Hi this will be my first time in Japan and I’m really excited. This trip will consisted of seeing/visiting shines, temples, statues, walking around different neighborhoods/areas, and eating/drinking. I’ve changed my itinerary four time and I think it’s good. But I wouldn’t mind other people’s opinions about how feasible this itinerary is. Also feel free to give any recommendations you can think of about restaurants, music venues to check out, places/neighborhood to see. The timeline/description of the trip is listed below.
I still have a few questions about luggage size, weather, booking shinkansen, restaurants, nightlife, and souvenirs.
\-Will one carry-on size luggage and 30L backpack be enough for 2.5 week trip? The hotel will have a complementary washer and dryer I can use.
\-This trip will be in late Oct and early Nov. What can I expect weather wise? Will it be warm in the afternoon and cold at night?-Do I need to reserve a shinkansen ticket in advance or can I buy a ticket the day of?
\-Regarding restaurants, how long are the usual wait times for non-Michelin and/or Michelin restaurants? Also what are some etiquette tips for eating at restaurants.
\-I’ll do some izakaya hopping and looking for live music shows. Do you all know of any spots within or nearby the Tokyo area? I’ve read that Shimokitazawa is a good place to check out live shows. Mostly looking for rock bands, indie bands and maybe house or disco venues/bars.
(Day 1):
* Land in Osaka and check into hotel
* Walk around Dotonbori and eat some takoyaki and gyoza
* sleep of jetlag
(Day 2): Causal day walking around Osaka
* Visit Namba Yasaka-Jinja
* Walk around Namba Park
* Explore Denden Town
* Explore Shinsekai
(Day 3): Osaka -> Kyoto Day trip
* Walking Fushimi Inari Taisha (at around 8am to avoid large crowds)
* Visit the Kyoto Manga Museum
* Visit Kennin-ji Temple
* Walking around Higashiyama Ward
* See Yasaka shrine at night
(Day 4): Osaka -> Kyoto Half-Day trip
* Walking through Arashiyama Bamaboo Forest (at around 8am to avoid large crowds)
* Visit Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple
* Train ride Kyoto -> Osaka
* Explore/Walk around Amerikamura
* See the Hozenji Temple
* Wandering around Dotonbori
(Day 5): Osaka -> Nara Half-Day trip
* Visit Todai-Ji Temple
* Train ride Nara -> Osaka
* Go to Umeda Sky
* Explore/Walk around Umeda eating and drink the rest of the day
(Day 6): Osaka -> Tokyo Prefecture
* Morning Train ride Osaka -> Tokyo Prefecture
* Doing a personal architecture scavenger hunt. Taking pictures of uniquely designed buildings (Tokyo Tower, Alpha Matrix Building, Ebisu East Gallery, SunnyHills, Tokyo Mode Gakuen, Louis Vaton Building Gizna)
* Check into hotel
* Explore/Walk around Shinjuku
* Go to travel guide sponsored bar crawl
(Day 7): Shibuya & Shimokitazawa
* Exploring/Walking around Shibuya & Shimokitazawa
* Find that 3D Billboard
* Go to Ikebukuro Halloween Cosplay Festival\* (If there’s enough time)
(Day 8): Chiba Day trip
* Early Morning train ride to Chiba
* Hiking/Walking Nihon-temple Motona Mountain Trail
* Ride train to Shinjuku to rest and eat at an izakaya
(Day 9): Hakone Daytrip
* Early Morning train ride to Hakone
* Visit Heiwa no Torii Gate
* Visit Owakudani
* Check into Onsen Hotel and soak in private onsen
(Day 10): Lake Kawaguchiko
* check out of Onsen Hotel
* Take bus ride to Kawaguchiko Station
* Go to Kawaguchiko Tenjozan Park via Mt. Fuji Panoramic Ropeway
* Ride train back to Tokyo Prefecture
(Day 11): Yokohama & Odaiba
* Visit the giant moving RX-78 Gundam Statue in Yokohama in the morning
* Visit the transforming Unicorn Gundam and The Gundam Base Store in Odaiba
* Free day for the remainder of the day
(Day 12): Kamikochi Day trip
* Night bus or morning train ride to Kamikochi Park
* Bus and/or train ride back to Tokyo Prefecture
(Day 13): Tokyo
* Morning train ride to visit Shibamata Taishakuten Temple
* Explore/Walk around Akihabara
* Visit and play games at Gigo Arcade and/or Taito Station
(Day 14-17): Tokyo
* Free day to do whatever
![[Itinerary Check] 22 days, Kyushi/Hokkaido](https://www.lonelyjapan.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/6uwxrvnwvwRuGuwBTCRFvHFBZ22eNVprQILw7VdlUmY-380x220.jpg)
3 comments
Hi!
If you take the morning bus to Kamikochi, you will only have about 3-4 hours there. That seems like not very much time considering how much the bus will cost and the amount of time you will spend on the bus.
I’m old. I can’t imagine taking a night bus, spending 9 hours in the park and then another long bus ride back. I mean maybe you can sleep on buses so it won’t be a big deal? I think if you want to go to Kamikochi I would go for longer than 9-4 hours and would put it elsewhere in your trip.
Mainly on Day 6, I would move your scavenger hunt and bar crawl and spend the night somewhere like Hirayu onsen. Then have day 7 for Kamikochi and spend the night in Matsumoto and then from Matsumoto take and early train to get to Kawaguchiko and then go to Hakone.
But that is just me.
Good luck!
The architecture tour in Tokyo you’ll be doing seems tough, as you’ll have to spend a couple of hours riding the subway to get to the various buildings you’ve noted. Also, one of the features of Tokyo is that it is often not easy to get distant views (more than ~100 meters) of anything, so for many buildings you’ll have to be right across the street from it to see it. (There are exceptions: the Mode Gakuen Building and Tokyo Tower, for examples, are visible from many places.) It might be better to map the buildings you’re interested in and make detours to see them on different days when you’re near them.
For the laundry, we’ve noticed it’s been tough trying to get in to use the 1 or 2 free hotel laundry machines. We did walk our things over to near by laundromat once. You may need plan some slower days here and there to accommodate this.
For restaurant etiquette, some basic Japanese phrases are useful to learn ahead of time. Different establishments have different norms, typically some observational skills are all you need (posted signs and watching what others do).