# Japan trip report (9 days, Nov 3 – Nov 12)
**Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka-Nara-Tokyo**
Hello all! Just wanted to share report from my recent November trip to Japan which was our first trip. It was 2 adults (my wife and I), we live in USA.
**Preparation**: read ton on Reddit – questions, comments, trip reports, etc. This was super useful. Huge thanks to r/JapanTravel. Also, watched bunch on Youtube, it wasn’t that useful, though found couple of good food spots. The way I approached making an itinerary is to identify key areas and landmarks to visit, put all interesting food places on the map but don’t commit to any time / don’t make any reservations and just play it by ear: be flexible when to wake up, where exactly to go, where to eat, etc.
**Tips / suggestions**:
1. If your phone allows, do get Suica on your phone (you need an unlocked iPhone for people from US. UPD: can’t find any confirmation of US locked iPhones support or don’t support Suica on the phone so please do your research if you have a carrier-locked phone). It was very convenient to use to pay for public transport, pay in conbinis, pay at vending machines, some of the arcades, and some of the restaurants.
2. If you are using Suica on your phone and if you’re taking Shinkansen, do tap out with Suica through the gates before taking the Shinkansen. I didn’t do that and only used my JR Pass to get to Shinkansen, it made Suica to think that I’m still somewhere in transit and since then Suica didn’t work for any public transport. To fix it, you need to go a JR kiosk in one of the stations so that JR person can fix it for you.
3. If your phone allows eSIM, do get it. I used Ubigi, price was good, coverage and speed was great. It was very convenient to just turn it on when we arrived at Narita airport and not have to physically switch sim-cards or carry a wifi device.
4. Do not skip on food from conbini. I’ve heard good things about food from there but thought: I’m in Japan, why do I spent time eating food from a conbini while there are myriads of great restaurants everywhere. Well, some of items from conbini were amazing: Hokkaido cream tart and double cream puff from Lawson, salmon onigiri, sandwiches. All of it is amazing and is worth spending time and space in your stomach. I only realized it mid-trip which I regret lol.
5. Pack light when possible. We only had 2 carry on suitcases, and a laptop backpack. We didn’t use luggage delivery services because it was easy enough to do anything with our luggage. Also, we didn’t have issues with storing luggage in small hotel rooms. I do recommend to find at least one hotel with washer and dryer somewhere mid-trip so you can wash all your clothes. Alternatively, you can use laundromats but it’s less convenient.
**Note about food/restaurants**: below I’ll be calling restaurants as ok or won’t recommend – to be honest, they are still better than most random places you go to eat in US. It’s more about comparing them to other food we had in Japan. There was no restaurant or any food that was bad.
**Trip itself:**
**Tokyo: Nov 3rd – Nov 7th**
**Hotel: Citadines Central Shinjuku Tokyo**. Room was of course tiny but overall it was a good hotel for its purpose – to pass out at night, take a shower, have a breakfast, wash your clothes. It was clean, room had no problems. Breakfast buffet was included and had both Japanese and Europan/American options, though selection was not big. We focused on Japanese food and every item was delicious. Location was perfect: 1) walking distance to Shinjuku station so you can easily get to wherever you want in Tokyo; 2) right behind Golden Gai where you can drink all night and then be in your bed within 5 minutes, no matter how much you drank. When we booked this hotel, any other hotel one level nicer in this area was 2x more expensive. For the combination of price, location, and quality I do recommend this hotel.
**Nov 3rd, Day 0:**
Arrived at Narita airport, took around 1-1.5 hours to go through customs. Went straight to the Narita Express and caught the last train from the airport. Suica came into handy as we didn’t have to purchase a ticket, instead we tapped Suica with the phone and went through the gates. Because of it, we didn’t have an assigned seat and just an empty seat. Later someone came and said they have this seat reserved so we moved to a different empty one – just saying don’t get scared that you occupied someone’s seat. Arrived to Shinjuku station where our hotel was. Google maps offered a specific exit from Shinjuku station which I was not able to location as there are so many exits in this station and the underground station is massive. After maybe 20 minutes of searching, decided to use any closest exit in the eastern direction (which was in the direction of the hotel) and figure out the way on the ground. Was a good decision, was easily able to make a path once we got out of the station. Got to hotel, checked in and went to sleep.
