Hello, me and my wife are planning to spend 2 weeks in Japan, it will be my first international trip so I’m excited and nervous at the same time. We are planning to stay at our relatives place in Tokyo and book hotels at other places. Me and my wife are interested in anime, cute cafe’s, tech, culture and food. My wife is vegetarian so we will be carrying packaged food and we wish to witness the fall foliage, so any suggestions for both on top of itinerary highly appreciated. Kindly find our itinerary below, any suggestions are appreciated.
30th November (Day 1) \[Thurs\]
* Land in Tokyo (Narita) at 3 pm
* Get eSim or pocket wifi from the airport.
* Reach Toyosu at my colleague’s place (What would be the best option to reach Toyosu from Narita Airport?)
* Hop to some cafe or sightsee some nearby locations
1st December (Day 2) \[Fri\]
* Sushi Dai or Daiwa Sushi (Reach by 4.30 am)
* Tokyo Skytree
* Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo (Breakfast?)
* Sensō-ji
* Nakamise-dori Street
* Tokyo National Museum
* Ueno Park / Ueno Zoo (If time permits?)
* Back to Toyosu
2nd December (Day 3) \[Sat\]
* teamLab Planets (Note: Wear light colors and shorts) (Pre-booked)
* Vegan Ramen place outside teamLabs
* Tsukiji Outer Market (Shuts down by 3 pm)
* Tokyo Joypolis (Pre-booked)
* Back to Toyosu
3rd December (Day 4) \[Sun\]
* Gyukatsu Motomura Harajuku (Breakfast)
* Tower Records
* Shibuya Crossing (Evening Preferred + Watch it from the building)
* Explore Hachiko Square
* Take a walk through Shibuya backstreet
* Koffee Mameya
* Try Shibuya Street food
* Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
* Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
* Shinjuku Golden Gai
* Back to Toyosu
4th December (Day 5) \[Mon\]
* Mt Fuji day trip from Tokyo and back to Toyosu. (Unsure if Mt. Fuji one day trips would be available in December)
5th December (Day 6) \[Tues\]
(Your Name Locations) (These locations are scattered across, we might have to find the fastest path to cover all of these or split across other days)
* The National Art Centre
* Yotsuya Station
* Stairs to Suga Shrine
* Shinanomachi Station
* Yunika Vision
* Shinjuku Intersection
* Akihabara Electric Town (Super excited, but I think half a day won’t be enough)
* Back to Toyosu
6th December (Day 7) \[Wed\]
* Disney Sea
* Back to Toyosu
7th December (Day 8) [Thurs]
* Activate JR Pass
* Shinkansen to Kyoto
* Check in at Peace Hostel and explore the area
* Unsure, maybe just explore and take it easy
8th December (Day 9) \[Fri\]
* Fushumi Inari Taisha (Before sunrise)
* Kiyomizu-dera Temple
* Gion
* Nanzen Ji
* Kyoto Imperial Palace
* Kinjaju Ji
9th December (Day 10) \[Sat\]
* Arashiyama Bamboo Grove (Before sunrise)
* Tenryu-ji (Beside Arashiyama Bamboo Grove)
* Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama (Tentative)
* Okochi Sansō (Peaceful)
10th December (Day 11) \[Sun\]
* Checkout from Peace hostel
* Check in at Osaka
* Look around to cover nearby places in Osaka
* Maybe Universal Studios (?)
11th December (Day 12) \[Mon\]
* One day trip to Nara and back to Osaka.
12th December (Day 13) \[Tues\]
* One day trip to Nara and back to Osaka.
13th December (Day 14) \[Wed\]
* Checkout from Osaka
* Reach Tokyo at our relative’s place, collect access luggage and last-minute shopping.
14th December (Day 15) \[Thurs\]
* Flight from Narita at 10 am
11 comments
December 8th is too much. Nanzen-ji is where you should end. Also, go to the very back and see the waterfall.
Source: I lived next to Nanzen-ji as a kid. It’s a monastery, so it is pretty low-key.
Hi!
