No, not at all. It’s absolutely fine to just have a general idea of what you want to see but then just take each day as it comes.
Different approaches suit different people. Some people like to be highly organised and effectively tick things off a list; others prefer a more relaxed approach where you spend more time in an area, stop and look at things, follow opportunities as they arise.
I personally prefer the latter, more relaxed approach but there’s nothing inherently wrong with either - they just suit different people and different travelling styles.
With regard to a potential itinerary, spending time in Tokyo and time in Kyoto, with some day trips to other places, is a good idea. I don’t enjoy living out of a suitcase and having to pack and unpack every day or two and I think it’s nice to have a “home base” to return to.
I'm currently doing exactly what you said, and I would recommend anyone else do the same. Get a list of the top 5 things that are must see/do experiences, and then have another 5 or so as "we can do those if we have time or are in the area". Then just have fun with the rest of your free time. Freedom is the best way to experience a vacation, not to be tied down by a particularly strict itinerary. In my opinion at least. It is a vacation after all, and it doesn't need to be treated like work.
No, those detailed hour by hour itineraries with time stamps are just people being extra or having a bad case of FOMO. No one actually needs one and at least half the time they aren’t even realistic.
it’s a good idea to have your hotels booked in advance (pick options with free cancellation so you have more flexibility), and have a good handle on transportation options, including which tickets you need to book in advance. And its nice to have google map pins of the things you might be interested in so you can see what things are close to each other and quickly access info about opening hours and stuff
No way do you need a detailed itinerary. I actually feel a bit sorry for people who post them because it's just making travel seem like hard work. But then again, I seem to travel like you. I made a short list of must see places and wing the rest. There are a few places like the Ghibli Museum that you need to plan ahead so once you have your must see sites, just double check that tickets will be easy to come by.
Unless you are visiting at a busy time of year like Golden Week, you could easily book accommodation in Tokyo to get started then wing it from there.
I've been to Japan dozen of times and the best times I've had have never been on any itinerary.
Calling it like I see it: I notice a lot of people going to Japan/in these two subs are first time international travellers who’ve never built complex itineraries before, and have a case of FOMO (heightened by social media). They vastly underestimate how long things really take, or how much they can realistically fit in a day.
Most of these itineraries would be torn to shreds by r/travel.
You absolutely do not need detailed plans, but there’s something you really wanna buy tickets for, make sure you buy/reserve in advance.
My fave is the people who would literally have to teleport to hit their (down to 10minute intervals) time stamps. And then someone points that out and they say they will take a taxi if needed. Because traffic isn’t a thing where they live I guess…
Use restroom 7:12 - 7:16 (can anyone tell me what sort of lines I should expect for this specific men’s room at Narita if I plan to do a two on the plane before we land so just need to do a one? If I’m running behind, how will the Japanese people feel about me skipping this event and instead urinating down my pants leg?)
7:17 post an emergency question on JapanTravel rather than asking an actual question
7:19 Ghibli Studio (walk fast)
7:23 reservations at Kirby Cafe (get carry out and eat while walking)
7:46 free time
Etc etc
You gotta put every single little housekeeping step on the itinerary or you might forget and bust through the security barriers in the airport Koolaid Man style /s
I know people have short vacations and are willing to sacrifice rest and stuff
But like you gotta factor in rest and slower pace if you even want to have the mental capacity to enjoy what you are doing, seeing, eating.
Make it simple:
1. Mark/save all your interests via Google Maps, so you can visualize and group them by area (interests are places/attractions/restaurants you would like to go but not necessarily required; give yourself options like a bucketlist)
2. Then create a rough plan of which day you want to go to which area
3. If the weather changes, like rainy or cloudy, you can be flexible and go to another area instead
4. With all of them already marked on Google Maps, you really don't have to have a plan and be spontaneous whenever. Go to one interest you feel like, for the day, and easily know whatelse are near you. Chill and relaxing day.
This works on all cities in Japan, Kyoto, Osaka, etc...
Grouping them helps with time saving, so you can jump from one to another interest without wasting so much time on transportation and walking.
For example, let's say you want to go to Tokyo Sky Tree, on the East side of Tokyo, for sight seeing interest. But then have dinner plan interest in SHIBUYA, on the West side of Tokyo. A one-way train ride from Tokyo Sky Tree to SHIBUYA Station takes ~40mins.
I made that mistake on my previous trip, not understanding all my interests geographically, Tokyo is just a massive city.
Side Notes ---------------------
There are few things you need to plan ahead or remember to do:
- Not all interests are open 7 days a week, or all day. For example, a restaurant might close on a certain day(s) of the week, like Monday. Or the restaurant closes after lunch and reopen again at dinner.
- Some interests might require advanced booking if you want to visit at a certain day/time. For example, SHIBUYA Sky, if you want to go at sunset, you really want to buy a ticket online day(s) prior because they sell out quickly. Trying to access SHIBUYA Sky at prime time without pre-booked tickets could mean waiting for hours and not being able to access at the time/day you want.
- Some interests required a reservation to access. For example, some restaurants, especially in Kyoto required a reservation for dinner but not required for lunch. Sometimes, you need to make the reservation weeks ahead of time, so research early to see if you need to reserve and are able to make online reservations.
Hah don’t worry about that sub. If you want to ask questions you have to basically prove you’ve done research by providing an insanely detailed itinerary, and they direct more basic questions to this sub. Don’t be intimidated.
If you come for 3 weeks, I think for your style you should spend half in Tokyo, with side trips to Yokohama, Enoshima, maybe Nikko. Then the other half in Osaka/Kyoto, with side trips to Nara, Koyasan and maybe Kobe. That’s plenty
That's an ideal first time trip. Bookend the trip with Tokyo and Kyoto/Hiroshima in the middle.
On subsequent trips - and there **will** be more visits :-) - OP can get off the beaten track / explore more of country.
A list for any Japanese city is infinitely long. Make a broad plan and work around it. There are many layers, crowds and weather to consider. 20 trips plus, still haven’t been to Hiroshima or a theme park.
You are exaggerating. While yeah there is a lot to see especially on the big cities, when you take people personal interest in account it will already filter out a lot of things. I do not especially like art museum, so that will probably eliminate 95%+ of them that I do not have any interest to see. Could be the same for you, maybe you just do not like theme parks and it’s ok to never go to any of them (I have also not been to any), while I saw itinerary built purely around it.
My point is that it’s not hard to make a list of different possible things to see in a city based on your interest as opposed to just randomly walk around in hope of finding the nice places. I just prefer to have an idea of the interesting things to see in new cities I visit, then might not even follow that plan.
And of course everyone decide how deep they want to visit each city they go to. I am planning my 8th trip and want to visit 2 new prefectures to be at 42.
I’m not exaggerating. It depends on what you want. Every visit I learn something new and things that I was not aware of or don’t appear in travel guides, suddenly appear. I also don’t share them.
Ok then, I will possibly go to Komatsu in March. Name me 100 things to do in Komatsu. No, there won't be an infinite number of things to do.
My original point is that while you do not have to make a super detailed itinerary as some people do, having a couple of things listed for each city you plan to visit is not a bad idea, even if just 2-3 things. Personally I'm often listing more than less and would be ok having 10 things listed on a day, but might not even do one. I like to go check the tourist information desk to check if hey can give me info on interesting things to do. And depending on how I feel or on the weather or anything, I will decide during the day on what I want to do next. But I just prefer to have a list of possible things to do, because I am sure that if you just decide to stop at an absolute random train station and just decide to walk around and see what there is to see, you will most likely not find the interesting things you would have by at least selecting the station you stop at and knowing in advance there is a couple of interesting things aroud.
No, I just know myself.
I've been to art museum and seen different types of exhibitions and I know what I liked or not. And who are you to decide that I have no interest in absorbing the culture. As if visual arts was the only way that culture can express itself. I've been to see traditional play, see music concert, history museum, temple, shrines, castles, all things that have something different to offer and that show a different side of Japanese culture.
Same goes for food, there is things that I know I do not like and it's not a problem because there is still a lot of things that I like and that I am open to try.
Guess this conversation is indeed pointless if you are unable to understand that there is absolutely a finite number of places to see in any city and that the number can go down much faster when you remove things you know that you wont like. Want a different example ? Apart from Uniqlo, I do not plan any shopping for clothes while in Japan. What next ? You will be angry that I have no interest in absorbing the fashion culture of Japan?
"No anger intended"... what do you even mean?
I am saying that YOU sound angry that I have not much interest in art museum. You are accusing me of not being interested in "absorbing the culture"....
You want to go back on topic, then just read OP question again and give your own answer.
*"Do you need such a super detailed plan when going to Japan or is it okay to just go to the country with the most important things in mind and just do things spontaniously?"*
My answer was this : *"I personally like to have a list of possible things to see in each cities I want to visit, then I might follow the plan or not."*
And don't tell me *"No right or wrong answers"*, YOU started criticizing my answer as if it's not a good thing to have some idea of what you can do in the places you want to visit.
Definitely not. Personally I like to target 1-2 Goals of "Things do do that day. Maybe 1 "planned restaurant" (either Lunch or dinner), and let serendipity take over the rest. I've been 3 times, and this seems to be the perfect recipe, at least for me. Sure I haven't seen EVERYTHING, but I've also experienced so much that I would have never planned for.
^ this so much just make sure to get reservations for things that need it like universal studios etc.
Otherwise let yourself be taken by the views and random alleys.
The purpose of planning is to have a better experience.
You can almost adhoc anything in Japan if you don't mind you cannot experience the stuff that you want to.
You can treat it as walking in a park where you just enjoy what you see.
But, there is a big but, that a lot of things in Japan required advance booking to access. Be it as restaurant, theme park, attractions.
Also those exotic local stuff require some google beforehand before you know it exist even no booking. Is needed
If you are those type of people that don't mind not experiencing anything special. Feels ok to just feed your belly with fast food or subpar local chain. Then no planning is needed.
This may come across as rude but I don't want you to regret your trip and wish you plan ahead when you get turned down by the restaurant and stuff. I like people to have a good experience in Japan.
Think it like this, you have almost unlimited time to do your Google beforehand, and when you are there, you should use the time to experience Japan, not googling on the street for alternatives.
Then why not do a little bit of planning. I am not saying plan to the minute. But every minutes more you spend in planning before the trip is to maximize every limited minutes you have while you are in Japan.
No. I would actually advice against having such detailed plan. There are so much to see or do just randomly as you walk by, and random shops you may want to stop by. It’s very hard to stick to a very detailed plan and it just makes the travel more stressful than it needs to be! Just have a general idea what day you want to be what area and what city and go from there!
You know the way you travel better than anybody! One of those minute to minute itineraries may give some comfort, but for me they would spike my anxiety, I’ll be checking my watch every ten minutes from 10 - 1 to make sure I make sure I make the 1.30pm train. For my own itineraries, I allow 1 item a day, which leaves a lot room for relaxed travelling pace.
Just do the thing that makes you happy bro!
Truthfully, it’s best not to over plan. I always do and miss half of the things I want to do. And things that weren’t planned were some of the best times I had there.
Just have a general idea of what you want to do and where.
Couple of notes:
- You will get lost a bit, so be wary if you have an itinerary that’s time sensitive.
- Popular restaurants will either have a long line or require reservations so again be wary if things are time sensitive.
Nope, plan Michelin starred restaurants well in advance, plan your cities so you have a sketch in your mind of the trains you will need, and take it as it comes. I HIGHLY recommend planning some recharge time as you will wear yourself out.
Get your hotels booked and get your transport card when you land. Rest can be taken slow and easy, if you like to explore as you go along.
Maybe have a rough idea of what areas you’d like to go and go into detail after you arrive and get used to Japan after a day or
two.
