My fiancé and I are heading to Japan for the first time in late jan, a short whirlwind trip because we couldn’t afford to stay longer haha.
Trying to get in as much as we can in a short time, open to suggestions or if anything might not work so well!
Day 1 – land in Narita airport, staying in Tokyo near Tokyo station for the night. Not much time to do anything other than get some ramen 🙂
Plan to organise our luggage to be sent to our next Tokyo hotel to arrive in two days time, so our next days of travel are luggage free
Day 2 – Shinkansen to ginzan onsen. Booked a ryokan stay, plan to enjoy the snow, onsens, food and pretty town.
Day 3 – shinkansen back to Tokyo – Shinjuku
On our way back, considering stopping in at zao onsen to do the ropeway but not sure if we should, is it worth it if not skiiing?
Is there anywhere else worth stopping on the way back down?
For the next 4 nights we stay in Shinjuku.
Planning on:
Golden gai
Tokyo Disney
Akehibara
Takeshita street
Owl cafe
Shibuya crossing/sky
Day 7 – Shinkansen to Osaka
We want to use the luggage transport service to send our bags ahead of us so we don’t have to take them on the train.
We have three days in Osaka, one will be dedicated to universal studios, another to a day trip to Kyoto, the other will just be a half day due to travel but we plan to just explore the city, eat!
For our Kyoto day, our top attractions are the golden pavilion and the bamboo Forrest, and we want to see Gion.
What’s the best way to get around Kyoto quickly?
We fly home on day 10 from Osaka airport 🙂
For winter clothes, we’ve bought thermals, thick jumpers, wool coats, beanies, gloves and wool scarves. Will we be ok?
Will we be ok using the luggage transport service?
We only speak very very basic Japanese (hello, yes, no, that one, this one, my name is, nice to meet you etc) will this be enough for our plans? We think we’ll be fine in the big cities but ginzan onsen might be challenging!
2 comments
Clothing-wise i think you’ll be more than OK – it doesn’t get quite that cold in those parts of Japan
Don’t do the owl cafe, they’re really unethical and sad honestly.