A complete 10-day route through Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Hakone — with the Shinkansen legs, the things worth booking early, and the timings that decide whether a day works or falls apart.
Japan rewards planning more than almost anywhere, and punishes the lack of it. The reasons stack up quickly: rail passes that only pay off on certain routes, temples that close earlier than you expect, restaurants that need booking weeks ahead, and cities far enough apart that a badly ordered route costs you a whole day on a train.
Most of the work is not choosing what to see. It is sequencing — grouping sights by neighbourhood so you are not crossing Tokyo twice in a day, and putting the long transfers where they cost you least.
The 10-day route below is the shape most first trips settle into. Treat it as a skeleton to adapt rather than a schedule to follow exactly.
Land at Haneda or Narita, pick up a transport IC card and drop your bags. Don't schedule anything fixed on arrival day. Spend the afternoon in Shibuya and Harajuku on foot — the crossing, Meiji Shrine, Takeshita Street — all walkable and forgiving of jet lag. Evening in Shinjuku, where Omoide Yokocho and Golden Gai are full of small bars and yakitori counters.
Day two is the right slot for teamLab, which sells timed tickets that routinely go weeks ahead. Book before you fly.
Start in Yanaka and Nezu: low-rise old Tokyo, temple cemeteries and a shopping street that never got modernised. Afternoon at Asakusa and Senso-ji, then Akihabara for electronics and arcades if that appeals. For dinner, try a department store food hall — the basement floors sell restaurant-quality food, discounted in the final hour.
Keep one of these afternoons unplanned. Tokyo is the city where wandering pays off most.
The Tokaido Shinkansen covers Tokyo to Kyoto in a little over two hours. Sit on the right-hand side for Mount Fuji on a clear day. Arrive, drop bags, and walk Gion and the Higashiyama lanes before the light goes. Dinner in Pontocho Alley — narrow, lantern-lit and lined with everything from cheap to extravagant.
Reserve a seat rather than riding unreserved if you are travelling with luggage, as oversized bags need a booked space.
Fushimi Inari at first light. The shrine grounds stay open, and arriving before the crowds is the single biggest quality-of-day decision in Kyoto. Then Arashiyama — bamboo grove first, temple gardens once the coach parties have moved on. Fill the afternoons with Nijo Castle and Kinkaku-ji, or walk the Philosopher's Path if you would rather not queue.
Kyoto rewards slower days. Two temples done properly beat five done at a jog.
Under an hour from Kyoto. Todai-ji and the Great Buddha first, then Nara Park, then Kasuga Taisha and its stone lanterns — the wooded paths behind it are usually empty. Back to Kyoto for dinner.
The deer are wild animals rather than an attraction. They bow for crackers and headbutt when the crackers run out.
Kuromon Ichiba market first, and go hungry — this is breakfast. Osaka Castle in the afternoon, or Shinsekai for something rougher-edged. Evening in Dotonbori for takoyaki, okonomiyaki and kushikatsu. The rule about not double-dipping the sauce is real.
Osaka works as a day trip from Kyoto if you would rather not move hotels — it is thirty minutes on the train.
Hakone for Mount Fuji views, the lake and the ropeway across the volcanic valley. An onsen ryokan if you have the night is the best possible end to a trip spent walking. Then back toward Tokyo for your departure, or straight to the airport.
Fuji hides behind cloud more often than not. Treat a clear view as luck rather than an itinerary item.
The Shinkansen does the heavy lifting. Within cities, an IC card on your phone covers metro, bus and most convenience stores, and removes the need to think about fares at all.
| Leg | How | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo → Kyoto | Tokaido Shinkansen | 2h 15m |
| Kyoto → Nara | Local / rapid train | 45m |
| Kyoto → Osaka | Local / rapid train | 30m |
| Osaka → Tokyo | Tokaido Shinkansen | 2h 30m |
| Tokyo → Hakone | Odakyu line from Shinjuku | 1h 30m |
On the Japan Rail Pass: it is not automatically worth buying. A pass pays off when your route includes several long Shinkansen legs, and rarely does if you are based in one or two cities. Pass pricing rose substantially in recent years, so price your actual route both ways before committing.
Note also that the fastest Tokaido services are not covered by the nationwide pass — check which trains your pass admits you to, not just the route.
Tokyo alone covers more ground than most capital cities, and its sights are scattered across districts that are nowhere near each other. Kyoto's temples run north to south along the city's edges. A list of places to see tells you nothing about whether a day is actually walkable — only a map does.
This is where an itinerary built as a list falls down. Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama are both essential and sit on opposite sides of Kyoto; putting them in the same day costs you an hour on trains and most of the light. A trip planner with a map catches that before you are standing on a platform working it out.
Every AI Travel Pro itinerary is mapped day by day for exactly this reason — each day's stops plotted together, so you can see whether a plan holds up before you commit to it.
The order that works: fix the shape first, then the detail. Decide how many nights in each city, book the accommodation and the long-distance legs, and only then fill in what you do each day. Reversing that order is how people end up with a list of forty sights and no route.
Before you book anything: verify opening hours, seasonal schedules, ticket availability and local holidays. Golden Week in late April and Obon in mid-August fill trains and hotels nationwide, and prices roughly double.
Ten days is the point where Japan stops feeling rushed. It allows roughly four nights in Tokyo, three in Kyoto, and time for Nara, Osaka and one night somewhere slower such as Hakone. Seven days works if you limit yourself to Tokyo and Kyoto. Fourteen lets you add Hiroshima, Kanazawa or the Japanese Alps without moving hotels every night.
It depends on how much long-distance travel you actually do. A pass tends to pay for itself when your route includes several Shinkansen legs, such as Tokyo to Kyoto and back. If you are staying mostly in one or two cities, individual tickets are usually cheaper. Price your specific route both ways before buying — pass pricing has changed significantly in recent years.
Most travellers start in Tokyo, because long-haul flights commonly arrive at Haneda or Narita and jet lag is easier to absorb in a city where you can wander without a fixed schedule. Starting in Kyoto works well if you are flying into Kansai International, and it means you end the trip in Tokyo close to your departure airport.
Late March to early April brings cherry blossom, and November brings autumn colour — both are beautiful, and both are the most crowded and expensive times to travel. May and early June are mild and far quieter. Summer is hot and humid, and late summer falls within typhoon season. Winter is cold but clear, and it is the cheapest time to go.
Yes. Every day is plotted on an interactive map, which is the point of using a trip planner with a map rather than a written list — you can see at a glance whether a day's stops sit near each other or whether you have accidentally scheduled two hours of trains. In a country where a single station can have 200 exits, that check is worth more than the list itself.
For everyday eating, no — ramen counters, izakayas and department store food halls take walk-ins. Booking matters for high-end sushi, kaiseki dining in Kyoto, and anywhere with a small counter and a reputation. Some of those take reservations only through a hotel concierge or a Japanese phone number, so arrange them before you travel.
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