**Nov 4th, Day 1:Meiji Jingu, Yoyogi Park, Harajuku, Shibuya Scramble, Golden Gai**
Started the day with a good sleep and a breakfast at the hotel, then headed to Shinjuku stations where again we got lost with Google Maps offering a specific exit to get into the Shinjuku station. Instead, you can use any and then follow signs/directions to the metro line you’ll use. From there, we took a train to Meiji Jingu shrine and spent some time there and really enjoyed it. Then headed to Yoyogi park and just walked around – it was nice, calm, and peacefully. Which was a great before switching to Harajuku Takeshita street. It was Saturday and Takeshita street was full of people. We went through the whole street, stopping by at random places, shops, food stalls – it was really fun, especially seeing all the people doing cosplay. We had their famous rainbow cheese coin which was good, then ate Marion Crepe which was ok and not worth the line, and had takoyaki from Takoyaki Tokojuku – also ok but we later had much better ones in Osaka. Next stop was Shibuya Scramble Crossing – which was maybe 20-30 minutes walk away. It was a nice stroll observing the city and all the people around. We walked through the crossing multiple times which was fun and then went to watch it from above. Decided to go to Mag’s Park Rooftop to do that: it did have a nice view and had seating both inside and outside and admission included a drink. We tried to go to a couple of restaurants I had saved on the map but all had more than an hour wait so we decided to go back to Shinjuku and try one of the restaurant I saved there – Shinjuku Unatetsu. It is an Unagi / Eel restaurant and I really loved the unagi they served – it was so soft and tender. And we ended the night in the Golden Gai: looked at many bars and picked a random one – drank there half of the night.
**Nov 5th, Day 2: Asakusa/Sensoji, Akihabara**
Good night sleep and breakfast at the hotel, then headed to Asakusa to explore Nakamise-dori street and Senso-ji temple. It was packed with tourists but was still fun and the temple was beautiful. Bought some gifts, got amazing matcha soft serve ice cream with mochi from Sawawa Asakusa. Then we walked around the covered shopping street and randomly picked this place – Kobe Beef Daia Asakusa. Well, that beef was the best beef in our lives – definitely recommend them. I would go there again without hesitation. After that we walked though this street further, drank strawberry beer from Asakusa Ichigoza which was surprisingly good and did eat a curry bun from Tokyo Curry Pan which was good but not a must have. Next stop was the high-floor bar in the Asahi Building. Beer, smoked salmon, and the view was great – do recommend going there if you’re into viewing big cities from a high floor. From there we went to Akihabara where we played claw machines for multiple hours until we ran out of breath. After that, went straight to Shinjuku and had dinner in Shinjuku Tatsukichi which is a tempura restaurant where chef cooks all kinds of temperate foods (veggies, meat, seafood, etc.) but you can’t choose – random things just keep coming until you say you’re fool. Didn’t like it much, we later had much better tempura at random places – won’t come here again.
**Nov 6th, Day 3: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, souvenir shopping, Omoide Yokocho, Golden Gai**
After the breakfast at the hotel, we stopped by JR office in Shinjuku station to pick up our JR Passes (we bought them in advance before the price increase) and then headed to Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. It gives a nice 360 view on Tokyo from a top floor and offers some souvenir shopping. From there, we had lunch at a standing sushi restaurant which we both agreed were the best sushi in our life – Uogashi Nihon-Ichi. And before going for souvenir shopping, we stopped by for a dessert 2 blocks from there – Pronto. I think it’s a chain restaurant, something similar to Panera Bread in USA – but with an amazing dessert. I had matcha basque cheesecake which I still crave for and my wife had brule in baumkuchen which was also great. Then we went again to Harajuku area where we hit couple of specific shops we targeted for gifts, stopped by for a dinner at Red Rock Harakuku and tried their famous roast beef bowl – it looked amazing but the taste was ok. For the end of the night we visited Omoide Yokocho and picked a random place to get some skewers. I don’t remember the name of this place but the food was just ok, so not worth a visit anyway. Though, there are tons of other similar places, I’m sure some of them are amazing. As we headed to the hotel, we decided to have one drink in a random Golden Gai bar: we ended up meeting awesome group of people, drank though the night and had so much fun!
**Kyoto: Nov 7th – Nov 11th**
**Hotel**: **Mitsui Garden Hotel Kyoto Kawaramachi Jokyoji**. It’s a tucked away hotel with an interesting design and a very relaxing vibe. Location is very convenient to explore Nishiki market and Gion as they are both walking distance. However, if Kyoto is your home base with multiple day trips planned out, probably staying walking distance to Kyoto Station will make more sense. Hotel is very calm and quiet. It has onsite onsen for the guest and is separated for men and women. Going to onsen right before bed after a day of tourist activities and a lot of walking was amazing – so relaxing and calming. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide a private onsen for mixed genders. We had breakfast included and it’s not a buffer but instead you can choose one of 4 sets: 3 Japanese and 1 European/American. When I booked this hotel and saw photos of breakfasts, I wanted them so badly and was looking for it lol. Unfortunately, non of the sets impressed us: they were beautiful but food was mostly blend and tasteless – this was such a disappointment. But, I still think it was an awesome hotel for the combination of price, quality, and location – we loved it there. Just don’t eat breakfast there. Go to Nishiki marker, conbini, or one of the many restaurants around.
