Japan itinerary ideas?

[rheafern]

Hi, starting to plan Summer holidays with two teenage DC and DH. Could anyone recommend what not to miss in probably 15 to 20 day in Japan? We would want to start in Tokyo but would also want to travel a bit. DD and DS are interested in history, nature... Have you visited specific places or stayed in accommodation you would recommend? I’m quite bad at planning those things... thanks very much!!

We started in Tokyo, stayed in a decent hotel, did (some of!) the sights, markets, fish market at Tsusiji, a day at DisneySea, visited the electronics/games shops in Akihabara, and Takeshita Street in Harajuku for the teens.

Then took the bullet train Nozomi Express past Mount Fuji to the old capital Kyoto, stayed in a olde-stylee onsen since we'd got the hang of how things work a bit. Lots more historical tourist stuff, so many temples, just walking around is amazing. The most astonishing parks.

Then local train to Nara, which is much more gentle and has all the deer wandering around. Loads of things there, and we also did day trips out from there to the countryside to walk up hills (to temples!).

Then Hiroshima for a couple of days, obvious history things.

Top tips: The multistory buildings with huge numbered signs have different shops/restaurants/businesses on each floor! And never be worried about dodgy looking steps down to restaurants, they're always lovely. Definitely try hole-in-the-wall noodle places where you order via a machine outside. Eat at markets. Potter around back streets in smaller places. Google Translate is a wonder, live translating signs and food.

Kyoto is a must (and an easy trip to Nara and Hiroshima from there too).

Must dos:

• Nara
• Golden Temple
• Osaka at night
• A walking tour with a sumo wrestler
• The digital art museum
• I also loved the bamboo street and the monkey village but others may not be so keen

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We booked an amazing trip through Inside Japan following recommendations from MN.

They were really good at planning travel, transport, hotels, entrance fees and activities to suit us. Yes they were a little bit more expensive but I would really rate their service. I've recommended them to 4 other people and they've all loved the experience. I will see if I can dig our our itinerary for you.

There are lots of Japan threads on the travel board and I used these for lots of tips, so definitely worth a search

You can buy a special tourist shinkasen pass, which is a bargain. You buy on line, print the voucher and collect from the station at the airport or in Tokyo.
Buy ekiben (packed lunches for trains) - some have collectable boxes and they have foid representing the area you are in.
I would recommend Hakata, just for the noodles! You buy a ticket from the machine inside the noodle restaurant for the dish you want, then stand in line.
Kyoto has many temples, very historic.
Try some of the 100/200/300 yen shops like Daiso for souvineers. Also Loft and Tokyu Hands. The department stores such as Mitsukoshi are expensive but worth visiting just for the displays (especially the food halls)

I would also recommend Nara which is very peaceful but has culture (giant Buddha) and nature (deers wander freely and menace you for food). We stayed at the Nara Hotel, which is a Raffles-style place which we loved.

We were a family of three. Travelled at Easter 2018, and were able to see alot of the Sakura bloom (although we also had snow in Matsumoto which was awesome) Daughter was 13 at the time. Here was the itinerary we followed:

• Heathrow to Haneda (overnight flight)

TOKYO

• Private guide of the Tokyo sites
• Robot Restaurant experience (no food as it's crap!)
• Ghibli Museum
• Cat cafe
• Disney park

MATSUMOTO

• train to Matsumoto
• Matsumoto castle
• soba making class

KYOTO

• train to Kyoto
• afternoon in Arashiyama
• Private guide tour of Kyoto
• Calligraphy class
• tea ceremony
• rented a traditional Japanese house

NARA

• day trip & sightseeing

HIROSHIMA

• train to Hiroshima
• sightseeing in Hiroahima
• Ferry to Miyajima
• Sightseeing on the island

OSAKA

• Sightseeing
• Universal Studios

HAKONE

• train to Odawara
• taxi to Hakone
• stay in a traditional home with a hot spring (attached to the room so we could use it when we wanted)
• 2 day Hakone Pass - pirate ship, funicular railway, cable cars, buses - anything to view the illusive Mount Fuji
• open air art museum

TOKYO

• train to Tokyo
• last minute sightseeing / shopping
• flight to UK

You could fly into Tokyo (Haneda is closer to the city 'centre' than Narita, but both are well connected) and fly out of Kansai International just outside Osaka. I recommend picking up a Suica card at the subway station in the airport. It's a contactless smart card you can top up and use throughout Japan on local trains and transport systems. You can even use it on certain vending machines and in convenience stores. I found it worthwhile also getting a JR Rail card for travel between towns and cities, which is well priced when you consider the price of individual Shinkansen tickets.

The above itinerary by AnythingConsidered is very good, and close to what my partner and I did on our first visit, minus the theme parks (but great for Kids I imagine!)

A lot of people staying in Japan choose hotels on the Yamanote line (where you can use your JR pass for travel). I love staying in Asakusa though, Tokyo's 'historic' district, and the site of old Edo. Evening walks near Sensoji Temple are delightful.

From Tokyo you could also do day trips to and/or Nikko or Kamakura.

