12-day Japan travel itinerary: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka by train

Twelve days is the sweet spot for a first trip to Japan: five days in Tokyo with a seaside day trip, four in Kyoto with Nara, and three in Osaka before flying home from Kansai. Everything moves by train — one Shinkansen, local lines and a Suica card on your phone — so there is no car to rent and no driving on the left to worry about.

This itinerary is also a complete RoadBook: a single open-format file with the flights, the three stays, the Shinkansen seats, timed activities and their tickets, booking references, meal options, rain alternatives and a budget in yen. Open it in the player on your phone and it becomes a travel companion that works offline; give it to your AI assistant and ask for changes (“add two days in Hakone”, “make it kid-friendly”).

Route at a glance

Day by day

1. Day 1 · Fri 2 Apr — Paris → Tokyo (overnight flight). Afternoon departure from Paris-Charles de Gaulle, arrival in Tokyo the next morning. Sleep on the plane: the first Tokyo day starts at 09:00 local time.
   Tip: Check in online 30 h before departure; the boarding passes are in the Tickets tab. Terminal 2E, gate shown 2 h before.
2. Day 2 · Sat 3 Apr — Arrival · Shinjuku. Land at Haneda, airport train to Shinjuku, drop the bags and ease into Tokyo with a gentle first afternoon. Shinjuku Gyoen gardens (cherry blossoms)
   Tip: At the airport: add a Suica card to your phone wallet (works on every train, bus and convenience store in the country) and withdraw yen at a 7-Eleven ATM.
3. Day 3 · Sun 4 Apr — Tokyo east · Tsukiji, teamLab, Asakusa. The classic east side: market breakfast, the digital art museum (timed tickets), then old Tokyo in Asakusa. teamLab Planets TOKYO · Senso-ji and Nakamise street
   Tip: teamLab Planets is barefoot and partly in water: wear shorts or roll-up trousers, lockers are provided.
4. Day 4 · Mon 5 Apr — Tokyo west · Meiji, Harajuku, Shibuya. Forest shrine in the morning, Harajuku side streets, then Shibuya from above at sunset. Meiji Jingu shrine · Shibuya Sky at sunset
   Tip: Shibuya Sky is a timed slot (18:20): be at the 14th-floor entrance 15 minutes early with the QR tickets.
5. Day 5 · Tue 6 Apr — Day trip · Kamakura. One hour south by train: the Great Buddha, a hillside temple over the bay and a seaside tram. The Great Buddha (Kotoku-in) · Hase-dera temple and its sea view
   Tip: Buy the Enoden one-day pass (¥ 800) at Kamakura station for the little seaside tram.
6. Day 6 · Wed 7 Apr — Tokyo → Kyoto by Shinkansen. Bullet train along Mount Fuji, then a townhouse in Kyoto and a first evening in Gion. Shinkansen Nozomi · Tokyo → Kyoto · Gion and Hanamikoji street · Kaiseki dinner · Gion Example
   Tip: Seats are reserved on the Fuji side (E, right-hand side heading west). Buy an ekiben lunch box at Tokyo station before boarding.
7. Day 7 · Thu 8 Apr — Kyoto · Fushimi Inari, Kiyomizu, tea ceremony. The thousand torii at dawn, market lunch, the wooden stage of Kiyomizu and a tea ceremony in a townhouse. Fushimi Inari Taisha · the torii path · Kiyomizu-dera · Tea ceremony · Camellia (Ninenzaka)
   Tip: Fushimi Inari is open 24 h: the 07:00 start beats the crowds and the heat. The full loop to the summit takes 2 hours.
8. Day 8 · Fri 9 Apr — Kyoto · Arashiyama and the Golden Pavilion. West Kyoto: the bamboo grove early, a Zen garden, then the Golden Pavilion and the rock garden of Ryoan-ji. Arashiyama bamboo grove · Tenryu-ji temple and garden · Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion
   Tip: Bus 205/59 get crowded: take the JR Sagano line to Saga-Arashiyama (15 min from Kyoto station), and a taxi between Kinkaku-ji and Ryoan-ji (¥ 1 000).
9. Day 9 · Sat 10 Apr — Day trip · Nara. Forty-five minutes away: the Great Buddha hall, the deer park and the lantern-lined paths of Kasuga Taisha. Nara park and Todai-ji · Kasuga Taisha lantern paths
   Tip: Deer crackers (shika senbei) cost ¥ 200 — bow to the deer, they bow back. Keep paper maps in your bag, they eat them.
10. Day 10 · Sun 11 Apr — Kyoto → Osaka · Dotonbori. Thirty minutes by train to Osaka, the city that eats: Dotonbori's neon canal and Kuromon market. Dotonbori and Shinsaibashi
    Tip: Keep the Shinkansen habit: JR Special Rapid from Kyoto to Osaka station (29 min, ¥ 580, no reservation), then Midosuji subway line to Namba.
11. Day 11 · Mon 12 Apr — Osaka · castle, sky garden, Shinsekai. Osaka Castle under the cherry trees, the Umeda Sky Building floating garden, and a retro evening in Shinsekai. Osaka Castle park and keep · Umeda Sky Building · Floating Garden
    Tip: Last evening: settle the Suica balance (refund at any JR West ticket office) or keep the card for next time.
12. Day 12 · Tue 13 Apr — Osaka → Paris. Airport express to Kansai International, morning flight home, landing in Paris the same afternoon.
    Tip: Tax-free purchases: keep the receipts stapled in your passport; customs may ask at the airport.

Bookings, tickets and budget

The file carries 15 bookings — 11 confirmed, 3 still to book — and 11 scannable tickets (boarding passes in PDF417, Shinkansen and museum QR codes, Aztec airport-express seats, a Code 128 voucher). Prices in yen add up to about ¥333 660 for two, plus the flights in euros; estimated amounts are marked as such. All references and numbers are fictitious (“EXAMPLE-…”).

Getting around

A Suica card added to the phone wallet pays for every train, metro and bus. The Tokyo → Kyoto leg is a reserved-seat Nozomi Shinkansen (2 h 15, Mount Fuji on the right); Kyoto → Osaka is a 30-minute JR Special Rapid; day trips use JR and Kintetsu lines. Luggage can be forwarded hotel to hotel (takkyubin) so you travel light through Kyoto's lanes.

Use this itinerary

• Open as RoadBook — the button above loads it into the player on this device (no account; nothing uploaded). Edit steps, tick checklists, scan the tickets offline.
• Download the example — japan-12-days.roadbook.json, a valid RoadBook 1.2 file you can inspect or import elsewhere.
• Customize with AI — paste the file to ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini with the RoadBook prompt and ask for your dates, travelers and pace; validate; reopen.