# About Us
**Travel Dates:** April 9-23
**Background:** My husband and I were lucky enough to take three weeks off this past March to spend our honeymoon in Japan. We went to Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, and Lake Kawaguchiko. It was a jam-packed schedule and while we enjoyed it a lot, constantly being on the go and the jetlag really took a toll on our bodies.
**Interests/Priorities:** This time around we definitely want to explore more local areas, hit up spots we might have missed the first time, but overall will be more lax. We are already saw a lot of the major tourist attractions and don’t necessarily have to go back.
We are into food and bars, comedy, sports, sights, hiking, biking, and fun local experiences. Less into museums, castles, or temples unless it’s really beautiful or unique. Hope to return in the winter season for skiing in the future.
That being said, we do have a couple things on our wishlist this year which we built our itinerary around:
* **Suzuka** \- My husband is a huge F1 fan which is funny considering we are landing the day after F1 weekend is over. Not that we want to drop a grand on tickets anyway. He still wants to explore the grounds and watch a local race, if available.
* **Baseball** game – Either in Osaka or Tokyo. Any recommendations on which teams are more fun to watch?
* **Mt. Fuji** \- Instead of bus, we will rent a car this time and explore other areas.
* **Okinawa** aquarium – We loved the Osaka one and realized Okinawa’s is even bigger! I’m kind of torn on this one though since Okinawa is far from everything else and requires yet another flight.
**Budget:** SINK couple but comfortable spending. Finer things are nice, but we much prefer a good value with lower price points. Curious to hear any hotel recs! I draw the line at capsule hotels or multi-bunk hostels though.
We also have a ton of points with Chase and Amex we can use. We booked this flight through Virgin for 90K points + $50 cash each, including a 30% point transfer bonus so it really was only 60K points each.
# Tentative Itinerary
**April 9**
* Flight to Tokyo including stop in Minneapolis
**April 10-13**
* **Tokyo** \- We do have to stop in Tokyo first because my husband’s friend withdrew cash for us. Since we don’t know what the conversion rate will be next April, we asked him to do this while it is favorable now.
* Azabudai Hills and new TeamLabs Borderless
* Olympic Stadium tour
* Daikoku car meet
* Head spa – need to do research on where
* Chidorigafuchi boat ride – hopefully there are still cherry blossoms, otherwise will skip this
* Roppongi (?) – didn‘t get to explore this neighborhood last time, but not sure if it’s worth it
* Baseball game
* Day trip to **Yokohama** (?)
* Day trip to **Mt. Fuji** & **Shiato Falls** \- We will rent a car a little closer to the trip once we can see what the weather is like. On our honeymoon, we booked a ryokan for the weekend only for it to rain all weekend with zero visibility.
**April 13-18**
* Flight to **Kyoto** – We really loved Kyoto on our previous trips so figured this could be a good home base for the next few days while we explore the area
* Lunch or dinner at **Monk** (Pizza restaurant featured on Netflix. Last time, it happened to be closed the week we were there.)
* Uji for matcha
* Free walking tour in Kyoto to learn history
* Day trip to **Suzuka** \- We will rent a car which seems the most convenient. Should we stop in Nagoya?
* Day trip to **Hiroshima** & **Miyajima** Island (?)
* Day trip to **Osaka** (?) – Shinsekai, Iseshi old town, Harukas 300, baseball game, Nemophila flower festival. Honestly we did not love Osaka the first time and are ok with skipping it altogether.
* Day trip to **Kinosaki** (?) – I read that their 7 public onsens are tattoo friendly! We both have tattoos that can’t be covered up.
* Day trip to **Himeji** (?)
**April 18-22**
* Flight to **Okinawa**
* Okinawa aquarium
* Fireworks festival – We read that this might take place in mid April. We can move our dates around to accommodate this.
* Triathlon – We saw that there is one on April 21 which could be cool to watch.
* Day trip to **Zemami** or **Kerama** Island (?)
* Beaches and snorkeling
**April 22-23**
* Flight to Tokyo
* Last-minute souvenir shopping
* Flexible schedule
**April 23**
* Flight back to NYC including stop in Minneapolis
# Questions
1. Do you think Okinawa is worth visiting or is there too much travel in our two week itinerary? I enjoy the beach and water activities but not sure if it’s warm enough in April. If I cut out Okinawa, what are some other mainland options worth exploring?
2. For the (?) items on my itinerary, would you consider any of them a must see? On the flipside are there any that we should skip?
3. An alternative idea I had was to stay in Okinawa until the last day, and then fly directly to Tokyo to catch our flight home instead of hunkering down in yet another hotel for 1 night. Has anyone done it this way or preferred to break up the travel?
4. Anything I should buy while in Japan? We did a haul of skincare last time, but curious if there are other categories we should explore.
\*Side tip for everyone – SAVE DRAFT and do it often when you type up your posts! I typed up a lengthy post only for my finger to accidentally hit something and the page refreshed and lost everything. I almost gave up on retyping all of this.
