Hi all,
Me and three friends are planning a trip to japan in october and would like some feedback. It is our first time in japan and we would like to visit the kanto, chubu and the kansai regions. We have already booked our tickets into and from the narita airport.
We would like to know if our planning isn’t too packed time-wise and we would love to hear if any of you folks has a very good alternative to one of our ideas.
The activities arent in a particular order, but just written down to give you guys an estimation of our planning timewise. Our planning is (roughly) as followed:
**Day 0**: Drive to and depart from airport
**Day 1**: Arrive @ narita airport at around 3pm. Go to hotel, shower, rest and explore the city in the evening. **Any good advice on which district to pick for our hotels?**
**Day 2**: Tokyo, activities: asakusa, golden gai, maid cafe
**Day 3**: Tokyo, activities: akihabara, kabukicho
**Day 4**: Tokyo, activities: Chureito Pagoda and hope for a nice view of mt fuji
**Day 5**: Kyoto, activities: from this day onward we want to do a 2 week JR pass. So we start with a few days tokyo and end on a few days. Kiyomizu dera, fushimi inari shrine.
**Day 6**: Kyoto, activities: visit kichi kichi (omuricu guy from youtube), stay in a ryokan
**Day 7**: Kyoto, activities: bamboo forest, london gardens, temple’s. We dont really know what the must see’s are in kyoto and dont want to miss any nice gardens or temple’s. Recommendations please.
**Day 8**: Osaka, activities: universal studios on a workday (probably monday), so we can experience the park in peace (hopefully)
**Day 9**: Osaka, activities: visit kobe
**Day 10+11**: Osaka, activities: We dont really know. Just eat, drink, chill and party. Any recommendations are welcome!
**Day 12**: Osaka, activities: Visit nara. If it isnt too interesting we’ll go back to osaka.
**Day 13**: Trip to toyama in preparation for the days after.
**Day 14**: Tateyama Caldera Observatory, Kagamiishi, Snow corridor
**Day 15**: Start of our hik on Mount Tate, Tateyama hike & monkey park
**Day 16**: Shinotaka ropeway line > Kurobe dam > kurobe dam station
**Day 17**: On our way to Nagano station and take a break. We’d like to visit this city as well since it looks nice.
**Day 18**: Explore nagano and visit the Togakushi-Jinja shrine
**Day 19**: Tokyo, activities: fish market, random exploration, rest.
**Day 20**: Tokyo exploring
**Day 21**: Trip back home
​
Other activities that we would like to do:
* \*Staying at a ryokan with an onsen (possibly with a nice view, but not necessary)
* \*Try A5 wagyu
* \*Try the BEST ramen
* Yakiniku/ nomihoudai
* Robata
* Onsen
* Party’s/nightlife
* Foods: Okonomiyaki, tonkatsu, chicken katsu
* Maid cafe
* Capsule hotel
* Cycling through the city
* Robot restaurant
* Visit an old-fashioned ramen stall on wheels (you know those wooden ones)
* Visit a samurai temple of some sorts
* Pachinko
We’d like your tips and recommendations on these too, especially the ones marked with a “\*”. Thanks in advance everyone!
4 comments
Day 1 : there is different options for area where to stay, kind of depend on what vide you want. Considering the day trip to Kawaguchiko, then maybe Shinjuku would be good as you can take the bus or train directly from there. Also, considering you have Kabukicho and Golden gai (that is in Kabukicho) on day 2 and 3, then would make sense to stay around shinjuku and just end your day there and walk back to the hotel afer your nightlife experience.
Day 2 : where do you want to go to a maid cafe ? Ok, there is a Maidreamin in Shinjuku, otherwise, should do it on day 3 when you are in Akihabara as there is more options (just go to a known one opposed to follow a maid that advertise on the street, some might be a bit sketchy).
Just read a bit about Kyoto, there is a lot of options on nice temples, and in 2-3 days, you won’t have time to see them all. If you are into garden, then there is actually some really nice in Tokyo like Koishikawa korakuen.
Day 13 to 16, snow corridor is only when there is snow, so considering you are going in October, I doubt you would see any snow. Not sure how long it really take to do the whole Tateyama-Kurobe alpine route, but I have the feeling that 4 days is a bit long.
Not totally sure that 14 days JR Pass would be worth the cost. Tokyo-Kyoto 14 000, Toyama 9 400, Kurobe Alpine route is not JR, Shinano-Omachi to Nagano 3700, but I think you can do it faster and cheaper ont the bus, Tokyo, 8200. Total, 35 300…. that is at least 12 000 yen less expensive than a 14 days pass, so even if you could do Nara, Kyoto-Osaka and go to Narita using the pass, that would not be enough to make the pass worth buying.
​
Ryokan with onsen, you are not especially going to places that are know for onsen. So without going to other cities than the one you planed, the option I can see is around Arashiyama in Kyoto, there is some onsen around there. Or just consider changing your plan to include a stop by a place with more onsen. For example you could stop somewhere between Osaka and Toyama, for example there is Kaga onsen and Awara onsen that are stops on the thunderbird train. I do not know much about these places, but could be worth checking them out. (Edit : or around Nagano, Shibu onsen or Yudanaka onsen).
A5 wagyu, should not be hard to find restaurant that serve it in the big cities you will visit. Yes, I know some people like the idea of eating Kobe beef in Kobe, but it’s not the only type of high quality beef you can find and not the only place you can try Kobe beef anyway.
