We are planning our first trip for hopefully March of 2022 (will obviously change if need to due to COVID).
Myself and my girlfriend are in our early 30’s and vegan. We’ve already decided to try to plan out our food as much as possible with vegan friendly options. While we are going to try our best, we obviously may find ourselves in situations where we may have dashi or egg in our dish and it won’t be the end of the world for us.
We have a pretty general “first time sights” but are open to changing it up and are generally good “wanderers” on vacations but we wanted to have somewhat of a plan when we get over there. I’m generally interested in history, architecture, and culture so the trip kind of centers around that. I’m also an avid cyclist and would like to have one day where we can either rent/tour with bikes. I’m also interested in visiting some Tokyo record stores and purchasing some vinyl.
March 14-Tokyo-Arrival HND 4:55 P.M.->Go straight to Kyoto or stay overnight and catch early train
March 15-Kyoto- Ginkaku-Ji, Philosophers Path, Nanzen-Ji (I’d like to keep this day light due to jetlag, too much?)
March 16-Kyoto- Kiyomizu-dera, Fushimi Inari, Samurai Museum, Nishiki Market
March 17-Kyoto- Nara Day Trip, Yamazaki Distillery or Sake Tasting
March 18-Kyoto- Osaka Day Trip-Cycling in Osaka, Sumo Tournament (if possible)
March 19- Kyoto->Himeji Castle in morning->Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in afternoon
March 20-Hiroshima-Miyajima in the morning->Tokyo
March 21-Tokyo- Ueno Park, Tokyo National Museum, Senso-ji, Akasuka/Kappabashi
March 22-Tokyo-teamLab, Odaiba Area, Kabuki-za (get ticket for one act of Kabuki)
March 23-Tokyo-Disney Sea
March 24-Tokyo- Zozoji Temple, Tokyo Tower, Yoyogi, Shibuya/Harajuku
March 25-Tokyo- Shopping in the day-Departure HND at 6:50 P.M.
My main questions would be:
1)Should we do an Osaka day trip or try to stay in Osaka after our Nara Trip?
2)We had thought about doing a ryokan stay near Fuji, but don’t think we can fit it in unless we decided to cut a day in Kyoto(probably Osaka) and do it on the way back to Tokyo?
3)Is Himeji Castle to Hiroshima in doable in one day?
4)We aren’t into “clubs” but would generally like bar hopping/breweries/izakaya at night. We are planning to stay in the Shinjuku area near Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, will this be a good base for our nightlife?
11 comments
>1)Should we do an Osaka day trip or try to stay in Osaka after our Nara Trip?
I’m 50/50 on this. It’s nice to not have to go too much back and forth, but it’s also nice not having to switch hotels too much. for name it would probably depend on the price/quality of the accomodation at the two destinations.
>2)We had thought about doing a ryokan stay near Fuji, but don’t think we can fit it in unless we decided to cut a day in Kyoto(probably Osaka) and do it on the way back to Tokyo?
Yeah, you don’t really have a lot to cut. The Osaka day would be my choice to cut as well. It would depend on if you can find a nice Ryokan..
>4)We aren’t into “clubs” but would generally like bar hopping/breweries/izakaya at night. We are planning to stay in the Shinjuku area near Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, will this be a good base for our nightlife?
Yeah, it’s a good base. Shinjuku has lots of bars and izakaya etc.. It’s easy to get around to other locations as well, so you can try out the nightlife in various areas.
…can you fly in and out of KIX?
and cycling you say? Please look up the Shimanami Kaido, I believe this segment is totally worth a 2D1N segment between Osaka and Hiroshima. Just forward your luggage to the other side, JR has a service for that. Or given how short the trip is, maybe you’re not lugging big bags around so maybe renting a bike with a rear rack will suffice.
The northeastern part of Kyoto and the riverbanks of Kamo river also a joy to bike in, one can easily spend a day biking around Kyoto.
17 – Nara or Yamazaki, they are not exactly in the same area, so might not be the best things to do on the same day.
22- Kabuki, you can get ticket for a single act. That is what I did, great experience and not the commitment of the full show when it’s hard to understand.
to answer the questions.
1. Osaka work perfectly as a day trip from Kyoto. If anything and you want to stay for a night and enjoy the nigtlife around Dotonbori, I would actually say to do it after Hiroshima, so you can cut the travel time of the Hiroshima-Tokyo in two.
2. For sure you have to cut something if you are to add a ryokan/onsen. However, in the current itinerary, when returning to Tokyo is about the worst time in my opinion. If you do a ryokan with Kaiseki meal, you have to check-in relatively early, like between 3 and 6 pm. This mean you have to be in the shinkansen before 1pm to be in Hakone on time for check-in. So not much time for Miyajima.
Actually if you stay in Osaka for the night after Hiroshima, then you can even decide to go to Hakone super early and spend most of the day there, that wound mean go sleep in Osaka and do nothing there… at this rate it could even be Nagoya to be honest, would already be closer to Hakone.
