I’m planning to visit March 31st – April 6th to see the cherry blossoms, and this is what I have carved out for myself. It will be a solo trip as a late 20’s woman, so any safety advice is welcomed as well! I’m planning to stay in Tokyo and do day trips from there with a rail pass.
Depart America on the 30th, arrive in Tokyo the 31st.
31st: Get to hotel, explore around the area a little bit, but staying pretty close to the hotel that first evening.
1st: Tokyo, maybe do a go-kart tour of the city since it’s a pretty unique thing to offer, and lets me see a large part of the city in a short amount of time.
2nd: Hit Mitaka for the Ghibli Museum, and spend some time in that area before heading back to Tokyo for the evening.
3rd: Visit Nikko for the landscapes and scenery. Tokyo in the evening.
4th: Visit Kyoto and see the Fushimi Inarii shrines, as well as potentially the bamboo forest. Tokyo in the evening.
5th: Hit either Tokyo Disneyland or Disney Sea, conflicted on which one to choose. Also keeping my option open because I hear a Ghibli amusement park is opening November of this year, and that might be a cool thing to check out instead. Tokyo in the evening if I have any energy left, otherwise I’ll be going to bed early for the flight in the morning.
6th: Fly back home to America.
Will this timing and trip schedule allow me to see some cherry blossoms? I know it’s a fairly unpredictable thing, but since I haven’t bought any tickets yet, I am more than happy to adjust the dates to a week with a better chance of seeing them in bloom.
12 comments
Please don’t ride the go carts around the city. Everyone hate seeing you do this and it legitimately causes disruptions to the daily commute. How would you feel if a foreign tourist rented a horse and a cowboy outfit and rode around downtown San Francisco during rush hour?
It is a huge embarrassment, and you definitely won’t see much of the city while inhaling exhaust in traffic.
I would say going a little sooner, like March 25th would be better for viewing cherry blossoms
Sounds like you are doing Kyoto in a day or less? Not much point going all the way down there for that amount of time.
And the go cart tour only shows you a tiny part of the city fyi.
You may have to adjust your trip if cherry blossoms are essential viewing…though will have to make that call closer to March.
You said the trip is to see cherry blossom, but the only place I see in your itinerary for cherry blossom is Nikko.
6 days in Tokyo, one of the most amazing cities in the world for food and culture, with so much to see that you’ll never see it all, and you want to waste a whole day in an American Theme Park?
Locals hate the go karts and sitting literally at exhaust level sucking in traffic fumes would be more like a punishment rather than fun.
Mitaka is in Tokyo and other than the Ghibli museum there’s not a lot happening over that way to be honest. Kichijoji and Inokashira is more interesting and the park will be better for cherry blossoms too.
Tokyo to Nikko is 2.5/3 hrs each way on public transport and involves quite a bit of walking to see the various sites so that sounds like a very long day.
Be mindful that the weather can be pretty unpredictable around cherry blossom season so a six day itinerary might be tough
As for safety there’s absolutely nothing to worry about here at all.
I think the timing should be fine for cherry blossoms, though I personally haven’t been in Japan during peak cherry blossom season. I have seen cherry blossoms starting to bloom in Tokyo, usually in Ueno Park, in early to mid-March, so end of March to early April should be a good time to visit.
Safety advice, do not follow people who invite you to bars, especially if you are in red light district. Use your jugement, yes Japan is a safe country, but don’t be dumb.
I think that going to Kyoto for a single day is a waste of money. Kyoto is not really a daytrip from Tokyo either in my opinion.
You could substitute the Kyoto day for a Kamakura day. While it is not as impressive as Fushimi Inari-taisha, you could go check Sasuke Inari-jinja and instead of Arashiyama bamboo forest, go check the bamboo forest of Hokoku-ji temple.
Can still go to Nikko but not with the JR Pass, would be cheaper with the Tobu Nikko pass.
Also, why do you want to go during cherry blossom time and no list single cherry blossom spot ? Timing is hard to predict, but your schedule is quite empty with what… maybe 1 or 2 things each day…. for sure you can add one cherry blossom day every day in the area you are visiting at that time.
Nikko and Kyoto should not be done in 1 day, especially the latter. I would suggest going to Lake Kawaguchi in place of Nikko. Your 6 days should just be focused in Tokyo. There are plenty of cherry blossom sights in Tokyo, but I am not sure if your travelling dates fits it. Maybe 1 week earlier.
A day trip to kyoto? Don’t do that. You’ll probably need at least 3 days in kyoto or 5 days to explore kyoto and osaka since they’re close. I’d suggest to spend at least 12days for a tokyo-nikko-kyoto-osaka trip so it wouldn’t be too tiring for you. From your home country, fly in to tokyo and fly out from osaka if it’s possible.
Go 1 week earlier to have the best chance to see cherry blossoms in Tokyo.
Kyoto is lovely but you just don’t have time for it. Go to Kamakura/Enoshima instead. See the Daibutsu
Regarding day 4, that could technically work if you’re planning to wake up at 3am and don’t plan on going to sleep until midnight. Otherwise, that’s going to be such a short and rushed trip to Kyoto that personally, it’s not a good use of your time, especially since the trip looks to be only 6 days long. If you did 3 days in Tokyo then 3 days in Kyoto, that’d be a little better, but otherwise I’d leave out going down there. The train ride, even on a bullet train, is roughly 3 hours each way