Most people land in Tokyo for their first time in Japan with three weeks of bookmarked Reddit threads and a vague sense of panic. Tokyo and Kyoto, sure. But how many days where? Should you do Hakone? Hiroshima? A ryokan? And in what order? This is the guide I wish someone had handed me before my own first trip.
What follows is a 10-day itinerary built for a real person, not a guidebook. It assumes you’ve never been to Japan before, you’re flying into Tokyo and out of Osaka (or vice versa), and you want a mix of urban energy, traditional culture, and at least one quiet night somewhere with a hot bath.
If you have only 7 days, skip Hiroshima (Day 8) and the Hakone overnight (Days 5-6) and trim Tokyo to 3 nights. If you have 14 days, add Kanazawa or Hokkaido after Day 10. The skeleton stays the same.
The shape of the trip
- Days 1-4: Tokyo (4 nights)
- Day 5-6: Hakone (1 night, ryokan + onsen)
- Day 7: Tokyo to Kyoto (Shinkansen)
- Days 7-9: Kyoto (3 nights, with one day in Nara)
- Day 10: Hiroshima day trip from Kyoto, fly out of Osaka
Total: 9 nights, 3 cities, 1 onsen town. Travel time between bases is short (Hakone is 90 minutes from Tokyo, Kyoto is 2h15 by Shinkansen). You unpack only three times. Your suitcase forwards itself between hotels via takkyubin, the door-to-door luggage service that costs about ¥2,000.
The careful “for most people” loop on an interactive map: 69 spots, day by day, with a few hand-picked offbeat detours sprinkled in (the Yayoi Kusama museum, Otagi Nenbutsu-ji’s 1,200 mossy faces, Okunoshima rabbit island). Not a wild trip — a polished one. For genuinely offbeat spots, dig through the rest of the site.
Japan: 14-Day Itinerary for First-Timers
Open the map on Ikuzo →Days 1-4: Tokyo
Day 1 — Arrival. Land at Narita or Haneda. Take the Skyliner (Narita) or the Keikyu Limited Express (Haneda) into central Tokyo. Pick up a Suica card or set one up in your Apple Wallet at the airport. Check in. Walk somewhere nearby for a first ramen or konbini bento. Sleep early. Don’t try to do anything ambitious tonight.
Day 2 — Asakusa and old Tokyo. Start with Senso-ji at 7am while it’s empty. Walk through Nakamise-dori, eat a freshly grilled senbei. Take the river bus or walk along the Sumida down to Hama-rikyu garden. End the afternoon in Yanaka, the only neighborhood that survived the war intact. Dinner at a tiny izakaya in Yurakucho under the train tracks.
Day 3 — Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku. The full pop-culture day. Cross the Shibuya scramble at rush hour at least once. Walk up through Harajuku and Omotesando. End in Shinjuku for the neon: Kabukicho, Golden Gai for a tiny bar, Omoide Yokocho for yakitori. The free observation deck at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building gives you a panorama without the Skytree price.
Day 4 — Slow Tokyo. The day you skip what you “have to do” and pick one neighborhood to wander deeply. My favorites: Shimokitazawa (vintage and indie cafés), Kiyosumi-Shirakawa (coffee roasters and a stunning garden), or Kichijoji and Inokashira park. A real Tokyo sento (public bath) in the evening. Takara-yu in Adachi is one of the most beautiful.
For full neighborhood detail, see my What to Do in Tokyo guide. For where to base yourself, the Where to Stay in Tokyo breakdown by neighborhood is the companion piece.
Days 5-6: Hakone (the onsen pause)
This is the one night in your trip where you actively slow down. Take the Romance Car from Shinjuku in the morning (90 minutes). Hakone is a small mountain region with hot springs, lakes, ropeways, and views of Mount Fuji on a clear day. The cliché loop is fine for the day — boat across Lake Ashi, ropeway over Owakudani’s sulfur vents, the open-air sculpture museum — but the real point of Hakone is checking into a ryokan in the late afternoon, putting on the yukata, and not leaving.
The ryokan night includes kaiseki dinner served in your room, an outdoor onsen bath at dusk, futons laid out while you eat, and breakfast in the morning. Even if the room itself is the most expensive thing you book, do it once. It’s the experience that makes everyone want to come back to Japan. See my full Best Ryokan in Japan guide for specific recommendations.
Day 6 morning: a slow second bath, breakfast, then back to Tokyo by lunchtime. Switch hotels (or just collect a forwarded suitcase) and prep for the Shinkansen to Kyoto.
Day 7: Tokyo to Kyoto by Shinkansen
2h15 from Tokyo Station to Kyoto Station, ¥14,000 one-way. Book the Hikari (covered by the JR Pass) or Nozomi (faster, not covered) via the SmartEX app. Sit on the right side coming from Tokyo for Mount Fuji at minute 45. Buy an ekiben (station bento) before boarding — this is a tradition.
