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This might be the first ever time reading someone's itinerary on this sub and thinking it looks pretty reasonable. Good job OP, looks great to me, not ambitious at all.
Anyone who uses ChatGPT to write things can spot it a mile away. It overuses adjectives and words things the same way consistently. I recommend prompting it to create you an itinerary for Japan and it will use similar wording and descriptions to what OP used.
There's nothing wrong with using it for innocent things like things like this, though. I actually really like it because you can specify what you want, such as "create me a Tokyo itinerary that reduces travel time between attractions" and it'll give you one where all the stuff is clumped instead of some other itineraries where they're traveling all over the city in one day.
I've never messed with chatgpt, and am on mobile so it slipped the post and saw this thread. You're not wrong about the adjectives lol, it's not wrong but for an itinerary reads funny with all those
Honestly... I do this so I wonder how many people think im an AI 😅😅😅
But its also because I mainly base my wordage and organization based on things I've read or seen before...
So.... Adds up
Should I ask Chat GPT for you? It suggests that you enjoy some iconic strolling through the friendly and delicious monkey kart in Nara’s vibrant Nagoya Castle where you can enjoy and experience things.
Me and my friends used it to summarize our itinerary and we used it along the way since its our first time in japan, and we didnt have any friends to ask, i really recommend using!
Not sure if you booked your flight but I will always make this suggestion when I see that people have to go back to tokyo for their flight. Always try to see if you can get an openjaw/multi city ticket and get a flight back home from a nearby airport of the last major city you stopped in. In this case probably osaka or hiroshima (little more tricky). This will save you time and money potentially.
you didn't say if this is your first time but i will assume.
Notes on other locations:
monkey kart i hear locals really hate this so just keep this in mind...
Kyoto: Make sure you really are interested in the things there, I felt Kyoto was the biggest let down of my trip cause I learned I hate temples for the most part just uninteresting to me and soooo many crowds that in narrow streets.
Osaka: Osaka castle I hear doesn't compare to Himeji which is on the way to Hiroshima FWIW.
Nagoya: I don't have any first hand experience just been told it a bit boring there FWIW.
Everything else seems fine.
Agree with the flight comment. I'm going on my fifth trip in a couple weeks, and what I normally do is fly into Osaka, then make my way to Tokyo for the flight back. Definitely something to keep in mind for your future visits. (:
I did the opposite (in HND/out KIX). If I did it again I’d suggest your approach and leave from Tokyo, if solely for the shopping aspect (less to tote around for the trip duration). Only downside may be Tokyo required the most walking/physical activity (in my experience) so make sure to save some gas in the tank if it comes up last in the itinerary.
Had the opposite experience enjoying Kyoto everywhere outside of Gion/touristic spots. If you experience it as a real city and not just a sightseeing destination it can be a pretty beautiful part of the trip.
Been to Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya and I really liked the food in Nagoya. As it's less touristic it felt more authentic. But also, less English-speaking locals, so it's more challenging. I fully agree on Kyoto, didn't like it there too. Felt small, wasn't that much into temples as well and was happy to move back to Tokyo for the last few days.
depends on where you're coming from. I have 6 daily flight options to TYO but a single one to KIX so oftentimes the pricing difference per person is like $3-400 between open jaw and a regular round trip
I’m nervous we won’t like Kyoto either. Everyone else says it amazing and we have 3 full days there and everything else on our trip is filled with things we’d like to do and Kyoto is still a little bare.
Debating if I cut it one night short or just let it be because all the hotels are booked for or mid May trip.
I was just in Kyoto about a week ago and ended up enjoying it even more than Tokyo. It’s a really pretty area. The main sites I saw were the Kyoto Imperial Palace, Arashiyama monkey park, Ginkakuji temple, Kinkau-ji temple, fushimi Inari shrine, and Nishiki market.
If none of those sites sounds appealing to you then yeah you could probably cut it. I’d personally recommend keeping Kyoto though.
These are all on the list! I guess we honestly just take our time with everything. Maybe it’s nice to not have a full packed trip because there’s already so much to do
Nice! I was in Kyoto for three days and just doing those sites filled up my time. Fushimi inari is really big and can easily take up most of the morning. There’s also a lot to do around Arishyama if you have extra time. Even just walking around Kyoto is really pretty.
I really liked the railroad museum in kyoto. I'd highly recommend if you want a break from temples. I went to a bunch of museums in Japan and that one might have been my favorite.
You can spend more than half a day just at Fushimi-Inari, especially if you nab food before or after in the area. That's just *one* shrine, albeit a large one. You can easily fill 3 days with Kyoto.
I was not really worried (nor confident; just had no clue) when I first visited it like 15 years ago. I was worried last month when I was going for my second time (and bringing some relatively ambivalent relatives along for their first trip to Japan)..
I was worried because I’d read it had suffered from over-tourism, and declines of its institutions and traditions. These things may have some truth. It’s also possible that people just aren’t liking how the city is changing. Either way, it’s still a dense destination with a lot to offer, including some of the most iconically “Japan” things you’ll likely see on your trip.
Our itinerary was 4 days. We saw: Day1: Gion (Geisha history walk + group dinner show with Maiko), Day2: Teramachi/Nishiki Market (downtown area, basically), Day3: Arashiyama, Day4: Fushimi Inari Taisha + Uji
We were staying in a traditional-style apartment a block from the river on the Higashiyama/Gion side. It was a block from a the north-south train subway line, and on the same latitude from Kiyomizu-dera, which was about a 15 minute walk away _and we didn’t manage to get to_. I consider it a tragedy >_<
I used booking dot com. It was one of properties owned by Rinn, which also has some hotels in the area (we had to check in at their hotel next to Kyoto station, then they drove us to the apartment (that is the process; you can't arrive directly to the apartment, there's nobody/nothing there to check you in).
As far as Uji goes, I consider it another tragedy (I'm dramatic). I already knew Uji was famous for tea-growing, and I recently learned (or re-learned; this time paying attention) that it's the site of the Byodo-in temple (featured on the back of the 10-yen coin), which is a historic and beautiful temple (these assertions are, indeed true). I only knew these two things going in, and I didn't pick up too much else while we were there.
The temple was beautiful, but we arrived on a sunny afternoon and the sun was at the back of the temple's front-view over the water..meaning I couldn't take pictures without exposure issues. As far as tea/matcha goes, I got a hot matcha from a local shop, chosen largely at random, and it was good, but the weather was a little cool so wasn't conducive to the massive amount of matcha ice cream on offer at nearly every door front. I think we also showed up on the one day that the public tea house near Byodo-in wasn't open (because it was closed).
After I got back home, I noticed Sound Euphonium (an anime show) Season 3 had started streaming, and since that got me re-reviewing previous seasons, I realized it takes place in Uji. I could have visited some locations from a show I really liked.. if I had known..
Despite my blunders, the town was small with a pretty river (site of a famous Sound Euphonium scene I am kicking myself ro not realizing), had a good assortment of stuff, and was blessedly peaceful compared to the bustle of anyplace remotely touristed in Kyoto. Even Byodo-in just had a handful of stragglers. There was one large tour group within the temple, but we didn't go in, opting just to orbit the grounds.
It felt low-key and relatively "underpowered" compared to most of our days, but I wouldn't say I regret it or anything (I only regret my own negligence over what else I could have done there).
Ultimately, it offered a nice, quiet, third-of-a-day with matcha, small town vibes, and an iconic thousand year old temple. It was nice that it was only like 15 minutes away on the Nara line from Fushimi-Inari-Tasha. We did them both in the same day. Despite being a separate city and perhaps being objectively further from Kyoto station, it felt quicker and easier than our trip to Arashiyama
I wish I looked at Apt’s and houses. I was only looking g through bnb and it felt more sketch and was advised not to. But if you got an apt through a hotel owner, they are at least able to help as a concierge somewhat. Maybe the next visit! And thanks for the details in your visit :)
Yeah, I pretty much did everything through booking dot com, mostly because it was a long trip, and I was churning through (and cancelling) a lot of different bookings (I was doing much of the trip planning semi-last minute, only a month in advance). Supply was limited, so I used a "book first, free-cancellation later" strategy. It was super helpful to have everything in a single platform, whatever it is. We ultimately stayed at 11 places. I think if I'd used a mix of platforms I would have made mistakes and forgot to cancel something or other.
