I still have Japan on the brain after my husband and I came back last month from our honeymoon, so I figured sharing a trip report could give me a place to put down my thoughts and would be useful for others planning too. I lurked a lot on here and r/JapanTravelTips, which were both extremely essential resources leading up to our trip.
For this trip, it was our first time to Japan. We definitely wanted to go snowboarding, but otherwise we’re both really into anime/video games, tea, food (but I guess who isn’t into food), and nature, so those influenced what the rest of our activities were. We’re not really into nightlife/bars these days, so you won’t see much of that here.
I’ll give an itinerary overview of our trip for those just looking for the basics, and then get into details for any highlights/lowlights (spoilers for lowlights: flight cancellation, getting sick)
(starred items (\*) are transportation/activities that were booked ahead of time, besides the obvious of flights/accommodations)
**Day 0 (Thurs, 1/18): Tokyo \[Asakusa\]**
* Arrive in Haneda at night
* Senso-ji (night version)
* Check into our hotel in Asakusa and crash (Asakusa Kokono Club Hotel)
**Day 1 (Fri, 1/19): Tokyo \[Asakusa / Ginza / Nihonbashi / Akihabara\]**
* Senso-ji (day version) + surrounding Asakusa side streets
* Breakfast: toast (February Cafe)
* Snack: Mister Donut
* Knife shopping along Kappabashi
* Snack: Daigakuimo Chibaya
* Lunch: conveyor belt sushi (Hinatomaru)
* Tea: Jugetsudo Tea Shop & Cafe in Ginza
* Pokemon Cafe/Center\* in Nihonbashi
* Akihabara sightseeing + shopping (Kanda shrine, Animate, Mandarake, arcades, etc.)
* Snack: Magikarp taiyaki (Kurikoan Akihabara)
* Dinner: 7-11 tamago sando
**Day 2 (Sat, 1/20): Tokyo > Kawaguchiko**
* Breakfast: Quick stop at bakery
* Pokemon Center Tokyo DX (again)
* Lunch: ekiben from stand in Tokyo Station
* Bus\* from Tokyo Station to Kawaguchiko Station
* Check into ryokan (Ubuya)
* Dinner: ryokan kaiseki
* Winter fireworks + onsen
**Day 3 (Sun, 1/21): Kawaguchiko**
* Breakfast: ryokan provided
* Kawaguchi Asama Shrine
* Lunch: Houtou Fudou North Main Shop
* Oshino Hakkai
* Dinner: ryokan kaiseki
* Winter fireworks (again)
**Day 4 (Mon, 1/22): Kawaguchiko > Nozawa Onsen**
* Breakfast: ryokan provided
* Bus\* from Kawaguchiko Station to Tokyo Station
* Lunch: onigiri and strawberry sando from Tokyo Station, Fujiyama cookies from Kawaguchiko
* Shinkansen\* + bus from Tokyo Station to Nozawa Onsen
* Check into inn (Residence Yasushi)
* Dinner: oden (En)
**Days 5 – 8 (Tues-Fri, 1/23-1/26): Nozawa Onsen**
These days were all pretty similar, so I’m condensing them, but main callouts
* Pick up rental snowboards at Nozawa Sports Thanx\*
* Snowboarding at Nozawa Onsen Snow Resort (took one rest day due to sickness & bad winds closing down most of the trails)
* Exploring the cute village
* Private onsen at inn
* Friday dinner: Kamakura Village\* in Iiyama (snow huts!)
