Is my 3-weeks first timer ok?

11 comments

1. Note, there’s no need to go to Tsukiji early as the actual fish market isn’t there any longer. For the outer market, which is well worth a visit you can still do stuff early but it’s not a requirement to be there early.

2. I think that having a plan, even with too much, but being flexible and drop things is the best way to do things.

   Starting the day at 5-6 am is a bit useless. Before 9am, you will not be able to do much except walk in the street, park, some fish market, some temple/shrine that either open early or are always free to access (but you might not be able to buy stuff there until they properly open). Attractions would typically open at 9am or even 10am, while store would be between 10 and 11am. So just do not expect to be able to do much before 9am. Your goal should be to the first thing in the day when it open. I would personally wake up and go to bed like 1-2 h later than that. It only make sense to me to wake up that early if you have to take a 1-2h train before getting to the first place on the list.

   Day 1 : That is a great example of wrong order. Pokemon center open at 11 am. This mean that you will have HOURS for Shibuya crossing and I king of doubt it require that long. I think that starting by Meiji-jingu, that does onpen early, is a better idea and it should take longer than Shibuya crossing. For me Yoyogi park could be a skip, for me the good reasons to go are cherry blossom, people watching or exercising. If it’s still warm, there might still be some people doing stuff like playing music an dancing, so maybe, otherwise it’s just a park, not a garden. Also, why are you not going to Harajuku on that day… literally, the entrance of Meiji jingu is next to Harajuku station… make no sense to go back the next day.

   Day 2 : if you get to Akihabara too early, shops will still be close, you could still go check Kanda-myojin if you get there before 10am.

   I do not really understand why you want to return to Tokyo after Hakone. I would personally send my luggage to Kyoto and just go to Kyoto after leaving Hakone.

   So you might say “yes but the Nikko day”… do it before. There is actually one thing I do not understand, at what time do you want to leave to go to Nikko ? For sure doing Ueno/Asakusa, first, you won’t be in the train before the afternoon… but why ? Personally, I would do Ueno-Asakusa as a full day (actually, could do Sky Tree on that day) and just go to Nikko early in the morning so you can use that full first day to visit Nikko. Also, doing the temple/shrine area AND a hike in the lake area… that is a bit much in my opinion. Would be a good thing to avoid Nikko in the weekend, apparently the lake area is a super popular fall color spot and there can be traffic jam, so would make it even harder.

   Also why a kaiseki restaurant instead of looking for a ryokan with kaiseki meal. You could even find a ryokan with onsen in Nikko.

   So what I would is, some Tokyo day, leave luggage at hotel or in a coin locker, Nikko overnight, return to Tokyo, ship luggage to Kyoto, one night in both Kamakura and Hakone, go to Kyoto at the end of the second Hakone day (I assume you want to get the Hakone-Kamakura pass, so it kind of make sense).

   In Kyoto, I would choose a hotel around Gion/Sanjo/Kawaramachi, that will make it easier to move around and more interesting place than close to Fushimi Inari-taisha.

   Day 12 : can you even walk all the way from Fushimi Inari-taisha to Higashiyama ? I guess you can end up close to Tofuku-ji, that is technically in Higashiyama. Just keep in mind it will take almost 1h to reach Kinkaku-ji from there.

   Day 14 : Stop by Himeji on the way to Hiroshima, don’t waste your time doing it as a day trip from Osaka.

   I would try to find a way to move things around so you can leave Hakone, go to Hiroshima and Fukui, all within 7 days to use the JR Pass ans save money, you can even consider switching order between Osaka and Kyoto. Yes, Osaka would be closer to the airport, but there is a direct train from Kyoto station to KIX (train called Haruka).

   Question, do you plan to bring 10 days worth of cloth ? I personally bring half of that and do my laundry more often. Moving a big luggage around is not super fun and you will have less space for souvenir if you bring load of cloth.

3. I wouldn’t wake up that early. Nothing will be open and you ever see those videos of Japanese people getting crammed into a train like sardines? That’s what it’s like when everyone is heading to work. Leave the hotel at 8-9, then everything will be open and the trains will be empty by the time you get there. Plus you can stay up a bit later and enjoy the city at night

4. >We are planning on starting our days around 5-6am

   I wouldn’t do this. Barely anything is open early in Japan, even in cities. It’s often even hard to find breakfast before 9am that isn’t from a convenience store, a bakery, or a fast food restaurant. Most stores will open anywhere from 10am to noon, museums and attractions at 9am or 10am, and even temples and shrines often don’t open until 8am or 9am (if you’re looking to enter buildings or buy things from their office). So you can visit parks, the exterior of some shrines/temples, and see quiet streets, but that’s about it.

   Although I will say that if you are traveling from Europe or the east coast of the US, you’ll likely find yourself up early anyhow due to jet lag. But there won’t be much to do.

