Hello!
I’ll be finally travelling to Japan in March (March 4th-March 17th) for the first time with my partner, and we settled on everything that we want to do. I wanted to check how feasible/overwhelming the schedule looks and any advice in switching around daytrips would also be great!
We’re planning to only check in in 2 hotels – one in Osaka and one in Tokyo, keeping them as base of operations for day trips.
Day 1: Land in Tokyo Haneda at 9AM – pick up wifi/JR Pass\* at airport. Travel into Tokyo and take the bullet train to Osaka. Spend the first day exploring the shops around Umeda (where the hotel is) to get over jet lag/settle in etc.
Day 2: Osaka (Osaka Castle, Pokemon cafe, Dotonbori)
Day 3: Universal Studios with the Nintendo World Pass
Day 4: Day trip to Kyoto (Fushimi Inari, Nishiki Market, Gion)
Day 5: Day trip to Hiroshima (Peace Memorial Park/Museum, Castle, Itsukushima Jinja)
Day 6: Day trip to Wakayama (Kishi Station, Temples)
Day 7: Day trip to Nara (Nara Park, local temples)
Day 8: Travel to Tokyo – hotel is in Akihabara, so explore around there and Shibuya
Day 9: Day trip to Sendai – Aoba Castle\*\* & the Golden Kamuy exhibition/cafe
Day 10: Day trip to Yokohama – Gundam statue, Chinatown, Cup Noodle Museum
Day 11: Tokyo – Asakusa, Gotokuji Temple, Kabuchiko
Day 12: Sanrio Puroland most of the day, Ikebukuro in the afternoon/evening
Day 13: Final day for shopping – flight departs at 1AM that night
\*I know that JR Pass prices skyrocketed, my reasoning behind choosing to get it is because it’s the 1st ever trip in Japan and would like the comfort of not having to buy too many tickets/stop at counters for all the daytrips planned, especially since a few of those will be bullet train ones.
\*\*I’ve been trying to determine if it’s closed for renovations during March but information seems to be a bit scarce?
Thanks in advance for having a look!