Hi there,
I wanted to share a program/itinerary that worked well for us and potentially for anyone looking for a good mix of “old/traditional”, geeky, fun and yummy travel in Japan. If I had to do it all over again, I’d take the same route, because it was great! These are memories I won’t forget any time soon, and I even try to draw inspiration from them for my music (see my profile).
I also try to write down some information that may be useful for others to save time and reduce anxiety 🙂 I think most of them have already been mentioned at least once on Reedit, though!
For the context, it was our first trip in Japan with my wife. 18 days including travel time. We wanted to go during November to enjoy autumn colors of mapple tree. It turned out that temperatures were abnormally high and autumn was delayed lol. We were still able to enjoy the autumn colors on the second part of our stay. For the record, the progress of autumn varies drastically from city to city. Kyoto seems to be the most advanced, I’d say (confirmed by a map/schedule found on site).
**Stages**
**Day 1**
* Our flight was at 9am and we arrived at Haneda airport (closer than Narita) around 7am the next day. We picked up our Pocket Wifi and loaded the Suica card. It’s very practical to do it at the airport if you do it right. We stayed at Ginza during our stay in Tokyo. It’s a nice place. Classy and quiet. Ginza is also very convenient for navigating the city, thanks to the nearby JR station.
* Pokemon Center DX. There is a Pokemon Coffee in Ginza. It is not too packed in November. There is no need to book in advance IMO but we did not try to enter either. We did 3 or 4 Pokémon Centers during our trip in Japan. I can’t think of a single one that stood out, either positively or negatively. They all offer something different in terms of decoration and are well worth a visit.
* The Imperial Palace. There is a park with the foundations of a dungeon + small guardian houses. Not essential IMO but it does not cost much to go through.
* We head then to Ochanomizu on our way to Akihabara. This place is full of music stores (guitars, basses, amps and stuff). As a musician, it’s cool to see such giant displays for Gibson or Fender products. We then arrived in Akihabara to get a glimpse of the famous Electronic Town. During the week, the place is not packed at all. I would recommend to come at night time to see the neon lights. Also during the weekend, the streets are closed for the cars which make the experience different (and nicer). This place is a mix of maid coffee, arcade and Pachinko centers, IT stores and geek stuff.
* We finished this first day with Ueno Park which is close to Akihabara. It’s a nice park. It must be beautiful in Spring. This year, there was a delay for fall colors as the temperature were higher than ever in Japan (no snow in Mt Fuji either!!!). We went to the natural museum. If you did not have the chance to do a relatively big natural museum before, that’s your chance.
* Regarding food, we went to a ramen restaurant in the morning. We were not used to the ticket machine that is used in a lot of restaurant. The staff was not helping us much so quite disappointing experience to start but that was the only time we had to complain. Most of the time, staff in Japan are super nice and ready to help. We took ramen with shrimp tempura and it was super good. For dinner, we went to a Konbini (Family Mart seems bigger than 7 eleven I would say) and picked some Onigiri and Tayaki with custard. The food was very good value for our euros.
**Day 2**
* Big day with Shibuya in the programme. We started the day with Harajuku, the street of cosplayers and kawai culture. During the week, there are a lot of people in the street but not so many cosplayers. Nice experience though. You can pick some funny food here like fluffy pancake or barbe à papa.
* We then headed to a zen experience at Meji-jingu temple. It was very nice. Not too many people during weekday. I would recommend to not go during the weekend if you are looking for a zen experience. The Yoyogi park just near the temple is very nice too. You are then near Shibuya.
* Our goal was to first visit places like the Nintendo store. If you go in this building, I would recommend to go downstairs. There is a full floor of restaurants with an interesting ambience and a lot of choices. We then went to the cyberspace floor to visit the Nintendo store, Pokemon Center, Jump Store, Capcom Store, etc. One of the highlight of Tokyo for me as a big fan of video games and manga. A little disappointed by the Jump store which is rather small. In general, I was expecting bigger thing regarding “old and famous” shonen like Naruto and One Piece in Tokyo. Anyway, we spent a good amount of Yens here.
