Advice please :)

[HoloCaustx]

Hi all, its my first time heading to japan for 19days and below is my planned itinery, still not sure about the last few days at osaka but i would like to ask for the advice of everyone here on accomodation, or any must see attractions, and hopefully i'll be able to make some bookings for the hotels earlier

Thanks to everyone in advance, please forgive me if its too messy

Anyone have any idea if the Obon (Festival of souls) will result in long queues for USS? If thats the case, would it be better to skip it? Read that you can wait up to 6 hours for a ride....

Would the changing of hotels be a problem? We are looking to try hotels on the streets (love hotels), but notice that they have late check in, so we will have to lug our luggages around, would it be difficult? Or alternatively we wont mind to deposit them in coin lockers (2 x 24inch hard luggages).



Arrive Tokyo on 1st august

Tokyo
day (arrive NRT 7:40am)
1 - Leave luggage at Hotel Ryumeikan,
Explore Decks Tokyo Beach, Tokyo Joypolis, Tokyo Bay, Venus Fort, Palette Town

2 - Tsukiji Market, Ginza, Yurakucho,
Check out of Hotel, move to Oak Hotel
Explore Ueno (Ameyoko Arcade, Sensoji Temple)

3- No Hotel
(Keen to try the love hotels, but notice check in timings are quite late, is it possible to leave our luggage at locks in train stations? we have 2 hard case 24 inch luggages)

LaQua, Tokyo Dome City, Chill relax


4- No Hotel,
Shibuya Area

5 - No Hotel,
Shinjuku Area, Kagurazaka, Nakano broadway

6- No Hotel,
Roppongi

7 - Yokohama
Check in JAL Hotel,
Hakkeijima Sea Paradise (Whole day till 6pm+)
Explore Minato Mirai

8- No Hotel
Cup Noodles Museum, Zoorasia, Ramen Museum

9 - Hakone
Check in Hakeonenomori Okada
Relax

10 - Kyoto
Check in Kiyomizu
Fushimi Inari Shrine, Higashiyama District (Gion)

11 -
Check in Hotel Mume
Arashiyama

12 - No Hotel
Nishiki market, Pontocho, Kyoto Station

Osaka
13 - No Hotel
Umeda, Denden town,

14 - No Hotel
HEP, Tenjinbashi suji


15 - No Hotel
Osaka Aquarium, Naniwa Food Theme Park, Shinisaibashi Shopping Arcade, AMerikamura, Dontonbori, Namba



16 - Blank

17 - Blank

18 - Blank

 

[evilerniex]

for day 12, do u mean koyasan? if it is koyasan, i dun think half a day is enough because it is not easy to get there. also, koyasan is known for its temple stay, so i would suggest u spend a night there for the experience

ur plan for kyoto seems to be missing quite a lot of popular attractions such as kiyomizudera, kinkakuji, nijo castle. u can also spend a day at arashiyama

shinsaibashi, amerikamura and dotonbori are all in namba area, so u can put them together in one day.

ur osaka plan looks quite empty, maybe u can add nissin cup noodle museum, osaka castle, USJ? or maybe some day trip out of osaka, such as to Kobe, or Wakayama?

 

[akc850]

12 - Nara
nara park, koya

Seems tight, based on the travelling. Nara is sufficient for a day trip.


Try to move around in vicinity, and avoid moving out of the same area within a day to save time on travelling IMO.

 

[HoloCaustx]

Hi evilerniex, thanks for your advice, appreciate it, have taken up some of your suggestions and added them to my itinery

Hi akc850 , ok noted, thanks i was thinking of making it as a day trip too, but worried that me and my gf need to lug our luggage around.

btw would a 14 day JR pass suffice? was thinking of activiting immediately after touch down, and last few days at osaka we will bus or pay for daily train, not sure if there are better options.

 

[cancer81]

if you shifting hotel on that day, take ur stuff to your hotel and park it there before the checkin time. If you cannot access your hotel easily (it is somewhere else not and not Nara), I am not sure if the big train station locker can hold your bags. The really big ones is quite limited.

as for JR pass, if you have heavy travelling then you had better start using upon landing. 14 days should be quite enough unless the last 5 days of your stay involves interprefecture travel.

See if you can get any tourist passes that packs in a Airport train. Tokyo have Metro skytrain+metro 2 day pass. Not sure abt Osaka.

 

[evilerniex]

Hi evilerniex, thanks for your advice, appreciate it, have taken up some of your suggestions and added them to my itinery

Hi akc850 , ok noted, thanks i was thinking of making it as a day trip too, but worried that me and my gf need to lug our luggage around.

btw would a 14 day JR pass suffice? was thinking of activiting immediately after touch down, and last few days at osaka we will bus or pay for daily train, not sure if there are better options.

14 days JR pass is not likely to be worth it for ur itinerary.