   >DAY 1 – TOKYO (Sunday): Shibuya crossing, Shibuya Pokémon center, Yoyogi park, Meiji shrine

   Shibuya crossing takes all of 5 minutes to see. There isn’t much to do there unless you want to hit up one of the store or cafes that overlook it, and even then, you’ll have to be careful of opening hours because they won’t be open early. I would do the park first, and then head back to Shibuya once more things are open.

   >Day 2 – TOKYO (Monday): Tsukiji market early (if not too tired, otherwise sleep), Akihabara (just strolling through, visit random shops), Harajuku (Takeshitadori, Laforêt, Kinji)

   A lot of stores in Akiba don’t open until sometimes as late as noon. It’s definitely more of a place to hit up in the afternoon and evening.

   >Day 7 – TOKYO (Saturday): Chisuji falls, Train to Ikebukuro, Sunshine city/Pokémon center/Planetarium, Don Quijote, pick up suitcases in Shibuya station and sleep in same hotel as before.

   I know you like Pokemon, but I will mention that this is your third Pokemon center, and almost all Pokemon centers are basically the same. You may want to look into whether some of them have limited edition merch that you might want (the Tokyo Station one, for instance, used to have special train conductor pikachu plushies), but it might not be worth going to every one unless you’re in a gotta-catch-em-all mentality about them.

   >Day 11 – KYOTO (Wednesday): Kiyomizu dera early, Gion (tea shopping. Toji area, Pokémon center, Aeon mall.

   Although Kiyomizu-dera opens at 6am, be careful not to get to the area too early or nothing else will be open for shopping/eating in the Higashiyama area.

   General notes:

   * You are visiting a *lot* of temples and shrines. A lot of people get fatigued from doing this, because unless you have a special interest in the religion, history, or architecture, they start to look and feel the same after a while. Not everyone feels this way, of course, but it’s a common “complain” when people overload their itineraries with temples/shrines. A lot of them also take less time to see than you think they might. Even for the ones that have large interiors or entrance fees, it can sometimes take as little as ten minutes to sort of see everything and be on your way.
   * The second half of your trip has you traveling and moving around a lot. Like /u/gdore15 said, I would suggest changing the ordering. If you can cram all the expensive travel into the 7-Day JR Pass, that would be excellent. But even if you can’t, I would at least put all the Osaka stuff together instead of breaking it up with Fukui. And it might be worth going straight to Hiroshima, then doing Fukui, then going to Kyoto and staying there as a base with a day-trip or two to Osaka. I love Osaka personally, but the stuff you have planned there barely fills up a single day. You could do a day trip there, see how you like it, and go back for a second day if you felt like it. And if you want to make Kyoto your base, I would highly suggest picking a more central hotel, since there’s nothing in the Fushimi-inari area. If you stayed downtown, it’s pretty easy to get around the Kansai region.

5. If you’re a pokemon go person, the 4 pokemon stores at sunshine city are pretty great.

   Agreeing with gdore, only things open before 10am are breakfast, some parks, and some shrines.

   Most hotels will let you store your baggage there for quite a few days for free.

6. 5 to 6am is way too early as most stores only opens around 9am and 10am, some at 11am. Heading to bed at 9pm is a bit early i think, that’s the hour when “night is still young.”

   Anyway, u don’t have to follow a rigid itinerary, just be flexible about it if certain attractions needed to be drop or u might add something along the way. Just soak it in and enjoy the culture.

   Personally i rent a portable wifi because unlimited data so i can google when needed and use navigation, which is most of the time. Can even google some stuff about where u are going while during a long ride.

7. > We are planning on starting our days around 5-6am

   To be frank: unless you are planning to grab a bite at your destination, when daytripping – that’s a bad plan. While there are some breakfast places open at major stations from around 6am, most eateries serving breakfast start opening around 7am-8am at best.

   Honestly, while there are a few days that you can start that early (Fushimi Inari, train to Hiroshima), even Kiyomizu-dera despite opening at 6am does not make sense at that hour (7-7:30am is the earliest that really makes any sense since Kodaiji and shops in southern Higashiyama do not open at all before 9am).

   > We usually walk between 15 and 20km per day when we are on holidays (with occasional “break” days of 5-10km in between).

   I hate to break it to you, but 10 to 15 km is a very, very slow day in Japan (I have somehow managed 10 km on a day where the only substantial walk I took walk straight from Hakata to Tenjin.). You should expect plenty of days of 20 km. Most of the public connections are well-signed and organized, but around major station/interchanges/junction – you can expect up to 1km walks between platforms/lines.

   Note that avoiding crowds in Hakone or Miyajima on weekdays during autumn foliage season does not count for much.

   Day 1: Meiji Jingu/Yoyogi Park usually goes with Harajuku and Shibuya. Considering there are no more lolita fashion meet-ups on Sundays, and the horrible, miserable experience that Harajuku is during whenever school is out – I don’t recommend doing that on Sunday.

   Day 2: Honestly I would combine Asakusa (Senso-ji), Ameya Yokocho, Akihabara and finishing the day at Skytree.

   Day 3: Going to Imperial Palace East Gardens for that purpose is perfectly skippable. Tsukiji Market brunch works generally well with Fukagawa Edo Museum. You could also a visit to Shinjuku Gyoen and slowly make your way to Shinjuku for the night.

