⛩️ Ultra EPIC Cheap Japan Trip ⛩️ / PART 2 - Our Day-by-Day Itinerary 📅✨
PART 2 - Our Day by Day Itinerary 📅✨
This itinerary is deliberately balanced: 🌿Nature, 🌆Cities, 🛍️Shopping, ♨️Relaxation, 🎏Culture, 🐻❄️Chiikawa and 🎉Fun activities.
We alternated intense sightseeing days with slower days to avoid
travel burnout, giving us time to really enjoy each location.
Once the trip is done, we’ll share a ⏭️PART 4 follow-up with
reflections, adjustments we had to make, and what we learned on the
ground, essentially, a real-life report of our adventure🌸
In the PART 4 after the trip I will share the 🧳Wanderlog file on the trip too!
ㅤ
Before diving into the days, here’s
why we structured it the way we did:
Why it’s balanced 🌿🏙🎶
▲ Day 2 - 31/10: Osaka - Katsuoji → Minoh Park → Cup Noodle
Museum🏞️🍜
▲ Day 9 - 07/11: Kyoto - Tea Ceremony + Nintendo Museum + Kichi
Kichi Dinner 🍵🕹️
We scheduled the 🍵tea ceremony in the morning, formal experience is a cultural highlight (i was forced because i don't like tea but the experience is dope...ಥ_ಥ)
▲ Day 11 - 09/11: Kyoto → Hakone/Gora 🏞️
🚅Shinkansen to Odawara is the fastest route for accessing Hakone; from Odawara take the bus or 🚌Hakone Tozan Railway up to Gora.
▲ Day 15 - 13/11: Tokyo - Mount Fuji Day Trip 🗻
▲ Day 20 - 18/11: Nikko Day Trip 🌳
Nikko is a full day but worth it for 🏯Toshogu Shrine, rich wood carvings, and mountain scenery
▲ Day 21 - 19/11: Ikebukuro (Chiikawa Park) + Free Afternoon/Evening 🐻❄️
◥ Tips To Replicate Or Adapt This Itinerary 📝
We structured the trip deliberately: days with heavy sightseeing alternate with slower, immersive experiences, that’s how we avoided burnout and truly soaked in everything. 🌿✨
Why it’s balanced 🌿🏙🎶
- 🏞️ Nature: Minoh Park, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Mount Fuji, Gora.
- 🌆 City life: Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo exploration.
- ♨️ Relaxation: Ryokan days, slow mornings, free afternoons, .
- 🎏 Culture: Temples, museums, tea ceremonies, Design Festa.
- 🎸 Fun and music: Concerts, collab cafés, street food.
Some mornings are free for coffee and wandering;
others are packed with museums, markets, and long walks. It
keeps ⚡energy high without rushing.
◥ The Locations! 📌🗺️
The itinerary includes some very popular and
iconic spots ⭐.
Since this is our first trip to Japan, we preferred
not to venture into rural areas and instead stick to the 📌 main highlights!
🍙OSAKA → ⛩️KYOTO → ♨️GORA → 🎴TOKYO
We planned to spend 📆 21 days in Japan, arriving in
Osaka on October 30 and departing in Tokyo on
the morning of November 20.
We’ll spend:
- 5 days in 🍙 Osaka,
- 5 days in ⛩️ Kyoto,
- 2 days in ♨️ Gora,
- 9 days in 🎴 Tokyo (10 if you include the morning of our departure).
To travel between cities, we’ll use 🚄 regional trains,
except for Kyoto to Gora, where we’ll take the 🚅Shinkansen and a bus to reach Gora, as it’s
quite remote in the Hakone mountains and far from ⛩️Kyoto but taking advantage of the trip to get
closer to 🎴Tokyo.
These seemed like the right number of days for a
long trip, allowing us to cover
most of the things we wanted to do on our 🔰first visit!
◥ Transportation During The Trip🚅🚃
In big cities like 🍙Osaka, ⛩️Kyoto and 🎴Tokyo,
🚇 public transport is king.
