Japan takes first-time visitors by surprise — not because it's difficult, but because it's so good that two weeks starts to feel short by Day 3. The food alone warrants a return trip. Two weeks is the sweet spot: enough time to cover Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka at a pace that lets you linger, miss a train on purpose, and still feel like you've scratched the surface.
This 2-week Japan itinerary is built around realistic transit times, the JR Pass break-even math, and the neighborhoods actually worth your evening hours.
Before You Land: The JR Pass Decision
The JR Pass covers Shinkansen (bullet train) travel between most major cities. The 14-day pass costs ¥50,000 (~$330 USD). Whether it's worth it depends on your exact route:
| Route | Single Fare | Times You'd Travel |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo → Kyoto (Shinkansen) | ¥13,850 | 1–2x |
| Kyoto → Osaka | ¥560–¥3,340 | 2–3x |
| Tokyo → Hakone | ¥2,010 (covered) | 1x |
| Osaka → Hiroshima | ¥9,440 | 1x |
| Total without pass | ~¥46,000–¥58,000 | — |
If you're doing Tokyo → Hakone → Kyoto → Osaka → Hiroshima, the 14-day pass roughly breaks even. Buy it before you arrive in Japan (it's only available overseas) at JRPass.com or via Japan Airlines partner sites (~¥50,000).
IC Card (Suica or Pasmo): Load ¥3,000–5,000 on arrival at any JR machine. Use it for metro, buses, and convenience store purchases. Essential.
Days 1–4: Tokyo
Land at Narita (NRT) or Haneda (HND). Haneda is 35 minutes to Shinagawa by monorail (¥490); Narita is 60–75 minutes by Narita Express (¥3,070, JR Pass eligible). Stay in Shinjuku or Asakusa — both are excellent bases with strong metro access.
Day 1: Recover, Wander, Eat
Don't plan Day 1 too heavily. Jet lag from long-haul flights hits hard. Walk to a nearby konbini (FamilyMart, Lawson, 7-Eleven) — Japanese convenience stores serve legitimately excellent food. A morning nikuman (steamed pork bun, ¥130) and a canned Suntory coffee is the correct arrival ritual.
Afternoon: explore your neighborhood. Shinjuku's Golden Gai is 200 tiny bars packed into six alleyways; it opens around 6:00 PM. Asakusa's Nakamise-dori shopping street leads to Senso-ji temple — free entry, best in early morning or evening when tour groups thin out.
Day 2: Shibuya & Harajuku
Shibuya Crossing at 9:00 AM on a weekday: quieter than noon but still surreal. The Shibuya Sky observation deck (¥2,000, book online) gives the best aerial view of the crossing.
Walk or take the Yamanote Line one stop to Harajuku for Takeshita Street (youth fashion, crepes, chaos) and Meiji Jingu shrine (free, peaceful forest walk). Lunch at Gyukatsu Motomura (Harajuku branch, ¥1,500–2,000): beef cutlet cooked on personal stone grills at the table — one of Tokyo's best value meals.
Evening: Shimokitazawa — Tokyo's indie music and vintage clothing neighborhood. Small venues, excellent ramen at Afuri (¥1,300), record shops open until midnight.
Day 3: Akihabara, Ueno, Yanaka
Akihabara for electronics, anime goods, and gaming arcades. Budget 2–3 hours. Ueno Park contains six museums and a zoo — the Tokyo National Museum (¥1,000) is the best single museum in Japan. Yanaka is a preserved Edo-period neighborhood that survived both the 1923 earthquake and WWII bombing: wooden temples, a cemetery used as a park, and a shopping street (Yanaka Ginza) where cats outnumber tourists.
Day 4: Tsukiji, TeamLab, Odaiba
Tsukiji Outer Market opens at 4:00 AM; arrive by 7:00 AM for fresh tuna sashimi breakfast on a plastic stool outside Sushi Dai (¥3,500, 45-min queue at 7:00 AM — worth it). Afternoon: teamLab Borderless in Odaiba (book online, ¥3,200) — immersive digital art that photos don't capture. Ride the Yurikamome monorail back for views of Tokyo Bay.
Day 5: Hakone
Take the Romancecar from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto (¥2,470 reserved seat, 85 minutes, partially JR Pass eligible). Hakone sits at the base of Mt. Fuji and is Japan's onsen capital.
