First time visitors (my cousin and I) looking for all things gaming, exploring, and food! Here’s what we have laid out so far, ideally looking to add neighborhoods closely to what we’re doing as well as shrines/temples
Day 1: land at 4pm, check into airbnb in shinjuku, spend night in golden gai & omoide yokocho
Day 2: breakfast, tea, shrines, walking around asakusa. Lunch, arcades, anime nerd stuff in akihabara. Then shinjuku & at night to eat, bar hop, walk around
Day 3: tsukiji fish market, imperial palace, monzennakacho. Shibuya and shimokitazawa at night for live music
Day 4: walking around and exploring Koenji, also looking for areas unmentioned that would be worth visiting. Shinjuku and Shibuya at night to party
Day 5: day trip to Kawagoe (my cousins gonna use the day to shop mainly around shimokitazawa – would love any recs for both gaming shopping and kawagoe)
Day 6: early train to Mt Fuji. Explore the area, walk around the lake, visit shrines (would love recs for this too)
Day 7: hike mt Fuji, hit an onsen
Day 8: early train to Kyoto. Explore Gion district and higayashima
Day 9: fushimi inari shrine, other shrines and temples in the area (looking for suggestions) , philosophers path
Day 10: Gion / higayashima for morning walk and breakfast, train to Osaka. Night in dotonbori
Day 11: Osaka castle, temples and shrines(namba Yasaka), Tenjinbashisuji Shotengai, Tsutenkaku Tower
Day 12: universal studios, train at night to Tokyo, golden gai
Day 13: shinjuku National garden
3 comments
**Just a reminder that our FAQ is being updated with more information and you can start** [**here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/wiki/faqs/japantravel) **with regards to trip planning if you need tips, or have questions about planning your travel to Japan.** You can also join our [Discord community](https://discord.gg/3f7KBUMwU4)
Thank you!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/JapanTravel) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>Mt Fuji. Explore the area, walk around the lake
There are five lakes around Mt Fuji, which one did you mean?
>Day 12: universal studios, train at night to Tokyo
USJ is pretty expensive, I would do this on Day 11 so you can be there the whole day and get your money’s worth. You won’t make it to Tokyo if you stay until closing time.
>other shrines and temples in the area (looking for suggestions)
There are over 1600 temples in Kyoto, and to be honest they’re pretty similar to each other. So if you’re starting off at Fushimi inari and then going to Philosophers Path which is about an hour and a half walk, you’re going to walk past at least 6 pretty famous ones and about 200 smaller shrines/temples.
I did like Nanzen-ji. You can actually climb up in the main gate and out onto the balcony and have a decent view of Kyoto.
>exploring Koenji,
>shimokitazawa
>Day 5: day trip to Kawagoe
Curious choices.
Not saying there’s anything wrong with these 3 places , just not your typical tourist attractions.
It doesn’t say on your post when you’re heading to Japan, but just a heads up that Mt Fuji hiking season ends on September 10th (so I guess you’d have to be there by the end of this week to make it in time?) They’re also limiting the number of hikers onto the trail due to an unprecedented number of tourists, as there’s quite a strain on facilities – apologies if you know this already/are experienced hikers, but if you do make it in time, please make sure to pack accordingly with plenty of warm clothing!