Hello hello!
I posted months ago when our itinerary was still a wee babe, but we’re now just a few weeks out and absolutely **over the moon** excited!!! So… what better way to embrace the excitement than get last-minute feedback on our itinerary?
Most days have 1-2 “core” activities/areas. Some days are left fairly flexible or with alternative/optional activities as my partner doesn’t have as much walking stamina as he once did due to an injury last year. So we want to keep it flexible where we can to ensure he can rest as needed! We have a ton of restaurants/places saved on Google maps in case we need suggestions on our more free days.
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This is our first time in Japan, and we’ll be celebrating our engagement! Woohoo!!!
# Week 1
**Sat 10/28 – Sun 10/29: LAX > HND**
* Land around 6pm – Pick up Pasmo Passport/pre-ordered pocket wifi
* Limousine bus to our hotel in Shibuya
* Drop our bags, find dinner nearby, and crash
**Mon 10/30 – Shibuya/Shinjuku**
* Fairly low-commitment exploration day between Shibuya and Shinjuku (we are staying right by the scramble crossing)
* A few optional things to check out:
* Meiji Jingu
* Nintendo Store
* Tower Records
* Kabukicho Tower
* Omoide Yokocho
* Maybe try out a batting center a la Persona 5
* Post-sunset Shibuya Sky reservations with a couch + champagne seat before dinner and bed
**Tuesday 10/31 – Setagaya, Nakano, Koenji**
* Morning gluten free gyoza and ramen cooking class in west Setagaya
* Stop at the Gotokuhi cat temple on the way back to our hotel in Shibuya and probably chill for an hour or two
* Spend the afternoon/evening checking out Nakano on Broadway, then hopping over to Koenji to hopefully find some music at a bar!
**Wed 11/1 – Tokyo Disneyland (staying at DL hotel these two nights, probably forward main luggage to next post-Disney hotel in Ginza)**
**Thursday 11/2 – Disney Sea**
**Friday 11/3 – Ueno/Akihabara (Culture Day!)**
* Hop over to our hotel in Ginza in the AM and drop our bags
* Either Smallworld Tokyo (we’d do it on the way back) or the Tokyo National Museum for culture day!!
* Get lunch to-go and picnic in Ueno park
* liiiiiiesurely afternoon to evening stroll (if my partner is up to it, we’ll hop on the train if we need to at some point) from Ueno either down to Akihabara for gaming activities/shopping, or over to Asakusa for Senso-ji, shopping, and food depending on timing/what we’re feeling. We’ll be back for whichever we don’t do.
**Saturday 11/4 – Open-ish day**
* Explore around hotel (Ginza) for a relaxed morning
* More Akihabara if we want (we’re gaming folk) or Nintendo Store in Shibuya if we didn’t make it previously
* Alternatively, we might head down towards Yokohama and see the Gundam Exhibit and check out the Ramen festival
* After-dark Tokyo Tower so we can see it lit up (hoping to grab drinks at the prince park hotel bar), check out the bluegrass bar in Ginza!
# Week 2
**Sunday 11/5 – TBD**
* Potentially Ghibli Museum (will know in a few days if that shakes out)
* Otherwise, Sunshine City/Ikebukuro or just follow our hearts!!
* Probably an evening in Shimokitazawa for some night life before we skidaddle
**Monday 11/6 – Ginza > Hakone**
* Schmoozy morning, maybe Happy Pancake or the GF version in Asakusa
* Forward our luggage to our Osaka hotel
* Romancecar to Odawara and bus to our Ryokan in Hakone (soo excited for this)
* Evangelion shop, relaxing evening and dinner in Ryokan and onsen
**Tuesday 11/7 – Hakone**
* Ropeway
* Open air museum or Lake Ashi boat
* Back to ryokan early evening again for dinner and onsen
**Wednesday 11/8 – Hakone > Osaka**
* Early departure as we have 12pm tickets to Ghibli Park in Nagoya!
* Head to Osaka once we’re done at the park and check into our hotel so we can explore and eat!!! Evening exploring Dontonbori. Would love to do more but we have basically no day time in Osaka.
**Thursday 11/9 – Universal**
* Universal (already have tix and express passes) for Nintendo World!
* We’ll probably be tired this evening, so potentially just room service/dinner by hotel and sleep, but *ideally* a bit of R&R for an hour or two then enjoy some karaoke/izakaya!
**Friday 11/10 – Osaka > Kyoto**
* Potentially a bit of time in Osaka this morning (i.e. aquarium or something?) then head to Kyoto
* Check into machiya house in Gion and drop bags
* Explore around where we are staying in Gion! We’re staying by Kodai-ji and Maruyama Park, so we will just walk and play it by ear
* Since we’re staying in a townhouse, we’d love to cook a little! So probably grocery shop and cook an easy dinner and relax tonight
**Saturday 11/11 – Kobe**
* We might start the morning off with Himeji first depending on how early we get up. Otherwise if not, we’re just going to head to Kobe mid-morning
* Takenaka Carpentry Museum (my partner is a luthier and very excited for this!)
* 1:30pm reservations for Mouriya Royal to get our kobe beef set on!
* Either hang out a bit longer in Kobe and enjoy the seaside or head back to Kyoto and maybe see a movie or head to Nikishi Market. TBD!
