Konichiwa guys!
My wife and I are excited to visit Japan for the very first time in couple of days. We want to experience food, anime culture, shopping and a bit of cultural exploration as well. I’ve poured over this subreddit and youtube itineraries and created this draft of places to visit. Wanted to check here one last time to see if anything should be added and more importantly if anything can be skipped.
Cities to visit: Tokyo, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto.
Interests: Eating/Street food/shopping/culturally importance places/ strolling in general.
Tokyo
Arriving on 23rd Oct. Staying till 27th Morning
Stay at iBis Styles Tokyo Ginza
Must visit places:
Sensoji temple
Akihabara
Exploring Ginza
Tokyo Skytree/Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building/Tokyo Tower Observatory
At Least one Pokemon center(Which one is recommended?)
Shibuya Crossing
Shinjuku
Ichiran Ramen
Kappabashi Street – cooking items
Good to visit places:
Harajuku
Ikebukuro
Tokyo Cruise(any recommendations? And is it worth it?)
Ueno Park
Shinjuku Goen
Shinjuku – Omoide Yokocho
Yoyogi Park
Osaka
Arriving on 27th Oct till 30th Morning
Must visit places:
Dotonobori
Kuromon Ichiba Market
Osaka Castle
Nara one day trip
Shinkensai
Harukas 300
Good to visit places:
Universal Studios Japan
Team Labs Osaka (worth it?)
Osaka Aquarium
Kyoto
Arriving on 30th Oct to 1st Nov
Must visit places
Fushimi Inari Taisha
Kyoto Imperial Palace
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
Kura Sushi
Starbucks Coffee – Kyoto Ninenzaka Yasaka Chaya
Kichi Kichi Omurice
Nishiki Market
Good to visit places:
Kinkaku-ji/Ginkaku-ji
Can extend the last day so that we can leave late in the day to Tokyo.
1st Nov – Can either be extended Kyoto or last minute shopping in tokyo
2nd Nov – Head back home from Narita Airport.
Also wanted to know if it makes sense to visit Mt Fuji with the current things in mind.
3 comments
Do you have a rough plan for how you would split things up by day? Would be easier for folks to give advice on how you’re organising things that way.
Osaka aquarium is a must see for me. Highly recommend it, especially if you’ve never seen whale sharks in person or if you have any interest in aquariums. It’s regularly considered one of the best in the world.
USJ would take an entire day, so that’s something to keep in mind with your limited amount of time. I’ve heard team labs is fun, but also smells pretty bad.
*Also, keep in mind that you’ll be in Japan over Halloween. You might want to plan that with your itinerary, either to avoid more crowded areas, or join in with the fun.
I just got back from a 12 day trip yesterday and visited all these same cities!
My thoughts on this would be:
* Do Team Labs Tokyo, not Osaka
* Check out Meiji Jingu (and surrounding park) when in the Shibuya area
* Go to the bamboo grove early, we got there at ~8:00 AM and it wasn’t bad, by 9 it was a zoo
* The monkey park near ^ was pretty cool too and is really close
* Nijo Castle is much better than the Imperial Palace, but the latter is free and still worth doing
* Consider dropping Universal Studios – either explore more Osaka stuff or do another day trip (if you have JR pass Hiroshima is worth visiting and is super easy)
* Budget in some extra time for just exploring areas if you haven’t already. It’s a lot of fun to just walk around!