Itinerary for nov 2023..for my birthday 🎉…hopefully..

19 comments

1. I’m a pretty newbie to Japan travel but from all the stuff I do understand that sounds like a great plan, especially I’m eager to know how’s the samurai museum. Hope your trip goes smooth about 2 years of waiting but it’ll be exciting:D

2. Haven’t got much time right bow so will try to come back to this post for you. But in Kyoto the bamboo forest is very underwhelming but Fushimi Inari Shrine is beautiful and I think worth spending a good half a day walking the path and then exploring the surrounding areas if you can. Try and go as early as possible to miss the crowds!

3. A small note: Day 11-13 is way too packed, depending on what you expect to do. As somewhat of an otaku myself, I can easily spend a day or more in Akihabara alone.

   Also, if you’re planning on buying figures or similar stuff, you can save a lot of money buying it in stores outside of Tokyo. The prices there are kinda crazy (if post-covid is similar to pre-covid of course)

4. When you visit a Pokemon Center, let them know it’s your [birthday](https://nintendosoup.com/what-happens-when-you-visit-pokemon-center-japan-for-your-birthday/) (month)!

   * Pokemon Center Tokyo DX has the Pokemon Cafe.
   * Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo has [Pokemon Sweets](https://thebestjapan.com/pikachu-sweets-by-pokemon-cafe/).
   * Pokemon Center Kyoto has Kimono Pikachu!

   Stop by the Pokemon Vending Machine at Haneda Airport!

5. Keeping day 2 light is smart. Story time! We live in eastern Canada – 12hr diff from Tokyo. We didn’t sleep on the plane at all, got to Tokyo about 4pm, did much as you’ve described and said to ourselves “We’ve exhausted. We’ll turn in about 9pm, sleep like the dead and wake up raring to go.”

   Remember that time difference: We woke at 1030PM – PM – with brains going “that was a lovely nap, let’s get going it’s not even noon yet.” We wandered around Shinjuku until about 230am – it was a lovely, cool Oct night, there was almost no one around and the streets were lit by neon. Despite the exhaustion it was kind of beautiful and I wouldn’t change it.

   After that, we slept well when we got back but day 2 was a little groggy. **Don’t plan anything important for day 2 – you’ll be tired and won’t enjoy it.** Use day 2 for admin work (getting passes sorted, having a nice meal, a little light sight-seeing.)

   Fuji – well Fuji decides when it’s going to step from behind the clouds: sometimes it’s when you want it to, sometimes it’s when you turn your back. The ryokan is a **great idea** because those tend to be destinations in themselves so if Fuji-san is a little bashful, you’ll still have a great experience.

   Last Sept we were supposed to return to Tokyo via a repositioning cruise but, well, you know. We’re thinking 2023 might be the time to try again – flying this time of course.

   You two are going to enjoy this SO MUCH!

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7. JR pass is not essential this would likely be about the same price to buy the pass or individual tickets (this is my rough estimate, but possible to run real numbers). One of the big difference is that you would not force yourself to use JR when it is not the best option (like for Nara) and it does not totally cover Kawaguchiko. The JR Pass cover all JR trains in any city, but it will not cover subway, tram or private railways, so in cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nagoya, you are likely to need to use non-JR transit, that can usually be paid by IC card. In any case, your itinerary is usually the example of when the pass i

   While Kawaguchiko is a nice area, it is not the most convenient to go to Kyoto next. It will require to take a buss toward the shinkansen or to backtrack a part of the way back toward Tokyo to take the shinkansen in Yokohama.

   One day is not much, just to see the highlight would take 2-3 days. But for where to stay, I would only do one, Kyoto or Osaka. One is a bit more calm and oriented toward culture and the other more suitable for nightlife, shopping and food.

8. I advise if you’re gonna hit up shrines and such in Kyoto that you do so early because they mostly close in the late afternoon/early evening and just make sure whether the spots you want require buying a ticket beforehand. If you’re really into temples and scenic views I would consider adding more time to Kyoto, maybe at the expense of Nara. You have a hefty amount of travel between places in your schedule and depending on how you handle fatigue and stress it may benefit you to stay in the same place for longer stretches so you don’t feel like you’re constantly trying to catch the train to the next thing.

   And echoing another comment here I think that you can easily make a day out of Akihabara alone if you want to explore every bit so maybe consider adding a day if you’re dead set on seeing a lot of the rest of Tokyo; however if you’re headed to Osaka be aware that there’s also Den-Den Town there which is very similar and filled with otaku stuff so you could spread your shopping between the two.

9. I would personally recommend to see if you could fit Kawaguchiko into a daytrip, as Kawaguchiko -> Kyoto takes you through Tokyo again and it’d be a very long day of traveling. Two weeks is a pretty long time, but you don’t want to spend your precious time carrying your luggage all over Tokyo and Kyoto.

