Hi everyone, this is my first reddit post ever! My friend and I, both 18yr old girls, are going on our first international trip alone to Japan in early may for about 2 weeks! I pretty much did all the planning and since its my first time planning a trip of this scale, I was hoping you could provide some insight, advice or any tips. That would be greatly appreciated<3
For travel style, since we're still very young and adventurous, we wanted to fit in as much as we could into our itinerary (we can sleep when we're dead!). Since its our first trip, we don't really know what we like or dislike, so I tried my best to include a wide variety of activites/sights. We like fun tourist attractions and natural scenery for sure, but the more historical sites as well as some super crowded tourist traps sound kinda boring so we left some things out (however, let me know if you think we're missing out on anything amazing). We are also aware our trip falls during Golden Week (only while we're in Tokyo) so we're definitely mentally preparing ourselves for the crowds. Finally, feel free to be brutally honest if you think there are any major issues with our planning.
May 2nd – Land in
check into hotel (located in Ginza), get ramen, walk around Ginza, and relax.
May 3rd – Asakusa, Ueno, Akihabara
Start bright and early at Tsukiji Fish market ~7:30am
Walk to scalp analysis and haircut appointment 10am
Get to sensoji temple by 12pm, walk around Asakusa and Nakamise shopping street
Head to Ueno park for ~3pm, rent a boat
Walk around Ameyoko market
Head to Akihabara for ~5pm, shop around, finish night at maid cafe
May 4th – Harajuku, Shibuya
Start morning at Gotokuji lucky cat temple ~9am
Head to Meiji Jingu shrine by 11am
Walk around Harajuku and Takeshita street for shopping (+ solado, chiikawa bakery, brandy melville, kiddy land, and more)
Shop at Shibuya 109 and check out Shibuya crossing
Stop by Tokyo character street at end of day if we have time
May 5th – Sanrio Puroland, Ikebukuro, Ginza
Get to Sanrio Puroland for 9:30am, spend about 3 hours there
Get to Ikebukuro around 2pm, do some shopping (yaoi dungeon lol)
Get to Ginza around 4-5pm and do some more shopping
*this is the day I'm most worried is too packed/ambitious?
May 6th – Kamakura, Enoshima
*not sure what time to start this day and how long to allocate for each activity
Visit shrines such as Zeniarai Benten, Sasuke Inari, Hasedera
*Will probably skip Houkokuji bamboo forest since I heard it's super crowded
See the great Buddha statue
Have a scenic walk on the beach
See the trains pass at the viral Kamakurakōkō-Mae station
take upside down train to enoshima station
See enoshima iwaya cave, walk around/explore the area
Head back to Shinjuku (where our capsule hotel is for the night) for Karaoke (maybe, if we're not too tired)
May 7th – Kyoto, Arashiyama
Arrive to our hotel at 10am using bullet train
Head straight to Arashiyama Monkey Park/Bamboo forest for ~11:30am
Go on Yakatabune boat ride
Walk around shopping area, visit miffy kitchen/rilakkuma tea house
Visit any temples if we have time like Tenryuji, Gioji, Otagi Nenbutsuji
Head back to see Fushimi Inari in the evening
May 8th – Kyoto, Gion
Start morning early at Rokujuan tea house ~8am
Rent kimonos at 10:30am and walk around geisha district, see Yasaka shrine
Return kimonos and head to My Only Fragrance at ~4pm to make custom perfumes
Walk to Kiyomizu-dera in time for the night illumination
May 9th – Nara
Head to Nara park to see the deer for ~11am
Check out Higashimuki shopping st quickly and see mochi pounding
Take train to Ikoma Sanjo Amusement park ~2pm
Head back to Kyoto for dinner at chao chao gyoza and end night at Macho Bar (8:45pm reservation)
May 10th – Osaka
Start day at Shinsekai market ~10am
See Tsutenkaku tower and ride slide
see Namba Yasaka Jinja shrine
Shop in Denden town
Check out Kuromon Market
Walk around Dotonburi, shop at Shinsaibashi
Stop by Hep Five shopping mall, Ferris wheel and Umeda sky building at the end of the day (close to our hotel)
*worried this day might be too packed as well
May 11th – Osaka, Katsuoji
Take first 9am bus to Katsuoji temple
head to Minoh falls by taxi and walk around
Head to Osaka aquarium in the evening
Finish night at Round1 fun centre
May 12th – Tokyo, spa day
(Well needed rest day) Take shinkansen to Tokyo, arrive around 12:30pm
Head straight to a spa facility and spend the entire day relaxing there
May 13th – Disneysea
Head to disneysea 1.5 hours before opening and spend all day there having lotsss of fun
May 14th – Fly back home 🙁
Late flight so maybe do last minute shopping and have a yummy meal before leaving
by ScaredDriver6904