Hey guys, seeing all those trip itinerary check on this subreddit made me want to check with you guys if what we are planning for our trip make senses (especially our plans for the 5th day).
So we, my girlfriend and I, are travelling to japan in mid-end august to early september for 17 days. First of all, I’m about to buy a sim card [here](https://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/note_un_7gb.html) and a Japan rail pass [here](https://www.japan-rail-pass.com/transportation/japan-rail-pass/national?currency=CAD). I think I’m still early enough to be safe with the post for the rail pass? Or should i just pay the 40-50$ extra and grab the pass on the official website and I’ll also be able to use their website to reserve seats on shinkansen (not sure if it will be needed tho). My gf has an iphone so she will be using an esim card and the suica card on her apple wallet, and i’ll use the physical bmobile sim card and probably buy a suica card once I arrive, or would I manage with simply a credit card and a few hundreds dollars in yen? We have our hotels booked and 1 or 2 activities, the rest is only what we’re thinking of doing. So now for the itinerary:
1st day : arriving and getting to our hotel in ginza and settling down.
2nd day : imperial palace, walking/shopping around ginza and tsukiji market.
3rd day : Tokyo Skytree, Senso-ji, walking around Akihabara.
4th day : Tokyo Disneyland (still on the fence about it, it’s mostly my gf that wants to go, and let’s say i’m curiously interested, I never have been to a Disney park, my gf went to the Californian one for her first time not too long ago). Like I would like to go, but i wouldn’t want to if it means I would miss on another more tradionally “japanese” activity if you get what I mean?
5th day : Check out of our hotel. Then TeamLab Planet early in the morning (might push it over to later when we return to tokyo). We are thinking of using one of those luggage delivery services (recommandations?) to send our luggage to our Kyoto hotel (we’ll have 2 backpacks and would send 2 carry-on and 1 suitcase, we’re also thinking of bringing an extra empty sport bags in case we need space to bring back goodies) and we would take shinkansen to the shin-fuji station around noon, and then we would try to see Fujisan as much as possible (maybe taking a bus to a vantage point, not sure of the best option?) for a few hours before taking another train from shin-fuji to Kyoto in late afternoon/early evening. I’m aware that to take the train from fuji to kyoto seems to take 1h longer and require a change of train at another station halfway trough, but I think it would still be worth it? Then just settling in our hotel in Kyoto and maybe walking around our hotel area.
6th day : Fushimi Inari Taisha, Higashiyama Ward, Nishiki Market (our hotel is next to it)
7th day : Arashiyama Bamboo Grove , Kinkaku-ji, open?
8th day : Travel from Kyoto to Osaka (changing hotel) . Osaka Castle, walking around Dotonbori (hotel not far from there)
9th day : Nara park, open?
10th day : Osaka Aquarium, open?
11th day : Universal Studio Japan (mainly Nintendo World), this is already booked and was non-negotioable for my GF, she’s a big Nintendo fan,Well I also enjoy Nintendo but not as much haha.
12th day : Traveling from Osaka to Hiroshima. Hiroshima Castle
13th day : Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Peace Memorial Park
14th day : Traveling from Hiroshima to Tokyo. Hotel in Shinjuku this time. Walking Around Shinjuku
15 and 16th day : Ghibli Museum(depending on if we are able to get tickets and on which day), Hachiko Square, Shibuya Crossing/City, Shibuya Sky, Starbucks Reserve Tokyo, Meiji Jingu, TeamLab Planet
17th day : last minute activity/shopping and flying out!
We booked our hotel quite early, thank god we did because prices seems to have exploded since. We were thinking of changing dates to have one more day in Tokyo and one less in Osaka but the prices to change was too expensive so we’re “stuck” with those dates for our hotels, but the rest is pretty flexible. What do you guys think of our plans? Does it make senses, We have a few days with free time so we really are open to suggestion for others activities to add. I’m also looking for restaurants recommandations if you guys have a few. Thanks a lot for the help!
2 comments
You will need some version of an IC card unless you want to buy a paper ticket with cash every time you ride the subway and always have change for the bus or tram. It’s not like London for example where you can tap in and out with a credit card
About Suica, your GF will be able to use it on her phone to pay for many things, but not everywhere accept it as a payment method, so better have a credit card as well as cash on hand to be ready depending on payment method accepted in store.
For you, getting an IC card will make payment of transit easier, but you will have to charge it with cash, so you might prefer to use your credit card in priority when possible as anything paid by Suica, while convenient, will be pretty much like paying with cash.
Luggage delivery, ask your hotel if they can help you, many do. Otherwise, Kuroneko Yamato is the most common and you can even drop it in many convenience stores.
You can see Mount Fuji from Shin-Fuji station, but if it’s cloudy and you cannot see it, don’t bother getting out of the train. On of the kind of know vantage point is Mishima Skywalk, but that is from Mishima station not Shin-Fuji.