Rough initerary check – 10 days on the Golden Route in Oct-Nov

**Dates and accomodation:** Oct 22nd – Nov 3rd. The dates aren’t really flexible due to work reasons, which unfortunately means missing out on some pretty cool matsuri and holidays. We’re thinking about staying at APA Hotels in each city, any experiences with them? Our day itineraries are flexible and we can shuffle them around according to the weather and how we’re feeling.

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**Background:** we’re a Finnish couple in our 30s and decided to go to Japan for our honeymoon! I’ve been to Japan once before, my fiance hasn’t. My last trip over ten years ago was very much a check-all-the-boxes kind of a guided tour where we rushed from one place to another. This time, we want to take our time and wander around, get lost and peoplewatch. We’re interested in everyday life, history and culture as well as gaming. We’re fine with eating at random restaurants and cafes. I’m allergic to peanuts and can’t eat too much eggs/dairy products per day but otherwise no food restrictions. I’ve studied Japanese and can read kana and basic kanji as well as speak very basic conversational Japanese, my fiance can’t. We’re working on him knowing some very basic survival stuff.

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**Day 0 – Finland to Osaka**

* Fly from Finland to Osaka KIX
* Get ICOCA at the airport?
* Get to our hotel in Osaka and check in
* The name of the game is to survive the worst of the jetlag and then crash for the night

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**Day 1 – Osaka**

* Get to know the neighborhood
* Doutonbori
* Shinsaibashi
* Umeda Sky Building observatory
* Pokémon Center?
* Tenman-guu?
* Vegan okonomiyaki! Last time I had to skip eating okonomiyaki due to allergies, but vegan choices make this now a possibility

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**Day 2 – day trip to Kyoto**

* Fushimi Inari Taisha all the way to the top
* Philosopher’s path or some other somewhat low-effort thing depending how our feet are feeling

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**Day 3 – day trip to Kyoto**

* Nijo-jo
* Philosopher’s path?
* Gion/Pontocho?
* Nishiki market?
* Heian/Yasaka-jinja?

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**Day 4 – day trip to Himeji**

* Himeji castle
* Koko-en

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**Day 5 – Osaka to Hiroshima**

* Check out and maybe forward our luggage to Tokyo?
* Train to Hiroshima and check in
* Hiroshima Peace Memorial museum
* Peace Park and Dome

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**Day 6 – Hiroshima/Miyajima**

* Miyajima and Itsukushima-jinja

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**Day 7 – Hiroshima to Tokyo**

* Check out and take a shinkansen to Tokyo
* Get Pasmo/Suica?
* Check in and wander around the neighborhood, see the sights around our hotel

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**Day 8 – Tokyo** (I’ve dumped everything here but we can totally split these for several days depending on how we’re feeling. Most of these aren’t set in stone in any case so any recommendations are welcome! Also, please let me know if I misplaced anything in the wrong ward/part of the city)

* Shibuya
* Hachiko
* Shibuya crossing
* Sailor Moon store?
* Nintendo Tokyo
* Meiji-jinja
* Yoyogi-koen?
* Taito
* Senso-ji
* Skytree?
* Nakamise-dori?
* Ueno-koen? (either this or Yoyogi perhaps?)
* Shinjuku
* Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building for the view
* Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo? (if we didn’t go to the Osaka one)
* Koishikawa Koraguen-koen
* Kappabashi?
* An arcade

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**Day 9 – day trip to Takao-san**

* Hike on Mt Takao

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**Day 10 – Tokyo**

* Wandering and getting lost, checking out anything we missed or want to go back to

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**Day 11 – Tokyo to Finland**

* Check out, cry and get to Narita airport for our flight back

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I was looking at getting us JR Rail Passes, but it looks like the price hike won’t do us any good so we might have to drop those. At the moment I’m thinking about getting us ICOCA due to the trip’s first half being in Kansai, then switching to Suica/Pasmo when we move over to the Kanto region. Does that make sense or should we stick with only ICOCA? Should we be looking at something else completely?

Is there something obvious we’re missing out on? We’ve been reading the sub and taking notes and feel pretty good about our rough itinerary so far. Thanks for the help!