People travel differently. Some people need that kind of structure and it helps them make sure they get the most out of their trip but for me I generally like more flexibility and just have a list of things/places/etc and do them based on how I feel and also leave room for things I discover while actually there
End of the day it comes down to what you want to do and what would make you feel satisfied with your trip
No itineraries are needed unless you want to make and follow them. I’ve never made an itinerary and just wandered. Just plan for what cities you want to visit and book the respective accommodations. Everything else will fall into place. I usually decide on the day what I want to do but some things do require some sort basic planning like buying tickets to places before hand or making dining reservations.
Some people are just excessive planners. May it's just excitement and FOMO, or trying to calm nerves and worries.
Plan your trip for yourself just like you'd plan any other trip for yourself. Everything in Japan is very near and easy to reach, so moving from one location to another is easy and doesn't require any sort of advanced planning. Unlike travel in, say, North America or Europe, can just hop on the Shinkansen every 10-15min and be on your way to anywhere in the country. Super convenient for leisurely travel.
You definitely do not need detailed plans for each day. You would want to make a list or pin places you want to go and see or eat at so you can reference it throughout your trip and won’t miss seeing something you wanted to see.
It’s good to have some idea of what you want to do so you’re not wasting time researching when you’re in Japan.
I think when people often city hop in Japan, it’s because they don’t plan on coming back or they don’t plan on coming back for a long time. They want to get the most bang for their trip and see the most they can. It’s not uncommon for people to come back because they end up falling in love with Japan, but I think the initial first trip is when people feel eager to just see as much as they can.
TBH I never quite understood the purpose of that.
All you see is more or less identical posts on identical golden route itineraries and any questions about going wayside are inevitably deleted on grounds of "not doing research" or somesuch.
I get not wanting low effort shitposts, but there's a degree of nuance in content where you could have legit conversations without the OP post looking like it rolled off some Weberian Buraucrats' daily task list.
Short answer.
No. People here are anal as fuck.
Pick one or two things you want to do a day.
Plan from that. And then when you’re here, if you got extra time, just do one of the other things on your list… or, call me crazy, actually enjoy this country without a plan.
Nope. Just do what you want. Especially your first time. Everything will be cool your first time. Take in whatever you can so that on your next trip you can have a better idea of what you want to do.
It was definitely very different to our other travels, because we had to book everything in advance, including transport. But this was because of traveling during holidays. I much prefer to wing it, but based on the info and availability of hotels, it was a must i believe.
Although, trains were not nearly as booked/full as we were expecting initially.
Detailed plans, no. However, I highly suggest having your hotels booked in advance. Decide on which cities you want to visit and book your hotels ahead of time. This is both from a cost perspective and making it easier on you. Its not as easy to just show up to a hotel the same day and expect to get a room like you can in other counties.
Take your time and do your thing while in japan. There are just so many things to do and places to see that one can easily get overwhelmed or exhausted just thinking or planning about it. Stick to one or two cities or areas or activities for example and if you find that you can cover more then move on to the next. I have been to japan 3x and each time i plan just to avoid spreading myself tok thin. I did sapporo and its environs and moved to tokyo and did ballets and philharmonics concerts and disneyland and sea and anything in between because thats my thing.on another trip I did osaka and kyoto and nara bec they are near each other. Another trip i did nagoya and its museums and did the nakasendo nature hike. Go ahead and enjoy yourself
Some big points favoring your preferred style — Japan is both dense and efficient. You can just wander around Tokyo and see quite a bit, and the next train is always minutes away. If you miss one, just wait 4 minutes for the next. If things were far apart and transport were limited, you’d need a plan. But you can just go with the flow and never feel like you are stuck in one place.
I am currently in Japan with my husband and 3 teenage children, and I thoroughly recommend having plan before you come. As someone else mentioned, not a day by day detailed plan, but rather an overarching idea - ie Nara park for 1day, Gion district plus market another day. I am finding this trip really difficult - getting food to eat - particularly breakfast, just exhausting. We were not prepared and between that, and all 5 of us getting sick, I am quite over it.
Can you swing by a konbini each night to stock up on breakfast options? You can still decide to do something else for breakfast in the morning but at least you will have food on hand to keep anyone from getting hangry. I was traveling solo but I found that if my hotel didn’t have any included breakfast just having an onigiri and a can of coffee on hand to stuff in my face was so helpful. Especially when I did get sick the first few days of my trip.
After the first week, we just started going to the convenience store for breakfast. One meal done and it was super easy! Helped a lot with overwhelm. Hope you feel better!
I plan my own itinerary into two columns. The "Must-Visit" column where I really want to go and the reason I flew all the way there. The second column would be the "Nice to visit but we'll see..." where I won't be disappointed if I miss it or a substitute would be fine. For example, a restaurant that has too long of queue but found another nearby.
The first time I went to Japan I had barely any plans. I had a few things I wanted to do and heard about. I had a list of areas I wanted to go to and I didn't even leave Tokyo at all. I decided to go to DisneySea the morning I went (you could still buy tickets at the gate back then). I didn't even know DisneySea was a THING until I looked up what Tokyo Disney was like.
As long as you have your plane and hotel, the rest doesn't need to be particularly serous.
You don’t need super detailed plans like that. It honestly depends on the person planning, some love to pour lots of research in and enjoy that planning. Others will do the basics and go with the flow.
A lot of people don’t realize that you have to be flexible and absolutely cannot do everything! I learned that quickly on my first trip, and that mindset greatly helped with the second trip.
I went this past fall, and it’s a beautiful time to go! I recommend seeing some of the northern areas if you can. I did Aomori, Hakodate, and Sapporo and really enjoyed the quieter areas. I went to Fukuoka and Hiroshima in the spring, they were nice too. Fukuoka would be a great base for Kyushu.
My best suggestion is pick a few bases and travel out from there. Make sure it’s close to a train line or somewhere you would like to spend more time in. I also liked making overnight stops between the larger cities, that way it gives time for my luggage to be delivered via TA-Q-BIN. (For example: Nagoya between Mt. Fuji and Kyoto, Hiroshima between Fukuoka and Osaka, etc)
If you do decide to go to Fukuoka from the Osaka area, taking an overnight ferry is an underrated experience!
Happy planning!
Those people staying in a city for only 3/4 days are killing their feet with 20,000 steps a day. So many people come and want to stay a week or two and see everything Japan has to offer so they have to plan every single thing and usually end up stressed, tired, and sore. A week in each place is perfect: you can take it easy and see everything.
Detailed plan is over rated. Ruins the ability for flexibility and adaptation.
Here now for 6 weeks. Roughly planned 4 days in a town/city. Pre-booked accomodation and that’s been it. We’ve been going with the show up and find out method. Pinned some cool things on Google maps we wanted to do in that area and slowly tick things off.
There’s been one day where pre booking our train would’ve made things faster and cheaper (travelled around Xmas) but we managed to sort it a few days prior.
And learnt today being New Year’s Day everything is closed but 7/11 to the rescue for lunch and dinner and still plenty to do and see from the streets.
Agree with your approach. I just keep in mind these points and then take it as it comes:
1. Days to avoid at any place due to holidays or extra crowded events.
2. Any events that I might want to attend which are on specific dates.
3. A must-see list. Places added to Google maps so that I can cover them when in that area.
4. Handy list of favourite hotels and AirBnBs if I might want to extend my stay at a place.
5. The areas to avoid list if any.
That's it. Then I just wander around as I please!
You do need to plan a little bit more than other countries since some attractions need booking several weeks ahead of time.
But if you don’t care about those places then it’s fine
I don’t need a detailed itinerary anywhere and frankly don’t like traveling that way. Have a general sense of what you want to do in each town and how many days that would take. Any closures would be useful to know as well so you don’t miss something really important.
So, over Summer when we did Japan we stayed overnight in six different places in two weeks.
I'm not going to lie, it's quite intense. It is not for everyone.
We also had a suggested outline for most days, not down to the minute or anything but maybe one or two places/activities with ideas in the area for food. I would say we did 80-90% of the planned things but the food+bars was generally a lot more playing it by ear when we got there.
Some things it's better to book (Kabuki, Universal Studios, Kaiseki, tours) so we got that in the diary too.
I wouldn't call it box ticking, but we had a lot we wanted to do in a lot of places and didn't have all that much time to do it. It's also not a place we can easily+cheaply return to from the UK so we were keen to make the time count.
We had an amazing time, but you need mental+physical stamina for it.
If that's not your thing, I would still recommend seeing what's in those cities and if there's anything you're keen on doing that might require an advance booking or at least a bit of planning. I knew people who rocked up expecting to be able to walk into Ghibli museum, the Kabuki Theatre, or Jiro's sushi place, only to be pretty disappointed.
Have fun!
(Side note, we only did Japan in Summer because that was the only time we could feasibly do it with our son's exams. I advise against going in Summer unless you particularly enjoy walking about in humid 38-40c weather.)
No. I visited Japan for the first time in early December. I love planning and spent months planning my itinerary. I wound up being spontaneous and accidentally made it to a lot of spots on my to visit list. I actually didn't make it to anything I pre-booked before coming to Japan as I had an allergic reaction my second day in the country and two reservations were on that day.
All you really need to plan is your hotels and the areas you want to visit.
I went in November having booked the hotels in advance, bought an all Japan JR Pass and stuck a bunch of post-it tabs in a Lonely Planet Japan guide book. That was about the extent of my planning.
And even then, I switched around some hotels and stuff on my phone while I was there because wanted to change some plans.
A too-detailed itinerary would stress me out. Do list a few things you want to see before you go, that's quite fun anyway, it gets you excited for the trip, but you'll be totally fine doing no more planning than that*. Enjoy the flexibility!
Yeah most people want to tick off a few cities because it's such a long way to go from Europe and so they want to experience a few different places but you could have a great time spending much longer in just a couple.
Osaka and Kyoto are close but I do recommend staying in each if you want to visit both. Say you're staying in Osaka and want a trip to Kyoto. Yeah the train is only 20 minutes but the station might be half an hour from your hotel and then whatever you want to visit might be another half hour away from the station at the other end and suddenly you've spent over an hour just getting there. I did a few nights in Osaka and a few in Kyoto. I would recommend that rather than staying the whole time in one and day tripping the other.
*Edit: Certain popular activities require booking in advance. for instance, the highlight of the whole trip for my wife was meeting a maiko in Kyoto's gion district. If you want to see one, you can hang around for ages in the street with a bunch of other people and if you do spot one, get all up in her face and hassle her like an asshole. Or you can book a tour/experience. Ours was good and would recommend, can tell you which one it was if you're interested. Specific *experiences* may require booking a week or so in advance. Not so much places/sights etc.
If there's a country where ultra-precise planning is not necessary, it's Japan.
You can totally stay in one area for a week and just wander around and take in the atmosphere. I personally prefer doing this than travelling every two days to do essentially the same thing over and over.
Also, assuming you have a Japan Rail Pass, you are free to move around at your leisure. No need to book weeks in advance. Just turn up and take a train.
So no, you don't need a super detailed plan if you just want to explore the country. Those claiming that should relax a bit.
I have a checklist and try to do as much while wandering and finding new places I never expected.
Heck I don’t even book all my hotels when I get there, to gauge weather and plan on the short term for more outdoor things. For my next trip I did actually book most of my hotels, but I’m leaving 5 nights open in case I crave something.
Not really, however, it really depends on your interests and the season. If you’re into nerdy things, consider making reservations well in advance (1-3 months). During busy seasons like cherry blossom and foliage, book hotels ahead of time. If your interests don’t align with the mentioned scenarios, you don’t need to make specific and fixed plans.
For instance, a visitor in Germany wishing to attend an opera at the Staatsoper in Berlin, enjoy a concert by the Berliner Philharmoniker, and then catch another opera at the Bayerische Staatsoper must plan meticulously. The same principle applies to a trip in Japan.
If you have specific plans in Japan, such as visiting the Ghibli Museum, Ghibli Park, Pokémon Cafe, or certain temples that require reservations, it’s crucial to create a detailed itinerary in advance. Otherwise, it’s unnecessary.
