
1 comment
Sorry but Nikko-Kyoto is not a good idea. Would make more sense to do Nikko as a day trip. While it is possible to see both the temple/shrine and the lake/waterfall, I think that doing both in a single day can be rushed. It would make more sense to stay overnight in Hakone as it is much more on the way between Tokyo and Kyoto.
Would recommend to start by Miyajima, lunch on the island, move to Peace museum, garden if you have time and get dinner in Hiroshima. The reason is that by 5pm most of Miyajima will be close while Hiroshima you will still have a lot of restaurant and shops open.
Arashiyama and Fushimi Inari-taisha are on opposite side of Kyoto, kind of make no sense to do these two on the same day especially when you plan to spend several days in Kyoto.
Yes 7 days pass, just try to leave Tokyo area and return within 7 days. Even if the pass have limited use within cities, that is not the main “issue”, the issue is that local train is cheap, so to save any money compared to pay for individual rides, you would have to ride dozen of trains during a day and on top of that you would be limited to use JR only.