Hi all,
This will be my first time in Japan and so wanted to make it a big one, so 23 days in total!
My full itinerary is listed below, but I have some key questions;
1. Should I be booking all travel months in advance?
It’s somewhat stressful to me how many trains I’m going to need, can I realistically turn up on the day and these routes have multiple trains a day and buy a ticket, or will that cost so much more that people would recommend I book tickets for all of these routes while there?
2. This itinerary is for a group of 6 – 2 of which are my parents and so might not do some of it.
My main concern is around eating, are we going to be ok getting dinner/lunch for 6 if we want to sit in somewhere?
I’ve **love** to eat in places that have like a bar going round where they cook in front of you.
But having watched videos these often seem busy, does the queueing system I’ve often seen permit 6 people?
3. Looking at the itinerary below, should I be looking to move around some more?
I didn’t want it to be a stressful trip trying to cram everything in, so where we could probably do Tokyo in 4 days, staying 5 is fine and we’ll spend some evenings drinking at bars and such
4. Related to 3, I want to stay somewhere near Mt. Fuji, and then Hakone, is this a good idea?
Train from Tokyo to Fuji Kawaguchiko I think.
Stay there 2 nights, then get the bus over to Hakone and stay there for 1 night.
Then back to Odawa train station to ride a Shinkansen to Kyoto
5. And lastly, I’ve got most of this from youtube videos and blogs about days in these places, and it’s a lot of shrines.
Do people feel burnt out, or do they find each shrine to be unique and the area around it the main reason to go?
I’d say 1/3 or more of the itinerary contains shrines…
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And any other advice based on things below would be greatly appreciated!
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**1 Thursday 21st March Fly to Tokyo Haneda Airport**
**2 Friday 22nd March Arrive in Tokyo Haneda Airport**
Pickup Suica Card
Purchase an eSim or SIM Card?
Take public transport to hotel, explore local area/sleep
**3 Saturday 23rd March Tokyo Day 1 Tokyo**
Meiji Jingu Shrine
Yoyogi Park Walk
Explore Harajuku and Shibuya – Hachiko Statue
Dinner at a restaurant by Sakura trees (Hashidaya?)
**4 Sunday 24th March Tokyo Day 2 Tokyo**
Shinjuku District – Gyoen Park / Yodobashi Camera
Shinjuku District – Kabukicho/Golden Gai/Omoide Yokocho
Free viewpoint up Tokyo Metro Government building (Can see Fuji)
**5 Monday 25th March Tokyo Day 3 Tokyo**
Imperial Palace and Gardens – 10am
Tokyo Skytree – 634m Observation Tower
Sensoji Temple
Odaiba / Gundam Statue / Rainbow Bridge View Pltfm.
**6 Tuesday 26th March Tokyo Day 4 Tokyo**
Akihabara – Mandarake Complex / Super Potato
Akihabara – Gamers shop / Maach ecute / GiGO
**7 Wednesday 27th March Tokyo Day 5 Tokyo**
Teamlab Planets
Roppongi Hills – Shopping and City View at Sunset? (\~17:50)
View Tokyo Tower from Roppongi Area
Find a Sushi Train restaurant
**8 Thursday 28th March Nikko Day 1 Nikko – Day Trip – Mountains/Forest/Shrines**
Nikko Toshogu Shrine
Kegon Waterfall (Bus Trip away) Try Yuba, local dish
Rinnoji Temple – plus gardens
Senjogahara Hiking course?
**9 Friday 29th March Tokyo/Mt Fuji Day 1 – Getting to Fuji Kawaguchiko?**
**10 Saturday 30th March Mt Fuji ???**
**11 Sunday 31st March Mt Fuji ???**
**12 Monday 1st April Mt Fuji to Hakone Bus from Fuji Kawaguchiko**
**13 Tuesday 2nd April Hakone Day 1 – Arrival**
Hakone Freepass – unlimited use of bus,train,cablecars and ropeways
Discounted admission to several tourist sites
Hakone Open Air Museum
Hakone Shrine – Torii gate on the lake with a path up the mountain to the shrine
Take Komatagake ropeway to get to another mountaintop shrine
Find an onsen (Must allow tattoos..)
