My husband and I are anxiously waiting for Japan to open up. We were originally going to go in 2020, but we’ve been waiting ever since.
I’ve started doing some pre-planning because I’d like to be ready to book our trip whenever they start allowing tourists again.
What I’m having the most trouble with is figuring out how much time something is going to take us to do and if I’m planning enough, too much, or too little. I’m also having trouble figuring out how to balance our time in Kyoto and Osaka.
What we like:
We are foodies. We’ve had a lot of fun going on food tours or taking cooking classes when we travel abroad. We’re hoping to do a few of these in Japan. We love trying food we may not get to try elsewhere.
We also love anime.
Special considerations – I have fibromyalgia so I don’t want to over-exert myself, but I want enough planned that if I’m having a good day and I don’t need to rest too much, we have some extra stuff in mind that we can go do, but we won’t be sad if we miss it. I’m also trying to plan for alternating “easy” days with less walking to come after days that might have a lot of walking.
Relating to the fibromyalgia, I have problems with my feet and I generally can’t walk barefoot without a lot of pain, so I want to make sure I know in advance if I will need to take off my shoes so I can plan or decide if it’s worth it for me.
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Day 1 – arrive in Tokyo
Stay in Shinjuku
Not sure what time we’ll arrive yet but maybe we’ll leave it open to go exploring Shinjuku for the rest of the day.
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Day 2 – Akihabara
Since we love anime I think we’ll have a lot of fun exploring here. Open to hearing about things in this area that we will not want to miss.
Maid café? Owl café?
At night go on a food tour
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Day 3 – Toyosu/Asakusa
Trying to decide if we should do a guided tour of the market (with food of course) or explore on our own.
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Day 4 – Shibuya/Harajuku
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Day 5 – Studio Ghibli museum.
(I think this is a half day so we’d be free for the second part of the day. Not sure if we can combine this with a different day and then spend fewer days in Tokyo and add one day to see more in Osaka)
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Day 6 – Disney Sea
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Day 7 – Travel day to Kyoto
Maybe check into a Ryokan for 1 night
Thinking about Staying in Gion. Open to Ryokan suggestions that have a bath in the room
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Day 8
If we stayed at a Ryokan, we’ll transfer to new hotel in Gion (also open to suggestions)
Go to Nara for a half day (maybe go to Osaka for 2nd half of the day?)
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Day 9
Eastern Kyoto
Fushimi Inari Shrine, Daigo-Ji, tofuki-Ji
Sake Brewery and tasting tour
Maybe a food tour at Nishiki at night
Day 10 – Northern/ Kyoto
(worth it to do these things or go to Osaka instead?)
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
KinKaku-Ji Temple – Golden Pavilion
Toei Park?
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Day 11
Osaka
Not fully sure what to do here but I think we’ll like the city. I’m worried 1 day is not enough
Aquarium? Universal? Food tour in Dotombori?
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Day 12 – central Kyoto?
Kiyomizu-dera
Tea tour?
Kennin-ji
Yasaka shrine
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Day 13
– Fly out (may have to get back to Tokyo for flight)
18 comments
chill with the temples in kyoto they are very samey after a while. focus your time going to the great ones like koyasan in near by wakayama.
Osaka has den den town its like akiba so go there if you like anime
check out kobe sannomiya has some good otaku stores.
himeiji castle is one of japans greatest and its only about an hour away from osaka
Id recommend you do more than just tokyo to osaka. its way to overdone and you miss out on a lot of the country.
Omicron gonna ruin 2022
Might I suggest Nakano Broadway for the second part after Ghibli museum – if you both love anime
I just booked a 12 days cruise to Japan 🙂 this will be my second time going, cruise is a great way to see a lot of cities without paying 200 for the train each time
Nice plan you have there! Just a few things to consider though…
>Kyoto
With your current schedule in Kyoto, you might overexert yourself, so I would suggest narrowing down your itinerary in Kyoto.
>Nara
Nara is great with many places to visit, I think you should give it a full day. Also, placing it between your time in Kyoto and Osaka would make your travel easier.
>Osaka
I’m no expert on Osaka, but having at least a few days to stay would be ideal. I think you can skip out on universal studios, unless there’s something you don’t want to miss.
You might want to consider flying out of Kansai or Osaka International Airport, even if your flight out of Japan is from Tokyo. It would save time and money and you can always spend the night at the airport you transferring at, if you have to.
Good luck!
Personally, I enjoy Osaka a little more than Kyoto, (so for me I feel like I’d spend an extra day or two in Osaka) but I loved the Aquarium in Osaka a lot and hope to go back again. Universal was nice enough, but really can be a draining day. I’d maybe pick between either Universal, or Disney.
If you like the idea of tea ceremonies/tastings, Uji has amazing tea houses and some lovely scenery. It was on the same JR-line as Fushimi Inari shrine (go here nice and early to avoid too many people) and can even get to the sake district from that line too. I did all three in one (long but satisfying) day.
Dotonbori in Osaka is great for food – there is a LOT to try too, so could be a possibility to find a hotel there for a night or two to get your fix of all sorts of amazing treats.