Taxis are convenient but expensive, so we’ll
mainly rely on:
- 🚇 Metro / Subway (fastest in the city)
- 🚄 JR Local Lines (useful in Osaka & Tokyo)
- 🚌 Buses (especially in Kyoto, where subways don’t cover everything)
- 🗺️ Google Maps + Japan Transit App to plan routes in seconds
We did NOT buy the 🎫 JR Pass but 🎟️ single tickets because it’s not worth it for our route:
- 🍙 Osaka → ⛩️ Kyoto: cheap local train (30 min)
- ⛩️ Kyoto → Odawara (Hakone) → ♨️ Gora: one Shinkansen + mountain train + bus
- ♨️ Gora → 🎴Tokyo: bus + local train
- 🎴 Tokyo day trips: local/limited express trains
⭐ Tip: To travel more comfortably, you can ship your 🧳suitcases with the Takuhaibin service from a hotel! Check if your hotel offers this service!
Otherwise if you will stay mostly in bnb or apartments like us, you can always ship them with 📦Yamato Transport!
We will ship our🧳suitcases from ⛩️ Kyoto directly to 🎴Tokyo so that we can travel comfortably and enjoy our two days in ♨️ Gora light!
◥ Passes We
Will Use 🎫
We only buy passes when they actually save money:
- 💳 Rechargeable IC Card (Suica) for daily travel, just tap in / tap out, no tickets needed
- 🎫 Hakone Free Pass (covers trains, buses, boat, ropeway)
- 🎫 Tokyo Subway 24/48/72h Pass on intense days
- 🎫 Osaka Amazing Pass for moving into the city
⭐ Tip: You can now get a digital Suica/Pasmo on iphones in your Apple Wallet!
There is not a way to have a digital
suica on android phones... (╥﹏╥)
◥ Where Are We Staying 🛏️
We preferred to rent apartments to share rather than
hotel rooms, as they often offer better prices and are
closer to the 🏙️ city center! (ℹ️ ALL THE PRICES ARE X5 PEOPLE)
/🍙 OSAKA /
A hotel right in the city center, close to🗼Tsūtenkaku Tower and all the main shops and
attractions. The price was incredible, even though the
rooms are small, but we are happy to look past
that!
It's a very nice area, full of small 🍽️restaurants where you can have dinner after a day out!
Overall, accomodations in Osaka are quite cheap, but I
highly recommend this hotel in particular!
⬇️
~
/⛩️ KYOTO /
In recent years, Kyoto⛩️ has undoubtedly become the 💸 most expensive city, especially in terms of
accommodation.
However, we managed to find this
small but super central apartment at a
great price!
We preferred 🛏️comfort and 💵price to having a larger apartment...also because I don't think there was another apartment as cheap as this one in such a good location, even away from the center 💀
We preferred 🛏️comfort and 💵price to having a larger apartment...also because I don't think there was another apartment as cheap as this one in such a good location, even away from the center 💀
⬇️
~
/♨️ GORA /
Although we tried to save as much as possible without
sacrificing comfort, we decided to treat ourselves for two days by renting
an entire ♨️ryokan with a private indoor
onsen just for us!
We chose Gora♨️as our destination because it’s
far enough from the cities bustle but yet still
easy to reach from Odawara by train.
Two days to break up the journey, relax, and
enjoy some peace and quiet surrounded by
nature before heading to Tokyo🎴.
⬇️
~
/🎴 TOKYO /
For our last part of the trip in Tokyo, we found this cool apartment!
We were looking for an apartment in the 🌆city center, in a convenient location for getting around, with enough space for us to be comfortable and for our 🧳suitcases (which at this point in the trip will be full ahahah), and this apartment was just right for us!
We were looking for an apartment in the 🌆city center, in a convenient location for getting around, with enough space for us to be comfortable and for our 🧳suitcases (which at this point in the trip will be full ahahah), and this apartment was just right for us!
Shinjuku is a huge station, connected to practically
all the 🚇main subway lines.
Our apartment is close to the stop just before it,
which is great because Shinjuku is known as the biggest and
easiest station to get lost in all of Tokyo
ahahah
⬇️
◥ The Day by Day Trip! 🔰🎴
▲ Day 1 - 30/10: Osaka - Arrival (12:00) 🛬
We will arrive around noon, take the train from ✈️Kansai Airport (or an airport shuttle) and
check into our place.
The first day is intentionally light: walk the
nearby neighborhoods, pick up an 💳 IC card
(Suica/Pasmo) and groceries, and recover from travel.
Starting easy kept us ⚡energized for the next day’s full 🍙Osaka exploration.
We loved the idea of escaping central Osaka right away for the
serene 🏯Katsuoji temple and then hiking through
🏞️ Minoh Park to the waterfall (great for autumn
leaves).