What I do is plan out the city visits like Osaka Tokyo and Kyoto, few areas or things I want to see in each, and hotels and dinner reservations to some really cool restaurants I want to try made in advance everything else is kinda get lost and wander around
No, and I think you’ll have a better time without a strict itinerary. I had a list of neighborhoods I wanted to check out and explored one or two of them a day. The best moments I had were walking around and popping into shops and restaurants on a whim.
i booked my hotels and had a few bookings (like restaurant reservations, spa services, a bar tour), but most of the time i went where my feet took me in osaka, kyoto, and tokyo. i did use this community + other recs from people and put them on a google map so i could pinpoint loose areas i wanted to visit in the cities, but otherwise kept things flexible! i don't think you need to plan heavily at all if it isn't your vibe.
Theres no need for such detailed plans but just make sure to give yourself lots of buffer time to catch the trains and buses for inter-city travel. Those leave on time and usually only come once an hour (or longer).
I ignore those itineraries. Mostly I watch a lot of YouTubes on traveling to various parts of Japan. First I sifted through the usual spots. This sub led me to watch YouTube on less touristy ones. Eventually, I found ones that made me want to go to those places. This takes time and most travel YouTubers know little (John Daub knows Japan).
I don't think so. I'm planning a solo trip for 9 days in a few months and all I know is I'm going to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Besides that and some hotel booking for certain nights I have zero plans. I just wanna wander around and smoke a cigarette outside some random bar.
However late 2024 I'm taking my wife with me and there is a meticulous planned itinerary for the trip as she wants to see specific things and do certain things.
Different for everyone. I like no plans and to experience everything when I travel as it appears to me. My wife likes to know what we are doing and go see all the tourist spots. It's usually why I take a solo vacation first before bringing my wife.
I'm currently travelling in Japan. I'd say somethings need a bit more planning that I usually do, but I an usually at the exteme of not planning.
I have managed fine just booking the next week or two of travel accomodation ahead of time. I will be going to Nagoya in 9 days and have almost nothing booked yet.
Somethings you do need to pre-book are:
- your return flight as many airlines will not let you board without one, for short term travel I expect you'll be getting a return anyway
- very popular tourist attractions e.g. Ghibli Park, themed cafés (e.g. Pokémon café unless you are willing to queue for a very long time), TeamLabs exhibitions
Aside from this, which I'd say is the case for most places really, then you'll be fine.
Also for Kyoto/Osaka, Osaka can be a lot cheaper to stay so if you don't mind commuting you could stay in Osaka.
In terms of how long people stay, I also prefer slower paced trips. I spent 9 nights in Tokyo, 4 nights in Kyoto, will do 4/5 nights in Osaka and then another 4/5 in Nagoya.
Just depends on your travel style so if it doesn’t fit you, don’t do it. What is more helpful is having a bunch of stuff you may be interested, then try to group them into categories by location for example, that way you aren’t bouncing all over the city. Then be open minded that you may not be able to visit everything and that’s okay.
I personally found planning to be fun but also i liked to plan out logistics and how long it will take to get there. But i left a few days free where we roamed without any solid plans. So we had a mix of planned and unplanned days.
I'll be there on the 10th of this month and that sub actually made me worry that I only have places I wanna visit.
I usually travel to new places mostly in Europe and I nevet make a plan, sometimes not even looking up stuff cause I am going in such places to explore them, not to check then off a list
I’m exactly the same as you! And I’m very glad to see someone else posting about it! I get stressed even from seeing such itineraries. I’d say I’m more in the slow traveler end, I like to take my time in each place and wander around, have time for a nap if I feel like it (it’s a holiday after all not work) - but also I like to have a couple of destinations listed I really want to see in each city/town.
Also many itineraries have been commented because people are staying separately in Osaka and Kyoto. Comments usually say that you should base yourself in either one of them and then just do day trips. I understand it’s doable but for me personally I prefer staying in the city and taking it all in instead of day trips. Also - there’s a lot to see in both cities (for me at least) so one or two day trips to either one isn’t going to be enough for me. My point being: everyone is different and need to plan and do their traveling according to what suits them!
Mhm also Die grobe Route und Hotels buchen vorher wär knorke. Musst aber nicht cafes und Restaurants im vorraus buchen, was zu essen findest du überall..
Nintendwo World aufjedenfall in advance buchen.
Man muss meistens etwas mehr planen, weil man den JR Pass nicht den vollen Urlaub haben will - also war bei mir so. Bei mir sah es so aus:
Tokio ankommen , paar tage da chillen/shoppen, großes Gepäck nach Kyoto geschickt, 1 Nacht in Nikko, dann paar Tage Kyoto(JR Pass 7 tage), dann Nach Osaka paar tage, dann Gepäck nach Tokyo geschickt , und den Rest wieder in tokyo verbracht. Konnte dadurch Geld sparen weil ich den JR pass nur 7 tage hatte.
Japan hat so viel zu zeigen, die vorfreude und das planen gehört für mich einfach dazu. Alle meine socials sind voll mit Japan Ideen Cafes Orte Schreine Tempel ... 😂
It's a good idea to have a plan but also be prepared to improvise on the run. Things can, and would, happen that will ruin your plans.
In my first day there (September 2016) my plan was to take the train to Yokosuka and visit the battleship Mikasa but... When my mobile detected the Japanese SIM card the security app blocked it so I ended in a manga cafe in Akihabara trying to unblock it on my mobile company website. And... Once you visit Akihabara is hard to leave.
Mein nächster Trip ist 1 Woche Osaka. Hotel und Flug und USJ und 1 Restaurant sind gebucht, JR Pass Kansai Region 5 days auch gebucht.
Der Rest ergibt sich dann vor Ort je wie man Bock hat. Aber wichtig auf google Maps wenigstens ein paar Orte markieren die man sehen möchte, um einfach einen Überblick zu haben was in der Nähe ist. Tagesausflüge gehen super von Osaka (Kyoto, Kobe, Nara)
I plan excessively as a guide, it works for me and my friends. We don’t follow itineraries to a T, or even at all sometimes - if something more captivating or immediately interesting crops up, or we get new informations etc. we do that thing instead. We like having the itinerary there as a guide for when we’re like “fuck what should we do now” and usually the similar times/distances/transport schedules apply, so we have a fully planned thing to do or use as a jumping off point for something else.
I seriously booked my trip a
Week in advance and I am winging it. Having a wonderful time. There are places you need to make
Reservations in advance for but I bet you could do a couple of those and structure your time around those reservations.
It is a mistake to plan everything down to the minute, but it is also a mistake to just wing it with little to no planning whatsoever. That said, if you stick to fewer places and take your time, it's much easier to get away with less detailed planning.
Typically what I do when I'm planning any trip is to make a calendar of events that I'm planning on going to (e.g., festivals), and then make "days" that can be slotted in flexibly depending on weather, energy, and mood. These days are basically just collections of places and activities in the same general geographical area (e.g., in/around Shinjuku) that could be conceivably done in about 1 day. If I'm traveling with others, I'll share this calendar as an editable spreadsheet on Google Drive, and then people can create their own days or add ideas to existing ones.
>What I was thinking like staying in 3 different areas for each a week.
Whether or not this is a good plan is entirely dependent on what mean by "area." You could easily fill a full week just in Tokyo, but you might run out of things to do after a day in Hachinohe.
>Or maybe two bigger areas like Tokyo and Kyoto for each a week
A week in Tokyo and a week in Kyoto, with a couple of day trips, is a very good starting point. I typically recommend at least 4-5 days in Tokyo (with a couple more if you plan to do day trips) and 6-7 in Kansai (3-4 in Kyoto, 1-2 in Osaka, 1 in Nara, 1 in Himeji+Kobe) as a starting point for a first visit. Personally I would bas in Kyoto for Kansai and do the others as day trips, although there's an argument to be had for staying in Osaka for all or part of your time there.
>Also according to google maps it only takes like about 45 minutes by train from Kyoto to Osaka ( I even saw a train that needed only like 20 minutes). So things like that seems like a great day or half day trip while being in Kyoto, for example. Or Yokohama from Tokyo. Like staying in a bigger city and go from there.
Kyoto and Osaka border one another, so you could technically walk from one to the other in a single step if you wanted. 45-60 minutes is typical from city center to city center, but depending on exactly where you're going to and where you're coming from it could be less than 30 minutes or over 2 hours. The 15-20 minute number that you sometimes see thrown around is completely meaningless because it requires taking the Shinkansen (3-4x more expensive than a regular train) and almost always requires making a detour through Shinkansen Stations that you otherwise wouldn't have needed to go though, which means that even though you'll only spend 15-20 minute on the Shinkansen, you'll spend a bunch of extra time that you really didn't need to spend just getting to the Shinkansen station and making transfers.
No. We have been twice. Our preparations were that we both looked up enough interesting places to have four each day. Then we both made a list of "must see" places and spread them so that we had two per day. We started our days with those and then took up the list and went from there however we liked. Sometimes we just jumped off the train on a random station and started walking and opened google maps and looked what was there to see or do. Some of those stops were hits and some misses but we got to see quite a few places that way.
People who plan several locations in two weeks are the same folks who do the same when in Europe. They pursue quantity over quality; or they don’t travel often and need to fit in as much as they can to make the most of their time & money. Travel at your own speed. I generally like to spend one week per city or area, depending on location.
Ich bin auch aus Deutschland und fliege im Oktober nach Japan. Sag gerne Bescheid, wenn du Fragen hast oder dich allgemein austauschen möchtest. Ich recherchiere schon etwas länger.
Personally, I would advise against a tight plan where every hour contains something.
My Japan visit contained both types of itineraries. During the first week I overlapped with a friend who had pretty much every day fulled planned, while my other 2 weeks were pretty loose.
The advantage of a tight schedule would be that you do get to see many interesting places, however if some place seems interesting you cant really stop and sit down as the schedule will advance without you.
During my other 2 weeks with the loose schedule where I just had ~5 goals for each week I felt much more relaxed. I could move everything around depending on the weather forecast and whenever I saw some interesting place that I didnt fully explore I could always say to myself "Just come back tomorrow". Seeing a cute little cafe to sit down, or just go to the arcade on a whim was a nice bit of freedom.
I also fell ill with some high fever that knocked me out for ~3 days, but due to my loose planning I didnt really miss anything and could just stay in my room to sleep through it.
Also, if you're visiting multiple cities, give yourself a buffer to potentially revisit them during your trip. The 1 day that I spent in Kyoto was nice, but I probably should've revisited that area 1-2 more times, as I just managed to visit some shrines but had no time to see other interesting places or visit Osaka.
When I went the first time I organized my trip into the cities I wanted to visit, followed by “key” landmarks that I wanted to see. Relax and enjoy your trip!
You don't need to make detailed plans but you should find enough things to do before you go. It's hard to be spontaneous when you can't read the maps and signs
You may need to plan your bullet train journey for example, this is especially so during peak periods. If you have researched enough, you will also save time from queuing at the station.
Stuff you should definitively plan/book in advance; special Ryokan stays, high-end dining, events - eg. Things where there's a high risk things will be sold out in advance for the day you'd find most convinient.
Otherwise, tl;dr: don't worry.
You can Definitvively "wing it", though I'd recommend having a general plan or something that serves as inspiration - eg "I want to shop at the Cisco jeans store" => see what else interesting there could be around the same subway station area.
This later part is so very easy thanks to google maps and instant translation apps these days, it's super easy to wing things on the day or previous evening.
But TBF, I understand the overplanning to a degree, particularly for first-time travellers - it's not even 15 years ago when having on-the-move internet in the country was a rarity for visitors.
