Hello everyone,
After much thinking and planning, I have drafted below itinerary for my trip to Japan next year. Appreciate your feedbacks/suggestions.
I’m a 35F travelling solo from Malaysia. This is my 2nd solo trip in 6 years. So any tips for a newbie solo traveler is very much appreciated.
I wanted to see the sakura flowers and yet didn’t want to get stuck in huge crowds so I planned my trip in a way that I would get to see sakura flowers in Tokyo in full bloom before I depart.
Here’s the itinerary:
Day 1 – 16/3 – Land in Narita Airport (around 7.25am)
– Take airport shuttle bus or train to Shinjuku where i will be staying
– Check in to hotel and leave my luggages
– Grab breakfast and visit Starbucks Roastery
– Visit Akihabara
– Visit Ueno Park Gardens and Asakusa
– Back to hotel to check in and freshen up
– Visit Meiji Jingu Shrine and Yoyogi Park
– Sight see in Harajuku/Takeshita Street
– Dinner and back to hotel
Day 2 – 17/3 (tokyo)
– Visit Teamlab Borderless/Planet
– Visit Walt Disney Harry Potter set
– Visit Disney Sea
– Dinner and back to hotel
Day 3 – 18/3 (Lake Kawaguchi)
– Checkout from hotel, leave bags and depart to Lake Kawaguchi
– Visit Kawaguchiko Ropeway
– Visit Arakuyama Sengen Park
– Visit Oshino Hakkai
– Dinner and back to ryokan
Day 4 – 19/3 (Kyoto)
– Depart from Lake Kawaguchi
– Check hotel in Kyoto and freshen up
– Late Lunch/Early Dinner at Nishiki Market
– Visit Fushimi Inari Shrine
– Dinner and back to hotel for the night
Day 5 – 20/3 (Kyoto)
– Head to Arashiyama
– Visit Togetsukyō Bridge
– Visit Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
– Visit Tenryuji Temple
– Visit Ryoanji Temple and Lunch
– Visit Kinkakuji Temple
Day 6 – 21/3 (Kyoto)
– Visit Kiyomizudera & Yasada Pagoda
– Explore the Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka streets, souvenir shopping
– Explore Higashiyama district
– Visit Kodai-ji temple
– Visit Gion
Day 7 – 22/3 (Osaka)
– Visit Osaka Aquarium
– Visit Osaka Castle
– Back to hotel to check in and freshen up
– Visit Amerikamura
– Visit Dotonburi and have dinner
Day 8 – 23/3 (Nara)
– Day trip to Nara
Day 9 – 24/3 (Tokyo)
– Checkout from Osaka hotel and head back to Tokyo
– Visit Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
– Shopping , free and easy
Day 10 – 25/3 (Tokyo)
– Sakura blossom viewing (have not decided where exactly)
– Visit Shibuya crossing and take picture with Hachiko
– Visit Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
– Visit Golden Gai in Shinjuku
Day 11 – 26/3 (Tokyo)
– Departure from Narita international airport
Thanks in advance!
2 comments
Your day 2 looks bonkers. All three of those excursions take hours on their own. Disney is an all day thing for sure. Go back to the drawing board and figure out which two to drop.
You should map out Day 1 it would be impossible to do all of those activities, especially on a weekend. Regarding the Starbucks Roastery I would move it to day 2 and go at least 30 minutes prior to opening. It gets extremely crowded on weekends. If you tried to follow your current schedule I would expect a close to 2hr wait. Bright side it’s in nakameguro and you can see the cherry blossoms budding in the canal.
DisneySea will mostly likely require an entire day.
I would also not bother changing hotels from Kyoto to Osaka, just pick one city for the hotel. It’s very easy and quick to get from Kyoto and Osaka.
If you want to see cherry blossoms buds in kawaguchiko then I would hit it up on your way back to Tokyo. Kawaguchiko is usually a week behind Tokyo in terms of flowering due to the higher elevation. But it’s impossible to truly know when it’ll be flowering until the forecast is released and even then it’s still just a forecast.