First time tourist here. Me and my partner are planning a trip late Oct.-early Nov. We are both into retro-gaming and technology, as well as nature, animals, geology, etc. Gf is VERY into Pokémon and anything Nintendo.
I don’t know what to expect time-wise and what I can or can’t cram into 14 days. I hear only good things about the transit system there but I’m still nervous about time spent getting from point A to point B because I am used to unreliable transit systems in NA. Will a JR pass and Suica card be enough to efficiently get everywhere we want to go? Around how much should I expect to spend on transit beyond the JR pass? Seeking advice, tips, and recommendations from someone with more knowledge than myself. Thank you 🙂
Here is what I have planned:
Day 1-2 – 10 hour flight. Land at NRT around 5pm Japan time (2 am our time). Clear customs, get suica card and JR pass. Take 1.5hr train to Chiyoda area to check in at our hotel and drop off our bags.
Find a quick meal and go to bed ~9:00pm.
Day 3 – Transit to Tokyo Station area. Explore and shop at all the retro and character stores. Pokemon center. Pokemon Cafe. Pokemon Card shops.
Ramen street for lunch.
Akihibara Electric Town shopping.
Dinner in the area and head back to our hotel for the evening.
Day 4 – Diver City Shopping Mall in the morning & lunch.
Teamlab planets in the afternoon.
Dinner and explore in evening.
Day 5 – DisneySea during the day. Skytree in the evening (possibly have dinner there).
Day 6 РSunshine city shopping center in the morning/afternoon. Walk to Milky Way caf̩ for a dessert. Walk to Its-Demo so the gf can look at character makeup etc. Grab dinner in the area or transit back to Chiyoda area. Nightlife maybe?
Day 7 – Transit (1hr) to Ghibli Musuem in the morning. Transit (3hrs) to Nippara Limestone Caves in afternoon. Transit back to hotel (3.5hr). Late dinner.
Day 8 – Check out of Tokyo hotel and Transit to Osaka in the morning.
Tenryu-ji Temple, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Arashiyama Monkey Park.
Transit back to Osaka and check in at hotel for the night.
Day 9 – Universal Studios. Find a nice dinner. Maybe Osaka Castle in evening if we have time.
Day 10 – Osaka Aquarium.
Day 11 – Transit to Nara Todai-ji temple. Walk to Higashimuki Shopping Arcade for evening and dinner. Back to hotel in Osaka.
Day 12 – Transit to Hiroshima (1.5hr) in morning. Explore A-dome and peace park area. Maybe Peace Memorial Museum? Check in at a hotel after dinner.
Day 13 – Transit back to Tokyo in morning. Check in at Chiyoda hotel. Spare time /Anything we missed.
Day 14 – Maybe find an Onsen? Spare time/anything we missed. Prepare for flight home.
Day 15 – Check out. Transit to airport for flight home at 6:00pm.
12 comments
If you stay local, you should expect to pay less than 1000 yen a day for transit. Of course if you go somewhere a bit more far, it can be more expensive. 7 days pass will be a great value for you. And yes Suica/Pasmo should be able to cover all the train/bus you plan to take that will not be covered by the pass. Just note that from the airport, the JR Narita Express and the Keisei Skyliner are reserved seat only so you cannot use the IC card to ride it.
Unless you start JR Pass on day 1 (and you should not), do not activate it at the airport if there is a line at the exchange desk, just do it in the next days in Tokyo. Depending on where you want to stay in Tokyo, it could make more sense to use Keisei so in this case, just get a Pasmo.
As you have several days starting by shopping, keep in mind that stores often open at 10 or 11 am only, so if you want to start your day earlier, just check to have something to do before the stores open. And speaking of shopping, considering you plan a lot of shopping in Tokyo, have you considered that you will need to move all that stuff to Osaka ? You might want to consider staying in Tokyo longer at the end of the trip and move most of the shopping at that time.
The earlier you can be in Ghibli museum is 10am, so if you take only 5 minutes there, you can be at the limestone cave for 1pm, but in reality, you will spend time in the museum, eat something, so do not expect to be there before 3-4 pm (and it close at 5pm) so does not seems to be the best plan. Instead I would do it on a different day.
I would not do Kyoto as a daytrip from Osaka on the day you get to Osaka. Maybe the Aquarium would be better for that day and have a full day for Arashiyama.
If you are not to spend day 12 in Hiroshima, just do it as a day trip from Osaka, so return to your Osaka hotel on that night.
If you want a onsen, then plan it properly, there is not much onsen in Tokyo. I would suggest to plan a proper day for that in Hakone or Kawaguchiko. And if the limestone cave is an important thing for you, then plan a full day for it and stop by a onsen at Oku-tama, there is one called Moegi no yu onsen there at 800m from the station. Or plan a trip or stop at a place where there is onsen like Hakone, Kawaguchiko or Izu.
1. You should activate your JR pass (I would presume a 7-day pass) when you transit to Osaka. You can do it at the airport when you arrive. Go to the JR office and tell them you want your pass to start on <date>. Then on the 7th day you can take the train back to Tokyo. There is no need for you to use the JR pass when you are in Tokyo.
2. Day 8 – not sure about luggage storage options in Arashiyama, and I would think that it’s a little pack. And since you are in Arashiyama, you should include some sights in Kyoto as well. Maybe on Day 8 you should go straight to Osaka, soak in the sights there (and maybe Osaka castle), and then do Arashiyama as a day trip on another day.
3. Hiroshima can be done as a day trip from Osaka with JR pass (same as Nara and Arashiyama)
If you’re into retro gaming, you must check out Nakano Broadway. Can easily spend half a day here.
Also the Pokémon store in Shibuya is much bigger than the one in Tokyo station. Parco in Shibuya alone will probably take 2-3 hours.
Skip Osaka Aquarium.
If you go to USJ, get the fast pass. It’s a little extra to spend but if you don’t have much time, it’s worth it.
In Hiroshima, do not miss Itsukushima / Miyajima.
Kyoto has a lot of things, you can easily spend a couple of days exploring. Kiyomizidera temple is my favorite
I would def flip the Kyoto/ Osaka to beginning and Tokyo to end, you can also arrange for your hotels to send your baggage, it’s very efficient. we sent our bags from Osaka to Tokyo and they were there next day. also if you are into anime, more time in Akihabara… we did most of our shopping in the Tokyo portion and kept going back there, then we had our luggage sent to the airport so we didn’t have to worry about it
Not sure if you can figure a spot to put it, but the ghibli park opens in november.
Make sure you visit Parco near Shibuya Station. The nintendo store is there with a pokemon store across from it.
Also double check team labs as both are closing this year.
Each Pokémon center in each region will have specific gashapon with landmarks. U might want to make a game of it.
Day 7 is quite an impossible feat. Also make sure to check bus schedule to and from Nippara Cave or you will have to make a very long walk.
7 day JR pass for the second leg of the trip, Suica/Pasmo card for the first 7 in the Tokyo area. JR pass super good for longer trips around the country, not as much in the Tokyo metropolitan area
The pokemon center at sunshine city in ikebukuro has more things than the shibuya Parco, but shibuya is like brand new. Sunshine city has 4 pokemon stores (center, Go, card game, and pikachu cafe) there is also a mega gachapon shop on the top floor of the shopping mall.
If you are going in November you might want to check this out
https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/22916735/studio-ghibli-theme-park-opening-date-location-images
Have you already bought tickets for the Ghibli museum? I’m planning to go to Japan on July and I’d like to go visit the museum, but I don’t know if it’s possible for foreigners to buy tickets online without a Japanese phone number