Hi everyone! I'd love some advice as I am a first time Japan (actually anywhere international!) traveler. I am F28 traveling with my friend F30 to Tokyo and Kyoto for the first time, which is a gift I gave my friend for her 30th birthday. Since I've never visited Japan, I'd like some advice to see if my itinerary is doable and if there's any suggested places to visit/things to do. This will be a 10-day trip.
Interests: My friend has been into anime and Japanese culture for almost 20 years. I have been into it for about 6 years now. This is the main reason we're going on this trip. It's been a lifelong dream of hers to go to Japan and I wanted to make sure we went during the biggest anime con in the world, Anime Japan. We love BL, Yaoi, Sports Anime, Shonens like Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, Hunter x Hunter, Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer, Sienens like Moriarty the Patriot, Bungo Stray Dogs, 91 Days, etc. and anything along those lines.
We both go to tons of US cons every year, collect merch, and want to visit panels of the Japanese voice actors at the con.
We're also casually interested in seeing Cherry Blossoms, shrines, temples, eating lots of good food (Ramen, desserts, meats, coffee, etc.), and seeing the culture of the country. However, our main priority are anime pop ups, merch, the con, and all things related to anime. With that in mind, I'd love some advice!
Friday
-Arrive at Narita Airport at 3:30pm
-Aim to get to the hotel around 6:30pm — We're staying at Akihabara Washington Hotel
-Explore Akihabara and look in the stores if they're still open when we get there. If not, we'll do this on Monday morning.
-Eat dinner in Akihabara (We haven't planned on any specific restaurants for any day, we're just planning on eating what we find near where we're at. I'm definitely open to suggestions if anyone has anything they love in any neighborhood I list. We're not picky!)
Saturday
Anime Japan con takes place at Tokyo Big Sight
-Anime Japan until late afternoon (around 4-ish)
-Tokyo Skytree for shopping and dinner
Sunday
-Anime Japan until late afternoon again
-Ginza (don't really have anything specific here but we'll eat dinner and explore)
Monday
-Ikebukuro – This is where we plan to spend most of our time, since I know this is a great area for anime merch, especially BL/Yaoi/Sports anime fans
-Possibly Shinjuku or Harajuku later in the day if we find something we want to do in one of those areas
Tuesday
-Ikebukuro in the morning until around 2pm-ish
-Shibuya – we want to visit locations from Jujutsu Kaisen and shop around, try lots of food.
Wednesday
-Nakano Broadway
-Late afternoon, The Harry Potter Experience in Nerima
Thursday
-Yokohama
-Morning: Yamashita Park (visit Bungo Stray Dogs locations)
-Afternoon: Yokohama Chinatown, Yokohama Museum of Art, The Sky Garden
-Late: Yokohama Cosmo World and dinner
Friday
-Travel to Kyoto via Shinkansen
-Arrive in the afternoon (hopefully early afternoon)
-We're staying at Hotel Keihan Kyoto Ekiminami
-Afternoon – explore shrines and things near the hotel
Saturday
-Explore more of Kyoto, shrines, stores, etc.
Sunday
-Early morning, a little more running around Kyoto
-Travel to Tokyo via Shinkansen
-Get to Narita around 3pm and explore the airport
-Flight leaves at 6:30pm
Please call me out if there might be a better order of seeing things/if some of the neighborhoods we're visiting in each day are not logical together/if you have any advice! We'd love to hear suggestions and we're totally open to moving things around. I also didn't list that many specific things to visit because we want to keep our options open and leave a lot of just casual exploration time and the opportunity to visit anime pop ups if they become open during our visiting days.
Thanks for your advice and suggestions, everyone!
by TaskTrue5568