Hi everyone,
Last minute itinerary check. I kinda rushed to make this itinerary last minute and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions/recommendations. This is my first time flying out of the country solo and I’m super excited that I get to get to Japan as it’s always been my dream. I fly out of Friday and land in Tokyo Saturday and I can’t wait!
Itinerary:
Day 1 sat:
Landing around 5pm in NRT, head to Shibuya crossing for a picture and food. Maybe check out the mall if anything is open.
Head to a LIVE house in Shimokitazawa and check into a hotel.
Day 2:
Head to hakone with the day pass. (I’m going to try and us it on the odawara line there as well). Do the hakone loop
Take a train down to atami (short stop for a picture by the beach and to pick up some pudding).
Then take a shinkansen down to Osaka. Check out the Dotonbori Glico Sign and try some street food. Maybe check out another live house before checking into a hotel
Day 3:
Have breakfast in Osaka
Then head to Nara park. Hanging out in Nara and checking out thrift stores and knife stores for souvenirs. Check into a ryokan in Nara
Day 4:
Head to Kyoto after Breakfast
Maybe rent a bike and go see the bamboo forest and torii gates.
There’s also a couple of restaurants I want o check out(fu-ka, macha house, Gion Komori, maybe Hafuu)
maybe rent a kimono/buy a kimono from the thrift store.
Check out the fish market
Hangout maybe walk along the philosopher’s path
Check out the fall festival at Kiyomizu-dera at night
Then take an over night bus to Tokyo.
Day 5:
check out sky tree, senso-ji, Akihabara, Ikebukuro and harajuku hopefully find a 3d latte art cafe along the way and maybe another type of special cafe (like maid/pet/anime cafe) as well as a gacha arcade and cool anime stores.
if there’s time I’d also like to check out the light show at Tokyo tower and maybe Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden lights.
Day 6: would be for anything I wasn’t able to get to on day 5 and souvenir shopping before I get on a plane in the afternoon.
Let me know what you think or if you have any recommendations for places to stop at. I haven’t really planned the last 3 days out as much so if you have a recommendation for order of things or places I should include alone the route I’d appreciate it.
Also any advice for how to travel light and what essentials I should bring since I’ll be moving hotel rooms alot
Thanks for the advice! 😁
Edit:
Okay so it sounds like atami might not be doable. I forgot to look at sunset times so it might be better to just head to Osaka after hakone.
I’m planning to wake up early on day 2 to hopefully beat the crowd but we’ll see how that day goes. If I do wake up late I’ll probably just skip Hakone and head straight to osaka.
There’s not a lot I want to see in osaka other than dotonbori but if it’s crowded I might just skip Osaka altogether than.
I was looking forward to Nara park so maybe I’ll take a day trip from Kyoto there and spend 2 days in Kyoto since the city seems pretty spread out.
As for Tokyo I’m still not sure what I should focus on. Maybe I’ll just hang out around Akihabara area and try to catch some night light shows near there. (Maybe Ikebukuro since I feel like they have more interesting shops)
Wish me luck 🤞
17 comments
tbh this seems like an insane schedule. I’m guessing you’re not worried about jetlag at all.
You’re doing Tokyo, Hakone, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto in less than a week which seems absolutely nuts to me, but I guess it’s not impossible. I personally would leave out at least one of those destinations.
The hakone day is packed, doing the hakone loop took me a full day, even if you rush I think it’d still take half a day. Then factor in your other stops, the 1.5hr train from Tokyo, and the 3hr shinkansen to Osaka, if you manage to make it to Osaka you wouldn’t be able to do anything. The hakone free pass is a good choice though.
For all of your days, you should put locations into google maps and see how long it really takes to get from place to place. Also assess how long you would really spend in a lot of these places.
Personally, for a 5 day trip you could spend that in just tokyo alone and not do everything. I would suggest having time to really enjoy everything, instead of doing stuff as quickly as you can before spending hours on a train to the next city. For this schedule, skipping hakone might allow you to make the few days is Kyoto/Osaka work
I just returned from Japan and let me tell you, this itinerary is insane.
