Thanks in advance for your responses! First time travelers to this wonderful country. From what I’ve seen on here this might be a bit aggressive, but we are young and want to see as much as we can! Most of the activities are just ideas, we don’t expect to do them all. Suggestions at any of these places is much appreciated!
Arrive Narita Airport -> Akihabara
Stay in AKIHABARA (Night 1&2)
Explore **Akihabara** for electronics shopping and otaku culture.
– Visit Ueno Park, Ameya-Yokocho Market, Tokyo National Museum (Ueno), Senso-ji Temple (Asakusa), Odaiba (TeamLab Borderless, Odaiba Seaside Park, DiverCity Tokyo Plaza), Rainbow Bridge. TSUKIJI MARKET
Stay in SHINJUKU (Night 3)
Day 3: Explore **Shinjuku** and **Shibuya**.
-Shinjuku Gyoen (park)
– Visit Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Shibuya Crossing, Golden Gai (Shinjuku).
– VR Zone Shinjuku for virtual reality
Stay in KYOTO (Night 4)
Explore **Kyoto**. with a day trip to Joju-ji temple,
-Nara deer park
– Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, Adashino Nenbutsi-ji temple/bamboo forest + inari shrine (kimono forest is also nearby), NISHIKI MARKET
Stay in OSAKA (Night 5&6)
– Visit Osaka Castle, Dotonbori, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kinkaku-ji.
– Osaka Museum of Housing and Living.
– Osaka Street Food Tour.
– KUROMON MARKET
-Travel daytrip to **Kobe**.
– Explore Kobe Harborland, Nankinmachi (Kobe Chinatown), Kobe Port Tower.
– Enjoy Kobe beef dinner.
– Additional: Nunobiki Herb Gardens and Ropeway.
Explore more of **Osaka**, depart for **Yokohama** in the evening.
– Umeda Sky Building.
Stay in YOKOHAMA (Night 7)
Explore **Yokohama** (Chinatown, Landmark Tower, Minato Mirai).
-Sankeien garden
– Yokohama Cup Noodles Museum.
– Leave for **Haneda Airport** by 4 PM.
– Flight at 7:30pm HND
7 comments
Just stay in one place in Tokyo. You’ll spend some time moving from one area to the next, yes, but you’ll lose more time moving from one hotel to another.
I try to minimize hotel changes because checking in and out takes time and you’ll need to figure out what to do with your luggage between hotels. Tokyo can be one hotel, you can even just skip the Kyoto hotel and just day trip there from Osaka.
You won’t have time for everything, so figure out what you are willing to skip.
Your Kyoto day is impossible. Have you actually looked at the locations you’re planning to visit? They are scattered across Kyoto, public transport there isn’t as efficient as Tokyo or Osaka, and you haven’t even accounted for time from Tokyo to Kyoto. By the time you’re back to Nishiki market, everything will be closed (the shops there start closing at 5).
If you stay in Osaka, it’s a 13min Shinkansen trip to Kyoto, also 1 day for Kyoto is a bit of a stretch.
As onevstheworld has pointed out, you need to account for travel between cities – Tokyo Kyoto on the Shinkansen is over two hours. With checkout, travel to the station, messing around at the station, travel to your hotel at the other end, checking in, getting from Tokyo to Kyoto is going to take half a day, which barely leaves you time to do your Kyoto attractions, let alone a trip to Nara.
I suspect you need to be a lot more realistic about what is physically achievable given the fundamental rules of time and physics.
Change within Tokyo is really not necessary.
Change between Kyoto and Osaka is also optional, could do all from one city as they are all not that far from each other. Would personally change if I did 2 nights or more in each.
Do note that in Japan, a lot of the major attractions only open from 9am-5pm, or at most 9am-6pm, especially the ones in Kyoto.
It’s nice to have a list, but I suggest y’all rank the spots that y’all must visit, and then have the optional ones around.
For Kyoto, travelling to Nara Park from Kyoto and back will already take up half a day. I suggest do it when y’all are in Osaka as y’all will still have plenty of things to do in Osaka at the evenings and nights.