Solo Itinerary Check – Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo – Oct 24 – Nov 4

Hi all,

I’m going to travel to Japan with a group of people from October 24 to November 4, but as soon as we reach Osaka (1st day) I’m planning to go solo and maybe catch them later in the trip (in some days we’ll be in the same city at the same date).

Itinerary in short will be: 3.5 days in Osaka, 3.5 Days in Kyoto, 4.5 Days in Tokyo.

Before the full itinerary, a few things to keep in mind, anybody has their own preferences and that’s ok, I personally hate touristy attraction/themed parks, so Universal, Ghibli etc. are not even planned. I also hate overcrowded spots, but I’m going to endure them if the goal is to see some historical temples or unique experiences like teamlabs (still on the fence about this tbh, but we’ll see) I understand it is almost impossible to avoid overcrowded places in Japan so I’m just going to deal with it. I’d much rather prefer to walk aimlessly in the streets and see what happens. I’m not really used to travel alone (first big trip of this kind) but every time I travel with other people I’m the one “guiding” so I hope it’s going to be ok. The timings and schedules are not in detail because I like to be open to new possibilities and don’t care to have everything super OCD level organized. The Same applies to restaurants, I’d like to avoid the hassle of reservation if possible, and if that means that I’m going to miss on some “incredible” restaurants, I’m fine with that. But in any case if you have any suggestions please post them 🙂

Day 1 – 24 Oct
Morning: Land at haneda buy sim at bic camera electronic store and other survival items
Afternoon: shinkansen to Osaka, drop luggage, explore
Evening/night: sleep and organize next day (this is basically happening each night, so I wont repeat myself further)

Day 2
Morning and afternoon: Osaka Castle, Dontonbori and get a feel for Japan, explore and go easy cause jet lag.

Day 3
Morning and afternoon: Nara park, toshadai-ji temple, yakushiji temple, todaiji, kasuga taisha shrine

Day 4
Morning: Random walk or see something I’ve missed OR take train to Kyoto and drop luggage
Afternoon: Train and check-in Kyoto
Evening/night: Random exploration

Day 5
Morning and afternoon: kiyomizu-dera, kodai-ji temple, hanamikoji street, shoren-in temple, nishiki market if I have time

Day 6
Morning and afternoon: arashiyama, hogon-in temple, bamboo groove etc. If I have time kinkaku-ji and nijo castle.

Day 7
Morning: fushimi inari
Afternoon: Random exploration or missed stuff
Evening/night: early sleep

Day 8 – 31 Oct
Morning: train to tokyo, do i need to reserve? Considering halloween I’m thinking a lot of people will travel to tokyo?
Afternoon: meji jingu – yogoy park – Random exploration shibuya
Evening/night: halloween night, get wasted in shibuya, any suggestion for some international easy-going/backpackers friendly bars?

Day 9
Morning: tsukiji market – godzilla statue – Imperial Palace or just sleep in if I succeeded in day 8 night mission 🙂
Afternoon: akihabra – senso-ji – ueno park – bunkyo civic center for free view at sunset?

Day 10
Morning: teamlab planets (do i need to reserve a ticket?) gundam statue
Afternoon: ginza and random exploration

Day 11
Morning: random or missed stuff
Afternoon:
Evening/night:

Day 12 – Nov 4
Morning: souvenirs and flight

And this is basically it, feel free to point out possible issues, suggestions etc. Any advice is appreciated 🙂