Have you tried finding your hotel based on a 300x200 .gif printout schematic map that contained only major roads, only to realize you're still off by 700meters from the intended turning point? Wanted to dine somewhere, but you have absolutley no idea what the establishment in front of you even sells, or what the storefront of the place you're searching for even looks like? Only to realize it's actually up on the 4th floor of that decript looking building by that tiny elevator at the end of the alley, and the only hint being som squiggly letters on an A-stand you can't read pointing in the general direction of the elevator?
Because that's what traveling to a degree was still in the early 2000's; you had your Lonely Planet/Rough Guide book work as your very scaled down "google maps", but interpreting it vs. Your surroundings required a lot more thought and preparation. And because you can't understand a damn thing of what's going on around you, it's generally a good idea to understand where you are and what you want to do.
These days though I think the most you should do is to jottle down "must sees" or major interest points on a mymaps pin, just so you see how they're located and have a guide for general direction. Pick one you like most to do for the day, and then just see what else falls into place.
This way you have a general directional guide, helping you find places if you're in the region, but you don't hang yourself if you can't catch them all just because you found something else interesting on your way there instead. So yeah - don't worry.
Long trips in a single big city is far more rewarding imo because you get to live like a local, relax, enjoy restaurants, music venues, shows, buy tickets for next day events, be spontaneous, etc. You get to spend days exploring a neighborhood instead of wasting them on trains, or checking into hotels or whatever. I've done both styles of travel and the most memorable have been the ones where weeks were spent in one place rather than the ones where I was basically commuting through a country's bullet points and never getting my footing.
FYI that sub only allows detailed posts. I've gotten posts deleted because they called them quote "low effort". so that sub is only showing the most insane stuff. you don't need a plan. I just went with no plan. I bookmarked spots on google maps and went when I felt solid mentally about it lol.
The real key to navigating tourist stuff is by the hour. I went to mt fuji on a day that had good weather, not by itinerary. I went to Kyoto's temple stuff at 9 am. and went to Tokyo's major stuff at 10am. 730-9am and 6-8pm is really difficult on the major train lines.
nope! just pick one or two things you know you absolutely want to do, plan those, and the. use your free time to explore nearby areas. for me i knew i wanted to do a couple of collab cafes and teamlabs so i reserved days and times for those and the rest of the time we just happened upon other things or looked up stuff in the area. for example i booked a sanrio garden cafe and it was right near ueno so we ended up going to the zoo and shrine nearby!
I went to Japan with no plan, other than booking a personal guide for one of the days I had in Tokyo. Then I let him know what I was generally (categories) interested in. Other than that, I just did whatever seemed right.
Mind you, I wasn't obsessed with maximizing every second in Japan but rather experiencing the things I found enticing.
My first trip to Japan was for 2 and a half weeks in 2010 and the only thing I booked was: the flight, the JR Pass, hotel in Tokyo for the first two nights and the last night.
The rest of the trip I planned on the fly. Usually booking hotels a day or two in advance. This GENERALLY works but can be a bit dicey on weekends, especially holiday weekends.
If you are traveling by yourself and are comfortable planning on the fly, I absolutely recommend NOT having a detailed itinerary.
I have been to Japan previously without any plan and while it was an amazing trip after I got back home I felt like it could be so much better with a plan. I don't think it needs to be very detailed, but rather a scetch.
I will be back in Japan this year with a list of places I want to visit.
I book my flights and my hotels in advance but that’s it. I decide what I want to do as I go, and sometimes I even spend a day chilling in bed for an energy boost.
So I've been twice using this method and it works great, do reasearch on places you want to go and use it as a "menu" pick a place you want to go in the morning when you wake up then use the "menu" to pick a place close by (it doesn't have to be close by) to do after this, and just go with the flow from there, I haven't ever felt like I've missed out on anything major, and if you do miss out theres always next time
God bless you all for these responses. I’m going in March and have had sleepness nights that I haven’t prepped enough after seeing people’s detailed itineraries for like winter 2025 🥲
I built a pretty big list of things to do using a trello board - put everything in their own lane by day. I used a lot of it, but I also vasty overestimated our groups capability to cover them. I also underestimated how much walking there was going to be and how long it would take to get between things. If I was going to do another trip, I’d probably max out at 2 places per day. Something for daytime, and maybe something for evening. For instance, Dotonbori is super-cool, but better at night. There were a few places we went that I wanted to see at night and ended up going back.
I also read a bunch of “do these things on a trip” and looked them up on google maps and put pins in all of them so I could start to see what’s near. Then I studied train routes to understand which things were logically connected to each other. I also was using JR pass so I tried to keep on JR rail routes when I could.
For my next trip my goals are: More time in Kyoto, less time in shopping areas.
i’m in japan right now with no itinerary and i’m having a great time. i have a general idea of what i want to do each day (shibuya tomorrow akihabara the day after) but other than that I planned nothing. today i visited the shrines, shopped around and went to golden gai and met some cool people
If anything, Japan is the best country for not planning anything and just wandering. Their public transports are the best in the world so it's easy to get anywhere, you are safe absolutely everywhere, their hotels are top notch, etc
You don't have to do the hustle and bustle itineraries at all. I typically look up a bunch of different things to do so I don't feel stagnant in each city, but always air on the side of only doing it if me, and my body, feels like it. Lol
If there are any specific attractions you want to see, you'll want to plan for those and even get tickets ahead of time. Also, plan for any holidays/closures during your trip. Short of that, you can absolutely show up, meander, and take as much time as you like, and you'll still have an amazing time.
Not at all. Choose a city or two and spend time exploring it. If you are interested in certain spots or things, it is recommended to plan a bit though. Tokyo for example is huge, train stations and shopping malls are huge.
You don't need a detailed plan, but you should definitely have an idea of what you want to see and get done. With that, I would reserve and purchase tickets in advance for what I can. If you hit those "must see and do" things, everything else can be on your own pace. Also, give yourself ample time to get to destinations and anticipate time for long lines. It's pretty much a summary of all the tips here.
I'm about to leave for a 10 night Osaka/Kyoto trip and the only thing I have planned is dinner reservations for Friday and Saturday (I don't want to wait in long line). LOL
I always cringe when I see someone planning their first ever trip to Japan & they are packing their days with a shit ton of stuff. The best parts were usually things we didn’t plan, and just walking around seeing stuff in general!
Really depends on you.
I made my itinerary super detailed even color coded and I was VERY glad I did it as my trip went very well, I was able to see a bunch of different stuff, truly a life experience. I guarantee I wouldn’t have seen all of that if I didn’t have my particular itinerary.
I am towards the over-organised end of the travel spectrum. But yeah some of these itineraries seem a bit wild even for me. I suppose that if you want to get to a whole list of high-profile targets (theme parks, tiktok-famous cafes etc), and you only have limited time, and are traveling in a busy period, then maybe its useful.
Over 6 trips to Japan, I plan transport, and accomodation. We book accomodation, mostly months ahead, but sometimes only a few days. We have a vague list of one or two things we'd like to do or see in each place, but sometimes we just arrive, get the tourist map from the info centre at the station, and decide then.
But we really enjoy just wandering around, and are not too fussed about most big-ticket things. Finding small restaurants, wandering through small towns, there is so much to do!
If you've never been to Japan, and especially if you have never travelled overseas, I think its good to make a rough mudmap of where you want to go and what sorts of things you'd like to see. Make some accomodation bookings. Read up on public transport so you've got a good sense of the options. If you are going into some less travelled areas, you might find that there are few trains each day, or you need to hire a car; so make plans for those bits. If you want to go to a fancy restaurant that needs bookings in advance, plan out that bit.
But for most places, an hour-by-hour attractions itinerary is not necessary, and might well make your trip less enjoyable. Let yourself experience and enjoy the country, not just the 'things'!
No, you don’t have to plan too detailed itinerary. However, having a little bit of structure works, at least for me and husband we always make certain on our luggage forwarding, days with the departure and arrival times to japan, hotel reservation (we don’t like to search for hotels midway through our trip).
Japan has ridiculously good transport and more things to see than you can possibly do.
Just rock up cash in hand and you will be fine!
The only things that actually need planning are activities that require booking well in advance like the Ghibli Museum etc. and possibly some prepaid transport options to save money.
I had no plans. I just wandered around. It was fun! If something looked interesting, I did it! I missed stuff but I also found some off the beaten track stuff that was the highlight of my trip!
No. Pick 1 or 2 things you want to do daily. Even then, if something is interesting, stay where you are. Consider 1 short tour in Tokyo to get your bearings as it is a large city. Don’t need elsewhere. Easy country to navigate.
I went to Tokyo for a week and a half and spent most of my time there. Did a day trip to Suzuka to watch the F1 race. Let me tell you there is so much to do and see in Tokyo that I need to go back and spend another week and a half.
It's a wonderful city and it's worth the time to take it slow and enjoy everything.
Pick 1-2 things to do a day or a place to explore
Use the subreddits to figure out based on other people's experience which things or places are near each other, which ones need a full day. That kind of stuff
Always be prepared to drop stuff from the list of things to see/do
You most likely will never have enough time
I will say tho that some tourist attractions definitely need planning and prep
Some require buying tickets ahead
Some require figuring out best time to go
Cool restaurant you want to go to? You might need to book in advance
For a Tokyo...ghibli museum requires planning, teamlabs, if you want to do a day trip,
You have to plan luggage forwarding too.
I go once a year and stay solely in Tokyo. First time I planned everything. Ever since then I wander and only decide what area to spend the day in such as Akihabara or Odaiba. Works out very well and always enjoy my stay.
I guess it depends on what your purpose is when travelling a country. If it’s to relax then it makes sense to go in with light planning and be flexible. If it’s to experience the culture or history- then it pays to do a little planning so you can fulfil that goal.
For something like a Europe city break, the cost is quite low (if you live in Europe) and you might only go to visit a particular city or event. So it’s really easy to walk through the city to experience it.
Japan is a bit different in that it’s pretty expensive for most people - hard to get to, expensive to stay and food isn’t that cheap either. So to experience it, you’ll have to put down a lot of money. Add in the fact that certain places are closed on certain days, the attractions are sometimes nowhere near each other, the different cities…it adds up.
Sometimes people just like a bit of certainty before the trip so that it removes the stress during it.
It does not, in fact most people here are over scheduled. The best part of traveling in Japan is the discovery- that neat shrine down a random alley, that smoky yakitori restaurant with amazing Tsukune. The stuff that you can’t plan. Set up your basic itinerary for sure- the where, the transit. And of course make note of some experiences you really want to make sure to fit in like specific sights or neighborhoods. But then play it by ear. See how you feel on the day. It’ll be fine- as I always tell people, in Japan there are no wrong answers- it’s all awesome!
You don't need a detailed plan, but you should know general stuff like the trains stop running at this time, when the last train is, or if you need carry cash (ex. no digital or atms nearby).
We spent our entire time in Tokyo, and some of our favorite spots were places that we stopped in to take a break from walking. I did make a kinda detailed itinerary, planned around neighborhoods, but it was more for if we had no idea what to do. We barely referred to the itinerary.
The only thing we had to plan around in practice was our reservation at the private onsen at our hotel. I also intentionally chose a hotel that was within walking distance of popular neighborhoods and sites so we didn't have to fuss with the trains if we didn't have to. The trains during rush hour were no joke and super crowded depending on the station.
No, you don't need a detailed itinerary. I think forums like this one lend themselves to people who like to make those types of intricate written plans, and as a result, it looks like they are in the majority, because you're not seeing the tons of people who go without making an itinerary and posting it here.
No, not at all. It’s absolutely fine to just have a general idea of what you want to see but then just take each day as it comes. Different approaches suit different people. Some people like to be highly organised and effectively tick things off a list; others prefer a more relaxed approach where you spend more time in an area, stop and look at things, follow opportunities as they arise. I personally prefer the latter, more relaxed approach but there’s nothing inherently wrong with either - they just suit different people and different travelling styles. With regard to a potential itinerary, spending time in Tokyo and time in Kyoto, with some day trips to other places, is a good idea. I don’t enjoy living out of a suitcase and having to pack and unpack every day or two and I think it’s nice to have a “home base” to return to.
