Hi, I’ve been reading this subreddit for the last few months and it has helped me a lot with my itinerary planning. Thank you everyone for helping out!
We are a couple in our mid-30s. It’s my first visit but my partner has visited Japan back in September 2018. This time she wanted to visit in Winter but I convinced her to go in Autumn since it’s my first time. Our interests are food, coffee, stationary, design, art, anime/manga. Goshuin and Eki stamp collecting as well as commemorative manhole cover spotting are other things we would like to do on the side.
We are from a country that requires a Visa to visit Japan and we just received our visas today so I thought I would post about our itinerary here.
**Tuesday, Oct 31** — Land at Narita (3pm) and take the Keisei Skyliner to the hotel. Visit Akihabara(close to hotel).
**Wednesday, Nov 1** — TeamLab Planets, 9 am. Apart from this booking, we have kept it free to visit the Asakusa area. Some ideas we have for the day is visit Pigment Tokyo, Toyosu Market, Tokyo Cruise to Asakusa, Sensoji, Kappabashi.
**Thursday, Nov 2** — Yayoi Kusama at 11am. Tickets are not yet out. Rest of the day is probably going to be Shibuya/Shinjuku. Keeping it free since we have not yet got our Ghibli Museum tickets.
**Friday, Nov 3** — Preferred slot of Ghibli Museum in the morning 11am. I logged in this month when the sale started and saw how the ticket queue on the international site gets crazy long. The tips on JapanTravelTips were helpful to understand the booking strategy. Harry Potter Studio tour at 5pm. This limits the number of slots available for booking at Ghibli to the first few hours of the day to account for transit.
**Saturday, Nov 4 – Tuesday, Nov 7** — We are visiting friends who live in Kamogawa, Chiba and don’t have any plans. We plan to ship our luggage out to our Osaka hotel so that we don’t need to carry it around.
**Tuesday, Nov 7** — On 7th, we want to visit Lake Fujikawaguchiko for an overnight stay. Our plan for Kawaguchiko may feel eccentric to you but it’s something we really wanted to do for a few years now. Hoping the autumn leaves at Momoji tunnel are in season!
**Wednesday, Nov 8** Leave from Kawaguchiko and travel to Osaka. We probably will reach around 6pm and visit Namba/Dotonbori for the nightlife. Our Osaka and Kyoto parts of the trip are very flexible to make up for the rushed first half.
**Thursday, Nov 9, 2023** — Visit Katsuo-ji, and Cup Noodles museum Izakaya Toyo and the maybe teamLab’s installation at the Botanical Park or Tsūtenkaku area.
**Friday, Nov 10, 2023** — Take the Aoniyoshi sightseeing express to Kyoto at 9am. Visit the Nishiki Market and Potoncho area.
**Saturday, Nov 11** — Visit Fushimi Inari shrine in the morning and Kiyomizu-dera temple and other temples in that area. Someone here mentioned Nokishita Cocktail Omakase and it felt like something we would like to try. Have not yet booked it. Go for a shiatsu massage.
**Sunday, Nov 12, 2023** — Arashiyama, Kinkaku-ji and Kifune Jinja (this one seems a little tight to fit in). If possible take the Sagano romance car in Arashiyama.
**Monday, Nov 13, 2023** — Checkout and head to Tokyo. Stay at Ginza so we can do some shopping at Uniqlo, Muji and Itoya.
**Tuesday, Nov 14, 2023** — Travel to Narita and catch our flight out at 2pm.
2 comments
A few comments:
Thursday November 9; definitely go to Minoh Fall as well since you are visiting Japan in Momiji season! (+ buy momiji tempura there, it’s delicious) It’s close by the Cup Noodle Museum. Keep in mind that there aren’t many busses to the Katsuo-ji temple… you might have to take a taxi.
Sunday November 12; don’t go to Kifune on the weekends!! It’s way too busy as it is a popular destination among the Japanese especially in fall. I also highly doubt you’ll have time for it anyway. Instead go in the morning to Koke-dera in the Arashiyama area. You have to make a reservation online before hand and it’s a little expensive (3000-4000¥ pp), but so worth it. You can easily take the bus afterwards to Arashiyama. Temples close around 16h(30min) so leave for kinkaku-ji on time!
I hope you’ll have a great trip!
Sharing the [2023 autumn foilage forecast](https://n-kishou.com/corp/news-contents/autumn/?lang=en)