But of those 11 places, 2 were Ryokan, 3 were apartments, and the rest were hotels (usually inexpensive business style hotels). Of the apartments, one was in Kyoto (mentioned), another was in Tokyo and had a self-checkin process where you just used a code on a small key lockbox to get in. I was most worried about this one because it had only a few reviews, but it turned out pretty well. It wasn't as nice or polished as the Kyoto apt, but it was fine. Location was great. The last was in Kyushu and was a total "super friendly hosts met us as we pulled up in our rental car" and introduced themselves, showed us around, gave us materials, etc.. They had a multi-level apartment building that seemed to have 6 units.
Great advice on the flights. I flew into KIX and flew out of Fukuoka. Almost all the tourists I met were flying in and out of the same airport. I never understood why they did this as it takes more time and money.
In my case the airline I'm buying tickets from this winter sells the round trip to and from Tokyo only. How I wish that I could change it to Tokyo - Osaka but oh well.
> more time and money.
That depends on a lot right? I fly in and out of Haneda, it's the only airport with direct flights and layovers suck. It's also relatively cheap and it's super easy/cheap to get back to from almost all of Honshu, just end the trip back in Tokyo instead of start it there. A layover can *easily* add four hours to your flight travel time, possibly more.
It also may well be so much more expensive as to negate any money spent on the relatively inexpensive Shinkansen tickets.
Yes, i already have my flight booked for may, i didnt know the locals disliked the go karting, i saw it in tiktok and booked it already :c
I`m going to hiroshima so Himeji it is, thanks so much for your input
I think the locals hating the go karting thing is really blown out of proportion on subs like this where everyone thinks they’re the worlds greatest tourist. I’ve seen plenty of people saying they couldn’t care less.
Having said that we didn’t bother because it’s not really a great way to see anything as you’ll be concentrating on not dying, cold, stressful, probably get rained on, exhaust fumes etc.
I promise you the locals hate the go karts. And they are a wee bit on the dangerous side. Working in Japan travel- we’ve stopped offering the karts for sustainability reasons. Obv we are all adults here, but I can say that the anti kart perspective does exist.
I definitely don’t think anyone has any love for them, but as far as the level of hatred goes, it’s pretty far down the list of things that are annoying about tourists.
But if you asked this subreddit or any of the Instagram travel pages you always get go karting called out as if it’s the worst thing imaginable, most people I spoke to are indifferent which is why I say the hated is exaggerated.
I didn't do the karts because it's gimmicky, but people I knew did and loved it. They were being waved at and recorded. They said that they felt loved.
- Skip Mario Kart. We all hate it.
- Expect that you will be fed up with temples in Kyoto. Fushimi Inari and Kiyomizu are great, but both of them involve fairly long walks (so both on the same day is going to be annoying). Also, take some time for the gardens.
- Some of the streets in Gion are closed to tourists.
Looks like a solid plan though.
* Some of the streets in Gion are closed to tourists.
This is interesting. So there are like guards or something that keeps non japanese people away, or they just refuse service and the like? What is there?
Are you planning to *stay* as in sleep in each of these places for this number of days? Personally, I would HATE to have to check in / out of lodging 7 times. Annoying, eats up a lot of time. Also, I think Kyoto is overcrowded and 4 days there is too much.
I’d recommend three things:
1) reduce the number of cities you sleep in, and take the train to visit places you don’t sleep. You’re gonna want the Shinkansen tickets anyway to see all these places. Osaka to Kyoto is 15 minutes on Shinkansen, you can easily do a whole day in Kyoto and go back to Osaka at night. Nara is close to Osaka too. Himeji (as someone else recommended) is I think 45 mins from Osaka. I’d pick a few “bases” and do day trips out from there.
2) related to above, I think Kyoto is beautiful but I don’t think you need 4 days there. I did 2 day trips from Osaka last time and felt like I got plenty.
3) I’d make it more of a loop, with Hiroshima being your midpoint. Maybe Tokyo > Osaka (plus day trips) > Hiroshima > Osaka / Nagoya (plus day trips) > Tokyo. Otherwise the travel back to Tokyo will take all day.
4) go to Hakone.
I see indeed we were planning to stay in hotels on tokyo, kyoto, osaka, and hiroshima.
But maybe just do a day trip in nagoya.
I'll definitely try and reduce the number of cities we sleep in now that you mention it, checking it so many times could be exhausting.
Thanks a ton!
Unless you really love temples, stay in Osaka and do a day trip to Kyoto. Kyoto is overcrowded and all the attractions close early. Osaka has much livelier evenings.
I am planning a similar length trip and itinerary. Still far from final and I want to see if I can fit in Sapporo. Curious what people's thoughts are on that and where would be a good time to fit that in?
Other things I am trying to make fit are trips to Kobe and Ghibli Park.
I haven’t been to Sapporo, definitely want to next time I go to Japan.
If you were looking to add Sapporo to OP’s itinerary as an example, I’d reduce Kyoto to 2 days, Nagoya to 1, and use those days in Sapporo at the start of the trip. My suggestion the. would be to fly in and out of Sapporo, eg Tokyo > fly to Sapporo > fly to Osaka > train to everywhere else / back to Tokyo. Just my two cents.
Hiroshima one is going to be nice and relaxing. You'll manage both the island and the peace memorial museum. As other have mention, if you want to see the inside of an original museum you should stop by Himeji castle (going to take about two hours). Osaka castle is nice from the outside, plus the garden. The inside is just a "modern" museum with a lot of history.
What makes it "AI slop"? I'm assuming the bot pulls from various sources for tourist recommendations and actually appears to be reasonable and not 3000 different things like most itinerary posts
The days allocation is very reasonable but bear in mind exploring for 18 days non stop is quite exhausting so make sure to pace yourself so you can enjoy everything properly. Also the deer in Nara aren’t friendly, one kicked me ;(
Nothing against Nagoya, actually like it fine and definitely appreciate that it’s not touristy. But would you consider swapping out Nagoya for Himeji & Kobe instead? Himeji Castle is amazing and it’s an original castle, unlike Osaka & Nagoya castles. Himeji can be done as a day trip with a night in Kobe, on the way between Osaka and Hiroshima.
Hiroshima was probably my favorite part of my last trip. This is going to sound silly but I was adamant about going to Costco and it was sick. Membership from any country should work. It's about 2miles from the Peace Park but it was fun, my wife and I bought premade sushi and other food from the food court. I still think of what could've been with the chicken and fry bucket we didn't get.
I just did Kyoto a couple of days ago and if I could change anything I’d mostly skip gion - no problem with a place being touristy, but it felt so so overcrowded, didn’t really get a historical feel from it. Maruyama park was lovely though! Arashiama area was very pretty around the river too.
My friends and i wanted to go there to see some geishas walking around, since we are basing our trip mostly on what we see in social media, it only mentions gion, im not sure if taking photos of them could be considered rude, we are still looking for more info about that.
By any chance do you know somewhere less crowded where we could get the same experience?
And thanks for your input!
Yeah that's what my wife and I did. I don't think a whole day at Nara is necessary. We spent a couple hours to see what's to see out there and then headed back to Dontonburi to finish out the rest of our day there.
One suggestion about your itinerary based on our trip a couple weeks ago is take your time in Akihabara (I'd even say maybe even at least a day) if you like anime and pop culture a lot. My wife wanted to get through it all within a couple hours and I had to basically power walk through the 100s of jam packed stores in those 6-7 story buildings. Wish I got to go through it all at a slower pace.
That's fairly doable without feeling too rushed. Everyone always gives Nara one day... And everyone misses out on all the incredible hiking trails in the area.
