Day 1: Land at HND airport, sort out all the necessary travel things such as getting a Suica card then travel to our ryokan nearby Tokyo station. Explore the area around the hotel and eat somewhere. on the rough idea of our itinerary before we start finalizing all our plans. We are both very laid-back people, very into anime and Japanese pop culture, but also really into nature and looking forward to visiting many different temples. While we’d love to see a lot during our trip, we mostly love to have the time to take everything in and have the time to explore the places we go to. We both prefer not to plan everything out, but pick a general area or activity to visit and then just stroll around afterwards.
Our itinerary so far:
Day 1: Land at HND airport in the morning. travel to our Ryokan near Tokyo station. Explore the area around the hotel and eat somewhere while trying to stay awake 😛
Day 2-8: Visiting several different neighbourhoods in Tokyo (Shinjuku, Akihabara, Asakusa) Hoping to get tickets to go to the Ghibli Museum, visit the Tokyo National Museum, visit the cat shrine).
Day 9: Travel to Hakone early in the morning and check in at our Ryokan with onsen, then do the Hakone loop. Return to the Ryokan in the evening to eat a traditional kaiseki dinner.
Day 10-14: After breakfast in the Ryokan, we will travel to Kyoto and check into a hotel there. In Kyoto, we are planning to visit a lot of temples. Also planning to attend a traditional tea ceremony in kimono on day 11. On day 13 we want to plan a day trip to Nara and see the Omizutori festival. On the last day, we want to ship our luggage forward to our Hiroshima hotel.
Day 15-16: On day 15, travel to Onomichi early in the morning and rent a bicycle to cycle the Shimanami Kaido. We were planning to stay at one of the islands overnight and then use the second day to cycle to Imabari.
Day 17-18: Travel from Imabari to Hiroshima to check into our hotel and collect our shipped luggage. Visit the Hiroshima Peace Park and eat okonomiyaki. On the second day, visit Miyajima.
Day 19-20: Travel from Hiroshima to Osaka and check into a capsule hotel (my boyfriend wanted to experience this), spend the day visiting Dotonbori and have drinks and delicious food.
Day 21-22: Check into a yet undetermined hotel in Tokyo and shop for some last souvenirs. What would be a recommendation for a good neighbourhood to stay in?
Day 23: Early flight out of HND airport.
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Does our planning sound realistic to you guys?
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