Good evening, folks. Quite a bit to get ready for. The upshot is that my partner and I leave arrive in via Haneda Tokyo Airport from the East Coast USA on November 15th and we return on the 27th.
We’ve broken our itinerary down into 2 main stops, Tokyo and Kyoto
We’d like to spend more time in Kyoto as a home base of sorts because of its proximity to Osaka, as well as the flexibility to take a day trip to Hiroshima/Osaka/Himeji (important for us to make a couple long day trips. We don’t mind being exhausted at the end of them and we’re investing in a nicer hotel in Kyoto along with some flex days there so we can really get some R&R at the end of some of these travel days and not feel too rushed). Also, any other hotel changes would simply eat too many of our vacation days checking in and out of hotels. So, we’re not looking to do that.
Essentially, the itinerary looks like this as of right now:
Tokyo (3 full days, 2 half days)
* Wednesday 15th (Half Day) – Arrive in Tokyo at 2pm – Assuming customs, luggage, bus, etc will eat up time. Dinner and sleep. Not much of a “day.”
* Thursday 16th – Odaiba Gundam/Pokemon/Nintendo stores and a nice flex day getting used to the train system. Will be taking recommendations for restaurants off YouTube recommendation lists, although if there’s a great rule of thumb to spot a good restaurant, please let me know.
* Friday 17th – **PLEASE HELP**. I’m trying my best to get tickets for the Studio Ghibli Museum for my partner because she’s dying to go but it’s absolutely impossible as an American because I don’t have a Japanese phone number for the account. I will literally pay whatever it is worth I just need to know how to ensure we can find tickets that are reliable (Flexible on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, etc. I just need to block a day so we can do this. I will learn any Japanese begging phrase necessary and bring plenty of yen to make it worth someone’s while.
* Saturday – Explore Shinjuku & Shibuya flex day – No hard rules but mostly because greater Tokyo is honestly an afterthought to us (we’re really more stoked for Kyoto/Osaka/Himeji/Hiroshima). Open to recommendations. Obviously there is the Shibuya Crossing but honestly a general recommended experience in Shinjuku would be great and we probably want to wrap up the evening here before returning to our hotel.
* Sunday (Half Day) – Morning pack up and Shinkansen to Kyoto (I assume we’ll have to reserve spaces for our bags on the shinkansen)
Kyoto (7 full days, 1 half day)
Kyoto is going to be our hub as it’s more central to a few things we want to do while we’re in Japan and it’s a lot quicker to certain areas. We’re wanting to call this home base and we’re pretty close to the Kyoto station (< 15 minute walk) so that we can take day trips without much fuss.
* Sunday (Half Day)- Arrive, drop bags, walk around, maybe take the train and try to get used to some of the local train routes. Find some cool food downtown.
* Monday – – Shrine Day. Find the coolest 1-day private tour package and roll with it.
* Shrines
* Sights
* Markets
* Pretty much want to get a total exclusive private tour as soon as we get to Kyoto so we can decide on parts where we want to return for flex days.
* Tuesday – Himeji Castle day trip starting early in the morning. Can spend the day there if it’s worth it or return early. Open to suggestions
* Wednesday – Osaka day trip + overnight in Osaka (train back to Kyoto in the morning. keeping our hotel in Kyoto for continuity). Lots of street food, shopping, skateboarding at night.
* Thursday – Wake up in Osaka, Osaka castle, back to Kyoto for and early afternoon/dinner.
* Friday – Fun flex day to do all the stuff in Kyoto that we couldn’t get to earlier in the trip. Hit the food markets and do some shopping. We’re really trying to bank these days to be worth it to not plan out. Especially with a private tour earlier in the trip. We’ll always be able to find something cool we couldn’t get to. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of locations in a backlog to pull from but I don’t want the itinerary to get too awfully specific.
* Saturday – Hiroshima Shinkansen day trip. Memorials, history, shrines, food, (Wild deer park?)
* Sunday – Fun flex Kyoto day #2. Maybe catch the sunrise and see if we can see Mt. Fuji clearly. Really milk the day.
* Monday – Super early Shinkansen back to Tokyo and bus to Haneda and arrive super early for our return flight to the USA in the afternoon. Not even a half day. Not messing around with international flights.
Is this a reasonable itinerary? It feels like enough travel to say we saw enough highlights while we were here but enough flex days to “figure it out” after we get here. Are there any tips and tricks to getting Studio Ghibli museum tickets as a foreigner? We are going to see our fair share of castles and shrines but are mostly there for the culture, the food, the shopping, the people, and to soak in some beautiful mornings and sunsets, but if there’s an absolute must-see that you recommend, please let me know so I can work it into our itinerary.
1 comment
Hi!
I’m really sorry, but if you wanted to get tickets for the Ghibli Museum, you would have had to try the English website at 10:00 am JPT time. At this point, all tickets are sold out for foreigners. I have no idea what hotels you are staying in, but if it is a hotel with a concierge service, you could ask the service if they could help you get tickets. The ticket pool for Japanese residents and foreigners are not the same (vs. the Pokemon Cafe or Kirby Cafe) for the Ghibli Museum. So there is a possibility that tickets are still available for Japanese residents, in which case, your hotel might be able to help you book a slot. This is what I did in 2018 when I last went to the museum.
There are still some tickets available to the Grand Warehouse in the Ghibli Park during your time period in November, I just checked. I couldn’t get the website to work on Chrome and had to use Safari. I’ve had similar issues with other Japanese websites. The Park is about 45 minutes from Nagoya. It would be a long day trip from Kyoto, but if its important to you, it is an option.
The Nintendo Store in Tokyo is in Shibuya right near the Shibuya Pokemon Center. Osaka also has a Nintendo Store that I believe is also near one of its Pokemon Centers. I have been to a lot of Pokemon Centers.
If you go to Himeji, don’t miss the garden.
I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just go back to Kyoto for the night. It’s easy enough to take a super late train. I’m not sure what you really have planned that you couldn’t just take a 10 or 11 pm train.
Osaka Castle is fascinating if you are interested in the Siege of Osaka Castle and the start of the Tokugawa Shogunate and crushing of the Toyotomi. If you’re not super into Japanese history the inside of the Castle is not terribly interesting.
There are deer in Nara and Miyajima. Miyajima is a good 30 minutes from Hiroshima. It can be hard to fit in visiting Miyajima and the Peace Memorial in one day. Nara is about 45 minutes from either Kyoto or Osaka and is part way between them.
You are never going to be able to see Mt Fuji from Kyoto. Kyoto is a good 1.5 hours or more high speed train trip from Mt Fuji. You can regularly see Mt. Fuji from Tokyo. (I know I have.) But you will NEVER see it from Kyoto unless there are some really monumental ground movements, in which case I would be worrying more about survival.
I would not personally want to try to travel from Kyoto to Tokyo on my flight day unless my flight was really late in the day.
Good luck!