Itinerary Ideas/Help

Are there good hiking trails in Hakone? We like to do mild hiking and love walking on trails if they have good scenic views. Otherwise, I think we could take Hakone out and just see Mt. Fuji from the Shinkansen.

If we got rid of Hakone do you think our Tokyo list is still too busy?

Yes, I found one blog

https://www.natashathenomad.com/hike-hakone

Grouping together:
Tokyo:
Shibuya, Harajuku, Meiji Jingu are close together with Shinjuku just 2 metro stops away
Tokyo Skytree and Sensoji Temple are 1 metro stop from each other
Odaiba, Pokemon Cafe and Tokyo Dome may be grouped together although they're not really close to each other.

Kyoto:
Arashiyama and Kinkakuji can be done together. They're not close but they're both NW of Kyoto. Katsura Villa is sort of West but south of Arashiyama
Fushimi Inari is to the south / southeast from Kyoto on the way to Nara so you can go there on the way to or back from Nara
Kiyomizu Dera and Unraku Gama are close to each other. Wak Japan and Demachi are sort of close
 
Ah, the Tuesday arrival would be another reason to do Disney last. I think that crossed my mind too, I didn't want to be jet-lagged when we went. I've read that rain keeps the crowds away. Don't recall ever reading about rain closing rides. Maybe someone can chime in about that.



We went to Odaiba because of the kids. It's a lot bigger and more spread out than I anticipated - basically a whole bunch of different malls. There's a Toyota museum/showcase (Mega Web) that DH and DS liked. I think you can skip if there's nothing in particular that interests you.
As long as rides are still running and hopefully some shows I think we would be okay. We will just make sure we pack EVERYTHING we need for rain (ponchos, rain coats, flip flops or sandals, umbrellas). The big thing for me will be making sure my phone and things don't get wet. We might have to look into a waterproof bag or something.

The only thing that really interests me about Odaiba is the rainbow bridge. I might leave it on our list, but add a note that it will be an "if we have time" thing to do.
 
Yes, I found one blog

https://www.natashathenomad.com/hike-hakone

Grouping together:
Tokyo:
Shibuya, Harajuku, Meiji Jingu are close together with Shinjuku just 2 metro stops away
Tokyo Skytree and Sensoji Temple are 1 metro stop from each other
Odaiba, Pokemon Cafe and Tokyo Dome may be grouped together although they're not really close to each other.

Kyoto:
Arashiyama and Kinkakuji can be done together. They're not close but they're both NW of Kyoto. Katsura Villa is sort of West but south of Arashiyama
Fushimi Inari is to the south / southeast from Kyoto on the way to Nara so you can go there on the way to or back from Nara
Kiyomizu Dera and Unraku Gama are close to each other. Wak Japan and Demachi are sort of close
Wow that's awesome! And definitely looks like something we would be interested in. I would definitely rather do the hike than Sanrio Puroland lol. I'm a little worried about how long it took them to hike it. Do you think we could do that in a day trip and still make it back to Tokyo in good time? Also, will the train from Tokyo to Hanoke be a normal train and not the Shinkansen? I can't tell by looking at Google Maps. It mentions something about a Romance Car. I'm not sure what that is. Thanks for sharing that link! Dh will be thrilled when he sees that!! (He's asleep right now from being sick)

Thanks for all of the grouping ideas! I'm adding all of your notes to my document so I have them for future reference!
 
I think I'm just going to take Matsumoto off so that we can have another day for things in Tokyo. We have so many things I'd like to do in Tokyo and I don't want to constantly be going long distances to see everything when Tokyo already has some cool things to see.

Based off our list of things for Osaka, do you think we should even spend a day there or do two days in Kyoto?

What fun things are in Kamakura?

I added the Edo-Tokyo Museum to our list. I mainly just need help figuring out which things to group together so that we can get the most out of each trip without backtracking everywhere.
You might be better off doing two days in Kyoto. We spent a day and a half in Osaka. One day we wandered around some shopping places, ate at the Hard Rock, and watched Civil War, so it wasn't anything too unusual. I did enjoy going to Osaka castle the morning we took the train north. We didn't do the things on your list; I'll have to look them up.

I haven't actually been, but I've read that Kamakura is a beach town with cool shops and a very large Buddha statue.
 


You might be better off doing two days in Kyoto. We spent a day and a half in Osaka. One day we wandered around some shopping places, ate at the Hard Rock, and watched Civil War, so it wasn't anything too unusual. I did enjoy going to Osaka castle the morning we took the train north. We didn't do the things on your list; I'll have to look them up.

I haven't actually been, but I've read that Kamakura is a beach town with cool shops and a very large Buddha statue.
I'll have to ask Dh what he thinks. I would rather do two days in Kyoto just so we can have some time to relax and not constantly be on the move. I would like to enjoy the areas we are staying in as well as site seeing.