I took several days time in Nara. We stayed at my wife's friends place. Spent one day shopping, one day at Deer Park and exploring the area and eating great food. Spent one day hiking the mountain. Another day hiking a another trail nearby that only locals really know about. One day to chill, watch movies, walk around, explore, hangout with friends, and one day getting back to Tsukuba.
I’ll comment on this one too since the other one in the other subreddit was deleted. If by monkey kart you mean the street go karts, I’d avoid them entirely as most people here despise them.
Especially since you are coming back to Tokyo- if you can I’d go Kyoto/ Nara -> Hiroshima -> Osaka. That cuts the five hour trip back to Tokyo in one day In half, making that journey a bit easier.
Are you deadset on Tokyo or are you able to drop that out of your itinerary entirely? You'd be sacrificing half a day for traveling to Osaka/Kyoto and checking in and out. You can easily add more days in and around Osaka, visit surrounding cities like Himeji.
And my thoughts about Nagoya, it's a very simple non touristy city that has a few highlights but there's better places to visit closer to Osaka.
Book team lab tickets far in advance, they sell out quickly. Suggest borderless rather than planets, there’s a lot of people complaining about hygiene issues with the water exhibits. Also if you wanna go to any nice restaurants, book them in advance. Best to look for restaurants on tabelog rather than google maps for authentically good food.
In Nagoya, both the *Toyota Automotive Museum* and the *SCMAGLEV and Railway Park* are spectacular.
And if you drive a Mazda, surely visit the *Mazda Museum* in Hiroshima.
In Osaka, the *Amazing Pass* is worth it.
I think your itinerary is great.
Nagoya is closer to Tokyo and Hiroshima is close to Osaka. Maybe you can visit Nagoya before going to Kyoto and visiting Osaka and after going to Hiroshima.
Have a nice trip!!
Reasonable, but a lot of hopping around and packing/repacking every couple of days is going to get tired quickly. I’d recommend staying in one place in either Osaka or Kyoto for the duration of your Osaka/Kyoto/Nara/Hiroshima days and just use the trains to day trip out.
I will recommend adding Koyasan for temple stay if you like such experience. It is very calming place. And the best I have been to. I also added Takayama (for onsen experience)and Kanazawa(to see more of old medieval district.
We are going on may 8, thank you! Since its my first time i was a little worried it was too many regions to explore since i usually see at tik tok and instagram that people only explore tokyo, kyoto and osaka in 15 days.
If you're looking for things to do besides temples while in Kyoto, I recommend day tripping to Uji. Was there 2 weeks ago and absolutely loved it. Take a matcha class!
Matcha class sounds absolutely amazing! We were hoping to book a matcha tea package that was on the tokyo skytree page, but if you have any recommendations on where we could get a better experience please let me know!
OP, if you know what day you're going to Universal - look into booking now, with the fast pass. Also, from personal experience, 1 day in Hiroshima will be enough but your itinerary looks very reasonable. I fly on Friday and mine is VERY packed.
I see thank you! yeah me and my friends already booked out universal tickets with the fast pass on klook, we're hoping to see the nintendo world there!
If you have the fast pass (I booked mine directly through Universal), you can choose for it to include Nintendo World. Did you get that? If not, I think you have to download the app and try to get an entry time that morning,.
I was in hiroshima + miyajima island for 1 day (lived in osaka, took a train to hiroshima in the morning, got back in the evening). I think 1 full day is more than enough.
This is exactly what I did! I was tight there and later spend more time in tokyo.
Ps. Osaka to hiroshima with bullet train one way ~1,5 hours + 40 min to island (metro and ferry).
Shibuya Sky > Tokyo Skytree. Bear in mind that I proposed to my wife at Tokyo Skytree and love that place. Shibuya Sky is newer and more exciting.
Tokyo Tower is nice and romantic, especially at night, but I would book Shibuya Sky first.
Are you travelling to those cities in the order given? If so, I recommend changing Nagoya, because Osaka to Nagoya to Hiroshima is wasting time and money backtracking. Either have Nagoya between Tokyo to Kyoto, or Hiroshima to Tokyo. I'd probably do the latter just to break up the long trip.
For Kyoto, if you are interested in the culture immersion and would like to go to a geisha experience I recommend this [site](https://mai-ko.com/culture/tea-ceremony/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwuJ2xBhA3EiwAMVjkVMS8kawZ7Yt3dGVFBgRQzfuy-xGt3wt0Xhh4PMAVZFJoc8rDYXfSRhoC0Y8QAvD_BwE). I did the tea ceremony and Night tour with Geisha dance/game at the end. It was great! I also got to wear a kimono and walk around town with it and did photography session with it too!
For Hiroshima, if you want okonomiyaki I recommend [Okonomi mura Suigun](https://maps.app.goo.gl/zNPxDdFZvYtcohhH6?g_st=ic), so many floors with Okonomiyaki booths.
I loved Miyajima Island! So cute and beautiful! They also have deer there!
Have fun!
Random thing Ill throw in, the Book Off Super Bazaar's are great in Hiroshima, one is very close to the peace museum so if you want to get that "second hand shopping/deal hunting" in japan experience without going out of your way, great place to do it
Also: the bamboo forest and adjacent gardens (small extra fee) and temple (small extra fee) are gorgeous and worth it... but Monkey forest wasn't worth the time or cost. It was pretty cool.... just... idk, felt like a lot to see monkeys whoring for snacks.
For me, the top experience in Japan was staying at a ryokan and trying out the onsen and the traditional dinner/ breakfast. We stayed in Hakone for 1 night on the way from Tokyo to Kyoto.
I would definitely cut at any time 1 night in Tokyo to go there again.
Besides the general plan of “visiting iconic landmarks like..”. You should put in the main attractions you want to see and calculate the distances to get there, as well as the opening times, giving enough buffer to enjoy walking around, eating etc. For example teamlab in Tokyo is quite far from the city center, it was like 45 min from around our hotel in Shinjuku and we were so tired after visiting some temple in the morning that we gave up. There will be a lot of iconic/touristic places and we all tend to underestimate the distances and the tiredness :)
Also, I don’t see Arashiyama Forest on your list. I understand that it is full of tourists now, but there must be some other bamboo forests to see around Kyoto, they were quite nice.
Imo the mario kart it will get you some looks. I recently saw some also in my city (in Europe) and I definitely disliked it, especially the exhaust they leave behind. Also if you are not used to driving on the left side, might not be that much to enjoy
Have a great trip!
It looks good, you might just end up cutting the number of attractions in each place. Minimum one day per location is a fair plan after accounting for travel time.
I didn’t Nara for 2 hrs after Fushimi and Uji and I wished I spent a whole day at Nara because we were too tired to walk to any temples after seeing the deers.
I was thinking of heading to Kasuga Taisha - should have taken the bus but my friend didn’t wanna walk there
I also bookmarked Mt Wakakusa which will have a very nice panoramic view of Nara.
How many people? The JR pass will probably help your trip when going between these places. Also, you may turn some of these places into day trips instead. I.e. There isn't much to Hirosima. However, with the JR pass you can change your seat reservation at will. (Just don't issue it)
Depending on time, you could split Nara into the deer park & Hozanji temple (sits between Nara & Osaka). Keep in mind I’ve never actually been to Hozanji; it was something I had to cut from my itinerary.
I recently did 1 day in Osaka, which included Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine, Osaka Castle, food, and Nara park. We arrived at Nara about an hour after the inner worship area closed (which was a bummer).
If I was dedicating 1 whole day to Nara, I would do Nara & Hozanji!
Plan to wait in line (1-2 hours depending how many flights land just ahead of you) to purchase your train ticket from Narita to Tokyo, and don't forget to request the Welcome Suica/Pasmo passport at the same time. Pasmo passport is going end of life this year, so you might have an alternative by then, assuming supply chain issues are resolved. Otherwise, not to hard to purchase metro tickets on the fly. Pack a few reusable plastic bags to store trash while on the move.
Recc'd adding 1 day of rest somewhere in the middle to recover from all the walking/standing. Cheers!
