Itinerary for 12 days as a first timer Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Osaka, Nara, Tokyo

Hello everyone!

I’m traveling to Japan for the first time in late August, early September with a friend. As it is our first time visiting Japan we are super excited but also kind of worried to be missing something, so I wanted to show you guys our plans and we would appreciate any kind of advice on the itinerary! We don’t have a detailed itinerary yet, there’s so much things to do so that’s one of the reasons we are asking for help!
Buying a Ubigi Esim for this trip.

My friend and I are 26yo so we are willing to walk and explore everything in these 12 days in Japan, we are into gaming, anime, sports, fashion and excited to discover Japanese nightlife.

We think getting the JR Pass for 14 days is the way to go since we will use it Day 1 from NRT to Shibuya but if you we could go 7 days please let us know!!

This is our itinerary:

1. **Thursday – Day 1: Tokyo**
Arrive into Tokyo NRT around 6pm.
Pickup JR pass from Airport.
Head to Airbnb in shibuya and take dinner around.

2. **Friday – Day 2: Tokyo**
Meiji-Jingu in the morning
Explore Akihabara during the day Harajuku
Head back to Shibuya crossing, Hachiko statue, maybe Shibuya Sky? and do some shopping in Uniqlo lol.
Enjoy the night in Shibuya

3. **Saturday – Day 3: Tokyo**
We have a Teamlabs reservation at 9am on this day
Tsukiji Market, we are thinking if we should do this before teamlabs or after to grab breakfast/snack.
Explore Odaiba and visit the Gundam Statue.
Explore Ginza area OR go all the way to Senso-Ji in Asakusa and explore Asakusa Area (we are not really planning in do heavy shopping in Ginza area, more like a walk around to see what’s in there).

4. **Sunday – Day 4: Tokyo – Kyoto**
Arashiyama at midday
Hopefully doing Kinkaku-ji or Tenryu-Ji

5. **Monday – Day 5: Hiroshima Daytrip**
For this we are planning to grab an early train to Hiroshima and hopefully doing Miyajima in the same day.
Visit Hiroshima castle, peace museum.

6. **Tuesday – Day 6: Kyoto**
Fushimi Inari early in the morning
Kiyomizu-dera
Hokan-Ji
Northen Kyoto
Explore Gion

7. **Wednesday – Day 7: Kyoto-Osaka**
Leave early Kyoto and store baggage in lockers so we can go Osaka Castle
Shinsaibashi
Dotonbori

8. **Thursday – Day 8: Nara Daytrip or Universal?**
We are still debating over doing a Nara Daytrip with maybe Kobe in 1 day or jumping to Universal.

9. **Friday – Day 9: Osaka – Tokyo**
Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine
Explore some things we could have not seen
Take JR to Tokyo in the afternoon
Check into Airbnb in Shinjuku

10. **Saturday – Day 10: Tokyo**
Probably Daytrip to Mt Fuji in a guided tour, this will depend on weather as the tour is not recommended if there are clouds that could hide the Mountain. This will take almost all day so probably going back to have some dinner around Shibuya-Shinjuku-Kabuchiko

11. **Sunday – Day 11: Tokyo**
Explore Shinjuku
Metropolitan Government Building
Godzilla Head
Golden Gai
Piss Alley during night

12. **Monday – Day 12: Leave Japan :(**
Flight back is at 6pm so have some time to do last minute visits and shopping in the morning.

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