In April 2017 we spent two weeks in Japan and loved it. Here is our Japan itinerary, detailing what we saw and did during that time. 

We explored from North to South; mountain to gardens; city center to remote area. There were times we wandered through chaotic neon light-lit streets, relaxed in an onsen, visited temples, and ate delicious Japanese food.

This was our first time in Japan and we bought a Japan Rail (JR) pass to give ourselves complete freedom over where we wanted to go and for how long. We also reached out to old students that I had taught as an English Teacher in New York City, so we planned some of our Japan itinerary around their availability.

For our first trip to japan our itinerary was, in a nutshell: Osaka (3 nights) before going to Kagoshima (2 nights), Kyoto (4 nights), Tokyo (4 nights), Mito (1 night), Sendai (1 night) and Tsuru-no-yu Onsen (1 night). This was such a fabulous trip and we think about going back constantly.

How We planned our Japan Itinerary

Unlike Sri Lanka or The United States— where we rock up and figure out what we want to do about 24-hours before we do it– Japan takes more planning.

We went during the cherry blossom bloom in early April and Japan was PACKED with people. We learned the hard way that making a reservation last minute was a terrible idea. This also meant that we got to some far-flung places that really took us off the beaten path and were awesome places to go for our first time in Japan.

We did some research on places to see, the cheapest airport to fly into (Osaka), and who would be willing to put us up while there (thanks, Hiroko!). We wanted to put together a perfect japan itinerary that wasn’t going to make us feel trapped in our plans, but also able to have some flexibility to go see awesome places.

My biggest piece of advice about planning a japan itinerary– if it’s your first time– is to buy your JR pass and book whatever ryokan you want to stay in WELL in advance, BEFORE you go to spend your two weeks in Japan.

Then: go in with an open mind!

How We Decided Where to Stay, Get Around, and What to Do

To be honest, because this was our first time in Japan, we had no clear idea about how busy it could be in early April (that, in hindsight, was mega stupid). That said, once we threw out the tired Osaka-Tokyo-Fuji-Kyoto trope that most travelers opt for, we found some great places that weren’t nearly as packed as the all-stars of tourism in Japan.

Accommodation:

I first asked all of the students I’d had in New York if any of them wanted to meet up. It’s really important to hit up your network! Hiroko offered to put us up in Kyoto for 3 days and that was A-OK with us!

We knew the bigger cities wouldn’t be cheap, so we booked an apartment in Osaka through Airbnb. This turned out to be a great decision because we got our own place to do laundry and chill a bit.

Tokyo is super expensive, so for that we opted to use our credit card points from the Chase Sapphire Reserve card to pay for 3 nights at a 3-star hotel (that was a sweet $600 bucks we didn’t have to spend, hell yeah!).

For the smaller cities, it was much easier to find hotels to book through Booking. We didn’t do anything special in these places, we just looked for a good price that was available for the days we were passing through.

The ryokan was a different story. This is a seriously old-school place that isn’t frequented by tourists. As a result: they don’t have an official website, but you can book through a third-party site like we did. You can learn more about the details of that here.

Transportation: 

We got the JR pass for two weeks. The beauty of the pass is how much it will save you. The cost upfront sucks, but– trust us here– you’re gonna save a bucket-load of cash from it (we saved hundreds of dollars, you can check this site to see how much you’d save, it’s amazing). Plus, there are different passes that’ll allow you in different areas of the country, or all over the place if you so choose. We opted for the latter and were so glad we got it.

As we were there for peak cherry blossom season, we needed to make sure we made reservations on the shinkansen trains at least a day in advance. This was easy, the Japanese railway employees are incredibly helpful and (most of them) speak English. All it took was stopping by a ticket office and making a quick reservation. This was no extra cost.

(Whenever we were looking to book a Shinkansen, I always looked up in advance the stations, and then wrote them down with the dates we wanted to travel. The railway employees seemed to really appreciate this, as it made their lives much easier! Google maps is very thorough, so you can easily find which trains depart and arrive and which stations using this. – Jackson)

Activities: 

Jackson was a champ at looking up obscure things to see and do. I was amazed when he suggested going to Mito because we had two days to kill before our reservation at the ryokan in Akita. To “kill time” we decided to make our way up the eastern coast by stopping in the obscure cities of Mito and Sendai.

We saw the 3rd largest Japanese garden in Mito, ate gyutan (grilled beef tongue) in Sendai, hiked around a volcano in Kagoshima and visited tons of temples, like, everywhere. We didn’t lock any of this down (other than the ryokan) and left ourselves plenty of wiggle room.

Deciding on Where to Eat:

We had hardly any research here. I mostly relied on my students’ local knowledge to guide us and I was so glad I did. That said, there were places that were a helluva’ lot better than others. Osaka, for example, is DA’ BOMB when it comes to cramming your mouth full of Japanese eats. Mito? Whew, boy: pretty forgettable.

We used Tripadvisor and Google Maps a lot to help us out when on our own, and they were such an awesome resource! We’d basically look out for anything above a 4/5 stars and were generally pretty happy with our choices.

Here’s Our Japan Itinerary:

Osaka: 3 nights, 2 days

Kagoshima: 2 nights, 1 day

Kyoto: 4 nights, 3 days

Tokyo: 4 nights, 3 days

The capital of Japan: you’ll either be flying in to Narita or going out of curiosity.

Tokyo is really cool, but it is in some places totally overwhelming and like being in an amped-up Times Square and at other times like walking into a neon light’s wet dream.

That said, we did enjoy watching people cross Shibuya (the famous street that’s featured in all the movies) and walking through the streets as visitors was invigorating (the Japanese are not allowed to casually smoke on the street because it is so crowded they might accidentally put their cigarette out on someone near them…).

We stayed in Shinjuku which was a wild and crazy area of Tokyo, filled with casinos, strip clubs, food stalls and Godzilla himself (who’ll occasionally come to life and make a lot of noise from the rooftop of a nearby hotel). I know there are other areas of the city to stay in, but Shinjuku was really central and my students recommended that one.

I enjoyed going to Yoyogi park (Tokyo’s Central Park) and walking around.

Mito: 1 night, 1 day

Mito is not known for much, but we went because they have the 3rd largest Japanese Garden in Japan. What makes that special? No one knows about this place so we were the only ones there.

The Gardens were beautiful: full of cherry blossoms, bamboo, little wooden huts, tree-lined walking paths and very territorial black swans. I loved how empty it was and how much we were able to wander around the grounds (for free) to take pictures and imagine Japanese wood nymphs playing in the leaves. It felt magical. I wouldn’t spend more than a day here.