Advise for 20-day Japan – October & November, 2022

10 comments

1. Aren’t tourists restricted to guided tours only? The way things have gone so far I would expect the extreme restrictions on tourists to continue for a year or two.

2. I went for 14 days in October 2019, I had multiple places to go to each day as well. It was too rushed and me and the wifey decided after 3 days to go to the 4 best places and settle for that. Worked out quite well as we were super relaxed after that, in reality 7-8 places a day is very difficult and not enjoyable. My advice, do 4 must see places a day and then try to see if you can fit more in your schedule. But mainly relax and enjoy! Also when did Japan open for tourist?

3. I highly recommend day trips to Nikko or Hakone from Tokyo to take in the fall foliage and soak at an onsen.

4. 0 – While yes Narita Express is a direct train, using the Skyliner and the Yamanote will be cheaper and faster. Ok, yes there is a transfer.

   While the subway pass can be nice, just try to group the days with the highest subway usage together, while it can save some money (it’s not even sure you will), it can also have the inconvenience to force you to use the subway even if getting on JR would make more sense. And if you plan to get it, then get a Pasmo and not a Suica, it work exactly the same, but you can load the subway pass on the Pasmo (not on the suica).

   Train pass are sold by the company where you can use them, so there is no Kansai pass on sale in Tokyo. Note that JR is not a single company, so if it’s a JR West pass, you need to buy/exchange it at a JR West station, and Tokyo is JR East. Also, what pass do you want to get ? The only one I would see that can make sense is Kansai Area Pass for one day to do the Himeji-Kobe trip.

   1 – It would make more sense to start by Ueno park, then you can go to Asakusa, Skytree and return to Asakusa. Doing Ueno in the middle of the day would just add time spent in the train. Considering that you should have time for it, if you are into history, I would suggest checking the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno park. You have Doguyasuji in Osaka, so consider Kappabashi between Ueno ans Asakusa.

   2 – in October/November, I think that Yoyogi park could be a skip. The good reason to go are for cherry blossom or for people watching. So if it’s still warm and during the weekend, ok, maybe as there might be some people there, otherwise, it’s just a park, it’s not a garden.

   3 – No, Toyosu is not “formerly Tsukiji Fish Market”, they are two different location. Yes, Toyosu is the new wholesale fish market that replaced the Tsukiji wholesale market that is completely close. There is still the outer market at Tsukiji. You should know that if you want to see the tuna auction, it it extremely early and I think it’s even suggested to take a hotel close to the market or you would have to get in a taxi to get there that early. The Fish Market in Kanazawa might honestly be a more interesting experience. While in Toyosu, you might want to check TeamLab Planets.

   4 – To be honest, as you have Roppongi Hills, you can pass by Tokyo Tower without going inside.

   5 – Note that Akihabara (as about any shopping area) is not especially a good morning area as shops open at 10 or 11 am. On the other hand, I think that sumo training is quite early, so I would check that first. I know that there is places where you can see if from outside as they have large windows with a view on their training area. Ginza I guess it depend what you want to see, but it will either be shopping for luxury brands or for Kakuki theater.

   6-7 – can consider a daytrip like Kawaguchiko, Kamakura, Yokohama, Kawagoe, just for some options, but there is also many more area in Tokyo to check out.

   10 – There should be illumination at the castle, so you might want to be in the area for that.

   11 – You will need to start the day early if you want to see it all. I guess you can focus on Kinkaku-ji and Ryoan-ji and see if you have time for Nijo-jo.

   12 – Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama are on the opposite side of Kyoto, make no sense to do together. Do Fushimi Inari, Nishiki market and Higashiyama (sannenzaka, kodai-ji, Kiyomizu-dera) on that day. Also try to be to Fushimi Inari early to beat the crowd.

   13 – You listed Nijo-jo and Nishiki market twice, so that seems to be a bit confused. I would do the Higashiyama stuff on day 12 and do Arashiyama on day. Doing Philosopher’s path on that day might be a bit much. 13. Kurama is a bit further north, so that would not fit on that day, so either skip or dedicate a full day.

   14-15… Shinsekai is close to Shitenno-ji and the tram to go to Sumiyoshi taisha, so these things should be together. Really, look where things are on a map.

   19 – That can be your Kurama day

5. Depending your mobile carrier they may offer coverage in Japan and for go getting the SIM. TMobile offers texting and 3G internet. Restart your phone when you land and should switch over to the Japanese towers.

