Hi everyone,
Wife and I will be going on our trip to Japan in a little under 2 weeks time (Dec 2022 – Jan 2023), will be landing in Tokyo NRT on NYE, and flying out from Osaka KIX. We are looking at a rather relaxed trip (apart from the theme parks), most of our days are pretty flexible.
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**Day 1 (NYE) (Tokyo)**
Land at NRT early morning, take bus or skyliner to city centre. Considering taking a bus to T-CAT as our hotel is nearby, or Keisei Skyliner into Shinjuku/Shibuya and explore around before making our way to hotel later in the afternoon.
Tips on where to countdown etc much appreciated!
**Day 2 (NY) (Tokyo)**
Flexible day, probably wandering around the city to see what’s open. Will anime stores in Akihabara be open?
**Day 3 (Tokyo)**
Senso-ji Temple in the morning, followed by Ueno Park and Tokyo National Museum in the afternoon.Omakase dinner at Manten Sushi.
**Day 4 (Tokyo)**
Day trip to Kawaguchiko, museums and Oshino Hakkai. Return to Shinjuku for dinner, shopping after.
**Day 5 & 6 (Tokyo)**
Disneyland and Disneysea
**Day 7 (Tokyo)**
Shopping day, thinking to hit Akihabara and Shibuya, and maybe Harajuku or one other location. Try to get into lunch at Tonkatsu Maguro, heard there’s insane queues.
**Day 8 (Tokyo – Kyoto)**
Late morning travel to Kyoto via Shinkansen. Evening visit to Kiyomizudera Temple to catch sunset and explore nearby.
**Day 9 (Kyoto)**
Arashiyama day, bamboo forest, Tenryuji, Steak Otsuka, then back to Gion area in the evening to continue exploring.
**Day 10 (Kyoto – Osaka)**
Nijo Castle, Kyoto Gyoen, Nishiki Market in the morning, then late afternoon travel to Osaka. Dinner at Gyukatsu Motomura, wander around Namba, Dotonbori.
**Day 11 (Osaka)**
Day trip to Minoh Falls, flexible late-afternoon to evening.
**Day 12 (Osaka)**
USJ
**Day 13 (Osaka)**
Osaka Castle, flexible rest of day.
**Day 14**
Depart via KIX late morning.
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We think this is a rather manageable itinerary, but am of course open to any advice or suggestions, whether to beef things up or cut stuff down! The only fixed days, in reality, are the theme parks and Arashiyama (as we have made some bookings for experiences there). Are we missing any main attractions that we MUST see? We are late 20s so can walk quite a fair bit.
We know that Fushimi Inari is conspicuously missing from our Kyoto plan, but we are really not that all interested in squeezing with tons of people to take a photo that millions of people already have, so will not be taking a detour there!
Main concerns are what we can actually do on Days 1 and 2! Any suggestion is very happily welcome.
Thanks!
