We are a group of 8 traveling to Japan in November for 10 days. This is the summary of our travel and would like to ask for any suggestions since this will be our first time. If you also have suggestions on great places to eat around the areas we are going to, please drop them in the comments. It will also help us if you could give recommendations on which foods are known for the places we are visiting.
Day 1:
* Arrival at Narita
* Shibuya (crossing, shops etc.)
* Shinjuku (thrift shops)
* Dinner at Shinjuku
Day 2:
* Mt. Takao (morning)
* Sanrio Puroland (afternoon)
* Dinner at Shibuya
Day 3:
* Asakusa: Nakamise-dori & Sensoji temple
* Tokyo skytree
* Akihabara
* Imperial Palace
* Meiji Jingu
* Dinner at Shibuya
Day 4:
* Tokyo Disneyland
Day 5:
* Travel to Kawaguchiko via bus
* Ropeway & Cruise
* Momiji Corridor (festival)
Day 6:
* Oishi Park
* 5th station
* Night bus to Osaka
Day 7:
* Arrival at Osaka
* Osaka Castle
* Dotonbori area
* Harukas 300 at sunset
Day 8:
* Hiroshima
* Miyajima shrine
Day 9:
* Kyoto
* Nara
Day 10:
* Rinku outlets
* Departure from Kansai
Any suggestions and comments will be appreciated 🙂 Thank you!
11 comments
Kyoto and Nara same day? Not possible. Just queues alone and getting from temple to temple will take a day. DisneySea is better than Disneyland
Itinerary is too packed.
One of these has to go:
1) Nara
2) Kyoto
3) Hiroshima
You won’t be able to experience both hiroshima and miyajima in the same day. I would dump kyoto to make room for miyajima.
Hard to justify a full day for Nara, but cramming it into the same day Kyoto is a no go.
What does Kyoto’s plan look like exactly? Arashiyama, kinkaku-ji and Fushimi Inari are all scattered to opposite sides of the city which take a bit to get to each.
How good are you all at sleeping on buses? I night-bused from Nagoya to Tokyo once and was awake and miserable the whole time, and definitely not up for doing anything the next day.
I would ditch Mt. Takao for time elsewhere. Day 9 is impossible as others mentioned. Keep in mind that Kyoto is a large, spread out city. With only 10 days, I think you’re better off consolidating your time in less places and getting a proper feel for them, than rushing around trying to stuff a 14 day trip into 10.
Shinjuku isn’t really known for its thrift shops – did you have something particular in mind there?
I’d skip Nara. You’re already barely getting any time in Kyoto. I spent 5 days there and still didn’t see everything.
And as other said, Miyajima and Hiroshima are both one day minimum.
**My vote is for a packed itinerary with 6am – 9pm days. You can do it!**
* I see alot of people telling you “you can’t” or “you won’t enjoy if you do this…” I enjoy and fondly look back at days where I woke up at 6am and back at the hotel at 9pm.
**My itinerary for Hiroshima and Miyajima/Itsukushima Shrine in 1 day.**
* Be early in Hiroshima for sightseeing and for the museum.
* Only time limit was getting to Miyajima during sunset when the tide is low so you can walk to the shrine.
* For snack, get a Momiji manju
* For lunch or dinner, get unagi / eel rice as Hiroshima/Miyajima are known for it
* If time is tight, eat on the ferry to Miyajima
**Warnings:**
* In general, 8 people will be hard to efficiently coordinate. (waking up, getting places, and especially finding a table to sit together unless you eat convenience store food or are ok with splitting up.
* For your itinerary, some days seem physically impossible unless your goal is only to see the train station
* Specifically: Kyoto and Nara on the same day is physically impossible unless you don’t want to see much of anything.
* It seems possible if you have zero interest in historical shrines and temples and only want to see the deers in Nara and go to Kyoto late lunch/dinner, see 1 or 2 things, then leave.