**Nov 7th, Day 4: Shinkansen to Kyoto, Gion, Pontocho alley**
Hotel had washers and dryers so we washed all out clothes, ate breakfast, and went to Tokyo Station to catch a Shinkansen. We didn’t book tickets in advance and were not able to sit on the Mount Fuji side – but it was still easy to get a ticket for the very next train. One thing I suggest – do your research how to find a story in Tokyo station where they sell their famous verity of Shinkansen bentos. And my suggestion: do take bento without rice as rice that sits in those boxes is cold and no longer that tasty. Up next – Kyoto. We arrived around 3pm, took a bus to our hotel, checked in, took a little break and headed to explore Gion around 5:30pm. By that time everything started to close down so we just walked walked around but decided that we will have to come back during the day time on one of the days. After 1-1.5 hours of walking, we stopped by at a small taiyaki place – Narutotaiyaki Honpo Gion Shijo – and had amazing taiyaki. My wife is not a fan of the red bean paste so she was pleasantly surprised they had custard filling (we did stop by for the custard taiyaki on the last day in Kyoto as well). We wanted to have a dinner in a restaurant in Pontocho alley but didn’t have a specific one so chose a random kaiseki restaurant and it wasn’t good. Place called 玉乃光 東山望. Maybe the fact that this was a restaurant with a really nice view and in a very touristy place but was empty should be a tip that the place is not that good.
**Nov 8th, Day 5: Arashiyama**
Had a good sleep and breakfast at the hotel, then went to Arashiyama area around 12pm. We decided to do monkey park first and bamboo garden after that. Before going up to monkeys, we stopped at CHAVATY Kyoto Arashiyama for tea and desserts which looked beautiful but taste was ok: we got matcha cake and chocolate-cherry cake. Maybe other desserts are better. We really enjoyed the monkey park, it was simply amazing – definitely recommend. Looking at monkeys and feeding them was a blast. Then we went to a bamboo garden which was nice even with tons of people around. So many people wearing their gorgeous kimonos! When returning, we took a different path and went through the Arashiyama Park down to Katsura River. We ate at some random sit down restaurant there which was ok and then had a byte of matcha layer cake from Kyo-Baum Arashiyama which I do recommend. Then we walked around for a bit and returned to our hotel area where we ate sushi at a random place.
**Nov 9th, Day 6: Osaka day trip: Osaka Castle, Dotonbori**
It was a slow morning and we only get to Osaka after 12pm. We started at Osaka castle I really enjoyed. The territory is massive and beautiful. I went up the castle itself and it was interesting to learn it’s history though exhibitions on all floors. On the top floor you’ll be rewarded with a nice 360-view of Osaka. Two tips: 1) you can probably buy tickets online and not wait in the live line; 2) do take elevator to the top floor and go down because that’s how this exhibition works – I didn’t realize that and was learning history backwards lol. Then we had couple of small bytes in a cafeteria near the castle and took a different exit from the park to explore it more. Next stop was Dotonbori. We met a couple on previous day who recommended an okonomiyaki place there, though they said it can have a huge line. We got there right at opening and were second to get it. Place is called Okonomiyaki Sakaba O and yes, it was amazing, best okonomiyaki we ever had – as simple as that. Do go there 🙂 We walked around, had a cream puff at Hirota (it was good but not as good as double cream puff from Lawson). We then booked a river cruise and had an hour to kill so took a ferris wheel in Don Quijote nearby (Ebisu Tower Ferris Wheel). As you go up, it was cool to see how many restaurants are actual exist on multiple floors and go up – not something you can easily notice when walking on the streets. Then we did the river cruise and it was boring AF. Honestly, that was the only thing I didn’t enjoy doing in Japan, total waste of time and money – good thing it wasn’t expensive and took about 20 minutes. River cruise in San Antonio, TX is better, if you’ll ever be there. After that, we had to have some takoyaki and chose Takoyaki Wanaka Dotonbori: we ordered a sampler with 4 different kinds and really liked it. Line was big but moved fast. Last meal was cheese tart from Cheese Tart Pablo Shinsaibashi – it was pretty good, though we were last in the line and there was no selection, so took whatever they had. Tip: do come earlier. After that we took a train back to Kyoto.