The 🍜Cup Noodle Museum in Ikeda is a fun,
budget-friendly, interactive stop,
design your cup!
Balancing outdoor time with chill indoor activities.
If you want to save on 🚇transport, check local 🚄train timings; otherwise a 🚕short taxi for the final
museum leg keeps the day relaxed.
▲ Day 3 - 01/11: Nara🦌
Nara is a classic day trip from 🍙Osaka, massive Buddha at 🏯Todai-ji and friendly 🦌deer in the park.
Nara is a classic day trip from 🍙Osaka, massive Buddha at 🏯Todai-ji and friendly 🦌deer in the park.
Bring cash for small deer crackers and wear
comfortable shoes for wandering.
It’s a classic and affordable 🎏cultural day.
▲ Day 4 - 02/11: Osaka - City Wander 🌇
This is our shopping shift: 🛍️Nipponbashi for 🃏Pokémon cards and retro finds, then Shinsaibashi for
general shopping and a visit to 🐻❄️Chiikawa Land! Food-wise street snacks and local cafés keep energy up.
Great day for souvenirs and ☝️🤓 nerd shopping🎴✨
▲ Day 5 - 03/11: Osaka - Free day + Yama Concert 🎶
We will catch ⛩️Osaka Castle in the morning (free entrance
& great views nearby) and then wander into neighborhood 🎏festival scenes for the 🎴Culture Day
student events, lots of stands, performances,
and 🍡local food.
It’s a social, lively day that feels
authentically Japanese. 🍢🎶
▲ Day 6 - 04/11: Osaka → Kyoto 🚆
The short rail hop from 🍙Osaka to ⛩️Kyoto is fast and easy.
We will use the afternoon to stroll
around central Kyoto, 🛍️shopping streets, a casual
🏯 temple visit and planning the next few days.
▲ Day 7 - 05/11: Kyoto - Kinkaku-ji + Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
🎋🏯
Before hitting the main 🏞️Arashiyama area, we
will visit the meditative ⛩️Adashino Nenbutsuji, a
quieter temple often missed by big tours.
Then into 🎋Arashiyama’s bamboo forest for the classic
walk and riverside views.
Early start helps beat crowds and keeps the mood
🌿
▲ Day 8 - 06/11: Kyoto - Free day (friend arrives) ☕
Arrival day for our friend tonight; we will keep things flexible so they could recover from travel.
Arrival day for our friend tonight; we will keep things flexible so they could recover from travel.
This is a great day to do small errands: ehead to 🛍️Nakagyo Ward for 📕Mandarake and 📘BookOff treasure
hunting; dinner near the station so everyone can
settle in. 🕊️
We scheduled the 🍵tea ceremony in the morning, formal experience is a cultural highlight (i was forced because i don't like tea but the experience is dope...ಥ_ಥ)
Then we will visit the 🕹️Nintendo Museum, booking in advance
IS necessary and really tricky. (I'll explain how to book it in another post!)
For dinner, 🍚Kichi Kichi Omurice is small and
famous for its showy omelette rice,
reservations or early arrival recommended, try
to 📞call in the morning to reserve a seat!
▲ Day 10 - 08/11: Kyoto - Fushimi Inari + City Wander ⛩️
We will go to ⛩️Fushimi Inari early to walk the torii tunnel with fewer people.
We will go to ⛩️Fushimi Inari early to walk the torii tunnel with fewer people.
In the afternoon, walk through Gion and
Pontocho for potential geisha sightings,
tea houses, and atmospheric streets.
Keep an eye on time if you want to enter any 🎟️special attractions, many have limited hours.
🚅Shinkansen to Odawara is the fastest route for accessing Hakone; from Odawara take the bus or 🚌Hakone Tozan Railway up to Gora.
We planned to spend two nights in a ♨️ryokan with a
private onsen surrounded by nature.
▲ Day 12 - 10/11: Hakone - Ryokan and Onsen Day ♨️
We will take the iconic 🏴☠️pirate ship on Lake Ashi and soak in views of the mountain (weather permitting), then head back for another dreamy ♨️ryokan evening.
We will take the iconic 🏴☠️pirate ship on Lake Ashi and soak in views of the mountain (weather permitting), then head back for another dreamy ♨️ryokan evening.
