Hi all! My wife and I will be in Japan Nov 16–23 (7 nights). Flying LAX → NRT (arrive Nov 16), then flying Tokyo → India on Nov 23 (evening). First time for both of us.

Us / interests

• Food lovers, temples/gardens, scenic walks, architecture
• One night of nightlife is enough (small bars/izakaya, karaoke ok; not clubs)
• Prefer to avoid tourist traps and super-packed spots if there are good alternatives
• Not doing Disney/USJ/Pokémon/etc.

Transit plan (sanity check welcome)

• Narita → city: Skyliner to Ueno or N’EX to Tokyo Station, depending on hotel. (Skyliner ~41–44 min to Ueno; N’EX ~50–65 min to Tokyo Station.)
• IC cards: planning Mobile Suica in Apple/Google Wallet; my understanding is it works nationwide on most trains/buses and many shops, so we don’t need separate ICOCA/PASMO. Correct?
• Shinkansen: buy point-to-point reserved seats (likely Nozomi) Tokyo ↔ Kyoto ↔ Osaka.
• Luggage: likely to use takkyubin (hotel-to-hotel delivery) to avoid hauling big bags. Any gotchas for 1-day delivery Tokyo → Kyoto? Airline Express

Draft itinerary

Nov 16 (Sat) – Tokyo (night 1)
Arrive Narita mid-day → train to hotel near Ueno or Tokyo Station. Low-key stroll to Yanaka/Nezu for a gentler first evening (dinner in the neighborhood, early night).

Nov 17 (Sun) – Tokyo (night 2)
Morning: Meiji Jingu at opening → Omotesandō architecture walk (optional Nezu Museum garden) → Daikanyama/Nakameguro stroll.
Evening: mellow bar/izakaya area like Kagurazaka or Kichijōji (not chasing Golden Gai). Nightlife proper we’ll save for Osaka.

Nov 18 (Mon) – to Kyoto (night 1 of 3)
Ship luggage ahead the night before. Morning Nozomi to Kyoto (~2h15), drop small bags. Do a quiet northeast Kyoto loop to avoid crowds: Manshu-in → Enkō-ji → Shisendō. Sunset along the Kamo River.

Nov 19 (Tue) – Kyoto (night 2)
Arashiyama very early (bamboo before tour buses) → Tenryū-ji gardens → tram or bus to Ryōan-ji rock garden or the Daitoku-ji sub-temples (e.g., Kōtō-in for autumn leaves) instead of Kinkaku-ji’s one-way circuit. Evening: side streets off Ponto-chō/Kiyamachi (not the main strip).

Nov 20 (Wed) – Kyoto (night 3)
Option A: Fushimi Inari at dawn–> Uji (Byōdō-in + tea).
Option B: Kurama–Kibune hike; soak at Kurama Onsen if it’s operating hours that day (I’ve seen mixed reports in 2025—can anyone confirm current status/hours/tattoo policy?).

Nov 21 (Thu) – to Osaka (night 1)
JR from Kyoto to Namba area (~40–45 min). Food/culture crawl without the theme-park vibes: Namba Yasaka Jinja (lion head) → Shinsekai/Tsūtenkaku (retro neon) –> Abeno Harukas 300 at sunset. This is our one nightlife night (karaoke + a couple of standing bars; aiming to avoid bars with cover charges).

Optional swap: half-day Kobe for the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum + waterfront, then back to Osaka for the evening (looks close to Shin-Kobe). Worth it?

Nov 22 (Fri) – to Tokyo (night 1)
Morning in Osaka (or quick Umeda Sky) → afternoon Shinkansen to Tokyo. Final night near Tokyo Station or Shinagawa to simplify the airport run next day.

Nov 23 (Sat) – Fly out to India
Train to Narita/Haneda per our departure airport/time.

Questions for the sub

1. Osaka: keep or skip? With our tastes (food + one nightlife night), is one night in Osaka enough, or would you skip Osaka this time and give that day to Kyoto (or add a final day in Tokyo)?
2. Crowd-lighter Kyoto picks (late Nov): If you had to choose 3–4 quieter standouts for koyo season, which would you pick? (We’re leaning northeast Kyoto + Daitoku-ji sub-temples instead of Kinkaku-ji’s one-way path.)
3. Kurama Onsen current status: Is it open reliably now? If yes, any recent experiences (hours, closures, tattoo rules) for Nov 2025? Two Wandering Soles
4. Airport transfer + last night area: Given a Nov 23 evening international flight, would you stay the last night by Tokyo Station (easy for N’EX) or Ueno (easy for Skyliner)? Any recent pros/cons? JR East+
5. Tickets & payments sanity check:
   • Any reason not to rely on Mobile Suica for trains/buses/shops across all three cities?
   • For this route (Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka–Tokyo), we plan to buy individual Shinkansen tickets rather than a JR Pass. Sound right?
6. Luggage forwarding: For Nov (non-peak), is hotel→hotel takkyubin generally next-day Tokyo→Kyoto and Kyoto→Osaka? Any tips on timing cutoffs from hotels?

Why these choices

• Trying to group sights by area to cut transit zig-zags.
• Picking a few quiet alternatives to the most packed spots (still happy to see an icon or two).
• One Osaka night for food + neon and a view (Abeno Harukas 300), without over-allocating time there.
• Keeping the last night in Tokyo to avoid same-day bullet-train + long-haul flight stress.

Really appreciate any tuning (swap days around, better area groupings, “don’t miss” gardens that aren’t mobbed, places we’re over/under-weighting, etc.). Thank you!