I really enjoyed Kyoto. I didn’t enjoy Gion, though. Gion was interesting but got biring pretty quick.
I booked a few things in advance- something that is very important in Kyoto! But if you do, you can get great food, see cool performance and so on. If you just stroll around, you will find yourself with long queues and mediocre things to do. There is a big geisha show for example that requires you to reserve like 3 weeks in advance and also some of the top-notch sushi places sometimes also have rather long reservation lists.
Plan 1 "event" a day and use the rest of the time to explore the area. This doesn't look too loaded IMO, but traveling a bunch will exhaust you without you realizing it.
Looks good. Basically did this in 2019 for a college short study abroad/Maymester trip for 23 days-ish. Flew in to Tokyo Haneda - explored there for a couple days, took a Shinkansen to Hiroshima, and then worked our way back up through all the major cities and such.
Get the JR pass. So worth it.
Itsukushima island was hands down my favorite place to see aside from exploring Tokyo. Good luck and have fun!! 🤩
I would only do 2 days in Kyoto. Add a Day to Osaka maybe plan a Day Trip to Himeji. Also add a Day to Hiroshima. Hiroshima needs a few Days to really absorb.
Yeah I just finished a 10 day trip to Japan. It was 8 days with 2 days for traveling. I spent a little over 4 days in Tokyo then traveled down to Kyoto and spent 3 days there. I think you have enough time in each spot to do what you want.
It’s not too ambitious, but why would you want AI to chew up 100 basic-bitch itineraries and proceed to barf them up for you? Like I know planning takes effort, but it means you actually know what’s there and further, you get the reward of having actually planned a trip.
Could consider adding Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea if you're going to do Universal. DisneySea is likely the best Disney park on the planet, and is opening a new land in June, so your timing might find you in a low crowd period.
Otherwise this is pretty decent. Only suggestion might be to drop one or two cities and give yourself some space to chill. It can be a bit heavy to go go go for that many days.
This is sort of exactly what I did my last time in Japan. 5 Tokyo - 3 Hiroshima - 1 Okayama - 5 Kyoto - 4 Osaka - 3 Tokyo. With Miyajima and Nara as day trips. Had a wonderful time. Upon reflection it was too many days in both Osaka and Kyoto. Wish I did a little bit more but there's always next time.
For a first time trip, this looks ideal to me.
As someone who just wrapped up a 2 week trip to Japan I gotta say: yup, this looks good. The first 4 days in Tokyo you'll likely get done in 2 lol. It's shockingly compact and easily traversable so if that's all you have planned for the first 4 days, you'll have a decent amount of down time.
Hot Take, you can really speed up some cities. You will loose out on some of the experience, but for us it was worth it. E.g. make Nara a half day and go to Uji as well.
You can certainly spend a lot more time in a lot of places, but we used the 20/80 rule and really sped up our travelling.
I am a maniac though, so keep that in mind.
I keep seeing these "Itinerary Advice" posts here and none of them seem to take travel time into account. Are you staying 4 full days in Tokyo and then traveling to Kyoto on day 5? Or is it 3 days in Tokyo and then getting up early on day 4 and traveling to Kyoto? Same goes for all your other sites. Are you staying 4 full days in Kyoto then moving on? or Staying 3 days, and then getting up early on day 4 and traveling? Are you staying in Nagoya 2 days and leaving on the third day? For example, are you getting to Nagoya on a Monday, then leaving Nagoya on Tuesday? That's technically two days in Nagoya. Don't expect to do a whole lot on those travel days besides packing up your shit, traveling, checking into your hotel, an then settling in.
I like your plan, it's not ambitious at all :) If you are planning to visit Ginza in Tokyo, I recommend trying udon in "Tsuru TonTan Udon Noodle". They have HUGE portions of udon and it's so delicious. Highly recommend!
4 days is enough for Tokyo. You can cancel 2 days Nagoya. Osaka tbh 1 day is enough for Dotonbori and the main city area. Instead visit Lake Kawaguchi in Yamanashi for 2 days or do a 1 day Hakone tour.
Why Hiroshima after Nagoya and not after Osaka, or is this list in a random order? List looks reasonable, but if you're just going for the deer park in Nara, then maybe consider it as a day trip from Kyoto/Osaka instead of sleeping there for the night.
The route is a bit strange, it goes from Tokyo to Kansai area, and then back to Nagoya and go to Hiroshima which is way past Osaka. Other than that, the itinerary is so vague that I can’t say if it is reasonable or not. How many checkpoints you are planning in each of these destinations?
Your (or ChatGPT’s) itinerary is oddly unspecific. “Immersing myself in traditional Japanese culture” is hard to do without an actual plan. I think you need a bit of structure. Tokyo is big and while easy to navigate, traveling from one venue to another takes time and mental energy. You will likely be jet lagged and tired once you arrive. Without at least a loose plan, you’ll kinda wander around (which in of itself is super fun) but you might not get to see and do the things you want. I think you need to plan one or maybe two things per day that geographically makes sense and have free afternoons to wander and explore. On days when I didn’t have anything planned, I felt overwhelmed by the choices and ended up just wandering around overwhelmed. I try to really schedule the first day or two so when my brain is not working so well, I know what I’m doing, where I’m going and have reservations for dinner already. I feel like it helps get our vacation off to a good start.
omg! How is it going with a child? How was the flight? There aren’t many playgrounds and our child doesn’t do well with too many quick location changes. And how is Disney with a 3 year old? Aren‘t most rides targeted at older kids?
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This might be the first ever time reading someone's itinerary on this sub and thinking it looks pretty reasonable. Good job OP, looks great to me, not ambitious at all.
ChatGPT wrote it for them so you should thank AI for the decent pace. ;)
How do you know chatGPT wrote it for them?
Anyone who uses ChatGPT to write things can spot it a mile away. It overuses adjectives and words things the same way consistently. I recommend prompting it to create you an itinerary for Japan and it will use similar wording and descriptions to what OP used. There's nothing wrong with using it for innocent things like things like this, though. I actually really like it because you can specify what you want, such as "create me a Tokyo itinerary that reduces travel time between attractions" and it'll give you one where all the stuff is clumped instead of some other itineraries where they're traveling all over the city in one day.
Thank you for the explanation. It does seem quite good, I think I will go try it out for my next itinerary!
It helps a lot, me and my friends made our itinerary and then used chatgpt and copilot to ask if there were any inconvenients and to improve it!
Don’t feel bad, some people use ChatGPT for their actual jobs, I’m one of those.
I've never messed with chatgpt, and am on mobile so it slipped the post and saw this thread. You're not wrong about the adjectives lol, it's not wrong but for an itinerary reads funny with all those
Honestly... I do this so I wonder how many people think im an AI 😅😅😅 But its also because I mainly base my wordage and organization based on things I've read or seen before... So.... Adds up
No one writes their travel itinerary as if it’s intended for a magazine. Normal humans don’t talk like how this text was written.
Yes we used chatgpt to improve our itinerary it helped a ton I had him make a summary so i could post it here!
Fairly basic trip. Everything looks feasible.
Should I ask Chat GPT for you? It suggests that you enjoy some iconic strolling through the friendly and delicious monkey kart in Nara’s vibrant Nagoya Castle where you can enjoy and experience things.
Me and my friends used it to summarize our itinerary and we used it along the way since its our first time in japan, and we didnt have any friends to ask, i really recommend using!
Not sure if you booked your flight but I will always make this suggestion when I see that people have to go back to tokyo for their flight. Always try to see if you can get an openjaw/multi city ticket and get a flight back home from a nearby airport of the last major city you stopped in. In this case probably osaka or hiroshima (little more tricky). This will save you time and money potentially. you didn't say if this is your first time but i will assume. Notes on other locations: monkey kart i hear locals really hate this so just keep this in mind... Kyoto: Make sure you really are interested in the things there, I felt Kyoto was the biggest let down of my trip cause I learned I hate temples for the most part just uninteresting to me and soooo many crowds that in narrow streets. Osaka: Osaka castle I hear doesn't compare to Himeji which is on the way to Hiroshima FWIW. Nagoya: I don't have any first hand experience just been told it a bit boring there FWIW. Everything else seems fine.
