I’ve been MIA the past few months as I’ve been travelling! First I headed to Japan for the cherry blossom season. I’ve included a downloadable copy of my super detailed 11 day itinerary (Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka) later in this post. I’ll also be doing another post with my favorite Japanese stationery shops of those I visited.

The itinerary

This itinerary focuses on a variety of well known (and less well known) locations for seeing cherry blossoms, stationery shops, viewpoints and seeing the main tourist attractions in each location.

I split the 11 day itinerary into

• 5 days Tokyo
• 3.5 days Kyoto
• 1 day travel (1/2 one way bullet train Tokyo – Kyoto, then Kyoto – Tokyo)
• 1.5 days Osaka

Note: the above times do not include flights to / from Japan to / from wherever you live.

I made Osaka a day trip from Kyoto so we didn’t have to move all of our luggage. They’re only 15 minutes apart via bullet train or 30 minutes apart via a regular train. The trains are very frequent and you don’t need to pre-book train tickets so it’s very easy to do a day trip from Kyoto to Osaka. There were more things in Kyoto that interested me (it felt more touristy than Osaka) so I chose to base myself there instead of Osaka.

I like to be a little ‘extra’ with my itineraries so I included:

• Best cherry blossom viewpoints
• Best viewpoints over the cities
• Entry fees
• Opening hours
• Some of my own photos for inspiration if you want to replicate them
• Choose which activities you want to do each day, or follow my itinerary if you’re a traveller who wants to pack as much as they can into each day
• The itinerary in structured into morning, afternoon and evening
• Attractions you should pre-book are noted in the itinerary
• Walking routes for some of the attractions (If you want to make your own, see my tutorial in this post)
• Tips & things that are good to know before going to Japan (currency, type of power plug)
• Restaurants list
• Shopping list (skincare brands)

I spend a lot of time planning detailed itineraries so I hope you find it helpful!

Click here to download a copy. If you’d like a copy you can edit to add and remove things that suit your personal tastes, there is an editable version in my shop (click here).

Note: Prices of things (e.g. metro and entry fees to attractions) in this itinerary were as of January 2023 when I planned the itinerary. Prices for some things may have increased slightly since then).

What I liked about this itinerary

• The bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto!
• All the stationery shops (of course)
• Visiting a variety of cities not just staying in the one city for the entire trip
• Because the more direct flight route to / from Japan from Australia is via Tokyo, I split the time in Tokyo into 2 parts (and stayed in 2 different parts of the city), so there was more opportunity to time seeing the cherry blossoms if they peaked earlier or later than the forecast
• Splitting the Tokyo part into 2 so more opportunities to see cherry blossoms
• Day trips outside of Tokyo e.g. to Kawagoe so I could see some traditional Japanese architecture. The canal at the back of this town was also one of my favorite cherry blossoms spots
• I felt 1 day in Osaka was enough
• Tokyo – I wanted to experience what a mega city was like and Tokyo definitely delivered on that! It was mind boggling visiting the viewpoints and seeing high rises as far as you can see. Their population
• Their train system – you’ll notice I rarely use the bus in this itinerary. I much prefer using the train while travelling and Japan’s train system was excellent (just need some more signage to help you find your way in the big train stations especially when there’s multiple exits, food courts, shopping malls etc. attached to them)
• Lots of viewpoints – This is one of my favorite ways to see a city, especially when I first arrive

What I’d change about this itinerary

• Things are very spread out in Kyoto and public transport isn’t as convenient or well connected as Tokyo or Osaka. I would skip the Golden Pavilion as it is very far out of the way – it took a lot of effort to get to and I don’t think it was worth it
• I’d probably replace 1 of the days in Tokyo with a day in the Japanese countryside to get outside of the cities for a bit
• I felt 11 days was slightly too long, I think this itinerary could’ve been done as a 7 or 8 day ‘express option’
• If there were direct flights to Australia from Osaka or Kyoto, I’d probably have flown out of one of those cities instead to save time and the cost of taking the bullet train back to Toyko
• Unfortunately there were limited Japan flights and the only flight home was a red eye. We didn’t really need that last day before the flight. It would’ve been better to board a daytime flight and arrive back in Australia in the evening, rather than early morning

When is Japan’s cherry blossom season?

Japan’s peak cherry blossom season is around the last week of March / first week of April although it can be a little earlier or later. There are various websites you can use to check the predicted forecast (I used Live Japan and Japan Guide) however since it’s so hard to predict, the forecast isn’t usually published until February of that year. I was originally supposed to take this trip in 2020 but obviously COVID-19 put a stop to that!

It did mean that I had a few years of data from checking forecasts, when people post photos on Instagram (search by hashtags e.g. #cherryblossom) though, so I ended up booking my trip for 25th March to 5th April. Another way to see when could be a good time to go is to just check flight prices – they increase the price (in my case doubled the price) if you fly in / out during peak time.

It’s a very popular time to visit so make sure you book early. I booked this trip in October which was only 5 months before going. I never usually leave booking a holiday so late but Japan was slow to open their border after COVID. If you want to see the cherry blossoms and save some money, I’d book it as soon as flights become available (usually 9 months before).

