Hi everyone! After a lot of planning, a lot of reading all the helpful tips and tricks here, I finally have a somewhat finalized itinerary for my wife and mine first trip to Japan. It's been our lifelong dream, and I can't believe it is so close!
A bit of ourselves before I ask a few questions, to make it easier for any suggestions.
We're in our early 30s, love to travel and explore new cultures. In our trips we usually try to avoid having a super strict schedule in favor of just exploring and seeing where the place takes us. (Kyoto being the exception this time because there's so much I want to see lol)
We love nature, music and videogames.
We are foodies and love Japanese food, and can't wait to try everything there. Probably what my wife's most excited.
I'm a huge videogame and mainly Nintendo nerd. We're not so much into anime nowadays, but grew up watching the classics (Pokemon, Dragonball, Digimon, Sakura Card Captor, etc)
My wife loves thrift shopping and is looking to add some stylish pieces to her wardrobe this trip. Despite that, we're not hugely focused in shopping (although I know we're probably gonna pick up a few things)
Alright, here we go:
Sunday – September 28th
12:35pm – Arriving in Tokyo – Narita
We head straight to Kyoto via Shinkansen, so we plan on forwarding our bigger luggage to our hotel while still at the airport.
Take the Narita Express to Shinagawa Station, and then take the Shinkansen to Kyoto
I'm estimating we'll be getting to our hotel at around 6 – 7 pm (please let me know if this is unrealistic lol)
Probably gonna just find somewhere to grab dinner and go rest. (If I can gather the energy I'd love to take a stroll around Ninnenzaka at night since our hotel is close by)
Monday – September 29th
8am: Kiyomizu-dera, Walk around Sannenzaka / Ninnezaka, Explore the area
Would gladly take any suggestions on what to see / eat around this area, as our next scheduled activity is only at 2pm.
2pm – Nintendo Museum (managed to get tickets yay!)
Estimating to spend about 2 hrs there
4:30 – 5pm – Arrive at Fushimi Inari
Gonna try to hike all the way up during sunset / night. I was told is pretty well lit and beautiful at night.
After Fushimi Inari we're pretty open. Thinking of just exploring the area and finding a nice place to have dinner.
Tuesday – September 30th
We're taking a trip up to Kibune to go have a coffee at Hyoue Cafe, this place on top of a river that my wife found on Intagram and is obsessed since lol I know it is about a 2 hour trip via public transportation so I'm planning on breaking that up with some stuff on our way up.
7am – Breakfast at a convenience store and head to Kibune
~8 am – stop to go to Enkoji temple on the way (saw that this temple also has a bamboo grove so we decided to skip Arashiyama to go here)
9 am – back on our way to Kibune
10 am – 12 pm: go to Hyoue Cafe and also explore Kifune Shrine around the area
After this, our day is kinda open. I plan on hitting this afternoon:
Nishiki Market for lunch
Kyoto Imperial Palace
And then at night a stroll around Gion / Pontocho
Would love to fit Philospher's Path somewhere here but not sure if any of this is realistic.
Wednesday – October 1st (it's our 14th anniversary)
8am: Checking out / forward luggages to Osaka / go to Arashiyama Money Park
If in any case we don't have time to go Fushimi Inari on the 29th, I'm ready to replace the Monkey Park with it, but would love to do both.
11:30am – 2pm: Trip to Kinosakionsen / check in the ryokan
Then it's just exploring Kinosaki, going to a few public baths, and walking around. We have a dinner reservation in our hotel for 6pm and then a private onsen at 8:30pm.
Thursday – October 2nd
Morning: Check out and take the ropeway up the mountain. Try to hit one more onsen after that
1pm – 3:30ish pm: Shinkansen to Osaka
Check in, get our bags. Settle for a bit.
Then explore Dotonbori at night, having some street food and doing whatever we find interesting (will take recommendations!)
Friday – October 3th
8am – 3pm: Universal Studios (Mainly Super Nintendo World)
After that get back to the hotel, take a shower and head to spend the evening exploring Shinsekai.
Saturday – October 4th
9am – 2pm: Daytrip to Himeji Castle
3pm: Get back to Osaka / Explore Shinsaibaishi area maybe?
This evening we're considering doing that Izakaya Crawl tour on Klook. Anyone here done that? Any thoughts? We'd love to hit Karaoke too.
Sunday – October 5th
Morning: Go to Namba Yasaka Jinja Shrine and explore a bit of Namba
Afternoon: Visit the Nakanoshima library and then explore Tenma for some Isakaya Happy Hour hopefully
Evening: Umeda area / Umeda Sky Building
We're keeping this day pretty flexible so would love your recommendations for things to do in these areas I'm planning to explore.
Monday – October 6th
Morning: Check out, forward our luggage to Tokyo, find somewhere for breakfast
11am – 1pm: Shinkansen to Hiroshima / Check in the hotel
2pm – 6pm: Peace Park and Museum
Evening: have dinner somewhere nice (preferably good okonomiyaki)
Tuesday – October 7th
8am: Check out / breakfast
9am – 4pm: Explore Miyajima Island
6pm – 8pm: Flight tand arrival in Tokyo / Have dinner near our hotel in Ginza
Wednesday – October 8th
9am – 11am: Teamlabs Planets
12 – 3pm: Senso-ji Temple / Explore Asakusa / Stroll around Kappabashi
3 – 6pm: Explore Akihabara / Retro game shopping
Night: Head to Tokyo Skytree Area (gonna try to make reservations to Kirby Cafe for dinner, if I can't l'd love recommendations on where to eat around here!)
My main question with this day is: too packed? How realistic is this schedule considering distances / transportation between the areas?
Thursday – October 9th (I'm leaving this and the following day flexible to go to Mt Fuji depending on weather/visibility)
6 am – 9am : Trip to Mt Fuji
Since we don't know if we're going or not until the day before, I won't reserve any trains or buses so I assume I'll have to take public transit and that takes longer
9am – 3pm: Chureito Pagoda, Fujiyoushida, Kawaguchiko / Back to Tokyo
Question about Fuji day: is it worth going even if the visibility index is around 6- 7? In other words, is it worth it even if not perfectly clear skies?
6am – evening: Arrive back in the hotel / go out to eat and explore near Tokyo Station (Any recommendations?
We go back home in 2 days from here (Oct 11th). Should we already forward our luggage to Narita? Or can we do it one day before our flight?
Friday – October 10th
Morning: Explore Shibuya
Afternoon: Explore Meiji Jingu / Harajuku
Evening: Explore Shinjuku / Golden Gai
Again pretty flexible day. We for sure want to explore these 3 areas but would love recommendations on where to eat / what to see. We'd love if we could catch an indie artist gig for some live music. Is Shinjuku a good place for that?
Saturday – October 11th
9am – 12pm : Check out / Walk around Imperial Palace before heading back to the airport
1pm: Head back to the airport and then home
OK that was a lot! If you've read through all of this, thank you and if you answer any questions I had / recommend stuff thank you 1000x more!
by vitoramado