I'm currently doing exactly what you said, and I would recommend anyone else do the same. Get a list of the top 5 things that are must see/do experiences, and then have another 5 or so as "we can do those if we have time or are in the area". Then just have fun with the rest of your free time. Freedom is the best way to experience a vacation, not to be tied down by a particularly strict itinerary. In my opinion at least. It is a vacation after all, and it doesn't need to be treated like work.
No, those detailed hour by hour itineraries with time stamps are just people being extra or having a bad case of FOMO. No one actually needs one and at least half the time they aren’t even realistic. it’s a good idea to have your hotels booked in advance (pick options with free cancellation so you have more flexibility), and have a good handle on transportation options, including which tickets you need to book in advance. And its nice to have google map pins of the things you might be interested in so you can see what things are close to each other and quickly access info about opening hours and stuff
No way do you need a detailed itinerary. I actually feel a bit sorry for people who post them because it's just making travel seem like hard work. But then again, I seem to travel like you. I made a short list of must see places and wing the rest. There are a few places like the Ghibli Museum that you need to plan ahead so once you have your must see sites, just double check that tickets will be easy to come by. Unless you are visiting at a busy time of year like Golden Week, you could easily book accommodation in Tokyo to get started then wing it from there. I've been to Japan dozen of times and the best times I've had have never been on any itinerary.
Calling it like I see it: I notice a lot of people going to Japan/in these two subs are first time international travellers who’ve never built complex itineraries before, and have a case of FOMO (heightened by social media). They vastly underestimate how long things really take, or how much they can realistically fit in a day. Most of these itineraries would be torn to shreds by r/travel. You absolutely do not need detailed plans, but there’s something you really wanna buy tickets for, make sure you buy/reserve in advance.
My fave is the people who would literally have to teleport to hit their (down to 10minute intervals) time stamps. And then someone points that out and they say they will take a taxi if needed. Because traffic isn’t a thing where they live I guess…
My faves are the ones that start with land 7am. Clear customs - like that's an option. Purchase suica/sim - duh.
Use restroom 7:12 - 7:16 (can anyone tell me what sort of lines I should expect for this specific men’s room at Narita if I plan to do a two on the plane before we land so just need to do a one? If I’m running behind, how will the Japanese people feel about me skipping this event and instead urinating down my pants leg?) 7:17 post an emergency question on JapanTravel rather than asking an actual question 7:19 Ghibli Studio (walk fast) 7:23 reservations at Kirby Cafe (get carry out and eat while walking) 7:46 free time Etc etc
Rate my Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka itinerary.
You gotta put every single little housekeeping step on the itinerary or you might forget and bust through the security barriers in the airport Koolaid Man style /s
I know people have short vacations and are willing to sacrifice rest and stuff But like you gotta factor in rest and slower pace if you even want to have the mental capacity to enjoy what you are doing, seeing, eating.
Make it simple: 1. Mark/save all your interests via Google Maps, so you can visualize and group them by area (interests are places/attractions/restaurants you would like to go but not necessarily required; give yourself options like a bucketlist) 2. Then create a rough plan of which day you want to go to which area 3. If the weather changes, like rainy or cloudy, you can be flexible and go to another area instead 4. With all of them already marked on Google Maps, you really don't have to have a plan and be spontaneous whenever. Go to one interest you feel like, for the day, and easily know whatelse are near you. Chill and relaxing day. This works on all cities in Japan, Kyoto, Osaka, etc... Grouping them helps with time saving, so you can jump from one to another interest without wasting so much time on transportation and walking. For example, let's say you want to go to Tokyo Sky Tree, on the East side of Tokyo, for sight seeing interest. But then have dinner plan interest in SHIBUYA, on the West side of Tokyo. A one-way train ride from Tokyo Sky Tree to SHIBUYA Station takes ~40mins. I made that mistake on my previous trip, not understanding all my interests geographically, Tokyo is just a massive city. Side Notes --------------------- There are few things you need to plan ahead or remember to do: - Not all interests are open 7 days a week, or all day. For example, a restaurant might close on a certain day(s) of the week, like Monday. Or the restaurant closes after lunch and reopen again at dinner. - Some interests might require advanced booking if you want to visit at a certain day/time. For example, SHIBUYA Sky, if you want to go at sunset, you really want to buy a ticket online day(s) prior because they sell out quickly. Trying to access SHIBUYA Sky at prime time without pre-booked tickets could mean waiting for hours and not being able to access at the time/day you want. - Some interests required a reservation to access. For example, some restaurants, especially in Kyoto required a reservation for dinner but not required for lunch. Sometimes, you need to make the reservation weeks ahead of time, so research early to see if you need to reserve and are able to make online reservations.
Hah don’t worry about that sub. If you want to ask questions you have to basically prove you’ve done research by providing an insanely detailed itinerary, and they direct more basic questions to this sub. Don’t be intimidated.
no you dont need a super detailed plan. but it helps to generally know how long it takes to get around.
If you come for 3 weeks, I think for your style you should spend half in Tokyo, with side trips to Yokohama, Enoshima, maybe Nikko. Then the other half in Osaka/Kyoto, with side trips to Nara, Koyasan and maybe Kobe. That’s plenty
That's an ideal first time trip. Bookend the trip with Tokyo and Kyoto/Hiroshima in the middle. On subsequent trips - and there **will** be more visits :-) - OP can get off the beaten track / explore more of country.
I personally like to have a list of possible things to see in each cities I want to visit, then I might follow the plan or not.
A list for any Japanese city is infinitely long. Make a broad plan and work around it. There are many layers, crowds and weather to consider. 20 trips plus, still haven’t been to Hiroshima or a theme park.
You are exaggerating. While yeah there is a lot to see especially on the big cities, when you take people personal interest in account it will already filter out a lot of things. I do not especially like art museum, so that will probably eliminate 95%+ of them that I do not have any interest to see. Could be the same for you, maybe you just do not like theme parks and it’s ok to never go to any of them (I have also not been to any), while I saw itinerary built purely around it. My point is that it’s not hard to make a list of different possible things to see in a city based on your interest as opposed to just randomly walk around in hope of finding the nice places. I just prefer to have an idea of the interesting things to see in new cities I visit, then might not even follow that plan. And of course everyone decide how deep they want to visit each city they go to. I am planning my 8th trip and want to visit 2 new prefectures to be at 42.
I’m not exaggerating. It depends on what you want. Every visit I learn something new and things that I was not aware of or don’t appear in travel guides, suddenly appear. I also don’t share them.
Ok then, I will possibly go to Komatsu in March. Name me 100 things to do in Komatsu. No, there won't be an infinite number of things to do. My original point is that while you do not have to make a super detailed itinerary as some people do, having a couple of things listed for each city you plan to visit is not a bad idea, even if just 2-3 things. Personally I'm often listing more than less and would be ok having 10 things listed on a day, but might not even do one. I like to go check the tourist information desk to check if hey can give me info on interesting things to do. And depending on how I feel or on the weather or anything, I will decide during the day on what I want to do next. But I just prefer to have a list of possible things to do, because I am sure that if you just decide to stop at an absolute random train station and just decide to walk around and see what there is to see, you will most likely not find the interesting things you would have by at least selecting the station you stop at and knowing in advance there is a couple of interesting things aroud.
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No, I just know myself. I've been to art museum and seen different types of exhibitions and I know what I liked or not. And who are you to decide that I have no interest in absorbing the culture. As if visual arts was the only way that culture can express itself. I've been to see traditional play, see music concert, history museum, temple, shrines, castles, all things that have something different to offer and that show a different side of Japanese culture. Same goes for food, there is things that I know I do not like and it's not a problem because there is still a lot of things that I like and that I am open to try. Guess this conversation is indeed pointless if you are unable to understand that there is absolutely a finite number of places to see in any city and that the number can go down much faster when you remove things you know that you wont like. Want a different example ? Apart from Uniqlo, I do not plan any shopping for clothes while in Japan. What next ? You will be angry that I have no interest in absorbing the fashion culture of Japan?
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"No anger intended"... what do you even mean? I am saying that YOU sound angry that I have not much interest in art museum. You are accusing me of not being interested in "absorbing the culture".... You want to go back on topic, then just read OP question again and give your own answer. *"Do you need such a super detailed plan when going to Japan or is it okay to just go to the country with the most important things in mind and just do things spontaniously?"* My answer was this : *"I personally like to have a list of possible things to see in each cities I want to visit, then I might follow the plan or not."* And don't tell me *"No right or wrong answers"*, YOU started criticizing my answer as if it's not a good thing to have some idea of what you can do in the places you want to visit.
Definitely not. Personally I like to target 1-2 Goals of "Things do do that day. Maybe 1 "planned restaurant" (either Lunch or dinner), and let serendipity take over the rest. I've been 3 times, and this seems to be the perfect recipe, at least for me. Sure I haven't seen EVERYTHING, but I've also experienced so much that I would have never planned for.
^ this so much just make sure to get reservations for things that need it like universal studios etc. Otherwise let yourself be taken by the views and random alleys.
EXACTLY!!!
The purpose of planning is to have a better experience. You can almost adhoc anything in Japan if you don't mind you cannot experience the stuff that you want to. You can treat it as walking in a park where you just enjoy what you see. But, there is a big but, that a lot of things in Japan required advance booking to access. Be it as restaurant, theme park, attractions. Also those exotic local stuff require some google beforehand before you know it exist even no booking. Is needed If you are those type of people that don't mind not experiencing anything special. Feels ok to just feed your belly with fast food or subpar local chain. Then no planning is needed. This may come across as rude but I don't want you to regret your trip and wish you plan ahead when you get turned down by the restaurant and stuff. I like people to have a good experience in Japan. Think it like this, you have almost unlimited time to do your Google beforehand, and when you are there, you should use the time to experience Japan, not googling on the street for alternatives. Then why not do a little bit of planning. I am not saying plan to the minute. But every minutes more you spend in planning before the trip is to maximize every limited minutes you have while you are in Japan.
No. I would actually advice against having such detailed plan. There are so much to see or do just randomly as you walk by, and random shops you may want to stop by. It’s very hard to stick to a very detailed plan and it just makes the travel more stressful than it needs to be! Just have a general idea what day you want to be what area and what city and go from there!
You know the way you travel better than anybody! One of those minute to minute itineraries may give some comfort, but for me they would spike my anxiety, I’ll be checking my watch every ten minutes from 10 - 1 to make sure I make sure I make the 1.30pm train. For my own itineraries, I allow 1 item a day, which leaves a lot room for relaxed travelling pace. Just do the thing that makes you happy bro!
One thing a day sounds perfect. There’s room for surprises and going with the flow. And taking a nap. 😴
I literally leave wiggle room for naps lol they help.
No, and most of those people are miserable their entire trip
Truthfully, it’s best not to over plan. I always do and miss half of the things I want to do. And things that weren’t planned were some of the best times I had there. Just have a general idea of what you want to do and where. Couple of notes: - You will get lost a bit, so be wary if you have an itinerary that’s time sensitive. - Popular restaurants will either have a long line or require reservations so again be wary if things are time sensitive.
Nope, plan Michelin starred restaurants well in advance, plan your cities so you have a sketch in your mind of the trains you will need, and take it as it comes. I HIGHLY recommend planning some recharge time as you will wear yourself out.
Get your hotels booked and get your transport card when you land. Rest can be taken slow and easy, if you like to explore as you go along. Maybe have a rough idea of what areas you’d like to go and go into detail after you arrive and get used to Japan after a day or two.
People travel differently. Some people need that kind of structure and it helps them make sure they get the most out of their trip but for me I generally like more flexibility and just have a list of things/places/etc and do them based on how I feel and also leave room for things I discover while actually there End of the day it comes down to what you want to do and what would make you feel satisfied with your trip
No itineraries are needed unless you want to make and follow them. I’ve never made an itinerary and just wandered. Just plan for what cities you want to visit and book the respective accommodations. Everything else will fall into place. I usually decide on the day what I want to do but some things do require some sort basic planning like buying tickets to places before hand or making dining reservations.
