We will be travelling to Japan first time in December 2023 for 12 days and would love to get some feedback on the following itinerary.
We are two adults (39M, 40F) and 1 child (7Y).
Day 1: **Arrival at Tokyo** Narita (staying in Odaiba)
Day 2: Visit Ueno Park, National Museum and Senso-ji Temple
Day 3: teamLab planets, Small Worlds, Decks Beach and Unicorn Statue
Day 4: Tokyo Disneyland *(can possibly add more activities on this day)*
Day 5: Visit Ginza and Akihabara areas
*Not keen on visiting Pokemon cafe so what else can we do on this day?*
Day 6: Shibuya Sky, Shibuya Crossing, Meiji-Jingu Shrine, Yoyogi Park
*Is it worth visiting Shinjuku on the same day?*
**Day 7: Travel to Osaka** (staying in Umeda)
*Visit Dotonbori and Aquarium*
Day 8: Day trip to Fushimi Inari in **Kyoto** *- what else can we visit/do on this day?*
Day 9: Day trip to **Nara**
*Visit Deer park and Todai-ji*
*shall we do a stopover in Kyoto on the way back?*
Day 10: Day trip to **Hiroshima**
*Visit Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial MuseumExplore Osaka at night*
Day 11: Travel to Tokyo (staying in Ueno)
Day 12: Departing Tokyo at night so we’ll have \~6 spare hours to explore
8 comments
Hello, I see the itinerary is really good; BUT since you’re coming in December this feels a wrong itinerary to me.
In December people often travel to onsen, north like Aomori, Sapporo festival, snowboarding 🏂. Tokyo has same attractions in August (hot) & December (cold).
You have child so it’ll be good to go to north. DO TAKE CAUTION ⚠️ OF WEATHER CONDITIONS FOR YOUR CHILD. I don’t which part you from. As I’m a person who never been in snow I enjoyed my winter trip in Aomori, zao.
You can board Shinkansen & move freely all the way up from Osaka to Aomori (will be costly though) or just skip Osaka & go north.
JUST A SUGGESTION.
Do you have to stay in Odaiba? It’s a bit of a hike to the rest of Tokyo.
Some thoughts:
* I don’t recommend staying in Odaiba, it’s kind of isolated and it’s not convenient to get to other locations (the Yurikamome is slow and expensive to take every day)
* Budget a whole day for Disneyland (open 9am-9pm usually), it is worth it, maybe get a dinner reservation for a restaurant in Ikspiari afterwards. Get the official park app and do some research beforehand on how everything works, it will save you a lot of time and frustration
* Fushimi Inari takes around 2-3 hours if you hike to the top. There’s time for another nearby attraction, but keep in mind the sun sets at around 4-4:30pm. Some places have really nice winter illuminations, but it will be cold
* You can squeeze something in after Nara for sure if you go in the morning
* I think Shinjuku park beats all other parks, but the rest of Shinjuku isn’t really good (eg. the new Kabukicho tower is a disappointing tourist trap, and the whole neighborhood doesn’t have a kid friendly vibe)
I second u/haaphaap’s caution against staying in Odaiba. It’s a boring place unless you’re shopping.
Ginza and Akihabara are not really close together.
When my wife went to Tokyo Disneyland (she tells me), she and her friends lined up an hour before the gates opened and then sprinted (along with all the other people waiting) to the particular attraction they wanted to enter. Ready yourself for a lot of long waits in the cold.
For Ueno Park, I’d recommend the science museum over the National Museum, at least for your child.
Keep in mind that you’ll be on your feet almost all of the time you are out in Tokyo and that there are few places to sit in the places popular with tourists. When our child was 7, we’d usually just go to one tourist place per day because two would have been too tiring. (Yesterday, for example, we went with our child, now 10, to a relatively minor tourist attraction. According to my smartphone, we ended up walking 10 kilometers and were on our feet for 7 hours straight, which included two hours standing on trains.)
Ditch Odaiba asap if you can.
Decks beach and the area around teamlab sucks so don’t waste too much time there (but teamlab is awesome though obviously) – you can take a ferry from near there to Asakusa which which is a nice addition to the day.
Rather than going to Shinjuku after Shibuya maybe go to Nakameguro or Daikanyama.
There’s not a heap to do in Ginza – besides a few good stores (Dover Street Market and the new Issey Miyake etc). Assuming you were going there for shopping Aoyama is better IMO.
How did you wind up deciding on Odaiba to stay? If you still can, definitely bail on that for a more logical area.
The Tokyo National Museum is awesome and like $8, they also have a great gift shop. Shibuya Sky is crazy and a highlight of my first trip and another great gift shop. Also 6 mins from Narita airport is Nartia Station, really neat area to check out on the way home. We took our luggage to the airport first, ANA lets us check out bags in 6 hours early. Have fun, I think you have a great itinerary.
Id also say Odiba is a bit out of the way, we found this hotel in a residential area lots of little cafes, rooms are bigger with kitchenettes.Hotel Mystays Kiyosumi Shirakawa
Also Tokyo Disneyland is one of the best theme parks in the world, its still has the magic and the staff are amazing. You wont want to plan anything else that day for sure.