   Between staying in Osaka and Kyoto, I would definitely say Kyoto. On top of that, Kyoto itself is worth at least three days (Arishayama and Eastern Kyoto deserving of a full day each), so you might want to skip Osaka altogether!

10. How exciting for you both, you’re gonna love it!

    As others have said, it’s good to assume you’ll be jetlagged. I’m also from the UK and when I’m in Japan I tend to wake up around 4-5am for the first few days, if you find yourself in that situation take advantage of it and go see the sunrise somewhere beautiful 🙂

    Day 2-3 – the samurai museum is lovely but is quite small, you won’t need more than a few hours there. I would personally aim to do Ueno and Asakusa on those days as they’re a bit more chilled, just looking around pretty parks and shrines. Also another option could be Odaiba for the giant gundam and Team labs, it’s generally a cool area to visit!

    Day 4-5 – if you like theme parks Fuji Q is well worth a visit! Other than that, just soak in the scenery. Also Yuru Camp is amazing!

    Days 6-9 – definitely use Kyoto as a base, its nice to have to contrast between the new and old of Tokyo and Kyoto. As others have said, you can probably skip Osaka if you need to, I personally found it underwhelming and quite similar to Tokyo. As you like Manga, the Manga Museum in Kyoto is really sweet and they have an English section, I spent hours reading manga in their garden, was the perfect chilled day after the chaos of Tokyo.

    Days 11-13 – If you like your otaku stuff definitely check out Nakano Broadway, it’s great for finding more unusual merch from older series, Akihabara is very much about what is new and popular.

    Generally it’s a good base for an itinerary! I hope you have an amazing time. Feel free to message me if you want any more info from a fellow UK otaku 😀

11. 3-years-lived in Japan veteran here. Excited for you.

    I used this as trip inspiration a few years back, since I hadn’t visited Japan in a long time. Watch with closed captions so the places are labeled. https://youtu.be/c2D-Crs32r4

12. More time in Kansai.

    Generally I would recommend at least 3 days in Kyoto just as a starting point, but frankly in November (the height of fall foliage season) I think even that might be too short. There are also some amazing night openings/illuminations at major sights in Kyoto (e.g., Kodai-ji, Kiyomizu-dera, Shoren-in, Eikan-do Kitanotenman-gu) that are very worth going to. See also: [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/5wgxa1/best_way_to_group_these_sites_in_kyoto/dea059y/?context=3) for a rough geographic breakdown of major sights in and around Kyoto over a proposed 5 day period

    I also highly recommend a day trip to Himeji (in the morning) and Kobe (afternoon/evening while you’re in the area. Himeji has the country’s largest and most well-preserved original castle and some of the best gardens in the country right next door (Koko-en). Kobe is a a cosmopolitan port city squeezed into a narrow strip of land between the mountains that’s known for its foreign enclaves (Chinatown, Ijinkan) and modern streetscapes. A potential alternative to Himeji is Hikone, which is half-way between Kyoto and Nagoya. It’s a much smaller castle and doesn’t have the spectacular gardens, but it’s also much less crowded, has beautiful views of Lake Biwa, and it’s right on your way.

    For Osaka (keeping in mind that it’s a city the size of New York and assuming that you only have one day), I would recommend something like this: I would pick Umeda, Tenjinbashisuji, or the Kaiyukan to start with. After that, I’d head over to Kurmon Market, walk from there down to Shinsekai through DenDen Town, eating at either Kuromon or Shinsekai, then walking over to Abenoharukas (Japan’s tallest building) if you’re interested, and then heading back to Namba/Dotonbori/Shinsaibashi when it’s starting to get dark, perhaps doing Namba Parks while you’re in the area. This is an absolutely packed day, but it’s a decent single-day Osaka experience. Dotonbori is at its best during the evening, but the Namba Shopping arcades and Shinsaibashi are good for shopping whenever.

    For Nara, in addition to Todai-ji, I would at least add Nigatsu-do and Kasuga-taisha.

    For Kansai I would either stay in Kyoto and do day trips from there to the surrounding areas, or I would split the trip and stay in Kyoto for the Kyoto days, and then move to Osaka for the day trip days.

    Overall I would consider this itinerary packed. It’s not so packed that it’s impossible to do, but it’s more packed than I would generally recommend and you will end up rushing a lot, skipping some major things, and probably not having much time for exploration or spontaneous additions. If you had a few more days and kept roughly the same locations, I think it would be a lot more enjoyable.

    As for the JR Pass–finalize your plan first and then consider whether or not you need one. JR Passes are ONLY money-saving tools, so if you aren’t saving at least a couple thousand yen by using them, then you don’t need them. On a barebones trip from Tokyo to Osaka/Kyoto there isn’t really any benefit to having one, however the addition of stops like Himeji and/or Nagoya might make getting one pay off. That said, DO NOT make the mistake of rushing everything outside of Tokyo just so that you can cram it all into a 7-day period and save a few bucks.