I loved the Ghibli Museum, but couldn’t get tickets within Japan the first couple times, so I paid a bit more and got it from a local agent who had them. May be an idea if you don’t want to risk missing out.
I’ll first go regarding your personal condition. In general, traveling to Japan imply a lot of walking as people will use public transport, so you need to walk from hotel to station, then from station to whatever attraction (and many people tend to pack a lot). My advice would be to be flexible, just go with how you feel during the day and just remove things from your itinerary if you see you do not have time or energy to do so. Personally I prefer to plan too much than too little, as I find it easier to drop a plan than to find things once you are there, but I’m always open to go to place/event I find once I get there.
Regarding walking barefoot, the main places where it will happen are temple/shrine, castle, restaurant, onsen, ryokan and some other accommodation. That being said, not all of them will require it. The big thing I can see is the ryokan. I do not know of all the temples you name, but worst case, you don’t go inside the building. For the ryokan, you often hate to remove shoes at the entrance and use slipper and take off the slippers when you get inside of the room (that have tatami). It’s also possible you can wear the shoes up to the room, but you have to remove them to walk on the tatami, but honestly, at this point you are more likely going to sit down.
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Day 1, if flying from the US, you will usually land in the afternoon, so yes, a bit of time at the end of the day to do some exploration, eat and back to the hotel to shower.
Day 2, Akihabara is not a morning destination as shops open around 10-11am. So it you wake up early because of jet lag, that won’t be great. If you start the day earlier than that, would go check Ueno park and maybe ameyoko. While in Akihabara, you can check Kanda-myojin. If you care about animal welfare, most people agree you should skip animal cafe, especially the one with noctornal animals like … owl… As for maid café, I’ve heard some are scammy, not sure if true, but if you do not want to take a chance, go to a known one like @ home or maidreamin, that are now both chains that have existed for a long time.
Day 5, the easy next step is Nakano that is between Ghibli and Shinjuku. Lot of anime stuff, so good stop on the return. If there is a Tokyo day you can combine with this, I think it would be Shibuya/Harajuku, especially if you get the morning in Ghibli. but I think that can still be a lot.
Day 7, obviously it depend when you want to wake up and be in the train, but if you go a bit early, you can realistically bring your luggage at the hotel/ryokan in the morning, eat lunch in nishiki market and even start a bit of visiting around Higashiyama. Gion/Kawaramachi/Sanjo is a great area, good transportation options and you can you outside at the end of the day and go check nice things.
Day 8, I think Nara could take most of the day depending on how relax you want to do it and how deep you want to go in the park, but not sure I would do the second half in Osaka. I would personally take this time to see what you would not have time to see in the first day, and you could save day 12 for Osaka only instead. The other option would be Fushimi-Inari, but it match with thing in the south of Tokyo on the next day.
Day 9, Sake brewery tour, you have an idea ? There is Fushimi sake district close to Chushojima station. And while you have tea tasting in a later day, why not check Uji on that day. Yes it would be a bit much with the other temples, so maybe rework it to remove at least one, add Byodo-in while in Uji. Fushimi Inari-taisha, recommend to do eat early or later in the day to avoid the crowd and I guess you would not want to do the full hike. Reaching the famous torii tunnel is not that far.
Day 10, not sure what is best, Kinkaku-ji is beautiful, but usually super crowded, the bamboo grove is nice but also crowded. I think there is interesting things to see a bit deeper in Arashiyama.
Day 11, If you want do dedicate the day to food, I’d get lunch in kuromon ichiba, I had a much better experience to try food there than in nishiki market. End by Dotonbori as it’s worth to see it at night. For otaku, you can do a detour by denden town. And obviously, there is much more to do is you can spare a second day.
Day 13, if you do not fly out of Osaka, I would seriously consider to split the Tokyo stay in two for two reasons. 1. Even if train is reliable, you might want to avoid doing two hours by shinkansen in the morning of your flight. The main reason is actually that it would make no sense to lug all your purchase round trip Tokyo-Kyoto. So move all the places that are heavier on shopping at the end of the trip.
I’ve never done food/drinking tour, so I cannot say if it’s worth it, but I do not like the idea in general, so I my not be the best to give an opinion on that.
Look into an open jaw flight. This allows you to fly into Tokyo and fly out of Osaka at no extra cost. So no backtracking. This is usually at no extra cost on the ticket but depends on if the airline has the route to fly out of Osaka (KIX) to where ever you are going. Most open jaws I have noticed route you on a flight in the morning to Tokyo then you catch the flight home to there, but the benefit of booking open jaw is no extra cost attached here.
Just came here to say same!!
We got legally married in 2020.
Wedding 2021.
We’re waiting to see if we finally get Japan honeymoon in 2022.
Best of luck-maybe we’ll cross paths.
