Hello good people! My partner and I are going away in just under 2 months and have finalised our itinerary. We are both reasonably fit but used to being sedentary and our Japanese is v basic. Here is our itinerary, would you change anything?
Mar 21 – check into airport hotel
Mar 22/23 – fly to Osaka via Tokyo, pick up Pasmo in Tokyo airport.
Mar 23 daytime – arrive Osaka 1040am. Go to Osaka castle, check in to hotel, collect pocket wifi, spend evening in Dotonbori.
Mar 24 – Universal Studios Japan, check in to 2nd Osaka hotel
Mar 25 – collect 7 day JR pass, Himeji castle and Mt Shosha ropeway
Mar 26 – Cup noodle museum, Round One stadium
Mar 27 – Nara deer, possibly Byodo-in Temple, check in to Kyoto hotel
Mar 28 – Toei studio park, railway museum
Mar 29 – Fushimi inari, Daitoku-ji, bamboo grove / tenryu-ji, Kiyomizudera
Mar 30 – travel to Takayama. Kusukube folk museum, check in to hotel.
Mar 31 – Hida Folk village
Apr 1 – Retro museum, Showa museum, travel to Tokyo (last day of JR pass)
Apr 2 – Ueno park, Team Labs
Apr 3/4 – Disney (possibly staying onsite)
Apr 5 – Ghibli museum
Apr 6 – Shopping, Akihabara. Check in to airport hotel
Apr 7 – fly home from Tokyo
1 comment
You absolutely do not need a JR pass. Do not buy them for this trip! The only times you will be using trains on which a JR Pass would be useful is Osaka-Takayama, and Takayama-Tokyo. Together these come to around about 10k (yen) – the 7 day pass costs about 30k! Buy shinkansen tickets independently.
Also, there’s no need to worry about getting a Pasmo at the airport. Wait till you need to catch your first train (Osaka?) and get one then. In Osaka you can grab an Icoca card, which is valid everywhere Pasmo is (and I think in fact more places than Pasmo). It doesn’t really matter which one you get or where, as they are all more or less the same – unless you intend to return it for the refund at the end, which you have to do in the same city you bought it (I never bother returning mine, I keep them like souvenirs. After spending $10k on a holiday, what’s 500 yen?) In fact if you do like souvenir cards, get a special tourist’s Welcome Suica – they have cherry blossoms on them.
Your Kyoto itinerary is too busy. Fushimi Inari, Arashiyama (Bamboo grove), Daitokuji and Kiyomizu-dera are all in different parts of the city. They take a while to travel between them, and also take some time to see them and appreciate them. Kiyomizu-dera especially takes some time to walk up the hill and then climb the mountain to the main temple. Fushimi Inari is also on a mountain, so it depends how far up you want to go, as climbing it can take a couple of hours depending on crowds (which due to sakura season it will be just unbelievably crowded). So my advice on Kyoto would be to pick two, maximum three sites to see in that one day. Even with three sites you’ll be rushing around all day.
My only other advice is to mark on your calendar the days, and time, that TeamLabs and Ghibli Museum tickets will go on sale. They have been known to sell out in under an hour so make sure you know the exact time they open.