13. Why don’t you fly into Osaka, then fly out of Tokyo? It’ll give you an extra half day, and save you the cost of the Shinkansen one way. You won’t need the JR pass with that arrangement.

    In terms of getting around Nagoya, you’d be using the local subway. They’ve got a different card, but afaik all the various card systems are compatible. I used and recharged my suica card without issue.

    Nagoya itself isn’t unique among Japanese cities, but I enjoyed my time there. If you’ve planned a whole day at Ghibli, I reckon you should just spend a night or two rather than trying to commute from
    Osaka/Kyoto. It’s a lot less crowded which made exploring and dining out a lot more relaxed.

    In terms of otaku, I also agree Nakano Broadway should be on your list. It’s got a lot of old school merch you don’t see as much in Akihabara. If you’re also planning to visit the Ghibli museum, it’s on the same line and is an easy addition. Another cool spot is Gundam Base in Odaiba. It’s as much a Gundam museum as it is a retail store.

14. You could use booking.com when booking your hotels etc, they give you discount or at least did when I went last year. That will save you a little bit for extra anime shopping 😊

15. As others have said… look into an open-jaw ticket (fly into Tokyo and out of Kansai Airport, or other way around).

    If you have a Japan Rail Pass I’d skip Osaka and go to Himeji (Castle) instead. Should still be doable as a day trip from Kyoto.

    As for a Yuru Camp pilgrimage trip… I’ve been looking at that a bit, but I think if you’re staying in Kawaguchiko and want to see all the major spots from the anime, you might need a rental car (for a day). There are just places not easy to get to with public transport.

    Like [Koan Campground](https://goo.gl/maps/fSNsygCA992C976w5)… there seems to be a bus stop nearby but I can’t find any information on it. The view of Mt Fuji from that place looks spectacular.

    Maybe you also want to visit [Sumeiso Campground](https://goo.gl/maps/NGK3V1n7uNVWbE6q7)… that looks almost impossible to reach with public transport.

    Then again, there are also places like [Misaki Campground](https://goo.gl/maps/GBKGvZRtFVnrHsgu9) that should be doable with public transport.

    As for base in Kyoto or Osaka, depends on where you want to go the most. There is tons to see in Kyoto, so my recommendation would be for staying there.

16. So..for day 2, want to visit samurai museum..what else is around shinjuku worth any interest? Or near that area?

17. When you are in Tokyo for anime stuff There’s a pokemon center in ikebukuro, animate also near by there too. You should also check out Nakano Broadway.

    The govt building sucks u should skip lol…visit Asakusa’s Sensoji Temple walk along the river to skytree is nice thing to do. While in the Fuji area there’s a bus that takes you to the 5th station where u can get a close up view, if you go there don’t use the pay to use bathroom near the bus stop, keep walking to the shops and there’s a free rest room.

18. You may want to look into busses vs trains for Fuji 5 Lakes, the trains to get there aren’t as good as the bus that is pretty direct.

19. Did you know there’s a manga museum in Kyoto?
    It’s quite nifty.

    When in Osaka you should go and see the Osamu Tezuka museum!

    My suggestion is that your itinerary is very packed!

    It’s fun to plan but I suspect you’ll shave it down when you notice that simply getting around is fun in itself. No shortage of delights food, trinkets, comics, toys, fashion… to be found in every city on every corner. I predict you will love every minute. But have some days for…. simply doing nothing. 7-11 snacks while looking over your haul.

    I’d arrange your JR pass before you go. You can get it sent over to save time. JR is kinda all you need to get from city to city and within. Occasional single trips on other lines. But id always highly recommend walking. Japan is so fun, even just to stroll about.

    Perhaps look into postage. If you’re a big buyer, you will hate having ten giant suitcases to lug around. Post stuff home.

    Personally I love Tokyo sooo, so much and would expand that bit and reduce other bits! Id shave off govt buildings too. They’re cool but sky tree is taller and a little closer to Asakusa! Asakusa has ancient markets, an old giant shrine and the oldest fun park in the city with a tiny rickety roller-coaster. It’s great.
    I didn’t adore Harajuku. It wasn’t the fashion paradise they say, but the crepes are good!

    If your last destination is Tokyo, on the last day go straight to the airport and lock your stuff up there in a locker first thing. Then have a relaxed last day in the surrounding suburbs so that you are nearby and will have no trouble getting back to the airport in good time. Honestly even the bloody 7-11s are fun. You are gonna get so fat.

    Generally speaking I’m saying… It’s so fun and beautiful there that you might wanna not be rushing and rushing. But it’s a great sounding itinerary!! I plan on going back as soon as I can, for my 7th trip.