The other option could be to do it in the middle of the Tokyo stay. First day in the morning you do something in Tokyo, in early afternoon you go to either Kawaguchiko or Hakone, enjoy the ryokan and onsen, next morning you can go back to Tokyo as early as you want after your breakfast at the ryokan and spend most of the day in Tokyo. That is unless you want to spend more time during one of the two days in Kawaguchiko or Hakone.
3. Yes, Himeji you can be there as soon as 9am when the castle open, eat bento in shinkansen for lunch and Peace museum in afternoon.
4. For me it’s more if you plan to stay out after the last train or really do not want to get in the train after the bar. But yes, it’s the popular spot for nightlife in Tokyo. However, it is for sure not the only place where you can find bar/izakaya/breweries.
You must visit Tokyo tower at night & ueno park during the day. When you get off the train at ueno there’s an alley in between all the buildings immersed with street carts of food. There’s a guy with a red cart selling mochi and it’s the best mochi I’ve ever had! We went in 2016- I hope he’s still there.
Ueno also has a beautiful park to roam around in. As far as being a vegan, I had an issue finding something that didn’t have mayo on it. Some ramen shops showcased there actual bone in bone broth though, what a sight….hopefully you have better luck! Enjoy!! Also- I’m sure you’ve already researched this but get the Japan rail pass!! It saved us so much money with travel!
I know lots of people do Himeji / Hiroshima, but I’ve never seen the appeal. Lots of time in trains! Since you mentioned you are vegan, have you considered an overnight stay at a temple in Koyasan? If you are at all culinarily interested, I would highly recommend a stay there.
You’re doing a lot Ina short time! Depending on when you’re coming in March the Sakura will be blooming. You might want to just sit back and rest for a day and have the hanami experience.
March 15: This is perhaps a half-day’s worth of itinerary depending on how many subtemples of Nanzen-ji you will visit (and perhaps whether you drop in to Eikan-do or Honen-in).
March 16/17: Yamazaki Distillery is a non-starter on Nara day (it’s almost 2 hours away from Nara Park area). It would make more sense to combine Nara day with Fushimi Inari.
March 18: Certain people in this subreddit might disagree, however, cycling as a non-local in Osaka is not a very good idea (and honestly cyclists in Osaka are generally a menace as such) – Kyoto is better for cycling.
March 19: Visiting Himeji-jo and Koko-en in the morning, and Shukkeien and Peace Museum/Atomic Bomb area in the afternoon is very much doable.
March 20: Note that going from Miyajima to Tokyo will take 6 hours+.
March 24: This is overloaded. A typical itinerary would have Yoyogi Park/Meiji Jingu, Harajuku and Shibuya as a full day activity.
Re: ryokan near Mt. Fuji – just getting to ryokan from Hiroshima area would result in nearly full day of travel. So unless it is Hiroshima/Miyajima you cut – it’s not a wise idea.
My bf and I are vegan and we want to travel to Japan next summer! I would love to know what restaurants you find and like!
You really want to do Fushimi Inari early (at sunrise) to avoid crowds. Middle of the day will be packed
Shibuya is the place to go for record stores and they all are pretty much close by. I particularly liked Disk Union which is eight floors high, each floor dedicated to a different genre. I really liked the basement floor which is full of jazz rarities. BTW If you want to go bar hopping definitely visit Golden Gai, I know some people may say it’s full of tourists but, you are a tourist! And it’s a great spot, really fun.
Have you considered a multi-city flight where you fly into Osaka (likely KIX) at the start of your trip and then depart Tokyo to return home at the end of your trip. Multi-city flights are often only a little more than a regular round trip and you’ll save money and an entire travel day in Japan. For example:
March 14: International flight arrives KIX or look into the cost of flying directly into Hiroshima. If you directly fly into Hiroshima you can then sightsee your way back up the country towards Tokyo and you won’t be backtracking.
Start your trip by staying 2 nights in Hiroshima so you can get over jet lag a bit and enjoy time in Miyajima too.
One your way up to Kyoto, stop off at Himeji to see the castle as a day trip then check in to Kyoto lodging in your 3rd night in Japan and do your Kyoto/Osaka sightseeing.
In mid-to-late March you may also be able to see cherry blossoms in Kyoto so book your hotels as early as possible as it’s a popular time for domestic tourists to visit too. You can also see some of the temples, shrines, gardens illuminated at night too which is really fun. Highly recommend staying in the Gion/Higashiyama area as you’ll be walkable to many sites, it’s gorgeous at night, and tons of great restaurants.
– [Inside Kyoto: Evening Cherry Blossom Itinerary ](https://www.insidekyoto.com/kyoto-evening-cherry-blossom-itinerary)
– [12 Best Night Cherry Blossoms in Japan ](https://matcha-jp.com/en/1676)
Then, on March 20 or 21st take the Shinkansen to Tokyo and depart on your international flight home from Tokyo. Less in country travel in Japan, no backtracking, and you can chase the cherry blossoms as you travel up from Hiroshima to Kyoto/Osaka, to Tokyo.
Happy Planning!