I have 5 or 6 days planned for vacation in Japan, a Friday to Tuesday, we are flying in to Tokyo Narita (?).
What would be reasonable to do in 6 days given that we know we will not see it all. I’d like to arrive, spend Friday and Saturday nights in Toyko. I want to go the Tokyo fish market, but where where else and what other cities would you go to both in and out of Tokyo?
I haven’t been to Japan yet but I hope to study abroad next summer. I’d go into everything I want to do while I’m there but that might take a while. Here’s a decent site to check out for things to do.
http://www.fodors.com/world/asia/japan/tokyo/
You can definitely do 2 or 3 days just in Tokyo. The fish market is a good choice. There are also several temples, and the Imperial Palace to get some good pictures. If you’re into electronics, you can head to Akhibara where all the discount electronics are located. You can go to Shibuya and Harajuku for sightseeing, people watching, shopping, etc. Harajuku can be a mad house. I spent several days just taking the subway system to different districts and walking around to see what there was to see. There’s lots of parks, gardens, etc, and there’s also a ton of architecture to see. Depends on what you’re into.
Hike Mt. Fuji. You’ll dig it.
You can do shibuya, harajiku and shinjiku all in a day, they are within 20 mins of each other on the yamanote line. shibuya and harajiku are next to each other and you can just walk. You can go check out the shrine that is on the border between them, as well as yoyogi park and there is a street in harajiku that I don’t remember the name, but its directly in front of the train station. You can also go to Ikebukuro and go to sunshine city, there is an aquarium at the top. It’s on the yamanote line after shinjiku. The yamanote line is a circular train that goes to all the wards in tokyo, you can’t get lost on it, if you are going the wrong direction, either way, or get off walk across the platform and get on the one going the opposite direction. you could also go to akihabura, if you care about electronics stuff, its on the yamanote line too.
I would also head south to yokohama, about 40 mins via the train. again, its easy, take the yamanote line to shinagawa then get the keikyu line, once in yokohama, you can cruise around there or head to sakuragichio and go to landmark tower and the surrounding area, it has an small amusement park if you have kids.
remember, tokyo isn’t a city, it’s a prefecture, more like a state with wards (cities) in it.
No matter what you do, you will have a lot of fun. It’s going to be HOT and HUMID, so prepare for that.
Eat! Try ramen from street vendor and yakitori from little hole in the wall place with big ret lantern’s out front.
Try an onsen, the Japan’s natural hot springs.
If you’ve never been to Japan, you’ll have fun just walking around. The basement level of department stores are very interesting. It’s where the food is sold and they way they package things is cool.
You didn’t actually say what time of year you are going so some activities outside of Tokyo may vary depending on season.
Hiking Mt Fuji is a great experience but you really need to chose your time carefully. Go at the wrong time and it is a 5 hour queue of people walking up and you can get very frustrated. Dawn from the top is pretty spectacular though and the run down the Osunabashiri on the Gotemba side is fantastic - basically a long lava gravel run.
Harajuku, Meiji Shrine, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Tsukiji are all great places to go. Harajuku is best around Sunday lunchtime. Having sushi at the outer Tsujiki market is amazing but might spoil your taste for any other sushi afterwards because it is so good. Asakura temple is a popular destination and you can take a river boat from there down to Odaiba to visit the Toyoda Car showroom, Venusfort shopping mall and Oedo Onsen and the Museum of Maritime Sciences (looks like a big concrete boat!) before taking the Monorail or walking back across the Rainbow bridge.
Warning, if you are going to go to an Onsen, Tattoos need to be covered at all times. Tattoos are associated with Yakuza and are not acceptable in general public anywhere in Japan.
Depending on the time of the year, there can be lots of little festivals around which are always fun to participate in.
One of my favourite places is Asakura Choso Museum. It was the private home of one of Japan’s best sculptors and there is plenty on display but for me, the beauty of the place is the garden and the house itself. http://tokyoreview.blogspot.com/2007/02/museum-asakura-choso-museum-yanaka.html It is a easy to find if you know how and there is a wonderful community shopping street on the way so if you are interested I will send you some instructions.
Getting out of Tokyo is also easy and worthwhile. Nikko and Kamakura are only a few hours away by train and have amazing temples and Shrines. In case you didn’t know the difference, Temples are Buddhist, Shrines are Shinto but they often share the same grounds. Japanese people don’t feel the need to only have one religion!
One of my favourite whole day trips is to Hakone. Train from Tokyo to Yamato-Hakone then Mountain train, Funicular, Cable car, ropeway, pirate ship, bus. Beautiful area. Make sure you stop for eggs cooked in a Volcano and visit an onsen. You can stay in a Ryokan if you want to make it a two day trip and if so, going to the Hakone Open Air Museum is very highly recommended. More information here - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5210.html, http://www.kuriositas.com/2010/07/hakone-japans-amazing-open-air-museum.html
If you go in ski season, you can go to a number of ski fields easily from Tokyo - none easier than Gala Yazawa which has it’s own Shinkansen station and ski hire and gondola stop all in the same building. You can get from your hotel to the ski field in 2 hours.
I lived in Tokyo for 5 years and have so many things I miss about the place. I will back there myself in October for a couple of weeks so have plenty of things that I am planning to do when I am next there.