Hallo, guys! Would just like to ask if this Itinerary is realistic for around a week’s worth of stay in Osaka (with an Overnight Stay in Kyoto and a Day Trip to Nara).
**Day 1 (Arrival)**
\- Check in (PM)
\- Shinsaibashi Shopping Street
**Day 2 (Osaka)**
\- Shitennoji Temple
\- Osaka Castle
\- Tenjinbashisuji Shopping Street (Lunch)
\- HEP Five Ferris Wheel
\- HEP Five
\- Shinsaibashi Shopping Street (Dinner)
**Day 3 (Kyoto)**
\- Arashiyama Bamboo Forest
\- Tenryu0ji
\- Hogon-in Temple
\- Kimono Forest
\- Sagano Romantic Train
\- Tanba Kameyama Castle Ruins
\- Nishiki Market (Lunch)
\- Kiyomizu-dera
\- Nishiki Market (Dinner)
\- Fushimi Inari-Taisha
**Day 4 (Kyoto AM, Osaka PM)**
\- Kinkaku-ji Temple
\- Demachi Masugata Shopping Arcade (Lunch)
\- Free Time
**Day 5 (Osaka)**
\- Universal Studios Japan
\- Dotonburi (Dinner)
\- Don Quixote
**Day 6 (Nara)**
\- Enishiya
\- Kofuku-ji
\- Nakatanidou
\- Nara Park
\- Todai-ji Temple
\- Kasuga Taisha Shrine
\- Sagiike Pond
\- BookOff Namba Ebisubashi Store
**Day 7 (Departure)**
Also, since we’re travelling as a family, we’re kind of on a budget. We’re planning to allocate JPY 2500 per meal. Should we prepare to shell out more, in your experience?
9 comments
Day 3 is really full.
Unless you want to eat fancier dish or higher hand restaurant, the 500-1500 yen by meal by person is realistic, that would cover most my meals. Stretching to 2500 and I think it cover all meals I had, even including some when I had a beer with my meal.
2500 per person or for the whole family?
For food budget, please google the restaurants and check out the menu pricing. I usually spend anything from 800 (soba with tempura veggies) to 150000 (kaiseiki, wagyu,) per meal.
You didn’t say how many are in your family and if ¥2500 per meal is per person (then no problem) or total (then you are gonna be eating conbini and fast food depending on how many people)
Plot the places on day 3 on Google maps. You’ll see that you are going back and forth all over the place.
I spent 2 days in Osaka last weekend, on my first day I only ate twice and spent a little over ¥2,200. One of those was a rice ball from a convenience store and the other was food from a grocery store. On the second day I spent a little over ¥3,300 and had one real meal of pizza and another grocery store trip. ¥2,500 per meal would be fine. The Shinsaibashi shopping street is very touristy and you could walk through it quickly. I highly recommend checking out Shinsekai to see the retro style of a market & food street. There’s arcades and shooting games and tons of restaurants. From there, it’s a 30min walk north towards Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori, or you can hop on the train (: America Mura village was also interesting and had a lot of near vintage clothing shops, cafes and other streetwear. It’s on the other side of Dotonbori across the bridge. I’m sure you could pass it on your way: America Mura -> Dotonbori -> Shinsaibashi -> Shinsekai or vice versa
For Kyoto, I spent all day at Arashiyama. Highly recommend going to the Okochi Sanso Garden and walking along the Katsura River from Kameyama Park to Togetsu Bridge. Skip the Kimono Forest, I didn’t even bother. I don’t think it will be possible for you to do fushimi inari on the same day unless you go at night.
I went with my wife and we cleared 3000JPY in a meal together more than a few times
Are you budgeting per person or for the whole family?
Also, allocate for food if you can, it’s a highlight of the experience!
Grocery stores (e.g. LIFE) are everywhere and their prepared meals are delicious, diverse, and very affordable.
Convenience stores (7/11, lawson, family mart) also have decent selections of prepared food.
that kyoto day 3 is…. too ambitious
lose the train ride and the castle ruins, and only do nishiki once. then its still busy but reasonably so
nishiki is not the place for cheap food though. its usually try this that and that, and that sums up quickly.
2500 yen per meal for one person is great, for two its okay, for three its getting thin and between 4-5 its getting into barely possible territory
now its per meal, so is that 2 or 3 meals a day? because, you could get a cheap breakfast and lunch and splurge at dinner, or is it for two, then, ahh, also getting a bit difficult.
I think you can live quite good with 500 for breakfast, 1000 for lunch and 1500 for dinner. per person. thats a cheap breakfast at nakau, or a few onigiri from the combini. it is a bowl of ramen or something similar at a place you happen to walk by when hungry, and 1500 is a set with a lot of options and different places to chose from.
some days you maybe dont need a full breakfast and warm lunch, so you have some budget saved for other days.
be aware, special menus, named places, eating a steak in gion, kaiseki, that-ramen-shop-everybody-said-you-MUST-go-to, eating in the hotel/ryokan, all these will be more expensive. starting maybe in the 5000 yen area (not ramen, but the others…), but quickly going into to 10000 yen area, is very well possible.
1500 yen is not high-end, but it allows for quite a diverse selection of really good food. I would not try to live on less than 1000 yen per dinner, that would limit you more to fast-food-chains, or ramen only, or trying to get real lucky with the places you find.
going below 500 yen is buying the cheapest food at the combini and using their microwave or hot water cooker if you want something warm…