JJapan Trips

First Time in Japan – 2 Weeks. Over-planned?

  • October 30, 2025

Hey everyone!

I’m heading to Japan for the first time this November and got a little carried away with my planning.

It’s a mix of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka — all in two weeks.

Would love to hear your thoughts: does this seem doable, or too much?

November 5 – Tokyo (Shinjuku, arrival)

  • Arrive at Haneda Airport around 2 PM
  • Check into Airbnb in Shinjuku
  • Explore the area & have dinner
  • Possibly a walk in Golden Gai

November 6 – Tokyo (Shibuya)

  • Explore Shibuya 
  • Gotokuji Temple
  • Evening: Shinjuku Central Park & Government Building (view)

November 7 – Tokyo

  • Teamlab Borderless (9:30–10 AM entry)
  • Tokyo Tower – Lunch and Hamarikyu Park / Tsukiji Market
  • Takeshita Street with animal cafés
  • Towards Harajuku (Liberty Walk)

November 8 – Tokyo Nature

  • Early morning departure for Fujisawa Station
  • Enoden Line via Koshigoe Park to Kamakura Park (Fuji view in good weather)
  • Continue to Houkokuji Temple with its bamboo forest
  • Return to Shibuya (shopping and strolling)

November 9 – Arrival in Kyoto

  • Departure from Shinjuku → Shinkansen ride to Kyoto
  • Check-in at Airbnb Kyoto
  • Lunch and Higashi Hongan-ji Temple
  • Alternatively: Yokai Festival (Toei Kyoto Studio Park) at 2:30 PM
  • Fushimi Inari-Taisha
  • Dinner and strolling around the Airbnb

November 10 – Kyoto Classics

  • Samurai Ninja Museum (book tickets online in advance)
  • Explore Higashiyama-ku, including a walk to Kiyomizu-dera (Sannezaka & Ninenzaka)
  • Philosopher’s Path and lunch at Hikiniku (book one week in advance!!)

November 11 – Kyoto West / Arashiyama

  • Early start to Otagi Nenbutsuji Temple and Adashino (small bamboo grove)
  • Lunch in the Tenryu-ji area
  • Optionally visit the Monkey Park and bamboo grove afterwards
  • Evening: To-ji Temple (illuminated 6–9:30 AM)

November 12 – Nara Day Trip

  • Morning: Nara Park, Todaiji Temple, Kasuga Taisha
  • Lunch in Nara
  • Afternoon: Kofuku-ji Temple, stroll through the old town
  • Evening: Return to Kyoto
  • Aokiyoshi Train

November 13 – Osaka Day Trip

  • Morning: Osaka Castle
  • Lunch: Explore Dotonbori, Kuromon Market
  • Afternoon: Umeda Sky Building (book tickets in advance if necessary)
  • Evening: Return to Kyoto

November 14 – Kyoto → Hiroshima → Fukuoka

  • Morning: Early departure for Hiroshima by Shinkansen → luggage storage
  • Lunch: Hiroshima Castle, walk to the Peace Memorial Museum
  • Return to the station, collect luggage, and continue by Shinkansen to Fukuoka
  • Evening: Check in and explore the area / dinner

November 15 – Fukuoka (Sumo Day)

  • Morning: Early start at Canal City Hakata (strolling)
  • Bring shopping hauls back to the hotel and relax for a bit
  • Noon: Around 1 PM, head to Kokusai Center 
  • Evening: Ohori Park – unwind

November 16 – Return to Tokyo (Ueno Hotel)

  • Morning–Midday: Shinkansen Fukuoka → Tokyo, check-in at Ueno around 3 PM
  • Evening: (possibly Kappabashi) Asakusa Shrine and stroll through Nakamise Shopping Street

November 17 – Akihabara Electric Town

  • Explore Akihabara
  • Evening: Ueno Park

November 18 – Tokyo Departure

  • Buy breakfast and snacks

by Significant-Hunt-161

18 comments

  1. It’s probably better to fly from Fukuoka to Tokyo. It will probably be cheaper and faster. Shinkansen are quite expensive.

  2. It would be a shame to travel all the way to Fukuoka to only spend one day there. Your itinerary has you spending almost a week total in Tokyo. Why not take a couple of those days and add them to Fukuoka instead?

    Also, be wary of some animal cafés. The animals aren’t always treated well. Check out reviews online before visiting.

  3. Yokai event at toei park was a massive dissappointment. I dont know why gotokuji gets such a big rep, its one of the most boring shrines. I would also skip fukuoka, and spend the extra time doing a daytrip or extra day in tokyo or kyoto

  4. Nov 7 is too busy, you’ll likely finish Borderless right around lunch time, 1230/1, and most of the Tsukiji shops start winding down by 1:30. I would just eat lunch at Azabudai Hills and explore Roppongi instead of Takeshita.

    Echoing that you should just fly from FUK to Tokyo. If your international flight is later in the day, I would just fly from Fukuoka the same day to catch the international flight. That will save you a whole day’s worth of travel, since you would have spent ~5 hours in shinkansen and burned Nov 18. I would then add an extra day to Tokyo and a day to Fukuoka.

  5. If you MUST go to Fukuoka (which really is a waste of time given you are only there for a day after all the other sightseeing), fly domestic back to Tokyo Haneda, ship your luggage via black cat if that is troublesome. Fukuoka-Tokyo as a Shinkansen route is a waste of time for the general population.

    Though to be honest, with 2 weeks I wouldn’t have included Fukuoka in the itin at all.

  6. Theres a good chance we will cross paths at some point. Pretty similar to our itinerary 😂

  8. imo the samurai museums in Kyoto are an absolute waste of time and money. They are such tourist traps that the entire thing is in English without a single Japanese person in sight.

  9. I’d recommend skipping Osaka, Hiroshima and Fukuoka.

    Just stick to Tokyo and Kyoto. Both cities have so much to do and see. Do a week each.

  10. Didn’t really care too much for the inside of Osaka castle, if anything visit outside only.

  11. Just one thing as you mentioned Takeshita Street including animal Cafés: Please see for yourself if you really want to, but I found it to be a rather sad view.

  12. Fukuoka is so awesome, but I’d do that on your next trip (because you *know* you’ll be back). It would be a shame to go to Kyushu and have no time to explore that incredible island. You should plan to go to Fukuoka, Beppu, Kagoshima, Nagasaki, and the cool mountain onsen towns there.

  15. On the last day you forgot to add tissue paper. You will need it to wipe away the tears.

  16. Skip the animal cafés: they’re abhorrent places good only for people who don’t care about animal welfare or actively want to see animals suffer. In any case, you’ll see enough animals on Takeshita Street itself, which has not been popular among Japanese adults since the 1990s and even among Japanese junior high-schoolers since the 2000s. It’s exclusively an sphere of tourists now.

    You might want to see if you can switch to hotels instead of AirBnbs. Unless you have a large party, hotels will be more convenient, less expensive, and considerably less anxiety producing than the unpopular AirBnbs are.

  17. Curious if you have any tips on how you booked tickets to the sumo tournament as a foreigner? Was it easy to do online / did you use a service to help you? We want to go to the tournament in Osaka in March, but having trouble booking tickets.

  18. Definitely fly back to Tokyo from Fukuoka, the long shinkansen ride is not worth it and also you will not make it to check in at 3 pm

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