Travelling to Japan soon

25 comments

1. If you’re planning on doing Himeji Castle (yes you absolutely should) then I’d suggest dropping Osaka Castle. It’s small, a concrete reproduction and it quite the trek from the nearest subway station meaning it takes about 90 minutes round trip depending on your fitness level and that’s before going inside.

2. If you go to Aokigahara, choose your route ahead of time aware that the place is a major self harm destination, and be respectful please. Stay on the trails. If you see colored strings/yarn going off the trail and into the woods, do not follow them. Do not try to intervene in someone elses behavior if you’re not trained in doing so. If you see someone carrying something suspicious, notify an authority immediately.

3. Day 4 is way too much stuff. Move fushimi inari to day 5 on the way to Nara, and pick either nijo castle or the imperial palace, not both

4. Hisaya-odori park and Mirai Tower are in the middle of Sakae, so you can combine them into one day unless you absolutely must walk the entirety of the Sakae district.

   I don’t think you’ve included too much, but some parts are a little rushed. Fitting both the Hiroshima Peace Museum and Miyajima into a single day trip from Osaka isn’t going to give you a lot of time. Sendai is a great city, but it doesn’t have many tourist attractions apart from the castle. Matsushima is great, but doing that and Sendai as a day trip is a bit much.

5. Yay Nagoya!! Love to see it on itineraries. Sakae and Osu are wonderful!

6. Hello, I am a Japanese person who lives in Japan.
   It seems like you will be doing a lot of sightseeing, but I don’t think there are any issues with your plans.
   In Japan, taxi fares can be quite expensive, so it would be good if you can sightsee without relying on taxis as much as possible.
   Typically, as a Japanese person, we do not often reserve Shinkansen tickets through websites.
   There is no need to make a reservation since you can usually find available seats in the unreserved seating area.
   If you’re going to Aichi prefecture, I recommend visiting the Ghibli Park, which just opened in November 2022.

7. Buy express tickets for USJ if you plan on doing Nintendo. Unless you want to get there at 6am.

8. Day 4 is too pack, unless you just want to arrive at point of interest, take a photo and left for the next location.

   Day 10 is too pack also, assuming you are travelling from Osaka to Tokyo. That is like 3 hours gone with the Shinkansen and train transit. Parco, Miyashita Park, Shibuya Sky, Tower Record and Don Quijote. All require at least 1 hour inside them.

   Ohh….lastly, hotel check in process. Do calculate for check in process, it is not instantaneous and i would plan at least 30 minutes allocated to hotel check in.

9. – if you see himeji, skip osaka castle. if you want to go inside himeji, know its more or less empty. do not overlook the garden near the castle

   – your 3rd day is packed but doable, maybe put the least important at the end of your plan in case time runs out

   – your 4th day is not possible if you want to actually experience any of that. I would say concentrate on one area, even if its a bigger one, like higashiyama.

   – your 5th day could be described as light. this is fine, you would have time to explore and find stuff you have not on a list. that being said. maybe fushimi inari would be a good point before or after nara?
   also, I am not sure a guide is necessary, at least not for “park” and “todaiji”

   – day 9 is very ambitions. yes you can travel to hiroshima from osaka. yes you would have time to see the peace park/memorial. and yes, in theory and without any budget constraints you might be able to see miyajima (but not explore much there), and you may be able t get back to a train to get back to osaka in time. that all being said. it will be a lot of fast walking, and time checking and hoping nothing goes wrong. if you still want this, go as early as you can, and maybe head to miyajima first, it easier to get from the park to osaka then from miyajima…

10. Decent number of concerts you got there hope you were already able to book them since they can be a hassle sometimes if they require Japanese contact info. Kyoto is too much going on it should be pointed out a number of those attractions are spread out and the train/bus don’t always get close enough to them some of them also require a ton of walking or stairs. You can trade a day from Osaka there and travel to Kyoto if you want since they’re only 30 minutes apart. Do you mean pop culture as in anime culture for Akihabara and not something else cause if not you will be in for a different experience lol

11. I would skip the Art Aquarium unless you really love fish. I found it very underwhelming.

    Also agree day 4 is too packed.

12. Sendai? Matsushima is close and one of the most beautiful spots in Japan! Check it out online.

13. Japan resident here.

    You can do 11th and 14th in one day. Akihabara to Asakusa is 10 minutes by
    train. Go asakusa 1st, Temple and shops open 6am.
    Better in Akihabara afternoon.

    Pokemon centers are almost same. except Osaka and Nihombashi Tokyo. Those 2 have cafe. (Needs reservation a month before)

    Pokemon center MegaTokyo in Ikebukuro Tokyo has to-go only sweets store.

14. Kyoto Day is ambitious, hehe, unless you’re literally just gonna pass through and look at each area… actually, even then, it’s not feasible….

    You can go to Fushimi at the break of dawn since it’s always open… go to the market for breakfast, but do not linger! Take pics after the castles open, and spend the afternoon til night at Gion where everywhere else you have there is located.

    You can make it work in an ideal setting, but it’s quite a feat~ Maybe if you are doing an amazing race challenge… but you might wanna give it at least 2 days. At least Arashiyama is not on that list phew~ That’s way on the far opposite side 😅

15. Some of these days are way too packed.

    I’ve been there three times as a solo traveller, and I can say the best thing to do is to pick 2-3 activities to do. If this is your first time, there may be many things you’d like to see and do apart from what you already have planned. Unless you’re very good at sticking to an itinerary, I’d leave some flexibility in your plans to allow for a more relaxed and fun experience.