**Day 9 (Sat, 1/27): Nozawa Onsen > Tokyo**
* Breakfast: inn provided
* Bus + Shinkansen\* + subway to Shinjuku Station
* Drop luggage off at hotel (Yuen Shinjuku)
* Lunch: ramen (Ramen Hosenka)
* Snack: strawberry custard crepe (Pearl Lady)
* LisAni!LIVE\* at Nippon Budokan (anime music concert, we went primarily for Yuki Kajiura/FictionJunction + LiSA)
* Dinner: FamilyMart Famichiki
**Day 10 (Sun, 1/28): Tokyo \[Shibuya\]**
* Meiji Jingu
* Brunch: Winter Festival in Yoyogi Park
* Shopping along Omotesando
* Snack: Higuma Doughnuts
* Tea: Sakurai Japanese Tea Experience\* in Aoyama
* Shopping in Shibuya Parco (Nintendo Store mainly)
* Shibuya Crossing
* Shibuya Sky at sunset\*
* Snack: strawberry daifuku from a pop-up spot in Shibuya Scramble Square
* Dinner: Jujutsu Kaisen Pop-Up Cafe\* at BOX cafe&space GEMS Shibuya
**Day 11 (Mon, 1/29): Tokyo \[Kichijoji / Nakano Broadway / Shinjuku / Nishiazabu\]**
* Breakfast: onigiri at Kichijoji Station (Omusubi Gombei)
* Inokashira Park
* Ghibli Museum\*
* Snack: pastry at Dans Dix Ans in Kichijoji
* Lunch: udon (Ibuki Udon)
* Shopping at Nakano Broadway
* ARTNIA Square Enix Cafe in Shinjuku
* Dinner: omakase sushi (Nishiazabu Taku\*)
**Day 12 (Tues, 1/30): Tokyo \[Shinjuku / Ikebukuro / Marunouchi / Odaiba\]**
* Rooftop onsen at hotel
* Breakfast: French toast (Cafe Aaliya)
* Shopping at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro (Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo and Ghibli store mainly)
* Shopping in Marunouchi (Ippodo Tea mainly)
* Lunch: ramen (Ippudo Marunouchi)
* Gundam Base Tokyo & Unicorn Gundam Statue
* Snack: sweet potato taiyaki (Naruto Taiyaki Honpo)
* Final shopping at Haneda to get rid of physical yen and Suica balance
​
**Planning Process**
Figured I’d share this since it comes up a lot for how to even approach coming up with an itinerary, but I’ll try not to repeat what I’ve seen typically mentioned.
For me specifically, I’ll be upfront and say that my full-time job is a researcher, and considering I’ve wanted to go to Japan for a loooong time now (and had a trip planned in fall 2020 but had to cancel it), I researched a ton for this trip. I’ll admit it was probably overplanning, but I enjoyed it, though I’d definitely tone it down the next time we go now that I’ve got most of my initial must-dos out of the way.
A lot of comments around here also say they found their favorite parts of their trip through meandering or by accident. That all sounds very romantic, but I have terrible luck and didn’t want to leave it up to chance. There were multiple things that ended up on our itinerary that were very unlikely we were going to accidentally stumble upon unless I did the research ahead of time (e.g. Winter Festival in Yoyogi Park, JJK pop-up cafe, LisAni concert).
We still had open time in our schedule, but it was more like (and especially in Tokyo) “here’s the 10-15 things we marked as interesting in the area, do we want to do/eat any of these?” I’m definitely not saying that the more free-flow plans don’t work, they just don’t work for us (I have too much FOMO/had very specific things I wanted to do in Japan, and my husband doesn’t like aimlessly meandering in a city, he’s very goal-oriented, haha).
There were also a lot of things in our schedule that needed prior knowledge of the reservation process and being on top of things. Again, I kind of get a thrill from the process of getting those almost-unobtainable things if I care enough (convention/concert tickets fall into that category for example, or some achievements in video games), so this was something I was fine doing. It mostly meant marking my calendar for dates/times to be aware of, along with keeping notes about the process that I had read about. Happy to answer any questions here for things needing reservations on our itinerary, but there’s so many guides out there already for a lot of them.
​
**TRIP DETAILS**
**Day 0 (or really Day -1):**
We were supposed to leave Tuesday afternoon out of Seattle and arrive in Tokyo Wednesday night. That is until [some drunk idiot bit a flight attendant on the flight from Tokyo to Seattle](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-bound-plane-returns-tokyo-man-bites-flight-attendant-rcna134442) and the plane had to turn around, which meant we now had no plane. Yes, I’m still salty about this.
This basically threw out our original first day plans and left us in limbo of what was going to happen for 24h. I’ll spare the details on dealing with ANA, but this night was me basically panicking in an airport hotel, woo. (Side note: I had attempted to use the Timeshifter app that had been recommended here for reducing jetlag, but unfortunately this change erased those efforts so I can’t give a proper review there.)
The silver lining on this day was that I was able to re-book our Pokemon Cafe reservation which we were going to miss, and pushed it to the next day because there happened to be exactly one open time slot when I checked the website. (Thanks random person who actually canceled! I was also able to cancel my original reservation in the system, so hopefully someone else benefited from that.)