**14 Wednesday 3rd April Hakone Day 2 – Hakone – Bit more tourism and train to Kyoto**
Hakone Checkpoint
Hakone Ropeway
Lake Ashinoko – Maybe a boat tour
Take a train to Odawara, then Shinkansen to Kyoto
**15 Thursday 4th April Kyoto Day 1**
Kyomizu Dera Main temple and stunning views
Hokan-Ji Pagoda view as you come down from Dera
Walk through the streets to Gion – Lunch/dinner etc
Yasaka/Gion Shrine Best enjoyed in evening
Hanamikoji Street – Shops/Restaurants Geisha district
To finish maybe Pontocho Alley – Dinner by the riverside
**16 Friday 5th April Kyoto Day 2**
Kiyagi train station, and the railway outside Covered by Sakura Blossoms
Nanzen-ji Temple
Philosophers Path – stone road along the canal
Ginkakukji – Silver Pavillion
Okuzaki Jinja – Rabbit shrine
Kinkaku-ji Temple – Train to northern Kyoto first Golden Pavillion
**17 Saturday 6th April Kyoto Day 3**
Arashiyama from Kyoto station
Bamboo grove and walk Arrive early morning
End of walk brings you to Toroko Rashiyama Station Romantic old fashioned railway, goes along river
Return to Tugitsiyo Bridge
Head up to monkey park
Kyo-Train Goraku to Osaka Each car has a theme – Weekends only???
**18 Sunday 7th April Kyoto Day 4**
Fushimi Inari Shrine Early in the morning!
Streets close to Fushimi have food etc Cat cafe?
Kyoto station, explore, sky walkway
Higashi Hongaji – huge complex, 2 temples
Train to Uji – Southern Kyoto – Rivers/Food/Local Dishes
**19 Monday 8th April Kyoto/Osaka Day 1 – Get to Osaka, explore a bit (Dotonbori? Some bars?)**
Osaka Castle Gram Pancakes maybe from a stall here
And surrounding park
Tenmangu Shrine
Sinsekai for lunch Kushikatsu – local dish
For sunset head to Abeno Harukas for a nighttime view of Osaka
Dinner – Okonomiyaki – Osaka speciality
**20 Tuesday 9th April Osaka Day 2**
Namba Yasaka Shrine (Lion mouth statue)
North to Mino Park(?) Hanghue line (?) – possible Fireflies, and giant Japanese Salamanders
And a good cherry blossom spot – expo ’70 commemorative park With a sun statue (Amaterasu?)
Evening – Dotonbori/Shopping/Street food/Bars – there’s a secret path leading down to HJozenji Yokocho (A discrete temple with moss statue)
Takoyaki also a speciality here
Retro bar space station
Teamlab Botanical Gardens afterdark
**21 Wednesday 10th April Osaka Day 3**
Universal Studios Japan – Nintendo World and Harry Potter – This is a maybe, queues and costs to be looked into
**22 Thursday 11th April Osaka / Kobe Day Trip to Kobe**
**23 Friday 12th April Osaka / Nara Day Trip to Nara**
Kasuga Taisha Shrine
Isuien Garden Front garden 17th century large teahouse
Rear ggarden around larege pond more modern
Kofukuji Temple
Nara Park (dder) Can feed Deer rice crackers sold by vendors
Todaiji Temple
Town Nakanaidou – Yomogi Mochi (Possible show when it’s being made)
Kakinoha Sushi – Wrapped in Persimmon leaf, a more local dish
**24 Saturday 13th April Osaka**
**25 Sunday 14th April Osaka Fly out from Osaka – Close to midnight, so full day in Osaka in Sunday?**
**26 Monday 15th April UK Land in the UK**
1 comment
I’d advise trying to book everything you can in advance: you are coming in one of the busiest times of the year because the academic year in Japan ends in late March and begins in early April. Apparently, most reasonable hotels/*ryokan* in resort areas are already booked.
Places like Harajuku may be jammed beyond normal with junior high school students (the usual crowd for the area).