Hey all,
Just wanted a sanity check by those who would know better than I, a first-time traveler to Japan. This is what Ifve got at the moment.
Leave the US on March 28th, midday (EST).
Day 1 - Arrive in Japan on March 29th at 3:25 PM, Japan time. Make my way to my hostel in Ikebukuro, get settled in, maybe walk around and have some food, stay active until bedtime to stave off the jet lag.
Days 2 & 3 (March 30 & 31) - Tokyo sightseeing, based out of Ikebukuro. I have some rough plans for this (Tokyo Sky Tree, a shrine in Akasaka, maybe Tokyo Tower, cherry blossoms, Akihabara, Harajuku on Sunday morning) but nothing super-concrete yet. Still researching on this site (which is a GODSEND).
Days 4 & 5 (April 1 & 2) - Going down to Yokohama to stay with a friend, sightseeing around Yokohama (potentially taking the train back up to Tokyo on the 1st if therefs still stuff I want to do there that I didnft get a chance to do).
Days 6 | 8 (April 3, 4, 5) - Taking the shinkansen to Kyoto, sightseeing for three days. Definitely want to see the Fushimi Inari shrine, the Kinkaku-ji, and lots of other stuff (again, still filling in my gsightseeingh list from here).
Day 9 (April 6) - Taking a day trip to Yoshinoyama for the cherry blossoms, assuming theyfre still in heavy bloom. Taking the train to Osaka that evening.
Day 10 | 11 (April 7, 8) - Osaka! Okonomiyaki! Takoyaki! Jaywalking! Still filling in my sightseeing list here as well.
Day 12 - (April 9) - Overnight trip to Koyasan (already booked a ryokan room). Really excited about this!
Day 13 - (April 10) Day trip to Nishinomiya, because Ifm a big fan of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Will spend a couple hours walking around town taking pictures, eating lunch, then get on the train (to Shin-Kobe, then get on the shinkansen) to Hiroshima.
Day 14 - (April 11) - Hiroshima! Peace Park, A-Bomb Domec lots of sobering stuff, probably.
Day 15 - (April 12) - Overnight trip to Miyajima Island (again, booked a room already). Really looking forward to visiting the famous Itsukushima Shrine, taking lots of pictures, walking around and just generally enjoying the scenery.
Day 16 - (April 13) - Travel back to the Tokyo area via shinkansen, do some shopping for selvedge denim jeans, CDs, and souvenirs in the afternoon, then take the train to Narita for an overnight stay near the airport.
Day 17 - (April 14) - Fly back to the USA out of Narita.
Does this all seem reasonable to you guys? I do have a couple questions relating to this plan:
1) Do you think itfd be worth using a takuhaibin service so I have less to carry during my day 9, 12 and 15 side-trips? Ifm only planning on carrying a backpack and a 21h gcarry-onh-style rolling suitcase, but I still feel like itfd be a pain to carry the suitcase on those days. If I could send the suitcase on to Osaka, Hiroshima, and Narita so I had less to burden me, would it be worth it?
2) Related to number 1, do you think Ifll manage to successfully navigate a takuhaibin service (and, generally, Japan) as an EXTREMELY limited speaker of Japanese whofs traveling alone? I have a rudimentary knowledge of simple sentence structure, a few conversational bits (greetings, introduction, please, thank you), and can look up phrases and say them okay, butc itfs very limited. Any tips for me re: the language thing? Ifm worried Ifm going to do a lot of gEigo ga wakarimasu ka?h and then getting an gIie, wakarimasenh and feeling helpless.
Any thoughts/input would be appreciated.
|