Hello! I’m going traveling to Japan from Dec 11th – 23rd with 3 very close friends (were all ages 20 and 21), and wanted to get some feedback on my itinerary for the first 7 days! The others in my group were supposed to plan the last 6 days (mostly in Osaka/Kyoto) which they’ve yet to do (grrrrrrr). Some of this is more detailed than other bits, but this is what I’ve got!
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**Day 1: Dec 11th**
\- Flight leaves at 8:00am
\- Flying all day (time zone change)
**Day 2: Dec 12th**
\- Arrive at Tokyo Haneda Airport at 5:45pm
\- Either reserve a Taxi, or figure out the Rail lines
• For the rail route, take Keikyu Airport Line -> Hibiya Line -> Chiyoda Line, get off at *Akasaka Station*
• Can also take Keikyu Airport Line -> Oedo Line (switch at *Daimon Station*), get off at *Roppongi Station*
• There are many ways to get a taxi, might just do it through booking dot com but should look into it more
\- Check into Mimaru Tokyo Akasaka
\- Idk, find somewhere to eat? We’ll be tired but gotta stay awake lol
**Day 3: Dec 13th**
\- First real day in Tokyo!
\- Try to cover a lot of ground, can come back to places on other days if we really like them. That said, we can shift this all around if we want
\- Visit *Meiji Shrine* in the morning, the earlier the better (7:00 – 8:00am) but whenever we wake up is fine lol
• From hotel, take *Chiyoda Line* from Akasaka Station, get off at Yoyogi-kōen Station
• This is right above / part of *Yoyogi Park*, so we can check that out as well if we’d like
\- Walk to *Takeshita Dori* street (about 5 min), full of “shops, boutiques, cafes and fast-food outlets targeting Tokyo’s teenagers”
• Most stuff doesn’t open until around 11:00am
• *Omotesando* is just to the south (about 5 min) and is much more luxury stuff, but apparently really cool architecture
\- Either walk (about 30 min) or take *Omotesando Station* to *Central Shibuya*, here there are lots of things to explore!
• *Shibuya Scramble* *Crossing* is that really famous and busy pedestrian crossing area
• *Center Gai* is the “center” of Shibuya, “lined by stores, boutiques and game centers”
• Very cute *Hachiko Statue*, the dog that waited for their owner outside of Shibuya Station for years
• Lots of stuff to see here, these are just some suggestions
\- Take the Yamanote Line from *Shibuya Station* to *Shinjuku Station* (about 10 min), sometimes called the worlds busiest train station so that’ll be fun lol
• While in Shinjuku, we can kinda do whatever, depending on what time it is
• *Tokyo Metropolitan Government* Building apparently has a very cool observation deck
• There’s some *Christmas Lights* spread around the south area of Shinjuku Station
• *Omoide Yokocho* is just to the northwest of Shinjuku Station, it’s a tight network of alleyways filled with “tiny eateries serving ramen, soba, sushi, yakitori and kushiyaki”
**Day 4: Dec 14th**
\- Tokyo Day 2, Brandon arrives!
\- Let’s stay around the *Imperial Palace* and *Tokyo Station* area for the first half, it’s easy to get to airport on *Tokyo Monorail* or *Asakusa Line*
\- Visit the *Imperial Palace Gardens*, can enter through the Otemon Gate on the East side
• From Hotel, the *Chiyoda Line* (in the opposite direction from yesterday) from Akasaka Station, get off at Otemachi Station
• *Ninomaru Garden*, *Edo Castle Ruins*, and the *Imperial Palace* are all sights in this area
• Walk to the Outer Park as well, got some cool things like *Nijubashi Bridge*
\- From outer park, walk to *Ginza* (about 15 min)
• Grab some lunch, explore the area!
• *Seiko House Ginza* is just a luxury department store, but it’s got a cool clock tower on it that “the symbol of the district”, whatever that means lol
• *Kabukiza Theater* is a kinda cool looking, and you can buy single act tickets on the day, could be cool
• There’s basically just a ton of shopping complex’s around here, including *Ginza Six* and *Tokyu Plaza Ginza*
\- Gotta meet Brandon at *Haneda Airport*, he arrives at 3:05pm
• Probably just get on the *Asakusa Line* from Higashi-ginza Station, around 30 – 40 minutes
• My goat arrives
• Can always try the *Tokyo Monorail* \-> Oedo Line to get to hotel, just requires a bit more travel between station
\- Idk what time it’ll be once Brandon gets settled, we’ll see what he wants to do afterwards
**Day 5: Dec 15th**
\- Tokyo Day 3
\- Idk yet
\- Maybe Tokyo DisneySea, it’s not what it sounds like ppl say it’s the best Disney place lol
\- Possibly go to Shimokitazawa (hip shopping, very good cafes)
**Day 6: Dec 16th**
\- Trip to Nagano!
