Hi friends!
This sub was instrumental in planning our trip to Japan, so I thought I’d share the love with an itinerary review.
Travel Style – medium structured. Ideally one booking in the AM, & a few neighborhoods to explore without a set agenda after that. We both work really hard and wanted this to feel like a holiday with the chance for our brains to relax so a hard ‘march or die’ itinerary wasn’t of interest to us.
Dates – Oct 21-Nov 3; ‘beginner’s circle’ itinerary of Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka with a few day trips.
Pre-Departure checklist-
\-Download Airalo; choose e-sim for your trip – very affordable, no connectivity issues. Highly recommend! There are mixed opinions as to whether you can download in-country & use it; we downloaded it the day before and it worked just fine.
\-Add Suica card to your phone – you can google how to do this, basically just change your phone’s region to Japan & add it as a payment option to your wallet. Reloading it was a breeze and we never bought a ticket to any city, just beeped our Suica (we have iphones, not sure if it’s as easy for Android users!)
\-Optional but very useful – we each packed a checked bag & shared a rollaboard carry on. This allowed us to pack an overnight bag & ship our checked luggage from city to city using Yamato transport. IMO this makes travelling around the country about one billion times easier; shipping takes one night hence the shared carryon.
Depart Canada Nov 21; flew Business Class on AC (using points!). Was wonderful. Arrived around 3 PM on the 22nd. Clearing customs took no time at all! We got cash out on arrival at an ATM; they’re everywhere so don’t feel like you need to take out billions of dollars.
Took the Narita Express to Shinjuku Station & walked to our hotel (The Knot). It was very convenient, not expensive, and the neighborhood was surprisingly quiet. Recommend! Grabbed ramen at a shop around the corner and crashed.
Nov 23 – Plan was to wander around with little itinerary commitment. Walked to Harajuku, Shinjuku, Meiji shrine in Yoyogi park. This would have worked better if I’d known what I now know, which is that nothing opens til like 11 am in Japan. If you also love aimless neighborhood wandering, make sure you stack your day so that ticketed things or nature stuff is first on the docket! Otherwise you’ll just wander around neighborhoods looking at closed stores. In retrospect, should have started with the park and gone from there.
Nov 24 – TEAMLAB/Tsukiji Outer Market/Ginza/Shibuya Sky/Omoide Yochoko
Got the first tickets of the day to TeamLab, it was amazing. Don’t research it, just go. It was busy but not unmanageable and the collective nature of being around other people was incredible.
Walked to Tsukiji; loved it! It was busy but fun. Ate lots of great stuff, drank a few beers outside.
Walked to Ginza, it’s mostly just chains you can see anywhere. I was underwhelmed. Skip it if that’s not your thing.
We almost missed Shibuya Sky due to a nap and getting a bit lost in Shibuya, I didn’t think I cared but I would have been so disappointed in retrospect! It was beautiful.
Omoide Yochoko looks cool on social media but was one of the few places that felt like a legit tourist trap. The food was not good & it was expensive. Try to grab a drink somewhere; eat literally anywhere else. Or just walk down it and you’ll have gotten the idea.
Oct 25 – Asakusa, Kappabashi, Akihabara, Shinjuku
Asakusa & Sensoji temple is lovely; a much more residential vibe than the other parts of Tokyo we’d seen. It felt like a nice breather!
LOVED Kappabashi; I am a passionate home cook and could have spent a whole day here!!!!!
Have you ever been to part of a new city and felt like you were JUST missing the thing that everyone talks about? That’s how we felt about Akhiabara. I don’t feel like we quite saw what everyone talks about there!
Dinner & barhopping in Shinjuku
\*SHIP BAGS TO KYOTO
Oct 26 – Eromance Car to Hakone
I thought maybe our chill overnight in Hakone was happening too soon in the trip but it was actually perfectly timed, it gave us some downtime to shake off the last of the jetlag without feeling like we were missing out on anything. We Stayed at Hakone Airu – my criteria was a private openair onsen and a traditional Ryokan experience. It was…. Fine. The food was extremely meh. The rooms were cute but kind of felt like they’d seen better days, and while the onsen itself was lovely the view was of a parking lot.