* From here, you can take a door in this floor that lead outside where you can take nice picture in front of Mario Artwork and a sign “Nintendo Tokyo”. Then take the stairs to reach a nice rooftop garden and have a view on Shibuya. I felt like I was in a cyberpunk city. We went then to another building where there is two big manga shops including Mandarake. Impressive quantities of manga and figurines. A must see before heading to Shibuya scramble crossing.
* Shibuya scramble crossing is super impressive to see live. Of course, you need to cross it 1-2 times and feel the experience. You can enter the buildings near to have a higher view. There is a street full of restaurant near Shibuya. We went for food after saying hello to Hachiko.
**Day 3**
* Heading to Kamakura for the third day to have a little break from the big town. My advice would be to take the JR line to Kita Kamakura and then there is an interesting path to follow which is packed with temples, both buddhist and shintoist.
* We visited a number of temples during the day, the names of which I’ve forgotten, sorry for that!
* To eat, there is a big avenue full of restaurants. Do not hesitate to take small perpendicular street. We found a very nice family restaurant here with super good oudon and tonkatsu. Super cool experience.
* Then we went to the famous bhudda and finished this journey with a view of the ocean. We were not able to see the Mt Fuji from the beach but I read that it may have good spot to view it on sunny day. From the beach, the train station is at 20min walk.
**Day 4**
* We went to Shinjuku for the afternoon. We visited the Gyoen Park. Very nice park with different styles of garden : italian, french and japanese. There was a chrysantem exhibition by the time. If you have the chance to see the 1000 thousands flowers style one day, its worth it!!!
* We then went to Square Enix shop and coffee. The place is rather small but still cool with a lot of figurines from our favorite franchises including Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearth… We passed by the Square Enix building company without knowing it so pay attention. Apparently there is a stone with Square Enix writing on it.
* We then went through Kabuchiko street. Interesting to see the volume of host/hostess coffee lol. We reach then Gigo (always fun to spend few hundreds yens in arcade game, the drum games are pretty funny), the Godzilla head, the 3D cat crossing (a must see of course lol).
* Then, it was night time and we wanted to have a view of the whole city. We went to the Metropolitan Governement building. I recommend it. It’s free to take the lift to the 45th floor. Super impressive view on many famous places and building of the city.
* We ended the day with an activity you won’t want to miss. We went to Omoide Yokocho after drinking few beers. This street is crazy. Its super tiny and packed with barbecue restaurants. The restaurant have 6-10 places where you can sit and enjoy street food. We went then to Gold Gai. Same concept but for sake and beer. One of the highlight of the trip for me.
**Day 5**
* On Sunday, we started the day in Ghinza visiting the Sony store and then went to Asakusa. Not sure if its the best idea to visit temples during the week end. The place was heavily crowded. The temple in itself is beautiful but the crowd may “ruin” the ambience here. We also did the big street food and souvenir shop street near the temple. Nice but again, too crowdy.
* We finish the day at Akihabara as we did not had the opportunity to see it by night. We also found out that the city is closing certain streets during week ends including the main street of Akihabara. The feeling is different to walk on the center of such a big street. We did a couple of arcade games, a shop selling robots Gundam and others and a IT shop.
* It was then time to say goodbye to Tokyo. Last night here and then we headed to Kanazawa.
**Day 6**
* First experience with the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kanazawa. Super nice experience. Cannot emphasise enough how much Japanese are organized when talking about public transportation. The Shinkansen is the point d’orgue of this. The little ballet of train preparation, people waiting in line and stuff is something to see and experience.
* We arrived at Kanazawa in the morning. The city is very rainy it seems and we experienced it. We stayed in the train station few hours, booking tickets for Shirakawa-go for the day after, lunch and stuff. If you want to go to Shirakawa or others alpin small towns, book as soon as possible. It seems like the buses are full quickly especially the ones in the morning.
* Then we headed to our first Ryokan of the trip. Ryokan is a must do if you have the opportunity. Sleeping in a Futon, siting on tatami, dress with Yukata is good fun. Also if you have the chance to taste japanese breakfast, the food is good and healthy.
