Hello there!
Girlfriend (F27) and myself (M27) will be visiting Japan for three weeks from late September to mid October. We have put together what we believe is a jam-packed itinerary and would love for your feedback!
We hope to visit everything in the itinerary, but expect to miss some due to unforeseen circumstances.
Questions to you guys:
1. Are we doing too much? If so, what should we skip?
2. Are we missing anything obvious (or less obvious)?
3. Any restaurants you can recommend in each area or any local specialties we should try? 🙂
Note:
We will start booking hotels in the next few days. We realize we are doing this very late, but we’ve been swamped at home, so we haven’t had a chance to finalize our itinerary.. Hopefully we’ll still find some good places to stay. 🙂
|Day|City|Activities|
|:-|:-|:-|
|September 22, Friday|Copenhagen|Departure from Kastrup 11:55|
|September 23, Saturday|Tokyo|Arrival in Haneda 07:55|
|||Train to hotel (Shinjuku)|
|||Check-in|
|||Shinjuku Gyoen|
|||Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building Observation Decks|
|||Exploring Shinjuku|
|September 24, Sunday|Tokyo|Meiji Jingu|
|||Yoyogi Park|
|||Shibuya Crossing (+ Hachiko)|
|||Shibuya Parco|
|||Shibuya Sky|
|September 25, Monday|Tokyo|teamLab Planets|
|||LEGOLAND DISCOVERY CENTER Tokyo|
|||Unicorn Gundam Statue|
|||Statue of Liberty|
|||(Tokyo Tower?)|
|September 26, Tuesday|Tokyo|DisneySea|
|September 27, Wednesday|Tokyo|Ghibli Museum|
|||Ueno Park|
|||National Museum of Nature and Science|
|||Tokyo National Museum|
|September 28, Thursday|Fujikawaguchiko|Arrival and check-in|
|||Ryokan|
|||Admire Mount Fuji|
|September 29, Friday|Kyoto|Arrival and check-in|
|||Kimono Forest (Right by train station)|
|||Arashiyama Bamboo Grove|
|||Giō-ji Temple|
|||Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple|
|||Kinkaku-ji|
|September 30, Saturday|Kyoto|Imperial Palace|
|||Philosopher’s Path|
|||(Kōdai-ji Temple?)|
|||Kiyomizu-dera|
|October 1, Sunday|Kyoto|Fushimi Inari|
|||Exploring Kyoto|
|October 2, Monday|Osaka|Arrival and check-in|
|||Osaka Castle|
|||Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan|
|||Dotonbori|
|October 3, Tuesday|Osaka|Universal Studios Japan|
|October 4, Wednesday|Osaka|Nara day trip|
|October 5, Thursday|Osaka|Umeda Sky Building|
|||Free time|
|||teamLab Botanical Garden Osaka (at night)|
|October 6, Friday|Miyajima Island|Arrival and check-in (Ryokan?)|
|||Itsukushima shrine|
|||Mount Misen|
|||Exploration|
|October 7, Saturday|Hiroshima|Arrival and check-in|
|||Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum|
|||Hiroshima Peace Park|
|||Lunch. After lunch, walk along the river to Atomic Bomb Dome.|
|||Atomic Bomb Dome. From Atomic Bomb Dome, walk over to Hiroshima Castle (a 15-min walk).|
|||Hiroshima Castle. From Hiroshima Castle, walk over to Shukkeien Garden (an 8-min walk).|
|||Shukkeien Japanese Garden.|
|October 8, Sunday|Hiroshima|Ōkunoshima – Bunny Island day trip|
|October 9, Monday||Currently planning trip here (Magome-Tsumago Trail)|
|October 10, Tuesday||Currently planning trip here (Shirakawa-go)|
|October 11, Wednesday||Currently planning trip here (Kurobe Gorge Railway)|
|October 12, Thursday||Currently planning trip here (Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route)|
|October 13, Friday|Tokyo|Arrival and check-in (Asakusa)|
|||Imperial Palace|
|||Akihabara|
|October 14, Saturday|Tokyo|Senso-Ji|
|||Exploration|
|October 15, Sunday|Tokyo|Shopping and whatever we might have missed|
|October 16, Monday|Tokyo|Departure from Haneda 11:45Arrival in Kastrup 18:40|
Thank you so much in advance!! 🙂
1 comment
Going from Europe, jetlag will probably make you want to stay up late and wake up late, so it is good that you are starting your trip in tokyo.
Sep 27 makes no sense as ghibli museum is on the opposite end of the city as the other museums
Sep 29 are you sure you will have time to see all those temples before they close for the day? Considering you are staying at a ryokan (ie will be eating breakfast) it will probably already be early afternoon when you arrive in Kyoto, plus you have to get up to Arashiyama which is a further half hour.
Sep 30 I see no reason to go to philosophers path at this time of the year if you are not already in the area (eg visiting eikando). It’s famous for cherry blossom season, in September it’s just a footpath with some trees. A nice footpath but still.
Carefully consider the logistics of when you will move and where you will sleep for the Oct 8-14 stretch. Hiroshima-Magome for example will take several hours as will Tsumago-Shirakawago.
I also think doing both Osaka and Hiroshima castles is redundant unless you are collecting stamps or interested in the history of each castle, otherwise one is enough. The most famous castle on your route would be Himeji (between Osaka and Hiroshima) which is also an original construction.