Best ramen, you can always check websites that specialize in ranking ramen shops, but if a place is highly rated, it can also have some really long waiting time. You can likely find great ramen just by opening Google maps and searching for ramen close to where you are and go to the one that have good ratings.
For nightlife, add Dotonbori in Osaka.
Robot restaurant is close and they moved out. It is apparently not officially close, so it might re-open in the future, but nobody know when or where that would be.
Maid Cafe, as I said, Akihabara and chose a known one before going just to make sure it’s not a sketchy place.
Yatai style ramen are not that common, not impossible to find, but for this, you should probably plan it and not just expect to randomly find many of them.
What do you mean by “samurai temple”.
>Day 2: Tokyo, activities: asakusa, golden gai, maid cafe
>Day 3: Tokyo, activities: akihabara, kabukicho
You should probably group akihabara with the maid cafe and golden gai with kabukicho. Geographically they are closer together. Also do Akihabara and Asakusa on the same day for the same reason.
> Day 8: Osaka, activities: universal studios on a workday (probably monday), so we can experience the park in peace (hopefully)
theme parks will always be busy.
> Robot restaurant
This place is currently closed and no word on when/if it will return.
> Try the BEST ramen
I would say there is no “best ramen” there are so many different variations beyond the standard shoyu, miso, and shio it is difficult to define a best, its also down the personal taste and preference. That being said, there is an organization in the Tokyo area that comes out with “Tokyo Ramen of the Year” award. They have a ranking of ramen in different categories, and also a best overall. I believe “Ramen Toy Box” won the grand prize this year. The best new shop was a place called “Ramen FeeL”.
If you’re looking for a ryokan with a onsen i’d suggest skipping a ryokan in kyoto and look for one on the way to Tateyama there a couple onsen areas enroute. There are also a bunch of onsen areas between Tateyama/Nagano/Tokyo. It sounds like you’re looking for an outdoor onsen in which case you’ll need to search ryokans with a rotenburo.
I usually suggest staying in Shibuya or Shinjuku. They’re easily accessible and have a night life, especially Shibuya and Kabuki-cho in Shinjuku. There are several clubs around those two districts; there is also ageHa in Shin-Kiba but you will need to commit to being there all night or take an expensive taxi back (as the trains won’t run between midnight and ~5 AM). Great club, though.
I don’t particularly suggest staying in a capsule hotel unless you’re really on a budget. They’re novel but not very comfortable; good for an overnight, not really great if you’re staying for more than a day, especially if you’re a group and not experienced in Japan. I say that because it means you may want to have time in your hotel to gather your thoughts, talk about what to do, where to go, etc. and that’s not very easily done in a capsule hotel. THAT SAID, I can suggest the Millenials in Shibuya. It is theoretically a capsule hotel but it’s quite nice, well priced for where it is, comfortable, and has a pretty good social scene. Definitely check it out and consider it.
I’m glad you’re going through Toyama and the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route. I often like to suggest it so it’s nice that someone already has it on their radar. A few suggestions for this leg of your trip:
You’ll pass through Fukui prefecture which has a few interesting things, especially the dinosaur museum. I found it really great and even though on approach you see a bunch of kids (not surprising…) it was still very good for me as a lone adult. There’s also Eiheiji Temple for cultural stuff and Tojimbo for natural stuff.
In addition, you’ll pass through Kanazawa which is a good day and a half to two days on its own. There’s lots written about Kanazawa so I’m sure you won’t have trouble finding any information.
Are you familiar with the conditions you’ll find on Tateyama when you get there? Do you have experience hiking in cold weather and on snow/ice? If you don’t, there are trails that are pretty easy to do but the path leading up to Tateyama can be treacherous. Be sure you do some research before you commit to any hikes. Register your hike at the hotel so people can find you if you don’t return.
Once you arrive on the eastern side of the Alpine Route, you’re just a hop away from Matsumoto which is a nice little town and has one of the best-looking castles in my opinion; it is one of the 12 original castles remaining in Japan (i.e. not reconstruction). From Matsumoto, you can take the train to Nagano in under an hour if you catch a Limited Express. If you get to the east side of the Alpine Route at, say, noon-ish or just before, you can easily make a nice afternoon out of Matsumoto and take an evening train to Nagano.
Finally, I made a somewhat-similar trip in 2019 and wrote a big post about planning the trip (it includes a multi-day hike in Tateyama though I had to bail early due to injury – just saying, don’t take anything for granted (I’m fine, wasn’t in danger, but things could have turned out differently)). You can see it [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/bidu2y/july_2019_toyama_backpacking_tohoku_fuji_rock_how/). I’ll copy/paste a small blurb about hiking. I sincerely suggest you download the app and look at the trail maps. If you need help understanding it, you can post here or message me. It’s very important to do everything you can to stay safe, even if it feels unnecessary.
​
>When looking at trails, I use this app, which is unfortunately only in Japanese: [山と高原地図](https://www.mapple.co.jp/product/mountainmap/). Each map costs 500 JPY. With the help of google translate, it’s possible to figure out which map you need, but I’m sure people here can also point out which map you need. The maps themselves are also in Japanese, but trails/hike times are universal and dangerous areas are marked by a yellow !. [This is what it looks like](https://imgur.com/E5QV3NM); this picture is a paper copy, but the map is the same.
The map you’d want is #37.
Just regarding accommodation in Tokyo, I would stay in the Shinjuku area. An easy hub to get to wherever you want to go, and easy to get to from Narita