* During the afternoon, we visited the streets of Kanazawa. There is this fascinating Samurai block. If you go at night, the atmosphere is fascinating. For dinner, we tried a “traditional” sushi with proper chief doing his art in front of you. We had the opportunity to taste seafood and fish like oursin, squid and many more.
**Day 7**
* Kenrokuen garden in the morning. It’s a beautiful garden. In my top 3 of our trip. It’s quite big with different areas with water. There is a massive statue in the center of the park. It was also the first place where we experienced the fall colors.
* Then we wanted to go to the train station to take the bus to Shirakawa go.
From Kenrokuen garden, you can go through the castle, it’s free if you dont enter the main “dungeon”. It’s a nice castle to see and a good shortcut to the city center.
* We took the bus at 2pm with a return from Shirakawa at 6pm. Big mistake here, see below 🙂 Its a one hour trip by bus and it leave you in the bus station near the traditional Shirakawa houses. We walked here for one hour. Very nice place with a view on the moutains. There are not much to do except walking. Dont forget to go to the castle hill to have an upside view on Shirakawa. In November, the night come early at half past four. Everything was close then and we waited for the bus during a solid 2 hours cold freezing (even the bus station is closed after 5). Not the best experience of our trip but a good memory for sure 🙂
**Day 8**
* We took the Thunderbird in the morning from Kanazawa to Osaka. Nice train with nice view on Biwa lake. It’s a 2 hour trip from what I remember.
* After arriving at Osaka, we went to punk rock quartier first. It was not planned as we were looking for our hotel. Soon enough we discovered that the train/metro systems in Osaka looks familiar but its a bit more complex than in Tokyo. Especially the stations here are so big. Be focus and watch carefully the signs if you dont want to be lost.
* Then we went to Dotonburry to enjoy Takoyaki. It is a really nice street with this nice canal with the grande roue (kind of).
* Then we headed to the train station to shop at Nintendo, Pokemon Center, Mugiwara shop and Capcom shop. Those shops were very cool. The Mugiwara shop alone was way bigger than the Jump shop at Tokyo (the one we visited at least). Still I did not find anything cool to buy as the current trend seems to be stickers and weird peluche.
* We had a very nice Yakiniku barbecue in a nice and friendly place for dinner. We took a all you can drink offer and it was good fun!
**Day 9**
* Universal Studio Japan from 9 to 9 this day. It may be possible to come earlier. I read here and there that the parc may open from 8. It may be better to rush for Nintendo World as it get crowded quickly. We were not able to enter this part of the park before the evening which was still nice with all the lights.
* The queues are quite big in USJ even in November but the park is super nice with a lot of animations so it’s good fun even outside the rides. Probably one of my favourite park now (I went several times to Europa Park and Disney). This park is way better than Disney Land Paris IMO.
* We did the flying dinosaur. It was my first flying coaster and I loved it. It’s the best experience I ever had in a coaster and I would ride it all day if it was possible. We also did the hauting house, Spiderman (very cool), Hogwart ride, Jaws and Mario Kart. All rides are cool !
* Big kudos to USJ for the Hogwart zone and the Nintendo zone. That’s a blast. I agree with those who recommend coming to Hogwart at night. It’s beautiful!
* Dont miss the parade also around 1pm of course if you want to dance with Pokemons and the Waterworld show is amazing.
* We ate in the Jurassic park zone for lunch as it was not too crowded and in the Hard rock coffee in the Universal Village for the dinner.
**Day 10**
* Trip to Himeji in the morning. We took a Shinkansen line to go from Shin Osaka to Himeji. It was around 20-30 minutes long.
* We started the day visiting Himeji castle which is not far from the train station and very visible. I recommend doing the full tour starting with the west wing where the womens lived and finish the tour with the main dungeon. You will need to remove your shoes to enter. No need for slippers IMO, nobody around have. Just put not too slippery socks and you are good to go. Plastic bags are provided to carry your shoes.
The castle is very interesting. You can go up to the very last floor of the dungeon using very steep stairs. The floors are quite empty but still interesting to see. There is much to see going down with nice videos, armors and weapons.
* We then did the Konoen garden which is very beautiful with very different areas separated by walls. I really like the bamboo zone and pounds here. As we left, there was a rainbow just above the castle. How lucky is that?!
