Hi! 🙂
I am planning a 22-day travel to Japan with my partner from October 20 to November 10. We think our itinerary is packed but doable. We are both really good walkers (used to hiking a lot), will travel by train and have JR pass, love thematic parks and themed cafes, nature and animals, are big foodies (like local food) and wanted to see as many different big cities as we could for our first travel. We were however wondering if transportation-wise we can do everything we want to do as planned, and if there are better ways to move around and do the activities we’d like. We were also wondering if you had any suggestions for activities for the cities mentioned (places to eat, fun small museums, nature activities, etc). We have a lot of days where not much is planned. Here’s our itinerary:
Day 1: Arrival in Tokyo at 3:25 pm. Explore the city a bit.
Day 2: Sanrio Puroland, stop at Shimokitazawa and Gotokuji on the way back
Day 3: Teamlab Planets, maybe UNKO museum
Day 4: Moomin Valley Park, Tove Jansson Akebono Children's Forest Park
Day 5: Teamlab Borderless, taking the Saphir Odoriko train to Ito
Day 6: Hagachizaki Monkey Bay
Day 7: Take train to Osaka
Day 8: Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan (maybe), Honke Shibato
Day 9: Universal Studios
Day 10: Free day. Wondering if we should take one more day in Osaka or Kyoto, or if there is another place near that we could go to that you would recommend.
Day 11: Legoland
Day 12: Ghibli Park
Day 13: Take train to Kyoto, Kyoto Railway Museum
Day 14: Nara Deer Park, Sagano Scenic Railway, Thousand Gates, Arashiyama Bamboo Forest
Day 15: TeamLab Biovortex, take train to Kure, Yamato Museum
Day 16: Take train to Fukuoka (either spend more time in Kure or Fukuoka)
Day 17: Dazaifu Tenmangu
Day 18: Take train to Kanazawa
Day 19: Kenrokuen Garden, Kanazawa Castle, Nagamachi Samurai District, Omicho Market (Canteen Shōroku)
Day 20: Take train to Nagano
Day 21: Jigokudani Monkey Park, Yudanaka Onsen Yoroduya
Day 22: Take train to Tokyo, flight at 6:45 pm
All suggestions welcome! 😊
*Edited to remove animal cafe/zoos/aquarium, but left the nature parks for now.
**Edited to add some recommendations
by ChocoCapybara