It was real trippy reading your post – my husband and I got married in 2019, had planned to go to Kyoto and Okinawa in December of 2020 but are now waiting to go next year if possible. We planned the Kyoto portion of our trip by district. We love the food in Japan but aren’t really foodies. We want to visit the temples, shrines and shops:
Day 1 – Southern Higashiyama and Southeast Kyoto: Kiyomizu Dera and Fushimi Inari are the main stops
Day 2 – Northern Higashiyama: Nanzenj-ji, Eikando and the Path of Philosophy
Day 3: Downtown Kyoto: mostly for shopping
Day 4: Northwest Kyoto: Ryoan-ji and Kinkaku-ji
Day 5: Arashiyama: Tenryu-ji and Arashiyama Bamboo Grove (we plan on going early in the morning to avoid the crowds)
We have other smaller stops planned but those are the big places we planned to visit. There are also manga museums and lots of tea ceremony places if you want to try that.
It’s important to remember that Osaka is about 60-90 minutes away (by public transport and depending on where in Osaka you want to go) so I would plan accordingly. When I planned for a side-trip to Osaka, I made it a whole day thing but that was just to visit the aquarium and immediate surrounding area. If you want to experience more of Osaka, I would plan on staying in Osaka so you won’t have to take time traveling back and forth multiple times.
Whatever you end up planning, I hope you have fun!!
>we also love anime
>Day 2 – Akihabara
>Since we love anime I think we’ll have a lot of fun exploring here.
I was just there yesterday to do some gift-shopping and… honestly, speaking as someone who’s seen it change from 2004 all the way to now, it’s starting to hit Not Worth It Anymore territory, and that’s after nearly a decade of declining returns (because things died when they got rid of the pedestrian paradise and never really recovered even after they brought it back w/o performers).
You might be luckier a year from now if/when some of the vacant larger buildings near the station get new tenants, but unless you’re *really* into whatever show 90% of the shops are pushing (right now it’s Demon Slayer) you’re going to realize after the 3rd or 4th figure shop that they all basically have the same stuff.
There’s interesting things to be found for gamers (both of the vidya and analog variety) but for anime fans it was already starting to look pretty grim pre-pandemic and things have only gotten worse.
If you are a fan of older anime and treasure hunting I would more readily suggest Nakano Broadway, which being completely indoors may be easier on you health-wise (and is also a good afternoon item if you do the Ghibli Museum in the morning as they share a train line).
>Maid café? Owl café?
Best not to support animal cafes that treat their animals poorly, which is basically all of them.
I don’t have suggestions for a specific Ryokan, but definitely make the effort to stay in one! We spent a night at a wonderful traditional Ryokan in kinosaki and it was one of the big highlights of our trip! When we go again, we plan on spending more time at a ryokan. When looking, see what meals they serve as well, because the food is a big part of it!
Kyoto >>>> Osaka. I liked the osaka aquarium but felt there was not much that wasn’t in Kyoto. There are also great onsens in hakone if you want to do one overnight on the way to Kyoto.
What a fun trip! Just a couple of suggestions and recommendations from someone who did a very similar trip with their SO in fall 2019:
Day 3:
I think if you’re into food, you’ll be more interested in Tsukiji Market than Toyosu. At least when I went in 2019, all of the food was still at Tsukiji, Toyosu is just where they moved the fish market.
Day 7:
There are many wonderful ryokan, but I’ll toss in a suggestion for the area. We stayed at Momijiya Bekkan Kawa no Iori in northwest Kyoto for a night, and it was an absolutely magical experience. We stayed in the annex building, which has a gorgeous bridge bridge you cross over a river. The food was fantastic, the setting was beautiful, the service was excellent…could not recommend more highly. They have a shuttle that will pick you up at certain Kyoto train stations, then the shuttle is about a 25 min ride.
Day 9:
We are a fairly active couple, and it took us a full day just to do the first three things on this list (Fushimi Inari, Tofukuji, Daigoji). Granted, we did hike all the way to the top of Fushimi Inari, which you might not be doing.
Day 12:
Get some matcha soft serve at Tsujiri near Yasaka Shrine while you’re in the area 🙂
If you can go down further, I recommend Miyajima and Kintai bridge-!
Hi.
I recommend [this place](https://www.atelierthe99sushi.com) as you wrote you like cooking classes etc.
(I see it’s closed now due to few non-Japanese tourists in Kyoto but expect it will have reopen shortly after borders do.)
Fun time and really friendly English speaking host.
Near Fushimi so ideal for lunch when you’re near there.
I’ve taken 4 trips to Japan and I think my average steps per day is 25,000. I don’t know if you happen to keep track of what your physical average/best steps looks like, but it may be worth considering. Because even using metro or jr trains, the stations are sometimes very large inside with unexpected stairs up and down.
Disney sea? 30k step day
Fushimi inari? 30k step day. Just even getting to the entrance from the street is far. And then it’s up a mountain.
It may help you to have extra budget for taxis instead of other transit.
Food classes sounds fun. A friend took a udon noodle making class when they were in Shikoku. You may also enjoy a proper tea ceremony.
I also recommend getting the guides from tdr explorer to plan your day for both universal and Tokyo Disney sea.