JR pass is to cover the expensive shinkansen and limited express train rides, for ur case it is mainly the trip from hakone to nagoya and nagoya to kyoto.

if u are not going from osaka back to tokyo, then even the 7-days pass may not be worth it. work out transport cost for ur journeys using hyperdia website, and see if it justifies the 28300yen 7-days pass

 

[jes205]

saw Tsukiji mkt on your 1st day itinerary. what time you landing and when do you plan on going? you will miss all the fun and food if you are there in the evening. In Osaka, stay around Namba region if you can as it's walking distance to most of the food place. Which hotel will depend on your budget. I just came back and managed to get Swisshotel (via Agoda) for $177/nite. Stayed at Fraser's residence about 2 yrs ago and also very nice. Fraser's has mini kitchen so you can hv your bf. Just a bit of advice about Spa world. It's nice but if just you n your gf going, the spas are allocated for men OR women only. 8th flr is for everybody and more for family. There's slide, wading pool for kids etc.

 

[HoloCaustx]

Hi Cancer, thanks for your reply, yes i think i should relook my shinkansen budget and calculate again.

ok ernie, will recalculate again and update my initnery, thanks for your input

thanks for your reply jes, oh in that case.. i may reconsider spa world, thanks alot for the tip, didn't know it would be like that, do you have any recommendations for nice ones for couple?

as for the tsukiji market, i will shift it to the next morning as i realised that most of the stuff starts early dawn

 

[cancer81]

unless u want to go for the auction viewing (where according to Tokyocheapo means looking at sweaty men looking at fish the size of a fridge and cutting them up after hollering over them)

then it is okay to show up around 9am, where the market is not so busy and visitors are allowed in the wholesale areas. Now granted that morning traffic is pretty crazy, you may want to consider sleeping at a manga cafe just for a few hours so you do not need to take a taxi or get ur friend to drive you.

go eat sushi dai or daiwa. I ate at daiwa...

the food sold in the outer market also looks good. So much food but so little space in ur tumtum

you want good onsen for couples? Look for a ryokan that has private onsen options. Some ryokan rooms have a onsen bath attached to the room itself. It may get pricey but the meals thrown in plus the traditional setting of ryokan accommodations are quite worth it. Trouble is most ryokan staff do not speak any or much english.

 

[jes205]

like cancer81 mentioned, unless you want to watch the tuna auction which you hv to be there by abt 5 a.m. latest, u can go to Tsukiji abt 9+ where there's still plenty of food to eat and buy. Also please check (I can't remember but Tsukiji does close on one day) Hakone is in your itinerary so plenty of onsens there. not cheap tho but I think (not sure arh) august not peak period. if you are looking for private onsens, u will hv to google n do your homework coz most ryokans hv baths for male or female only.

 

[HoloCaustx]

haha, i've booked first night accomodation at Hotel Ryumeikan Tokyo, its less than 1km away so we can walk there on our 2nd morning... oh yes i was thinking that too, wouldn't mind paying abit more for a nicer ambience and of course the meals provided will offset some of our costs too.


jes:ya i was planning of trying ryokans in hakone, heard there are some hot spring baths too, ok will take note of the private onsens, thanks

 

[GetaBlue]

Tsukiji market, I.stayed one night at a nearby hotel tokyu ginza I think, 10Min walk to the visitor center..reach there at 4:15am.. First Tour grp already full...its a good experience to see the auction...

After that, went to queue for famous sushi dai, 4 hours wait... Think daiwa sushi shorter waiting time...was it worth it..I think for one time it is.. Won't do it again...

 

[jes205]

Tsukiji market, I.stayed one night at a nearby hotel tokyu ginza I think, 10Min walk to the visitor center..reach there at 4:15am.. First Tour grp already full...its a good experience to see the auction...

After that, went to queue for famous sushi dai, 4 hours wait... Think daiwa sushi shorter waiting time...was it worth it..I think for one time it is.. Won't do it again...

omg 4 hrs queue?? normally I will just reach the mkt abt 9+ and queue at Daiwa for abt 45 mins-1 hr. Skipped it last couple of times cause it's nice but lazy to queue so just do marketing, eat nicks n nacks. The shoyu ramen along the road not too bad.

 

[gundamhamtaro]

My comments in blue

Hi all, its my first time heading to japan for 19days and below is my planned itinery, still not sure about the last few days at osaka but i would like to ask for the advice of everyone here on accomodation, or any must see attractions, and hopefully i'll be able to make some bookings for the hotels earlier

Thanks to everyone in advance, please forgive me if its too messy

Arrive Tokyo on 1st august

Tokyo
day
1 - tokyo dome city, koishikawa korakuen ,tsukiji market, laqua
2 - shibuya , center gai, spain slope, koen dori, take****a dori , omotesando , tokyu hands
Tokyu Hands can be found in lots of different areas in Japan so you do not need to visit it immediately if you find that your schedule is abit tight.
3- shinjuku , kabukicho , ikebukuro, golden gai, omoide yokofcho, sword museum, kagurazaka , nakano boardway
Not advisable as Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and Nakano brodway have way too much things to shop and see, unless you only want to go and sight see for like 1 hr per place.
4- taito, asakusa , sensoji temple, ameyoko arcade, ueno park
5 - roppongi hills shopping and dining, mori garden, tokyo midtown
Just FYI Roppongi Hills shops/dining is more expensive. Midtown will be cheaper.
6- daiba , decks tokyo beach, tokyo joypolis, tokyo bay, odaiba kaihin koen, venus fort, palette town

