Hello. My wife and I are traveling next month and would love and advice or anything we should remove or add:
Any assistance on this trip would be greatly appreciated:
(Debating removing the trip to Hakone or Nikko)
Nov 19 – Arrive in Tokyo mid afternoon. Spend time near hotel – Shinjuku. Rest/early night
Nov 20 – Tokyo. Explore Asakusa. Night food tour – Best of Izakaya
Nov 21 – Day trip to Nikko. Leave early morning. Come back to Tokyo at night by train
Nov 22 – Tokyo – Explore Shibuya/ Setagaya
Nov 23 – Tokyo – Tsukiji fish market/ Shinjuku
Nov 24 – Day trip to Hakone. Train in morning. Arrive back to Tokyo at night
Nov 25 – Train to Kanazawa early. Omicho Market: Visit a chaya district (Kazuemachi). Explore Nagamachi Samurai District. Kenrokuen.
Nov 26 – Kanazawa – Visit Kanazawa Castle. Enjoy a Tea Ceremony Overlooking Gyokusen-Inmaru Gardens
Nov 27 – Train to Kyoto. Gion area. Pontocho alley. Cenci for dinner
Nov 28 – Kyoto – Fushimi Inari Taisha/ Sake tasting
Nov 29 – Kyoto – bamboo forest, Otagi Nenbutsu-Ji temple, tenryu-ji temple, hafuu (take away wygyu steak); Higashiyama District, Kiyomizu Dera temple, Ninen-Zaka and Sannen-Zaka Streets
Nov 30 – Kyoto – Day trip to Kurashiki.
Kurashiki Bikan Historic quarter; canals; Honmachidori Street; Ivy Square. Lunch: Kurashiki Takataya
Dec 1 – Day trip from Kyoto to Osaka
Dec 2 – Train from Kyoto back to Tokyo. Go back and visit favorite areas from earlier in the trip
Dec 3 – Return to US
Thanks!
9 comments
Tokyo is really big but if you finish exploring a neighborhood early, you could add another from the next day in and knock it out as well. To free up your schedule.
You could fit in a visit to Nara from Kyoto. Less tourist in the winter there.
Other than that, enjoy the trip. Similar to my first visit. Still have yet to go during the winter yet.
I’m curious: why Kanazawa? I went there in March. While its a beauitful city, there’s not that much to do and the things you can do can also be done in other cities.
I honestly would recommend doing a day trip to Himeiji and see the castle there + Engyoji for a more unique experience.
I would recommend Kanazawa if you had 3 weeks or more, but with a 2 week period it wouldn’t add something significant to your first trip
I’m competely exhausted just reading your itinerary. A day to soak it all in would be nice. Kyoto is always worthy of at least two days. Osaka day trip? Skip it unless you can’t get enough of urban excess. You’ll get that in Tokyo. Some people prefer to explore cities, some prefer anywhere but cities. Try to get to Hokkaido on your next trip and you’ll know what Im sayin’. Have a great trip.
nov 29th – not sure I should say, impossible, or just very ambitious…
A lot of people mention that bins are hard to find anywhere you go in Japan – and separating your rubbish is important too. This is true.
What I don’t see much mention of is; and supported by my most recent experience (9 day trip covering Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Tokyo) there seemed to be a similarly difficult time finding places to sit down.
My partner struggled to keep pace with me and got sick midway through.
My advice is to control the pace of travel and take any and every opportunity to sit down for microbreaks throughout the day.
I’ve always found day trips to Nikko exhausting
Don’t feel like you have to stick to your itinerary. My wife and I went in November last year and we had a list of things that interested us. We made the decision on the day where we were going to go and just went with the flow. We didn’t see everything on our list because we’d go to one location and just wander the back streets, soaking in the atmosphere and lifestyle. Our best memories were the unplanned locations we spotted away from the crowds.
In Kanazawa I would recommend Myouryuji also known as the ninja temple, you have to get a 40 minute tour that costs 1200 yen. Even though the tour is exclusively in Japanese they cater well to you with a guidebook that has English descriptions of what you are seeing. I personally enjoyed this far more than just walking around the Samurai District.
If you don’t mind me asking, where do you plan to do the sake tasting after Fushimi Inari?