    Despite being there 3x, there’s still lots of stuff I wish I got to do. My line of thinking is that stuff I didn’t get to do, I can plan for my next trip.

    All in all, just remember to have fun, and above all, be respectful. You’ll have a great time!

16. I think your days are awfully packed. I’d probably skip Nagoya and Osaka-jo if you are going to Himeji. The park around Osaka-jo isn’t bad, but Himeji and the nearby gardens are far better. Nagoya has a great cafe/kissaten culture. I’d suggest checking it out if you go there.

    Your day 4 looks kind of impossible to me. If it’s possible, you aren’t staying anywhere long enough to really enjoy it. Just check a box and move on. I’m not really sure Nara is needed. I’d just spend more time enjoying Kyoto rather than a couple hours on the train.

    I’m not really into Pokemon, but knowing Japan, I don’t think you’ll find much of interest going to the center in different cities. Trying to do the castle in Osaka and Himeji on the same day probably isn’t reasonable. The shotengai in Himeji is nice, also consider Engyoji if you go.

    Is there anything in particular you want to see in Kobe? I enjoy going over there for a day or evening, but as far as tourism it’s a bit of a questionable choice.

    Trying to do Hiroshima as a day trip might be rough. Get a very early start. Wait times for the museum can be an hour. There was a boat going from nearby down to Miyajima but I’m not sure how often it runs, otherwise you are probably looking at nearly 90 minutes getting to Miyajima from the museum. You won’t have a lot of time to explore the island. Also be aware shop on the island close by 5 or 6pm.

    Shibuya sky, Tokyo tower and sky tree are probably a bit too many observatories if you plan to visit all of them. The shops at the bottom of Tokyo tower can make it a bit disappointing. Sky tree is actually a bit too far from everything and too high and probably has the worse skyline view.

    Your last view days trying to fit in Sendai, Utsunomiya and Hakone seem unnecessary. Shinobi no Sato seems quite a way from Hakone.

    Ah, you just have two bags. I don’t really think the size is that much of a concern on the Shinkansen, especially if it’s soft sided. Personally I’d recommend a day bag you can put in your large bag when traveling rather than trying to carry both separately. If you don’t have a rail pass, especially if traveling alone, I’d just by the Shinkansen tickets at the station.

17. It’s a lot. If you haven’t booked stuff I’d really consider cutting down the number of places you’re staying in. Time spent packing up, checking out, finding your next hotel, and checking in again is time that can be spent doing other things. Osaka and Kyoto are 15 minutes apart by Shinkansen, and not much longer by local trains. I’d seriously consider just picking one to spend your Kansai leg in. Same with Tokyo, you don’t need to stay in Shibuya and Akihabara. Pick where you want to enjoy the nightlife, travelling to other parts of Tokyo during the day is trivial.

    I’d consider skipping the Pokemon Centers in Osaka and Nagoya and just hitting up the one in Ikebukero (Tokyo). It’s the biggest in Japan after all.

    Regarding the daytrip to Hiroshima and Miyajima from Osaka, it’s doable and I’ve done it a few times. But you have to be aware of a few things. Firstly it’s going to be a long day. You need to leave quite early in the morning to get there early enough for it to be worthwhile. Two is that a lot of things close early, especially on Miyajima. Pretty much everything starts to shut around 5pm or earlier on the island. You need to prioritise what you want to see and schedule accordingly. It’s definitely possible to see (without rushing) Itsukushima jinja and have a nice walk along the shopping arcade on Miyajima with enough time to go around the peace memorial museum in Hiroshima followed by a walk round the peace park and see the A-bomb dome. You likely won’t have time for much other sightseeing but you can get dinner in Hiroshima before catching the shinkansen back to Osaka.

18. Day 11 really depends on how much you’re into anime/gaming/geek culture. If you’re not much into it, this will take you at most 2 hours so add some other stuff to do too.

    …On the other hand, if you are, Radio Kaikan is a slice of heaven that will eat up a good chunk of your day.

19. Arashiyama Monkey Park is one of my favorite things EVER. If you like animals, especially primates, it’s such a special place. Also LOVED Nara.

20. Monkey park is so not worth it. Skip it

21. You aren’t accounting for Rest days, weather days etc. you need some down days for rest and laundry. Relaxation and people watching helps you soak up a bit of the culture. It’s not all about rushing to see every site. There’s so much in Japan it would take several trips. So just enjoy what you can but also the culture and people.

    My tip

22. Spend 2 days in hakone

23. Where are you staying in Akihabara? I hadn’t considered staying in the area before.

24. Regarding buying the JR Pass throughout the official website. I’ve seen people saying its not worth but, the difference is not that much and I don’t have to wait for anything to get to my house that can take up to three weeks. Why people talk bad about the official website? Any tips?

25. some of your tokyos are very packed, i think condensing them would be a lot better as well as some of these places take a lot of time (teamlabs took us approx 2-3hours) as well as personally i wouldn’t spend tooooo much time in don qujiote touristy and pricey and instead go to the koreatown area of tokyo more to see and cheaper shops!