Hi all! I’m planning a first time, two week trip to Japan for late October. It’ll just be me and my partner. I’ve got 12 full days to work with, but I’m having a hard time trying to fit everything into these 12 days, so I would appreciate some advice.
To preface this, we don’t like to be on a time crunch during our vacations, so I was thinking of \~6 hours of activities per day (including travel), leaving the rest of each day to eat and relax. My goal is to get a feel of what Japan has to offer and to have some free time to explore at a whim. I don’t need to see everything this trip.
So far, I’ve come up with 13 days (need to cut at least one day down):
TOKYO (1)
* Skytree Solamachi
* Asakusa
* Akihabara (if there’s time)
TOKYO (2)
* Rikugien Garden
* Yanaka
* Ueno Park
* Akihabara (if we didn’t check it out the day before or didn’t get to everything here the day before)
TOKYO (3)
* Tsukiji Market
* Imperial Palace/Edo Castle
* Kagurazaka
* Koishikawa Garden
TOKYO (4)
* Shinjuku
* Shinjuku Gyoen
* Meiji Jingu
* Harajuku
* Shibuya
TOKYO (5)
* Disneyland & Disneysea
KYOTO (6)
* Tokyo -> Kyoto
* Sagano Area
* ~~Maybe also the Hozugawa river boat ride~~
KYOTO (7)
* Kurama
* Kibune
* (We want to hike between these two locations, but maybe it would be worthwhile to stay in one of these towns too, assuming there’s housing availability)
KYOTO (8)
* Kinkaku-ji Temple
* Kyoto Palace
* Nijo Castle
* Nishiki Market
KYOTO (9)
* Maybe Higashiyama Jisho-ji (Silver) Temple
* Nanzen-ji Temple
* Kiyomizu-dera Temple
* Higashiyama Ward
KYOTO (10)
* Fushimiinari Shrine
* Katsura Villa (maybe)
NARA (11)
* Nara Park
* Todai-ji Temple
OSAKA (12)
* Minoo Park (hike)
* Umeda Sky Building
* Tenjinbashi-suji
OSAKA (13)
* Universal
* ~~Osaka Aquarium~~
​
A few things that I would have loved to fit in but was unsure how to due to them being out of the way:
* Hike Magome to Tsumago
* Ghibi Park
* Ogimachi Village
* Okunoin Cemetary + Koyasan + Choisi Mitri hike
* Nishi Seto Expressway bike
​
How does this schedule look? Are we over or undershooting some days? Is there anything on here that’s underwhelming compared to alternative options? I feel like there’s too many temples/shrines/castles in Kyoto (and we aren’t particularly interested in them either), so maybe I can cut some of those out.
Lastly, if you see that anything here requires a reservation, please let me know. Afaik, Katsura Villa requires a tour reservation, and theme park tickets might be hard to come by closer to visit dates.
Thanks in advance!
2 comments
Hi! I’m planning a trip to Japan for two weeks in November, my first time too. So I can’t review your list as someone with experience, but it’s really interesting to see it as a fellow prospective visitor.
You mentioned regretting not having time for the Ghibli Park. Have you looked at the Ghibli museum as an option? It’s about a 40-50 minute public transit ride outside Tokyo, so still might find it’s too much to fit in your schedule. And note that those tickets are sold in advance, so you’d need to check out the availability.
I agree that you’ve got a lot of temples planned for Kyoto – I’m sure they are all beautiful, but if you need to lose a day that might be where to do it. My group is planning on 4 days in Kyoto and only have flagged three big destinations in that time (so I might review your list and see if we want to add any):
– Fushimi-inari
– Kinkaku-ji
– Saihoji (Moss Temple) – this one was highly recommended by my friend, but does require advance booking.
Also, look for tempura momiji (maple leaves) when you’re in Minoo – it’s a fall specialty.
Hi? I’m also not an expert and I’m going for a second time to Japan on Oct. Here’s my humble view
1. Are you big on disney/themepark? I’ve seen a lot of advice in this sub that it will be better to just visit Disneysea vs trying to combine both in 1 day. Disneysea is unique to Japan, the rides are also geared a bit more towards adults, though it doesn’t feel like a the traditional disney themepark.
2. If I have to cut 1 day, I would fit Fushimi Inari with Kiyomizu dera (go early in the morning to beat the crowd) and then replace Katsura Village. I’m only assuming you don’t really want to go there since you put Maybe in brackets.