Hi everyone!
I’m currently working on an itinerary for October for 10 days for our first time to Japan. My partner has booked our hotel in Osaka and the plan is to spend the first few days in Osaka (with one day in Nara using Kintetsu railways), then activate our 7 day JR pass for the remainder of our trip to other areas of Japan. As we will need to travel on the shinkansen to Tokyo and back each day, is three days to Tokyo too much with the travel back and forth?
Tokyo day 1
– Harajuku station to Meiji Shrine
– Takeshita street
– Walk to Shibuya, explore
– Train to Shinjuku, explore
– Dinner/evening Kabuchiko/Omoide Yokocho
– Shinkansen back to Osaka
Tokyo day 2
– Disney Sea
Tokyo day 3
– Still planning and looking at ideas
I have never made an itinerary before, as all my previous trips to various places have been planned by other people, so I’m still reading and learning.
Thank you for any guidance.
Edit: I’ve discussed this with my partner and we’ve decided to skip Tokyo this time and plan another trip to Tokyo in the next few years. Thank you for everyone’s suggestions! You’ve all been really helpful and we appreciate your advice. ☺️
22 comments
Wtf – why would you do that? That is insane.
Edit: stay in Tokyo if you want to visit Tokyo. It is one of the best cities in the world to visit. Is it money?
Why don’t you visit Osaka this time and go to Tokyo next visit? You can go to surrounding areas in Osaka , it’s really good. There is Kobe and Kyoto too besides Nara. I would spend 2-3 days at Kyoto personally and 1 day each in Nara and Kobe.
Travelling back and forth will be very very costly and also time consuming. Half your day will be on trains.
Otherwise , see if you can find a cheap hotel in Tokyo and stay there a few days to see a few sites and then go back to Osaka.
If you haven’t already bought a pass, please use the calculator [here](https://www.japan-guide.com/railpass/). Might not be worthwhile- price increase in September. If you want to do your current plan, then yes it would be worthwhile 😂
I’d skip Tokyo entirely, dude. It’s 4 hours just on the Shinkansen every day, not to mention the transit time in between attractions and the maze that is Tokyo Station. If Harajuku is a must, do a one day trip to Tokyo (I’d still say this is mad but I understand FOMO).
Kansai has more than enough to offer to fill 10 days (I’ve done it and I’ll happily share the itinerary I used if you’d like) and I guarantee you won’t be bored. Try to do Kanto another time.
Is the hotel non-refundable? You’re wasting a lot of time on the shinkansen traveling back and forth. If you can, I would get a hotel in Tokyo and plan a day trip out to Osaka since the bulk of your activities are in Tokyo
This is a horrible idea. I would either cancel the plan to stay in Osaka and plan your trip around Tokyo, or cancel the plan to do Tokyo and just focus on the Osaka/Kyoto area. You could spend an entire day exploring any of the areas you plan to see on day 1, so doing it all in one day just won’t be enough.
There is plenty to do in Osaka/Kyoto for 10 days. Focus on enjoying that area, I wouldn’t try to cram Tokyo traveling back and forth. Just plan a separate trip to do Tokyo alone in the future.
So you’re planning to essentially go to Disney in Kissimmee Florida but for kicks ($7666) and giggles decided to stay in Miami Florida because both are in the same state, but just drive there for 4 hours both?
Yeah no don’t do that
If you are not flying back from Tokyo consider just exploring Kansai region? Else split the days and stay in Tokyo for the last few days.
Just did a very similar trip. 10 days. Landed in osaka, went to kyoto, then Tokyo and back to osaka to fly out.
My biggest regret was spending tp much time in osaka (3 nights). Personally, I think osaka is a 1night 2 day experience. If I could do it again I would spend an additional night in Tokyo and Kyoto. Also probably fly out of Tokyo instead of circling back to osaka.
Just my 2 cents, hope it helps.
Just my 2 cents. Best if you get a 2 night hotel in Tokyo. Going back and forth between Tokyo and Osaka is crazy.
Please look at the timetable. You get at best 12-14 hours, and then you have to go back to Osaka.. and you want to do that again for 2 more days.
Unless you live in LA, New york, or Seattle, those commutes are crazy!
Just stay in Tokyo it’s cheap, check kabukicho hotels on Expedia booked some for $50 a night 🙂
Why? If you’re gonna do three days in Tokyo, just book a couple hotel nights there. You are effectively wasting four hours a day on the trains getting to and from Tokyo. It might not seems like a lot but it adds up. Plus sunset here is pretty early in October so you are forfeiting a good amount of useable daylight in the morning to travel. This is especially true for sightseeing places that really benefit from sunlight like Shinjuku Gyoen, Meji Jingu, pretty much any nature space.