* FYI, there is an covered alley // to the street from the train station to the castle. It is full of shops and restaurant.
* We went again to Dotonbori at night to enjoy the lights and atmosphere and then went back to the hotel for a good rest.
**Day 11**
* We took the Thunderbird from Osaka to Kyoto. We were a bit sad to leave Osaka, as the people were so nice! I really felt a difference between Osaka and the rest of Japan, but maybe that’s just chance!
* Our first visit to Kyoto was to the Nishiki market. It’s a great street market with a huge assortment of street food (perhaps wider than in Osaka). I recommend eating taiyaki with custard (or red bean custard) at Nishiki market. It’s my new favorite Japanese dessert!
* In the evening, we took a walk around Gyon and ended up with Okonomyaki at the “Issen Yoshoku” restaurant. Very nice place but I still can’t get the music (playing on a loop in the restaurant) out of my head (right next to the “Rakuten Pay” Jingle that was playing on a loop on TV at the time lol).
**Day 12**
* We tried to get up early to go to bamboo grove. Come early if you want to avoid the crowds.There’s a lovely garden near the bamboo grove.
* We went to the silver pavilion in the afternoon. The Golden Pavilion is better known, but we didn’t have time to go there. I’ve heard that the two pavilions are quite similar, but that the garden of the silver pavilion is prettier, especially at sunset. Also, being less well-known, there are probably fewer visitors.
* We then passed along the philosophers’ path to reach another temple. This path is really cool and best done at sunset. Very beautiful with the autumn colors.
**Day 13**
* Full day in Nara. A must-see. You can buy crackers for the deer for 200 yen.
* There are many temples to see and the forest is magnificent.
The forest is magical and I recommend a hike here. There are many shrines, lanterns and protective trees. You can almost feel the spirits here 😀
* The other must-see, I think, is the buddah statue in the world’s largest wooden building (if I’ve got it right). Both are really impressive!
**Day 14**
* As with the bamboo grove, we tried to get to the Tori path (Fushimi Inari Taisha) early.
There’s a hike to the top of the hill. It really is a unique place, but there are a lot of Instagrammers here and that can spoil the experience a bit 😛
You can also look out for the monkeys and cats that inhabit the mountain! 🙂
* We returned to the Nishiki market in the afternoon to stock up on souvenirs. It’s the perfect place for that.
* In the evening, we headed up to Kiyomizu-dera. We didn’t regret it. With the night lights and the colors of the maple trees, it was a magnificent sight. The place was packed with people, perhaps for a special event or just to admire the magnificent view.
**Day 15**
* We said goodbye to Kyoto and took the Kyoto Tokyo Shinkansen in a green coach.
There’s not a huge difference between normal train carriages and green cars, just so you know. Maybe a little more room, but the classic cars are already very comfortable!
* On this train, sit on the left! The train passes Fuji and you’ll have a great view of the Mount for quite a while.
* Once we’d arrived in Tokyo, we took advantage of our last evening to explore areas we hadn’t had time to visit, such as Minato and Roppongi. It was also an opportunity to see the Tokyo Tower 🙂
**Day 16**
* Last day of the trip ;-(
* We had reserved tickets for the Planet lab borderless in the morning. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I highly recommend doing it. We didn’t see the time go by and the tour is probably a bit too fast (5-6 rooms only). We were really surprised to have reached the end, but it was clearly worth it!
* We then wanted to go to the new fish market, but it was closed, so we moved on to the Gundam statue. The statue comes to life several times a day (11am and 3pm in particular). A must-see if you like robots 🙂
* We stayed in Odaiba all day, especially in a large shopping mall where there was so much to do! In the afternoon, we played in a kind of Casino for young people on a Dragon Quest machine. It was great fun, but the noise is deafening. We stayed for an hour and couldn’t take it anymore.
* We then went to a bicycle festival in the afternoon, again in Odaiba. It was great to end our stay with a local festival.
We flew back to France in the night.
**Advices (in no particular order :-D)**
* We used Trello to organize our trip and we haven’t regretted it. We had organized the activities we wanted to do and the neighborhoods we wanted to explore (without going into too much detail) in columns representing the days of the stay. Trello was also useful for centralizing booking documents, transport tickets, etc.