Feedback on Day 1:
– Starbucks reserve is not in this area! You can grab a breakfast at Skytree (e.g Kirby café) or on your way to Senjo-ji.
– +1 to walking from Skytree to Senjo-ji via Nakamise-dori street, crossing the Sumida river offers a very nice view on the Skytree tower.
– If you have time, less than 10min away from Senjo-ji you’ll find the following: Edo Craft Museum (free) Donki Asakusa and it’s famous aquarium, and Kappabashi-Dougu Street the cooking/ chef district for your souvenirs.
– Ueno: might be cool giving a go to Ueno Street Market streets, around Ameyoko Shopping District. It is chaotic but vibrant and I had the best Tokoyaki, it’s just next to Ueno Park. I don’t think you’ll have time for the Zoo + Museum.
Enjoy!!
Re on Fuji Trip: I booked the JR Fuji Express E353 at a JR station a couple of days in advance direction Kawaguchiko. Warmly recommend if it’s running when you go. In Kawaguchiko, I bought the package ropeway + leisure boat for 1600¥, definitely worth it.
1st and 8 december programs seem a bit too ambitious. The distance between the places are huge. Prepare to queue for Starbuck reserve. Does not worth the trip if you don’t intend to wander in Nakameguro district (nice by the way). I hate the bamboo grove (go to the silver pavillon and take a walk in the upper garden to admire the view instead). I don’t thing you need two days to visit Nara. Take a day trip to visit Uji instead.
You mentioned esim or pocket Wi-Fi. We went with Ubigi esim before leaving US and it worked really well for us while there for two weeks Tokyo->Kyoto->Osaka->Izu Peninsula->Tokyo. I would think that would be easier than picking up and returning pocket Wi-Fi at airport but I can’t speak directly to that process. Very consistent 5g service most everywhere. Honestly, much better service than from any provider I’ve ever received in US. Look up Ubigi in this subreddit for easy to follow setup instructions. I think I paid $15 or so for 10gigs of of which I used 8gig over two weeks. No video streaming for me but lots of uploading of pics and video to my personal blog.
Your phone must be unlocked from your provider in order to use esim. So, check that before going the esim route.
I concur with u/nomad_ist that Starbucks Reserve is not worth the trip and the time it’ll take. You’ll be lining up for a while, and any way you reach it you’ll have passed any number of non-chain cafés that are less crowded and have equally acceptable or better coffee.
There’s not much to explore in Hachiko Square: it’s a small concrete area next to an intersection that might take 3 minutes to take in if you dawdle.
Hi!
I would spend some time with Happy Cow, there are vegetarian options in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. There are also plenty of unlisted places, like many Starbucks have a marked plant baased sandwich as well as some marked plant based desserts. At Disney Sea, there is a curry with naan in one of the quick service locations in Sea, Ristorante di Canaletto also has a vegetarian set. I want to say there is another vegetarian option at another quick service.
I think some of your days are too full, but other people have touched on that.
Good luck!
Hi there! Not sure if you’ve bought the JR pass already. But I’d you haven’t, don’t. Your itinerary barely breaks even for a 7 day pass before the price rise, and goes nowhere near breaking even after the rise. Plus you can’t get the Nozomi Shinkansen either. Good luck with your trip!
In addition to what has been mentioned, I don’t think some of your restaurant ideas fit in with a vegetarian lifestyle. Sushi Dai for instance is a mostly omakase place, unless your wife is alright eating only Tamago (egg sushi, which also often contains fish in the broth). Gyukatsu is the same thing–unless they added a vegetarian option. Seating is limited so it’s an unspoken rule everyone orders food.
I’d check out Happy Cow and see what is available for you that you can both enjoy.
As others have pointed out, Day 2, for example, involves an extraordinary amount of crossing and crossing back across Tokyo, with long subway trips for each location.
Tokyo is a very very big city.
You might want to put your locations into Googlemaps and get an idea of travel times and/or start rearranging your plans to minimise travel each day.
Id say no need to be nervous, your gonna have a great time☺️if u like curry go to a restaurant named Go Go Curry in Tokyo, omg yum yum 😋