Hi all! My husband and I are going to be finally going on our honeymoon to Japan this fall, so I’d like to ask for a bit of feedback on our (incomplete) itinerary so I can get to booking ryokan stays. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
A few caveats about us: we are located in NYC so very used to lots of walking/crowded cities/public transit, so although some days are heavy on walking, I think we’ll be ok as it is similar to our daily activity level. The main things I want to do are take baths, go to lots of shrines and other historical areas, anything anime/manga/video game related (especially the Ryu ga Gotoku series!!!), anything related to aquariums and fishkeeping. My husband loves samurai/swords, irezumi/Japanese traditional tattooing, and anime/gaming. If you have any interesting suggestions to hit any of those things I would be very grateful! Finally, we both have many tattoos – we know to look for tattoo-friendly onsens and to try to book private baths when possible, but if you have any suggestions in the cities we are hitting I’d be very grateful 🙂
Finally, anything in *italics* is optional but that I added to the itinerary in case we feel up to it!
Day 0: (Sat 10/28) Arrival day
* Land in Haneda at 4:30pm
* Wander around before crashing at our hotel in Shinjuku
Day 1-4 (Sun 10/29 – Wed 11/1) Tokyo
* No concrete plans so far but we want to hit the main tourist spots in this time, gonna refine this further once in the coming weeks
* Night of 11/1: travel to Takayama and stay overnight in a ryokan
Day 5 (Th 11/2) Takayama
* Sanmachi suji, heritage houses, lunch in Sanmachi, Takayama Jinya, Sakurayama-Hachimangu shrine, Higashiyama walkway, spend another night in Takayama
Day 6 (F 11/3) Shirakawa-go
* AM: Travel to Shirakawa-go
* Observatory, Ogimachi village, Gassho-Zukuri folk village outdoor museum
* Evening: Travel to Kanazawa, stay in ryokan (or really any hotel that has nice baths)
Day 7-8 (Sat 11/4 – Sun 11/5) Kanazawa
* Day 7: Higashi Chaya/*Kazuemachi Chaya*, Omicho market, Nagamachi
* Day 8: Kenroku-en, Kanazawa castle, art museums (21st century contemporary art museum, DT Suzuki museum, Ishikawa prefectural museum)
* Evening: travel to Kyoto
Day 9-13 (Mon 11/6 – Fri 11/10) Kyoto
* Day 9: South Higashiyama – Kiyomizu-dera, Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka, *Kodai-ji temple*, Maruyama-koen, Yasaka shrine, *Chion-in, Shoren-in*, return to hotel to rest, dinner and walk around in downtown Kyoto
* Adding all of these to the itinerary but we will skip any if we don’t feel up to it
* Day 10: Arashiyama/NW Kyoto – Arashiyama, Okochi Sanso garden, Tenryu-ji, Kinkaku-ji, Daitoku-ji, rest at hotel, dinner and walk around in downtown Kyoto
* Day 11: Kurama/Kibune hike (half day) and North Higashiyama – Kurama/Kibune hike in the morning, return to Kyoto, *Kyoto international manga museum*, samurai and ninja museum, tea ceremony
* The second half of the day is intentionally light so we can see what we feel like doing in the moment
* Day 12: Downtown Kyoto – Nijo-jo castle, Nishiki market, Gion/Pontocho
* I’d love to do a tour or meet a maiko/geisha – I’ve seen there are dinner experiences with English translators that you can book but was wondering if these are worth it!
* Also interested in seeing traditional music performances if anyone has recommendations
* Day 13: South Kyoto – Fushimi Inari, Nanzen-ji, Eikan-do, Okazaki shrine, Philosopher’s path, Honen-in, Ginkaku-ji
* Evening: travel to Osaka
Day 14-17 (Sat 11/11 – Tues 11/14) Osaka + day trips
* Day 14: Nara day trip, explore Dotonbori in the evening
* Day 15: Osaka – maybe aquarium this day, Teamlab Botanical Garden in the evening
* Day 16: Osaka – TBD
* Day 17: Himeji day trip, travel to Hakone in the evening for ryokan stay
Day 18 (Weds 11/15) Hakone
* Hot springs, open air museum, ??? TBD, either stay another night at a ryokan OR *travel to Tokyo*
Day 19-20 (Th 11/16 – Fri 11/17) Tokyo
* Aiming to do a lot of shopping for souvenirs, figurines, etc these two days
Day 21 (Sat 11/18) Departure day
* TBD in the morning
* Fly out of Haneda at 7PM
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I would be very grateful for any suggestions or tweaks you guys would suggest! I’m hoping to book ryokan stays ASAP so I am mostly concerned with travel logistics at this point – do you think this is feasible in terms of travel time? Is this a good order of cities to visit?