Oct 27 – Hakone to Kyoto
Check into Mercure Kyoto Station; collect bags. Hotel is v nice but kind of far from where we spent most of our time; I’d recommend staying closer to Nishiki market if you can swing it. Fortunately cabs weren’t as expensive here as they were in Tokyo!
Got caught in a torrential downpour trying to walk to Nishiki market. Ended up waiting out the storm in a hotel bar somewhere in between the hotel & market, getting Kombini food & crashing early!
Oct 28 – Fushimi Inari, Kyomizo-dera/Sannen-zaka/Gion
Ok so I would not recommend doing these things on the same day if you actually want to experience them both, bc whichever you put second will be a zoo. We started with Fushimi Inari early and it was incredible – not too busy, absolutely magical, my fave part of the trip 111/10 recommend. However by the time we made it to Kyomizo-dera & surrounding area it was absolutely packed with people. Wandered around Pontocho alley for dinner, it was a lot of fun.
Oct 29 – Nara
There is really not a lot to do in Nara aside from feed the deer. However it is weirdly SO beautiful there. If you’ve ever done mushrooms and been like ‘oh my god the natural world is SO BEAUTIFUL why can’t I appreciate how stunning the world is?!?!?!’…. that’s what is was just actually like. My husband and I just gaped at a tree for like fifteen minutes. IDK I can’t explain it, all I know is that it was otherworldy. This was a good, chill day for us for the reasons of not wanting a trip that was exclusively hardcore sightseeing outlined above; if that’s not your vibe you can maybe skip in favor of an early start to another sightseeing thing in town. The deer ARE really cute tho!!!
Met up with a friend who was also in Kyoto for ‘one drink’, stayed out til 4 AM. Went to a hole in the wall called the White Horse which was amazing. Ask the dude to make you a fried rice omelet, it might be the best thing you eat your whole trip.
Oct 30 \*Ship Suitcase to Osaka
Had big plans to check out Arashiyama but due to the aforementioned 4 AM party night we did not make it. Instead we took a long slow walk through the city. I am a theatre person and had heard Gear was awesome so we had tickets to a matinee. It was… fine. Skip it IMO! Splurged on a Michelin-starred meal at Motoi; it was very good,. But was it better than the $10 ramen & katsu curry we’d been eating? Ummmm no.
Oct 31 train to Osaka
But first we went to Arashiyama bc I was feeling guilty about being a hungover piece of shit the day before. It was VERY BUSY but also very beautiful and cool. The teahouse is absolutely worth it – another ‘so beautiful it looks like I’m tripping balls’ moment. We saw the monkeys and wandered along the river and it was lovely.
Checked into Umeda Ibis, grabbed dinner nearby, played some video games at an arcade, crashed.
Nov 1
Aquarium Kaiyukan AM, Americamura PM – I live in a landlocked place so I loved the aquarium! We also went on the giant ferris wheel behind it and loved it as a nice goodbye to the city. Wandered around Americamura, spent an unholy amount of time & money in the Don Quijote by our hotel, stayed out far too late wandering around & eating snacks.
Nov 2 – didn’t leave til late; my husband did laundry at a laundromat (we were about to head to Thailand for 2 weeks after Japan) & I splurged on a headspa at Kuu. I’m sure you can find cheaper ones, but it was truly AMAZING!!!!!!
One thing I thought I’d mention (if you’ve read this far) – the internet makes it seem like there are only five places to eat and they’re all SO POPULAR. I hate standing in a line so we just went wherever and everywhere we went was great. The hyped places (ichiran, Motoi) were among my least faves. So don’t worry about trying to plan your meals, you’ll be just fine.
In conclusion we havd the best time and if you’re planning a trip, I’m so jealous!!!!! 😊
by shittersclogged69