**(new) Day 0: Seattle > Tokyo \[Asakusa\]**
Once the ANA counter at the airport opened at noon, we finally were able to sort out everything and got ourselves on that day’s flight out to Haneda. We arrived at around 8pm Thursday night.
* **Customs:** I will say I was really surprised at how fast going through customs was; we had a <5min stop at the airport bathroom before starting that process (also this was my first realization that bidets were going to be everywhere, and they are awesome), but basically there wasn’t a line at all, and even our luggage was just spinning on the carousel waiting for us while everyone else had already moved on. Maybe we just got there at a really dead time?
* **Luggage forwarding:** We used Yamato to forward our snowboarding/heavier winter gear to Nozawa, and I’d say this line had a longer wait than customs, haha. I had printed out a list of our hotels’ addresses in both English and Japanese to share with those helping us fill out the form, which streamlined the process anytime we did luggage forwarding. We then just had our two carry-on bags each (backpack and spinner)
* **IC card:** We had gotten cash ahead of time from my bank before leaving Seattle, so it was easy enough to drop by the Welcome Suica vending machine and pay physical yen for a card since my husband has an Android phone. I was able to use a digital Suica that I had set up ahead of the flight (this was also after the iOS Visa fix, so I could use both my Mastercard and Visa for refilling).
* **Phone service:** I took the easy route and just enabled roaming on my AT&T network, while my husband has Google Fi and had no issues with getting international service either the entire trip.
Then it was a straight shot to Asakusa via train. Our hotel was about a 15 min walk from the station, but it was past Senso-ji, so we took this opportunity to check out the temple area at \~10pm. I completely agree with past reviews/comments that this is really the way to see Senso-ji.
In hindsight, I’m thankful this was my first impression of Tokyo, as it had been a super stressful 1.5 days – just taking it slow in a space that was calm and beautiful with the mix of traditional architecture dotted with glowing electric lanterns and vending machines was perfect.
Pretty uneventful once we got to the hotel (I had emailed ahead to let them know we’d be a day late and they had no problems with that), mostly just crashed at this point.
**Day 1: Tokyo \[Asakusa / Ginza / Nihonbashi / Akihabara\]**
In hindsight, Day 1 seems crazy on paper, but we were basically running on adrenaline and at least for me, I was thinking about how I didn’t want the loss of a day to mean I’d miss out on the things I really wanted to do. Honestly though we had a pretty fun time that day, but just got drained of energy by around 8pm, hence just getting konbini food (but the tamago sando bread was surprisingly fluffy and the egg filling was tasty).
Our original Day 1 plans were actually pretty light due to the advice about taking it slow for jetlag, so previously it was really just: \[eat/shop in Ginza, go to Pokemon cafe, maybe Odaiba if we felt up for it but otherwise slowly meander back to Asakusa for the night\] and then Day 2 was going to be a split of Asakusa/Akihabara. So now we had all of that crammed together (removing most of the Ginza shopping, scrapping Odaiba, and having less arcade time in Akihabara – this last one I was less concerned about because we have a Round1 in Seattle and I recently bought a DDR pad for home use).
*Extra Notes*
* **Sleep issues/onsens:** Unsurprisingly, I woke up at \~5am and couldn’t go back to bed. Our hotel had some great amenities including a packet of bath salts for an onsen-like experience, so I soaked in our tub for half an hour, which was a nice way to decompress. I think this kind of pseudo-routine helped me get through the trip, as a lot of the time I was waking up early but could relax in an onsen (other than this first hotel, all of our accommodations had some kind of onsen, which was one of my priorities when choosing places to stay).
* **Food:** We ate a lot this day, haha. Though honestly it was just small bites here and there, and this was a good way to really sample a bunch of things. I definitely over-ate at the Pokemon Cafe though, but that’s because I needed my fix of Pikachu curry, Pikachu soda float, and while not really the weird iced chocolate drink, I did need the glass it came with and one I now use daily. Hard to pick a favorite that day, but I still think about the daigaku imo (candied sweet potatoes), as they were really well caramelized on the outside but soft on the inside and it was a new food I hadn’t tried before. Tea at Jugetsudo was also great while viewing a small but cute rooftop garden and a nice break for just relaxing.