This is our slow, luxurious day, no alarms and lots of hot water 😌
▲ Day 13 - 11/11: Hakone → Tokyo → Nakano Broadway + Concert
🎸
We will take a morning train to Tokyo, get our 🧳luggages at the 📦Yamato Transport center near our apartment, and then explore 🛍️Nakano Broadway for collectible/retro finds.
We will take a morning train to Tokyo, get our 🧳luggages at the 📦Yamato Transport center near our apartment, and then explore 🛍️Nakano Broadway for collectible/retro finds.
The indie rock scene in Tokyo has intimate live
houses; we made sure to book a concert of a
🎶 small local band at Live House FEVER!
For late nights, know the last train times or have a
plan for 🚕taxis.
▲ Day 14 - 12/11: Tokyo Shibuya and Neighborhoods 🏙️
Dive into the 🌆Shibuya energy: photos at the
crossing watching it from a café above on one of the skyscapers, and dinner at
casual izakayas.
We used this day for 🛍️shopping and starting to
get any items on our 📃wishlist.
We planned a day trip to see 🗻Mount Fuji from
the Fujiyoshida area or surrounding viewpoints, check
weather early (visibility matters!). Book 🎟️transport tickets or tours in advance if you want a guided trip.
👟Comfortable shoes and layers were essential.
▲ Day 16 - 14/11: Tokyo - Ginza + Pokémon Center Tokyo DX +
Odaiba (Gundam) 🚶♀️🛒🤖
We will spend the morning in Ginza and hit the
Pokémon Center Tokyo DX.
For lunch we will go to the old fish market 🐟Tsukiji Outer Market and the new one 🐡Toyosu Market finding a fish restaurants in 🎣Tsukishima Monja Street.
▲ Day 17 - 15/11: Tokyo - Design Festa 🎨
We spent the entire day wandering
stands, chatting with 🎨artists, and collecting art treasures. Design Festa is ginormous (in the best way), so comfortable shoes, 💵cash, and a reusable bag are musts. We planned two days here to buy EVERYTHING 🎟️
▲ Day 18 - 16/11: Tokyo - Design Festa + Flea Markets
🕹️
We popped into local flea markets in the
morning (great for vintage finds), booked an omakase lunch at 🍣Manten Sushi (Marunouchi) and
then spent the afternoon and evening finishing up
at 🎨Design Festa.
For popular restaurants, reserve seats in advance and having at least one fancy 🐠omakase experiece is a must do!
▲ Day 19 - 17/11: Tokyo - Akihabara → Kappabashi Dougu → Senso-ji → Tokyo Skytree → Kirby Café → Tonkatsu Marushichi 🎏🗼
We hit 🎏Akihabara for retro tech and
game hunting, 🔪Kappabashi for
kitchen gadget heaven, then
🏯 Asakusa (Senso-ji) and 🗼Tokyo Skytree for the
classic skyline.
We wasn't able to get a reservation for the ☕Kirby Café, we will try to to get in anyway for a
small treat and then going to dinner at 🥩Tonkatsu Marushichi to eat the
giant tonkatsu! Busy day, so we scheduled pockets
of rest🛎️
Nikko is a full day but worth it for 🏯Toshogu Shrine, rich wood carvings, and mountain scenery
We spend the morning at 🐻❄️Chiikawa Park and
nearby stores in Ikebukuro, then keep the afternoon free for buying the last plushies, packing, or a lazy café.
A soft final day in the city before the early flight ☕🧳
▲ Day 22 - 20/11: Tokyo - Departure ✈️
For early flights, factor in
travel time to the ✈️ Tokyo Haneda airport and plan transport
the night before.
Keep 🪪passports and 🎫boarding passes accessible and leave buffer time for
check-in!
◥ Tips To Replicate Or Adapt This Itinerary 📝
- Short on time? Focus on Osaka/Kyoto + 3–4 Tokyo days. Skip Hakone if needed.
- Tighter budget? Working hotels, convenience store meals, fewer paid attractions.
- More nature? Go in the southern or northern area of Japan
- Slower pace? Alternate intense sightseeing days with free mornings or afternoons.
We structured the trip deliberately: days with heavy sightseeing alternate with slower, immersive experiences, that’s how we avoided burnout and truly soaked in everything. 🌿✨
Comment with a beautiful drawing! :3
▼
🗨️✏️ Draw your comment! :3
Leave your name here:
🗨️✏️ Draw your comment! :3
Leave your name here:
.PNG)
🗨️ Comments