Planning Japan 15ish Days

Here is what I have so far
Tentative Plan:

Fly Into Osaka, Japan from New York, NY
Hotel #1 [In Osaka, 4 Days - 3 Nights]
Day 1: Osaka
Day 2: Nara
Deer Park
Day 3: Kyoto
Pug Cafe
Day 4: Check Out

- BULLET TRAIN FROM OSAKA TO HAKONE -

Hotel #2 [In Hakone, Green Plaza Hotel, 2 Days - 1 Night]
Day 5: Mt. Fuji, Onsen
Day 6: Check Out, Gotemba Premium Outlets

FIGURE OUT TO GO FROM HAKONE
to GOTEMBA PREMIUM OUTLETS
then to Tokyo

3. Hotel #3 [In Tokyo, 11 Days, 10 Nights]
Day 7: Sky Circus // 1/19
Day 8: VR Shinjuku // 2/10
Day 9: Harajuku, Meiji Shrine // 3/10
Day 10: Shibuya // 4/10
Day 11: Akihabara // 5/10
Day 12: Tokyo Tower // 6/10
Day 13: DiverCity Tokyo Plaza // 7/10
Day 14: DisneySEA // 8/10
Day 15: Ghibli Museum // 9/10
Day 16: Cup Noodle Museum // 10/10
Day 17: Check Out

GO back to New York from Tokyo

-Need to figure out;
transportation
pocket wifi
sim card
budget

I still feel completely overwhelmed, does what I have so far seem okay
I never been on a plane before or traveled anywhere and everytime I look
at the tokyo subway map i get a headache, I'm trying to form something slowly,
I could use some advice I guess to start with how should I go about
booking flights, housing, and transportation
i was thinking to
fly into osaka from ny
and then do day trips to nara and kyoto because there near

then take a bullet train (pricy but id like to experience it)
to hakone and check out the mt fuju and onsen experience

then go to the outlets because its nearby and it peeks my interest
and then head to tokyo for the rest of my trip,
i feel once im in tokyo itll be easier

and then go home from tokyo to new york
thanks for any advice, i will continue researching but id like to know if i have
a good setup so far

Your itinerary isn't well balanced. Your time in Kansai is very rushed, while your time in Tokyo is very spread out. I would take at least one day, if not two, from Tokyo to add to Kyoto. Kyoto needs at least 2 or 3 full days.

In Tokyo, you can do more than one thing on one day! It's highly unlikely things like Tokyo Tower will take a whole day - more like two hours max! Try also combining nearby areas, e.g. Harajuku and Shibuya (they are one train stop, or 30 minutes' walk, apart).

For transportation, use Google Maps (especially for local travel) and Hyperdia (good for train timetables and the shinkansen). Much easier than looking at the whole train map! I use Google Maps for all my travel within Japanese cities, as it has all the public transport information. For between cities, I currently use the route function in the Japan Travel app (iOS).

You shouldn't need both a pocket wifi and a SIM card. You should only need one for internet. I personally prefer pocket wifi (don't like changing my SIM), and use this company: https://www.gmobile.biz/softbank/inbound/

For budget, there is a budgeting section on this website.

Totally agree with pp regarding imbalance of your plan. You are rushing around in Kansai and tgen get really slow in Tokyo.

Depending on your interests add more days in Kyoto or add more activities including day trips (Kamakura, Nikko, Yokohama...) in Tokyo.

Some other remarks:
- Ghibli: check out the webpage regarding tickets. You need to buy them WELL in advance. They sell out within hours of the pre-sale opening.
- did you tell us when you travel? Just consider weather. Mid June to end August is really hot and humid and best avoided.
- Hakone: what do you mean with Mt. Fuji? Just looking at it from the distance? There is no guarantee you can see it from Hakone. It depends on the weather. Or hiking it? Hakone is not the best base for that. Also this is my personal opinion but I don�ft get it why you would go shopping in gotenba instead of seeing all the sights in Hakone. They are unique, or have you ever been on a vulcano ? This webpage will explain further details on the �gstandard �g Hakone round trip. Internet will also tell you about transportation to/ from Gotenba.

Enjoy planning your trip to Japan!

I'd give Osaka and Kyoto both 2 or 3 days instead of just one for a 17 day trip. Tokyo isn't that special that you need to spend 11/17 days over there. Also, Kobe and Himeji might be interesting day trips in the Kansai area, since they're so close to Osaka. I live in Kobe right now so I might be biased, but it's really a wonderful city.

Also be cautious with your hotels. In your planning, it seems like you forgot to include hotels for the nights between day 4-5 and day 6-7.

Another comment: you won't need both a Japanese sim card and a pocket wifi. Either one is fine. Or none at all, if you plan and print you schedule before your flight.

And I don't know if you already got plane tickets, but it's usually cheaper to book a return flight (so leaving from the same airport where you arrived).

Hi!

From what I remember, NY has no direct flights to Kansai. (Unless they were recently added, there were none as of July 2018.) So either you are flying NY to CA to KIX (Seattle might have a direct, I'm pretty sure the Chicago flight is gone.) or NY to Tokyo to Itami. (I was looking at that flight last year.) With the latter you are not arriving in Itami until after 20:00. I wouldn't count it as a sightseeing day. If you're going to CA, you have to take a super early morning flight or you need to go to the West Coast the day before. So your Day 1 is not really going to be much more than getting from the airport to your hotel.

Disney Sea is the only one of your Tokyo days that actually takes up all day. Disney Sea gets supremely crowded so I would make sure to use the crowd calendar to pick the least crowded day of your trip.

I took my daughter to the Ghibli Museum in July 2018. My daughter is a huge Ghibli fan. The museum was crowded and had limited exhibits. Bring food because the lines to get anything to eat were crazy long or be prepared to start waiting for the restaurant to open as soon as you get into the museum. Maybe we just had bad luck, but it was an exercise in line waiting as bad as Disney. It's not an all day activity. Unless you are a hardcore gamer, I would combine VR Shinjuku with the Ghibli Museum. Unless you are a hardcore shopper you can easily do Harajuku and Shibuya together.

If you're in the USA I would highly recommend if your phone is compatible just use Project Fi from Google for the month. I'm on Project Fi and I average only $20 additional for my two week trips to Japan. And yes, I use data and make phone calls. However, outside your Hakone trip, many business hotels now offer free use of a cell phone while you are staying there. I'm not sure of all the details since I've not taken any of the hotels up yet. But I've been seeing them more and more often on offer.

How much it will cost you depends on you. Transportation around Tokyo is easier than it looks on a map. You can always just use Google or Hyperdia ahead of time when you are trying to get somewhere. Also depending on where you are and where you are trying to get to, there is always walking.

I don't find the Summer heat and humidity that bad. I live outside NYC where it also gets hot and humid during the Summer and have no central air. So being in Japan is not all that different from being home. If you're into flowers the hydrangea are gorgeous in the Summer.

Good luck!

Thank you all so much i will do some more research and update

I agree with what was said before - your itinerary isn't well balanced. In 17 days, you can see way more than what you have planned at the moment.

Maybe you can have a look at the itineraries suggested on japan-guide as well? https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2400.html
I found them quite good when I visited Japan for the first time. IMO, however, most of them are a bit fast-paced. So if you prefer to travel a bit slower, just skip 1 or 2 places they suggest in these itineraries.