A Weekend Day Trip around Shinjuku

In order to make the most of the day, I would leave around 10 A.M. I would then head in the direction of the Hanazono Shrine, stopping to eat at a small place nearby such as "Hanazono Manju" for small sweet dumplings and tea.

Upon finishing breakfast, I would then visit the shrine, walking around and enjoying the area for anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour before continuing to my next destination.

After leaving around 11:30, I would walk to the Samurai Museum, which is only about 4 minutes away from Hanazono Shrine by foot. Here I would likely spend approximately an hour touring the museum.

After touring the museum, I would likely be hungry, and search for nearby places to eat. There are numerous places to which I could go, such as a nearby ramen store.

After leaving the ramen store around 1:30, I would likely wish to spend some time walking around the city for sightseeing, and possibly going to a garden area. Depending on which direction I went for lunch, I could visit Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, or go to Shinjuku Central Park to spend time relaxing.

Having spent sufficient time relaxing, I would leave either park around 4:00 and continue window shopping. Eventually I would make my way to a small shopping district, around which time I would contact the friend I am staying with to come meet me for dinner at a nice, low-key restaurant.

Having spent a large part of the day walking around the town for sightseeing, my friend and I would likely spend some time wandering to an izakaya, possibly meeting other friends from Waseda University there, at which we would stay together for some time before heading back to our apartment for the night.

Day Trip to Mt. Fuji

A Trip to Mt. Fuji

I've always loved seeing how beautiful Mt. Fuji was in photos on the internet, posters, or even as it's depicted in anime. One of the things I would love to do when I visit Japan this summer would be to see Mt. Fuji in person. Seeing as it's not terribly far from Tokyo, the city where I will be staying, I thought it would be a good idea to take a day trip to see the mountain firsthand. After a little searching on the web, I found an interesting travel site that offers day trips with different packages to see Mt. Fuji.

http://www.viator.com/tours/Tokyo/Mt-Fuji-Lake-Ashi-and-Bullet-Train-Day-Trip-from-Tokyo/d334-2142TYO_F800_F820

The trip described also includes a cruise on Lake Ashi, a traditional Japanese lunch in some package options, and pickup right from your hotel. Departure time would be between 7:40 and 8:20 am.

The trip duration totals around 11 hours, so it leaves plenty of time to not only enjoy the guided tour, but even spend some time shopping and sightseeing. All of this is for the price of about $150-70 USD, not including gratuity or money for shopping. 

One Day In Kyoto, also with a friend ;)

There's many reason why I picked Kyoto as a city to plan a day for staying, I love the all different temple located there, also since one of my best friend live in Kyoto right now, I decied to Plan one day in Kyoto(and with her), and in the same time to explore amazing places in Kyoto, Here is the plan, Since i kind want to going to Japan this summer, I plan arriving there around 6/26 and the second day 6/27 I will be in Kyoto visting my friend

8:00 Arriving Kyoto Century Hotel (京都センチュリーホテル)

Here is the price showing in Booking.com for 6/27, and the price looks really high, but my friend's family work in some agency actually it only cost her $100 for price to order this room * adiing we are paying Half and half so I only need to pay $50(5,580円)

And picture below is the detial of the room

After check-in our room and I can put down my luggage, it might takes me 30 mins, and the next stop I plan to go is a Rental Kimono Okamoto Main Shop (岡本織物店)

*for 外国人, since we are 中国人, Here is the google map detial from the hotel we are staying and how to get to the Kimono dressing shop by バス

So around 9:00 we will arrive the Kimono dressing shop, which they just open, and the outside looking for this shop is like this: 

Before going to Japan, my friend and i should book a Kimono dressing + Hair styling plan, and we picked the Full Scale Attire Plan(which cost 5,000円*tax out)

I google about the normal time for dressing up for Kimono, it's about 40-50 mins, and outside the Kimono dressing shop it's the Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺)*300円

Let's watch a video about Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺)

We plan about 2-3 hours stay in the Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺), and near noon time 12:00pm, we will walk Ichien-zaka and Ninen-zaka (一念坂・二寧坂) 

 There are all kinds of shops during this street (Shop and Resterants list clikc here), the goal of wearing Kimono is taking picture like this(picture in the left) and we want to try wearing the Kimono and having lunch, so we picked up the Ninen-zaka Nakamura, the luch combo cost 1,650円, inside the picture it looks pretty nice ;) It might tooks 45mins - 1 hours (around 1:00PM) for our lunch, and another 1-2 hours (around 3:00PM) for the street shopping ;)

