My significant other and I will be traveling to Japan for the first time at the beginning of April. Unfortunately, he was only able to get one week off so we will be trying to fit in A LOT into those 7 days. I on the other hand was able to take more days off and will have extra days in Japan to do some exploring but wanted to make sure that he too was able to see a lot of Japan.
This is our very basic itinerary. As it stands the plan would be to ship our bags to our Ryokan in Hakone on the night of Day 2. On Day 3 we would explore the Lake Kawaguchi area/ Chureito Pagoda/ Mt Fuji panoramic ropeway and then stay the night in the ryokan in Hakone. Day 4 we would explore Hakone during the day and leave for Kyoto in the afternoon.
I wondered if this sounded doable or if we should cut out the Mt Fuji area and stick to only exploring Hakone. Thank you!
Day 1: Arrive in **Tokyo** early morning
\- team labs
\- Shibuya sky
Day 2: Explore **Tokyo**
\- Pokemon Cafe reservation
*Day 3: Explore Lake Kawaguchi area and spend night in* ***Hakone***
*-Chureito Pagoda*
*- Mt Fuji panoramic ropeway*
*Day 4: Explore Hakone in the morning and then train to* ***Kyoto***
***-*** *Hakone Gora park*
\- Hakone Open air museum
Day 5: Explore **Kyoto**
\- Fushima inari
\- Arashiyama bamboo forest/monkey park
Day 6: Day trip to **Nara**
\- Nara park
Day 7: Explore Kyoto in the morning and train back to Tokyo in the afternoon for partners flight
Day 8: Partner departs from Tokyo
Days 9-13: solo travel
5 comments
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I liked my time there, be sure to check out the puzzle box store. Those black eggs were the best boiled eggs I’ve ever had.
Also make sure the ropeway is open. High winds will close it.
How are you traveling between Hakone and Lake Kawaguchi? It takes forever via public transport.
Based on your itinerary I would keep Lake Kawaguchi and cut Hakone entirely, Gora Park and the open air museum are nice but not worth the detour and 1/7 of a very packed itinerary, Chureito pagoda and ropeway are at least an iconic “view of Japan”.
On Day 5 I would plan to see at least one temple in Arashiyama (the bamboo forest is tiny and takes like 15 minutes).
It’s really hard to say, because everyone has their own preference.
Looking at your itinerary, it’s sort of like going to multiple restaurants and ordering one appetizer at each one. Some people like it, but I personally think you can’t really get the full experience of a place because of that.
You’re spending quite a bit of time in transit during these 7 days, when there are more than enough to do and explore even just within the Tokyo/Kanto area.
Your itinerary is certainly doable though.
Just making an assumption here, but you mentioned you will ship your luggage to Hakone so I’m going to assume you will be using Public Transport.
Please beware that travelling times between Kawaguchiko and Hakone are veeery long. Like, 2 or 3 hours with Public Transport. You have to take multiple buses with sparse frequency and certain routes stop quite early. I had to cut Kawaguchiko from my itinerary to Hakone for the same reason, and will try to include it as a day trip from Tokyo if the weather is nice.
Another thing to note, if you are only going to see Mount Fuji and nothing else, consider that the area is often cloudy and you might not be able to see it. Will you be disappointed if you planned the whole day there but then it’s cloudy and you can’t see the mountain? It’s true that you then move to Hakone, but the view from there is very different (check Google for comparison).
Considering that you only have 7 days, I would try to limit the time spent travelling and maximize the time spent in other places of your itinerary. You might want to just stay in Hakone and do the loop with cable car, Open Air Museum etc, where you have at least a partial view of Mount Fuji and the Ryokan stay will be lovely regardless of weather conditions.
Of course just personal preference, you might choose to still try it, but I had a similar itinerary and then got a reality check on this sub for which I am very grateful haha