Hello, I am planning a solo trip in October from the 7th to the 22nd. I will already be in Japan for work and will start my trip the 7th in the evening when I arrive in Tokyo by train.
# Itinerary
## Tokyo
08/10 : Ueno park, Tokyo National Museum and Shitamachi museum
09/10 : Meiji-jingu, Omotesando and strolling in Harajuku and Shibuya
10/10 : Senso-ji, Tokyo Skytree and Akihabara
11/10 : Train to Osaka
## Osaka
12/10 : Osaka aquarium Kaiyukan, Dotonbori
13/10 : Osaka castle, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, National Museum of Art, Kuchu Teien Observatory
14/10 : Day trip to Nara with the park, Todai-ji and National Museum
15/10 : Travel to Hiroshima
## Hiroshima
16/10 : Peace Memorial Park, Shukkeien Garden and Hiroshima Castle
17/10 : Travel to Kyoto
## Kyoto
18/10 : Ryoan-ji, Kinkaku-ji, Daitoku-ji, Nijo Castle and Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
19/10 : Ginkaku-ji, Philosopher’s path, Gion, Maruyama Park, Higahiyama Ward and Kiyomizu-dera
20/10 : Travel back to Tokyo
## Tokyo again
21/10 : Not sure yet, maybe around the imperial palace
22/10 : 08:30 am flight from Haneda
# Some notes
On days when I change city I didn’t plan anything as I would use that time to rest a bit, check out late from the hotel, take the train and check in early in the new hotel. Then I’d have the evening to walk around.
I should probably travel from Hiroshima to Kyoto on the evening of October 16th to get one more day, I probably planned too much in Kyoto for two days.
# Questions
The 14-day JR pass should be cheaper than separate tickets but I’ll need IC cards. I’ll probably take the Kansai One Pass but I don’t know if I need the Welcome Suica since the Yamanote line is included in the JR pass. Apart from the Senso-ji and Tokyo skytree, is anything not easily reachable using the Yamanote line ?
How far from the airport should I be for the last part before leaving ? The airline asks to arrive at the airport one hour before departure and the monorail seems fast. Is it good if I book a hotel near Hamamatsucho station and leave 2 hours before departure time ?
Thank you for your time.
3 comments
On the 11, you can absolutely do something, the train ride is not that long so you can plan the afternoon in Osaka if you take the train in the morning, or most of the day in Tokyo if you take the train in the afternoon. Same idea with 15, you could stop by Himeji castle on the way to Hiroshima and honestly if you do, can skip Hiroshima castle that is a reconstruction. If you start the day early, like aim to be in Himeji at 9am when the castle open, you can do Himeji castle and Koko-en garden in the morning, lunch in Himeji or even grab a lunch to eat in the shinkansen, peace museum in the afternoon and next day you could do something different like Miyajima. And again17 and 20 you can plan something on those days.
I get that you want to rest, but 4 days doing close to nothing over 2 week seems to be a lot of wasted opportunity.
You are right, Asakusa and Skutree are the only places that you cannot reach via JR, but buying a couple of individual tickets is not too difficult.
Usually you should get to the airport 2-3 hours in advance for international flight. Check-in counter usually close 60 minutes before scheduled departing time, so you are playing with fire planning to get to the airport an hour in advance. But yes Hamamatsucho would give you an easy access via the monorail or you could do something like Shinagawa or anything along the Asakusa line and use Keikyu/Asakusa line to the airport.
You can use the same IC card in all the places you are going. The major ones interchangeable. Pick one up at wherever you fly into
I believe Sports Day will happen on October 9th. It’s a National holiday. Not sure if there’s any special events this day though