Hi all!
Some background: This is my husband and I’s our first trip to Japan and is considered our late honeymoon as we didn’t get to go when we got married due to covid. Since it will be during Hanami season we are trying to put together a realistic itinerary. We also like making itineraries early so that if things close, go under construction, rules change, and such, we can move things around without much hassle. We anticipate that this will not be our only trip to Japan so we’ve left out some things (onsens, Mt Fuji, Osaka day trip, etc) in order to give us the time to really enjoy and experience the things on our current list. We wanted a mix of traditional and modern, with the majority of our time in Tokyo. This is my first draft, and our biggest concern is making sure my timing is realistic. These are not hard set times, I was trying to search and gauge true time frames (especially working around days things are closed, and their hours open) for things so that anyone giving advice can see my thought process. I’ve seen more compact schedules than ours and now I’m wondering if some of these things don’t take as long as google says. All of our days are pretty flexible (especially depending on if blossoms are happening or not) but I will say that our first full day after travel we would like to keep light to help with jet lag and learning to navigate the city. We initially intended to stay near Tokyo station but only because we don’t know if there is a better option. With this in mind our walking/traveling is gauged from around Tokyo station. Advice and suggestions encouraged! Please let us know how it is!
**3/21-3/22 (Fri-Sat)**
Fly out early am 3/21, all day travel
Arrive on 3/22, take into account for time change so it will actually be 3/22 PM
Customs
Travel from airport to hotel
**3/23 (Sun)**
9am – 10am Travel from hotel to Art Aquarium
10am – 11:30am Art Aquarium
11:30am – 12:30pm Travel (train or walk depending on how we feel) to Pokemon Center DX (can grab snacks if hungry)
12:30 – 1:30pm Pokemon Center DX
1:30pm – 2pm Walk to Tokyo Station
2pm – 8pm Explore Tokyo Station (LUNCH, Ramen street, Character street, Ghibli Donguri Republic store, etc)
8pm – 9pm Get konbini snacks and travel back to hotel to relax
**3/24 (Mon)**
8am – 9am Travel from hotel to Shibuya station
9am – 9:30am Hachiko memorial statue, take Shibuya crossing to MEGA Don Quijote Shibuya
9:30 – 11:30 am MEGA Don Quijote Shibuya
12pm – 1pm LUNCH
1:30pm – 3:30pm Shibuya LOFT
4pm – 5pm Pokemon Center Shibuya
5pm – 6pm Nintendo Tokyo
6pm – 6:30pm Walk from Nintendo store to Shibuya Sky and get in
7pm – 9pm Shibuya Sky at night
10pm – X Travel from Shibuya to Tokyo station, Dinner, Hotel
**3/25 (Tue)**
8am – 9am Travel from Tokyo station to Yoyogi Park
9am – 12pm Explore Yoyogi Park (Cherry blossoms) through to Meiji Jingu
12pm – 2pm – Walk from Meiji Jingu to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, get LUNCH on the way or eat at Starbucks in the garden
2pm – 4pm Explore Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
4pm – 5pm Walk from Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden to Omoide Yokocho
5pm – 10pm Explore Omoide Yokocho and surrounding area (UNIQLO here if we can’t go to the one in Shibuya), Get dinner here?
