Hi! I’m going to Japan with two of my friends later this month and I wanted to see if our current itinerary is good. Any advice or recommendations are welcome!
Some questions I have:
* Are some of these days too empty? Too full? I’m not sure how our energy levels will keep up as we go on.
* How much Japanese skill is necessary? I know the most basic phrases and I can form some sentences but we’re not fluent by any means.
* Recommendations for things to see/do? We don’t have specific requests, but we all love good food and interesting sights (I’m a video games nerd so stuff relating to that would be good as well)
**Day 0:**
* Arrive in Tokyo, have dinner in Ginza
**Day 1:**
* Morning Hamarikyu Gardens, TeamLab Planets, Tsukiji Outer Market Lunch,
* Afternoon/Evening Tokyo VR Red, Dinner in Ginza/Roppongi
**Day 2:**
* Morning: Akihabara, arcades
* Afternoon/Evening: Shibuya/Harajuku (could be switched)
* Things we would like to see: Meiji Shrine, Yoyogi Park, Shibuya Sky
**Day 3:**
* Morning/Afternoon: Ghibli Museum (somehow got tickets…), Inokashira Park, Kichijoji Area,
* Evening: tbd
Evening: tbd
**Day 4:**
* Morning: Skytree, Senso-ji
* Afternoon: Senso-ji, Ueno Park
**Day 5:**
* Morning: Imperial Palace
* Afternoon: Shinjuku
* Yayoi Kusama Museum, Omoide Yokocho, etc
**Day 6:**
* Morning: Ginza
* Departure to Kyoto in the afternoon, dinner in Downtown Kyoto/Nishiki Market
Day 7: (is this too tight?)
* Morning: eastern section (kiyomizu-dera and surrounding),
* afternoon in Arashiyama, evening in Kinkakuji
Day 8:
* morning: fushimi inari shrine,
* afternoon: travel to Osaka, evening Dotonbori/Shinsekai
Day 9:
* Morning: Osaka Bay Aquarium, Osaka Bay
* Afternoon: Osaka Castle, Umeda Sky Building,
* Evening: Kita/Umeda
Day 10:
* Universal Studios
Day 11:
* final shopping in Kita/Umeda, potentially going to back to Dotonbori
Day 12: Departure
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Let me know how this looks! Thank you!
3 comments
If you want to do everything in universal you need at least 2 full days
Hi!
The problem with visiting Akihabara and Harajuku is a lot of shops in both don’t open until 11 or noon. They really work best if you can put them with a morning activity you can do until they really open.
Nishiki Market pretty much closes between 5-6. You can definitely eat in one of the shops in the covered shopping arcades surrounding Nishiki, but Nishiki itself closes early, so you will presumably be eating an earlyish dinner.
I’m not sure what you mean by evening at Kinkakuji. It also closes at 5 and I want to say last admission is probably 4:30. So I’m not sure that qualifies as “evening” and I think it makes day 7 a little tight depending on how much time you want to spend in Arashiyama and Kiyomizudera. All 3 tend to be very popular and get quite crowded, so it can be a bit much.
Good luck!
I think your itinerary is well balanced, I wouldnt overplan at this point. When you get there you will find things you want to do.