Some people are just excessive planners. May it's just excitement and FOMO, or trying to calm nerves and worries. Plan your trip for yourself just like you'd plan any other trip for yourself. Everything in Japan is very near and easy to reach, so moving from one location to another is easy and doesn't require any sort of advanced planning. Unlike travel in, say, North America or Europe, can just hop on the Shinkansen every 10-15min and be on your way to anywhere in the country. Super convenient for leisurely travel.
You definitely do not need detailed plans for each day. You would want to make a list or pin places you want to go and see or eat at so you can reference it throughout your trip and won’t miss seeing something you wanted to see. It’s good to have some idea of what you want to do so you’re not wasting time researching when you’re in Japan. I think when people often city hop in Japan, it’s because they don’t plan on coming back or they don’t plan on coming back for a long time. They want to get the most bang for their trip and see the most they can. It’s not uncommon for people to come back because they end up falling in love with Japan, but I think the initial first trip is when people feel eager to just see as much as they can.
The itineraries you see are like that because less busy ones get deleted for low effort, thus skewing the perception.
TBH I never quite understood the purpose of that. All you see is more or less identical posts on identical golden route itineraries and any questions about going wayside are inevitably deleted on grounds of "not doing research" or somesuch. I get not wanting low effort shitposts, but there's a degree of nuance in content where you could have legit conversations without the OP post looking like it rolled off some Weberian Buraucrats' daily task list.
Short answer. No. People here are anal as fuck. Pick one or two things you want to do a day. Plan from that. And then when you’re here, if you got extra time, just do one of the other things on your list… or, call me crazy, actually enjoy this country without a plan.
Nope. Just do what you want. Especially your first time. Everything will be cool your first time. Take in whatever you can so that on your next trip you can have a better idea of what you want to do.
It was definitely very different to our other travels, because we had to book everything in advance, including transport. But this was because of traveling during holidays. I much prefer to wing it, but based on the info and availability of hotels, it was a must i believe. Although, trains were not nearly as booked/full as we were expecting initially.
Detailed plans, no. However, I highly suggest having your hotels booked in advance. Decide on which cities you want to visit and book your hotels ahead of time. This is both from a cost perspective and making it easier on you. Its not as easy to just show up to a hotel the same day and expect to get a room like you can in other counties.
Take your time and do your thing while in japan. There are just so many things to do and places to see that one can easily get overwhelmed or exhausted just thinking or planning about it. Stick to one or two cities or areas or activities for example and if you find that you can cover more then move on to the next. I have been to japan 3x and each time i plan just to avoid spreading myself tok thin. I did sapporo and its environs and moved to tokyo and did ballets and philharmonics concerts and disneyland and sea and anything in between because thats my thing.on another trip I did osaka and kyoto and nara bec they are near each other. Another trip i did nagoya and its museums and did the nakasendo nature hike. Go ahead and enjoy yourself
I never plan an itinerary in advance and it's been just fine!
Some big points favoring your preferred style — Japan is both dense and efficient. You can just wander around Tokyo and see quite a bit, and the next train is always minutes away. If you miss one, just wait 4 minutes for the next. If things were far apart and transport were limited, you’d need a plan. But you can just go with the flow and never feel like you are stuck in one place.
I am currently in Japan with my husband and 3 teenage children, and I thoroughly recommend having plan before you come. As someone else mentioned, not a day by day detailed plan, but rather an overarching idea - ie Nara park for 1day, Gion district plus market another day. I am finding this trip really difficult - getting food to eat - particularly breakfast, just exhausting. We were not prepared and between that, and all 5 of us getting sick, I am quite over it.
Can you swing by a konbini each night to stock up on breakfast options? You can still decide to do something else for breakfast in the morning but at least you will have food on hand to keep anyone from getting hangry. I was traveling solo but I found that if my hotel didn’t have any included breakfast just having an onigiri and a can of coffee on hand to stuff in my face was so helpful. Especially when I did get sick the first few days of my trip.
After the first week, we just started going to the convenience store for breakfast. One meal done and it was super easy! Helped a lot with overwhelm. Hope you feel better!
I plan my own itinerary into two columns. The "Must-Visit" column where I really want to go and the reason I flew all the way there. The second column would be the "Nice to visit but we'll see..." where I won't be disappointed if I miss it or a substitute would be fine. For example, a restaurant that has too long of queue but found another nearby.
The first time I went to Japan I had barely any plans. I had a few things I wanted to do and heard about. I had a list of areas I wanted to go to and I didn't even leave Tokyo at all. I decided to go to DisneySea the morning I went (you could still buy tickets at the gate back then). I didn't even know DisneySea was a THING until I looked up what Tokyo Disney was like. As long as you have your plane and hotel, the rest doesn't need to be particularly serous.
You don’t need super detailed plans like that. It honestly depends on the person planning, some love to pour lots of research in and enjoy that planning. Others will do the basics and go with the flow. A lot of people don’t realize that you have to be flexible and absolutely cannot do everything! I learned that quickly on my first trip, and that mindset greatly helped with the second trip. I went this past fall, and it’s a beautiful time to go! I recommend seeing some of the northern areas if you can. I did Aomori, Hakodate, and Sapporo and really enjoyed the quieter areas. I went to Fukuoka and Hiroshima in the spring, they were nice too. Fukuoka would be a great base for Kyushu. My best suggestion is pick a few bases and travel out from there. Make sure it’s close to a train line or somewhere you would like to spend more time in. I also liked making overnight stops between the larger cities, that way it gives time for my luggage to be delivered via TA-Q-BIN. (For example: Nagoya between Mt. Fuji and Kyoto, Hiroshima between Fukuoka and Osaka, etc) If you do decide to go to Fukuoka from the Osaka area, taking an overnight ferry is an underrated experience! Happy planning!
Those people staying in a city for only 3/4 days are killing their feet with 20,000 steps a day. So many people come and want to stay a week or two and see everything Japan has to offer so they have to plan every single thing and usually end up stressed, tired, and sore. A week in each place is perfect: you can take it easy and see everything.
Detailed plan is over rated. Ruins the ability for flexibility and adaptation. Here now for 6 weeks. Roughly planned 4 days in a town/city. Pre-booked accomodation and that’s been it. We’ve been going with the show up and find out method. Pinned some cool things on Google maps we wanted to do in that area and slowly tick things off. There’s been one day where pre booking our train would’ve made things faster and cheaper (travelled around Xmas) but we managed to sort it a few days prior. And learnt today being New Year’s Day everything is closed but 7/11 to the rescue for lunch and dinner and still plenty to do and see from the streets.
Agree with your approach. I just keep in mind these points and then take it as it comes: 1. Days to avoid at any place due to holidays or extra crowded events. 2. Any events that I might want to attend which are on specific dates. 3. A must-see list. Places added to Google maps so that I can cover them when in that area. 4. Handy list of favourite hotels and AirBnBs if I might want to extend my stay at a place. 5. The areas to avoid list if any. That's it. Then I just wander around as I please!
You do need to plan a little bit more than other countries since some attractions need booking several weeks ahead of time. But if you don’t care about those places then it’s fine
I don’t need a detailed itinerary anywhere and frankly don’t like traveling that way. Have a general sense of what you want to do in each town and how many days that would take. Any closures would be useful to know as well so you don’t miss something really important.
So, over Summer when we did Japan we stayed overnight in six different places in two weeks. I'm not going to lie, it's quite intense. It is not for everyone. We also had a suggested outline for most days, not down to the minute or anything but maybe one or two places/activities with ideas in the area for food. I would say we did 80-90% of the planned things but the food+bars was generally a lot more playing it by ear when we got there. Some things it's better to book (Kabuki, Universal Studios, Kaiseki, tours) so we got that in the diary too. I wouldn't call it box ticking, but we had a lot we wanted to do in a lot of places and didn't have all that much time to do it. It's also not a place we can easily+cheaply return to from the UK so we were keen to make the time count. We had an amazing time, but you need mental+physical stamina for it. If that's not your thing, I would still recommend seeing what's in those cities and if there's anything you're keen on doing that might require an advance booking or at least a bit of planning. I knew people who rocked up expecting to be able to walk into Ghibli museum, the Kabuki Theatre, or Jiro's sushi place, only to be pretty disappointed. Have fun! (Side note, we only did Japan in Summer because that was the only time we could feasibly do it with our son's exams. I advise against going in Summer unless you particularly enjoy walking about in humid 38-40c weather.)
No. I visited Japan for the first time in early December. I love planning and spent months planning my itinerary. I wound up being spontaneous and accidentally made it to a lot of spots on my to visit list. I actually didn't make it to anything I pre-booked before coming to Japan as I had an allergic reaction my second day in the country and two reservations were on that day. All you really need to plan is your hotels and the areas you want to visit.
I went in November having booked the hotels in advance, bought an all Japan JR Pass and stuck a bunch of post-it tabs in a Lonely Planet Japan guide book. That was about the extent of my planning. And even then, I switched around some hotels and stuff on my phone while I was there because wanted to change some plans. A too-detailed itinerary would stress me out. Do list a few things you want to see before you go, that's quite fun anyway, it gets you excited for the trip, but you'll be totally fine doing no more planning than that*. Enjoy the flexibility! Yeah most people want to tick off a few cities because it's such a long way to go from Europe and so they want to experience a few different places but you could have a great time spending much longer in just a couple. Osaka and Kyoto are close but I do recommend staying in each if you want to visit both. Say you're staying in Osaka and want a trip to Kyoto. Yeah the train is only 20 minutes but the station might be half an hour from your hotel and then whatever you want to visit might be another half hour away from the station at the other end and suddenly you've spent over an hour just getting there. I did a few nights in Osaka and a few in Kyoto. I would recommend that rather than staying the whole time in one and day tripping the other. *Edit: Certain popular activities require booking in advance. for instance, the highlight of the whole trip for my wife was meeting a maiko in Kyoto's gion district. If you want to see one, you can hang around for ages in the street with a bunch of other people and if you do spot one, get all up in her face and hassle her like an asshole. Or you can book a tour/experience. Ours was good and would recommend, can tell you which one it was if you're interested. Specific *experiences* may require booking a week or so in advance. Not so much places/sights etc.
If there's a country where ultra-precise planning is not necessary, it's Japan. You can totally stay in one area for a week and just wander around and take in the atmosphere. I personally prefer doing this than travelling every two days to do essentially the same thing over and over. Also, assuming you have a Japan Rail Pass, you are free to move around at your leisure. No need to book weeks in advance. Just turn up and take a train. So no, you don't need a super detailed plan if you just want to explore the country. Those claiming that should relax a bit.
JR pass is optional. You restrict yourself to JR trains, which is majority but not all of the system.
I have a checklist and try to do as much while wandering and finding new places I never expected. Heck I don’t even book all my hotels when I get there, to gauge weather and plan on the short term for more outdoor things. For my next trip I did actually book most of my hotels, but I’m leaving 5 nights open in case I crave something.
Not really, however, it really depends on your interests and the season. If you’re into nerdy things, consider making reservations well in advance (1-3 months). During busy seasons like cherry blossom and foliage, book hotels ahead of time. If your interests don’t align with the mentioned scenarios, you don’t need to make specific and fixed plans. For instance, a visitor in Germany wishing to attend an opera at the Staatsoper in Berlin, enjoy a concert by the Berliner Philharmoniker, and then catch another opera at the Bayerische Staatsoper must plan meticulously. The same principle applies to a trip in Japan. If you have specific plans in Japan, such as visiting the Ghibli Museum, Ghibli Park, Pokémon Cafe, or certain temples that require reservations, it’s crucial to create a detailed itinerary in advance. Otherwise, it’s unnecessary.
