# 1. Foreword
Thanks Reddit for those amazing threads, I spent quite a few months planning this trip based on topics and comments 😀
Now I’m happy to take any feedback, comments, or suggestions based on the plan I drafted. The itinerary is kind of fixed but I have some room when spending multiple days in Osaka and Tokyo. Also, I know that a lot of r/JapanTravel redditors don’t like that, but I plan a lot per day as this is usually how I travel with my partner: seeing a lot of things and walk a lot *(really a lot)*!
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# 2. Intro
Young 30ish couple traveling from Europe for partner’s 30th Birthday (surprise trip so a lot of things will be optional depending on the day-to-day unraveling of the trip) traveling from the 27th of October to the 9th of September.
We are foodies, love nature and Hikes, Japanese culture (History but also medias such as Ghibli movies, lots of animes,…) and theme parks (but only doing FujiQ on day 6 as USJ and Disney seems meh).
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**General things planned:**
* buy pocket wifi or eSim or home mobile provider
* Buy Shinkansen on smartEx and as much transportation as possible in advance (eg Fujiq express bus)
* buy the tourist variant of Suica, “Welcome Suica”
* Book restaurants on [pocket-concierge.jp](https://pocket-concierge.jp) and other sites three weeks before trip
* \-heck whether JRpass is interesting based on the final route (if bought, bought before price increase)
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# 3. Rough schedule:
* Osaka 2 or 3 nights (depending on flights see below), one day in Nara
* Kyoto 2 nights
* Kawaguchiko lake 1 night
* Hakone 1 night
* Tokyo 4 nights
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# 4. Flight and hotels
Arrival:
* Option 1 (booked): land in Haneda at 5.55 AM on the 29th and take shinkansen to Osaka
**Or** (if I can change tickets for a reasonable price)
* Option 2 : land in Osaka on the 28th at 4PM
Departure: Narita on the 9th at 10.25AM
Every hotel is booked (and payed given current euro/yen rate) but I still have some flexibility as I can cancel every hotel (but booked at good prices two months ago)
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# 5. Detailed schedule
**5.1 Day 0 (if flight Option 2) – 2023-09-28 – Osaka**
Book hotel in Minami around Namba and enjoy food and night in Ame Mura/Dotonbori take advantage of jetlag from Amsterdam time.
**5.2 Day 1 – 2023-09-29 – Osaka**
* Osaka tenmangu next to hotel, first temple experience
* Umeda sky building (optional)
* Osaka Museum of Housing and Living (optional)
* lunch at kuromon market
* nipponbashi
* Shitennoji Temple
If not done on Day 0 do the day 0 night, otherwise to plan later
**5.3 Day 2 – 2023-09-30 – Nara**
Probably still jetlagged, leave from Osaka to Nara. Send luggage to Kyoto to avoid burden? Not sure the luggage can be there in time.
Nara walk inspired by itineraries such as [https://thenavigatio.com/nara-itinerary-one-day-trip:](https://thenavigatio.com/nara-itinerary-one-day-trip:)
* Famous mochi place (absolutely love mochis!), mochi pounding
* todai-ji temple
* Deer park
Stroll around until everything closes 6pm and head to Kyoto. Check-in hotel next to Kyoto station, night walk pontocho alley, eat at kichi kichi omurice, walk to minazima theater and Yasaka shrine lanterns.
**5.4 Day 3 – 2023-10-01 – Kyoto**
Very ambitious day, only walking no buses, hopefully, jetlag far enough to wake up very early.
* take a picnic at Nishiki Market
* Nijo castle
* kitano tenmangu shrine (because it’s on the way)
* Kinkaku-ji temple
* Ryoan-ji temple
* Daikaku-ji Temple. Once there buy tickets for Kangetsu-no-yube (Moon-viewing party) around 3PM
* Arashyiama’s bamboo grove
* sagano scenic train from Arashyiama torokko to Hozukyo torokko
* walk down back to Daikaku-ji Temple and eat at Ayuchaya Hiranoya
* Kangetsu-no-yube (if weather OK)
Return by train
**5.5 Day 4 – 2023-10-02 – Kyoto**
Again long day hike with fast paced visit (again, we love that):
* philosopher’s path start at Heian shrine up to Ginkakuji
* Ginkakuji
* Kyomizudera
* kodai-ji temple
* Yasaka pagoda
* Kiyomizu Dera
* kennin-ji
* Fushimi Inari (if time but probably not)
* back on foot to hotel next to Kyoto station
**5.6 Day 5 – 2023-10-03 – Kawaguchiko**
Shinkansen to Gotemba, Bus to Kawaguchiko Station
* check out from hotel and send luggage to Tokyo, pack for two days
* Fushimi Inari early in the morning if not done the previous day
* **Or** if done the day before, tea ceremony at Uji
* transportation to Kawaguchiko JR and Fujiq express
* checkin around 4PM in hotel next to Kawaguchiko station
* Mt Fuji panoramic ropeway
* walk up to Arakura sengen park
* eat somewhere (recommendations?)
* back to hotel
**5.7 Day 6 – 2023-10-04 – Kawaguchiko/Hakone**
* FUJI-Q with day pass!!!! As early as possible then leave for Hakone around 4 PM. Now given that it’s birthday day, I am super reluctant to do a bus trip to Hakone as it is super long. I am thinking of a taxi rather but am not willing to pay more than 30000 yen… so I still have to think about that.
