Hi all,
Looking for some feedback regarding my and my to-be husband’s itinerary for our honeymoon for end of October to mid-November, thanks in advance 🙂
Edit – Removed animal cafes from our itinerary, thank you all for raising the ethical concerns with them!
**Tokyo**
Mon, Oct 30 – Arrive NRT airport at 5:30 PM, pick up sim cards and transfer luggage via Yamato, go to Shibuya area and check out crossing and square, shibuya parco, one piece straw hat store, shibuya sky and get some dinner from a restaurant nearby.
Tues, Oct 31 – Start with breakfast at Cafe Aaliya, go to Surugaya to the beyblade store, then walk to Meiji Jingu and check out the area, and then shop at purikura no mecca, check out takashimaya times square if we have time and end the night with dinner
Wed, Nov 1 – Mount Takao and shopping at Nakano Broadway and the Sun Mall in the evening
Thurs, Nov 2 – Akhibara shopping and TeamLabs Planet in the evening.
Fri, Nov 3 – Ueno Park, ramen nearby, walk to Senso-ji, shopping at Nakamise-dori street, dessert at Benitsuru, and wagyu afterwards, evening at pokemon centre and dinner nearby.
Sat, Nov 4 – Mount Fuji day (if anyone has good Ryokan with private baths suggestions, pls let us know)!
Sun, Nov 5 – Kamakuma half-day and shopping at Togoshi Ginza Shopping St with dinner nearby.
**Kyoto**
Mon, Nov 6 – Ramen cooking class in morning, head over to Kinkaku-ji and then Arashiyama Bamboo grove and Tenryu-ji, and then dinner nearby and Round One Kyoto Kawaramachi in the night.
Tues, Nov 7 – Start off day with Fushimi Inari Taisha, then head over to Kiyomizu-dera, lunch nearby and then go to Ninenzaka, early dinner and then see Gion.
Wed, Nov 8 – Kobe animal kingdom half-day, lunch nearby and then head to **Osaka** and see the Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel.
**Osaka**
Thurs, Nov 9 – Glitch Coffee in the morn, and then head to Shitenno-ji and then Dotonburi and Shinsaibashi-Suji shopping street, end night with dinner nearby.
Fri, Nov 10 – Start off day with Daisen Park Japanese Garden and Daisen-ryo kofun, lunch nearby + if anything is missed in Osaka/Kyoto then we will check out whatever was missed!
Nov 11-15 – ???
We still have 4 days where we are uncertain what to do, we are considering extending our stay in Mount Fuji to another Day (so Sat and Sun) and going back to Tokyo from Osaka and going to Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park and the villages in Northern Japan such as Gokayama, Shirakawa, and Hida Folk Village, but any other suggestions are welcome! We are currently only taking public transit and walking places so unsure if it’s worth it to rent a car to see these villages or if there’s a way to access them via trains.
We love nature and mountainous areas, and anime (fiance loves one piece especially), we aren’t really interested in bars/clubs/night life.
9 comments
Stay away from the animal cafés. They’re being shut down all the time because of ill treatment of animals, and even those that are not obviously should be.
Maybe a day or two in kinosake onsen?
Will you have the JR pass? If so, use the official Japan travel app/website to check out point of interests in major shinkansen stops.
>We love nature and mountainous areas
Nikko, Hakone, Kawaguchiko. All half-day/day trips you can do. And during the Fall season, these places will look very beautiful. Ditch the cafes.
Ryokans have inflated prices on weekends, move Mt Fuji to another night if possible.
Shirakawago, Gokayama, Takayama etc. have peak foliage in end October/early November – if you want to go there shift Tokyo towards the end and go to these places ASAP.
Definitely agree with the other commenter. Avoid most of the animal cafes, particularly the exotic ones (owl, hedgehogs, otter, mipigs) and even a lot of the cat and dog ones are really sad. Their practices are super unethical and straight up cruel.
Oct 30
Not sure where you are flying in from, but you might want to account for travel fatigue/jet lag on arrival day. I don’t think you’ll have much time to visit Shibuya after getting your airport stuff done, checking into hotel. Parco prob closes at 8pm.
Oct 31
I would do Meiji Jingu first. We learned to plan shrines/temples early in the day to avoid crowds and to maximize our itinerary because most businesses open at 11am.
This is Halloween so crowds in certain areas of Tokyo might be at their peak during evening time.
The first day in Kyoto looks stressful to me unless you’re going up the night before, if thats the case, it should be fine. But why not put in the monkey park hike on your bamboo Grove day if you love animals / nature. They are very close to each other?
You have some empty days. Disney Sea is always a good addition. If you think you will have a lot of energy, two days in hirsohima is a good move. Or at least add nara. If you don’t add hiroshima. I think miyajima is probably better than nara, but miyjima is quite far away.
Anyway, just some ideas.
Where are you doing the ramen cooking class in Kyoto?