Two weeks from now we will be arriving in Japan!! I’ve been lurking this sub for months getting all the info and now it’s time to get all your wonderful opinions on our itinerary. My husband and I are in our late 20’s/early 30’s and pretty fit. He loves big city vibes and I like more laid back less chaotic vibes. We both love temples, hiking, outdoorsy stuff. Not into anime or video games.
Day 0 – arrive at Haneda. We arrive late (too late for limousine bus) so I booked a private transfer to our hotel. Last thing I wanna do after a long flight is figure out trains. We are staying near Ginza.
Day 1 Tokyo – Senso-ji, wonder around Asakusa. Tickets to Tokyo Skytree booked. Maybe a river cruise?
Day 2 Tokyo – up early for Tsujiki Outer Market (I know it’s a tourist trap, not what it once was, etc). TeamLab Planets booked late morning (also know the reviews on this are mixed). Rest of the day shopping around Ginza (weirdly excited for the Uniqlo store haha)
Day 3 Tokyo/Hakone – Tried to get tickets to the Imperial Palace walking tour but they were sold out for the morning. We may go early and try to get walk up tickets. Otherwise probably just walk around the park ourselves. Depart for Hakone (I’m thinking we’ll take the shinkansen instead of romancecar as we will be near Ginza)
We’re staying at an expensive ryokan with private onsen in our room so the plan for the rest of the day is just to enjoy the ryokan.
Day 4 Hakone/Kyoto – leisurely morning at ryokan, check out. We’ll probably wonder around Gora (we’ll be walking distance from the open air museum) and maybe ride cable car? Depart for Kyoto late afternoon. If we don’t get in too late possibly night stroll around Gion where we are staying.
Day 5 Kyoto – we booked a tea ceremony (husband absolutely loves Japanese tea). Probably Nishiki Market and maybe visit some temples in the area near our hotel
Day 6 Kyoto – Early morning guided tour of Fushimi Inari, Kinkaku-ji, and Ashriyama Bamboo grove. Afternoon in Ashriyama
Day 7 – I’m thinking day trip to Hiroshima. I mapped out the transport and while it would be about 5-6 hours round trip of trains I think it would be worth it to see Hiroshima and Miyajima. But looking for honest opinions about whether this would be too much.
Day 8 – this day is open currently so looking for suggestions. If we do go to Hiroshima we’ll probably want to take it easy. That being said we by take it easy I just mean things easy to get to from Gion, but we don’t mind doing a lot of walking. Maybe a sake brewery?
Day 9 – Depart to Tokyo. Plan to arrive in Tokyo around noon. Maybe roam around Shibuya. Again staying in Ginza. No plans until omakase dinner we have reserved.
Day 10 – leave for home.
Tips I learned here: already have suica downloaded in Apple wallet. We’ll be forwarding our luggage and just taking an overnight bag to Hakone. We have things do see/do but I tried to not overly book/plan so we can explore.
Things I’m wondering about: anything big I’m missing? Am I screwed because I only made one restaurant reservation? We’re not too concerned with eating at famous TikTok places.
Thank you all for your suggestions and resources. This sub is the most helpful!
12 comments
It’s very difficult to see Hiroshima and Miyajima on a day trip
The day trip to Hiroshima would be a bit much. Miyajima would be even tougher. Why don’t you stay Night 7 (and/or 8) in Hiroshima?
Restaurants won’t be a problem unless you have your sights on a “must go” list. There are so many incredible places that hide in plain sight.
Theee suggestions for things to do: Shibuya Sky, Miyashita Park in Shibuya (urban garden) and Art Aquarium Ginza.
I see that you dont have Shinjuku area. If you want to explore new area, this area is pretty interesting too. Tokyo Kabukicho Tower, Omeide Yokocho, Rooftop garden overlook the cityscapes in Shinjuku station, Godzilla head.
No Shinkansen to Hakone. Odawara might be the closest Shinkansen stop.
Since you’re both young and physically fit, a Hiroshima + Miyajima day trip is entirely doable if you wake up early (buy breakfast the night before to eat on the train), hustle + plan out the timing of each tram/ferry/train ride/attraction stop, gulp down lunch, and are happy to “only” see the highlights. For dinner, sit down for okonomiyaki at the train station before getting the train back to Kyoto (don’t go to okonomimura, on a day trip it wastes too much incremental transportation time and the quality of cooking at the train station grills is very high).
I hate changing hotels and am a fast paced traveler, so I think this is much preferable to switching hotels just for one night.
I feel like a guide is a waste of time (especially since you don’t have guides anywhere else) for Fushimi Inari + Kinkakuji which are both self explanatory + very well documented in English on the internet, and the bamboo forest is hell at midday…
Edit: if you like tea and sake, on Day 8 do half a day in Uji and a few hours in the Fushimi sake district (take the Keihan train from Uji to Chushojima).
I have done Miyajima as a day trip from Kyoto many times. As long as you leave early, it’s incredibly easy to do I think doing Miyajima AND Hiroshima as a day trip would be a challenge, but I believe you could do one very easily.
My last trip to Miyajima was as a day trip from Kyoto with my then 6 year old. We caught a train around 8 am, which was direct, made a transfer at about 10:30 and was on Miyajima by 11.
We had LOTS of time.
Day 4- cable car, train, and pirate ship lines are a long wait and last service I believe is around 4. If it’s a priority make sure you do those early especially if you have somewhere else to be later in the day.
Hey just wondering, which ryokan did you book? I’ve been looking around but am very indecisive
I literally just got back on Thursday from a very similar trip with my husband (2 nights Tokyo, 1 night Hakone, 4 nights Kyoto, and then final 3 nights back in Tokyo). A few thoughts based on our experience:
1. Skip TeamLabs. If you live in a major American city, you can find something similar. There are even Kusama infinity rooms on exhibit right now in NYC, Chicago, Phoenix, Miami, and DC. I was so mad I flew to the other side of the world and wasted a precious hour on that dopey place.
2. We didn’t do the Imperial Palace tour, but we did walk the grounds of the East Gardens on a whim and loved it. Orchids and Hydrangeas were in full bloom and absolutely gorgeous.
3. We also stayed at Gora Kadan and I think your plan is perfect. Skip the loop, enjoy the ryokan facilities as early as they’ll let you. Go to the open air museum after you check out the next day (they will drive you and pick you up). I didn’t expect to find my favorite Picasso exhibit in the Japanese countryside, but the museum punched above its weight.
4. We did a day trip to Nara while in Kyoto. Highly recommend. Super easy to get to (it was more like a half day) and some of the most incredible sights of the whole trip. Lots of forest time too.
5. My favorite day in Kyoto was the one where we had zero plans and just wandered around. My biggest advice is expand your radius up, down, and all around Shijo-dori, Pontocho, and Nishiki Market. Kyoto is chock full of interesting alleyways and basements and second floor gems.
Open Air Museum was pretty cool, I recommend it. Really really good coffee shop in a guy’s airstream near the entrance, cafe Ryunsenkei
For day 5, have you thought about going to a tea farm? My partner and I traveled to D:matcha in Wazuka and we had an amazing experience. The tour included an explanation of the tea leaf cultivation and processing, a tour of the facilities, green tea and matcha tasting, and a tea infused meal. Or maybe traveling to Uji? From Kyoto station it’s quite easy. Uji has tons of green tea shops.
One thing about Hakone is that public transport is less prevalent, so you may eat up a lot of time waiting for a bus or train.