Manga and pop-culture Japan

From Akihabara to the Ghibli Museum: the Japan you already knew through its stories.

Japanfrom 9 days14 stops

Free, no account needed. You'll still be able to change dates, travellers and the rest.

Where it goes

Akihabara
The electronics and manga district: whole buildings of floor-by-floor shops, arcades, and second-hand stores where the out-of-print material lives.
Museo Ghibli (Mitaka)
Tickets are named, dated, sell out weeks ahead and are never sold at the door. Buy them before you finalise the trip.
Nakano Broadway
A 1960s shopping arcade turned into the country's biggest collectors' market. Less touristed than Akihabara, with better vintage stock.
Otome Road (Ikebukuro)
Akihabara's counterpart aimed at a female audience, with dōjinshi shops and themed cafés.
Shibuya y Harajuku
The crossing and Takeshita street: where Japanese pop culture is out on the street rather than inside a shop.
Estatua de Gundam en Odaiba
A life-size Gundam that moves at set times. It stands next to the DiverCity mall.

Universal Studios Japan y Super Nintendo World
Super Nintendo World can require its own timed pass on top of park admission, even when you already hold a general ticket.
Den Den Town (Nipponbashi)
Osaka's Akihabara: the same mix of electronics, manga and figures, with considerably fewer people.
Dotonbori y el cartel de Glico
The sign of the runner with his arms up, lit since 1935. It is the image that stands for Osaka in any anime set here.
Pokémon Center Osaka
Inside Umeda station. It sells exclusives you will not find in the Tokyo stores.

Museo Internacional del Manga de Kioto
A converted school holding 50,000 volumes you can pull off the shelf and read sitting on the floor or out on the lawn.
Toei Kyoto Studio Park (Uzumasa)
A working period film set that doubles as a theme park. A good share of Japan's samurai series have been shot here.
Fushimi Inari
The ten thousand red torii gates. It appears in so many series and films that you recognise it before you have been. Go up early: by mid-morning the first stretch is packed.
Barrio de Gion al anochecer
The wooden streets that illustrate any story set in traditional Kyoto. Photographing maiko on the private lanes is forbidden.

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What does Japan cost, and when should you go?

We pick this route's stops by hand, not an AI. What TripPlan works out afterwards —days, transfers and budget— comes from its own engine.