* Don’t bring too many things. Don’t fool around with 2 pieces of luggage in Japan. First of all, there are plenty of laundry facilities available. The 4/5 hotels where we stayed had a laundry with washing machine and dryer. You can wash your clothes for around 500y. I don’t remember seeing many people with luggage and when I did, they looked like idiots in Japan because it doesn’t seem to be usual. I think people use delivery services a lot, as they say on the Internet. In our case, we each have a 50-70 liter trekking backpack + a backpack for each day and to carry our souvenirs at the end of the trip. It was big enough to hold 4-5 days’ worth of clothes, which is very comfortable. If I could do the trip again, I’d even bring just 3 days’ worth of clothes, as it’s very easy to wash clothes.
* Bring tissues and a small pharmacy. We had runny noses for a large part of the stay, due to temperature changes (the Japanese use air conditioning a lot, even in November, and we alternate a lot between heated and air-conditioned spaces). Handkerchiefs (and toilet paper) in Japan are extremely (I can’t stress extremely enough) thin. Three stacked Japanese handkerchiefs are worth about 1 traditional paper handkerchief. Cannot hurt to bring with you 2 to 3 pack of tissues.
* Gmaps is without doubt the application we used the most. Gmaps is really indispensable for guiding you around big cities like Tokyo and Osaka. Also: you’ll be walking a lot. We walked over 120km during our stay so bring good shoes that you’ve used before and know are comfortable.
* As far as transport is concerned, we made great use of the Yamanote line, a circular line that takes you to all the city’s famous districts during our stay in Tokyo.Use the Suica card. This card is the best way to use the subway and JR lines in Tokyo. This card is indispensable if you take the subway and JR often. It works in all the cities we visited for subways, JR trains, buses and Konbinis.
* We had booked the “important” Shinkansen trains in advance of our trip (2 weeks in advance), but overall I don’t think it’s important to book trains in advance in November. Shinkansens are very spacious and there’s plenty of room for luggage. We had chosen to travel light with a hiking bag each + a “cabin” bag, and the space in front of your feet and over your head on the train is more than enough to store all that. The same goes for reasonably sized suitcases.
* Pocket Wifi (150€ for 2 1/2 weeks), works very well in Tokyo, Kanazawa, Osaka, Himeji, Nara and Kyoto. Pocket Wifi is essential if you are more than 2 people. Order it about 1 month before your trip. You can pick it up directly at the airport or at your hotel. You can return it at the airport or by post. Our device’s battery lasted a maximum of one day.
* For money, we used our mastercards to make withdrawals throughout our stay (make them large enough to minimize bank charges, however). We also brought along a few tens of thousands of yen “just in case”. To get yen before you leave, I suggest you check the exchange rates at various offices, as the differences can be considerable. In particular, avoid airport agencies which offer very unfavorable rates (it’s theft).
* You’ll use very few words during your stay, but they’ll get you a long way: sorry, thank you, hello, good evening, please.
* Kyoto is crowded. If you’re looking for a zen atmosphere, I’d cut back on this part of the trip and take the opportunity to visit other minor cities.
* Regarding jet lag, I set my watch to Japanese time as soon as the plane took off from France and I forced myself to live in the Japanese rhythm from the start. Service on the plane is based on the time of the country of arrival, and I invite you to respect the night slots by forcing yourself to sleep if possible. By keeping to this rhythm and after a few “fair” nights (waking up in the middle of the night with insomnia), we were no longer suffering from the effects of jet lag after about 3 days.
Update:
* Some of you have asked about the dates of fall colors. The Japanese administration has got your back. This is a map for 2023, but it may apply to some extent to future years: https://postimg.cc/SjsWjqTZ
* Some info about trains and which website were used to book ticket.
Tokyo -> Kanazawa: we booked the Kagayaki using https://www.eki-net.com/en/jreast-train-reservation/Top/Index
Kanazawa -> Osaka: we booked the Thunderbird using https://www.westjr.co.jp/
Kyoto -> Tokyo: we booked the Nozomi using https://smart-ex.jp
by metafire18