This post may contain affiliate links which means I may receive a small commission for purchases made through these links. I promise I will only recommend products that I have personally used! Thank you for supporting our blog so we can continue creating free content each week! Learn more on our Privacy Policy page.
Two Week Trip to Japan
Our full two week Japan itinerary is below!
We spent two weeks lost in translation and exploring the amazing country of Japan. This trip has been on our minds for a long time, and we finally made it happen! Scroll to the bottom for the day by day breakdown of the trip.
Planning Japan
We started dreaming up this plan back in 2019, but then the opportunity to make another dream come true came along- our trip to South Africa – so Japan moved to the standby plan. After the pandemic and the two-year delay to our Africa trip, we kept researching and learning about what it would take to travel to Japan.
Don’t want to miss a single blog post from us? Sign up for our email list and be notified every time we make a new post!
After the traumatic and stressful year of 2023, and despite losing my job, we kept hold of the dream and our plans to travel to Japan and used it as a positive light guiding us to new adventures. So we kept saving, researching, and planning and finally made this trip of a lifetime happen from March 20, 2024, to April 4, 2024. We opted to do the first timers route referred to as The Golden Route of Japan – Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto with a bonus trip to Tokyo Disney.
We took thousands of photos and videos, so this blog post is just one of many you will see over the next several months (maybe even years, lol). Of course, we fell in love with the country, people, food, and sights and sounds of Japan, and honestly, we can’t wait to go again soon. We learned so much, and I am excited to share all the details with you!
Why Japan?
Honestly, this all came to be because of Mark’s life long dream. While we both know a few people who have either lived in, visited or served the U.S. Military stationed in Japan, Mark is the one who has been obsessed with the idea and culture of Japan since he was young. He grew up with stories from his uncles, playing every video game imaginable, loving the anime and movies, and the food and culture were always so intriguing.
On the other hand, while I loved some aspects of the culture, was obsessed with the food, and was curious about the customs, I was much more stressed and scared because we weren’t fluent in the language. I let my anxiety take over and was more nervous than excited at first…. But then I did what I always do – I researched the heck out of it for years! Plus I added the requirement of going to Tokyo Disney as added incentive to complete my bucket list item of visiting every Disney park in the World (wink wink)!
How did we plan the trip?
I joined many “Trip Planning to Japan” Facebook groups, read other people’s blogs, started learning the basics of customs and language, and ensured that our technology was up to date with Google Translate and Google Lens. Knowing that most children in Japan grow up learning English and that the majority of signage is written in both Japanese and English was a huge comfort. My last considerable anxiety was transportation.
I mean, look at this map of the trains in Tokyo lol – we watched a ton of YouTube videos and read as much as we could about the train systems, but until you are there, living in the moment – you just have to figure it out as you go!
Over the next few months, I hope to share everything we did and learned during our first trip to Japan. But for now, here is our entire itinerary, and I will update this page with new posts along the way. I have already been posting photos and videos in our Instagram and Facebook stories and posts!
We booked our flights in July 2023 with Delta and opted for Comfort Plus seating. We also booked all of our hotel accommodations through Booking.com with free cancellation just in case we adjusted our itinerary. Both worked out great.
We flew out of Tampa International Airport at 7 AM on March 20, 2024, had a short layover in Minneapolis, and then continued to Tokyo, Japan, arriving at 3 PM on March 21, 2024. Japan is in Central Standard Time, and Tokyo was 13 hours ahead of Tampa, FL.
Here is a look at our day-by-day itinerary, and I will soon make very detailed posts for each day and each accommodation!
Our Two Week Japan Itinerary
March 20 – 21st – Full travel day into the future
Tokyo
March 21 – Blog Post One – Arrived at Tokyo Haneda Airport – customs and immigration, picked up Ninja pocket wifi, bought Airport Limousine bus tickets, checked into Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku Hotel, Hotel Bar, Food Hall Blast! Ramen
Hotel One – Blog Post about Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku
March 22 – Blog Post Two – Explored Shibuya & Harajuku – Shibuya Scramble, Shibuya Sky, Shibuya Parco, Miyashita Park, and Takeshita Street
March 23 – Blog Post Three – Gotoku-ji Temple (lucky cat shrine), Yoyogi Park, Meiji Jingu Shrine, Harajuku area, Found Godzilla in Shinjuku, Suzuya Katsu
March 24 – Blog Post Four – Tokyo Tower, Shiba Park, The Imperial Palace Gardens, Harry Potter Cafe, Senso-ji Shrine, Tokyo Skytree – Last full day in Tokyo!
Osaka
March 25 – Blog Post Five – First Shinkansen ride (aka bullet train) Traveled to Osaka, checked in to Fraser Residence Namba Osaka, Explored Dotonbori, Kura conveyor belt sushi restaurant
Hotel Two – Blog Post about Fraser Residence Namba Osaka
March 26 – Blog Post Six – Day trip to Himeji Castle, caught up on sleep and Landry, LOL!
March 27 – Blog Post Seven – Explored Osaka – Namba Shrine, Osaka Castle and The Land Mark Square rooftop bar, Pinball Arcade, Amerika-mura, Tenkaippin Ramen
Kyoto
March 28 – Blog Post Eight – Express Train to Kyoto, explored Kyoto, checked in to Solaria Nishitetsu Hotel Kyoto Premier, Imperial Palace Kyoto, The Common One Bar Kyoto, Upit Burger
Hotel Three – Blog Post about Solaria Nishitetsu Hotel Kyoto Premier
March 29 – Blog Post Nine – Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, Seiryo-ji Temple, Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Yasaka Shrine, Teppan Tavern Gion Tenamonya
March 30 – Blog Post Ten – Kinkaku-ji Golden Temple, Okazaki-jinja Shrine (rabbit shrine), Toyo Sushi, Rinkacho Temple, Hotel Seiryu Kyoto Roof Top Bar K36
March 31 – Blog Post Eleven – Nijo Castle, Explored Kyoto, Disney Kyoto Store, PCAAAN Bar, Kyoto Engine Ramen
Tokyo Disney
April 1 – Blog Post Twelve – Left Kyoto at 7 AM and traveled on the Shinkansen to Tokyo Disneyland! Checked in to Alice in Wonderland Room at Disneyland Hotel, Explored Disney Sea
Hotel Four – Blog Post about Tokyo Disneyland Hotel – Alice in Wonderland Room
April 2 – Blog Post Thirteen – Open to close park day at Disneyland Tokyo
April 3 – Blog Post Fourteen – Open to close park day at DisneySea
Travel Home
April 4 – Checked out of Disneyland, took the airport limousine bus to Haneda Airport, Flight home was 6 PM Tokyo to Atlanta to Tampa, FL. We arrived home at 11 PM April 4 – back to the future and back to these faces!
Mooshi and Commander were in great hands! Friends stayed at our place and ensured their lives were enriched and happy so Mom and Dad could have the experience of a lifetime! There is so much more to come; make sure you are signed up for our emails – arigato gozaimasu! (Thank you)
Did you miss any of our Japan posts?
Join our Monthly email list and help us grow! We promise you will only receive beautiful photos, updates, and probably a cute cat photo or two in your inbox!
About Us
Are you new to our blog? Find out more About Us and How you can support our blog for FREE!
So happy you were able to make this dream come true.
WOW, so exciting!! But seriously, that train map looks very scary!
Incredible journey!!! ❤️