(picture taken at Ninen-zaka Nakamura)

The next stop we are going is the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (京都市美術館), this is my friend favourite place in Kyoto

And I checked the バス, it takes about 18 mins, so we can get there before 3:30PM and stay there until 5:00PM(They close at 5:00pm)

 

I also check the time schedule during the time I visited Kyoto, here is the list: (and most of it I need to pay because it shows 有料),but I don't think there is any events going on during 6/27 so I might need to talk to my friend and reschedule a time :(

After visting Muesum, we plan to go to とうふ処 豆雅傳 for dinner, which Kyoto is famous of Tofu, so we find this resterant is really nice for dinner, I will also book it before i go to Kyoto

(I find one pic of the outside bulding looks like during the night)

And here is the Menu list: 

http://www.sanjo-togaden.com/m-set.html

It looks very nice from a Chinese traveler post on a travel website ;) and it might cost about 1,500~3,000円/per person, I plan dinner for around 1-2 hours, so it might ends around 7:00PM 

After the dinner, we will go to Kyoto Takashimaya(京都タカシマヤ), which no matter by bus(train)/or walking it only takes about 5-10 mins from 豆雅傳,

and they also have Hello Kitty coupons for 外国人, we plan stay there for another 1 hours for shopping/window shopping ;) and we will leave around 8:00PM, because that's the closing time for the store and go back to our hotel, probaly another 25-30 mins

And after going back to the Hotel, we will return the Kimono to the Hotel, they will sent back the Kimono we book to the Kimono dressing shop in the second day(1,000円)

And around 9:00PM we will watch Japanese TV shows in our room, and take a bath then go to sleep 

「じゃ、おやすみ！」

From Akita to Tokyo

Friday night: ~7:30PM

From AIU I would take a bus to JR Wada Station. Then, from the JR Wada Station I would take a train to Akita Station.

~8:15PM

At Akita Station I would take a night bus to Tokyo. I would buy a Japan Bus Pass (10,000 yen) to save money for when I eventually return.

Saturday morning: ~8AM

I would arrive at the South Exit of Shinjuku Station. Takashimaya Times Square is close to the station, but since it opens at around 10 I would probably just walk around the area get some breakfast at a close by convenience store while I’m at it.

~10AM

There are many floors to Takashimaya Times Square, so I would probably just walk around for a bit and explore the shops. I read that there are some good places for desserts and things like that too.

~11:30AM

Afterwards, I would walk over to the Samurai Museum that’s only about 1km away.

~11:45AM

I would take a tour of the museum for about an hour, which costs about 1800 yen.

~1PM

I would grab some food from a local shop and then walk over to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden to eat.

~2PM

Next I would take a bus back to Shinjuku Station, and then from there take the JR Chou Line to Mitaka Station. From the station I would walk to the Studio Ghibli Museum (1000 yen, in advance) for my scheduled time at 3:30PM.

~5:30PM

After spending roughly 2 hours at the museum, I would head back to Mitaka Station and then board the Chuo-Sobu Line to Akihabara Station.

~7PM

In Akihabara, I would first find a place to grab dinner and then check out some of the big electronic stores, like Yodobashi Akiba.

~8:30PM

By this point I would probably be pretty tired, so I might just end the night browsing shops with anime merchandise and then maybe head to a local arcade in the area for a bit.

~10PM

More than likely, in order to save some money, I would find a cheaper hotel a bit close to the station to spend the night, like Dormy Inn Akihabara. 

A Day in Akita, Akita Prefecture, Japan

1. 11:00 p.m.-9:00 a.m. I will be staying at the ダイワロイネットホテル秋田 which costs $45 a night (¥‎5033.48). This hotel offers large, clean rooms, is close to a shopping area, and has good reviews for the staff friendliness and the quality of services. The hotel is also located near the center of the city so it offers a decent point for exploring the rest of the city. I will probably be sleeping during this time. 

2. 9:50-10:40 a.m. I will be preparing myself for my town outing and eating breakfast.

3. 11:00-12:00 p.m. I will be leaving the hotel for the Akita Station where I will board the Ou Line, Resort Shirakami 5 快速 Aomori, which will take about 16 minutes by foot. Then after boarding the train and riding it non-stop for about 11 minutes, I will get off at Oiwake Station from which, I will depart for the Akita Prefecture Museum. After walking for around 19 minutes, I will arrive at the museum. The whole trip will cost around $6.84 (¥760).