Day 2 for instance is nuts. The Hakone loop is a solid day by itself without staying long in any one spot. You got to remember that these areas are tourist traps. They’re worth going to, but busy and you will wait in line.
Not to mention, Dotonburi kinda sucks at night. Seeing the Glico sign lit up is neat, but it’s sooo crowded that you’re not going to really see much. I suggest trying to hit it during the day.
Day 4 and 5 are also way too ambitious.
I think you’re going to burn yourself out with this itinerary and end up disappointed. You can’t do everything in 5 days.
Day 4 travel times not including wait times
Nara to fushimi (tori gates): 50min
Fushimi to Saga-arashiyama: 30min
Arashiyama to Nishiki market: 40min
Nishiki to philosopher’s path: 30min
PP to Kiyomizu dera: 40min
Kiyomizu to Kyoto station: 30min
That’s almost 4 hours just of transport, with waiting times added can reach up to 5 hours. That’s enough to go to Tokyo and back
6 days is not enough for this itinerary. Either focus entirely on Tokyo or only add 1-2 trips to other places (even 2 would be cutting it close for me). Hakone is doable as a day trip, the others, not so much. You cannot explore Osaka or Kyoto in only 1 day. Or, well, you can, but only maximum 2-3 sights for each city, and I personally wouldn’t enjoy it at all.
If you arrive in Narita at 5 PM, expect to get to Shibuya between 8 PM and 9 PM. You’ll get to Shimokitazawa at maybe 10 if you go anywhere in Shibuya besides straight to the train. You might catch the last hour of a show. Narita Airport is very far from Tokyo.
Expect to take at least 45 minutes to walk from the station to the beach and back in Atami. It will be dark. Also, as it’s off season, it may be the case that the only place you’ll find pudding in Atami is at the station.
Returning from Osaka, make sure you can *get* a place on the overnight bus. Try to reserve it a few days early.
Day 5 does not look possible unless you don’t plan on doing anything except for looking at the places you plan to visit. We were in the Sensoji last week and just gave up on walking up to the actual building because of the masses of people. Remember that Shinjuku and Shibuya are on the other side of the city from Sensoji and SkyTree and that Tokyo Tower is in another place still.
Generally, if you do not have hotel reservations, try to make them now (especially if you do not speak Japanese). Tokyo, at least, is very crowded with tourists at the moment.
If you’re looking for times in Google Maps, triple the times for two or three stations apart; double them for, say, six to ten stations apart; and add 45 minutes to an hour for long-distance travel. Navigating within and to and from stations takes times that is not accounted for in the time estimates, and even walking times are longer than Google Maps will show because of waiting for traffic lights and the like. (My daily walk to the station, for example, is shown as 14 minutes on Google Maps, but it takes 20 for a real journey.)
The temperatures in Tokyo are going to be dropping by 10 degrees on Saturday, and rain is forecast for Sunday. Bring a light jacket and a sweater or sweatshit.
Please don’t support those animal cafés. Japan’s animal cruelty laws are lamentably lax, which is the only reason those places have not all been shut down yet. (Plenty have, but some places, like the otter joint, have so far skirted the law, which doesn’t make them any better.) The animals lead poor, short lives filled with stress and ill health.
I wish you luck, but I wouldn’t try what you’re hoping to do.
That’s an insane itinerary and will not be at all enjoyable. Five days? Just stay in Tokyo (plenty to do), add a day trip to Hakone if you think it’s too much in the city.
Save Kyoto, Osaka, Nara etc for next time.
day 2 would work if a day had 48 hours
Have to agree, this itinerary verges on the impossible. If you approach travel like an extreme sport, then I guess it’s doable. To each their own!
Stick to Tokyo & a day in Hakone for the onsen & exploration purposes. If you had two weeks, it’d be fair enough, Hakone doesn’t need more than a day or two of exploration. But 4 places in 6 days is insane. Explore Tokyo first and when you have more time (i.e 8-9 days, assuming you won’t stay in Tokyo), then you can tackle Kyoto and Osaka.
Take the train from Shibuya to Ebisu and eat at Shuuichi Ramen not too far from the station. Try the Curry ramen.
