18 Day November Itinerary + question about controlled medication

Greetings! Me and 3 more friends are traveling to Japan this November for the first time! We’re all very excited as this has been a dream destination for us (cue that meme of “I’m in Japan for the culture" – the culture – us going feral in a Pokemon center) I’m planning our itinerary and wanted to get a vibe check on it – I don’t want to be very rigid with the planning too, just trying to have an idea of places to visit each day!

Besides the itinerary, I wanted to ask a question about traveling with controlled substances. I take some meds for depression and anxiety. Looking at the guide in https://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/policy/health-medical/pharmaceuticals/01.html, I don’t see the substances I take in any of the lists (I checked for the generic name!), so my understanding is that I don’t need the Yunyu Kakunin-sho, just a note for my doctor, correct? To people who traveled there with controlled substances, how was the experience? Any other things I should look for? Appreciate any guidance!

So now, for the itinerary:

1. Arrival to Tokyo (Haneda Airport)
   • Take the bullet train to Osaka
   • Arrive on Osaka hotel, we’ll probably need some rest
   • Go around Dotonbori at night
2. Osaka 1
   • Osaka Castle
   • Umeda Sky Building
   • Explore around the city
   • Pokemon Cafe (if we get reservations!)
3. Osaka 2
   • Universal Studios – Super Nintendo World time, baby!
4. Osaka 3 (Day Trip 1)
   • Himeji
5. Osaka 4 (Day Trip 2)
   • Amanohashidate / Ine – this one I’m not too sure about, it’s a little farther away but it seems easy to get to and very beautiful.
6. Nara
   • We’re thinking if we should spend the night in Nara and go to Kyoto from there – I guess it saves some time instead of getting back to Osaka?
7. Kyoto 1
   • Arrive on Kyoto hotel – We want to stay in a ryokan at least for one day, so appreciate any recommendations! For this stay I think a mid-range place would be nice. I’ve also heard that Gion is the best place to stay in Kyoto because it’s so central, so looking for places there
   • Explore Gion
8. Kyoto 2
   • I’m basing myself a lot on the itineraries at https://www.insidekyoto.com/kyoto-three-day-itinerary here, so copying from there (I don’t plan on following it to the hour through):
     1. 8:30am: Kiyomizu-dera Temple
     2. 9:30am: Sannen-zaka and Ninen-zaka, then Maruyama-koen Park
     3. 10:30am: Chion-in Temple
     4. 11:00am: Shoren-in Temple
     5. 11:45: Travel to Downtown Kyoto
     6. Noon: Lunch Downtown
     7. 1pm: Nishiki Market
     8. 2pm: Daimaru Basement Food Floor
9. Kyoto 3:
   • Again following Inside Kyoto’s guide:
     1. Fushimi-Inari
     2. Arashiyama
     3. Tenshi no Sato (This one is special for me, the doll nerd – it’s the main store of one of the biggest ball-jointed doll brands out there, Volks!)
     4. Tenryu-ji Temple
     5. Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
     6. Okochi-sanso Villa
     7. Kinkaku-ji Temple
     8. Daitoku-ji Temple
10. Kyoto 4:
    1. Morning: Kurama/Kibune
    2. Noon or 1pm: Lunch back in Kyoto
    3. 2pm: Ginkaku-ji Temple
    4. 3pm: Path of Philosophy
    5. Honen-in Temple
    6. 4pm: Nanzen-ji Temple
11. Kyoto 5 (Day trip)
    • Planning for another day trip here, perhaps Uji or Kurashiki or Koyasan?
12. Tokyo 1
    • Take the train to Tokyo
    • Arrive at the hotel – I’m not 100% sure at what neighborhood we’ll stay, but I want to be somewhere relatively central and close to a train station
    • Explore around the neighborhood
    • Blast this shit on my headphones while I walk the streets of Tokyo
13. Tokyo 2 (Shinjuku)
    • For Tokyo I referenced a video on Instagram but now I can’t find it… (；・∀・)
      1. Tokyo Metropolitan Building
      2. Gyoen Garden
      3. Kabukicho Tower
      4. Isetan Department Store
      5. Don Quijote
      6. Omoide Yokocho/Golden Gai
14. Tokyo 3 (Harajuku & Shibuya)
    1. Meiji Shrine
    2. Takeshita Street
    3. Omotesando Street
    4. Shibuya Parco
    5. Shibuya Crossing
    6. Hachiko
    7. Shibuya Sky
15. Tokyo 4 (Asakusa, Ueno & Akihabara)
    1. Tokyo Skytree
    2. Sensoji Temple
    3. Nakamise Street
    4. Kappabashi Street
    5. Ueno Ameyoko
    6. Akihabara
16. Tokyo 5 (Tsukuji, Ginza, Tokyo, Azabudai Hills, Odaiba)
    1. Tsukuji Outer Market
    2. Ginza
    3. Imperial Palace
    4. Teamlab Borderless/Azabudai Hills/Tokyo Tower/Roppongi Hills
    5. Teamlab planets/Odaiba (the Digimon feels!)
    6. Maybe none of the Teamlabs and we go to Sanrio Puroland instead? I want to take a picture with Hello Kitty 🙂 make my 5 year old self so proud 🙂
17. Tokyo 6 (Day trip 1)
18. Tokyo 7 (Day trip 2)
    • Again not 100% sure what places we’ll go, there’s plenty of good ones to choose from! Some ideas I had were:
      • Ghibli Museum (my friends really want to go there, but November will have few spots so we’ll see if we can get tickets)
      • Hakone
      • Kamakura
      • Yokohama
      • Ibaraki
      • Saitama
      • Kanagawa
      • etc

If you read until here, thank you! I appreciate any recommendations tips and etc 🙂 Hope you have a great day/night/whatever time of the day is for you!