Hi All! My husband (30M) and I (30F) are going to Japan for the first time and would love some input and suggestions for our itinerary. My husband is into Trading Card Games like yugioh & digimon and loves anime. I enjoy art and learning/experiencing the culture. We both enjoy sightseeing (mostly just wandering around), eating anything even if it’s just to try something new, and being in nature. We don’t really drink or party so night life isn’t a priority. We are relatively healthy and I work out regularly so I hope it’s enough for all the walking we will be doing.
I included the list of activites we would like to do at the bottom. I tried to group them by vicinity to eachother and that way we can just choose a grouping the day of. I really would love to do a tea ceremony and if there are any wagashi making classes I would love a suggestion.
We have no booked any hotels yet. And I wanted to attend a festival so if I could get help finding out **how to fit in the Takayama: Takayama Autumn Matsuri (October 9 – 10) or any festivals that may be happening.**
10/5 Land in Haneda Airport at 5pm (Flying from JFK/NYC)
10/6 Tokyo
10/7 Tokyo to Osaka
10/8 Osaka
10/9 Hiroshima (Day trip from Osaka)
*Hiroshima Castle*
*Peace memorial park*
*Okonomimura*
10/10 Osaka
10/11 Nara (Day trip from Osaka)
*We just want to see Nara Park*
10/12 Mount Koya / Okunion Cemetery (Day trip from Osaka)
*We just want to walk around the Okunion Cemetery*
*1*0/13 Osaka to Kyoto
10/14 – 10/17 Kyoto
10/18 Kyoto to Hakone
10/19 Hakone
10/20 Hakone to Tokyo
10/21 Tokyo
10/22 Nikko (Day trip from Tokyo)
*Edo Wonderland*
*10/23 – 10/26 Tokyo*
10/27 Flight out from Haneda Airport @ 6:30pm
**Activities in each:**
**Tokyo** \-
Walk around Asakusa
Senso-ji
Don Quijote Asakusa
Ueno Park
Akihabara
Avatar Robot Cafe (Nihonbashi)
Walk around Shibuya
Sakurai Baisa Kenkyu-jo (Tea experience)
Harajuku
Meiji Jingu
Ryu no Miyako Inshokugai (Shinjuku Yokocho)
**Places in Tokyo that are not near other activities:**
Pokemon Mega Center (Toshima City)
Nakano Broadway Shopping Center
Team Lab Tokyo
**Osaka -**
DenDen Town
Taito Station (Gaming)
Shinsekai
Retro Videogames Zarigani
Parco Shinsaibashi
Dotonbori
Pokemon Center Osaka
Osaka Castle and Park
**Kyoto -**
Kyoto international Manga Museum
Kimono Tea Ceremony (Nakagyo Ward)
Pontocho Park
Nishiki Market
Samurai and Ninja Museum
Walk around – Gion, Higashiyama Ward, Philosopher’s path,
Kinkaku-ji
Ryoan-Ji
Arashiyama
**Hakone -**
Stay at a nice ryokan with bath
Lake Ashi
Owakudani
4 comments
if all you want from Kobe is to eat the beef, I’m reasonably sure you can eat Kobe beef in osaka or kyoto! freeing up that day could give you room to hit another place for a night stay (we’re doing Naoshima island which I’m excited about) or do a different day trip. alternately, if you wanna keep Kobe, do some research on other stuff to do there to make the day trip worth it. Last time I went, my trip buddy’s friend was living nearby and showed us some of her favorite restaurants in Kobe. It wouldn’t have been worth it for me without that “guide” imo
there are some things you won’t be able to leave flexible until day of – for example teamlab planets you’ll need to buy tickets for 4-6 weeks in advance it seems, based on current demand on their website.
also i’ve been told akihabara is best on sundays
I posted our itinerary recently so feel free to mine ideas for activities from tokyo/kyoto [https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/14tt12t/itinerary_check_10_days_across_tokyo_naoshima/](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/14tt12t/itinerary_check_10_days_across_tokyo_naoshima/)
Oeh, well be in japan around the same time. Well be there 03-24 oktober.
One thin I would recomemend is maybe adding a stop in Miajima of your going to hiroshima.
If you want to add the Takayama festivale I would lump Hiroshima and kobe together in one day. If you are only going to kobe for the beef. Arnage for a fancy beef restaurant for dinner.
You can take the first Hikari from shin osaka at 6 am. Do the peace museum and the castle in the morning, a tour of the peace museum was always about an hour-2 hours max, go to okonomimura for lunch. You could take the 14:00 hikari to kobe. Will gove you 4-5 hours at kobe.
Looks like you’re spending a lot of time staying in Osaka but not actually exploring it. It’s totally up to personal preference, but I think Osaka deserves at least two full days, unless you plan to do most of that at night after you’re back from day trips.
With the plan as is would the JR pass makes sense or would regional passes be better?