* **Asakusa:** We went to Senso-ji and the Asakusa Shrine early-ish (8am) to take a look at what we missed at night, though didn’t really want to deal with the Nakamise-dori crowds, so after breakfast we wandered mainly the side streets + Kappabashi. It was getting extremely crowded by noon when we went back to the main Asakusa area for lunch, but still a fun neighborhood to get lost in.
* **Knife shopping:** I had a list of stores I wanted to check out while looking for a nakiri (knife primarily for vegetable cutting). We had gotten to Kappabashi around when most stores were opening, so it was easy enough to drop by a store and talk to the people there for what I was looking for – overall, a really nice shopping experience as every place was really open to walking you through the knives (one even had daikon you could cut to test out the knives), and I didn’t feel pressured to buy anywhere. Ended up getting one from [Kama-Asa](https://maps.app.goo.gl/HRT4NA8VviHPFK4F6) as the price was reasonable for what I wanted. Side note: there were a couple food sample (sampuru) stores we went into along Kappabashi, with one specifically offering sampuru making classes ([Ganso Shokuhin Sample-ya](https://maps.app.goo.gl/rhtPQKFae5eSngJdA)). I think next time if in the area I’d book a class with them, they had the best looking/most unique stuff!
* **Pokemon Cafe:** It lived up to my expectations, which were set a bit low because I read all the reviews about the food being terrible, but honestly it didn’t seem as bad as people made it out to be (but maybe this is because I had a recently refreshed dish and they’ve made improvements? It obviously isn’t a culinary marvel, but the food is adorable and passable – the Pikachu float was also interesting since it had pop rocks in it, so points for good theming). Gengar was a fun guest Pokemon, though I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have preferred Pikachu. I enjoyed it this first time, but wouldn’t have the urge to need to go a second.
* **Akihabara:** Had a pretty large list of stores that were options I researched ahead of time, and we went to about half of them before we decided we were done shopping. I had also seen a mention of Magikarp taiyaki while planning, so had to go hunt that down, and then ended up going to only one arcade for the night. However, I mainly just wanted to play Taiko no Tatsujin, so decided why not go to the Bandai Namco Akihabara location since they make the game. The basement floor was full of only Gundam cabinets and it was really interesting culture-wise just seeing it filled on a Friday night with most guys wearing business suits. The Taiko floor was packed with maybe 10-ish machines which was chaos noise-wise, but once you stepped up to a machine, it was pretty impressive how well the small walls dampened the other noise. I was most excited playing recent anime songs that had come out in the past couple of seasons (primarily a couple of Yoasobi songs like Yuusha and Idol – this led to me buying the Switch version of the game)
**Day 2: Tokyo > Kawaguchiko**
Day 2 was a much slower-paced day with the key goal of just getting to Kawaguchiko and relaxing at our ryokan. At our hotel, we forwarded our wheeled luggage to Nozawa so that we only needed to take our backpacks.
We took a detour to 7-11 to pick up our concert tickets for the week after (I bought these before we got to Japan – this was the one ticket purchase option that seemed to not require a Japanese phone number or in-person payment, but was pretty straightforward). We also went back to the Pokemon Center Tokyo DX because they just started selling Pokemon Concierge merch that day, and I wanted to make sure I got a Haru aloha shirt in my size (priorities).
*Extra Notes*
* **Breakfast:** Pickings are limited for things open before 9am for breakfast in Asakusa, though there was an onigiri place that looked decent. But getting there even 15 min past their opening meant there was already a long line, and we didn’t want to bother. We ended up picking up some pastries at a bakery that was open on the way to the station, but I ended up having a craving for onigiri and wanted to hunt down a place at Tokyo Station once we got there (a mistake).
* **Tokyo Station/Google Maps:** Google Maps was reliable everywhere for us except for navigating to find stores within Tokyo Station (it was fine for finding where to board trains because the station signage also helped) – I’m not sure if it was just the onigiri place I had been recommended (Honnoriya), but the location in Google Maps was totally inaccurate and we went around in circles for half an hour before just giving up and grabbing an ekiben. During our second time in Tokyo Station on our way to Nozawa, I was determined to find this place, so I downloaded Tokyo Station’s specific app (Tokyo Station Navi), which ended up being great for navigating the station for some other errands too since it shows you exactly what staircase/escalators to take and how to navigate on each floor (while multi-floor navigation isn’t really Google Maps’ strength)
* **Kawaguchiko weather:** There were reports that it was supposed to snow this day (which it did, at least on the way over to Kawaguchiko), though that meant it was just going to be cloudy the entire day/night. So while the snow dusting the area was picturesque, this unfortunately meant that we didn’t see Mt. Fuji at all this first day, and also the first night of the winter fireworks were not visible other than the really low ones. This was always going to be a risk though, which was also one of the reasons we ended up splurging on a nice ryokan so that if anything, there would be great onsens to relax in and delicious kaiseki.
