Girlfriend and I are planning a 15-day trip starting in Osaka to Kyoto to Tokyo. Trip will take place in late September to early October. Plan to stay in one hotel per city that are all 10 or less minutes walk to a station. Don’t plan on doing many night-life activities as rather have an earlier start and be in bed by 10-11pm after winding down in the hotel.
Besides for travel days, schedule can definitely be changed depending on weather or burnout. Some days I just list as a location because it’s more of an explore and find day. Currently only the flight is set in stone as hotels are pay when we arrive situations.
Thanks in advance.
Day 1: Arrive in Japan
* Arrive in Tokyo at 1:35pm
* Travel from Tokyo to Osaka at 3:00pm
**How long will customs take on arrival or can it be skipped until after traveling to Osaka as there is only 90 minutes between flight times?**
* Arrive in Osaka at 4:05pm
* Airport to hotel
* Potentially visit either Amerikamura or Umeda Sky Building at night. (Skipping Umeda on other days as we don’t care too much if we get to it or not.)
Day 2: Dotonbori/Minami
* Explore Dotonbori/Minami (Shinsaibashi, Ebisubashi, Pokemon Cafe, Mame Shiba Cafe)
* Amerikamura if didn’t visit first day at night.
Day 3: Day trip to Koyasan
* [Using the schedule from japan-guide.com](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4910_koyasan_2day.html) to visit. Is it possible to turn it more into a single day? Okunoin Cemetery then the Daimon Gate and the Women’s Pilgrim trail to start heading back to Osaka. I know there are several hours of travel so Okunoin and head back might be better?
Day 4: Finish Osaka then travel to Kyoto
* Visit Osaka Castle
* Checkout from hotel at 2:00pm. Depending on how much luggage we bring, we will either luggage forward to Kyoto or just take it on public transport as we will have access to washer/dryer for clothes at hotels so can pack light.
* Check-in to Kyoto hotel sometime between 3-4pm.
* Visit Gion, Yasaka Shrine, and Maruyama Park as hotel is a few minute walk from Gion.
Day 5: Arashiyama
* Bamboo Forest, Nonomiya Shrine, Tenryu-ji, Senko-ji, Kinkaku-ji, Iwatayama Monkey Park
Day 6:
* Kiyomizu, Kiyomizu-dera, Jishu-Jinja Shrine
Day 7: Day trip to Nara
* Mount Wakakusa, Isui-en, and Neiraku Art Museum
Day 8: Travel to Tokyo
* Fushimi Inari Taisha and Nijō Castle
* Checkout of hotel and travel to Tokyo on shinkansen. Should have plenty of room for luggage so no luggage forward. Nothing else planned besides checking into hotel which is in the Asakusa area.
Day 9: Red Tokyo Tower
* Thinking about turning this into a day trip somewhere or just something else in general.
Day 10:
* DiverCity Tokyo Plaza
* Miraikan
* TeamLab Planets
Day 11: Akihabara
Day 12: Harajuku
* Yoyogi Park
* Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Day 13: Nakano Broadway
Day 14: Day trip to Hakone
* Nothing planned currently besides traveling here.
Day 15: Final Day
* Tokyo Skytree (Pokemon Center)
* Ueno Park
* Checkout of hotel and travel to Haneda Airport to depart at 3:50pm
4 comments
Immigration and customs must be done at your point of entry; so Tokyo for you. It will also include baggage claim and rechecking. Depending on your airline(s), you will most likely need to change terminals too. Japanese airlines (for the Tokyo-Osaka flight) are quite flexible though, so if you miss the 3pm, they will move you to a later flight.
Your transfer to Osaka is definitely not a good idea. First of all, you have to hope that you get into Tokyo on time, then you have to go through immigration, baggage claim, customs and then transfer to the domestic terminal, check in your bag and get to your gate. All before the cut off time which will be earlier than departure time of course.
There are three terminals at Narita, if you are lucky you are arriving and departing from the same terminal, but that’s something you’ll have to check depending on your airlines. If you are departing from a different terminal, you’ll have to take the shuttle bus which just adds more time.
Whether or not your domestic ticket will be re-issued if you miss the flight depends on the terms of the ticket, not based on anything else as another poster suggested.
Day 1 seems right. Even if you make the flight connection, you have a lot planned for the day. Don’t underestimate jet lag and exhaustion after travelling half way around the globe.
I would 100% not try to do Koyasan in a single day. It is quite the journey to get up there. You would have practically no time to explore when up there. You definitely would want to stroll through the cemetery to the temple at the other side, which you would certainly not have time for if it was a day trip (about a mile and a half walk if I remember correctly). Unfortunately I don’t know about Okunoin.
Plus staying the night at one of the Buddhist temples up there is pretty cool.