2 Week Itinerary for May-June ’23, Need Feedback

17 comments

1. What a trip!

   After a quick look, is there any reason you are going back to Kyoto after a day in Kobe? Especially seeing you are flying out of Osaka. Kobe at night can be a lot of fun.

2. You seems to like sightseeing in the late evening. While that might work for places like Shinjuku/Shibuya, it might not work well for things like Your Name Pilgrimage or especially shrines tour as it’s getting dark.

3. Because its May, The Ghibli museum might be on maintenance.

   Also im pretty sure MEGA WEB and the ferris wheel area is getting renovated into something else and will both be gone. also looks like the current team labs will both be gone, [https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/these-major-tokyo-attractions-are-closing-down-permanently-in-2022-011722#:~:text=The%20115%2Dmetre%2Dtall%20ferris,last%20day%20on%20August%2031](https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/these-major-tokyo-attractions-are-closing-down-permanently-in-2022-011722#:~:text=The%20115%2Dmetre%2Dtall%20ferris,last%20day%20on%20August%2031).

   Other then that I would make sure to have certain things you want to do more then others, because you never know when you are just gonna come across something you want to check out and then the tight time windows can be thrown into shatters. Also I personally think it would be really hard to have 3-4 people keep to such a schedule up for 2 weeks.

4. Day 1. I’m not sure what you plan to do with 15 minutes in the gardens. I’d either make this longer, or skip. You can probably make the lunch shorter if you want to do this.

   I’d probably consider moving the back to the hotel and unloading until after Akiba, if you plan on shopping. You can use coin lockers in the station to store the other stuff if you have a lot.

   You do Tokyo Tower on day 4 as well. I’d choose one of them. I get the wanting to see day/night view, but you can have one view from Tokyo Tower and one from Skytree at different times. Traveling 40 minutes to be 30 minutes at the TT. Consider replanning to reduce the travel times here.

   Day 2:
   Meiji jingu entrance is by Harajuku station, not Shinjuku station.

   Day3:
   Travel back” to where? There are two travel back. A bit short time in the park maybe..

   Day 4:
   Pretty short allotted time in the Sensoji. And 1 hour for “various bars”? Many places charge a seating fee, so either make this 45-60 min per place, or just do one bar. Ithe locations this day are spread out. Maybe do Asakusa while your in Akihabara, and Shibuya when your on Shinjuku?

   In general, I don’t like these types of plans, and find them to be over-detailed/over-planned. I’d just be stressed by it. But I know everyone is different, so I just pointed out where I see some potential issues.

5. Planning your holiday down to the last 15 minutes a year out seems ambitious! I think that you’re trying to fit much too too much in, and those timings don’t give you any leeway for the usual delays and diversions. For instance, two hours isn’t enough for Himeji Castle, and you don’t seem to have accounted for the 20 minutes walk each way between the station and the castle. You are also assuming that periodic transport like trains and ferries will turn up exactly when you do. You are also not accounting for jet lag: that extremely busy day 1 is unlikely to be physically possible, and the late nights in Tokyo on subsequent days seem ambitious.

   In all seriousness, I’d suggest at least halving what you have planned for each day to give yourself time to actually enjoy the trip and see things other than what’s in your guidebook.

6. This is an ambitious schedule.

   For example, Day 9, 4 June.

   Fushimi Inari → Tofukuji Temple → Daigoji Temple → Sake brewery tour → Nishi Honganji Temple.

   The problem is that we have spent very little time on the approach from the nearest station.

   From what little I have seen, I would say it is a two-day course.

   If we go into detail, it’s a good idea to get as far as Fushimi Inari

   JR Tofukuji Station to Tofukuji Temple is about a 10-minute walk.

   But it’s not a place you’re used to, and there are sights to see along the way, so you’ll want to allow at least 20 minutes.

   You should allow 20 minutes for the walk.

   If we go into detail, it’s a good idea to get as far as Fushimi Inari

   Tofuku-ji Temple to Daigoji Temple also takes approximately one hour.

   From Daigoji to Kintetsu Momoyama Goryo, the starting point of the sake brewery tour, should take at least one hour.

   It takes 30 minutes from Daigo Subway Station to JR Momoyama via JR Rokujizo.

   From there to the sake brewery is approximately 3 km, or 45 minutes.

   Nishi-honganji Temple closes at 5pm.

7. Your travel times are extremely ambitious. There’s walking to the station. Walking thru the station to your platform. Waiting for the next train. Walking back out of the next station and so on. Some stations are huge. It takes a few days to get the hang of it.

   In general what worked best for our trips was to plan one or two stops out in the morning / early afternoon, chill out at the hotel then head back out for evening for one more thing.

   Like others have said – check hours stuff is open. A lot of places we went were – 10 am to 7 or 8 pm at best at night.

8. Researching how long walking or traveling between places is fine for a general planning perspective but you should build a lot more buffer into everything. The time it takes to navigate to the next location, figure out where you need to be in a station, and wait for a train adds up pretty quick from just the Maps calculated travel time. That’s not even factoring in wanting to stay longer then expected at some destinations or checking out shops you see along the way. The way you have it laid out now seems like you would fall “behind” early and it would just be stressful for the rest of the day.

   I think pulling some things out to leave more time for the must-see stuff would be good, and then if you end up ahead of schedule you have those extra activities already researched.

