Hi all! I will be visiting Japan from 30 November – 13 December, and I have some queries regarding how our itinerary should be planned. Not much details regarding the specific sights and attractions for each specific place, as I’m currently now more concerned regarding the order of the areas I should be going outside of Tokyo. More questions will be at the bottom of the post, and I would truly appreciate any help and advice. Thanks in advance! 🙂
**Some background info:** I’ve been to Tokyo before, so some parts of it we will not be revisiting this time. Some of our interests are nature, architecture, experiencing the culture, and good food. Not that big into museums. We also love a good photography spot 🙂
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**30 Nov**:
* Arrive at Narita airport early.
* Nothing has been planned for this day yet, wanted to take it easy since we just arrived, but thinking about maybe revisiting some parks we have been to, to witness some of the autumn foliage (e.g. apparently Meiji Jingu has some nice golden ginkgo trees right at this timing? If anyone would like to correct me if I’m wrong about this.)
* Maybe some christmas market/winter illumination in the evening.
* Hotel: Ikebukuro
**1 Dec:**
* Yanasen in the day
* Maybe some christmas market/winter illumination in the evening.
* Hotel: Ikebukuro
**2 Dec:**
* Tsukiji
* Tokyo Imperial Palace
* Roppongi (until evening to see the lights + market)
* Hotel: Ikebukuro
**3 Dec:**
* Chichibu day trip for the Chichibu Festival
* Hotel: Ikebukuro
**4 Dec:**
* Train to Yokohoma in the morning
* Yokohoma sights this day, e.g. Chinatown, Gundam Factory, Red Warehouse, etc.
* Hotel: Yokohoma
**5 Dec:**
* Nokogiryama Day Trip
* Hotel: Yokohoma
**6 Dec:**
* Miura daytrip using the Misaki Maguro Day Trip Ticket
* Will be exploring mainly the port area + Jogashima Island
* Hotel: Yokohoma
**7 Dec:**
* Kamakura Day Trip
* Hotel: Yokohoma
**8 Dec:**
* Train to Hakone in the morning
* Hotel: Hakone
**9 Dec:**
* Hoping to explore more of Hakone in the morning, visiting sites we weren’t able to in the previous day.
* Afternoon: travel to Enoshima (Main reason for this is we wanted to see the winter illuminations on the island, so would prefer to stay the night here. And thus this is one of the reasons for my confusion regarding the planning)
* Hotel: Enoshima
**10 Dec:**
* Enoshima in the morning
* Train to Shinjuku
* Afternoon is free for now
* Hotel: Shinjuku
**11 Dec:**
* Morning is free for now
* Train to Narita after lunch
* Maybe AEON Mall in the afternoon
* Hotel: Narita
**12 Dec:**
* Sawara day trip + Narita City (latter only for souvenir shopping, as we loved some of the delicacies here from our previous trip and wanted to purchase them again)
* Hotel: Narita
**13 Dec:**
* Morning flight back home.
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**QUESTIONS:**
* Does anyone have the updated price for the Hakone Free Pass without the round trip from Shinjuku? I can’t seem to find it on the Odakyu website. And am I correct to say that the time it takes to get from Yokohoma to Hakone through train is roughly 1 hour?
* Regarding the order in the itinerary for Kamakura, Hakone, Enoshima: I had wanted to put Kamakura and Enoshima together at first, but since I am unsure how long the day trip will be (and I did not want to get back to Yokohoma too late if we stayed for the winter illuminations at Enoshima, which is why I would prefer to stay the night at Enoshima).
* Do you guys think I will be able to do both of these places in one day (on 7 Dec)?
* Or: should I do Enoshima on 6 Dec (staying the night there – but I’m worried the entire day is going to be a bit too much time for just Enoshima), Kamakura on 7 Dec, heading back to Yokohoma for the night on 9 Dec and then Miura on 10 Dec (going back to Yokohoma to pick up our bags and then heading to Shinjuku?)
* Or: is Miura pretty small, in that it’s almost a half day trip, and then I can make my way back to Yokohoma, pick up my bags and head to Enoshima on 6 Dec? So on 7 Dec, it will be Kamakura, and then after Hakone we will just head back straight to Shinjuku without going back to Yokohoma?
* Note: Our hotel for Hakone is booked for 8 Dec night so we had to work around that, unfortunately.
* Apart from Sawara, are there any other interesting day trips that can be done from Narita that you guys can recommend? I understand that the place is famous for the festival, but since we will be staying at Narita for the last couple of days (our flight is very early in the morning) and souvenir shopping at Narita City won’t take the entire day, we needed something else to fill up the morning and early afternoon.
* Also within Tokyo itself, are there any recommendations as well regarding places of interest/half day trips? Following the original plan posted above, we would have some time on 30 Nov, 10 Dec and 11 Dec. Most of the famous tourist spots we have already been to, and we have also visited Kawagoe/Mount Takao for daytrips before. We are okay to skip AEON Mall for something else more interesting.
* We are also rather interested in winter illuminations/Christmas markets. We do have expectations that they cant compare to European christmas markets (will simply be there to soak in some atmosphere haha!) but would appreciate any recommendations (in Tokyo).
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Thank you so much once again!!