Hey everyone! I have a small group going to Japan next month and would love some tips for our itinerary. Our group is myself (31f), my partner (30m), and our friends (30m and 29f).
Me and the other girl are more versed in traveling internationally, but our partners have never been out of the country so we are trying to get a large range of things to do, from walking around and just exploring naturally – to hitting a few classic tourist spots as well as having a few key things planned that we don’t want to miss.
I’m also the only one in the group that’s been to Japan previously, a similar trip around 5 years ago. I learned a lot the first time and had missed out on getting to explore as much as I wanted because I was also in a group who all wanted to do different things that clashed with each other. This time I’m trying to make sure we have everything as covered as possible going in! Especially related to all the traveling between hotels – everything is booked so I want to make sure we get the most out of those travel days – even moreso the days we are taking the shinkasen because I’m not really sure how early or late those trains run.
Please feel free to give us any ideas of places to go as well or let us know if our itinerary is lacking/over packed in places. We are all heavily geeky so our main points of interest are pop culture as well as some nature/shrines. Also my partner and I are celebrating our 2 year anniversary while there, so if you have any good recommendations on romantic date spots or nice dinner places I would love those as well.
Thanks in advance ❤️
★ Japan Itinerary ★
October 9
– Flight to Japan for My partner and I
October 10
– Arrive at HND 3:25 PM
– Pickup JR Pass and Suica Cards at JR East Travel Service Center
– Travel ~1 hr from airport by train to Hotel in Tokyo and checkin
– Explore Sunshine City
– Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo
– Find Dinner
October 11
Free Day in Tokyo
October 12
Free Day in Tokyo
October 13
– Reservations for Sanrio Puroland
Hours: 2 PM – 5 PM
Travel ~1.5 hrs from hotel by train
Anniversary day – would like to find a nice place for dinner or maybe something in the morning as well.
October 14
– Check out of hotel by 11 AM.
– Travel ~30-45 min by train to next place, an Airbnb – Check In time at 4 PM. (Will probably store luggage at a train station because the Airbnb cannot be checked in early and is self service. Have never done this before but I’ve read it’s reliable)
Free Day in Tokyo – not sure what to do on travel days because of timing?
– Our friends arrive at NRT 5:50 PM – they will also be picking up their JR passes and suica cards and then then will be traveling ~1-2 hrs from airport by train to meet us at our Airbnb so we can let them in.
– Walk around Tokyo and find late dinner for the four of us
October 15
– Go to a JR station to reserve seats for our shinkasen for the other legs of our trip. Tokyo – Kyoto roundtrip, Kyoto – Osaka roundtrip, and Kyoto – Hiroshima roundtrip. Would love tips on the best way to book these.
– Akihabara Day (about 30 min away)
– Tokyo Skytree
– Pokémon Center Tokyo DX (since our friends will miss the first Pokemon center visit)
October 16
– Minato City Day – (about 1 hr away)
– teamLab Planets – Reservation at 11:30 AM
– Tokyo Imperial Palace
– Sensō-ji
– Tokyo Tower
– Hamarikyu Gardens
October 17
– Shibuya + Shinjuku Day – (about 30 min away)
– Harajuku
October 18
– Checkout of airbnb by 10 AM.
– Travel to Kameko Station, Kyoto. ~3.5-4 hrs by train
– Take Shuttle service from Kameko that leaves at 1:30 PM, 2:30 PM, or 3:30 PM to Yunohana Resort Suisen(checkin at 2 PM).
This is new for us – so we were thinking the onsen experience likely will take up the entire evening and next morning.
October 19
– Checkout by 11 AM and take shuttle back to Kameko
– Travel ~1 hour to Kyoto Airbnb – Check In time at 4pm (will probably store luggage at train station again)
– Nishiki Market
– Hōkan-ji Temple
October 20
– Osaka Day Trip from Kyoto- Travel ~1.5 hr by train
– Dotonbori
October 21
– Hiroshima Day Trip from Kyoto – Travel ~2.5-3 hr by train
– Itsukushima Jinja
– Okonomimura (Okonomi Village)
– Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
October 22
– Checkout by 10 AM (but probably checkout early to go to the shrine, find somewhere to store luggage for the day)
– Fushimi Inari Taisha ~ plan for 3 hours at this location – should arrive by 7 AM to avoid crowds as much as possible
– Kyoto Imperial Palace – to watch the festivities for Jidai Matsuri (festival)
-Travel to back to Tokyo, to hotel ~3.5 hrs by train
October 23
Free Day for anything we missed in Tokyo
October 24
– Tokyo DisneySea Travel ~1 hr by train from hotel
October 25
– Checkout of hotel at 10 AM
Find lunch, walk around?
– Our Flight home is from HND 6:25 PM
– Our friends Flight home is from NRT 6:40 PM
I’m thinking we should be at the airport no later than 430pm? I remember last time I got there wayyy too early and ended up being bored for several hours.
2 comments
Booking shinkansen tickets is very straightforward. You can go to any JR Ticket office (or Shinkansen Ticket office), show the clerk your dates/time and destinations (i.e. on a phone screen, to make it easier to understand), and your JR pass, and they’ll issue you the tickets. You can do this beforehand, like up to one month in advance. Or you can get the tickets last minute, they are almost always available.
You can check the timetables for shinkansen via JapanTravel app by Navitime.
Make sure to only get the 7 day JR pass and the activation date is for your first date of travel.
Why day trips vs just stay at your target city? Think about it, would you do a 6 hour round trip sight seeing trip in one day and return in your home country? What if you find something you really love but have to leave early because of the last train? Or what if you miss your train? Especially when you can go from hiroshima back to tokyo in one easy shinkansen at the end.