9. It just doesn’t end lol. Like others have said, this is highly ambitious and not recommended. I would not be scheduling four cities in 14 days but maybe that’s just me. I’d worry that by day 5, you’d be scrapping the rest of it being so burnt out.

10. Not sure if any of you have been to Japan or similar islands, but you should consider rest time for your companions in case someone gets heat exhaustion. You should also consider back up for random rain showers in case you need to change clothes.

11. You should really loosen this open. Having a tight schedule like that doesn’t allow for fun or little pitstops/adventures. While everything sounds fun it also seems impossible to pull this off without anything to throw you off schedule.

12. This is all super ambitious and maybe you’re a planner but in my experience having every minute nailed down makes it hard to enjoy anything since you’ll be constantly worrying about timing everything the way you planned and it just doesn’t work out like that in real life. Also things in Japan are constantly closing and opening so who know what will actually exist there a year from now.

    Also, have you considered flying into/out of Haneda? It’s much closer to Tokyo and can save you time to actually get rest that first day/night

13. This is a nightmare. You wanna enjoy your trip, not following schedule down to last minute.

    List 3-4 thing max to do per day and give a healthy 2-3 hours each.

    Trust me, you will see your plan crumble on day 1

    You will not gonna follow that tight schedule. You won’t be able to sight see akiba in one hour. Akiba is big really big, it is not a street, it is combinations of many streets. Heck, you won’t be able to see pokemon center in 45 mins.

    Hakone transportation closed at like 6, so no, after that you need to pay very expensive taxi fee since hakone is just very big and the road are long and winding

    Venus fort permanetly closed for refurbishment

14. Personally I think Hakone is way over rated. Instead, and about the same distance/ travel time from Tokyo, I suggest Nikko. Great combination of beautiful nature, world heritage temples, and a cute little town.

15. The train between Narita and Nippori is not the Narita Express, but the Keisei Skyliner.

    Generally speaking, I think it’s a waste of time to return to the hotel in the afternoon as you planned.

    On day 1, I do not understand why you listed return to hotel from Akihabara when you plan to go to Tokyo Tower.

    Day 3, Venus Fort, Platte Town, Ferris Wheel, TeamLab Borderless and Mega Web are all closing or are already close. The whore area is being redeveloped so you will have to find something else to do in Tokyo.

    Day 4 : why go to Senso-ji and Skytree on different days when they are quite close to each other. Why Tokyo Tower again ? Actually I think that just Mori Tower is enough. Also seems to be a lot of observation deck, maybe just do Mori Tower or Shibuya Sky, but not both.

    Day 5 : you should check what the check-in time is at the ryokan, it is usually before 5pm in most ryokan that have kaiseki meal included.

    Day 6 : does not especially make sense to go to Yunessun at the end of the day when the ryokan you selected is close to Hakone Yumoto station. Yunessun is closer to the things you have at the start of the day.

    Day 7 : While it is true that you could be in Kyoto around 10am, you will have to be in the train a bit before 7am. So if you plan to eat breakfast at the ryokan, then you are likely not going to be in the train that early.

    Generally speaking, I think you have too much in each day and quite often moving too much around the city during the day. It might be a a good idea to put all the location on a Google map and see what is close to what so you can minimize traveling time during the day. For example, Osaka day, why you you do Namba in the middle of the day when there is a direct train from Namba to the airport ? Seems it would make much more sense to do it last.

    Instead of sending a crate of stuff by mail, it might just be cheaper to buy a luggage and bring it with you on the plane. You usually can bring 2x 23kg as check-in luggage.

    Concerning Airu in Hakone, at around 26 000 yen by night by person, you might consider stopping only one night. Go early to Hakone, skip Odawara castle and go to Kyoto at the end of the second day. But yes at this price rance it seems to be a bit more of a luxurious place. Personally I aim for price range between 12 000 to 18 000 for a night in a ryokan, but I am also not expecting to have a private bath in the room or any more luxurious thing.

16. Hey Everyone– I am a friend of OP. I have been working on the itinerary for many hours (a couple of hundred hours over the years), and I have taken everyone’s suggestions into account. I have downsized the trip a lot and fixed problems regarding travel times, closure (things closing earlier than I thought, some things being closed permanently, etc.), and comfort. You guys weren’t a fan of how strict the schedule was, so I turned the itinerary more into larger blocks of time. A part of us posting it here was for you guys to help fix the flaws of our itinerary.

    ​

    Also, I know it wasn’t explained well, but the itinerary was not designed to be followed to a T. My philosophy was I would have something for us to do rather than finding something to do the day of. If we only did half of what we wanted, that would be okay.

    ​

    Finally, we have been planning this for over two years or so which is why it included stuff about MegaWeb, Venus Fort, etc., and I did not think to double-check to see if these places had closed down.

    ​

    OP will post another draft itinerary soon if you guys do not mind checking it out again. We appreciate all the help, as this is our first and probably only vacation we will ever get.

17. Jesus, sorry but the travel organization is going to test some of your friendships. All of you are going to get very frustrated when things don’t go your way, and trust me they won’t. Especially the person who’s so focused on planning each detail. Don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone organizing something so strict – seems like a nightmare, to be honest.

    Recommendation from someone who travels for 10 months a year… just relax. Land in Tokyo and explore it without tension. Move on to the next location when you get bored. Just enjoy your visit, stress free.