Hi all. Traveling to osaka and its surrounding area.
Day 1: After checking into hotel in the morning, will be going to osaka castle and its surrounding, after lunch, proceed to Osaka aquarium kaiyukan then end at shinsaibashi for dinner.
Day 2: Going to Nara park/ surrounding then lunch at nara.
Anywhere else to walk before I proceed to dotonbori to walk and eat at night? What time is a good time to start exploring dotonbori?
[dotonbori looks better at night, especially for the iconic glico man neon sign. however, the entire area (namba, shinsaibashi etc.) is all shopping and food and u can go anytime]
Day 3: Kyoto, kinkakuji, ginkakuji, philosopher path, nanzen-ji temple, kiyomizudera, dodaiji temple, shijo shopping centre, gion.
Day 4: Arashiyama bamboo grove (taking sagano scenic railway), noji castle, nishiki market, fushimi inari shrine. After exploring fushimi inari shrine, will proceed to kobe for sight seeing.
[this is way too packed, even without kobe. arashiyama will take at least half a day, especially since u are thaking the scenic railway, which require quite a bit of waiting. u may want to put kobe on day 2 or day 6 instead]
Will it be too rushed on this day?
Day 5: USJ.
Day 6: Instant ramen museum, pokemon center, umeda sky building, osaka takashimaya for shopping.
[takashimaya is in namba, can put it in day 3 together with dotonbori]
Day 7: Yamazaki distillery, kuromon market, abeno harukas for observatory and department store.
Day 8: Morning flight back.
As this is the first time travelling to osaka and its surrounding, please help me if the itinerary is too rush/ tight; anywhere that I do not need to see/ need to see; places to swap around to make the itinerary less rush.