**Day 3: Kawaguchiko**
It was raining this morning, so after enjoying our breakfast set (shoutout to the delicious fish, tamagoyaki, and chawanmushi), we reworked our plans for the day. Originally we were going to check out the Panoramic Ropeway, but with the overcast/wet weather, we scrapped that and instead decided to head to Kawaguchi Asama Shrine. With our shift in plans, this also meant we were closer to the Houtou Fudou location at the north side of town, which was a nice spot to try out Hoto noodles (good meal for a cold, rainy day).
I had wanted to visit Oshino Hakkai, so after lunch we caught a bus at a nearby stop and took the roughly hour long ride there. However, this was around the time my husband started feeling under the weather, so we headed back to our ryokan and relaxed there for the rest of the day/night. Fortunately by the time we got back to Kawaguchiko, the clouds started clearing and we eventually got a completely clear view of Mt. Fuji from our room, along with an awesome fireworks show later that night with Mt. Fuji in the distance (got some really nice photos/videos!)
*Extra Notes*
* **Public onsens:** I ended up waking up really early again this day, but since Ubuya’s public onsens open at 5am, I figured I’d try out my first time in a public onsen while it was going to be empty. I had read up on onsen etiquette ahead of time, so felt prepared. While I was a little hesitant at first, it ended up being a pretty meditative experience to sit and bathe (rather than my typical routine of standing in a shower) and then just relax in the onsen. I ended up trying out all 4 of the ones on the women’s side, with the outdoor one being my favorite.
* **Kawaguchi Asama Shrine:** The tall cedar trees mixed with the rainy weather ended up being a good combo (maybe reminded me of our home back in Seattle), and this was probably my favorite shrine out of the few we visited on our trip (most were just in Tokyo). We attempted climbing up to the top of the hill, but with the rain, it made it too muddy/slippery so we had to turn back.
* **Oshino Hakkai:** I kind of regret bothering to go out of our way there, as it’s probably lovely on a clear day when you can see Mt. Fuji and with fewer people, but by the time we got there, it was still overcast and a bit drizzly, but also swarming with tourist groups. Other than the cute thatched-roof buildings with water wheels, there really wasn’t much else and it was also a very small area. We paid to get into the museum area, which was a lot nicer away from the crowds, but overall we could have scrapped this spot from our places to visit, at least based on the weather conditions that day.
**Day 4: Kawaguchiko > Nozawa Onsen**
Nothing too exciting this day as it was mostly a lot of travel to get to Nozawa Onsen. Had another early morning where I instead used our balcony onsen while viewing the sunrise with Mt. Fuji. We took the highway bus back to Tokyo Station and then got to experience the Shinkansen, then took the Nozawa-specific bus to the village. We checked into our inn, and luckily our luggage was there waiting for us! My husband was still feeling sick, so we took it easy again this night.
**Days 5-8: Nozawa Onsen**
When looking for a place to snowboard, we wanted a place where it felt like we were still in Japan and where the runs were pretty easy (I stick to greens and easy blues/reds, and my partner can go up to intermediate blues/reds). Reviews were pointing me to Nozawa, and it really did have a cute village feel, along with the snow resort having a good mix of chill runs and some more challenging ones that we were comfortable with. It was snowing almost constantly while we were there, so for the most part there was soft, fresh powder every time we rode. Also it was so nice sitting down for curry or udon in the lodges, rather than your standard hamburger/chicken tenders at the resorts we’re used to.
Overall the resort itself was a bit small for a 4-day snowboard trip, but that meant that we could take it easy, which was good considering my husband was still recovering from his cold and unfortunately he passed it onto me, where I started feeling crummy around our third night in Nozawa. The timing was actually pretty decent though because the next day ended up being too windy to run the gondolas at the resort, so most of the trails were closed. We just ended up taking a rest day and enjoyed the private onsen that was reservable at our inn.