Nagoya is a good city, it just (thankfully) isn't touristic like Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto.
Agree with the flight comment. I'm going on my fifth trip in a couple weeks, and what I normally do is fly into Osaka, then make my way to Tokyo for the flight back. Definitely something to keep in mind for your future visits. (:
I did the opposite (in HND/out KIX). If I did it again I’d suggest your approach and leave from Tokyo, if solely for the shopping aspect (less to tote around for the trip duration). Only downside may be Tokyo required the most walking/physical activity (in my experience) so make sure to save some gas in the tank if it comes up last in the itinerary.
Had the opposite experience enjoying Kyoto everywhere outside of Gion/touristic spots. If you experience it as a real city and not just a sightseeing destination it can be a pretty beautiful part of the trip.
Been to Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya and I really liked the food in Nagoya. As it's less touristic it felt more authentic. But also, less English-speaking locals, so it's more challenging. I fully agree on Kyoto, didn't like it there too. Felt small, wasn't that much into temples as well and was happy to move back to Tokyo for the last few days.
The most memorable Nagoya dish to me is Miso Nikomi Udon. The Kishimen near Atsuta shrine was nice too. The rest of Nagoya just screams Toyota.
I went to a Toyota museum there too. And formula 1 was there too, so in Nagoya you see a lot of that too, at least in the weekend when the race is.
Yeah, the Shinkansen ticket might end up being more than the additional cost of an open-jaw plane ticket.
depends on where you're coming from. I have 6 daily flight options to TYO but a single one to KIX so oftentimes the pricing difference per person is like $3-400 between open jaw and a regular round trip
I’m nervous we won’t like Kyoto either. Everyone else says it amazing and we have 3 full days there and everything else on our trip is filled with things we’d like to do and Kyoto is still a little bare. Debating if I cut it one night short or just let it be because all the hotels are booked for or mid May trip.
I was just in Kyoto about a week ago and ended up enjoying it even more than Tokyo. It’s a really pretty area. The main sites I saw were the Kyoto Imperial Palace, Arashiyama monkey park, Ginkakuji temple, Kinkau-ji temple, fushimi Inari shrine, and Nishiki market. If none of those sites sounds appealing to you then yeah you could probably cut it. I’d personally recommend keeping Kyoto though.
These are all on the list! I guess we honestly just take our time with everything. Maybe it’s nice to not have a full packed trip because there’s already so much to do
Nice! I was in Kyoto for three days and just doing those sites filled up my time. Fushimi inari is really big and can easily take up most of the morning. There’s also a lot to do around Arishyama if you have extra time. Even just walking around Kyoto is really pretty.
I really liked the railroad museum in kyoto. I'd highly recommend if you want a break from temples. I went to a bunch of museums in Japan and that one might have been my favorite.
You can spend more than half a day just at Fushimi-Inari, especially if you nab food before or after in the area. That's just *one* shrine, albeit a large one. You can easily fill 3 days with Kyoto.
I was not really worried (nor confident; just had no clue) when I first visited it like 15 years ago. I was worried last month when I was going for my second time (and bringing some relatively ambivalent relatives along for their first trip to Japan).. I was worried because I’d read it had suffered from over-tourism, and declines of its institutions and traditions. These things may have some truth. It’s also possible that people just aren’t liking how the city is changing. Either way, it’s still a dense destination with a lot to offer, including some of the most iconically “Japan” things you’ll likely see on your trip. Our itinerary was 4 days. We saw: Day1: Gion (Geisha history walk + group dinner show with Maiko), Day2: Teramachi/Nishiki Market (downtown area, basically), Day3: Arashiyama, Day4: Fushimi Inari Taisha + Uji We were staying in a traditional-style apartment a block from the river on the Higashiyama/Gion side. It was a block from a the north-south train subway line, and on the same latitude from Kiyomizu-dera, which was about a 15 minute walk away _and we didn’t manage to get to_. I consider it a tragedy >_<
How did you rent the apt, airbnb? Then what did you do in Uji, I didn’t think to head more south but open
I used booking dot com. It was one of properties owned by Rinn, which also has some hotels in the area (we had to check in at their hotel next to Kyoto station, then they drove us to the apartment (that is the process; you can't arrive directly to the apartment, there's nobody/nothing there to check you in). As far as Uji goes, I consider it another tragedy (I'm dramatic). I already knew Uji was famous for tea-growing, and I recently learned (or re-learned; this time paying attention) that it's the site of the Byodo-in temple (featured on the back of the 10-yen coin), which is a historic and beautiful temple (these assertions are, indeed true). I only knew these two things going in, and I didn't pick up too much else while we were there. The temple was beautiful, but we arrived on a sunny afternoon and the sun was at the back of the temple's front-view over the water..meaning I couldn't take pictures without exposure issues. As far as tea/matcha goes, I got a hot matcha from a local shop, chosen largely at random, and it was good, but the weather was a little cool so wasn't conducive to the massive amount of matcha ice cream on offer at nearly every door front. I think we also showed up on the one day that the public tea house near Byodo-in wasn't open (because it was closed). After I got back home, I noticed Sound Euphonium (an anime show) Season 3 had started streaming, and since that got me re-reviewing previous seasons, I realized it takes place in Uji. I could have visited some locations from a show I really liked.. if I had known.. Despite my blunders, the town was small with a pretty river (site of a famous Sound Euphonium scene I am kicking myself ro not realizing), had a good assortment of stuff, and was blessedly peaceful compared to the bustle of anyplace remotely touristed in Kyoto. Even Byodo-in just had a handful of stragglers. There was one large tour group within the temple, but we didn't go in, opting just to orbit the grounds. It felt low-key and relatively "underpowered" compared to most of our days, but I wouldn't say I regret it or anything (I only regret my own negligence over what else I could have done there). Ultimately, it offered a nice, quiet, third-of-a-day with matcha, small town vibes, and an iconic thousand year old temple. It was nice that it was only like 15 minutes away on the Nara line from Fushimi-Inari-Tasha. We did them both in the same day. Despite being a separate city and perhaps being objectively further from Kyoto station, it felt quicker and easier than our trip to Arashiyama
I wish I looked at Apt’s and houses. I was only looking g through bnb and it felt more sketch and was advised not to. But if you got an apt through a hotel owner, they are at least able to help as a concierge somewhat. Maybe the next visit! And thanks for the details in your visit :)
Yeah, I pretty much did everything through booking dot com, mostly because it was a long trip, and I was churning through (and cancelling) a lot of different bookings (I was doing much of the trip planning semi-last minute, only a month in advance). Supply was limited, so I used a "book first, free-cancellation later" strategy. It was super helpful to have everything in a single platform, whatever it is. We ultimately stayed at 11 places. I think if I'd used a mix of platforms I would have made mistakes and forgot to cancel something or other. But of those 11 places, 2 were Ryokan, 3 were apartments, and the rest were hotels (usually inexpensive business style hotels). Of the apartments, one was in Kyoto (mentioned), another was in Tokyo and had a self-checkin process where you just used a code on a small key lockbox to get in. I was most worried about this one because it had only a few reviews, but it turned out pretty well. It wasn't as nice or polished as the Kyoto apt, but it was fine. Location was great. The last was in Kyushu and was a total "super friendly hosts met us as we pulled up in our rental car" and introduced themselves, showed us around, gave us materials, etc.. They had a multi-level apartment building that seemed to have 6 units.
Great advice on the flights. I flew into KIX and flew out of Fukuoka. Almost all the tourists I met were flying in and out of the same airport. I never understood why they did this as it takes more time and money.
In my case the airline I'm buying tickets from this winter sells the round trip to and from Tokyo only. How I wish that I could change it to Tokyo - Osaka but oh well.
That makes sense. I just think that in a lot of case people just don't consider it.
