Hey everyone,
I (22M) will be going on a 2 week trip with my girlfriend (22F) in November, it will be my second time visiting the country and her first time. The first time I went was a couple years ago for 1 week with my mom and although it was amazing, we didn’t have any sort of itinerary and just wandered around Osaka. I would really appreciate any tips or suggestions, I’m hoping to have everything planned and booked by the end of this week!
If anyone has any suggestions for good biking or hiking destinations please let me know as well :p
Itinerary Overview:
**Day 1 Tokyo (Wednesday, Oct. 25)**
* 5:00 PM landing at HND
* Check into hotel in Shibuya (3 nights)
* Wander around Shibuya
**Day 2 Tokyo (Thursday, Oct. 26)**
* Wake up early to go to Meiji shrine
* Shopping in Harajuku + Shibuya
* Shibuya Sky reservation in the evening
**Day 3 Tokyo(Friday, Oct. 27)**
* Spend the day at DisneySea
**Day 4 Tokyo (Saturday, Oct. 28)**
* Senso-ji
* Ueno Park
* Akihabara
* Anime and Gaming shops
* Pokemon Center
**Day 5 Tokyo(Sunday, Oct. 29)**
* Undecided, need suggestions
* Mostly looking to explore a bit more, eat some good food and walk around
**Day 6 Day Trip to Kamakura/Enoshima (Monday, Oct. 30)**
* Visit a shrine or two, enjoy the scenery and head back to Tokyo after sunset
**Day 7 Day Trip to Nikko(Tuesday, Oct. 31)**
* Feeling a bit iffy about Nikko but it doesn’t seem too far from Tokyo
**Day 8 Hakone (Wednesday, Nov. 1)**
* Spend the day at Senkyoro and enjoy the private onsen
**Day 9 Kyoto (Thursday, Nov. 2)**
* Fushimi Inari early morning
* Kiyomizudera
* Enjoy some green tea and mochi
**Day 10 Kyoto (Friday, Nov. 3)**
* Arashiyama
* Monkey Park
* Tenryuji
**Day 11 Day trip to Nara (Saturday, Nov. 4)**
* See the Deer
**Day 12 Kanazawa(Sunday, Nov. 5)**
* Walk around get lost, enjoy the city
**Day 13 Osaka (Monday, Nov. 6)**
* America-mura
* Walk through Shinsaibashisuji to Dotonbori
**Day 14 Day trip to Kobe (Tuesday, Nov. 7)**
* Kobe Herb Gardens
* eat some Kobe beef ofc
* head back to Osaka
**Day 15 Osaka(Wednesday, Nov. 8)**
Free day
Fly out of KIX and head back to LAX
​
**Additional notes:**
Nothing is set in stone yet so I can remove a few days from Tokyo and add more onto Kyoto/Osaka or vice versa.
Also, I wanted to propose to her during the trip and was wondering if anyone knows any good spots? I was thinking Hitachi Seaside Park because she loves blue flowers and there’s tons of them there 😀
Any recommendations and optimizations would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for your time.
6 comments
feeling overwhelmed with making an itinerary so it’s really barebones at the moment and only includes things that we 100% want to see. everything else will just be left up to suggestions or our own personal exploration and not stressing about a schedule
On your Fushimi Inari day I would recommend also going to Kiyomizudera. One of my favorite parts of my trip when I went. There are also plenty of local shops in the surround area and a large statue that’s pretty cool. On your free day in Kyoto I recommend wandering around arashiyama! There is a monkey park, beautiful river, and Tenryuji!
Definitely DisneySea. Disneyland is pretty much the same in the states.
For your 4th day, Akihabara might not be a full day’s worth of activity. If you want to do more anime/gaming, you could add on Ikebukuro and/or Nakano Broadway. Or, if Akihabara is enough, you could go to Senso-ji or do activities in Ueno. Most of the stores in Akihabara open at 11 or later, so you could do something first and then go there. I found it extremely crowded and I saw more of what I wanted to buy at other locations than Akihabara, but it’s worth seeing and experiencing imo.
If you think about proposing, maybe think about staying a night on Miyajima Island? It’s a 2,5 hour trip from Kyoto, but it has also has deers so you could skip Nara and/or repurpose the Nikko day if you’re unsure about that one anyway. I do understand if you don’t want to add another accommodation though.
Similarly, if you‘re into cycling you could do the Shimanami Kaido and stay a night at Omishima Island halfway through the route – I haven’t been, but Setoda Sunset Beach is supposed to be very pretty. That would add more accommodations though as well.
Proposing at Arashiyama or Fushimi Inari in Kyoto sounds romantic, but would also be very full. I haven’t been to Hitachi Seaside Park, but the pictures do look beautiful :).
If you want to do green tea in Kyoto think about doing a tea ceremony introduction. Tea Ceremony Nagomi is one we booked for our trip in October and was very easy to book in English :).
Could do a Tokyo day spent over in Shimokitazawa or Koenji? Or Kamakura?