7 - Yokohama
ramen museum, zoorasia , hakkeijima sea paradise

8- minato mirai , cup noodles museum

9 - Hakone
hot springs and gotemba city
10 - relax

11 - Nagoya
osasis 21, nadya park, utopia takara , railway museum

12 - Nara
nara park, koya
Stay at Temple
Any reason for stopping here first? In terms of distance (and how the Shinkansen moves in the area) it will be like this: Nagoya->Kyoto->Osaka->Nara. So you will end up moving back to Kyoto/Osaka from Nara

13 - Kyoto
nishiki market, pontocho , kyoto station

14 - fushimi inari shrine

15 - Osaka
- Aquarium, Dontonbori, namba, Shinsaibashi shopping arcade, amerikamura


16 - umeda, tenjinbashi suji , nissin cup noodle museum, osaka castle

17 - Hozenji Yokocho alley

18 - Spa world , kitashinchi

Overall I feel you are squeezing too many of the shopping areas in 1 day for most of the places. But of course everyone has different peferences so if you think you will like it then just go ahead and do it.

 

[lapucelle]

Kagurazaka, Tokyo Dome City (la Qua etc) and Ueno are relatively near each other. In fact you can walk to kagurazaka from korakuen. May wanna rearrange things. Tokyo Dome city is also more lively on the weekends cos got cosplayers and stuff. Weekdays can be quite empty. Rollercoaster still not rideable yet.

And Tsukiji is slightly off. Can consider tsukiji in the morning on which you are heading to Odaiba.

 

[HoloCaustx]

Hi all, have updated the itinery based on people's advice, can i please ask some questions? (as per edited first post in bold)

and also possibly to get some feedback if my itinerary is do-able?

 

[evilerniex]

Hi all, have updated the itinery based on people's advice, can i please ask some questions? (as per edited first post in bold)

and also possibly to get some feedback if my itinerary is do-able?

looks like u are changing quite a few hotels? any reason for doing so?

usually i will just stay in 1 hotel at a city throughout. e.g. 1 hotel for tokyo, 1 for osaka, 1 for kyoto (can also stay in osaka and make day trip to kyoto)

usually hotel allow u to put luggage with them before check-in, so dun have to find lockers. but i dunno about love hotels though

for day6, u are spending the whole day in roppongi? u may want to visit tokyo tower as well since it is within walking distance.

day 13 14 15: HEP is in umeda, so visit it on day 13.
den den town is in namba area, so can do it on day 15.

u can even do shinsekai and namba area together. start from tennoji or shininamiya, walk to shinsekai, then continue to den den town, shinsaibashi, dontonbori and amerikenmura

 

[HoloCaustx]

looks like u are changing quite a few hotels? any reason for doing so?

usually i will just stay in 1 hotel at a city throughout. e.g. 1 hotel for tokyo, 1 for osaka, 1 for kyoto (can also stay in osaka and make day trip to kyoto)

usually hotel allow u to put luggage with them before check-in, so dun have to find lockers. but i dunno about love hotels though

for day6, u are spending the whole day in roppongi? u may want to visit tokyo tower as well since it is within walking distance.

day 13 14 15: HEP is in umeda, so visit it on day 13.
den den town is in namba area, so can do it on day 15.

u can even do shinsekai and namba area together. start from tennoji or shininamiya, walk to shinsekai, then continue to den den town, shinsaibashi, dontonbori and amerikenmura

Hi EvilErnie, reason so would be that we thought we'd like to try different hotels for the experience, and also saving on time to travel from a hotel to the various attractions

 

[cpuer]

Hi EvilErnie, reason so would be that we thought we'd like to try different hotels for the experience, and also saving on time to travel from a hotel to the various attractions

Hehe a refreshing idea of hotels hopping. Why not try one type of hotel in one city? Eg ryokan in kyoto,hostel in osaka, capsure in tokyo etc

 

[evilerniex]

Hi EvilErnie, reason so would be that we thought we'd like to try different hotels for the experience, and also saving on time to travel from a hotel to the various attractions

trying different hotel is interesting

however, the part on saving time to travel may not be true. in fact, u will probably spend more time moving around than staying in the same hotel.

tokyo metropolitan is a small place and u can probably reach any attractions within half an hour. just think about packing ur luggage, checking out, carrying ur luggage to another hotel, checking in again... all these is going to waste a lot of time. staying in the same hotel means u dun have to pack ur luggage everyday. u also dun need to worry about check-in time and can enjoy urself at an attraction and come back anytime u want.