A foundation is giving away $12,000 to 25 teachers in the school district I work at for a “revitalization experience” of our choosing and I submitted this itinerary as part of a proposal for a trip to Japan with my wife. Some of it definitely feels a little imbalanced; probably too much in some days and not enough in others? But I have no real context for how long things will take and if I am even selected for the prize this would likely be the only time I’ll ever be able to travel Japan so I’m trying to “do it all.” Interested in feedback or maybe even some specific places I should check out while I’m at some of these places!
7/09 – Depart for Japan
7/10 – Land in Japan around 3pm. Find dinner and sleep
7/11 – Shibuya, shopping, Meiji Jingu Shrine, shopping around Harajuku
7/12 – Asakusa, Rent kimonos, Sensoji, Akihabara shops and cafes
7/13 – Samurai museum, observation deck, kabukicho district, visit Kodokan and jump in on a training
7/14 – Travel to Hakone for one night in a ryokan, visit lake Ashi park, Hakone Shrine, maybe hike a bit around/on Mt. Hakone
7/15 – Travel to Kyoto for four days; check out Gion and Higashiyama districts and shrines. Yoiyama matsuri events
7/16 – Fushinami Inari and Kinkakuji. Ride thae Saagano romance train and take the Hozugawa river boat back. Yoiyama matsuri events
7/17 – Day trip to Miyajima island, visit Itsukushima shrine, hike around Mt. Misen, head over to Hiroshima for the Peace Park. Back to Kyoto for the night.
7/18 – Go to Osaka, visit the castle, explore Umeda. Train to Nara park for the rest of the day before going back to Osaka for the night Tombori cruise.
7/19 – Day trip to Himeji for the castle and gardens. Go back to Osaka to explore Dotonbori
7/20 – Super Nintendo Land for the day
7/21 – Return to Tokyo to check into hotel, hop over to Nikko for Edo Wonderland Park and Toshogu shrine. Back to Tokyo for the rest of the day/night.
7/22 – Flight home leaves arond 6:30pm, so do any last change shopping around the Tokyo districts and fly home.
1 comment
Hi!
I hope this is OK.
First, Uhhh you do know Japan is extremely hot and humid during the Summer right? Like when I was there in early July 2023, every day felt like it was over 100 F with the humidity. The temperature without humidity was around 95 F. I still like to go in the Summer and I get as a teacher (just like as a student that Summer is when you get time off, but it will definitely slow you down on how much sightseeing you can do per day.
In terms of your itinerary…some of your days are not going to work at all.
7/11 You want to go to Meiji jingu first. Most shops don’t open until 10 and sometimes as late as noon. You don’t say where you are traveling from, but if it is the US, you are much more likely to be up i the morning than to be sleeping in.
Outside of moving around the order, your Tokyo days are fine, it’s when you head to Kansai things become problematic.
7/15 I would not expect to get to Kyoto any earlier than noonish, and you are going to want to bring any over night bags you have to your hotel, before any sightseeing.
7/16 I think trying to do Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama in one day along with a festival will be hard, unless you are just doing a few pictures and then moving to do something else.
7/17 I think you will have a hard time doing Miyajima and Hiroshima in one day. I would pick one or the other.
7/18 Generally it makes more sense to do Nara first since, it’s equidistant from Kyoto and Osaka. You also might not want to go in the middle of the day when it is hottest. Again a lot of shopping tends to open later like 10-noon depending on shop.
7/19 and 7/20 are fine, do be aware 7/20 might be close to the start of Japan’s summer holidays so you will be competing against domestic tourism and not just International tourism.
7/21 Uhhh no. You’re talking like 2.5-3 hours or more depending on where in Osaka you are starting and where in Tokyo you are going with your bags (unless you are hoping to find somewhere to put bags in a locker first which has its own issues) before another 90 minutes+ to get to Nikko and then some additional time to get to Nikko Wonderland.
Either you are trying to get in enough travel to make the 50,000 yen new 1 week pass price worth getting (7/15 – 7/21) in which case for both Hiroshima and going back from Shin-Osaka to Tokyo you are going to be limited on which trains you can take and that will slow you down, but might make taking a shinkansen to Nikko worth while as it will be covered) or you are paying out of pocket, plan to pay out of pocket for the shinkansen to Utsunomiya or plan to use a private line (which you need to switch to eventually to get to Edo Wonderland) In which case it’s a lot of travel and sort of costly travel with limited amounts of time.
Good luck!