**Nov 10th, Day 7: Nishiki market, Nara half-day trip**
It was a rainy day and we were not sure if we should go to Nara. Plus, Nara was more of a nice-to-do rather than must visit according to my plan. We decided to skip breakfast in the hotel and first go to Nishiki market to try different food and then go to Nara. Nishiki market had tons of food options. We tried multiple, some things were better than others, I can’t recall specific names. Overall, everything was good but nothing stood out as a must have. Still, I do highly recommend to go there and explore food as there are so many options! After getting full with random food, we took a train to Nara. And it was amazing! We really enjoyed deers and the park itself. You can spend many hours just walking around. When we were ready to head back, we took a path going though a neighborhood and randomly found a private residence who serves tea and dessert. We went there and I think it was one of the best experiences we had – not because of the food but because of the fact that we were inside a house, overlooking their backyard, In the adjustment room, there was a lady making a private music lesson with her student. It was like watching a great documentary. And it made me feel like local for a moment. No kidding but I was almost crying of how happy I was in that moment. This place felt like a hidden gem and I do recommend it to everyone. Though, such experiences are best when you don’t expect them 🙂 Place is called Orange cafe Suimon. After that we stopped by at famous mochi place – Nakatanidou – where you can see how mochis are made (mochi pounding). We were too late and the preparation show was over (I’ve heard you need to be there before 1pm), but we still bought mochi and yes, it was the best mochi we ever had. After that we took a train back to Kyoto to have a dinner. We first headed for a cocktail to a Bar Rocking Chair. Honestly, felt boring and overpriced, so after one cocktail we left for more adventures. We tried to go to a ramen place Men-ya Inoichi (麺屋 猪一) which is on Michelin Guide but it was fully booked. They have another location couple of blocks from there – Men-ya Inoichi Hanare (麺屋 猪一 離れ) – and we were able to get a table for 1.5-2 hours ahead. We needed to kill this time and wanted to find an izakaya. Couple of places didn’t let us in as we didn’t have reservations and then we randomly got to a miso restaurant Malto Kyoto (Feliz- 團斗 malto) which we loved. As an appetizer, there brought multiple types of miso. Because we were killing time before dinner, we only ordered one dish and split it – it was chicken with tofu, if I remember correctly, and it was so delicious. When the time was up, we moved to the ramen place and had Ramen and shumai. Shumai were amazing but the ramen was just ok. We would better stay at Malto miso restaurant and tried more of their dishes. Next time then 🙂
**Tokyo: Nov 11th – Nov 12th**
**Hotel: The Blossom Hibiya**. This was the most expensive and nicest hotel we stayed. I wanted something on high floor overviewing Tokyo with floor-to-ceiling windows. Hotel didn’t disappoint and was great for the last night. Location was good as it let us explore the area we haven’t been to plus was close to the Tokyo station for our next day departure. Breakfast buffet was included and offered both Japanese and European/American breakfast with pretty big selection. We only ate Japanese food and everything was delicious. For the combination of price, location, and quality I do recommend this hotel.
**Nov 11th, Day 8: Fushimi Inari, Gion, Shinkansen to Tokyo, Ginza**
On the last day in Kyoto, I went to Fushini Inari around 9am, there were tons of people but further up you go, less people you’ll see – which was exactly as everyone said. I did enjoy it but want to call out: you don’t necessarily need to go to the very top, unless you need this feeling of accomplishment or photos with no people – I got both. Then came back to Gion as planned to look at it during the day when everything was open. It was gorgeous and worth another visit. Had my last run of eating everything matcha which Gion can offer a lot. Went through Ninenzaka, Sannenzaka and up to Kiyomizu-dera – enjoyed it a lot. After that we picked up our luggage from the hotel and headed to Shinkansen to get back to Tokyo. In Tokyo we got into hotel around 5-6pm and after the check in went straight to check out Ginza shopping area: not for shopping but just to see what it looks like. Went up to Ginza Six Rooftop Garden to have a 360 view of the surroundings – it was ok. I really wanted to get into High Five bar but they happened to be fully booked at the moment and suggest us to come later. So we decided to find a place for a dinner but something interesting because it was our last night in Japan. All places I saved were already closed so we googled what is open with good reviews and found this kaiseki restaurant – Osamurai (おさむらい) – where we had an amazing experience. Food was amazing and people were so nice and had a great conversation. The moment we got out the High Five bar was already closed and went to another one I saved – Tír na nÓg. I liked it, place has a cool vibe. But we were tired so after one cocktail we decided to go back to hotel.
**Nov 12th, Day 9: Chill last day**
Had breakfast at the hotel and checked out. It was windy and colder than all other days, we decided to skip walking around the Imperial Palace and instead did last-minute snacks shopping from conbini and then went directly to the Tokyo station. We still had some time and tried to find a sushi place. There was one conveyor belt sushi restaurant but the line was 2+ hours. To not go too far, we went to a place in the same mall – Kushiro. Sushi were ok but I won’t recommend it as a great place. Before going back to take Narita Express, we stopped by a Pronto cafe (chain we tried day 3) to have their amazing desserts one more time. And after that we took Narita Express, went though customs, bought some stuff in duty free and got on a plane.My wife said that moment of going to the airport my face was the saddest ever – I really didn’t want to leave. Japan was amazing, we loved everything and definitely will come back to explore more.
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And I’ll be happy to answer any questions, of course!
by coolrodion89