Otherwise, most of our time not snowboarding was spent just checking out the village and dropping by cafes or finding delicious food being sold along the street. We learned early on that Google Maps wasn’t always reliable for a restaurant’s hours, so we also used our afternoons to scope out places we were interested in having dinner at to make sure they actually were going to be open at the time we thought.
*Extra Notes*
* **Japanese cold medicine:** Rather than suffer, I ended up looking up guides for recommended cold medicine [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/yzoky8/a_brief_guide_to_otc_cold_and_cough_medications/) in particular was super helpful). Based on my symptoms, I went with S.TAC NEO EX, found a picture online, showed it to the nice lady at the village pharmacy with a “esutakku neo ekkusu wa ari masu ka?” and she grabbed it from the shelves, along with telling me instructions in some English for the dosage. I wish we had this kind of cold medicine in the US because it worked amazingly and I felt mostly normal whenever I had the stuff in me.
* **Onsen temperature:** At our inn, there were two private onsens, where one was closer to the actual temperature of the public onsen it was being sourced from and the other was at a cooler 40°C/104°F. We tried the hotter one first (the source is typically around 55°C/131°F), and while I saw the tips about easing in by pouring water on yourself, it was still uncomfortably hot unless I didn’t move. Originally I wanted to try out the public onsens too, but after that experience, I decided against it since I didn’t want to look like a wimp to the locals. The “cooler” one was pleasant though!
* **Iiyama Kamakura Village:** While researching things to do around Nozawa, I came across this seasonal event where they build snow huts in Iiyama and you can book one to eat noroshi nabe in. Leading up to our trip, I had gotten an email saying they were worried it would be too warm and they may not have enough snow to build the huts in January, but luckily it ended up not being an issue. Totally touristy, but still cute and a fun experience!
**Day 9: Nozawa Onsen > Tokyo**
We had our backpacks and carry-on sized spinner luggage to take to Tokyo, while we had sent our snowboard gear luggage ahead to our Tokyo hotel the day prior (or at least that was the plan; it ended up being a day late since for some reason Yamato didn’t pick it up from our inn’s front desk that day, but not an actual issue. I contacted our inn when I saw the AirTag location still sitting there, and it was sorted out).
Our travel back to Tokyo was mostly uneventful, except when we were transferring at Omiya Station. We boarded a local train but accidentally stepped onto a green car where you need a ticket to even stand in it, and had to figure out how to apologize to the ticket lady that we were idiot tourists (luckily another passenger translated for me as we hopped off to go find a regular car in the train once we got to the next stop).
Since we were too early to check in to our hotel, we dropped off our luggage and found some lunch (definitely appreciated having Google Translate on hand to understand the options on the ramen shop’s ticket vending machine) before we headed over to the concert. After the concert, we were both pretty exhausted, so it was another konbini dinner and then crashing.
*LisAni! LIVE Extra Notes*
* This was definitely one of my favorite parts of our entire trip. I came across this concert while digging through lists of upcoming anime-related events, and luckily it fit into our schedule, though I might have moved things around anyway to make it fit (originally this afternoon/evening was just going to be exploring Shinjuku). I adore Yuki Kajiura’s OSTs, and her music elevates basically any show she’s a part of (e.g. Madoka, SAO, Vanitas, along with oldies like ./hack and Tsubasa Chronicle). Plus having LiSA as a musical guest was just the cherry on top. A lot of the other artists I wasn’t as familiar with, though going through their discography I realized I had heard and liked at least one song from most of them (other than the idol groups who I didn’t know at all).
* The crowd enthusiasm/participation at these anisong/idol concerts is intense, but in a good way! We bought our penlights at the merch booth before the concert started and had at least some sense of what to expect based on having watched some idol-adjacent shows (e.g. Zombieland Saga, Oshi no Ko) and some videos of other anisong concerts in the past. There isn’t much yelling/screaming, but [all of the audience’s energy is channeled through penlights](https://www.lisani.jp/0000249864/2401272200lis-mt-027/), and I had fun trying to stick to the colors/motions of the crowd. Also this is where I learned that if there’s part of a song where you get super hyped about it, it’s time to break out the ultra orange glow sticks. Near the end for JUNNA, about a quarter of the crowd was spinning their orange glow sticks, and the energy was just infectious. We definitely regretted not bringing ear plugs though.