\- Take Shinkansen from *Tokyo Station* to *Nagano Station*, leave around 8:00am
• Pick up car rental at the *Toyota Ren-a-Car* right by the station
• Drive to *Snow Monkey Park*, about an hour
o Park at Jigokudani Monkey Park Main Parking
o About 25-minute walk up to the monkeys!
• We can do other various things around Nagano if we’d like, as we have a car.
• Drive to *Masuya Ryokan* in Aoki, this is about 1h 30m from Snow Monkey Park, and 1h from Nagano Station
o Earliest we can check-in is 3:00pm
**Day 7: Dec 17th**
\- Leaving for Osaka
\- Checkout of Masuya Ryokan by 10:00am at the latest, but should leave around 8:00am
• Drop off the car at Toyota Rent-a-Car by 10:00am at the latest, if not we will be charged extra.
\- Take Shinkansen from *Nagano Station* to *Shin-Osaka Station*, around 4h 30m depending on what route we take
• Route of Nagano -> Tokyo -> Osaka seems like it might be the play, I’ve heard people say it’s super scenic
• Can also do Nagano -> Nagoya -> Osaka, but apparently less scenic?
• Also, go from Nagano -> Kanazawa -> Osaka (would have to switch from Shinkansen to Thunderbird)
\- To get to where were staying, Higobashi AFP Apartment, just take *Midosuji Line*
• Check in is not until 4:00pm
• vibe
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I’ve never been to Japan, and don’t really know anyone who has, so this reddit and a bunch of research has been my only method of developing this itinerary. I wanted to give us guidance, but also room to do something that catches our eye.
\- Any *must-do* things we should hit in Tokyo and Nagano?
\- Any suggestions on stuff I might want to reserve in advance, like tours/cooking classes/idk whatever?
\- Also, any suggestions on the route we take from Nagano to Osaka? I thought about maybe going the Kanazawa route and getting off the train for a bit to explore there, would that be worth it?
2 comments
**Day 3:** Don’t get off at Yoyogi-Koen Station. It’s a few hundred meters from the least popular area of Yoyogi Park and a maybe 15-minute walk from the nearest entrance to the park. Go instead to Meijijingumae (Harajuku) Station on the Chiyoda line, which puts you between the Park and Takeshita Dori. Suggested route (if you’re early) walk around a bit in Meiji Shrine/Yoyogi Park; then walk through Takeshita Street. You really needn’t wait for the shops to open, as most of them target girls in their young teens. From Takeshita Street’s end, follow one of the main streets south, which will take you to the Shibuya Station area. Take the train from Shibuya up to Shinjuku when you’re done messing around in Shibuya. Bear in mind that Omoide Yokocho is now so famous that it’s largely full of drunken tourists or long-timers angry about the drunken tourists.
**Day 4:** Looks OK. Say hello to Brandon. Make absolutely sure all of his documents read ‘Brandon’ and not ‘Branden’. The latter is an officially forbidden name in Japan, and he won’t be allowed to enter the country. [**N.B.:** The foregoing is a joke.]
**Day 5:** Disney Sea and Shimokitazawa are at least 90 minutes apart by train. Shimokitazawa *had* hip shopping 15-20 years ago, but now it’s just got faux hip shopping and high prices. Shimokitazawa has some nice enough cafés, but so does virtually every other place in Tokyo now. Shimokitazawa’s really not worth a visit during such a short time in Tokyo. (I’ve lived within 20 minutes of the place for more than 30 years and mostly stopped going over the last 10 or so years.) If you want to go to a hip (*viz.,* popular with young people) place, go to either Kichijoji or to Ikebukuro. The latter is probably more accessible from your hotel.
As for reservations, reserve anything you can in advance, especially for the weekends.
I’m glad you’re trying to plan things that are in relatively close proximity to each other but ngl that first day is looking rough haha. That’s going to be QUITE a bit of walking which is something I painfully learned 🥲. I also planned a bit too much on our first full day and now it’s something I will definitely not be doing on our next trip.
• meiji jingu in the morning is good however like you said most businesses in harajuku open at 11 so I would suggest you find something to do in between these two activities. Unless you plan on staying at MJ for like 3 hours 😅.
I would suggest you take your first full day a bit easier since that is a TON of walking. Your feet will be begging to rest like mine were. In my case, for our first day we hit up asakusa and Shibuya and I didn’t even get to fully enjoy the two because I was not taking my time with things. LAME and ragrets! But now I know… and I hope I can convince you not to do the same haha
I also wanted to do DisneySea on my 5 days in Tokyo but I decided I’d rather dedicate the day to another area of Tokyo instead which I do not regret! I just realized you don’t have Asakusa on your itinerary. Any particular reason why? Just curious! Even though nakamise dori st is indeed very busy, the more you walk towards sensoji temple and veer off to one of the smaller streets it becomes so quaint and lovely. Not to mention there are so many restaurants and shops there to check out. Asakusa is where I wish I went back to explore more of. I would definitely recommend it!
Tbh I’ve been typing for a good minute now and I can’t remember what else I need to say but feel free to dm me if you have any questions 😅😅😅