Hello! My husband and I are planning a trip to Japan mid-September and wanted to get some thoughts on our itinerary. Our interests are: anime/themed, food/cafes, nature, and cultural experiences:
Day 0 (9/8) – Fly to ICN 1PM
Day 1 – Arrive at ICN 5:30PM
– check in hotel
– late dinner
– convenience store snacks + drinks
Day 2
– errands
– lunch with friends
– cafe + shopping
– dinner with family
– cafe + shopping
Day 3 – Fly from ICN to Fukuoka @ 2PM
– cafe + shopping
– brunch (korea)
– check into hotel (Fukuoka)
– Ohori Park
– Canal City
– Yatai Yokocho
Day 4 (9/12) – take shinkansen to Kumamoto early morning (40 mins)
– One Piece Statues (Luffy, Chopper, Sanji, Zoro, Nami)
– take shinkansen to Hiroshima night/check in hotel (1hr 50 min)
Day 5 – Hiroshima
– miyajima island
– take shinkansen to Osaka night/check in hotel (1 hr 50 min)
Day 6 – Universal Studios
– nintendwo world
– Sanji restaurant
– Mario cafe
– Pokemon Center Osaka
Day 7 – Free Day
– Kuromon Market (?)
– Shinsekai (?)
Day 8 – take shinkansen to Odawara/Hakone (noon-ish 3 hrs)
– ryokan
– anything else to do late evening?
Day 9 – Hakone
– pampas grass fields
– torii gate
– Hakone ropeway
– shinkansen to Tokyo (evening train)
– check into hotel (Asakusa)
Day 10-12 – Tokyo
– pokemon center(s)
– Akihabara/Ikebukuro
– other suggestions?
– we may be moving hotels on Day 12 near Shimbashi station
Day 13 (9/21) – fly back home 3:25PM
– konbini snacks + other shopping
Would getting a JR pass be worth it for our itinerary?
We are solely in Kumamoto to check out the One Piece statues (huge fans of anime and manga). Do you think the 5 statues we listed is doable in 6-7 hours?
Should we add one night in Kumamoto or Fukuoka instead? Or is visiting Hiroshima worth it/make sense?
Would the pampas fields be worth visiting mid-September (9/16)?
Any other recommendations for activities near Hakone?
Anything we should add or take out from our list?
Thank you in advance!
2 comments
I stayed one night in Fukuoka on my spring trip (and one night in Kitakyushu). Lovely area, you’ll have fun at Canal City for shopping. Check out the Jump store, and *highly* recommend the Kirby Café at Canal City if you have time. The one in Tokyo is hard to get into, but my mom and I got reservations easily in Fukuoka. We spent more time in Canal City than we thought, so I’m thinking that day might be a bit rushed, but possibly doable.
I haven’t been to Kumamoto, unfortunately. Hopefully someone else can answer that for you!
Hiroshima was nice. We did Miyajima in the late morning (morning train from Kokura), and the Peace Museum in the afternoon until closing. If you’re just doing Miyajima, you’ll make it to Osaka at a decent hour to enjoy the evening.
If you want to skip Hiroshima/Miyajima, try taking an overnight ferry from Kitakyushu to Osaka. Gets you there and saves a night of accommodation.
In Osaka, Dontonbori is really neat, especially at night if you take the canal cruise. If you like anime/manga, Denden Town is great area to shop in.
Haven’t been to Hakone (yet), hopefully you enjoy the ryokan!
Tokyo is so huge, with lots of stuff to do. We enjoyed TeamLab Planets, highly recommend. You can easily spend days in Akihabara and Ikebukuro though.
If you want to calculate the costs of the train tickets, use Japan Travel by Navitime. I used that on my springs trip and figured one of the regional passes and individual tickets worked better than the JR Pass.
If you have any more questions, let me know! Happy planning 🙂
Hakone has nothing much to do in the late evenings, basically back to ryokan and chill in the onsen. If you are driving then perhaps you can still explore around without the worry of missing the last bus, driving is definitely less time consuming and more flexible.