14 days · Nelson → Tokyo → Nagano → Nagoya → Kyoto → Osaka → Hokkaidō → Tokyo
⚠️ Golden Week (Apr 29 – May 6) is Japan's busiest holiday: hotel prices double and trains sell out. Plan to arrive May 6 or later. Also note: Mt Fuji climbing season is July–early Sept — in May we can view it, not climb it (parked below).
🎯 Priorities scorecard
How each of your nine priorities is covered by this draft.
✓ 1. Culture — every stop, esp. Tokyo shitamachi, Kyoto, onsen towns
✓ 2. Theme parks — DisneySea, Ghibli Park, USJ + Nintendo World
✓ 3. Ghibli — Museum, Ghibli Park, Yakushima-style forest at Ghibli Park
Slow start and slow finish, as requested. Tap a day's header to collapse it.
💴 Budget tracker
All figures NZD for two people, excluding international flights. Edit any number — it saves automatically on this device. Tick ✓ when booked & paid. Prefer a spreadsheet? ⬇ Download the budget as .xlsx (keep it next to this file when hosting).
$0 of NZ$6,000–10,000 target
$0$6k ✅ floor$10k 🚨 ceiling
📋 Booking checklist
Ordered by deadline. The dated ones are strict — Japan sells out.
🅿️ Parked ideas (the cut list)
Dropped for now per your call, easy to swap back in:
Hiroshima Peace Museum — cleanest add: +1 night after Osaka (~NZ$260 extra, cuts a Kyoto or Tokyo day). Pairs with Ōkunoshima.
Ōkunoshima (rabbit island) 🐇 — 3 hrs from Hiroshima return; only makes sense if Hiroshima goes back in.
Aoshima / Tashirojima (cat islands) 🐈 — far off this route; save for trip #2.
Fuji up close — day trip to Kawaguchiko from Tokyo (~NZ$90 for two) if weather forecast is clear; otherwise watch for it on the right side of the plane and from Day 8's train.