Hi everyone!
I have an upcoming 20 day japan trip in september, here are our plans.
were pretty easy going and open so theres not specific time for each place unless its a booking. Our plan was early mornings 9/10am (some days earlier) and hitting the temples of the specific are we would be visiting first, then shopping and such afterwards.
On days where we finish our planned areas early we have an extra list of places to visit to go to just in case
(this is my first time planning a big trip like this; so it may be a little scuffed- lmk ur thoughts and opinions )
Day 0: arrive at HND
\- Pick up pocket wifi / jr rail pass
\- Limo bus to hotel
\- Rest and explore area
Day 1: Tsukiji Market/Toyosu market + Akihabara
\- Early morning due to time zone switch
\- toyosu/tsukiji in the morning and akihabara by noon
Day 2: mt fuji tour
\- Full day mount fuji tour
\- Return to shinjuku in late evening
\- Explore are or go home to rest.
Day 3: chill and relaxed day
\- Wake up a little later than normal (10am)
\- Explore surrounding area of hotel
\- Visit skytree
\- Nearby parks and picnics in the evening?
Day 4: Asakusa / Ueno
\- Sensoji temple + surrounding area
\- Explore ueno area (ameyoko)
\- Visit imperial palace
\- Tokyo station
Day 5: ikebukuro / shinjuku
\- Animate ikebukuro
\- Pokemon sunshine city
\- Shinjuku national park
\- Golden gai at night
Day 6: Gotokuji / Harajuku / Shibuya
\- gotokuji temple
\- Shirohige cream puffs
\- meiji shrine
\- Yoyogi park
\- Takeshita street
\- Tokyu plaza
\- Shibuya scramble /shibuya sky
\- Mega donki
Day 7: kamakura day trip
\- Tsurugaoka Hachimangu
\- Kamakura Yuigahama Beach
\- Komachi-dori Street
Day 8: Roppongi / ginza
\- Team lab planets
\- Art aquarium
\- zojo-ji temple
Day 9: Tokyo to Kyoto
\- Check into hotel
\- Yasaka-jinja Shrine/Maruyama park
\- Gion
Day 10: Kiyomizudera
\- Heian jingu shrine
\- Nanzen ji temple
\- Kiyomizudera
\- Sanneizaka // nineinzaka
\- Rengeo-in (Sanjusangendo)
\- kamo river and relax
Day 11: Fushimi inari
\- fushimi inari
\- Tofuku-ji
\- Higashi Hogan-ji temple
\- Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum
Day 12: Arashiyama
\- arashiyama
\- Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama
\- Togetsukyo Bridge
\- Tenryu-ji
\- Adashino Nenbutsu-ji Temple
\- Rilakkuma tea house arashiyama
\- Arashiyama Itsukichaya
\- Sagano sight seeing train(?) – still thinking about this one
Day 13: kyoto to osaka
\- Kyoto to osaka travel day
\- Explore area
\- umeda /hep 5
\- Dontonburi
Day 14: Nara
\- Deer park + surrounding temples
\- still planning this one but id love to hear recommendations on things to do!
Day 15: Hiroshima day trip
\- Peace Park
\- Hiroshima Castle
\- still planning this one but id love to hear recommendations on things to do!
Day 16: USJ
\- Full day USJ
Day 17: Shinsaibashi / Namba
\- Shitenno-ji temple
\- Tsutenkaku
\- Haruka’s 300
Day 18: Nagai / Dontonbori
\- Sumiyoshi Taisha
\- Nagai Park
\- Team lab botanical
\- Osaka Tenmangu
\- Osaka castle
\- Den den town
\- Dontonbori for din din
Day 19: Return to tokyo a day early to get ready for flight home
\- Visit extra places unable to go to / places want to visit again
Day 20: Travel home day!
\- Early morning to airport D:
still looking for things to do + places to eat in Nara + hiroshima :))
thanks everyone
6 comments
I’m here now and we added 2 days to Hiroshima. So glad we did. Def go see Hiroshima and spend a day at mijimaya island.
If you can, i highly recommend visiting Miyajima. I (and my family) visit it it early July (this year) and stayed there for night. The island is so beautiful and have fantastic looking temples and shrines and amazing nature. Also, it has free rooming dears, just like in Nara.
Also, you should try okonimiyaki in both Osaka and Hiroshima. We tried in Osaka (we didn’t have time in Hiroshima) and it was delicious. The dish is different depending if it’s Osaka style or Hiroshima style.
We used Ubigi eSims for our trip with no issues. Pocket wifi doesn’t seem to make sense to me because we want connectivity if we get split up. $17USD for 10Gb each. We set it up before we arrived in Japan.
Have you booked a tour to mt Fuji or is it self guided?
If the latter, be flexible about which day you visit mt Fuji based on the weather. Theres no point going all the way out there on a cloudy day!
Check the weather closer the time and pick a good day to go 🙂
Go to Nara on the morning of the day you shift hotels to Osaka. There are lockers in Nara station to leave your luggage.
FYI on some of your days with early morning listed, just note that most shops, stores, etc don’t open till about 10-11am on most days