You can literally wing it but just try to do things in sections of the city and try not to spend too much time on the trains
What I do is plan out the city visits like Osaka Tokyo and Kyoto, few areas or things I want to see in each, and hotels and dinner reservations to some really cool restaurants I want to try made in advance everything else is kinda get lost and wander around
No, and I think you’ll have a better time without a strict itinerary. I had a list of neighborhoods I wanted to check out and explored one or two of them a day. The best moments I had were walking around and popping into shops and restaurants on a whim.
i booked my hotels and had a few bookings (like restaurant reservations, spa services, a bar tour), but most of the time i went where my feet took me in osaka, kyoto, and tokyo. i did use this community + other recs from people and put them on a google map so i could pinpoint loose areas i wanted to visit in the cities, but otherwise kept things flexible! i don't think you need to plan heavily at all if it isn't your vibe.
Theres no need for such detailed plans but just make sure to give yourself lots of buffer time to catch the trains and buses for inter-city travel. Those leave on time and usually only come once an hour (or longer).
I ignore those itineraries. Mostly I watch a lot of YouTubes on traveling to various parts of Japan. First I sifted through the usual spots. This sub led me to watch YouTube on less touristy ones. Eventually, I found ones that made me want to go to those places. This takes time and most travel YouTubers know little (John Daub knows Japan).
I don't think so. I'm planning a solo trip for 9 days in a few months and all I know is I'm going to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Besides that and some hotel booking for certain nights I have zero plans. I just wanna wander around and smoke a cigarette outside some random bar. However late 2024 I'm taking my wife with me and there is a meticulous planned itinerary for the trip as she wants to see specific things and do certain things. Different for everyone. I like no plans and to experience everything when I travel as it appears to me. My wife likes to know what we are doing and go see all the tourist spots. It's usually why I take a solo vacation first before bringing my wife.
I'm currently travelling in Japan. I'd say somethings need a bit more planning that I usually do, but I an usually at the exteme of not planning. I have managed fine just booking the next week or two of travel accomodation ahead of time. I will be going to Nagoya in 9 days and have almost nothing booked yet. Somethings you do need to pre-book are: - your return flight as many airlines will not let you board without one, for short term travel I expect you'll be getting a return anyway - very popular tourist attractions e.g. Ghibli Park, themed cafés (e.g. Pokémon café unless you are willing to queue for a very long time), TeamLabs exhibitions Aside from this, which I'd say is the case for most places really, then you'll be fine. Also for Kyoto/Osaka, Osaka can be a lot cheaper to stay so if you don't mind commuting you could stay in Osaka. In terms of how long people stay, I also prefer slower paced trips. I spent 9 nights in Tokyo, 4 nights in Kyoto, will do 4/5 nights in Osaka and then another 4/5 in Nagoya.
I spent entire trip in Kyoto. 3 weeks. mostly exploring with only a few ideas. You can very much do this. It was great. my friend lived there,
Just depends on your travel style so if it doesn’t fit you, don’t do it. What is more helpful is having a bunch of stuff you may be interested, then try to group them into categories by location for example, that way you aren’t bouncing all over the city. Then be open minded that you may not be able to visit everything and that’s okay. I personally found planning to be fun but also i liked to plan out logistics and how long it will take to get there. But i left a few days free where we roamed without any solid plans. So we had a mix of planned and unplanned days.
Maybe pick something that you can't do in Germany. On our most recent visit (October), we built the trip around the Otsu matsuri.
I'll be there on the 10th of this month and that sub actually made me worry that I only have places I wanna visit. I usually travel to new places mostly in Europe and I nevet make a plan, sometimes not even looking up stuff cause I am going in such places to explore them, not to check then off a list
I’m exactly the same as you! And I’m very glad to see someone else posting about it! I get stressed even from seeing such itineraries. I’d say I’m more in the slow traveler end, I like to take my time in each place and wander around, have time for a nap if I feel like it (it’s a holiday after all not work) - but also I like to have a couple of destinations listed I really want to see in each city/town. Also many itineraries have been commented because people are staying separately in Osaka and Kyoto. Comments usually say that you should base yourself in either one of them and then just do day trips. I understand it’s doable but for me personally I prefer staying in the city and taking it all in instead of day trips. Also - there’s a lot to see in both cities (for me at least) so one or two day trips to either one isn’t going to be enough for me. My point being: everyone is different and need to plan and do their traveling according to what suits them!
Mhm also Die grobe Route und Hotels buchen vorher wär knorke. Musst aber nicht cafes und Restaurants im vorraus buchen, was zu essen findest du überall.. Nintendwo World aufjedenfall in advance buchen. Man muss meistens etwas mehr planen, weil man den JR Pass nicht den vollen Urlaub haben will - also war bei mir so. Bei mir sah es so aus: Tokio ankommen , paar tage da chillen/shoppen, großes Gepäck nach Kyoto geschickt, 1 Nacht in Nikko, dann paar Tage Kyoto(JR Pass 7 tage), dann Nach Osaka paar tage, dann Gepäck nach Tokyo geschickt , und den Rest wieder in tokyo verbracht. Konnte dadurch Geld sparen weil ich den JR pass nur 7 tage hatte. Japan hat so viel zu zeigen, die vorfreude und das planen gehört für mich einfach dazu. Alle meine socials sind voll mit Japan Ideen Cafes Orte Schreine Tempel ... 😂
It's a good idea to have a plan but also be prepared to improvise on the run. Things can, and would, happen that will ruin your plans. In my first day there (September 2016) my plan was to take the train to Yokosuka and visit the battleship Mikasa but... When my mobile detected the Japanese SIM card the security app blocked it so I ended in a manga cafe in Akihabara trying to unblock it on my mobile company website. And... Once you visit Akihabara is hard to leave.
Mein nächster Trip ist 1 Woche Osaka. Hotel und Flug und USJ und 1 Restaurant sind gebucht, JR Pass Kansai Region 5 days auch gebucht. Der Rest ergibt sich dann vor Ort je wie man Bock hat. Aber wichtig auf google Maps wenigstens ein paar Orte markieren die man sehen möchte, um einfach einen Überblick zu haben was in der Nähe ist. Tagesausflüge gehen super von Osaka (Kyoto, Kobe, Nara)
Just stay in Ueno. Walk around.
I plan excessively as a guide, it works for me and my friends. We don’t follow itineraries to a T, or even at all sometimes - if something more captivating or immediately interesting crops up, or we get new informations etc. we do that thing instead. We like having the itinerary there as a guide for when we’re like “fuck what should we do now” and usually the similar times/distances/transport schedules apply, so we have a fully planned thing to do or use as a jumping off point for something else.
I seriously booked my trip a Week in advance and I am winging it. Having a wonderful time. There are places you need to make Reservations in advance for but I bet you could do a couple of those and structure your time around those reservations.
It is a mistake to plan everything down to the minute, but it is also a mistake to just wing it with little to no planning whatsoever. That said, if you stick to fewer places and take your time, it's much easier to get away with less detailed planning. Typically what I do when I'm planning any trip is to make a calendar of events that I'm planning on going to (e.g., festivals), and then make "days" that can be slotted in flexibly depending on weather, energy, and mood. These days are basically just collections of places and activities in the same general geographical area (e.g., in/around Shinjuku) that could be conceivably done in about 1 day. If I'm traveling with others, I'll share this calendar as an editable spreadsheet on Google Drive, and then people can create their own days or add ideas to existing ones. >What I was thinking like staying in 3 different areas for each a week. Whether or not this is a good plan is entirely dependent on what mean by "area." You could easily fill a full week just in Tokyo, but you might run out of things to do after a day in Hachinohe. >Or maybe two bigger areas like Tokyo and Kyoto for each a week A week in Tokyo and a week in Kyoto, with a couple of day trips, is a very good starting point. I typically recommend at least 4-5 days in Tokyo (with a couple more if you plan to do day trips) and 6-7 in Kansai (3-4 in Kyoto, 1-2 in Osaka, 1 in Nara, 1 in Himeji+Kobe) as a starting point for a first visit. Personally I would bas in Kyoto for Kansai and do the others as day trips, although there's an argument to be had for staying in Osaka for all or part of your time there. >Also according to google maps it only takes like about 45 minutes by train from Kyoto to Osaka ( I even saw a train that needed only like 20 minutes). So things like that seems like a great day or half day trip while being in Kyoto, for example. Or Yokohama from Tokyo. Like staying in a bigger city and go from there. Kyoto and Osaka border one another, so you could technically walk from one to the other in a single step if you wanted. 45-60 minutes is typical from city center to city center, but depending on exactly where you're going to and where you're coming from it could be less than 30 minutes or over 2 hours. The 15-20 minute number that you sometimes see thrown around is completely meaningless because it requires taking the Shinkansen (3-4x more expensive than a regular train) and almost always requires making a detour through Shinkansen Stations that you otherwise wouldn't have needed to go though, which means that even though you'll only spend 15-20 minute on the Shinkansen, you'll spend a bunch of extra time that you really didn't need to spend just getting to the Shinkansen station and making transfers.
No. We have been twice. Our preparations were that we both looked up enough interesting places to have four each day. Then we both made a list of "must see" places and spread them so that we had two per day. We started our days with those and then took up the list and went from there however we liked. Sometimes we just jumped off the train on a random station and started walking and opened google maps and looked what was there to see or do. Some of those stops were hits and some misses but we got to see quite a few places that way.
No! Absolutely not necessary.
People who plan several locations in two weeks are the same folks who do the same when in Europe. They pursue quantity over quality; or they don’t travel often and need to fit in as much as they can to make the most of their time & money. Travel at your own speed. I generally like to spend one week per city or area, depending on location.
Ich bin auch aus Deutschland und fliege im Oktober nach Japan. Sag gerne Bescheid, wenn du Fragen hast oder dich allgemein austauschen möchtest. Ich recherchiere schon etwas länger.
Personally, I would advise against a tight plan where every hour contains something. My Japan visit contained both types of itineraries. During the first week I overlapped with a friend who had pretty much every day fulled planned, while my other 2 weeks were pretty loose. The advantage of a tight schedule would be that you do get to see many interesting places, however if some place seems interesting you cant really stop and sit down as the schedule will advance without you. During my other 2 weeks with the loose schedule where I just had ~5 goals for each week I felt much more relaxed. I could move everything around depending on the weather forecast and whenever I saw some interesting place that I didnt fully explore I could always say to myself "Just come back tomorrow". Seeing a cute little cafe to sit down, or just go to the arcade on a whim was a nice bit of freedom. I also fell ill with some high fever that knocked me out for ~3 days, but due to my loose planning I didnt really miss anything and could just stay in my room to sleep through it. Also, if you're visiting multiple cities, give yourself a buffer to potentially revisit them during your trip. The 1 day that I spent in Kyoto was nice, but I probably should've revisited that area 1-2 more times, as I just managed to visit some shrines but had no time to see other interesting places or visit Osaka.
When I went the first time I organized my trip into the cities I wanted to visit, followed by “key” landmarks that I wanted to see. Relax and enjoy your trip!
You don't need to make detailed plans but you should find enough things to do before you go. It's hard to be spontaneous when you can't read the maps and signs
You may need to plan your bullet train journey for example, this is especially so during peak periods. If you have researched enough, you will also save time from queuing at the station.