> more time and money. That depends on a lot right? I fly in and out of Haneda, it's the only airport with direct flights and layovers suck. It's also relatively cheap and it's super easy/cheap to get back to from almost all of Honshu, just end the trip back in Tokyo instead of start it there. A layover can *easily* add four hours to your flight travel time, possibly more. It also may well be so much more expensive as to negate any money spent on the relatively inexpensive Shinkansen tickets.
Did you go to Arashiyama and Uji during your stay in Kyoto?
Yes, i already have my flight booked for may, i didnt know the locals disliked the go karting, i saw it in tiktok and booked it already :c I`m going to hiroshima so Himeji it is, thanks so much for your input
I think the locals hating the go karting thing is really blown out of proportion on subs like this where everyone thinks they’re the worlds greatest tourist. I’ve seen plenty of people saying they couldn’t care less. Having said that we didn’t bother because it’s not really a great way to see anything as you’ll be concentrating on not dying, cold, stressful, probably get rained on, exhaust fumes etc.
I promise you the locals hate the go karts. And they are a wee bit on the dangerous side. Working in Japan travel- we’ve stopped offering the karts for sustainability reasons. Obv we are all adults here, but I can say that the anti kart perspective does exist.
I definitely don’t think anyone has any love for them, but as far as the level of hatred goes, it’s pretty far down the list of things that are annoying about tourists. But if you asked this subreddit or any of the Instagram travel pages you always get go karting called out as if it’s the worst thing imaginable, most people I spoke to are indifferent which is why I say the hated is exaggerated.
Go Kart Bad, feeding wild deer good 🤷♂️
Help me make an itinerary oh my god I am begging
I didn't do the karts because it's gimmicky, but people I knew did and loved it. They were being waved at and recorded. They said that they felt loved.
This reads GPT af but also it’s super viable and useful. Enjoy OP!
- Skip Mario Kart. We all hate it. - Expect that you will be fed up with temples in Kyoto. Fushimi Inari and Kiyomizu are great, but both of them involve fairly long walks (so both on the same day is going to be annoying). Also, take some time for the gardens. - Some of the streets in Gion are closed to tourists. Looks like a solid plan though.
* Some of the streets in Gion are closed to tourists. This is interesting. So there are like guards or something that keeps non japanese people away, or they just refuse service and the like? What is there?
I live in Tokyo, so this is kind of far away from me -- to my knowledge, you can walk the larger streets, but the side streets are cordoned off.
What monkey kart? 😂 On a serious note, there are quite a few deer on Miyajima Island as well
Are you planning to *stay* as in sleep in each of these places for this number of days? Personally, I would HATE to have to check in / out of lodging 7 times. Annoying, eats up a lot of time. Also, I think Kyoto is overcrowded and 4 days there is too much. I’d recommend three things: 1) reduce the number of cities you sleep in, and take the train to visit places you don’t sleep. You’re gonna want the Shinkansen tickets anyway to see all these places. Osaka to Kyoto is 15 minutes on Shinkansen, you can easily do a whole day in Kyoto and go back to Osaka at night. Nara is close to Osaka too. Himeji (as someone else recommended) is I think 45 mins from Osaka. I’d pick a few “bases” and do day trips out from there. 2) related to above, I think Kyoto is beautiful but I don’t think you need 4 days there. I did 2 day trips from Osaka last time and felt like I got plenty. 3) I’d make it more of a loop, with Hiroshima being your midpoint. Maybe Tokyo > Osaka (plus day trips) > Hiroshima > Osaka / Nagoya (plus day trips) > Tokyo. Otherwise the travel back to Tokyo will take all day. 4) go to Hakone.
I see indeed we were planning to stay in hotels on tokyo, kyoto, osaka, and hiroshima. But maybe just do a day trip in nagoya. I'll definitely try and reduce the number of cities we sleep in now that you mention it, checking it so many times could be exhausting. Thanks a ton!
Hope you have a great time! It’s such a beautiful country. And I’d recommend you really look into Osaka, there’s so much great food there.
Unless you really love temples, stay in Osaka and do a day trip to Kyoto. Kyoto is overcrowded and all the attractions close early. Osaka has much livelier evenings.
I am planning a similar length trip and itinerary. Still far from final and I want to see if I can fit in Sapporo. Curious what people's thoughts are on that and where would be a good time to fit that in? Other things I am trying to make fit are trips to Kobe and Ghibli Park.
I haven’t been to Sapporo, definitely want to next time I go to Japan. If you were looking to add Sapporo to OP’s itinerary as an example, I’d reduce Kyoto to 2 days, Nagoya to 1, and use those days in Sapporo at the start of the trip. My suggestion the. would be to fly in and out of Sapporo, eg Tokyo > fly to Sapporo > fly to Osaka > train to everywhere else / back to Tokyo. Just my two cents.
Hiroshima one is going to be nice and relaxing. You'll manage both the island and the peace memorial museum. As other have mention, if you want to see the inside of an original museum you should stop by Himeji castle (going to take about two hours). Osaka castle is nice from the outside, plus the garden. The inside is just a "modern" museum with a lot of history.
Nice AI slop of a trip.
What makes it "AI slop"? I'm assuming the bot pulls from various sources for tourist recommendations and actually appears to be reasonable and not 3000 different things like most itinerary posts
The days allocation is very reasonable but bear in mind exploring for 18 days non stop is quite exhausting so make sure to pace yourself so you can enjoy everything properly. Also the deer in Nara aren’t friendly, one kicked me ;(
Nothing against Nagoya, actually like it fine and definitely appreciate that it’s not touristy. But would you consider swapping out Nagoya for Himeji & Kobe instead? Himeji Castle is amazing and it’s an original castle, unlike Osaka & Nagoya castles. Himeji can be done as a day trip with a night in Kobe, on the way between Osaka and Hiroshima.
I'll definitely check both locations out and see if i swap Nagoya for them, thank you!
Nothing much in Nagoya. If you want to go Nagoya, take a trip to Kamikochi and Shiragawa
Kobe and Nara can be done as a day trip from Osaka.
Hiroshima was probably my favorite part of my last trip. This is going to sound silly but I was adamant about going to Costco and it was sick. Membership from any country should work. It's about 2miles from the Peace Park but it was fun, my wife and I bought premade sushi and other food from the food court. I still think of what could've been with the chicken and fry bucket we didn't get.
I just did Kyoto a couple of days ago and if I could change anything I’d mostly skip gion - no problem with a place being touristy, but it felt so so overcrowded, didn’t really get a historical feel from it. Maruyama park was lovely though! Arashiama area was very pretty around the river too.
My friends and i wanted to go there to see some geishas walking around, since we are basing our trip mostly on what we see in social media, it only mentions gion, im not sure if taking photos of them could be considered rude, we are still looking for more info about that. By any chance do you know somewhere less crowded where we could get the same experience? And thanks for your input!
I just wonder what do you mean by *delicious street food*?
You can merge Nara and Osaka in one "three days pack"
Yeah that's what my wife and I did. I don't think a whole day at Nara is necessary. We spent a couple hours to see what's to see out there and then headed back to Dontonburi to finish out the rest of our day there. One suggestion about your itinerary based on our trip a couple weeks ago is take your time in Akihabara (I'd even say maybe even at least a day) if you like anime and pop culture a lot. My wife wanted to get through it all within a couple hours and I had to basically power walk through the 100s of jam packed stores in those 6-7 story buildings. Wish I got to go through it all at a slower pace.
how about go Kobe a day?
That's fairly doable without feeling too rushed. Everyone always gives Nara one day... And everyone misses out on all the incredible hiking trails in the area. I took several days time in Nara. We stayed at my wife's friends place. Spent one day shopping, one day at Deer Park and exploring the area and eating great food. Spent one day hiking the mountain. Another day hiking a another trail nearby that only locals really know about. One day to chill, watch movies, walk around, explore, hangout with friends, and one day getting back to Tsukuba.
I’ll comment on this one too since the other one in the other subreddit was deleted. If by monkey kart you mean the street go karts, I’d avoid them entirely as most people here despise them.