Check into a ryokan (traditional inn with onsen baths and multi-course kaiseki dinner). Options:
- Fujiya Hotel (historic, from ¥20,000/night with meals) — opened in 1878, hosted Charlie Chaplin and John Lennon
- Yama no Chaya (¥12,000–15,000/night) — smaller, better value
- Budget option: Tenzan Tohji-kyo day-use onsen (¥1,350) if you're not staying overnight
The Hakone Open Air Museum (¥1,800) sits against a mountain backdrop — outdoor sculpture garden with a Picasso pavilion and a foot-bath path you can walk in socks. The Hakone Ropeway (¥1,800 round trip) crosses Owakudani volcanic valley; on clear days Mt. Fuji dominates the horizon.
Days 6–9: Kyoto
Shinkansen from Odawara to Kyoto: 1h 40min (¥8,530, JR Pass eligible). Stay in Gion (walking distance to most temples) or Kyoto Station area (good metro/bus access).
Day 6: Eastern Kyoto — Higashiyama
Fushimi Inari Taisha: 10,000 torii gates on a mountain trail behind the main shrine. Entry is free. Go at 6:00 AM — the lower gates are photographed, but the upper trails are nearly empty and the dawn light through vermillion gates is extraordinary. The full hike takes 2–3 hours.
Afternoon: Kiyomizudera temple (¥400) and the Higashiyama preserved district — stone-paved streets, matcha shops, craft galleries. Nishiki Market (the "Kyoto Kitchen") for late afternoon snacking: skewered octopus, pickled plum rice balls, roasted sweet potato.
Day 7: Northwest Kyoto — Arashiyama
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove: reach it by 7:00 AM before tour buses arrive. The grove itself is a 5-minute walk but the effect — towering bamboo on both sides of a narrow path — is immediate.
Tenryu-ji temple (¥500) has a garden dating to 1339 built around a central pond and the Arashiyama mountains as "borrowed scenery." Monkey Park Iwatayama (¥550): 100 wild Japanese macaques at 160m elevation with Kyoto views. The monkeys are fed from inside a wire enclosure so humans are behind bars — the monkeys roam free.
Jizo-in (¥500) is 10 minutes south: a small bamboo temple almost no one visits, arguably more atmospheric than the famous grove.
Day 8: Central & Northern Kyoto
Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion, ¥500): crowded but genuinely gold-leafed, built 1397. Go at opening (9:00 AM) before crowds build. Ryoan-ji (¥600) next door has Japan's most famous rock garden — 15 stones arranged on raked gravel, designed so you can never see all 15 from any single viewpoint.
Afternoon: Philosopher's Path — a 2km canal walk through residential Kyoto connecting Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion) to Nanzen-ji. Cherry blossoms in April, crimson maple in November. Nanzen-ji is free to walk through; the brick aqueduct running through it looks incongruous and is genuinely surprising.
Evening: Gion district at dusk. Geishas (correctly: geiko and maiko) do still walk these streets between 5:30–7:00 PM heading to engagements. Don't photograph them directly or block their path — the neighborhood has issued formal rules about this.
Day 9: Nara Day Trip (1 hour from Kyoto)
Nara is 50 minutes from Kyoto by Kintetsu Limited Express (¥720) or JR Nara Line (¥720, JR Pass eligible). Nara Park has 1,300 semi-wild sika deer that will bow for crackers (shika senbei, ¥200/pack from vendors) and headbutt you affectionately when you're out. Todai-ji (¥600) contains the world's largest bronze Buddha (15 meters tall, cast 752 AD). Kasuga Taisha shrine with its 3,000 stone lanterns is a 20-minute walk through the park.
Return to Kyoto or continue directly to Osaka (Nara → Osaka takes 45 minutes via Kintetsu).
Days 10–12: Osaka
Shinkansen from Kyoto to Osaka: 14 minutes (¥3,340, or take the JR local for ¥560). Stay in Namba (best nightlife access) or Umeda (best department store access, not a joke).
Osaka's reputation: Osakans eat more than anyone in Japan and are proud of it. "Kuidaore" (eating until you drop) is the local philosophy.
