Hi! Looking for some guidance on our trip. Any suggestions for things to do, or pointing out if a day is a little packed would be helpful!
Background:
\-First trip outside of the country(USA) for my wife and I, nerdy in late 20’s / Early 30’s, pretty active. Wife is also heavy into fashion, so hoping to do a decent amount of shopping.
\-Actually have 10 of us in total traveling, but are split up into smaller groups. A couple activities we’re going to do together(Ghibli Museum, Teamlabs, etc), but generally there won’t be more than 4-5 of us together at a time. We know 10 people is a large group, so getting to eat together and things like that would be difficult.
\-Late September – Early October, 2 weeks total.
\- While we have a few things reserved and booked, we’re more interested in casually exploring, finding something interesting on a whim, etc. Not looking to plan our days hour by hour, just a general, loose idea for the day.
\- Some of the days have travel times listed, that’s from a quick google search for travel between places, or from our room.
\- The last two days of our trip are completely open and unplanned. This was to have a spot for things we saw throughout the trip that we didn’t get to do. That said, I’d also be open to some suggestions if you have any!
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***First Leg of Tokyo- Staying in Hatagaya, near Shibuya***
Wednesday – Land mid/late afternoon, get settled, get to rooms, relax
Thursday – Ghibli Museum at noon(Already reserved). This is the only thing we have planned for the day, as we wanted our first day in the be quiet, casual, easy going. We’ll probably explore the area around the museum a bit, but maybe also head back closer to our room and explore there.
Friday – Hakone day trip. Relatively freeform, want to explore the area. May try to visit a bath house. Any suggestions for other things to do would be helpful!
Saturday – Akihabara Morning/Afternoon, Imperial Palace Afternoon, Masayoshi Takanaka concert at 5 next to palace(already reserved).
Sunday – Explore Harajuku and surrounding areas, end day at Teamlabs(already reserved) at 7:30pm.
***Kyoto – Shimogyo Ward***
Monday – Morning bullet train to Kyoto from Tokyo. General exploration, Red Gates.
Tuesday – Kimono dress up & walk with the ladies of the group in morning/early afternoon, 1 hour train to Nara Park in afternoon.
Wednesday – Osaka day trip. Again, relatively free form. Any more specific suggestions would be great!
Thursday – Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Monkey Park, some shrines nearby in the morning/early afternoon. Travel 45 minutes to Golden Temple and 25 to Nijo Castle.
***Second Leg of Tokyo – Shinjuku***
Friday – Early bullet train back to Tokyo, possibly? Or could use half a day to see a bit more of Kyoto before heading back to Tokyo. A very light day, possibly to recharge/regroup.
Saturday – Mt. Fuji day trip. More than likely going to Lake Kawaguchi. Any suggestions for the day would be appreciated!
Sunday – Completely open day. Good day to do things we missed or discovered while exploring.
Monday – Another completely open day.
Tuesday – Could do something morning/early afternoon, mid afternoon we should be at airport ready to head home.
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Any insight/suggestions/tips would be very much appreciated.
3 comments
I’m not too familiar w Tokyo as I didn’t enjoy it as much as other places but I think 2 full days in Kyoto is not enough. You can see the major sights but to fully enjoy it I’d recommend taking the Osaka day out. I’ve only spent 2 days in Osaka but it’s not really a place w sights to see necessarily, so a day trip to Osaka may not be as beneficial as staying in Kyoto for that extra day.
I love Nara. Would recommend spending the whole day there vs just the afternoon. It has a similar old city feeling to Kyoto but way less tourists.
For the red gate I’m assuming you’re referring to Fushimi-inari. I would reserve it for a day where you can start really early morning. It is JAM PACKED with tourists. Really beautiful and must see IMO but require some planning to get the most out of it.
Fushimi inari will be packed.
You should go in the early morning or another option would be to do it early evening/night. But be mindful of the wildlife and lack of lighting. But I have seen on Facebook that lots of tourists have decided do go at night now (I guess to avoid the heat and crowds)
I would opt to have more days in Kyoto too but you do have limited time.
If you can do a day trip to Yokohama from Tokyo, you can go check out the cup noodle museum (best to go when they open otherwise you might miss out) and there is the giant Gundam. It’s betting taken down next year March.
I’m torn on whether I agree on the recommendation to remove Osaka. Dotonbori is pretty cool, but not much better than some places you could see in Tokyo. It has great food, but yeah so does everywhere in Japan. It probably isn’t really necessary.
I would plan to spend a little time in Kyoto Station when you arrive or before you leave. It is a really cool tower. Maybe grab some food on the restaurant floor.
Based on some of the other things you guys seem to like to do, you could maybe check out Kinosaki Onsen, though I would only go if you are willing to spend a night there. Can dress up in yukata and do a bath crawl between the 7 public onsen there. Was my favorite place in Japan. Could maybe repurpose one of the Tokyo days since they are open.