Arrive Kyoto by early afternoon. Drop your bag, head to Higashiyama for the late afternoon light, walk through the Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka alleys before the shops close, end at Yasaka Shrine. Dinner in Pontocho.
Days 8-9: Kyoto and Nara
Day 8 — Eastern Kyoto. Fushimi Inari at 6:30am while the torii gates are silent. Walk all the way to the top — most people give up after the first 20 minutes, which is when it gets good. Down for breakfast, then south to Tofuku-ji (the bridge view is one of the best in Kyoto, magic in November). Afternoon at Sanjusangen-do for the 1,001 Kannon statues, then Kiyomizu-dera before sunset. Evening: Gion and a tea ceremony if you’ve booked one.
Day 9 — Nara day trip. 45 minutes from Kyoto. Nara is small enough that half a day is enough. Todai-ji’s Great Buddha is genuinely massive in person. The deer in the park are friendly until they’re not (don’t make eye contact while holding the senbei crackers). Back to Kyoto for late afternoon at the Philosopher’s Path or Ginkaku-ji, then a slow last evening in Pontocho.
Detailed Kyoto neighborhood breakdown: What to Do in Kyoto. Where to stay: Where to Stay in Kyoto.
Day 10: Hiroshima and out
Hiroshima is 1h45 from Kyoto by Shinkansen. Leave first thing. The Peace Memorial Museum is small but devastating. Spend the afternoon at Miyajima island (45 minutes from Hiroshima Station) for the floating torii gate at high tide. Try okonomiyaki at one of the multi-floor okonomiyaki towers on your way back. Then the Shinkansen straight to Kansai Airport for your evening or next-morning flight, or back to Osaka for one final dinner if your flight is the next day.
If your flight is from Tokyo instead of Osaka, swap Day 10 for a return Shinkansen and a final Tokyo morning. Or skip Hiroshima entirely and use Day 10 for whatever you wished you’d had more time for.
Practical scaffolding
Transport. Get a Suica or Pasmo IC card on day one (or set it up in Apple Wallet before you leave). Calculate whether the JR Pass actually saves you money before buying — at ¥50,000 for 7 days, a simple Tokyo–Kyoto–Hiroshima loop barely breaks even. See How to Travel Around Japan for the full math.
Luggage. Use takkyubin (Yamato) to forward your suitcase between hotels — Tokyo to Hakone, Hakone to Kyoto, Kyoto to Osaka. About ¥2,000 per leg. You travel with a backpack, your suitcase shows up the next day. Life-changing for first-timers.
Money. Cards work in cities, cash is essential at small restaurants, ryokan, and rural shops. Withdraw at any 7-Eleven ATM (works with foreign cards 24/7). Realistic budget breakdown in How Much Does a Trip to Japan Cost.
Bookings to make ahead. The ryokan in Hakone (4-6 months for popular ones), any starred sushi or kaiseki restaurants, the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto (1 month before via SmartEX), and teamLab Borderless or the Ghibli Museum if you want them. Everything else can be done on the fly.
When to go. Late March to early April for cherry blossoms (crowded), late November for autumn maples (also crowded but worth it), or May-June and October for the best weather-to-crowds ratio. Avoid Golden Week (April 29 – May 5), Obon (mid-August), and New Year. See my Golden Week guide for why.
The mistakes I made on my first trip
I tried to do Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hakone, Hiroshima AND Hokkaido in 12 days. I spent more time on Shinkansen than in temples. I bought a JR Pass without doing the math. I dragged a 30-kilo suitcase up the alleys of Higashiyama. I went to Fushimi Inari at 11am.
If you do nothing else from this guide, do this: fewer cities, longer stays, earlier mornings. The full list of first-trip mistakes is in First Trip to Japan: Mistakes to Avoid.
Coming back for trip #2?
If you’ve already done Tokyo and Kyoto and you’re wondering where to go next, my second-timer map skips the famous loop entirely and runs through the Inland Sea and Kyushu instead: Himeji and its white-heron castle, the Naoshima art islands, the Shimanami Kaido cycling route, Onomichi’s cat alley, the Spirited-Away bathhouse in Matsuyama, then south through Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Mt Aso’s caldera, Kurokawa Onsen, and the Beppu hells.
A 14-day return route through the Inland Sea and Kyushu — quieter and more curious than the classic loop, but still doable for normal humans. Art islands, cycling bridges, hidden onsen towns, active volcanoes, and a few real offbeat picks (Ukiha Inari, the floating Ouo torii, the Kamishikimi mossy shrine). 55 spots, no Tokyo, no Kyoto.
Japan: 14-Day Itinerary for Second-Timers
Open the map on Ikuzo →Ready to figure out logistics? See Japan FAQ for the awkward questions, and the Learning Japanese Before a Trip guide for the dozen phrases that will change your trip.