7 days in Japan... Recommendations please!

Here is my two cents...just spent 16 days over there in October.

Tokyo was worth at least 3 days. 4 if you want to see most of the tourist things.

I know Kyoto is touristy, but well worth minimum 2 days. The palaces, the folks dressed up, etc

So, I would not spend money on the rail passes as you will not get your money back going back and down to one city.

I liked Osaka just for the food, so I would explore that for at least one day before you fly out.

So your time is pretty caught up.

But what do you and your family like?

We just went a couple weeks ago with our kids. Tokyo for 4 days / Kyoto for 4 days. We bought rail pass since we flew in/out of NRT. The rail pass came with a great travel guide I’d be happy to email to you. It has a sections like “What to do in Japan for 7 days”. It was helpful.

Some highlights:

Tokyo-
Walked the grounds of the Imperial Palace
Owl Cafe
Tokyo Skytree
Conveyor Belt sushi
Yakiniku
Akihabara
Senso-ji temple in Asakusa

Kyoto-
Gion district
Monkey Park
Kiyomizu-dera Temple
Fushimi Inari

4 days in Kyoto wasn’t nearly enough, We missed a ton. We aren’t great planners & My one regret is not hiring a tour guide in both cities. While not a huge deal, language is certainly a challenge, particularly at restaurants.

Several folks on this board gave me some great tips, so do a search as there are several Japan threads.

I'm actually currently in Japan...typing this from the beach on Sado Island (well, it's snowing, so I'm inside our rental, but I'm still on the beach).

Anyway, on our first trip 15 months ago, we spent 4 or 5 days in Tokyo, then did smaller day trips like Yokohama, Kawasaki, Kamakura (Giant Buddha!) and Mt. Fuji. We stay on the Naval base with my sister and BIL, so all of those places are within an hour, hour and a half of the house (except Fuji, but it was worth the drive). We just took the local trains everywhere with no problem.

This trip, we wanted to go a few places we hadn't been before, so we decided on Osaka, Kyoto/Nara, and Sado Island. My sister and BIL tagged along for the first part of the trip. For the 2 of them, tickets on the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Yokohama-Osaka, then Kyoto-Yokohama were around $500...so pretty much a round-trip ticket. Fiance' and I got the 7-day JR pass for just over $500, and our savings would have been even better if we had stayed longer in Osaka or Kyoto (we rented a car for the island, there are no trains here) since we would have been able to take even further advantage of it.

The JR pass is definitely worth the price if you're planning on bouncing around different parts of Japan. Plus, the bullet train is just fun :)

We're about to head back to Tokyo, but I'll post again during our train ride back with a few descriptions of the cool shite we did this time around. Maybe it will give you some ideas!

I'm doing a five and five between Tokyo and Kyoto in November so I'm interested in what you felt like you "missed?"

One of those days I'm planning to head down to Nara.

Going with a young kid so I'll be going slower and missing some stuff as is but it helps to get more info.

Now that I think about it I may get a guide since I will have said kid. Not usually my thing but either is international travel with the kid.

quote:

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I'm interested in what you felt like you "missed?"

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Sites like the Golden temple & several mansions in the area, Japanese tea ceremony, stay in a traditional ryokan, we also wanted to take the kids to Mt Fuji, but didn’t have time.

The rail pass is worth it IMO. Really, 2 bullet train rides almost are about the price of the week pass.

If you do Tokyo
Hamarkiyu Gardens are really peaceful. It's a nice contrast to the tall building around it. Imperial Palace grounds are nice as well. Senso-ji and Zojo-ji are nice temples.

Kyoto is absolutely worth visiting. So many temples and gardens to see.

Osaka has a great food scene.

I'm trying to do Osaka/Kyoto on my upcoming trip here in a few months since it's been forever since I've been in that area (only have stopped by Tokyo the last few trips), but only got a flight back from HND. If not, Tokyo is still awesome.

Japan is amazing

One more tip I failed to mention in my initial response... When going from Tokyo to Kyoto (or wherever your next stop is), ask the hotel about luggage transport. We used this twice on our trip it was a game changer! It cost about $70 for 4 pieces of luggage & they pick it up from your hotel and have it waiting on you at your next hotel. You just have to have it picked up the day before your arrival. It made travel with kids 1000% easier. There's even locations at the airport to drop your luggage delivery to your hotel.