# Week 3
**Sunday 11/12 – Free Day**
* Free day! Ideas we’re considering (trying to limit our train time today):
* Heading up to Ruriko-in to enjoy the leaves
* Check out Toei Studio Park
* Manga Museum
* Rent e-bike and just choose a direction and go! (or go up to Ruriko-in and stop as we want along the way)
* Potentially spend our evening taking the autumn momiji tunnel train to Kifune Shrine
* Try out one of the nicer GF restaurants we have saved
**Monday 11/13 – Fushimi Inari/Nara**
* Spend the morning (try to start early) at Fushimi Inari (not necessarily the whole hike, but maybe 1/2 way up or so so we have energy for…)
* Nara to enjoy Todai-ji, the deer, and the gardens
* Head back to Kyoto for a quiet evening
* Maybe forward bags here to Asakusa but might take them on Shinkansen
**Tuesday 11/14 – Downtown Kyoto > Asakusa**
* Enjoy the morning downtown! Check out things like Imperial Palace, Nijo Castle, etc an explore
* Kimono traditional tea ceremony at 2pm
* Go back to anything we want to/have time to see again before catching an evening Shinkansen to our final hotel in Asakusa, where we’ll have dinner and enjoy Senso-ji at night!
**Wednesday 11/15 – Asakusa**
* We are getting our engagement pictures taken today! Prep for this and the pics will take most of the day, but we’ll be done by 4:30 then have the evening to enjoy Asakusa/Ueno, and our LAST NIGHT IN TOKYO!!
**Thursday 11/16 – Asakusa > NRT > LAX**
* Our flight leaves around 6:30pm from NRT, so we’ll use this day to catch anything in Tokyo we feel we missed or didn’t get enough of! Then… home.
# Questions
\- We really wanted to see a Kibuki theatre show but after looking at the different main theatres in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka and when the shows are, it doesn’t look like this will work out. Are there smaller theatres where we could still experience this? I’m a huge theatre/musical theatre person and would love to experience this.
\- Any recommendations for the open morning in Osaka? We are open to everything! I just feel like all the lists I’m finding online are the same (aquarium, Dontonbori, etc)
\- We have tons of restaurants saved on Google Maps (and a decent amount of GF restaurants as my partner is celiac) but any specific recommendations are super welcome!!
\- Is anything glaring missing that you’d consider a MUST-DO in the areas we’re going??
\- We’d like to plan 1-2 upscale and delicious celebratory dinners on the trip. Any recs?
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Thanks so much for your time!!
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2 comments
Congrats on your engagement!
> Ruriko-in
IIRC the reservation process is annoying, the entry fee for this is very high, it’s a complete zoo, and you may be too early for foliage in any case. May I recommend the “Former Chikurin-in Temple” in neighboring Shiga prefecture which has the exact same view of trees reflected on the glass table in an old Japanese building, with 1/100 of the crowds (and 1/7 of the entry fee). Super accessible by train.
> open morning in Osaka
A head spa could be fun? Or get a haircut and treatment if you like Asian hairstyles. Very easy to book a coupon on hotpepper and communicate via pictures & Google Translate.
> upscale dinner
There are tons of very nice restaurants in Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka across a range of cuisines, from omakase sushi to kaiseki to really good teppanyaki/tempura/yakitori, French-Japanese, etc. What are you looking for?
Congrats on your engagement! This looks like a great trip!
For theatre, I just saw GEAR non verbal theatre in Kyoto and definitely recommend it. It’s kind of like Cirque de Soleil—there’s miming, juggling, robots. You can reserve tickets online.
Hakone is awesome, you will love it. Fwiw I also took the romancecar and I was sad we were on the “commuter” romancecar—there are five different trains. I didn’t realize and just went with the one at the most convenient time. The other cars have big windows and one even has seats that spin around. Might be worth checking to see what you have, you might be able to change it if you want to.
I thought the shrine at Hakone was very cool, and I waited in line for a long time to get the iconic tori pic but honestly? No regrets. The photo is really stunning and we had a good time in line. BUT if you don’t care about getting a symmetrical photo you can skip the line and go down to the bottom and take one that is askew. There’s a fair amount of walking though. The boat ride across (we did the pirate ship 🏴☠️) was neat and only takes like 30 minutes.
The ropeway is freakin amazing. Eat some black eggs to add seven years to your life (so they say). They come in packs of four so befriend another couple and make them eat your extra eggs 😂.
The open air museum is awesome but it’s a lot of walking. Another cool thing you could do in Hakone is tea at the Lalique Museum. They have an actual train car from the orient express and it’s cute. The museum itself is okay if you like Lalique but there’s no English translations. You can take a bus there—great public transit in Hakone!
For restaurants, we booked the back sushi restaurant at the Bellwood, a really great bar in Shibuya. It’s a two hour experience with just two other diners and the chef. Even if you can’t get in for dinner, check out the bar. We also really enjoyed Tan in Kyoto. I spent some time looking for restaurants on the Michelin site—for example, I wanted a good udon place in kyoto and they had a lot of good options (didn’t work out for our timing, sadly).
There are so many Ghibli stores but each one is a little different so try to check them out where you go! I got a few mystery Totoro boxes and ended up with a polka dot Totoro, so cute.