My partner and I are heading out to Japan for an 18-day trip in November (into the beginning of December). We've already been to Kyoto and Tokyo on a previous trip for about 6 days which felt very rushed. So the thought process was that we want to check out some new areas this time (like Osaka and Kanazawa) in addition to revisiting Kyoto and Tokyo.
We've plotted out roughly what we want to do in each area already, so this is more of a check on the overall itinerary and thoughts on if it's too much moving around from area to area over an 18-day trip. If so, Kanazawa is probably the place we'd cut first… I've heard mixed things on people calling it "Little Kyoto" with less to do, while others say it's unique and worthwhile making the trek out to check it out. I'd really like to keep Shuzenji in there as we booked a really great ryokan there and should be hitting peak fall foliage around that time.
Mostly hemming and hawing over if I should cut out the Kanazawa days and reallocate the days to Osaka/Kyoto or Tokyo. That would cut out the extra changing of hotels and the extra set of transit legs (since we could just go directly from Tokyo to Kyoto up front, thus simplifying the overall transit route).
Any thoughts and suggestions would be much appreciated! 🙂
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Tokyo > Kanazawa > Kyoto/Osaka > Shuzenji > Tokyo (with Kawaguchiko day trip)
Equates to:
- Kanazawa: 2 days
- Osaka: 2.5 days (including USJ)
- Kyoto: 4 days
- Shuzenji: 1.5 days (primarily onsen ryokan stay)
- Tokyo: 7.5 days (including Kawaguchiko day trip)
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Posting the detailed itinerary below since my post got autodeleted for insufficient itinerary info, though I’m primarily looking for feedback on the overall itinerary and distribution across the different areas.
Day 1: Land in Tokyo, Kanazawa
- Land in Haneda Airport early in the morning (5am)
- Transit to Kanazawa
- Kanazawa for the day – Kazuemachi Chaya District and Higashi Chaya District, OMicho Market, Oyama Shrine, Kenroku-en
- Stay in Kanazawa for the night
Day 2: Kanazawa, transit to Kyoto at night
- Kanazawa for the day – Kanazawa Castle, Nagamachi District, 21st Century Museum if time allows
- Transit to Kyoto at night
Day 3: Osaka (USJ)
- Planning to use Kyoto as a hotel base (with our hotel near Kyoto Station), so will transit in and out to Osaka for our Osaka days
- USJ for the full day
Day 4: Osaka
- Full day in Osaka – Osaka Castle, PC and Retro Bar Space Station, Parco Shinsaibashi Osaka, Pokemon Café Osaka, Abeno Harukas, Dotonbori
Day 5: Osaka/Kyoto
- Kyoto for the first half of the day – Fushimi Inari Tasha
- Half day in Osaka since I'm thinking the full day in Osaka won't be enough to cover what we want to do – Shinsekai, TeamLab Botanical Garden Osaka, Osaka Castle Illumination
Days 6-8: Kyoto
- 3 full days in Kyoto
- Day 1: Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Tenryu-ji, Okochi Sanso Garden, Arashiyama shopping street area, Togetsukyo Bridge
- Day 2: Nishiki Market, Teramachi-dori, Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka streets, Kiyomizudera
- Day 3: Philosopher’s Path stopping at various temples along the way, Gion area, Pontocho Alley, Kamo River
Day 9: Kyoto half day, Shuzenji
- Half day in Kyoto (going back to anything we liked or didn’t finish) before we leave mid-day to head to Shuzenji to the ryokan we booked
Day 10: Shuzenji, transit to Tokyo
- Check out of the ryokan mid-day, check out the surrounding Shuzenji area for the rest of the afternoon
- Transit to Tokyo
Days 11-16: Tokyo
- 6 full days in Tokyo (lots we want to do in Tokyo for our specific interest areas, so this occupies the most time on our trip)
- Day 1: Ikebukuro – Sunshine City, game/electronics/secondhand shopping, arcades
- Day 2: Asakusa (Senso-ji, Asakusa Shrine, Nakamise Shopping Street, Sumida Park), Tokyo Skytree Solomachi
- Day 3: Harujuku (Takeshita Street, shopping), Shibuya (Shibuya Scramble, Shibuya 109, Parco, 84 Hashi Café, Shibuya Sky)
- Day 4: Shinjuku (Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyu Kabukicho Tower, Omoide Yokocho, Kabukicho)
- Day 5: Odaiba and Toyosu (TeamLab Planets, Â Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai, Fuji Television Building observation deck as time allows)
- Day 6: Tokyo Station shopping (Character Street and food souvenirs), Ginza (Okinawan and Hokkaido satellite shops, general shopping)
Day 17: Kawaguchiko day trip
- Day trip from Tokyo for the Chureito Pagoda and Kawaguchiko area, though realistically we're flexible on exactly which day this lands within our Tokyo itinerary based on the weather and cloud cover conditions for Mount Fuji
Day 18: Tokyo half day, fly out
- Half day in Tokyo – any last things we want to go back to or didn’t finish
- Head to Narita Airport in the afternoon for our evening flight
by akak2018
