[Itinerary Check] My friend has prepared an itinerary for our group consisting of 4 couples, 2 infants aged 2 year old and 1 single friend of ours. Can someone please point out if we are going wrong somewhere? Posting only for Osaka first as the post might get too long. Sorry if i made any mistakes.

3 comments

1. I don’t recommend driving in Osaka city center. The traffic+parking is quite bad, which I think is more stressful than necessary. Especially with your group size, you will need a bigger car which makes it even more difficult as some road and parking are quite narrow. Not sure whether you consider Osaka amazing pass. Seem to recall that some of the places that you shortlisted are included, and it also includes unlimited subway+bus.

2. Did you guys get the Pokemon cafe reservation? The reservations are pretty hard to get…

   Day1 and 2 look fine, good idea to be flexible and have extra ideas if you have energy/time but not feel like you need to pack them in.

   Day3 looks a little too packed- castle, tower, 2 shrines, see namba- getting around and sit down lunches/dinner will take time too. I think you’d only have time for castle, 1 shrine, and walk around namba so you have time to actually look around, shop, and not be rushed. There’s a museum inside Osaka castle, with several floors, and theres a separate ticket for walking around the castle grounds/garden, so depending how much you see it can take a while (but probably see the museum skip gardens since u you only have a few days). There’s street food stalls around the castle grounds too, so you could spend some time checking the out and getting some snacks

   Also +1 why would you drive (unless your friend lives in Japan?), it’s probably worse than trying to drive to sightsee in NYC. Subway is fast and easy (once you get the hang of navigating), and part of the experience. There’s also a lot of useful buses in Kyoto- Google Maps will tell you exactly how to navigate

3. It’s probably late to change flights, but I’d happily pay more money just so I can fly from Narita to KIX or ITM. Having to move airports after international flight with kids will suck.

   Is this all on one ticket? Will you have to move your own luggage from NRT to HND? If so, yeesh.

   Day 1. I’m skeptical you’ll have any energy remaining after all that to do dotonbori.

   And car rental I don’t really see a good reason for one the first three days. If you were using it to go from Osaka to somewhere else, that may make sense. However with that many people, you’d need multiple vehicles anyways, so you’d need to have several people who can drive and coordinate parking. Lot of stress

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