Hi all, looking to get some feedback for 3 first timers to Japan around age 30!
​
Day 1- Tokyo: Land at Haneda in the early evening, this day will be a wash after traveling. Grab dinner and sleep
Day 2- Tokyo: One of us will arrive in the evening, so the other 2 of us will just hang around our hotel in Nihonbashi, as we don’t want to do too much without our 3rd friend.
Day 3- Tokyo: Asakusa, Ueno, Akihabara
Day 4- Tokyo: Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku. We have an Izakaya/bar crawl tour of Shinjuku booked for this evening
Day 5- Tokyo: Imperial Palace, Ginza, Roppongi
Day 6-Tokyo: Day trip to a Hakone (onsen), or to the Fuji Lakes
Day 7- Tokyo to Kanazawa: Kenrokuen garden, Kanazawa castle, Nagamachi Samurai District
Day 8- Kanazawa: Omicho Market, Higashi Chaya-gai district, Myoryuji temple
Day 9- Kanazawa to Kyoto: Arrive in Kyoto on this day, no plans but to just settle in to the city
Day 10- Kyoto: Arashiyama Bamboo grove, Iwatayama Monkey Park (optional), Arashiyama area, Kinkaku-ji temple, Central tokyo/tokyo tower area for dinner
Day 11- Kyoto: Early morning Fushima Inari Shrine, walk through higashiyama and gion, stroll down pontocho alley
Day 12- Kyoto: Day trip to Nara
Day 13- Kyoto: Day trip to Osaka- Osaka castle, Tennoji area, Shinsekai, Denden town, Dotonbori
Day 14- Kyoto to Hiroshima: Atomic bomb dome, Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima Castle. Okonomimura for dinner
Day 15- Hiroshima to Miyajima: Mt Misen, Itsukushima Shrine
Day 16- Miyajima to Tokyo: A fairly long travel day, grab some dinner and just hang near our hotel in Shinjuku
Day 17- Tokyo: Do whatever is left on our list for Tokyo on our last day. Optional day trip
Day 18- Fly out
3 comments
Where did you find all of these options? How did you decide on which ones? I’m going in late November as well.
teamLab has an evening thing at Kanazawa Castle through Nov 26th. There’s also a night time light up thing at Kenroku-en during the fall. I’m planning on checking both out myself. If you want a really good place to eat/drink for dinner, check out Kanazawa Shu Shu. You might have to make reservations depending on the days you’ll be in town.
Consider breaking up your Kyoto 5 nights and doing Hiroshima/ Miyajima in the middle. Splits the long journey of 6 hours?
You could leave your bags with your Kyoto hotel and travel light before returning. You could stop at Himeji on way back to Kyoto and explore the castle. Many believe Himeji is superior to Osaka Castle. On your last Kyoto morning you get to decide 1/ more time in Kyoto by departing late 2/ more time in Tokyo by departing early.