4.      12:10-2:30 p.m. The reason I chose going to the Akita Prefecture Museum as my first activity is because I would like to see what kind of history Akita Prefecture has had, this museum contains an interesting showcase of archaeological artifacts, crafts, biological and geological samples pertaining to the regions history and folklore.

5.      2:40-3:30 p.m. I will return to the hotel and then head toward Takashimizu Park to look at the Akita Castle. Even though it will take around an hour if I go by foot, there are a lot of sites that I can visit in between.

6.      3:40-4:50 p.m. I will eat lunch at Izakaya Restaurant. Since I haven’t really eaten a great variety of Japanese dishes, I think I will order a series of noodle-based dishes like soba and ramen. Given that I like sushi, if it is offered then I will also order some as well. I’ll have a spending budget of about $50 (¥5551.75).

7.      5:00-6:00 p.m. During the course of my trip, I will stop at the Hokkeji and Saihoji temples. I’ve always been fascinated by the layout out of Japanese Buddhist temples and the cultural practices revolving around temple/shrine visits.

8.      6:30-7:20 p.m. I will visit a shopping mall that is along the way. I just want to survey the area and get a feel of the city so that I can continue to plan different expeditions.

9.      7:30-8:00 p.m. Having satisfied some of my curiosity, I will make one final detour and stop at the Karamatsu Shrine that is not too far away from the park. This time I would like to note the differences in structure between a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple as well as see how practices are carried out differently/similarly.

10.  8:20-8:50 p.m. I will arrive at the park. Once I am there, I will thoroughly explore the grounds of Akita Castle before heading back to the hotel via the route I took to get to the park.

11.  8:50-9:40 p.m. Once I get back to the hotel, I will eat a late dinner and then take a bath.

12.  10:00-11:00 p.m. I will read a book and then study Japanese for a while. During this time, I also plan to create an itinerary for the following day. I would still like to visit the Akita Omoriyama Zoo, Jizouden Ruins, Kubota Castle, Akita International University, Akita Senshuu Museum of Art, and the Akita Museum of Art.

11:00 p.m.-9:00 a.m. I will be sleeping once again. Over all, I will most likely have spent under $245 (¥27181.16).

Amanda Palladino

Kyoto Trip Itinerary

 

8:15am – I wake up, get ready, and eat an onigiri I purchased the previous day.

9:00am- I take the bus to the Kyoto Zoo. (230 yen)

9:30am- I arrive at Kyoto Zoo and buy my ticket. (ticket 600 yen)

9:40am- I head to see the peacocks.

9:50am- I head to see the tigers, lions, jaguars, and tsushima leopard cat.

10:15am- I head to the giraffes, zebras, and fennae foxes.

10:40am- I enjoy the ride and the view on the ferris wheel located in the middle of the park.

11:00am- I get a snack from the café. I order a bentou box to go and enjoy eating it outside, with birds surrounding and staring at me for a bite.

11:30am- I head to see the elephants, deer, and hawk eagles.

12:20pm- I head to the gift shop and purchase souvenirs.

1:00pm- I leave zoo and take train to Nishiki Food Market. (230 yen)

1:30pm- I arrive at Nishiki Food Market.

1:35pm- I explore the market place and search for the location where I will be taking a tour, cooking, and tasting various things.

2:00pm- I find and take the Kyoto Cooking Class, Sake Tasting and Nishiki Food Market Walking Tour. ($117.27) (12,832.97 yen)

5:00pm- I finish the tour, cooking class, and sake tasting and leave the Nishiki Food Market, taking the bus next to JR Isetan Kyoto. (230 yen)

5:25pm- I arrive at JR Isetan Kyoto.

  

5:30pm- I explore the mall.

                While exploring I enter many stores and buy souvenirs.

6:30pm- I eat dinner at   , ordering their famous udon-suki.

7:30pm- I leave for Kurama Onsen Hot Spring by bus. (630 yen)

9:00pm- I arrive at Kurama Onsen Hot Spring. (17,150 yen)

9:15pm- I take bath in the inside onsen, later transferring to the one outside.  

10:00pm- I go back to my room, where I relax and enjoy looking at the 1,000 pictures I ended up taking that day.

  

12:30am- I go to bed.

9:00am- I wake up and enjoy a bowl of rice and broiled fish.

10:00am- I leave for Doushisha University, taking the bus once more. (600 yen)

11:20am- I arrive back at Doushisha University.  

Approximate Total Cost of Trip (not including souvenirs, meals):  32,502.97 yen ($297.02)