6. Check out Myoryuji in Kanazawa. You’ll need to get your hotel to make a reservation. Also Omicho Market is pretty rad.

7. Unless you’re very skilled at managing your jetlag, I’d suggest making your first day in Tokyo more of a transition day. Many US flights to Japan arrive in the morning, so it’s really easy to get upside-down jetlag-wise. Assume that you’ll be awake too early for the first several days of your trip and too tired to stay up too late. My best advice is to stay up as late as you can (without caffeine) on arrival day — hopefully no earlier than 7-8pm. Then next morning go find the early morning places where the workers and taxi drivers eat (early morning soba/udon, early morning sushi at Tsukiji).

   If you are traveling with others, make sure everyone enjoys the same type of aggressive travel planning that you do. The first couple times I went with my family, I packed in the days like you’ve done. My family hated the experience of being death-marched through a foreign country. I may have tolerated it, but they certainly didn’t. For later trips, we eventually settled on a “menu-style” itinerary. For each leg in the trip (e.g Tokyo vs Osaka), we would research a menu of options (including any date-sensitive options), and each morning we as a family would choose what and how much we’d do that day. Most days, we only did a couple things, and a majority of things on the menu were never done (much you like you don’t ever order all the dishes on a restaurant menu in one visit). With our family, there was always an ever-present “stay in the hotel, order room service, and recover from travel” option, which we rarely needed, but it was psychologically comforting for everyone knowing it was an option. We also always had a “do your own thing” day option on the menu, where, for example, I could go to a fish market, my daughter could go to otaku stores, and my wife could go to a castle. Lastly, we realized that my family has a much greater tolerance for day trips than lodging changes. In other words, they would happily get on an early morning train half-asleep for a day trip to somewhere cool if that meant that they didn’t have to constantly pack/unpack/resettle into a new hotel. So our itineraries now are more hub-and-spoke, with 2-3 hotels max on a 14-day trip, with more day trips. All of these means that we didn’t necessarily squeeze every drop out of every day of our trip, but everyone was happier and felt like they were more present in the things we actually did.

   If you’re traveling by yourself, though, only you know your own limits.

   I’ve been to a little over 80% of the places already on your itinerary over many visits and many years, and you’ve got some solid options on the menu. The only thing I’d encourage you to add to an already overstuffed visit is perhaps a day-trip (or even an overnight) to Koya-san (which is a day-trip from Osaka). Though the restored Himeji castle is awesome, I’d do Koya-san over Himeji given a choice (and if you’ve already visited a castle elsewhere). I also second the comment of another redditor suggesting Hakone. It’s one of my favorite places, though it’s a very full day trip from Tokyo. I also love Nara.

   Just note that, after the first few gardens, shrines, castles, and so on, you get a bit blind to differences between them (unless you’re a horticulturist, historian, architect, or so on). For example, doing a handful of shrines in Kyoto can be fun, but hitting every notable shrine in every city over one trip will quickly get old. (I say that, but I will literally hit every fish market, food hall, and roadside station in every area of the country I can, but I won’t be able to drag my family through it all….)

   Lastly, don’t underestimate the amount of walking on your current itinerary (especially uphill walking in places like Inari shrine and Nara). It’s easy to log 20,000-40,000 steps in a day, a lot of it uphill or up stairs, and depending on your (or your family’s) level of fitness, you can get wiped out and sore over a couple days of it.

8. Some things in Tokyo seem redundant (shopping centers and the like, nothing too japanese about them).

   I’d seriously consider Hakone and Kawaguchiko either for day trips or an overnight stay.

   Hakone has plenty things to do (recommend the sulfur exhausts and the open air museum), getting there from central Tokyo takes about 2.5 hours. You could potentially continue southwest from odawara as there’s shinkansen there.

   Also if you’re into that you can consider theme parks as Japan has some of the best in the world and it could fill one od your Tokyo or Osaka days.

9. Train lines being operated by different sounds wholly confusing, to be honest. I grew up in London where we have a single train system. The London Underground. The Oyster card works in all of the.

10. Are you are planning on going to Odaiba to see the Gundam there? I would recommend maybe checking out the Gundam Factory in Yokohama too, they had their dates extended until March next year because of the pandemic. It’s the giant moving Gundam that will be torn down next year after its run. Yokohama is only about a 30-40 minute train ride from the heart of Tokyo.