Osaka is a good base for places like Kyoto, Kobe, Himeji, Hiroshima, and Nagoya (other cities in that general area basically. Tokyo is a massive time sink and not recommended from Osaka.
Lol I’ll be in Kansai in mid to late October. Definitely check out mino oh park, amanohashidate, kinosaki onsen, Kobe , himeji, kanazawa
Imo, it’s not necessary to visit Tokyo during a week long visit. Also, Osaka might be the best base to go on a day trips, I wholeheartly recommend looking into jr west passes, they are usually much better bang for buck compared to nationwide one.
You can stay 2/3 days in Osaka, then make a few daytrips to Kyoto, maybe 3. The remaining 4 days can be used for daytrips to i.e. Himeji, Okayama, Nara and if you don’t mind a longer trip->Hiroshima.
GL.
Recommend skipping Tokyo entirely. Tokyo is worth a whole trip by itself.
If you’re based in Osaka, id recommend getting the JR Kansai West pass that lets you travel all the way from Kyoto and Hiroshima. It’s cheaper than the regular JR Pass and you can use the fastest shinkansen available between Osaka and Hiroshima for up to 5 days.
I recommend at least a 1-2 day trip to Hiroshima from Osaka. It would also be very easy to take day trips to Kyoto, Kobe, Himeji, etc with the JR Kansai Pass.
I agree with what other have said. I feel like if you really wanted to see Tokyo, it could somewhat work if you travelled to Tokyo in the morning, spent a night there and then travelled back to Osaka the next evening/night, so you’d have 2 (incomplete) days there but at least one night for the nightlife… But it still seems like a hassle tbh, and too much wasted time for only a 10-day trip. Tokyo is far away, you’d spend a good chunk of your trip on a train, I don’t think that’s worth it. There is a lot to see much closer to Osaka!
I’d substitute Tokyo for Kyoto, if I were you, beautiful city with lots to see. I’d also wholeheartedly recommend Himeji. It’s a relatively short trip from Osaka, there’s a beautiful, massive preserved castle (one of only 12 Japanese castles, iirc, that was preserved in its original form and never destroyed). Next to the castle is a small complex of Japanese gardens called Kokoen, you can pop by if you’re interested (you can buy a combined ticket for the castle and Kokoen for just 50 extra yen). And then, I super recommend you take a bus to the Mt. Shosha Ropeway station, ride up Mt. Shosha and explore the Engyoji temple complex. It’s a magical place. You can buy discount tickets for the whole roundtrip (bus to the ropeway, ropeway up and down and bus back to Himeji Station) at the Himeji Station bus terminal (I think it’s like ¥1450 or something like that, you can look it up). We did this exact trip from Osaka this summer and it was wonderful. And oh man, it’s gonna be even better in autumn colours…!
Esit: Also, instead of Disney, you could go to Universal Studios Japan, which is in Osaka. Granted, the last time I was there was 8 years ago and I’m sure a lot has changed since, but it was a banger even then, I’m sure it’s even cooler now.
I’m happy to provide any more details if you’re interested. Either way, have fun on your trip!
I know the discussion is over, but having a base in Osaka and doing daily trips from there was how I have done my first to travels to Japan. In the timeframe of one week each I included several day trips to Tokyo, Hiroshima and even Fukuoka. I enjoyed it.
When I went in May we used Osaka as a base, but that was just for travelling around the Kansai region. Using Osaka as a base to travel TO Tokyo is just daft. You would be far better off spending 5 days in Osaka as a base for places *around* there and then 5 days in Tokyo, Tokyo is HUGE, it’s cities within cities, you don’t want to be going back and forth no matter how convenient the transport is.
You wouldn’t need to skip Tokyo for your next trip, it’s perfectly doable to do both. That is unless you can’t cancel and refund your hotels. Your plan with the JR pass would still be fine though, 3 days using the local lines around Osaka and Kansai, then activate it for the last 7 and utilise all the JR lines you can around the area till you go to Tokyo
You wanna do a 5 hour round trip transit 3 days in a row? Nah
I wouldn’t stay in Osaka just to travel out of Osaka every day. Stay in Shibuya or Shinjuku.
I know discussion is over but just curious why you booked Osaka for so long? The main thing I suspect is it appears to be much cheaper to get a western luxury hotel there vs Tokyo or Kyoto. So I can see that being the motivation if you want a really nice place but don’t want to pay a fortune.
Depending on what you’re into, you could do tokyo in a day or two. Don’t feel pressured to do everything. We had like one or two aims a day that would take us to an area, and then just discovered stuff along the way.
People telling you to cancel your trip is kind of rude. Whatever you end up doing will be worth going for!
why why whyy