   Days 8/9: If you intend to go on any hikes in Nikko, I’d recommend two full days. Thus said, note that in Nikko – late November is past the autumn foliage and if you want to go onto any hikes that are more strenous than a walk along wide footpaths – you’d probably need winter hiking boots.

   Day 10: Unless you are sending your luggage to the hotel in Kyoto, you fail at logistics. Either you drop off the bags first at the hotel, or you’d really have to go back all the way to Kyoto in a roundabout way. Note that if your hotel is in Fushimi district, then perhaps an afternoon in Nara can make more sense.

   > Aeon mall

   If you are in Kyoto, then visiting Teramachi, or Nishiki Market would make more sense than visiting a fairly boring mall.

   > if not too tired walk to Ninna-ji and/or Arashiyama to see it at night.

   Ninna-ji is only lit up on Friday through Sunday.

   Day 13: Unless you have already booked your appointment in Kokedera for that perfect spot that would be late enough to see Iwatayama (this is an autumn foliage hot spot, so crowds and queues might be expected), but early enough that you would get on tour of Katsura Imperial Villa – I wouldn’t hold my breath on completing this itinerary.

   Day 14: I’d probably stop at Himeji to visit the castle and Koko-en and skip Hiroshima castle altogether.

   Day 16: My advice would be to hike up via Momijidani and down via Daisho-in course. Unless you love climbing stairs (this does not apply to rainy weather, then honestly take the ropeway or Omoto Course on the way up).

   Days 19/20: Honestly, I would rent a car in Fukui and aside from Tojinbo and Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum and go to Shirakawa-go.

8. I’ll go against the grain and say I thought waking up around 6:00 was great most days. I did this unintentionally when I got jet lag and was happy with it. Many of the limited express trains start around 6:30 AM and then you can be in a new place when things open up, “rush hour traffic” really wasn’t that bad IME (although I dodged the 7:30-9:00 period and Yamanote line), and the air is fresh and shrines and monuments are way better with no crowds. The only days I felt regret getting up early were days staying in Tokyo. Based on the sights you’ve chosen, I think you should be OK.

   If you like lolita fashion, as of last I checked there are a lot of shops Shinjuku MaruiOne and Kyoto’s Teramachi street that are less crowded than the ones in Harajuku 🙂

9. > I just want to post it here to ask if it’s realistic / if you people have any tips!

   All seems decent and it’s cool that you’ve got Fukui in there.

   My only tip is to go in autumn or spring (spring’s prettier but I find autumn’s a lot warmer and more pleasant to travel around in). I’m in Fukui right now and even though I’m Aussie (i.e. used to really hot weather), it’s simply not very comfortable walking around the place in 31’C heat with high levels of humidity. In winter it’ll snow and you’ll have the same thing… unless you really love trudging around in the cold/snow.

   If you go to Fukui, jump onto r/fukui (dead but I monitor it) where I can try to recommend a few restaurants. Near the station there’s an international area with lotsa Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese people.

   Last night I went to a really lovely hole in the wall spot that looks pretty ordinary but the lady who owns it cooked up an awesome feast (and knows her sake / Korean equivalents as she used to work at a $$$ bar in Tokyo while saving to run this place). I was literally watching a rugby league game in my house (nearby). At half-time I was out of beers so walked into her place and was like (in Japanese) ‘hey do you serve beer food and sake?’ Next minute I had a platter of pickles + food and she was pouring a jug of sake. I ended up staying for 2-3 hours just to chat, then she dialled in her brother (Korean) who lives in Australia. Closer to the trip let me know and I can give you the details. There’s a hotel nearby called Dormy Inn too, which has a rooftop hotspring that you can use at night. Also decent proximity to what I’d call the dirty downtown area (lotsa street food, drunk salary men and Chinese street touts offering various forms of massages… you don’t have to go there but it’s got an awesome buzz about it and there’s lotsa cheap, casual dining… google the Junka area and Dormy Inn).

   From there, I guess it’s really up to you. I lived in Fukui for 5 years and prefer to stay in one place for a few years rather than buzzing around if that makes sense? I think you’ve met a decent balance between travel and depth though (plus small town / big city stuff).

10. No idea in getting up so early.
    Also, visiting every Pokémon center is a waste of time.

    Going to bed that early everyday you will miss out on a lot. Especially in the bigger cities.
    Tokyo really wakes up after 8-9 in my opinion.

11. Just a few suggestions you may want to consider:

    1. There are sleeper transport options you can consider if you’re travelling between Tokyo and Osaka. It’ll probably save you some bucks and time. It is also quite an experience cuz these sleepers are rather luxurious.

    2. If you’re staying at the same hotel again after you come back from your detour, you might want to ask the hotel if they can help with storing the luggage.

    3. You can courier your luggage between towns and cities. Just make sure someone at the end destination knows to receive it.

    4. You can order a visitor sim before hand and have it delivered to your first hotel.