Nara, Hiroshima and Himeji (home to Japan's grandest castle) are easy day trips from Osaka.

I highly recommend you see a baseball game while you're there, even if you're not really into sport. The atmosphere alone is worth it. Tickets can be easily bought 1-2 days before from the ticket office or even convenience stores. Tokyo Swallows have an English language service where you can preorder online beforehand (for a slight markup).

Make a note of Japanese public holidays beforehand, a lot of attractions are completely rammed during them. Also, avoid travelling during 'Golden Week!'

Make allowances for jet lag. We missed breakfast most days so next time we won't bother with a hotel and will try air BnB.

Try to plan studio Ghibli tickets beforehand, we were too late.

Yes yes to Nara, Kyoto, Akibara.

When you land arrange to pick up a WiFi box thing so you have internet.

The best days were sometimes the unplanned ones just walking around.

Hara juku is also good for shopping and restaurants and there is a big park nearby.

The 100 yen shops are amazing! I think called Daiso.

Try to stay near a station which also has a stop on the JR bullet train line. Think like Paddington or Victoria so you have access to quick trains out of town for day trip but also tubes for local visits.

Good walking shoes as you walk so much.

Check our Time Out Tokyo for any one off exhibitions. We saw a Pixar one in Rippongi Hills which was fun.

Museum.of innovation is incredible with the robot demonstrations. Near that museum is a place to try a family friendly onsen. Online reviews all say how it's very touristy but we were the only Europeans there and they have a nice food market inside too. I think it's called odiaba.

Have a great time, it's impossible not to!

Ones not to miss-

Tokyo
Mount Fuji
Japanese Alps if ski season
Kyoto
Osaka
Hiroshima

The robot show in Tokyo was like nothing I’ve ever seen anywhere else in the world

Tokyo is a great city for strolling around and people watching but I didn’t feel like there was loads to do.

I would definitely recommend a good chunk of time in Tokyo, there’s loads to see. You need to do your research and pick what you want to do as you’ll not have time to do everything you want. As mentioned the Ghibli museum is great, if you/DCs love Studio Ghibli but needs advance booking (as in, you need to book tickets the moment they’re released, and get up in the middle of the night to do so). I’m not sure if PPs have mentioned TeamLAB borderless digital art exhibition but that is also 100% worth it, not like anything I’ve ever seen.

I agree with PPs that Nara and Hiroshima are both must sees, and if visiting Hiroshima definitely go over to Miyajima island and take the cable cars. I also recommend Himeji castle which you can do on the way to Hiroshima from Kyoto if you take that route.

Personally I wasn’t mad on Kyoto as it is completely overrun with tourists (and mostly big coach loads of tourists on organised tours which all seem to turn up at the same time) but if it’s your first (and only) trip to Japan, it’s worth it as there are a lot of amazing things to see there. I just personally wouldn’t go back - there are lots of equally beautiful historic buildings, geisha districts etc elsewhere.

I liked the Fuji Five Lakes region for sights of Fuji and to get out into nature, and I really recommend the Japanese Alps region, even outside of ski season (Takayama in particular as well as Kanazawa including for the famous garden, Kenroku-en) and the Alps would be good for a ryokan trip (traditional home stay), a good area is the Okuhida region with several onsen (hot springs) towns and lots of beautiful ryokans.

Any questions let me know as I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Japan!

Oh and if you can do 20 days, rather than 15, you’ll be glad. 15 days won’t get you far - you could easily spend half (or even all) of that in Tokyo.

Kamakura & Nikko were my favourite places in Japan. Less obvious or touristy but amazing places. Kamakura is by the sea. Nikko is near the mountains-lots of temples & shrines and beautiful walks/nature (including monkeys).

We did very similar itineraries to the above and we all totally fell for Japan.

To add to what’s already been said:
Koya-San is a mountain a few hours journey from Osaka (totally doable by train and cable car) that was one of our top experiences, it’s the most spiritual place in Japan, you can only stay in monasteries, you get served incredible Shojin food and explore the ancient cemetery by day and night, a world away from Akihabara!

Also check out air bnb experiences, we did a samurai sword fight lesson, a tea ceremony and learnt to play the Japanese harp all in people’s homes for really not very much money.

Finally, check out Goodwill Guides, there are tons of organisations that have volunteers who will take you on a a personalised tour of any city. We had one for our first day in Tokyo - a retired gentleman who had spent 10yrs living in the US so had amazing English, we emailed a lot beforehand and he took us to some really amazing out of the way places and introduced to food and taught us how to use the underground and bus system and was so happy to discuss everything about Japanese culture and history and it was frankly brilliant having someone make all the decisions on our first day. Just Google goodwill guides Japan. I recommend trying to get a retiree rather than a student as their English will be better

Enjoy - we’re all desperate to go back!

It’s really hot and humid in summer, unpleasantly so the further with you get. So try and go not in august.

Love the place lived there on Shikoku for 2 years.

Hi again, OP. Just to add it looks unlikely that Japan will be open in any meaningful way to tourists over summer. It appears that small numbers of tourists as part of organised tours may be allowed in from April, but there won’t be significant numbers of tourists until autumn 2021.