* enjoy Ryokan with private onsen and dinner there
**5.8 Day 7 – 2023-10-05 – Hakone/Tokyo**
* Walk down to the Ashi lac on the northern part
* hike on the north east part up to east most part (maybe ropeway to Mount Hakone)
* eat somewhere
* take pirate boat back to ropeway
* ropeway to Kowakidani station
* train to Tokyo
* Check-in hotel in Ningyocho
* explore Chuo city and eat in Ginza, godaime hanayama Udon
* Daifuku at Ginza Akebono
**5.9 Day 8 – 2023-10-06 – Tokyo**
* Ghibli Museum (wake up at 3 AM on the 10th September to get tickets). If tickets not on that day just swap with another day.
* Nakano Broadway for shopping
* Kabuchiko w/ golden gai
* Shibuya
* souvenir shopping in those places
**5.10 Day 9 – 2023-10-07 – Tokyo**
Not a great fan of that day plan:
* Asakusa and Senso-ji temple
* teamlab planet, not sure we’ll like it but let’s try if no better idea
* eat at Tsukiji fish market
* pass Hayao Miyazaki’s clock
* spend night in bars at Roppongi
**5.11 Day 10 – 2023-10-08 – Tokyo**
* Impérial palace, gardens and shrines
* Evening shopping in Akihabara
* night in Kanda
**5.12 Day 11 – 2023-10-09 – Tokyo**
Travel back through Nerita
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# 6. Conclusion
I am quite happy about the first half of the trip and a bit annoyed by how I managed Tokyo, hence I am particularly looking for further suggestions on that part (but feel free to comment the firstpart also). Also if you have great restaurants idea please throw them here, for now my plan is to check tablelog in the area we will be around lunch and dinner.
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3 comments
If you can, I would go eSim. I do not like the fact that pocket wifi is an extra thing to charge, you have to return it (if you get one, rent it, don’t buy it). eSim are cheaper too. The biggest inconvenient is that you might not be able to share connection, in that case, just get a eSim for both, the extra advantage is that now you can get away from each other and still communicate together.
Smart EX is only good to book Shinkansen tickets, not for anything else like express bus. Bus will have to be booked on the specific website of the bus company.
If you go to Osaka straight from the airport, do not get a Welcome Suica, wait to be in Osaka to get a Kansai One Pass, it’s the tourist version of the Icoca card, that can be used in the same places as Suica. The advantage is that it gives rebates and gifts in different stores and attractions and it’s good 10 years after last use, so you can keep if for a future trip, the disadvantage is that it cost 500 yen for the deposit on the card.
JR Pass is not worth, it would be really close to break even. In my opinion not worth buying.
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If you can fly to Osaka for less than the equivalent of 15 000 yen, then you can consider it as this is how much it will cost to take the shinkansen to Osaka.
Osaka Tenman-gu is not a temple, it’s a shrine (temple is Buddhist, shrine are Shinto, I wrote a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/q1oql1/how_to_make_the_difference_between_temple_and/) on how to make a difference on the name and architecture between the two if you are curious).
If you send luggage from Osaka to Kyoto, it won’t be delivered same day, it’s usually next day.
Gotemba in not a shinkansen station. If your goal is to reach Kawaguchiko, then the options that make most sense is going by shinkansen to Mishima station and take a bus from there to Kawaguchiko. Note that if you want to spend time in Kyoto in the morning, yon won’t have time for anything in Kawaguchiko, and if you want to do stuff in Kawaguchiko, you will have to leave early, because it’s a good 4 hours between these two places.
Moving from Kawaguchiko to Hakone is honestly time consuming, it involve at least one transfer at gotemba or gotemba premium outlet. You also have a problem if you go to a ryokan with meal included as they usually require check-in at 5 or 6 pm the latest, so that would require to cut short your Fuji Q time.
Considering you are going to both Hakone and Kawaguchiko, it would have made more sense to do Hakone first because it’s much easier to access from Kyoto. You could leave Kyoto early the first day, get to Hakone early and spend most of the day visiting, no problem to be on time at the ryokan. next day bus to Kawaguchiko, depending on the time you take the bus will decide where you will have most time to visit, I would probably go early to have time in Kawaguchiko, then Fuji Q and but to Tokyo at the end of the day. Note that you could do ryokan in Kawaguchiko too (so you can do it in either town or in both).
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I won’t correct it, but just so you know, you have a lot of typo in location names.
3 weeks is not much time in advance in order to book in most restaurants. Most of the 4+ restaurants in tabelog will be fully booked way in advance I would say. What are you looking for? Sushi, kaiseki, tempura, yakiniku?
Hello, I’m Japanese.
I have a question. What’s your purpose of visiting all the temples and shrines listed in Kyoto?
Your day 3 and 4 are as ambitious as other tourists in this community, but I honestly don’t understand what makes you think it will be doable for you to visit that many places only on foot, only a few days after you come to Japan. Especially on day 3, a couple of places will easily take more than one hour by walk. Spending that amount of time to move onto another spot is nothing but wasting time to me. The more time you spend that way, the more time you are losing to enjoy and explore each beautiful historical site.
In addition, most shrines and temples are not open 24/7. The stores in Nishiki Market are not open very early, either. But you are surely aware of that, aren’t you? For instance, Nijo Castle is open at 8:45am. Most shops in the market open at 8-10am. I’m not sure how “early” you have planned on starting your day, but it doesn’t matter to me if they are not open. Or do you mean by taking a picnic at Nishiki Market that you will be eating some konbini food sitting in the alley or something in the market? I wouldn’t recommend that. It doesn’t look good, and I can easily tell that kind of behaviours are not welcomed at all especially in Kyoto.
Your itinerary in Kyoto looks like you are solely attempting how many places you can arrive at on foot, not even “visiting” each place. If that’s what you want, go ahead. I won’t stop you although I see no point of doing so.