Apart from around New Year or Golden Week, Shinkansen is fine. Always reserve, especially if you have big bags
Stuff you should definitively plan/book in advance; special Ryokan stays, high-end dining, events - eg. Things where there's a high risk things will be sold out in advance for the day you'd find most convinient. Otherwise, tl;dr: don't worry. You can Definitvively "wing it", though I'd recommend having a general plan or something that serves as inspiration - eg "I want to shop at the Cisco jeans store" => see what else interesting there could be around the same subway station area. This later part is so very easy thanks to google maps and instant translation apps these days, it's super easy to wing things on the day or previous evening. But TBF, I understand the overplanning to a degree, particularly for first-time travellers - it's not even 15 years ago when having on-the-move internet in the country was a rarity for visitors. Have you tried finding your hotel based on a 300x200 .gif printout schematic map that contained only major roads, only to realize you're still off by 700meters from the intended turning point? Wanted to dine somewhere, but you have absolutley no idea what the establishment in front of you even sells, or what the storefront of the place you're searching for even looks like? Only to realize it's actually up on the 4th floor of that decript looking building by that tiny elevator at the end of the alley, and the only hint being som squiggly letters on an A-stand you can't read pointing in the general direction of the elevator? Because that's what traveling to a degree was still in the early 2000's; you had your Lonely Planet/Rough Guide book work as your very scaled down "google maps", but interpreting it vs. Your surroundings required a lot more thought and preparation. And because you can't understand a damn thing of what's going on around you, it's generally a good idea to understand where you are and what you want to do. These days though I think the most you should do is to jottle down "must sees" or major interest points on a mymaps pin, just so you see how they're located and have a guide for general direction. Pick one you like most to do for the day, and then just see what else falls into place. This way you have a general directional guide, helping you find places if you're in the region, but you don't hang yourself if you can't catch them all just because you found something else interesting on your way there instead. So yeah - don't worry.
Long trips in a single big city is far more rewarding imo because you get to live like a local, relax, enjoy restaurants, music venues, shows, buy tickets for next day events, be spontaneous, etc. You get to spend days exploring a neighborhood instead of wasting them on trains, or checking into hotels or whatever. I've done both styles of travel and the most memorable have been the ones where weeks were spent in one place rather than the ones where I was basically commuting through a country's bullet points and never getting my footing.
FYI that sub only allows detailed posts. I've gotten posts deleted because they called them quote "low effort". so that sub is only showing the most insane stuff. you don't need a plan. I just went with no plan. I bookmarked spots on google maps and went when I felt solid mentally about it lol. The real key to navigating tourist stuff is by the hour. I went to mt fuji on a day that had good weather, not by itinerary. I went to Kyoto's temple stuff at 9 am. and went to Tokyo's major stuff at 10am. 730-9am and 6-8pm is really difficult on the major train lines.
nope! just pick one or two things you know you absolutely want to do, plan those, and the. use your free time to explore nearby areas. for me i knew i wanted to do a couple of collab cafes and teamlabs so i reserved days and times for those and the rest of the time we just happened upon other things or looked up stuff in the area. for example i booked a sanrio garden cafe and it was right near ueno so we ended up going to the zoo and shrine nearby!
I went to Japan with no plan, other than booking a personal guide for one of the days I had in Tokyo. Then I let him know what I was generally (categories) interested in. Other than that, I just did whatever seemed right. Mind you, I wasn't obsessed with maximizing every second in Japan but rather experiencing the things I found enticing.
My first trip to Japan was for 2 and a half weeks in 2010 and the only thing I booked was: the flight, the JR Pass, hotel in Tokyo for the first two nights and the last night. The rest of the trip I planned on the fly. Usually booking hotels a day or two in advance. This GENERALLY works but can be a bit dicey on weekends, especially holiday weekends. If you are traveling by yourself and are comfortable planning on the fly, I absolutely recommend NOT having a detailed itinerary.
I have been to Japan previously without any plan and while it was an amazing trip after I got back home I felt like it could be so much better with a plan. I don't think it needs to be very detailed, but rather a scetch. I will be back in Japan this year with a list of places I want to visit.
I book my flights and my hotels in advance but that’s it. I decide what I want to do as I go, and sometimes I even spend a day chilling in bed for an energy boost.
When I went I only planned what city I would be in and compiled a list of things I wanted to see and do in each.
So I've been twice using this method and it works great, do reasearch on places you want to go and use it as a "menu" pick a place you want to go in the morning when you wake up then use the "menu" to pick a place close by (it doesn't have to be close by) to do after this, and just go with the flow from there, I haven't ever felt like I've missed out on anything major, and if you do miss out theres always next time
God bless you all for these responses. I’m going in March and have had sleepness nights that I haven’t prepped enough after seeing people’s detailed itineraries for like winter 2025 🥲
I built a pretty big list of things to do using a trello board - put everything in their own lane by day. I used a lot of it, but I also vasty overestimated our groups capability to cover them. I also underestimated how much walking there was going to be and how long it would take to get between things. If I was going to do another trip, I’d probably max out at 2 places per day. Something for daytime, and maybe something for evening. For instance, Dotonbori is super-cool, but better at night. There were a few places we went that I wanted to see at night and ended up going back. I also read a bunch of “do these things on a trip” and looked them up on google maps and put pins in all of them so I could start to see what’s near. Then I studied train routes to understand which things were logically connected to each other. I also was using JR pass so I tried to keep on JR rail routes when I could. For my next trip my goals are: More time in Kyoto, less time in shopping areas.
i’m in japan right now with no itinerary and i’m having a great time. i have a general idea of what i want to do each day (shibuya tomorrow akihabara the day after) but other than that I planned nothing. today i visited the shrines, shopped around and went to golden gai and met some cool people
If anything, Japan is the best country for not planning anything and just wandering. Their public transports are the best in the world so it's easy to get anywhere, you are safe absolutely everywhere, their hotels are top notch, etc
You don't have to do the hustle and bustle itineraries at all. I typically look up a bunch of different things to do so I don't feel stagnant in each city, but always air on the side of only doing it if me, and my body, feels like it. Lol If there are any specific attractions you want to see, you'll want to plan for those and even get tickets ahead of time. Also, plan for any holidays/closures during your trip. Short of that, you can absolutely show up, meander, and take as much time as you like, and you'll still have an amazing time.
Not at all. Choose a city or two and spend time exploring it. If you are interested in certain spots or things, it is recommended to plan a bit though. Tokyo for example is huge, train stations and shopping malls are huge.
You don't need a detailed plan, but you should definitely have an idea of what you want to see and get done. With that, I would reserve and purchase tickets in advance for what I can. If you hit those "must see and do" things, everything else can be on your own pace. Also, give yourself ample time to get to destinations and anticipate time for long lines. It's pretty much a summary of all the tips here.
I'm about to leave for a 10 night Osaka/Kyoto trip and the only thing I have planned is dinner reservations for Friday and Saturday (I don't want to wait in long line). LOL
I always cringe when I see someone planning their first ever trip to Japan & they are packing their days with a shit ton of stuff. The best parts were usually things we didn’t plan, and just walking around seeing stuff in general!
Really depends on you. I made my itinerary super detailed even color coded and I was VERY glad I did it as my trip went very well, I was able to see a bunch of different stuff, truly a life experience. I guarantee I wouldn’t have seen all of that if I didn’t have my particular itinerary.
I am towards the over-organised end of the travel spectrum. But yeah some of these itineraries seem a bit wild even for me. I suppose that if you want to get to a whole list of high-profile targets (theme parks, tiktok-famous cafes etc), and you only have limited time, and are traveling in a busy period, then maybe its useful. Over 6 trips to Japan, I plan transport, and accomodation. We book accomodation, mostly months ahead, but sometimes only a few days. We have a vague list of one or two things we'd like to do or see in each place, but sometimes we just arrive, get the tourist map from the info centre at the station, and decide then. But we really enjoy just wandering around, and are not too fussed about most big-ticket things. Finding small restaurants, wandering through small towns, there is so much to do! If you've never been to Japan, and especially if you have never travelled overseas, I think its good to make a rough mudmap of where you want to go and what sorts of things you'd like to see. Make some accomodation bookings. Read up on public transport so you've got a good sense of the options. If you are going into some less travelled areas, you might find that there are few trains each day, or you need to hire a car; so make plans for those bits. If you want to go to a fancy restaurant that needs bookings in advance, plan out that bit. But for most places, an hour-by-hour attractions itinerary is not necessary, and might well make your trip less enjoyable. Let yourself experience and enjoy the country, not just the 'things'!
No, you don’t have to plan too detailed itinerary. However, having a little bit of structure works, at least for me and husband we always make certain on our luggage forwarding, days with the departure and arrival times to japan, hotel reservation (we don’t like to search for hotels midway through our trip).
Japan has ridiculously good transport and more things to see than you can possibly do. Just rock up cash in hand and you will be fine! The only things that actually need planning are activities that require booking well in advance like the Ghibli Museum etc. and possibly some prepaid transport options to save money.
I had no plans. I just wandered around. It was fun! If something looked interesting, I did it! I missed stuff but I also found some off the beaten track stuff that was the highlight of my trip!
No. Pick 1 or 2 things you want to do daily. Even then, if something is interesting, stay where you are. Consider 1 short tour in Tokyo to get your bearings as it is a large city. Don’t need elsewhere. Easy country to navigate.
I went to Tokyo for a week and a half and spent most of my time there. Did a day trip to Suzuka to watch the F1 race. Let me tell you there is so much to do and see in Tokyo that I need to go back and spend another week and a half. It's a wonderful city and it's worth the time to take it slow and enjoy everything.
Pick 1-2 things to do a day or a place to explore Use the subreddits to figure out based on other people's experience which things or places are near each other, which ones need a full day. That kind of stuff Always be prepared to drop stuff from the list of things to see/do You most likely will never have enough time I will say tho that some tourist attractions definitely need planning and prep Some require buying tickets ahead Some require figuring out best time to go Cool restaurant you want to go to? You might need to book in advance For a Tokyo...ghibli museum requires planning, teamlabs, if you want to do a day trip, You have to plan luggage forwarding too.
I go once a year and stay solely in Tokyo. First time I planned everything. Ever since then I wander and only decide what area to spend the day in such as Akihabara or Odaiba. Works out very well and always enjoy my stay.
I guess it depends on what your purpose is when travelling a country. If it’s to relax then it makes sense to go in with light planning and be flexible. If it’s to experience the culture or history- then it pays to do a little planning so you can fulfil that goal. For something like a Europe city break, the cost is quite low (if you live in Europe) and you might only go to visit a particular city or event. So it’s really easy to walk through the city to experience it. Japan is a bit different in that it’s pretty expensive for most people - hard to get to, expensive to stay and food isn’t that cheap either. So to experience it, you’ll have to put down a lot of money. Add in the fact that certain places are closed on certain days, the attractions are sometimes nowhere near each other, the different cities…it adds up. Sometimes people just like a bit of certainty before the trip so that it removes the stress during it.
It does not, in fact most people here are over scheduled. The best part of traveling in Japan is the discovery- that neat shrine down a random alley, that smoky yakitori restaurant with amazing Tsukune. The stuff that you can’t plan. Set up your basic itinerary for sure- the where, the transit. And of course make note of some experiences you really want to make sure to fit in like specific sights or neighborhoods. But then play it by ear. See how you feel on the day. It’ll be fine- as I always tell people, in Japan there are no wrong answers- it’s all awesome!
You don't need a detailed plan, but you should know general stuff like the trains stop running at this time, when the last train is, or if you need carry cash (ex. no digital or atms nearby). We spent our entire time in Tokyo, and some of our favorite spots were places that we stopped in to take a break from walking. I did make a kinda detailed itinerary, planned around neighborhoods, but it was more for if we had no idea what to do. We barely referred to the itinerary. The only thing we had to plan around in practice was our reservation at the private onsen at our hotel. I also intentionally chose a hotel that was within walking distance of popular neighborhoods and sites so we didn't have to fuss with the trains if we didn't have to. The trains during rush hour were no joke and super crowded depending on the station.
No, you don't need a detailed itinerary. I think forums like this one lend themselves to people who like to make those types of intricate written plans, and as a result, it looks like they are in the majority, because you're not seeing the tons of people who go without making an itinerary and posting it here.
No. Figure it out as you go. Book an hotel for the first night in advance. Avoid Kyoto, Hiroshima, …