* Also something I noticed after buying these tickets was that on Spotify, when you went to the artists’ pages, it did list this concert as an upcoming event for them – initially I had been just googling schedules for artists we’d want to see live or going directly to venues’ sites to look at their schedules, but you may have better luck just searching via Spotify if you’re interested in a concert on your trip.
**Day 10: Tokyo \[Shibuya\]**
This day was probably the most planned out ahead of time given that we had 3 different time-reserved activities, but it ended up working out well without feeling rushed. Our main event in the morning was going to the Winter Festival in Yoyogi Park, but figured we’d stroll through Meiji Jingu on the way over (we caught part of a wedding procession while there). We got to the festival around when it opened, so it was easy to drop by a lot of booths without much wait. We also caught a live tuna carving demo, which was fun to see (and then fun to eat).
We also did a lot of walking this day since I planned all the close-proximity things together, so areas where we probably wouldn’t have gone out of our way to see were now just convenient streets to walk along to get to our actual destinations. This included areas like Omotesando, Harajuku, and Shibuya Crossing. Since it was a Sunday though, this did mean the malls were going to be pretty crowded (I was getting squished left and right in the Nintendo Store), though otherwise pretty manageable.
It was partly cloudy this day, so it wasn’t the clearest view at Shibuya Sky, but did make for some dramatic cloud colors at sunset. We spent about an hour and a half there since we got a time slot about an hour before sunset, and it was a much-needed break from the craziness in stores. Killed some time in the rest of Shibuya Scramble Square and then made our way to our reservation at the Jujutsu Kaisen Pop-up Cafe, then relaxed at our hotel for the rest of the night.
*Extra Notes*
* **Sakurai Tea Experience:** I think I found out about this place from r/tea, and would also definitely recommend it to others who love tea! We’re not really into traditional matcha or matcha ceremonies (had attended some demos of them back in the Bay Area already), so I’m glad this place offered tea courses with Japanese teas we preferred (hojicha in particular). This place also freshly roasts their hojicha, which has a lovely scent.
* **JJK Pop-up Cafe:** I initially debated whether we should go to this or not since this meant we’d miss out on a tastier dinner, but given the timing (the Shibuya Incident arc just ended and it was a pop-up cafe in Shibuya, how can you resist?) and the likelihood of us being in Japan again during an event for a show we were really excited about, we decided to go for it. The food was nicely themed – I got a kick out of my Prison Realm dessert with a Gojo stuck inside, and the table next to us ordered the Sukuna fingers hot dog which made me giggle. We were also overhearing other tables opening up the items we got as part of the reservation (coaster, artboard) and empathizing with their stress of finding out if they got the character they were hoping for. Let me tell you that you need no translation for understanding when a Japanese Gojo fangirl gets what she wants.
**Day 11: Tokyo \[Kichijoji / Nakano Broadway / Shinjuku / Nishiazabu\]**
Our Ghibli Museum entrance time was at their opening time of 10am, so we had to figure out what to do for breakfast (again, limited selection before 9am) but found an onigiri place at the Kichijoji Station and then walked through Inokashira Park to the museum where there was already a decent line at 9:50am. Really glad we had the first time slot because it was really easy to get around with the amount of people there in the morning. Close to noon it was getting a little crazy with kids throwing tantrums by the catbus and seeing the spiral staircase crammed with people climbing up.
We had some tea at the cafe and then headed back over to Kichijoji to do some light exploring. I had marked a few bakeries to check out, so we stopped by one and had some tasty pastries. Then walked back over closer to the station to have lunch at an udon joint – we found an open standing spot near the guy making the noodles, so it was interesting watching him flatten out the dough and then run it through the machine that cut up the noodles as we ate quickly to free up room for others taking their lunch break.
We dropped by Nakano Broadway to check out more anime merch from less recent shows, though we ended up not buying much. We then headed back to Shinjuku where we had some Final Fantasy VII themed parfaits at ARTNIA, and spent a bit of time in Kabukicho. We then went back to our hotel to dress up a little for dinner. Since our dinner reservation was close to 9pm, we headed directly back to crash at our hotel afterwards.