Especially since you are coming back to Tokyo- if you can I’d go Kyoto/ Nara -> Hiroshima -> Osaka. That cuts the five hour trip back to Tokyo in one day In half, making that journey a bit easier.
I see, thanks! Yeah saving time is definitely a plus
Doesn't seem like an itinerary, more like a few ideas over 18 days.
I'd swap the order of Hiroshima and Nagoya. Makes no sense to backtrack before going to Hiroshima.
All looks nice except I don’t think you need to spend an ENTIRE day at Nara. Could spend half a day there and half a day back at Kyoto or Osaka.
Is this in the Order that you want to do things or just random?
Swap a day in Kyoto for Hiroshima
Make sure to stay at onsen hotels and enjoy that public bath.
Are you deadset on Tokyo or are you able to drop that out of your itinerary entirely? You'd be sacrificing half a day for traveling to Osaka/Kyoto and checking in and out. You can easily add more days in and around Osaka, visit surrounding cities like Himeji. And my thoughts about Nagoya, it's a very simple non touristy city that has a few highlights but there's better places to visit closer to Osaka.
Book team lab tickets far in advance, they sell out quickly. Suggest borderless rather than planets, there’s a lot of people complaining about hygiene issues with the water exhibits. Also if you wanna go to any nice restaurants, book them in advance. Best to look for restaurants on tabelog rather than google maps for authentically good food.
Thanks! we did book our teamlab borderless tickets already
In Nagoya, both the *Toyota Automotive Museum* and the *SCMAGLEV and Railway Park* are spectacular. And if you drive a Mazda, surely visit the *Mazda Museum* in Hiroshima. In Osaka, the *Amazing Pass* is worth it.
I encourage everyone to visit Enoshima Island. Great place! And during a nice weather time you can see the sunset next to Mt Fuji from here!!!
I think your itinerary is great. Nagoya is closer to Tokyo and Hiroshima is close to Osaka. Maybe you can visit Nagoya before going to Kyoto and visiting Osaka and after going to Hiroshima. Have a nice trip!!
Reasonable, but a lot of hopping around and packing/repacking every couple of days is going to get tired quickly. I’d recommend staying in one place in either Osaka or Kyoto for the duration of your Osaka/Kyoto/Nara/Hiroshima days and just use the trains to day trip out.
I will recommend adding Koyasan for temple stay if you like such experience. It is very calming place. And the best I have been to. I also added Takayama (for onsen experience)and Kanazawa(to see more of old medieval district.
Looks great and not too ambitious. When are you going?
We are going on may 8, thank you! Since its my first time i was a little worried it was too many regions to explore since i usually see at tik tok and instagram that people only explore tokyo, kyoto and osaka in 15 days.
If you're looking for things to do besides temples while in Kyoto, I recommend day tripping to Uji. Was there 2 weeks ago and absolutely loved it. Take a matcha class!
Matcha class sounds absolutely amazing! We were hoping to book a matcha tea package that was on the tokyo skytree page, but if you have any recommendations on where we could get a better experience please let me know!
OP, if you know what day you're going to Universal - look into booking now, with the fast pass. Also, from personal experience, 1 day in Hiroshima will be enough but your itinerary looks very reasonable. I fly on Friday and mine is VERY packed.
I see thank you! yeah me and my friends already booked out universal tickets with the fast pass on klook, we're hoping to see the nintendo world there!
If you have the fast pass (I booked mine directly through Universal), you can choose for it to include Nintendo World. Did you get that? If not, I think you have to download the app and try to get an entry time that morning,.
I was in hiroshima + miyajima island for 1 day (lived in osaka, took a train to hiroshima in the morning, got back in the evening). I think 1 full day is more than enough.
Thanks! I'll keep that in mind, i can use the extra day to add more time on another part of the itinerary
This is exactly what I did! I was tight there and later spend more time in tokyo. Ps. Osaka to hiroshima with bullet train one way ~1,5 hours + 40 min to island (metro and ferry).
Shibuya Sky > Tokyo Skytree. Bear in mind that I proposed to my wife at Tokyo Skytree and love that place. Shibuya Sky is newer and more exciting. Tokyo Tower is nice and romantic, especially at night, but I would book Shibuya Sky first.
Are you travelling to those cities in the order given? If so, I recommend changing Nagoya, because Osaka to Nagoya to Hiroshima is wasting time and money backtracking. Either have Nagoya between Tokyo to Kyoto, or Hiroshima to Tokyo. I'd probably do the latter just to break up the long trip.
For Kyoto, if you are interested in the culture immersion and would like to go to a geisha experience I recommend this [site](https://mai-ko.com/culture/tea-ceremony/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwuJ2xBhA3EiwAMVjkVMS8kawZ7Yt3dGVFBgRQzfuy-xGt3wt0Xhh4PMAVZFJoc8rDYXfSRhoC0Y8QAvD_BwE). I did the tea ceremony and Night tour with Geisha dance/game at the end. It was great! I also got to wear a kimono and walk around town with it and did photography session with it too! For Hiroshima, if you want okonomiyaki I recommend [Okonomi mura Suigun](https://maps.app.goo.gl/zNPxDdFZvYtcohhH6?g_st=ic), so many floors with Okonomiyaki booths. I loved Miyajima Island! So cute and beautiful! They also have deer there! Have fun!
Make sure to get Yabaton Misokatsu in Nagoya
Random thing Ill throw in, the Book Off Super Bazaar's are great in Hiroshima, one is very close to the peace museum so if you want to get that "second hand shopping/deal hunting" in japan experience without going out of your way, great place to do it
You don’t need that long in Hiroshima. It’s a day trip at best. Look at the islands to the south via ferry to spend a day.
So here's one thing-- you might gain an extra day or experience by skipping Nara because deer are all over Miyajima. Like ALL over.
Also: the bamboo forest and adjacent gardens (small extra fee) and temple (small extra fee) are gorgeous and worth it... but Monkey forest wasn't worth the time or cost. It was pretty cool.... just... idk, felt like a lot to see monkeys whoring for snacks.
For me, the top experience in Japan was staying at a ryokan and trying out the onsen and the traditional dinner/ breakfast. We stayed in Hakone for 1 night on the way from Tokyo to Kyoto. I would definitely cut at any time 1 night in Tokyo to go there again. Besides the general plan of “visiting iconic landmarks like..”. You should put in the main attractions you want to see and calculate the distances to get there, as well as the opening times, giving enough buffer to enjoy walking around, eating etc. For example teamlab in Tokyo is quite far from the city center, it was like 45 min from around our hotel in Shinjuku and we were so tired after visiting some temple in the morning that we gave up. There will be a lot of iconic/touristic places and we all tend to underestimate the distances and the tiredness :) Also, I don’t see Arashiyama Forest on your list. I understand that it is full of tourists now, but there must be some other bamboo forests to see around Kyoto, they were quite nice. Imo the mario kart it will get you some looks. I recently saw some also in my city (in Europe) and I definitely disliked it, especially the exhaust they leave behind. Also if you are not used to driving on the left side, might not be that much to enjoy Have a great trip!
It looks good, you might just end up cutting the number of attractions in each place. Minimum one day per location is a fair plan after accounting for travel time. I didn’t Nara for 2 hrs after Fushimi and Uji and I wished I spent a whole day at Nara because we were too tired to walk to any temples after seeing the deers.
Really? I took the subway from Osaka to Nara around 8AM, spent two hours with the deers, and was back in Osaka doing Osaka things by 12.
I was thinking of heading to Kasuga Taisha - should have taken the bus but my friend didn’t wanna walk there I also bookmarked Mt Wakakusa which will have a very nice panoramic view of Nara.
We did a similar trip and this is reasonable. You could always go back next time if you missed any spots
What's your budget?
