Hello! My friend and I (mid 20s) are visiting Japan in late February. Our major goals for the trip are eating and shopping as we’re both super into anime/manga and fashion subcultures, so there will be a huge amount of shopping on our itinerary lol.
We’re just looking to double check if our itinerary is realistic and if there’s anything we should shift/edit to be more time efficient!
**Some Notes:**
\* Don’t need the JR pass (just doesn’t make sense with the increased price). Will probably get an Ubigi esim + SUICA instead.
\* Only flights and hotels have been reserved as of now, so everything is still flexible.
\* My friend and I are trained in Duolingo Japanese (Can read Hiragana, and do super basic, kindergarten level Japanese) and will be joined by 2 friends that are fluent for Osaka + Kyoto.
\* Plan to use luggage shipping services.
**What we like:**
\* Anime/manga. We both really love Demon Slayer, Blue Lock, Jojo’s, HxH, etc. so we would love any suggestions for shops, bars, etc. inspired by the series. Also will be looking out for manga artist exhibits or cafes closer to the travel time.
\* Fashion. We’ll definitely be shopping like crazy in Harajuku and Shibuya 109 lol. If there are any shops in the Harajuku/Omotesando/Shibuya area that we should drop by, please let us know!
\* Food. All of it. Not picky.
**Day 1-3: Tokyo (Shinjuku Stay)**
**Day 0: Land in Haneda Airport**
**Afternoon:** Haneda Airport
\* If we’re still hungry after the flight, stop by Onigiri Konga (definitely a bucket list food stop; if we can’t make it to the OG Onigiri Bongo location we’ll definitely go here on arrival/departure)
\* Take limousine bus from the airport to our hotel (Shinjuku)
**Evening:** Shinjuku (Golden Gai, Tokyu Kabukicho Tower, Omoide Yokocho, just wandering and snacking).
**Day 1: Harajuku & Shibuya**
**Morning/ Early Afternoon:** Harajuku (Meiji Jingu, Takeshita Street, Laforet, W C, Tokyu Plaza Omotesando).
\* If we’re up early for the jetlag, we can walk to the observatory in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Otherwise, we can skip this or do it on the way back any night.
\* Plan to shop around until 2PM to avoid super crowded streets. Can definitely retreat to Cat Street or Omotesando when it gets too busy.
**Mid-Afternoon/Evening:** Shibuya (Shibuya 10, MEGA Don Quijote).
\* We’ll be going to Shibuya 109 on a weekday, will it still be super busy (assuming it’ll get busy after 5PM)?
**Day 2: Tsukiji, Ginza, Ikebukuro**
**Morning:** Tsukiji Outer Market (planning to arrive at like 7AM, right before rush hours on the trains hopefully).
**Early Afternoon:** Ginza (MUJI, Uniqlo)
**Mid-Afternoon/Evening:** Ikebukuro (Sunshine City, Animate Ikebukuro Flagship Store, maybe the new Anime Tokyo Station if it’s not insanely packed).
**Day 3: DisneySea**
**Morning/Afternoon:** DisneySea
**Evening:** Shinkansen (Nozomi) to Osaka.
\* We’ve both been to American Disney resorts a handful of times so can skip super popular attractions like Tower of Terror, Soaring, parades and fireworks. We’re more interested in wandering, eating and seeing new areas, so we plan to leave the park around 5-6PM.
**Day 4-5: Osaka (Namba Stay)**
**Day 4: Osaka**
**Morning:** Solaniwa Onsen
\* This place is a bit out of the way, so if anyone has any nearby tattoo-friendly onsen/sento or onsen with private rooms we would greatly appreciate any recommendations!
**Afternoon:** Wandering, Shinsaibashi, Amerikamura
**Evening:** Dotonbori, Hozen-ji Yokocho
**Day 5: Osaka, Nara Park**
**Morning:** Namba Yasaka Jinja, Kuromon Ichiba Market
\* Staying in Namba so we plan to show up right as it opens to look around without any crowds.
\* Grab some food at Kuromon Market before leaving for Nara Park.
**Afternoon:** Nara Park (Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Todai-ji, Isuien Garden)
**Evening:** teamLab Botanical Garden
\* BIG maybe on this; not sure if we’ll be too tired after 1 hour to and from Nara Park. If we’re enjoying Nara, we can also extend our stay into the evening.
**Day 6-8: Kyoto (Staying near Inari Station)**
**Day 6: Kyoto**
**Morning:** Kyo-Train Garaku from Osaka to Kyoto, Nishiki Market
**Afternoon:** Gion, Hokan-ji
**Evening:** Pontocho
ALTERNATIVELY
**Morning:** Kyo-Train Garaku from Osaka to Kyoto, Nishiki Market, Gion & Hokan-ji
**Afternoon:** Fushimi Inari Taisha
\* Our ryokan is a 10min walk from here so we’d go after checking in. Planning to do a mid-afternoon/early evening hike so we can catch sunset at the peak, but concerned about hiking down (especially because of the boar warnings lol). Will need to double check when sunset is around this time.