Now after looking at Google Maps, we might have to choose between Yokohama and Kamakura. I don't want to spend the whole day on trains. I might just get rid of them both to be honest. I'm not seeing a lot that draws me to them and we could have more time in Tokyo if we don't do these. It says beach season in Kamakura is July through August so I'm assuming we couldn't swim in June?
 
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Wow that's awesome! And definitely looks like something we would be interested in. I would definitely rather do the hike than Sanrio Puroland lol. I'm a little worried about how long it took them to hike it. Do you think we could do that in a day trip and still make it back to Tokyo in good time? Also, will the train from Tokyo to Hanoke be a normal train and not the Shinkansen? I can't tell by looking at Google Maps. It mentions something about a Romance Car. I'm not sure what that is. Thanks for sharing that link! Dh will be thrilled when he sees that!! (He's asleep right now from being sick)

Thanks for all of the grouping ideas! I'm adding all of your notes to my document so I have them for future reference!

You take the Shinkansen to Odawara and then take some other train to Hakone but I'm not too familiar with it. Not all Shinkansen stops at Odawara though.

I just remember this one great website that has all the information about Japan:

https://www.japan-guide.com/

I always use that when planning a Japan trip
 
You take the Shinkansen to Odawara and then take some other train to Hakone but I'm not too familiar with it. Not all Shinkansen stops at Odawara though.

I just remember this one great website that has all the information about Japan:

https://www.japan-guide.com/

I always use that when planning a Japan trip
We are buying the JR pass and I haven't read into it enough quite yet. I was mostly worried about getting our plane tickets and now that we have those I'm finally get to plan other things. The JR pass works on more than just the Shinkansen right?

I've been using japan-guide a lot!
 


JR Pass works on the JR line trains as well like the Yamanote line (not the Metro), and I think on the Odaiba lines.
 
JR Pass works on the JR line trains as well like the Yamanote line (not the Metro), and I think on the Odaiba lines.
Okay thanks! Once we figure out everywhere we want to go we will look at the routes to get to those places and see what routes we can use the JR pass on.
 
Do you have any ideas for what we could do during our day for Ikspiari since that won't take up a whole day?

Hmm.. you can go back to Tokyo and see whatever left you want to see or if there's something you forget to see. JR Pass works on the Tokyo -> Maihama (Tokyo Disney's station) train.
 
You take the Shinkansen to Odawara and then take some other train to Hakone but I'm not too familiar with it.

The train to Hakone is practically a funicular. There's a lot of switch backs and the trains going up share the same track as those going down so sometimes you have to wait on a section until the other train passes.
 
Do you want access to my Google doc with our list of things to do? It's really long and I don't want to post the whole thing on here since it will take a lot of space up. You can leave me comments on the document if you want. Let me know and I can PM you.

I mainly just put Ghibli on there because it is a high priority for us. We would love doing things in the area after we finish up at the museum. Do you know the name of the hammock cafe?
Sure! Send me a PM :)

The hammock cafe is literally called Cafe Hammock :rotfl: http://hammock-mitaka.com/
 
The train to Hakone is practically a funicular. There's a lot of switch backs and the trains going up share the same track as those going down so sometimes you have to wait on a section until the other train passes.
So we should plan on leaving early in the morning to get to Hakone. I think the hiking trail posted earlier will take a good chunk of the day so we will probably want to get there early in the morning.
 
Three days at TDR is enough. Use the extra day for more time in Tokyo or Kyoto. I would add Robot Restaurant.
 
So we should plan on leaving early in the morning to get to Hakone. I think the hiking trail posted earlier will take a good chunk of the day so we will probably want to get there early in the morning.

Our first trip, we did Tokyo - Hakone (1 night) - Miyajima (1 night) - Kyoto. Took a carry-on and sent the big luggage from Tokyo - Kyoto. You might find that saves some time over doing day trips.
 
Three days at TDR is enough. Use the extra day for more time in Tokyo or Kyoto. I would add Robot Restaurant.
Thanks for your input. I think we will still do 4 days at TDR. We want to take our time going slow and will most likely want to re-ride things more than once. We actually looked at the Robot Restaurant and it wasn't something we were too interested in.
 
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Our first trip, we did Tokyo - Hakone (1 night) - Miyajima (1 night) - Kyoto. Took a carry-on and sent the big luggage from Tokyo - Kyoto. You might find that saves some time over doing day trips.
Yeah we didn't really think about staying in the cities that we want to visit, but that might be a good option, at least for Hakone since it's kind of on the way to Kyoto. I also didn't realize how far Hiroshima is from Kyoto. Do you think we should pick between Hiroshima and Miyajima or could we do both in one day? It seems like it might be hard to do both of them in one day.

I guess I'm a little confused on the whole luggage situation. Are there certain trains/transportation that don't let you bring luggage? That's definitely something we should know beforehand.

On a different note, do you have any suggestions for where to stay in Kyoto? I have some places in mind, but if you liked where you stayed I'd be interested in looking at it. Thanks!
 

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