As folks are gearing up for spring 2024 in Japan, I figured it would be fun to give back to the community by sharing the experience my siblings and I had last year with you all in the form of a cleaned-up and edited copy of my travel diary.
[It’s a big one](https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vR3ju07tD1MaApVF_ogXdOvJ6bqwrDVQOWBkW9dK4T_JajTpOCoaAbeLBLXKvhlW0M4ov7VOxGhqkif/pub), so if you’re looking for information about something specific you should be able to use the table of contents at the start to jump around. I’ve included a lot of pictures of what we saw and did.
For those who’d prefer something more concise, here’s the TL;DR version…
**Who:** Three adult siblings from the US on our first time visit to Japan.
**When:** We left March 23rd, 2023, and returned April 8th, 2023.
**What we did:** My sister and I started our trip in Kyoto, where we explored the temples, saw cherry blossoms, and visited the deer in Nara. We were joined by my brother in time for a hike up Fushimi Inari, and then we traveled to Hakone where we stayed at a nice ryokan and did the Hakone Round Course. We then headed to Tokyo and toured Akihabara, saw the Ghibli Museum and Teamlab Planets, and hiked Mt. Takao. My brother returned to the US while my sister and I continued on to Nikko to see the Toshogu Shrine and Kegon Falls.
**Highlights:**
* Kyoto – The day we spent in the Arashiyama area of Kyoto was excellent – loved the monkey park, the gardens at Tenryuuji, and touring the Katsura Villas. The morning walk from the Silver Pavilion down the Philosopher’s Path on a sunny spring day with the cherry blossoms in full bloom was approximately perfect. Too many amazing temples to name. Also, great day trips to Himeji and Nara.
* Hakone – Stopping for amazake and tea at the last remaining teahouse along the Tokaido was great, and it was fun doing our first onsen experience.
* Tokyo – The Ghibli Museum was a delight, and seeing Mt. Fuji from the top of Mt. Takao while eating ice cream was great. Getting a tour of Akihabara’s gaming stores from a local friend was super fun, and unsurprisingly we had our best meals here, including hands down the best pancakes at Bill’s.
* Nikko – The Kegon falls were stunning, even as someone who has seen a fair number of waterfalls in my time.
* Misc – Riding the Shinkansen was very fun. I learned that I love tantan ramen and all things yuzu. We nailed the timing on the cherry blossoms generally.
**Lowlights / things to avoid:**
* Unfortunately, landing and going through the COVID quarantine / customs in Narita was lengthy and painful. Hopefully you will not experience the same this year (no more COVID checks!) – but if you land and find yourself in a long line, and you see the opportunity to use a restroom… _take it_!
* Finding medicine to help with insomnia was a challenge and some stuff (like melatonin gummies), though legal, just weren’t readily available.
* The Ghibli Museum was a delight. Getting advance _tickets_ for the Ghibli Museum was not. If you are visiting in March, be ready to grab tickets online in February. Again, hopefully this is something that has smoothed out some since we did it.
* I’m not genuinely sure I would have done anything differently on our first trip here, but we pushed ourselves pretty hard, regularly clocking 25K+ steps as we tried to hit all the spots we wanted to visit. I’d like to take it a bit more relaxed next time.
Overall, the trip was one of the best experiences I’ve had, period. I can’t wait to go back.
by hyouko