*Extra Notes*
* **Crane game items in secondhand stores:** While in Nakano, I ended up finding a Taiko no Tatsujin plushie I was on the lookout for after I had seen it in one of the crane machines at Namco Akihabara but didn’t want to go through the effort of trying to win it. Definitely keep an eye out in these stores for any crane game/gacha items that you might see and want while at arcades/halls, because chances are you’ll find something similar in one of these stores (I think I ended up only paying about ¥2000 for the plushie, though obviously it’ll vary depending on demand).
* **Nishiazabu Taku:** It was a fantastic meal, and while a Michelin star restaurant doesn’t really need extra recommendation, we really enjoyed how our chef would open up a Japanese fish guidebook for us to tell us what we were eating and describe how the fish was prepared in English. He was also only serving the two of us and one other gentleman (there was another chef handling 4 other guests), so it was really easy to just ask him more details if we wanted and turn it into a learning experience. I also appreciated his attention to detail – I noted about two dishes in that he started rotating my nigiri so it was easier for me to pick up as a lefty, and he was also doing that for the left-handed guy sitting next to me. I think it was just small gestures like these all throughout Japan that were really lovely and that I appreciated, especially since you could easily miss them if you weren’t paying attention.
**Day 12: Tokyo \[Shinjuku / Ikebukuro / Marunouchi / Odaiba\]**
This is definitely the day where my FOMO kicked into overdrive. But before the chaos, I started off this last morning by going to our hotel’s rooftop onsen with a view of the city (the outdoor one was again my favorite compared to indoor one). If you’re looking for a hotel in Tokyo with an onsen, it was great staying at Yuen Shinjuku (it’s a little bit of a longer walk from nearby stations, but not painfully so; we also did book one of the bigger rooms, as I read the standard ones were pretty small).
On our schedule, I left this day open for any final things we wanted to do – apparently I had a lot, and the only thing left that my husband wanted to do was check out the Gundam Base store. So we ended up doing a fast circuit around Tokyo starting from our base in Shinjuku where I finally got to get some French toast I was craving (definitely recommend Aaliya, it was both custardy and fluffy), and then made a stop in Ikebukuro at Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo to check out the Pokemon Concierge mini-exhibit they had with some of the physical sets and pieces from the show (also a photo op with Psyduck!).
After some quick running around to get a mini-taste of Ikebukuro (I definitely would want to spend more time there the next opportunity we have, as I liked the vibe more than Akihabara), we then hopped over to Ginza/Marunouchi while I was on a hunt for a kyusu (was looking for one without a metal mesh strainer inside, but was striking out most of the trip when idly looking). My one lead I had gotten from Sakurai ended up being a bust, but figured if there’d be one reliable place, it would be Ippodo Tea. I was able to find one there (along with buying more tea), and then we just hit up the closest ramen shop that Google Maps pointed us to (was trying to avoid chains that had locations in the US, but since we hadn’t been to Ippudo before anyway, it was still a new experience and reliably tasty).
To get to Odaiba from there, the quickest route Google Maps told us to take was via the Yurikamome Line, which ended up being an awesome route because it passes by the Rainbow Bridge and then does a little loop to go across the bridge itself. We were just in time to see the Unicorn Gundam transform (I had seen videos online already but still wanted to see it in person even if it was going to be underwhelming), and then also took a moment to appreciate the massive size of the thing when you’re standing at its feet. (And also had an obligatory moment where internally in my head I shouted, “IT’S A GUNDAM!”). Then we went up to the Gundam Base and stared at all the shiny Gunpla.
We needed to start heading to the airport, so we traveled back over to Shinjuku Station (I had to grab one last taiyaki though), picked up our stuff from our hotel, and then took a couple of trains to Haneda, which wasn’t too bad with all the luggage we were hauling. Did some final shopping in the airport to get rid of our remaining physical yen (I downed 2 Pocari Sweats because moving almost nonstop for a day apparently makes you thirsty), and then took our flight back home where I mostly slept the entire time.
**Final Notes**
I already rambled too much, but happy to talk in more detail about anything I brought up for those who are interested! Even with the things that threw a wrench into our plans, we still had a great time, and honestly after going this first time, a trip to Japan doesn’t feel as out of reach as it originally did – I’m already thinking about what we’d want to do next time!
by tangentize