Hi everyone! Looking for opinions on our current planned trip and even some suggestions (particularly places that we might miss) on what we could add to our list of potential destinations. We are a group of 5 in our early 20s coming from Australia, and are looking to stay within the Shibuya/Shinjuku area. We are planning this trip to happen during November, but are able to reschedule if need be. Our current ideal trip is along the lines of not sticking to a strict itinerary, but having something to guide us in the right direction.
DAY 1 – Arrival at Haneda Airport:
– Use the train line to get to Shinjuku station
– Airbnb in Shibuya
– Rest/explore the surrounding area/shopping
DAY 2 – Shibuya/Shinjuku:
Morning/afternoon:
– Explore Shibuya
– Meiji Jingu Shrine
– Shibuya Pokemon Megacentre
Late afternoon/evening:
– Explore Shinjuku
– Samurai Museum
– Golden Gai
DAY 3 – Chiyoda/Asakusa:
Morning/afternoon:
– Ueno Park
– Explore Akihabara/Shopping
– Cafes (The Shooting and Gun Cafe/Final Fantasy Cafe)
Late afternoon/evening:
– Senso-ji Temple
– Tokyo Skytree
– Asakusa Batting Stadium
DAY 4 – Ginza/Nakano City:
Morning/afternoon:
– Ghibli Museum
– Explore Nakano City
– Nakano Broadway
Late afternoon/evening:
– Muscle Girls Bar
– Explore Ginza
– Vampire Cafe
DAY 5 – Odaiba:
Morning/afternoon:
– Unsure if this area would be enough to fill out a whole day. Any suggestions for interesting areas nearby?
– Explore Odaiba
– Tokyo Joypolis
Late afternoon/evening:
– Rainbow Bridge
– Onsen World (I heard this was closing down?)
– Gundam Statue
DAY 6 – Nikko:
– Travel from Tokyo to Nikko
– Overnight Ryokan stay
– Nikko Tosho-gu
– Kegon Falls
DAY 7 – Return to Tokyo:
– Rest/free time
DAY 8 – Yokohama:
Morning/afternoon:
– Explore Yokohama
– Cup Noodles Museum
– Red Brick Warehouse
Late afternoon/evening:
– Sankeien Gardens
DAY 9 – Destination Osaka:
Morning/afternoon:
– Explore Ebisu
– Museum of Yebisu Beer
– Rest/free time
Late afternoon/evening:
– Bullet train to Osaka
4 comments
So I would definitely recommend revisiting the clustering on some of these days. Off the top of my head, Ginza and Nakano definitely aren’t that close together, so you’re going to be burning a lot of time traveling back and forth between them. I feel Ginza would make more sense paired with basically anywhere else (Odaiba could work if you decide there isn’t enough to occupy you there, for instance).
This is a bit more subjective since it’ll depend on your personal preferences for pace, but I feel most of these days are…decidedly ambitious, to say the least. Day 3 in particular easily could be split into two separate days that each would still be full. If you’re trying to hit all of the places you have listed, I think you might find that you’re hurrying a lot more than you’d like, even if you aren’t fitting a specific schedule. Tokyo’s a really dense city in terms of how much there is to see and do, and I would definitely go in planning lighter than you’d think to accommodate that.
Regarding your Odaiba question – I’d definitely recommend checking out the teamLab digital art museum there. It’s incredibly cool (even though it was decidedly crowded when I visited back in 2018).
Hope this helps!
Day 2 : Assuming you included things in order, I would not start the day by Shibuya as the stores will only start to open at 10 or 11am, this is valid for any area that focus on shopping. Instead, you can start by Meiji-jingu that open much earlier, then from there you can check a bit around Harajuku and walk toward Shjibuya.
The samurai museum closed, it may or may not reopen in the futur.
Day 5 : I guess you mean Oedo onsen monogatari and it is already close.
Day 6 : as you plan to stay overnight, you should do the Tosho-gu area in one day and the lake area on the other day. Both area are a bit appart and it takes time to move between the two. You should also avoid going during the weekend as it will be time for autumn leaves and the area is quite popular and there can be traffic that would slow you down.