I’m currently in Osaka on my 5th trip to Japan. In the past weeks, I was in Tokyo and Kyoto. This itinerary is complete nonsense.
You’re spread out all over the place trying to do way too many things. I don’t think you’ve actually looked at a map to get an idea of where things are.
You also seem to be planning this trip thinking you’ll be able to just walk up to a place like Kiyomizu, take a photo real quick and move on within 10 minutes. You’re not.
You also seem to be doing a lot of these activities whilst carrying your luggage/bag as you mention checking into the hotel at the end of the day. Have fun. I travel with one bag only and there’s no way I’m hauling it through Dotonbori or Fushimi Inari. (Unless you intend on spending time/money on coin lockers)
If I only had 6 days, I would probably just stick to Tokyo and perhaps do a day trip to Kamakura/Nikko or something similar.
If you really need to, then you can do Tokyo and Kyoto. Osaka is doable as a day trip from Kyoto using local trains for a few dollars and a bit over an hour of travel time (each way).
If you can, arrive in Tokyo but leave from Osaka via Kansai International (KIX). This will save you from having to head back to Tokyo.
If you try to do your planned itinerary, you’ll most likely have a bad time but hey, it’s your trip.
Very similar to what I did. It works, the Shinkansen will eat a lot of your day up—trains period.
To be honest, I wouldn’t go for it. Changing hotels every day and needing to lug things around looking for coin lockers and stuff.
I echo other people and say choose Kanto or Kansai and just spend the entire time in Tokyo or Osaka and Kyoto.
I think you should skip hakone because that day sounds insane, you can do enoshima and kamakura as they have beaches, love train and you can see Mt. Fuji too from enoshima ( the sunset is amazing)
I found Hakone to be too crowded, there are long lines everywhere and for everything which ruined it for me
What do you want to see in Japan?
Two great itineraries would be:
– Fly into and out of Tokyo. Tokyo for 4 days, then take a trip to Kamakura, Nikko, Hakone, or one of Fuji Five Lakes. Tokyo + either Kamakura / Nikko is a good combination of modern + tradition.
– Fly into and out of Osaka. Osaka for a day or two, day trip to Nara, then spend the remaining amount of time in Kyoto. You can spend a lifetime in Kyoto and still not see enough. You could even add in Koya-san. It’s not on many first timers’ itinerary but it’s absolutely one of my favorites even after 2 Japan trips.
If you said it’s a dream trip I wouldn’t try to go everywhere but not actually see anything other than train stations. and I already travel fairly fast-paced.
Regarding the couple days you have in Tokyo, I’d advise you spend sometime on the region around Akihabara-Ueno-Asakusa-Skytree on Day 1. Senso-ji (and Ueno) are good spots to see in the early morning, if you’re an early riser, because all shops usually open between 9-11am and it’s less crowded around sensoji early in the day. I also loved visiting it during the dark, the little street up to it is charming even with shops closed and it was pratically empty.
After the shops open, I’d say Skytree would be great if you’re interested in Pokémon center, Ghibli store, Harry Potter, Jump shonen, Kirby and other quirky shops. You might still be able to get a ticket for later in the day to go up skytree if you arrive there early enough. I suggest you take the train from Asakusa because the walk is unremarkable.
After Skytree (that can eat up 3 hours or more if you’re going up), I’d say to visit Akihabara for the gatcha and other shops.
On day 2, you visit whatever you missed on your first day. I’d advise you include one of the charming streets around shinjuku for your night, like Omoide Yokocho. Grab some omakase yakitori and savor the environment. This could take 1h30, a spot for one always opens up quickly if you wait or really look inside the shops, than you can visit a live house around Shinjuku instead of going all the way to Shimokitazawa.
Shibuya could also be an option here, but I enjoyed Shinjuku more for the old streets. The crossing is nice but it’s just a bunch of people crossing the street when you’re down there. You’ll need to wait for a long time in lines to get to a cafe from where you can really see what is going on from higher up. If you didn’t go up on Skytree, you could go up on Shibuya Sky, but need to reserve a ticket a few days before.
Let me know if you have some questions. I think concentrating on Tokyo and Kyoto is a good thing for such a short trip. Good luck and have fun!