Thirteen nights looping through Japan — Tokyo bookending both ends, with Hakone, Kyoto, and Osaka in between, and a day trip out to Nara from Osaka. Connected entirely by JR trains and the Shinkansen, with a Suica card covering local transit in every city.
Tokyo and Kyoto both had rich enough material for their own standalone 4-day itineraries — see the links in each stop below. A day trip to Nara happened from Osaka; see that stop for how it fit into the schedule.
| Stop | Dates | Nights |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | Mar 1–4 | 3 |
| Hakone | Mar 4–7 | 3 |
| Kyoto | Mar 7–11 | 4 |
| Osaka | Mar 11–13 | 2 |
| Tokyo (Return) | Mar 13–14 | 1 |
Landed at Haneda, not Narita, and eased in with Ginza omakase, Harajuku, and a lucky cat temple before shipping a bag ahead to Hakone.
Three nights easing into the trip — flying into Haneda (HND) rather than Narita made the ride into the city center noticeably simpler. The days covered Ginza's gluten-free omakase scene, a walk through Harajuku and Shibuya, and a quick trip out to Gōtokuji's lucky cat temple, before shipping a bag ahead to the hotel in Hakone and catching the train out.
Three nights in the mountains — hot springs country, a snow-interrupted loop day, and the most limited stretch for GF food on the whole trip.
Three nights after a short regional train from Tokyo by way of Odawara, with a carry-on already shipped ahead separately — about $14 through a hotel-to-hotel courier service, cheap but it takes 24–48 hours, so a day bag is worth packing for the gap. The first stop off the train was Nukafuku, a fully gluten-free and vegan café near Gora Station, closed for an unannounced snow day — which set the tone for a lot of this stop. Heavy snow pushed the Hakone Loop (the ropeway-and-boat circuit past Lake Ashi and the sulfur vents at Owakudani) back a full day, and Mount Fuji never cleared enough to be worth attempting. The loop finally happened on a clear day — cool, very crowded, and slower than expected. Hakone scored lowest of any stop on this trip for GF friendliness; there's very little in the way of dedicated options, so this was the one stretch where packing food in mattered most.
Full Hakone guide →A cycling tour through Arashiyama, a traditional tea ceremony, and a Kyoto Sanga match filled four full days.
Four nights built around Arashiyama, Fushimi Inari, and a genuinely packed schedule — a cycling tour, a traditional tea ceremony, an afternoon soccer match, and a sake tasting all fit into the stay, plus a soy milk ramen spot found only after the original dinner plan fell through twice.
A revolving sushi flagship, the city's game arcades, and a day trip out to Nara.
Two nights in Osaka after the afternoon train from Kyoto, with a day trip out to Nara built into the middle of the stay — easily done in a single day; see the full Nara guide for what's there. Osaka's own time centered on the flagship Kura Sushi, one of Japan's well-known revolving sushi chains, with allergen information right on the ordering touchscreen, and an evening spent wandering the city's game arcades — a distinctly Osaka thing to do that didn't come up anywhere else on this trip. The last morning went to packing up before an early Nozomi bullet train back to Tokyo, already booked in advance from Kyoto with a window seat reserved for the Mount Fuji view.
Full Osaka guide →Back in Tokyo for one last night — character shops, gifts, and a return trip to the omakase spot from the first week.
One final night bookending the trip, arriving by Nozomi bullet train from Osaka. Tokyo Station's character shops, a last gluten-free strawberry daifuku in Ginza, and a return dinner at the omakase spot from the first week closed out the loop before the flight home.