I’m going to Japan, just me and my boyfriend. I’ve seen other people on here asking for advice on their itinerary and I’m torn about many parts, I’m sorry if it’s too long.
Day 1 (Thu): Arriving at Tokyo (Haneda) at 7 am, we’re going to be really tired, but I’d still want to try and do a half day here. Either Roppongi or Ginza. At first I wanted to do Roppongi (just roppongi hills or tokyo midtown or just a photo of tokyo tower), because it seems kinda passable, so we wouldn’t miss much if we are too tired, but my boyfriend wants to go to Red Tokyo Tower (is this worth it? How much time does it take?), so maybe I should do Ginza instead. We would eat dinner early and maybe walk along Meguru River.
Day 2 (Fri): Harajuku / Shibuya. (Meiji Jingu, Yoyogi Park, Takeshita street, Ometesando, Shibuya Crossing, Hachiko statue (?), I don't know if it's worth to stay at Shibuya at night)
Day 3 (Sat): Either Ginza (Godzilla statue, stores (Uniqlo, Don quijote, others?), Kabuki-za?) or Roppongi / Shinjuku (Tokyo Metropolitan Building Observatory, Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, is it worth to stay out late at the bars? izakayas? Is it easy to find a good place?).
Day 4 (Sun): Ueno Park (Just enjoy the park and we might enter one of the museums) / Akihabara (just explore the neighborhood and stores, we are both anime fans, so we might go to a maid cafe or an anime themed cafe)
Day 5 (Mon): Odaiba (Gundam statue, Diver city, maybe the science museum?) / Asakusa (Should we take the boat ride from Odaiba? Senso-ji, Nakamise dori, hoppy dori, I think we will pass tokyo skytree)
Day 6 (Tue): One day trip to Kawaguchiko or Hakone (I’ve been leaning more towards Hakone, because Owakudani seems really interesting, but I don't know if we will have time time to go to any onsen and I have tattoos so it's hard)
Day 7 (Wed): Fish Market (Is it still Tsukiji? Is it worth it?) / Imperial Palace Gardens / We would take the shinkansen at late afternoon or early evening to Osaka.
Day 8 (Thu): First full day at Osaka, Osaka Castle, Namba Yasaka Jinja, Kuromon Ichiba Market, Dotonbori
Day 9 (Fri): Universal Studios
Day 10 (Sat): Day trip to Kobe
Day 11 (Sun): Himeji Castle and maybe do something else at Osaka in the afternoon/night (Shinsekai? Tsutenkaku? Aquarium? Harbor Village?)
Day 12 (Mon): Spend the day at Nara and arriving at Kyoto at night.
Day 13 (Tue): First full day at Kyoto, Kiyomizudera, Gion, Ginkaku-ji and what more shrines have the time for.
Day 14 (Wed): Arashiyama, Nishiki Market, Kyoto Palace(is it worth it?), Nijo Castle(is it worth it?), Pontocho.
Day 15 (Thu): Fushimi Inari, Tofuku-ji, Ninna-ji, Ryoan-ji, Kinkaku-ji (I don’t know if we can do all that), dinner at Gion.
Day 16 (Fri): Originally we were going from Kyoto to Takayama, but I really wanted to spend a day at Kanazawa, even if just to see Kenrokuen, but it seems to be a too tight schedule, because there is no direct shinkansen from Kyoto to Kanazawa and the options to Takayama take quite a bit of time too, so it might be too complicated for us to leave Kanazawa at night. So should I stay the night at Kanazawa and go to Takayama early the next day? Would I still be able to see all of Takayama?
Day 17 (Sat): Explore Takayama. (If we sleep at Kanazawa the day before we won't have a full day here)
Day 18 (Sun): Trip to Shirakawa-go (I don’t know how long does this take)
Day 19 (Mon): This is where it gets trickier. This will be our last day, it will be the first day of the Takayama Spring Festival and we really wanted to see what that was like, but since out flight leaves at midnight, we probably would have to leave Takayama at like 4 pm. So am I just setting myself up for disappointment? Or is it worth to enjoy the festival up until that point, even if we miss the festival at night? Are there fireworks? Am I on a super high risk of missing my flight?
Day 20 (Tue): Flight from Tokyo leaves at 00:05
We will try to change our flight so we can stay at least until the end of the first day of the Takayama Festival, but there is no guarantee we will be able to.
One other thing, should we try to fit a night at Shimokitazawa in Tokyo?
So is this doable? Am I crazy?
by Rude-Rice2916