Hi everyone,
I just started to get my rough draft of an itinerary going, when I found out Golden Week is in the middle of my trip. I had no idea Golden Week was a thing when I was booking tickets, so that’s rather unfortunate. Wondering if my itinerary below looks OK, or if I should rework it to maybe avoid certain areas during that the holidays. I realize there’s probably a few things on my list during the national holidays that I’ll have to cancel due to things being closed, so I tried to schedule the things I’m most excited about on the other days. I did end up moving my travel dates for Osaka and Kyoto around a bit so that the Shinkansen hopefully isn’t too crazy. I had originally planned on doing those cities at the tail end, rather than sandwiched in the middle of Tokyo.
I deliberately left the schedule a bit light on some days so that we could just explore and take it all in, but if anyone has suggestions for things nearby that we can’t miss, I’d love to hear!
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April 21:
* Flight lands 3:25 PM local time
* Get Cash, Suica card, eSims, train passes, etc. from airport
* Head to hotel, drop off bags, then just walk around neighborhood and take it all in.
April 22:
* Ghibli museum
April 23: Ueno
* Tokyo National Museum
* Ueno Park
* National museum of nature and science
* Other smaller museums/zoo if time allows
April 24
* Tsukiji Outer Market
* Tokyo Tower
* Teamlab Borderless
April 25
* Shibuya
April 26
* Leave for Osaka in morning
* Osaka Castle
* Dotonbori
April 27
* Holiday weekend, will be busy
* hinsaibashisuji
* Shitennoji
April 28: Kyoto
* Holiday weekend, will be busy
* Leave for Kyoto in morning
* Fushimi Inari
* Gion
* Ginkaku-ji if time allows
April 29: Day trip to Nara
* National Holiday, closures possible, will be busy
* Day trip to Nara
* Friendly deer park with feeding – nara park in Nara
* Kofuku-Ji Temple
* Isuien Garden
April 30: Kyoto
* Kyoto Imperial Palace
* Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
* Kyoto Botanical Garden if time allows
May 1:
* Leave for Tokyo in morning
* Shibuya
May 2:
* Rest day/whatever
May 3:
* National Holiday, closures possible, will be busy
* Shinjuku
* Omoide Yokocho (Piss Alley)
* Shinokubo Korean Town
May 4:
* National Holiday, closures possible, will be busy
* Imperial Palace
* Akihabara
May 5:
* National Holiday, closures possible, will be busy
* Oishi Park
* Picnic
May 6:
* National Holiday, closures possible, will be busy
* Flight departs 5:25 PM