My husband (32M) and I (32F) are preparing for our first trip to Japan and welcome any and all feedback on our itinerary! For context: We don’t speak Japanese (other than my futile attempts to cram on Duolingo), but our favorite parts of international travel have always been (1) meeting new people and chatting at local watering holes, (2) seeing differences in the day-to-day stuff, like grocery stores, public transport, cars, coffee culture, and, of course, food, and (3) cool/weird/historical stuff. We have zero interest in Disney/Universal/TeamLabs, but we are PoGo players! Interested in whether we need a more detailed itinerary, or whether we should mentally prepare for any of these travel days/activities to be truly brutal. Thanks for taking the time!
Day 1 – Arrive in Tokyo around 4pm. Get Wifi. Head to hotel in Shimokitazawa. Possible walk to Meguro Sky Garden to stretch legs, grab a konbini dinner. Any and all local bar recommendations are welcome.
Day 2 – Tokyo full day: Walking tour with a local guide for the first half of the day (Meiji Jingu, Imperial Palace, and Sensoji Temple), unplanned second half of the day – want to check out at least 1 Pokemon Center and eat something great. Exchange JR Pass and schedule train for tomorrow.
Day 3 – Hit up Shirohige’s Cream Puff Shop at 10AM, then take the train to Kanazawa. Check in, explore on foot. Find a crispy suntory soda.
Day 4 – Kanazawa full day: Kenrokuan Garden first, then 21st Century Museum. Lunch break. Explore castle park, possible visit to Myouryuji. Optional hotel break. Explore Higashi Chaya District.
Day 5 – Head to Takayama: Private transportation from Kanazawa to Takayama, stop-over in Shirakawa-go.
Day 6 – Takayama full day: Hida Folk Village, Higashiyama Temple Walk, Museum (Matsuri no Mori or Hida Takayama Museum of Art). Figure out train tickets for tomorrow.
Day 7 – Head to Kyoto. (Kind of dreading this travel day. It looks like 5ish hours under the best of circumstances). Staying in the Shimogyo Ward, thinking of spending the evening exploring the neighborhood on foot.
Day 8 – Kyoto full day: E-bike tour to Kinkakuji and some of Arashiyama in the morning. Philosopher’s Path in the afternoon, thinking of exploring without a plan and ending up bar hopping for the evening.
Day 9 – Kyoto full day: Fushimi Inari early, then possibly back to Arashiyama to see anything we missed (kind of want to check out Otagi Nebutsu-ji Temple). Late afternoon/evening Tofukujl garden. Make sure travel for tomorrow is arranged.
Day 10 – Day trip to Nara before heading to Osaka. Drop luggage in coin lockers before we check out Toda ji Temple, Kasugayama Primeval Forest, and Mt. Wakakusa-yama (depending on how tired we are). Definitely want some mochi. Planning to check out Dotonbori after check-in.
Day 11 – Osaka full day. Shopping day! We are planning to get 1, possibly 2 suitcases to check on our way home, filling them with snacks, Japanese whiskey, and souvenirs. (Hoping to have our hotel help us arrange luggage forwarding to our final hotel in Tokyo). Make sure travel is set for tomorrow. 5PM Osaka Shinsekai food tour with Arigato Travel.
Day 12 – Head to Magome, early as we can get moving. Hoping to get to Magome Chaya, our accomodations for the night, and drop our luggage with them around 10AM. Hike the Nakasendo highway to Tsumago and explore there before taking the bus back to Magome (last one is around 4:30PM, so plan accordingly).
Day 13 – Head to Tokyo. Check in, hopefully with our forwarded luggage, and have time to explore Kababashi Kitchen Street for souvenirs.
Day 14 – Tickets to the Kusama Museum at 11AM, then back to the hotel to snag bags, and head home at 4:50!
10 comments
Don’t miss the Kanazawa fish market. I would stay longer in Tokyo
Have a great time! It looks like a pretty good itinerary. The one thing I’d suggest is to have one day for west Kyoto (Arashiyama + Kinkakuji) and one day for east Kyoto (Fushimi Inari + Philosopher’s Path) rather than spending a bunch of time and effort going back and forth.
Takayama to Kyoto can be done in a bit under 3.5hrs using the Hida train or Wide View Hida as it is often called. Wide view for the scenic views from the train. Some are direct and some may involve a single change of train. It’s not a shrinkansen but has fewer stops and I found it to be a good experience. The timing of them may not suit but spending extra time in Takayama while you wait is not a bad thing. Caught it from Kyoto so was able to leave early morning.
For Kanazawa garden it can get busy but a lot of people do not go too far before returning to the entrance so it does thin out. We saw a lot of tourist buses and queues so did the castle first and found most were gone when we returned.
I like the plan overall.
Just a heads up for the Pokemon Center. They are usually packed during the day and you need a timed entry ticket to go in at a later time (you can grab one directly at the store). If you want to avoid that, go at the opening and you’ll be able to enter right away.
I’m going 6-20 (first time, solo), your plan sounds relaxing enough to me so probably don’t need to be overwhelmed. Hope you have fun! 🙂
Ha, a lot of our days and itineraries overlap! Husband and I are going 10/27-11/18. Hope you have a great time!!!!
If you want to expand your japanese, there is an audio book by Paul Nobel. I’ve done both of his books ‘japanese for beginners and japanese next steps’ and it’s been a game changer. He even has a japanese in 2 hours course.
Almost exactly the same days as my partner and friend. Their first time, my 4th. Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka. Your itinerary seems pretty solid, and thoughtfully spaced out. Never be afraid to make a reservation for any specific places you plan to visit. Other than keeping track of thst stuff and business hours, loose itineraries are usually best. I also suggest periodically pulling out your google map to look at any businesses/interesting things around you if yall find yourself idling with some time to kill. Lots of cool stuff in Japan can be well hidden on foot.
Bring some really comfortable shoes, preferably with insoles, and remember to stretch your legs each morning. But sometimes those long travel days will be a blessing for your feet. Trust me on this one.. lol
But you’re gonna love it there. Exciting to see folks going at the same time, feels like a field trip or something.
Shirohige’s Cream Puff joint opens at 10:30 AM.
Meguro Sky Garden seems an odd destination: if you walk in the opposite direction (southwest rather than southeast) you can walk to the Gotokuji Temple (where the well-known *maneki neko*/beckoning cat) is said to have originated in about the same amount of time.
Also, you seem to have scheduled the visit to the 21st Century Museum of Art for a Monday, which is the day the museum is closed.
For the last day, if your flight is at 4:50 PM at Haneda Airport you’ll be cutting things close going to the museum at 11 AM. If your flight is at Narita Airport, it doesn’t look as if you would be able to make the museum at all.
Why does everyone freak out about not being able to speak Japanese? Japan is not a third world country. They have tons of tourists and you can get by with pointing. Their English will be better than your Japanese. Google translate exists and works wonders.