**In general it sounds like you need to do more research regardless if you want to go hard every day or go with the flow . Random internet strangers don’t always give the best advice that apply to your situation… even me.**
Not possible Kyoto and Nara in a day. My suggestion is to skip hiroshima which is slightly out of the way (although it is part of the standard visit loop), remove day 6 and concentrate on the triangle Osaka nara kyoto. Even like this 3 days is not nearly enough but at least physically doable
Five days in Tokyo and five in Kyoto would probably be the best experience. Packing in so much every day is exhausting. I know it feels like you have to see as much as possible but you will remember very little except the traveling to and from places.
I think day 3 is overpacked. Asakusa, Ueno and Chiyoda may look like they’re close together on a map, but don’t underestimate their size. It’s not a walkable tour if you want to have any time at all to enjoy them, and even public transport realistically takes about 30 minutes between these places, regardless of what Google maps tells you. And that’s without even taking into account how easy it is to lose your way (the huge Imperial Palace gardens with poor signage), get bogged down by crowds (Nakamise-dori and Akihabara), get distracted by all the shiny stuff on sale in a long line of multi-storied shops (Akihabara again), or how long it will take you to find a restaurant that sits 8 people (highly unlikely in touristy places, plus a lot of them don’t even work between 2 and 5 p.m.). If my trip has taught me anything, it’s that everything takes at least 30% longer than you think it will, and that, in Tokyo, an itinerary is not so much a plan as it is a list of suggested activities you’ll be forced to modify, swap out and cut down on, depending on weather conditions, crowds and how badly your feet–along with 7 other pairs of them, in your case–are killing you, lol.
Hi without knowing the full party, it’s kind of hard to do this but my first thought of your days in Tokyo
Day 1 – Arrival at Narita – and if you’re going straight to Shibuya it’s about 2 hours on NEX and including the transfer from Tokyo/Shinagawa. Not including the fact you’ll need to queue and pick up bags at the airport. Disregard that if you’re flying into Haneda. (but the train goes straight to asakusa from Haneda.. worth considering your options).
Considering the fact that you’re having dinner at Shibuya twice, you’re most likely staying somewhere close to there? The first day itinerary looks fine on face value but I don’t think you’ll have as much time strolling around Shibuya/Shinjuku as you might think.
Day 2 – Takao seems like a weird pick – granted it’s autumn and will be pretty, and also you’re going to Puroland (again another weird pick in my opinion) in the afternoon. The travel time to Takao from Shinjuku then from Takao to Puroland by itself is actually quite long, so I’d suggest to skip one of them. Personally would skip both as Puroland is.. fun but not interesting enough in Japan where Takao is again, nice to visit but not something I’d recommend to first time traveller.
Day 3 – I actually think this looks fine if you don’t include Meiji shrine (reason being it’s on the other side of the town). It’ll just be a full day packed.
Day 5/6 – Maybe go to Oishi Park before you go to Momiji Corridor. Both are very closely related, and if you’re doing the ropeway and cruise, do them all in one day as they are all around the same area. If you go early enough in the morning from Shinjuku, there’d be plenty of time. I’d suggest go to the Fuji fifth station on the 6th day, but honestly there’s nothing much on the fifth station and in my opinion not worth going if you’re struggling for time. Better to just go to Kawaguchiko for the whole day and take the night bus on day 5. This would also free up another day (day 6) for you to go around Osaka/Kyoto/Nara.
Day 7/8/9 – I think you can only afford to pick 2 places out of the 4, and for a more time efficient trip, it has to be either Kyoto-Nara or Kyoto-Osaka. Hiroshima is too far west out of the way in my opinion if you want to visit the most places without stressing out for time. Honestly 2 days in Kyoto (one day on the east and one on the west) with the last day being in Osaka makes the most sense to me. Nara is nice but unless you absolutely have to go and see the deers, Kyoto makes up enough for the temples that you’ll be seeing.