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Somes days might be a bit full, so you might want to be flexible and take time to enjoy what you are doing rather than rush to the next place, but seems to be a good plan so far.
I hope you’re planning to hire a wifi egg or portable wifi for your trip. It’ll save you for looking up places, translating and timetables, last trains etc.
I despise shinjuku station with the lack of escalators and elevators, there is really only stairs everywhere if you’re heaving luggage. I would get the skyliner from the airport to ueno station and jump on the yamanote line towards shibuya if heading straight to your airbnb.
As someone previously said shibuya doesn’t really open up till 10-11am. Go check out meiji jingue by getting off harajuku station on the yamanote line. Afterwards I would recommend looking around harajukus famous takashita Street for fashion, food and daiso 100 yen store, and urahara on the otherside. Recommend Harajuku design festa gallery.
I dont find Shibuya all that interesting but its famous for his fashion. Most people people watch at the famous scramble crossing, visit the hachiko dog statue at the station, shop at 109, tokyu, seibu etc. Tower records is definately worth a visit for floors of music. Its best during its nightlife to explore.
Shinjuku is kinda the same as Shibuya. I would be a little more cautious where you choose to drink especially around Golden gai. Try not to end up at a ladies or gentlemen bar as you could be forking out expensive entry and seating fees. The game centers are fun. Samurqi museum is closed.
There isn’t much at Ueno and the park unless for people watching or going to the museum. Most museums around Tokyo are closed on Mondays so keep that in mind. You could visit Ameyoko street. Some places don’t open up till around 10am.
Akiharbara is pretty fun. You can play arcade games at Gigo (formerly Sega), maid cafes, electronics galore, anime resale shops, theme cafes etc. Id check out Akihabara gachapon hall for a huge hall of gacha gacha toys of all cool and weird kinds or Akihabara vending machine corner selling bizarre items. I pwrsonally don’t like the final fantasy cafe in Akihabara and would recommend Artnia instead, the official square enix cafe/bar/shop in Shinjuku…but why not visit both.
Get to sensoji before dark because getting both day and night pictures is a huuuuuge difference. It would be a shame to miss out of some of the traditional toys, items, street food. Fresh made senbei, potato ice cream, famous asakusa steam buns (sekine), ningyo yaki, menchi katsu (asakusa menchi), taiyaki etc.
Hope you are booking your tickets for the ghibli museum asap. You can’t buy them at the museum. You can get them them from JTB in August for November, or try to get them from a LAWSON convience store machine and hope that days available. Don’t go on a weekend and check for their closed maintenance days.
I would skip out on the vampire cafe but thats my personal opinion. Food isn’t great but if you don’t care then its a good photo op.
Odaiba…could go driver city, pallete town, mega web, miraikan, Venus fort, dream bridge, small worlds, tokyo trick art museum etc
Onsen world closed.
I’m not sure why you are planning to take the train from Haneda to Shinjuku, then go to your Airbnb in Shibuya. The train (Yamanote) will arrive in Shibuya before it gets to Shinjuku.
At the moment there is no service available, probably because of lowish demand still due to Covid, but usually there is a limousine bus directly from Haneda airport to various locations in Shibuya.
Rather than taking 2 trains to either Shinjuku or Shibuya you might want to consider a limousine bus direct to which ever spot in Shibuya is closest to your Airbnb.
Perhaps closer to your trip, you can check this website to see if bus service has been restored from Haneda to Shibuya.
If for some reason you did want to go to Shinjuku before you went to your Airbnb in Shibuya, I still recommend taking the limousine bus. You just get on the bus at the airport and it takes you directly to your destination. No changing necessary. Very smooth.
https://webservice.limousinebus.co.jp/web/en/Top.aspx
Don’t worry about making bus reservations ahead of time. You can book 5 minutes before bus departure. They have a bus leaving to Shinjuku usually every 15 minutes. Once they restore service to Shibuya it should be the same