Just hoping someone can sanity check my itinerary. My partner and I have never been to Japan and we're very excited! This sub has been a great resource. My partner is vegetarian, so we've been prebooking more restaurants than normal cause we can't really just go wherever.
Sept 24
- Land around 3-4
- 30-45 min to hotel – Hyatt Place Shibuya
- Check in, drop off stuff
- Shopping in shibuya
- Daiso
- Mega Don quixote
- Shibuya parco
- All of these have food courts with good food, but we could also just find something quick casual for our first night – figure we may be a bit jet lagged so probably best not to plan too much here / stay in the local area
- Probably shibuya Tokyo food show? OR izakaya masaka (vegan izakaya) in shibuya parco, line to get in can be long though
Sept 25
- more west side:
- 7/11 breakfast
- walk through yoyogi park to meiji jingu shrine
- enjoy meiji jingu shrine
- Vegan bistro jangara for lunch
- cat street
- nezu museum
- udatsu sushi for dinner, 6pm reservation
- maybe golden gai / piss alley for drinks if we’re awake
Sept 26
- Tsukiji in the morning- closed on wednesdays so do it here
- People recommend getting here before 9 if possible, crowds get bad
- matcha stand maruni
- aristugu tokyo for knives
- thick cut saba / katsuobushi?
- maybe an uni bowl or fruit skewers or something
- Age san for trendy sandwiches if we’re still hungry, opens at 11am
- If we wanna wait in a super long line, we can try lining up for either location of Godaime Hanayama Udon
- line is supposed to be worth it but idk if we have the patience, people start lining up before 10:30 for first seating at 11
- northern location slightly less crowded
- Walk through imperial palace gardens if we have extra time, though people say its not that great (tour is def not worth it)
- Hail taxi to get to teamlabs borderless
- Faro (Japanese Italian) at 7pm in Ginza
Sept 27
- Happy pancake for breakfast – reserve 2 weeks in advance September 13, 2024
- Final walk around shibuya
- head to tokyo station around noon
- can do t’s tantan (vegan ramen) INSIDE the station (paid area)
- or Ekibenya Matsuri gransta if we want bento boxes to go on the shinkansen
- Shinkansen to kyoto – about 2 hours
- Book in advance with smart ex to get discount
- Check in at Park Hyatt Kyoto starts at 3pm
Kyoto
Sept 27
- Kyoto station around 3
- Taxi 10 min or Bus 20 min (206 city bus) to park hyatt
- If taking bus, get off at kiyomizumichi, 8 stops
- have 230 yen in change per person for bus, fare is paid when getting off bus
- get on in rear door, off in front door
- https://www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/webguide/en/bus/howtoride_bus.html
- enjoy the hotel spa/baths for a bit?
- Can also walk around the area, there are some famous pottery shops
- champagne hour 5-6pm
- Vegan ramen UZU for dinner – reservation at 7
- Walk across river for some cocktail bars (saved in map)
Sept 28
- Breakfast at hotel – starts at 7am
- walk to kiyomizu-dera shrine (opens at 6, we can do this before breakfast to beat the crowds if we want)
- its a 10 min walk from hotel
- Pack up our suitcases and drop them off at the front desk to get them transferred to the Intercontinental Osaka
- Juu-go for lunch, soba near ginkaku-ji – reservation at 1pm. They cancel and charge us if we’re late so we’ve gotta be punctual!
- More temples:
- Ginkaku-Ji, then take the Philosopher’s path south and walk to Nanzen-Ji, then further on to Heian Jingu
- This is all walking distance from the hotel, but total path is around 1.5 hrs of walking, so we probably should just taxi to juu go and then walk back
- champagne hour 5-6pm at hotel
- Tousuiro Kiyamachi Ginza for dinner at 7pm
Sept 29
- Breakfast at hotel
- Checkout
- Fushimi inari shrine
- apparently there are spiders that hang from the gates so be careful lol
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichonephila_clavata they rarely bite people so nothing to worry about
- We should go to vermillion cafe after fushimi inari shrine for early lunch if we’re hungry or just for coffee
- apparently there are spiders that hang from the gates so be careful lol
- Head to the Nara line (right by fushimi inari)
Nara
Sept 29
- Get in to Nara around noon-1, its a one hour train
- If we want lunch, two options that look good but dont take reservations
- (apparently lines move quick though)
- kamaiki udon
- okaru okonomiyaki
- Apparently the deer are less hungry around midday which is good cause they tend to swarm and can be agressive if you come early
- Can walk up mount wakakusa (more of a walk than a hike) to avoid the crowds
- go to the deer park and feed the deer
- You can buy biscuits in the park and the deer will bow to you in order to be fed
- Make sure to show empty hands after you give the deer the biscuits otherwise they’ll think you’re hiding food and will bonk you
- Head to Osaka
- Take either the yamatoji line (direct to osaka station, so no transfer, but slower train by 10 min, 1 hr 10 min)
- Or the Kintetsu line to the osaka loop (one transfer, 1 hr total), we’ll see how well we’re doing on transfers i guess
Osaka
Sept 29
- bags will be waiting for us at Intercontinental Osaka
- If we get back in time we could maybe even go to the aquarium? Closes at 8pm
- Okonomiyaki or something else casual for dinner
Sept 30
- 7/11 or cafe breakfast
- Osaka castle
- Kuromon market for lunch
- Find something to do in the in between
- namba park? (also a shopping area, less crowded than the ones we’ll go to at night)
- Kaitenzushi Chojiro Hozenji
- walk through dotombori and amerikamuri
- walking route here https://nerdnomads.com/osaka-itinerary
- walk through dotombori and amerikamuri
Oct 1
- maybe some last minute souvenir and breakfast
- There’s a bus direct to the airport from osaka station
- https://www.kate.co.jp/en/timetable/detail/UM, seems to be the best way to get there. 1800 yen per person
- Oct 1, 6:25pm flight
by G3n3ralSh3rman