Day 10: Osaka Eats Tour
Dotonbori canal district for takoyaki (octopus balls, ¥700 for 8 pieces from Aizuya, the original since 1933), kushikatsu (breaded skewers, never double-dip the sauce), and okonomiyaki. Kuromon Ichiba Market for breakfast — tuna, oysters, wagyu on skewers from 9:00 AM.
Osaka Castle (¥600 entry): rebuilt in 1931 but surrounded by the original moat and grounds from 1597. The interior museum is mediocre; the grounds and views from the keep are worth the ticket.
Day 11: Osaka Neighborhoods
Shinsekai is Osaka's retro-futurist district from the 1912 World's Fair — faded neon, kushikatsu restaurants, and old men playing shogi. Tsutenkaku Tower (¥900) is the neighborhood's Eiffel Tower equivalent — kitsch, fun, short queue.
Namba Grand Kagetsu comedy theater (NGB) for live manzai comedy (Japanese stand-up duo format, ¥4,000–6,000). Even without understanding Japanese, the physical comedy is readable. Reserve tickets a week in advance.
Day 12: Hiroshima Day Trip
Shinkansen from Osaka to Hiroshima: 1h 20min (¥11,200, JR Pass eligible).
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (¥200): essential. The museum documents the atomic bombing of August 6, 1945, in careful detail. The Genbaku Dome (A-Bomb Dome) — the one building intentionally preserved as ruins — is a 5-minute walk.
Miyajima Island via JR ferry (30 min, free with JR Pass): the floating torii gate of Itsukushima Shrine is photographed at high tide. Check tide tables before visiting — the effect disappears at low tide when you can walk to the gate. More deer roam the island; they eat maps.
Return to Osaka by evening.
Days 13–14: Slow Tokyo or Departure
Shinkansen back to Tokyo: 2h 30min from Osaka, ¥13,850 (JR Pass eligible).
Use Day 13 for Tokyo neighborhoods you missed: Yanesen (Yanaka extension), Koenji (vintage and record shops), or a full day in Akihabara if you haven't scratched that surface.
Day 14 is departure. Narita trains begin at 5:30 AM from Tokyo Station. For a 1:00 PM flight, leave your hotel by 10:00 AM.
2-Week Japan Budget Breakdown
| Category | Budget | Midrange | Splurge |
|---|---|---|---|
| JR Pass (14-day) | ¥50,000 | ¥50,000 | ¥50,000 |
| Accommodation (13 nights) | ¥65,000 | ¥130,000 | ¥260,000+ |
| Food (all meals) | ¥42,000 | ¥70,000 | ¥130,000+ |
| Activities & entry fees | ¥15,000 | ¥25,000 | ¥40,000+ |
| Local transport (IC card) | ¥8,000 | ¥10,000 | ¥10,000 |
| Total (USD approx.) | ~$1,250 | ~$1,900 | $3,200+ |
Practical Notes
Cash vs. card: Japan is still heavily cash-based. 7-Eleven ATMs accept foreign cards. Carry ¥20,000–30,000 at all times.
Pocket Wi-Fi vs. SIM: Buy a tourist SIM at the airport (Docomo or SoftBank, ¥3,000–5,000 for 15 days). Pocket Wi-Fi is fine if traveling in a group sharing data.
Tipping: Don't. It can cause confusion or embarrassment. The service is exceptional because Japanese hospitality culture demands it, not because tips are expected.
Shoes: You will remove them constantly. Wear slip-ons or shoes without complicated laces. Pack socks without holes — checking into traditional ryokan involves a lot of sock visibility.
Plan It With Faroway
Two weeks in Japan involves 30+ booking decisions: which Shinkansen seats to reserve, which Kyoto temples need timed entry, which nights need restaurant reservations weeks in advance. Faroway is an AI trip planner that builds day-by-day Japan itineraries personalized to your pace, budget, and interests — whether you want temple-heavy mornings, anime deep-dives, or three-star omakase dinners.
Input your travel dates and Faroway maps the whole thing: transit, neighborhoods, booking windows. It's how well-traveled people plan complex trips now.
Japan is easier to visit than its reputation suggests and more rewarding than most places on Earth. Two weeks barely touches it — which is the best possible reason to come back. Start planning at faroway.ai.
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Faroway Team
The Faroway team is passionate about making travel planning effortless with AI. We combine travel expertise with cutting-edge technology to help you explore the world.
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