My husband and I leave for our honeymoon next week (Jan 18)! He is fluent and lived in Nagoya for two months on a summer break, taking a language class. I took a couple years in middle school and have been doing duolingo for a year (my streak only broke once… when I got COVID.) This is my first trip. My husband has never been outside of the Tokyo/Nagayo/Kyoto-Osaka regions so a lot of this is a first for him!
Reddit, what we want help with deciding if we’ve packed tooo much in. For actual things to do and see, we’ve got some good recs from his friends who lived there. I’m looking for help If I mention a specific cafe or museum, we already have reservations. I note when we do not.
Days 1-4 TOKYO
Staying in Shibuya right off the Yamamoto line.
Jet lag! Harajuku, vintage shopping, Harry Potter cafe and Asakusa, Golden Gai, fish market (no reservations yet), teamlabs planets (we can just walk up, right.), and meet up with friends on their babymoon who overlap with us (dinner in Shinjuku)! POSSIBLE Atami Sakura on day 3 (they’re starting to bloom right now!)
Day 5 DISNEYSEA
Staying one night in the Mira costa
Day 6 DISNEY + TRAIN TO KYOTO
Just a quick morning in Disneyland (like 4-5 hours) I’ve only been to CA and sorta wanna just check it out). Shinkansen to Kyoto. Dinner in Kyoto.
Day 7-8 Kyoto
Staying at a machiya between Yasaka shrine and the river. Geisha (Maiko) tea, Izakaya cooking class@ Cooking Sun (no reservations yet), do laundry. Chill.
Day 9-11 Osaka
Staying at &And Hammachi East Hostel (our Machiya wasn’t avail for the weekend). Day trips to Nara for the fire festival and Hamachi castle. Bars and love motels and such.
REDDIT, YOU THOUGHTS ON THIS SECTION PLEASE: Day 12 Eko-In
We have a one night temple stay booked, but I’m worried we’re moving around so much we’ll be travel weary (Eko-In is about 2 hours from Osaka). But also it looks amazing. If we skip the temple, we could do a ryokan in Hiroshima or another day in Kyushu.
Day 13-16 Beppu and Fukuoka
Not sure where we want to stay yet- all the Beppu ryokan that look great are (unsurprisingly booked). In Beppu, we want to do an onsen, sand bath, those places where you steam your own lunch over a vent. Thinking of 2 nights in beppu… or one night in a ryoken and explore the day we check out. For Fukuoka, thinking of spending night 16 at Daimaru Besso ryokan. Thoughts?
Day 17
Fly from Fukuoka to Sapporo. Staying in Nest Hotel to be close to the festival/Sapporo factory. Chill (for real, it’s cold honey).
Day 18-19
Sapporo winter festival, onsen that serves amazing Indian food (about an hour outside of Sapporo by free bus), beer factory tour
Day 20-21
Trains to Asahikawa. Staying at Dormy Inn chain hotel in downtown by the festival.
Ice festival! Zoo with penguins!
Day 22
Fly back to Haneda. Ghibli museum!
Day 23-25
Chill in Tokyo. Maybe MAYBE go to Takaragawa onsen and stay at the ryokan. We don’t know if we’ll be tired of traveling around. It’s only two hours away but it feels like a squeeze. Also, we won’t have the JR PASS by now (we could do the 3 week).
Thanks for your time READING ALL THIS. We are super excited.