10pm – 11pm Travel back to hotel
**3/26 (Wed)**
Cherry Blossom day (Can be switched at anytime depending on the blooms, Imperial palace is closed on mon and fri)
8am – 9:30am Walk to Chidorigafuchi
10:30am – 2pm Walk to and explore The East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, LUNCH
2pm – 3:30pm Travel from Imperial Palace to Meguro River Cherry Blossom Promenade
3:30pm – 10pm Explore Meguro River Cherry Blossom Promenade and stay for Dinner and night lights
**3/27 (Thu)**
8am – 9am Travel from hotel to Imado Shrine
10am – 12pm Walk from Imado Shrine through Sumida Park (Cherry blossom) to Senso-ji Temple
12pm – 4pm LUNCH, Explore the Sensoji Temple and surrounding area
4pm – 7pm Walk to Shin-Nakamise Shopping Street, explore, Dinner
7pm – 8pm Walk back to Sensoji Temple to see it illumiated
8pm – 9pm Travel back to hotel
**3/28 (Fri)**
8am – 5pm Travel to and explore Akihabara, breakfast and lunch here
5pm – 6pm Travel from Akihabara to Ueno Park
6pm – 10pm Ueno only for cherry blossom night light viewing (only for blossoms, not looking to do the zoo or museum) Dinner here
10pm Travel back to hotel
**3/29 (Sat)**
8am – 9:30am – Travel from hotel to Harry Potter tour
10am – 3pm The Making of Harry Potter \*Eating lunch at tour
3pm – 4:30pm Travel back to tokyo
REST OF THE DAY OPEN FOR LAST MINUTE SOUVENIR SHOPPING
**3/30 (Sun)**
8am – 9am Travel to Team Labs
9:30am – 12pm Team Labs
12pm – 1pm Travel from Team Labs to Odaiba Takoyaki Museum
1pm – 3pm Odaiba Takoyaki Museum, LUNCH
REST OF THE DAY OPEN FOR LAST MINUTE SOUVENIR SHOPPING
**3/31 (Mon)**
8 am – 11am: Travel into Tokyo to Kyoto through Shinkansen
afternoon – evening: Kyoto station (store luggage in coin locker if we did not ship them to the hotel), Nishiki market, Hotel
EVENING OPEN
**4/1 (Tue)**
6am – 7am Travel to Fushimi Inari
7am – 10am Explore Fushimi Inari, photos
10am – 5pm Explore shops and Fushimi Inari Sando Chaya
EVENING OPEN
**4/2 (Wed)**
6am – 7am Travel to Kiyomizu-dera temple
7am – 9am Explore Kiyomizu-dera
9am – X (closing times) Explore Higashiyama Ward, walk to the Hokan-ji temple, and Maruyama park
\*\*\*\*If cherry blossoms are in season and we feel up to it we can explore all the way to the Keage Incline\*\*\*\*
EVENING OPEN
**4/3 (Thu)**
8am – 9am Travel to Eikando temple
9am – 10am Explore Eikando temple
10am – 3pm Travel through The Philosophers Path to Ginkakuji, stop for shopping, lunch, etc
3pm – 5pm Explore Ginkakuji (higashiyama Jisho-ji)
EVENING OPEN
**4/4 (Fri)**
6am – 7am Travel to Arashiyama
7am – 9am Explore the Arashiyama bamboo grove
9am – 9:30am Walk to Tenryu-ji temple
9:30am – 11am Explore Tenryu-ji temple
11am – X (closing times) Explore Arashiyama, Togetsukyo bridge, food, shop, etc
X (Arashiyama closing times) -Evening Kimono forest, Arashiyama station
EVENING OPEN
**4/5 (Sat)**
am: check out of hotel and get to Kyoto station
am – mid morning: get breakfast at Kyoto station and take shinkansen back to Tokyo
mid day: Tokyo station to Haneda airport, good bye Japan!
1 comment
I’ll be honest here, the Kyoto section is a “greatest hits” of the most internationally famous cherry blossoms spots. Of course there is a (very good) reason these places are famous, but it means that outside of what you manage to do from 6-9am everything is extremely crowded which many people find tiring.
I strongly suggest going to less internationally known spots for one day so you can compare. Miidera in Shiga prefecture for example is a huge temple complex 30 minutes from Kyoto Station (and very well known in regional social media, I am not suggesting some 10minute temple :), and if you go on a weekday during peak it should be vastly more peaceful than anything of comparable visual quality in Kyoto. It’ll look very good in photos too, how different can “cherry blossoms in a temple” look from one to another 😉
On that note 4/1 seems very empty, even if you are climbing to the top (you should not ‘need’ to if you go early enough for emptier gates, as the view from the top isn’t super amazing), that and the shops (which are ‘close enough’ to what you will have already seen at Nakamise dori, Sannenzaka/Nienenzaka etc) will take at most half a day.