**Evening:** Chill in ryokan
**Day 7: Kyoto, Kitano Tenmangu, Arashiyama**
**Morning:** Kitano Tenmangu Shrine (for Baikasai).
\* Need to do a bit more research into the nodate/tea ceremony in the morning. Would be super interested if anyone else has additional info, especially post-covid!
**Afternoon/Evening:** Arashiyama (Adashino Nenbutsuji, Gio-ji Temple, Bamboo Grove, Kimono Forest, Monkey Park)
\* No rush on the wandering and exploring here. If we have extra time, we’re looking into some local tattoo-friendly/private onsen or ashiyu.
**Day 8: Kyoto, Kiyomizu-Dera & Philosopher’s Walk**
**Morning:** Kimono Rental, Kiyomizu-dera
**Afternoon:** Nishiki Market, Tetsugaku No Michi (Philosopher’s Walk), Ginkaku-ji
**Evening:** Sunset Fushimi Inari Taisha (if we don’t do it on day 6 and if it’s not too late/our feat aren’t dead from 3 miles of walking in kimono lol). OR, back to Poncho/Nishiki market area for the evening.
**Day 9-10: Tokyo pt. 2 (Akihabara Stay)**
**Day 9: Tokyo pt. 2**
**Morning:** Fushimi Inari Taisha (last chance if the previous 2 didn’t work out), Shinkansen (Nozomi) to Tokyo
**Afternoon/Early Evening:** Asakusa, maybe Ueno
\* Either quickly stop by our hostel in Akihabara or keep our luggage in a locker in Asakusa.
\* Found a tattoo friendly sento we might stop by.
**Evening:** Akihabara
\* Heard on here that a handful of stores in Akihabara close by 10PM-ish. Not too worried since we’re prioritizing Ikebukuro over Akihabara for anime shopping, but is there any notable nightlife besides arcades to stop by?
**Day 10: Tokyo pt. 2, Haneda Airport**
**Morning:** teamLab Planets
\* Maybe on this one, interested in seeing what the new Borderless exhibit will look like!
**Afternoon:** Free-ish
\* Saving time after teamLab to do anything we missed, or to eat anything we want to try one more time lol. Probably can’t go too far from Akihabara since we’ll be keeping our luggage there.
\* Planning to get to the airport by 4/5PM and just explore all the restaurants and the rooftop garden/onsen.
**Evening:** Fly back :”)
———
**Questions & Advice:**
\* We’ll be nearby the Shibuya, Harajuku, Akihabara and Osaka Gyukatsu Motomura locations. Any idea which of these are best to go if we want to avoid lines?
\* Would also love recommendations for private onsen, onsen with day rental, or tattoo-friendly sento located within Tokyo. We each have about 4/5 tattoos, so even if there are tattoo-friendly locations we definitely don’t want to make any locals uncomfortable.
\* Any plum blossom celebrations in Tokyo?
\* We don’t have time to visit the Ghibli Museum or Park (even if we were to try and get tickets lol). Any recommendations for things to do within Tokyo or Osaka to satisfy the Ghibli itch? Or even some nature areas/hikes that give you the vibe!
Would appreciate any suggestions or advice! We’re pretty flexible on the itinerary and are open to skipping or exploring more. We could do everything and more, or we could do none of it lol, we just both hate the idea of having nothing to do so we marked our map with tons of things to check out in case we get bored.
Definitely can’t fit everything we want to do, but that’s just more reason to go again lol.
Sorry for the long post, I find planning fun and as someone who’s lurked on this thread for months, I had a bit too much fun writing this haha.
1 comment
I’ve started going to sentos recently, and all five I’ve been to in the past couple of months have had men with tattoos when we’ve been there. No one said a word or gave a side-eye that I noticed. Indeed, at one place and at one point I think my son and I were the only people *without* tattoos in the baths.
The first week of February has ume festivals at Umegaoka (west central Tokyo), Bunkyo (north central), Yushima Tenji (near Ueno), and Kameido (east Tokyo [I think]). This year, at least, the *ume* were not fully in bloom when the festival in Umegaoka opened.
An off-the-tourist-track Ghibli thing would be ‘Totoro no mori’, a park and hiking area in the part of Tokorozawa City that people say inspired the scenery in the movie *Tonari No Totoro*. We’ve been there a few times and, though I wouldn’t say it’s the most Totoroish place possible, it’s a nice place for a non-taxing hike.