Itinerary Check – First Timers JULY 2023 – TOKYO/KYOTO/KINOSAKI/OSAKA/SHIRAHAMA/KOYASAN/OSAKA/TOKYO

Howdy Doody fellow travelers!

I have edited this post to hopefully appease the auto-moderator, though I’m not really sure still what was wrong with the original. My biggest question here is “Is this itinerary too much?” Anyways:
It’s time to walk the path that others have walked before us, and post an itinerary check for my partner and I’s upcoming trip to 日本. I really can’t thank this community enough for being so active and participating in each other’s travel plans to ensure we all have great trips, I feel really lucky to have had friends direct me here when we first started booking our trip.

A little about our travel style and plans:
\- We have 3 week JR pass
\- We will have E-SIM cards ahead of our travel
\- We would like to use luggage storage and Takkyubin services as much as possible
\- We love to walk and explore
\- We are coming to japan with big and adventurous appetites
\- No interest in Universal/Disney type places
\- We love live music and music in general (Microphone, record, and vintage/used recording gear shopping recommendations welcome!)
\- We are both pretty heavily tattooed, but love onsen and bathhouse culture
\- We love animals, but feel maybe too conflicted about animal welfare to visit Nara, or animal cafes

Alright here is the meat and potatoes of when and where:

TOKYO, Kichijoji 7/5-7/9
Arrive at Haneda airport around 930p local time, and take the airport limousine bus to our hotel right outside Kichijoji station. While we don’t have tickets for Ghibli museum, this neighborhood spoke to us for it’s more downtempo energy that looked like Philadelphia (Where we are from). Staying next to the station we figured we have an easy way in and out of Tokyo proper, and a nice place to explore and Izakaya at night.
Details by Day:
7/6 Get settled
7/7 Tsukiji breakfast, National Museum of Modern Art, Shinjuku, Jazz Bar Samurai (Would love any recomendations on jazz bars/clubs in tokyo)
7/8 Shibuya, Shopping, Baseball?, Izakaya in Kichijoji
7/9 Takkyubin luggage to next hotel, Shinkansen to Kyoto
KYOTO, 7/9-7/14
Shinkanen from Tokyo to Kyoto. Our hotel is right around the corner from Umekoji park, and includes a bike rental :). Our plans here are to bike around the city, see the major shrines, take in the architecture, and let our noses lead us to good food. From here we’ll be taking the train to Kinosaki Onsen, and would like to send our luggage via Yamato Takkyubin to our hotel in OSAKA. We won’t be arriving in OSAKA until 7/15 though, and don’t have experience with luggage forwarding, is this something hotels accommodate?

Details by Day:

7/9 Get settled, walk around and explore our neighborhood (Umekoji), maybe walk over to Kyoto Tower
7/10 Fushimi Inari early in the morning, up and around the trail including Kiyotaki and back to Komo-yin Temple. Coffee or naps after that if necessary
7/11 Kiyomizu-Dera early in the morning, Yasaka Jinja shrine after that, food and maybe some thrifting if that’s a thing in kyoto
7/12 No plans yet
7/13 No plans yet
7/14 Train to Kinosaki Onsen
KINOSAKI ONSEN 7/14-7/15
After researching tattoo friendly onsen, this town seemed like a no brainer. We’ll be doing an overnight here to relax and take in the quaint little town before heading to OSAKA for a few days. We’ll be sending our main luggage from kyoto to osaka ahead of time, so we can bring a light pack for Knosaki Onsen.

OSAKA 7/15-7/19
Four nights in OSAKA freshly rested from a night and morning in the onsen! We’ll be staying in Nakanoshima, which seemed like a good area to have access to transit and good walking. On our list of things to do in OSAKA, eating is at the top! Kuromon Ichiba Market, Dotomburi, maybe some anime sized rice at Ramen-Ko if we end up in that neighborhood. Next up is to dive headfirst into any music we can find, record shops, psych rock, absolutely dosed sound baths. Osaka seems like the place where open minded people have gathered, and we would like to be a part of that scene for a few days. In fact we will be coming back to on 7/22 to see the band HIBUSHIBIRE perform. After a few days of OSAKA it’ll be time for a reprieve from the city, so we will hop on a train to SHIRAHAMA!

Details by day:

7/15 Check into hotel, luggage already at hotel. Head out into town for FOOD, ISE Shrine dedication fireworks at night
7/16 Dotonburi, record shopping and thrifting, Shitennoji Temple
7/17 Osaka Castle, Kruomon market
7/18 Minoo park in the morning for some waterfall appreciation, head back to Osaka for lunch
7/19 No Plans other than heading to Shirahama, most likely leaving osaka in the morning so we can spend more time at the beach 🙂

SHIRAHAMA 7/19-7/21
We managed to find a nice old hotel a block away from the main beach in SHIRAHAMA, so much cheaper than anything at the New Jersey shore :). Our plans here are to hang on the beach, walk along the cliffs, explore for good food, and relax in one of Japan’s oldest outdoor onsen (lots of word online that this is a tattoo friendly place) Saki-no-Yu Onsen Spa. After some days of relaxation, swimming, and sunshine, we will make our way to the sacred town of KOYASAN for a temple stay.

Details by day:

7/19 Check into hotel, Beach,
7/20 Beach, Saki-no-yu in the early morning or late evening
7/21 Breakfast, Beach, check out of our hotel and head to Koyasan no later than 11a

KOYASAN 7/21-7/22

This is probably the place I am most excited to visit during our trip. We will be staying overnight at a temple, , something neither of us have experienced. The plan is to arrive in town, explore and take in the sights, enjoy Shojin Ryori, and walk at night through the graveyard. If any of you have experience here I would love to know how we can best be respectful and harmonious with this very special place. After breakfast and some morning meditations we will make our way back to OSAKA for an overnight.

Details by Day:

7/21 Leave shirahama and arrive in koyasan in the early afternoon (4.5 hour train ride) Drop our luggage in storage at Hashimoto station
7/22 Leave koyasan around 12p, pick up our bags at hashimoto station and take the train to osaka
OSAKA 7/22-7/23

We return to OSAKA to see the acid rock band HIBUSHIBIRE perform, and hopefully let the day and night guide us to greater understandings of ourselves and the universe around us all. Then begins the final leg of the journey.
Details by Day:
7/22 Arrive in osaka, see HIBUSHIBIRE, do some partying and eating
7/23 Breakfast in Osaka, Shinkansen to Tokyo

TOKYO 7/23-7/26
After almost three weeks of exploration, we arrive back in TOKYO to revisit the city with a newfound understanding of life in Japan. Hopefully this will imbue us with a fresh perspective on how to best take advantage of our remaining time, including some shopping :). on 7/26 we head back to Haneda Airport and さよなら.

Details by Day:

7/23 Shinkansen to tokyo from osaka, check into hotel
7/24 Akihabara, Ochanomizu shopping
7/25 No Plans yet
7/26 Haneda airport, goodbye japan
And that’s that!

Are we missing anything? Is there anything you think we should know about these plans? Are we too ambitious of is this an alright itinerary for first timers?

We welcome recommendations for:

\- Luggage storage and Takkyubin
\- Food
\- Live Music
\- Record stores/ Record bars
\- Hiking
\- Biking
\- Art
\- Recording and music gear
\- Coffee
\- Shibari/Kinbaku
\- Tattoo friendly Onsen
\- Grateful Dead cover bands

Thanks for taking the time to read through this, once again, we greatly appreciate the wealth of information gathered together on this subreddit, and the people who make it happen.
ありがとうございます!!

\- Worm