The cherry blossoms peaked really early this year – in some places 2 weeks earlier than normal! I had booked with the intention that the peak would start the first day we arrived but it actually reached peak a few days earlier as the blossoms started opening in mid-March. It meant we timed fantastic cherry blossoms in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka (which are a little further south than Tokyo so bloom a few days behind). By the time we returned to Tokyo a week later for our flight home, the cherry blossoms were well past peak, most trees had lost half (or more) of their blossoms and were already turning green. Unfortunate timing for those visiting during Aussie school holidays / Easter break.

But since Mount Fuji peaks a little later than Tokyo (when I was researching online forecasts seemed to say 2 weeks later) and since all the cherry blossoms peaked earlier, we actually perfectly timed the peak for Mount Fuji. I deliberately put the Mount Fuji day trip at the end of the itinerary (not expecting to time them at all). If you choose to visit on dates that are towards the end of the cherry blossom season, consider re-ordering Mount Fuji to be earlier in your trip.

Food

Food seems to be a big part of the reason why people want to go to Japan and a big part of their culture. I had tried researching researching restaurants before going on the trip but most don’t have menus online in English so I could really only go off what the photos showed. Well be careful with this, Japanese eat some things that western people don’t eat such as chicken gizzards, hearts, ovaries, cartridge etc which is a too adventurous for me!

Make sure you install Google Translate on your phone so you can check the menu before going into restaurants and translate the plastic food examples they have in the windows. If you’re like me and don’t like ramen, noodles, meat that is not cooked well done or sushi, then you’re going to really struggle to find food in Japan. So make sure you allow extra time in your itinerary to find restaurants for dinner each night (I found the underground food courts in or near train stations were usually the easiest to find somewhere to eat).

Tips for visiting Japan

• Google translate is a MUST. When I asked people if they spoke English the usual reply was to pinch their fingers and say ‘little bit’ – even people working the information / help counter at train stations sometimes didn’t speak much English. So I would enter my question into Google translate and hold it up to the window – much faster to communicate!
• Google maps – tells you what exit to take out of metro stations and how much yen the ticket will cost
• Some places were cash only so make sure you carry them with you
• I didn’t trust the train ticket machines not to chew my card and was relying on 1 travel card for everything so used cash to pay for all trains
• I had one instance where the machine didn’t spit out the ticket but took my money. I always took a photo of the screen showing I’d paid after that just in case it happened again so I could ask an attendant for the ticket
• It will help if you Google how to read a Japanese train ticket before you go
• I purchased single train tickets as we went (as I calculated this would be cheaper) however there are day passes you can get
• There are different rail companies – one time I tried to go through a ticket barrier for the subway but I was actually supposed to take the train. Both entrances were side by side however both needed different tickets – be careful you’re buying the right ticket from the right machine
• There are lots of ‘hole in the wall’ restaurants which cannot seat many people so factor in time for queuing
• The cities are so big, things are very spread out – you’ll spend a lot of time travelling on and switching between trains. You’ll also be doing a lot of walking (I did 36,000 steps on the first day and averaged 25,000 steps most days) and seats to take a rest are really hard to find. Attractions are very spread out.
• Pack an umbrella – it rained a few days of the trip and by rain I mean pouring rain. A clear umbrella is better for taking pictures in the rain, a black umbrella creates a shadow in the photos and a clear umbrella means you can see more cherry blossoms in the photo

Is the Japan Rail Pass worth it?

I’ll be doing an entirely separate post on this but long story short no, the Japan Rail (JR) pass is not worth it for this itinerary. I did a detailed comparison using the Japan Rail Pass Calculator on the Japan Guide website and double checked it using the JR Fare Calculator on the JR Pass website. It actually worked out cheaper to NOT get the JR Pass.

I’ve also read that the price may be going up in 2023 making it less affordable.

Note that the JR Pass does NOT include the fast bullet train between Tokyo and Kyoto – you have to take the slow train (about 3hr 40 min versus 2hr 40 min). First class (which you may need if it’s during cherry blossoms / peak season and are travelling with a suitcase larger than carry on size) is also not included in the JR Pass.

Would I go back to Japan?

I didn’t feel like Japan was a country I needed to go back to. A lot of their cultural experiences I’m not really interested in (e.g. tea ceremony, their food, dressing up in a kimono, visiting temples etc.). I’m glad I went and it’s definitely worthwhile going during the cherry blossoms season, but if I want to see cherry blossoms in Asia again, I’d try South Korea next.

Download a copy of the itinerary

Click here to download a copy. If you’d like a copy you can edit to add and remove things that suit your personal tastes, there is an editable version in my shop (click here).

More travel planning tips

• How I planned my 6 week European Holiday (plus download my detailed itinerary) 
• Travel Planning: 50 Things to consider when planning an itinerary 
• How I use Excel to organize all my travel plans (research, itinerary, hotel, tours, bookings, packing list etc.)
• Travel Planning: How to choose a hotel (my step by step process)
• How I plan and make travel photobooks (plus download my workflow printable)
• 115 Things to Google before your next vacation

See all travel posts here

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