My wife and I are taking our first trip to Japan in the fall for our honeymoon, specifically a 10 day period sometime between mid-September and mid-October of this year. Our budget, excluding flights, is $5-7.5k. We're flying in and out of Tokyo/HND. While searching through the r/japantravel subreddit, a common critique I noticed is how packed and overly ambitious many of the itineraries are. So I'm looking for tips on structuring a more relaxed (and romantic!) trip to Tokyo and either Kyoto or Osaka. Instead of a whirlwind 10 day 5 city tour, doing 10 days in two places (or all 10 in one place).
Some other info about us/our travel style/trip goals:
- We tend to structure our travel around food. My partner has Jiro-inspired sushi dreams, I have Midnight Diner-inspired diner dreams. Food is probably the top thing that will drive our itinerary more than anything
- Instead of a day bouncing between tourist attractions, we like to wander around neighborhoods anchored by an activity or meal to enjoy the vibes. For example, when we went to Shanghai, we spent a whole afternoon in the part of the city Yu Yuan is in instead of just going to Yu Yuan and then moving on to some other part of the city for another tourist thing.
- We really want to do a day trip or overnight stay in an onsen town (Shima Onsen looks like the kind of quiet relaxing vibe we'd enjoy, somewhere like Nishimuraya Honkan could be a splurge option if we stayed in Kyoto or Osaka)
- Neither of us are into anime/video game themed attractions (for this trip) (I will just have to come back for a Yakuza-themed trip to follow the steps of Kiryu Kazama)
- Same with shrines, temples, castles. Not trying to avoid them but they aren't high on our list. If we're in the neighborhood and pass one, we might pop in.
- However! We would enjoy a nice park. I know r/Tokyo has at least one recommendations thread on this
by doom2