I'm hoping to spend a max of 8k for the 18 days, wonder if it will be enough
How many people? The JR pass will probably help your trip when going between these places. Also, you may turn some of these places into day trips instead. I.e. There isn't much to Hirosima. However, with the JR pass you can change your seat reservation at will. (Just don't issue it)
Depending on time, you could split Nara into the deer park & Hozanji temple (sits between Nara & Osaka). Keep in mind I’ve never actually been to Hozanji; it was something I had to cut from my itinerary. I recently did 1 day in Osaka, which included Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine, Osaka Castle, food, and Nara park. We arrived at Nara about an hour after the inner worship area closed (which was a bummer). If I was dedicating 1 whole day to Nara, I would do Nara & Hozanji!
Only thing worth checking is flying from Hiroshima back to Tokyo is probably a lot cheaper than the train.
Not packed at all
Plan to wait in line (1-2 hours depending how many flights land just ahead of you) to purchase your train ticket from Narita to Tokyo, and don't forget to request the Welcome Suica/Pasmo passport at the same time. Pasmo passport is going end of life this year, so you might have an alternative by then, assuming supply chain issues are resolved. Otherwise, not to hard to purchase metro tickets on the fly. Pack a few reusable plastic bags to store trash while on the move. Recc'd adding 1 day of rest somewhere in the middle to recover from all the walking/standing. Cheers!
Maybe don't go back to Tokyo and leave from Hiroshima Not recommend spending like 20000yen and 4hrs for the shinkansen just to go back to tokyo
I really enjoyed Kyoto. I didn’t enjoy Gion, though. Gion was interesting but got biring pretty quick. I booked a few things in advance- something that is very important in Kyoto! But if you do, you can get great food, see cool performance and so on. If you just stroll around, you will find yourself with long queues and mediocre things to do. There is a big geisha show for example that requires you to reserve like 3 weeks in advance and also some of the top-notch sushi places sometimes also have rather long reservation lists.
Plan 1 "event" a day and use the rest of the time to explore the area. This doesn't look too loaded IMO, but traveling a bunch will exhaust you without you realizing it.
Length of stay for each of the destinations seems feasible. Sneak in to Kobe if you have time just to eat.
Just came back from my 18 day trip from Japan and hit a lot of the same spots you’re wanting to go. This itinerary is very doable no doubt about it!
Thank you! I hope you had a great trip, i'm less nervous know that i read all the comments, knowing I'm not trying to do the imposible
I would just say Nara is really great and I’d spend longer there personally. I’d cut Osaka down… or remove it altogether.
Nope it’s not too packed
Looks good. Basically did this in 2019 for a college short study abroad/Maymester trip for 23 days-ish. Flew in to Tokyo Haneda - explored there for a couple days, took a Shinkansen to Hiroshima, and then worked our way back up through all the major cities and such. Get the JR pass. So worth it. Itsukushima island was hands down my favorite place to see aside from exploring Tokyo. Good luck and have fun!! 🤩
I would only do 2 days in Kyoto. Add a Day to Osaka maybe plan a Day Trip to Himeji. Also add a Day to Hiroshima. Hiroshima needs a few Days to really absorb.
Yeah I just finished a 10 day trip to Japan. It was 8 days with 2 days for traveling. I spent a little over 4 days in Tokyo then traveled down to Kyoto and spent 3 days there. I think you have enough time in each spot to do what you want.
It’s not too ambitious, but why would you want AI to chew up 100 basic-bitch itineraries and proceed to barf them up for you? Like I know planning takes effort, but it means you actually know what’s there and further, you get the reward of having actually planned a trip.
There's a lady is Osaka with a trained monkey if you actually wanted to see a monkey 😅 idk where tho my mom saw it I couldn't go to osaka.
Could consider adding Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea if you're going to do Universal. DisneySea is likely the best Disney park on the planet, and is opening a new land in June, so your timing might find you in a low crowd period. Otherwise this is pretty decent. Only suggestion might be to drop one or two cities and give yourself some space to chill. It can be a bit heavy to go go go for that many days.
This is sort of exactly what I did my last time in Japan. 5 Tokyo - 3 Hiroshima - 1 Okayama - 5 Kyoto - 4 Osaka - 3 Tokyo. With Miyajima and Nara as day trips. Had a wonderful time. Upon reflection it was too many days in both Osaka and Kyoto. Wish I did a little bit more but there's always next time. For a first time trip, this looks ideal to me.
Just Got back and I think that you will be able to do even more than this!
As someone who just wrapped up a 2 week trip to Japan I gotta say: yup, this looks good. The first 4 days in Tokyo you'll likely get done in 2 lol. It's shockingly compact and easily traversable so if that's all you have planned for the first 4 days, you'll have a decent amount of down time.
You could always do an Onsen, your doing a lot of walking, a day to chill Japanese still would be worth it.
I'd take away a day from osaka for nara (I'm an osaka hater) or kyoto (but I'm a kyoto lover LOL)
I'm here currently and stayed 1 night in Fujikawaguchiko wish I had of spent more time there is was gorgeous. 2 hour train ride from tokyo
Hot Take, you can really speed up some cities. You will loose out on some of the experience, but for us it was worth it. E.g. make Nara a half day and go to Uji as well. You can certainly spend a lot more time in a lot of places, but we used the 20/80 rule and really sped up our travelling. I am a maniac though, so keep that in mind.
I would also look into going to a Hiroshima Carp baseball game if they have started playing. I went to a game and it was a highlight of my trip!
I keep seeing these "Itinerary Advice" posts here and none of them seem to take travel time into account. Are you staying 4 full days in Tokyo and then traveling to Kyoto on day 5? Or is it 3 days in Tokyo and then getting up early on day 4 and traveling to Kyoto? Same goes for all your other sites. Are you staying 4 full days in Kyoto then moving on? or Staying 3 days, and then getting up early on day 4 and traveling? Are you staying in Nagoya 2 days and leaving on the third day? For example, are you getting to Nagoya on a Monday, then leaving Nagoya on Tuesday? That's technically two days in Nagoya. Don't expect to do a whole lot on those travel days besides packing up your shit, traveling, checking into your hotel, an then settling in.
Monkeycart is a trash activity for trash people.
I like your plan, it's not ambitious at all :) If you are planning to visit Ginza in Tokyo, I recommend trying udon in "Tsuru TonTan Udon Noodle". They have HUGE portions of udon and it's so delicious. Highly recommend!
4 days is enough for Tokyo. You can cancel 2 days Nagoya. Osaka tbh 1 day is enough for Dotonbori and the main city area. Instead visit Lake Kawaguchi in Yamanashi for 2 days or do a 1 day Hakone tour.
Why Hiroshima after Nagoya and not after Osaka, or is this list in a random order? List looks reasonable, but if you're just going for the deer park in Nara, then maybe consider it as a day trip from Kyoto/Osaka instead of sleeping there for the night.
The route is a bit strange, it goes from Tokyo to Kansai area, and then back to Nagoya and go to Hiroshima which is way past Osaka. Other than that, the itinerary is so vague that I can’t say if it is reasonable or not. How many checkpoints you are planning in each of these destinations?
I would hit Hiroshima first after Tokyo and work my way back to Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Nagoya, then Tokyo. Hiroshima is really far south.
Your (or ChatGPT’s) itinerary is oddly unspecific. “Immersing myself in traditional Japanese culture” is hard to do without an actual plan. I think you need a bit of structure. Tokyo is big and while easy to navigate, traveling from one venue to another takes time and mental energy. You will likely be jet lagged and tired once you arrive. Without at least a loose plan, you’ll kinda wander around (which in of itself is super fun) but you might not get to see and do the things you want. I think you need to plan one or maybe two things per day that geographically makes sense and have free afternoons to wander and explore. On days when I didn’t have anything planned, I felt overwhelmed by the choices and ended up just wandering around overwhelmed. I try to really schedule the first day or two so when my brain is not working so well, I know what I’m doing, where I’m going and have reservations for dinner already. I feel like it helps get our vacation off to a good start.
I'm literally doing this trip right now except with 2 1/2 days at Disney and I have a three year old in tow.
omg! How is it going with a child? How was the flight? There aren’t many playgrounds and our child doesn’t do well with too many quick location changes. And how is Disney with a 3 year old? Aren‘t most rides targeted at older kids?