5 Days in Tokyo and Beyond
Five days carries the 4-day spine , two city days, Kamakura, Nikko, forward and adds Hakone on day 5, the onsen-and-Fuji-views day trip that fills a full day happily and shouldn’t be rushed alongside anything else.
Book these before you go:
- Your Tokyo hotel on Agoda
- A guided Mt Fuji and Hakone day tour , day 5, if you’d rather not juggle the Odakyu train, ropeway and cruise yourself
- A guided Nikko day tour , day 4
| Day | Focus | Distance/time from Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asakusa/Senso-ji, Akihabara, Golden Gai | In Tokyo |
| 2 | Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku | In Tokyo |
| 3 | Kamakura: Great Buddha, temples, Enoshima coast | ~1 hr each way (JR Yokosuka Line) |
| 4 | Nikko: Toshogu Shrine, mountain scenery | ~2 hrs each way (Tobu Limited Express) |
| 5 | Hakone: ropeway, Lake Ashi cruise, Fuji views | 1.5-2 hrs each way (Odakyu Romancecar) |
Day 1: Old Tokyo
Base yourself in Asakusa or Shinjuku. Start at Senso-ji before the crowds arrive, then walk Nakamise street for breakfast snacks. Akihabara in the afternoon for electronics and anime shopping. Ramen counter with a queue outside for dinner, that queue is a better signal than any review site. Golden Gai in Shinjuku at night is the tiny-bar crawl worth doing once.
Day 2: Modern Tokyo
Meiji Shrine first, through Harajuku, ideally before 9am. Takeshita Street for the fashion chaos, Omotesando next door for the calmer version. Cross Shibuya Scramble at least once. Skip the Shibuya Sky queue and go instead to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building’s twin observatories , free, comparable views, plus a free nightly projection show.
Day 3: Kamakura
JR Yokosuka Line direct from Tokyo Station, about 57 minutes each way for roughly ¥940 one way, no pass needed. The Great Buddha at Kotoku-in, a temple walk, and the Enoden line out to Enoshima if you have energy left.
Day 4: Nikko
Tobu Limited Express from Asakusa, about two hours each way. Toshogu Shrine alone earns three to four hours if you go inside the inner sanctuary and treasure museum, so this is a full day. A basic return runs around ¥2,800, or the Nikko Pass World Heritage Area for about ¥3,000 covers the local bus too.
Day 5: Hakone
Odakyu Romancecar from Shinjuku, 90 minutes to two hours. Buy the Hakone Free Pass , about ¥7,100 for two days, and it covers the round-trip train, the mountain railway, the ropeway and the Lake Ashi pirate-ship cruise in one ticket. Owakudani and the lake give you a shot at Mt Fuji if the weather cooperates, no guarantees. This is the day trip that eats a full day happily, don’t try to squeeze anything else into it. A guided tour covers the same ground without the timetable planning.
Should you do Hakone and Kamakura on the same day if you’re short on time?
No. Hakone alone fills a full day with the ropeway, the lake cruise and the Fuji views if the weather cooperates. Rushing both into one day means half-seeing each; spread across separate days, as this itinerary does, both actually deliver.
Does the JR Pass cover any of this 5-day itinerary?
Only the Kamakura leg. Hakone runs on the private Odakyu line and Nikko’s fastest route runs on the private Tobu line, neither covered by a JR Pass. Paying per trip beats a ¥50,000-plus pass that can’t ride two-thirds of this itinerary anyway.
The weak yen, sitting near ¥160 to the dollar through 2026, means a trip like this costs foreign visitors meaningfully less than it did a few years ago. Cash still matters at smaller shops and shrine stalls in Kamakura, Nikko and Hakone even though your IC card covers every train.