I want to preface that all of the places written are just options of what we can do each day, and I don’t mean that we will be doing ALL of those things each day as I know it’s not wise/possible to visit this many places each day and exhaust ourselves.
My partner and I (26M, 26F) are visiting Japan both for the first time. We’re from Perth, Australia, so I’m nervous for the cold! Any tips or recommendations based on our itinerary would be greatly appreciated 🙂
Friday 29 Dec: Arriving at 9.40pm in Tokyo so heading straight to our hotel in Shinjuku and getting some sleep
Saturday 30 Dec: Harajuku, Harry Potter Cafe, Kiddy Land store and Warner Bros studio tour
Sunday 31 Dec: Golden Gai, Teamlab borderless, Gyoen National Garden, NYE in Shibuya
(We normally celebrate our anniversary between the 1 – 3 of Jan so any romantic recommendations would be great!)
Monday 1 Jan: Shinkyo Bridge, Kanmangafuchi Abyss.
Tuesday 2 Jan: Disneyland
Wednesday 3 Jan: Disney store, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation
Thursday 4 Jan: Yayoi Kusama Museum, Ghibli Museum, Inokashira Benzaiten
Friday 5 Jan: Checking out of our hotel in Shinjuku, checking into the a hotel above Nagoya Station, and spending the day at Ghibli Park.
Saturday 6 Jan: Checking out of Nagoya hotel, travelling to Kyoto and checking into an airbnb in Gion. Shibli Studios Shop, Nishiki Market, Philosopher’s Path
Sunday 7 Jan: Nandai-mon (Great South Gate), Kasuga-taisha, Uguisuno-taki falls
Monday 8 Jan: Checking out of Kyoto, travelling to Osaka and checking into a hotel. Daitoku-ji, Tenryu-ji Temple, Dotonbori, Teamlab botanincal gardens, Harukas 300, Osaka Castle, Hozenji, Kobe Chinatown Nankin-machi (Lantern festival).
Tuesday 9 Jan: \*\*We have no hotel booked for this night. Our plan was to see whether we liked Osaka or Kyoto more and check into a hotel in the morning before the days activities\*\* Nara Kingyo Museum, Nara Park,
Wednesday 10 Jan: Travelling to Hakuba
11 – 12 Jan: Snowboarding
Saturday 13 Jan: Snow monkeys
14 – 16: Snowboarding
Wednesday 17 Jan: Travelling back to Tokyo for one more night in Shinjuku
Thursday 18 Jan: Flying back to Aus to visit some friends in Sydney for a few days before returning to Perth.
2 comments
Hi fellow Australian!
First question: which Tokyo airport do you arrive at? Haneda (which Qantas flies to) is about 15-20 minutes out of Tokyo/Shinjuku, however Narita (which Jetstar, Virgin and most of the Japanese airlines fly to) is about 90 minutes out of Tokyo
The best part about travelling to Japan from Australia is no jet lag, given you’re travelling south to north
Shinjuku is awesome, it’s my favourite part of Tokyo
Nara, Kyoto and Osaka are only about half an hour apart from each other, which makes life easy
Not doing Hiroshima?
Apart from that, your trip looks awesome! Be sure to check out Golden Gai in Shinjuku, Super Potato in Akihabara and Yoyogi Park in Tokyo
Aaaaaaaaand finally, here’s my advice I give to everyone who tells me they’re travelling to Japan:
* Look into banking, be aware that Japan is still a mostly cash based society, people walk around with like $500 in their pocket, petty crime is rare. Be aware that many Japanese banks and ATMs don’t accept foreign cards for some reason. I have an account with NAB and I used 7-Eleven ATMs without any problems.
* Look into internet access, unless you want a massive phone bill, your two options are a local SIM card or portable Wifi, I used the latter, you can rent one at the airport when you arrive
* Look into rail fares, buy a Suica or ICOCA card for local travel within cities (though apparently they now issue as passes for your phone now, due to the microchip shortage) and look into rail passes to get between cities, the bullet trains/shinkansen are amazing! You can find what’s best by doing some research, either buying individual fares for each trip or buying a rail pass, the nationwide JR pass is probably not worth it. There’s plenty of calculators available online.
* bring extra deodorant, trust me on that one, antiperspirant is surprisingly hard to find
* two kanji you really should know before hand is 男 (male) and 女 (female), this is so you don’t walk into the wrong toilet or board a women only train carriage
* 99% of Japan is perfectly safe, however, keep your wits about you in places like Kabukicho and Roppongi, NEVER follow any African touts into a bar, unless you want to be scammed
If your trip is this year, I believe Borderless and Gyoen National Garden are both closed on the date mentioned. Gyoen until after the new year, and Borderless reopens in February.