Hello all! Would love some feedback on my itinerary for my upcoming trip. This will be my first trip to Japan and my goal is to let go of my teenage expectations and just enjoy the trip at a (hopefully) more leisurely pace. If this schedule is at all daunting or if my Day 2 is too insane, I would appreciate any feedback.
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Day 0 – Arrive to Narita at 6 p.m. Take Keisei Skyliner to Ueno. Check into Ueno hotel. Depending on time, either walk to Ameyokocho area for dinner, or catch a late meal and drink at Asahi Beer Hall in Asakusa.
**Day 1 – Explore Ueno, Asakusa and Akihabara.**\- Breakfast at Ameyokocho (maybe), then visit Ueno Park and duck into a museum. Visit a local antique shop nearby to poke around.
\- Visit Sensoji area for lunch/street food and visit temple. Explore the surrounding onding area.
\- Visit Akihabara at sunset for dinner and browsing shops.
**Day 2 – Ghibli, Shibuya, Meji, etc.**
\- Start the morning at Ghibli Museum for morning reservation – spend a few hours.
\- After done there, go to Shibuya. See Hachiko & the crossing. (Wanted to see Sailor Moon shop and surrounding shopping streets. Though, not found of crowds, so will probably just peek and move on.)
\- Explore Shinjuku and Harajuku. (See Godzilla on the roof.)
\- Make way to Meiji Jingu and Yoyogi Park (Possible to do both in one afternoon?)
\- Dinner plans??? Explore Golden Gai??
\- Late night bar reservations at 9.
**Day 3 – Free-ish day!**
\-Lunch at Usagi ramen because huge fans of Nujabes.
\-??? Imperial Palace, maybe?
\-??? Tokyo Station, maybe?
\-Revisit anything we’d like to see again?
\- Do any Day 2 things we couldn’t get to??
\-Nap???
\-Visit a local temple for Tori-no-Ichi at midnight! Very excited for this. =)
**Day 4 – Kyoto – Arashiyama**
\- Drop off luggage at ryokan mid-morning.
\- Spend the day exploring Arashiyama area up to Otagi Nenbutsuji Temple. Bus or taxi over to Kinkakuji and back.
\- Check into Ryokan at 3 p.m. and relax.
**Day 5 – Kyoto**
\- Breakfast then check out of Ryokan but hold luggage.
\- Go to Arashiyama Monkey Park
\- Grab luggage and transfer to next hotel. Check-in and if early, hold luggage.
\- Nishiki Market explore and noms.
\- Visit Gion at sunset??
\- Night walk through Pontocho, Yasaka Shrine, Kamogawa River, Kōdai-ji Temple, Ninenzaka??
**Day 6 – Kyoto**
\- Early morning into lunchtime, visit Fushimi Inari shrine for food and exploration. Spend however long.
\- ????? Fill in afternoon/evening with anything we wanted to do again or something new.
\- Rest early for early flight out.
2 comments
For day 2, what do you mean by ” Explore Shinjuku and Harajuku”? Both are large and complex areas – Shinjuku is probably the most complex place in any advanced economy and there’s lots to see in the Harajuku area. You could spend days doing this.
I recently allocated an afternoon to shopping in Shinjuku, and despite knowing exactly what stores I wanted to visit I didn’t have time to visit them all. I’d suggest having more realistic goals here. Bear in mind that getting to the Ghibli Museum, seeing it, and returning to central Tokyo will take half a day. I’d suggest focusing on the Ghibli Museum in the morning and one other area in the afternoon.
Is your Ryokan near or in Arashiyama? Personally I’d visit Arashiyama Monkey Park on day 4 instead of returning to the Ryokan so early. It can easily be seen in 1-2 hours.
That would free up more time on day 5 which could be used to visit something else like Kiyomizu-dera (which I highly recommend).