(edit- title should say kamakura instead of kanazawa oops !)
This was my third trip to Japan, and was actually intended to be a solo trip until the last minute when my BF decided to come along- so planning was a bit wonky! I tried to make this more of a laid-back trip without pressure to do too much. Regardless, we had a great time and I figured I would share our experience!
Important note; I’m vegetarian and my eating habits in Japan are basically “Objective: Survive” so don’t get your hopes up for food recommendations in this post :,)
Our main interests for the trip were anime (specifically Yu-Gi-Oh lmao)/subculture stuff, shrines/goshuin collecting, and just exploring some new places we hadn’t been to before.
**Day 1**
Our first mistake lmao. We had a layover at LAX that ended up being shortened to under an hour due to the flight’s departure time getting moved up after I booked the ticket. But thankfully, our flight to LAX was on time and we managed to rush between terminals and make it to our flight to HND, albeit while boarding had already started. Having such a short layover is definitely *NOT* worth the stress, would not recommend. Always plan your flights with time to spare…
The flight was fine, but man the vegetarian meals suck. We got off the plane at around 3 PM and took the train to our budget ryokan in **Yanaka**. I’ve never been to the Yanaka area before, and I was really delighted by it! I would say it’s a great option if you want something a bit removed from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, though still a pretty convenient walk to a subway line and Nippori station, both of which served us well.
We walked around the **Yanaka Ginza** shopping street, ate some 7-Eleven snacks, and rested after our super long day of travel. I didn’t realize beforehand, but the street was pretty heavily cat-themed, with many stores exclusively selling cat-themed goods and foods :3 There was also a cat café but we didn’t visit it during our trip.
**Day 2**
Jetlag time, we woke up pretty early and had some 7-Eleven breakfast. We took a little walk around the neighborhood and saw a lot of residents starting off their day. Then, we headed to **Nezu Shrine**. It was gorgeous, would def recommend if you’re looking for shrines in Tokyo. I loved the koi pond, rows of torii, and the shrine buildings. Plus, it wasn’t crowded at all.
Then, we stopped by **Nezu Cafe** nearby and I had a rare sit-down meal of vegetarian chickpea curry. It was good!
It was still pretty early, so we kept up our shrine run and headed to **Kanda Shrine**. There was a fintech event going on there at the same time, which was pretty amusing, seeing all the people in suits running around. I guess due to its proximity to Akihabara, the shrine is very technology-forward, and definitely has more modern buildings inside compared to other shrines. It’s beautiful though, another one i’d def recommend visiting!
As we wandered away from the shrine, we popped into a random used tech store where my BF bought some little things, and we peeked in a huge Book-Off. I did a little solo venture to the big Uniqlo/GU by Ueno Station and bought some clothes while my BF hung out in a nearby coffee shop. At this point, it was early afternoon, so we stopped back by our hotel to recharge and drop off our purchases.
We headed out again later, getting side-tracked by some small shrines in Yanaka and some yummy “cat tail” desserts from a vendor on Yanaka Ginza street.
We made our way back to Ueno, where I wanted to look in the huge **Yamashiroya** toy store, and found a few goodies. We exited and walked through **Ameyoko Street**, which was super busy but cool to see for the first time. We walked to **Ueno Park** and peeped the few early-blooming trees. We went to **Kura Sushi** for dinner, since my BF hasn’t had conveyor belt sushi before and he wanted to try it. I popped in a **CAN DO** 100 yen shop, would recommend! I bought some useful things including new shoe insoles, and for the price, you can’t complain 🙂
**Day 3**
We took a morning walk through **Yanaka cemetery** in the early morning on the way to **Tennoji temple**. Both were interesting to see but I wouldn’t go out of your way for them, unless you’re staying in the area.
We took the train to Tokyo Station and explored that a bit, then walked around the **Imperial Palace** grounds until it started to rain. We decided to do something indoors, and headed to **Akihabara** to browse the shops. We picked up a few Yu-Gi-Oh cards, but overall didn’t find much else to our interests. (I feel this way every time, but Akihabara is honestly pretty underwhelming. You’re better off going to Ikebukuro instead for anime shopping.)
We went back to the hotel, rested and showered, before heading out to **Roppongi** for an event I was highly anticipating; a concert by the visual kei band NIGHTMARE. As a fan of their music, this was an amazing experience for me!! Despite not knowing the furi (choreography/hand movements the crowd does during v-kei lives) I sat in the back and pretty much just observed/copied the people in front of me, and got the hang of it eventually. The concert was a highlight of the trip for me; I felt grateful that tickets were available overseas, since usually that seems not to be the case. :,)
**Day 4**
This day was super cold, so we layered up and took the train to Yokohama Station. This was my first time in **Yokohama**! When we arrived, it was super rainy, windy, and cold. We had a few hours to kill before the baseball game we were going to later, so we took shelter in the **Marui City Yokohama Department Store** connected to the station. Specifically, to check out the Suruga-ya and Lashinbang stores there. After our disappointment in Akihabara, I was unsure whether we’d find anything. But we hit the jackpot!! And by jackpot I mean a ton of cheap Yu-Gi-Oh merch, especially of my 2 favorite spinoffs, GX and 5Ds.
By then, it was time to head over to **Yokohama Stadium** for the **Yokohama BayStars** game. Seeing a baseball game in Japan was def a bucket list item for me, and I was thankful we were there for the pre-season at least. I loved everything about it!! The rain miraculously cleared up right as the game started, and the sun even came out. The people around us were super nice and were amused by our American-ness I think lmao. We ate a bunch of stadium food and enjoyed the game, which ‘our team’ won 🙂 Afterwards, we bought a few souvenirs at the stadium’s gift shop.
Then, we walked through **China Town,** which was super cool. We ate some street food/drinks and walked over to the **Giant Gundam**, because I heard it was being taken down at the end of the month and I felt like a trip to Yokohama wouldn’t be complete without it… It was pretty neat; we weren’t there at the right time for one of the more impressive movement displays (i think), but it was still super crowded. On the way out, a worker with really good English chatted us up and told us to submit a response on their google form, saying we should mention if the giant gundam made us want to buy gundam merch lol so clearly they’re trying to convince someone to let them keep it open longer 🙂
The nighttime view of the harbor was gorgeous. We walked alongside it, returned to our hotel in Tokyo, and did laundry.
**Day 5**
We got some coffee at **Yanaka Coffee**, which was good but kinda expensive. We ate our 7-Eleven breakfast and though about what to do today. Usually, I’m the planner, but I’d found out I’m getting laid of from my job the night before and wasn’t in the best state of mind. :,) We decided to do something chill, so we took the train one stop over back to Ueno Park and went to the **Tokyo National Museum**. The museum is neat, and there’s even a garden around it that we strolled through. I was feeling somewhat better at this point, so I made the executive decision to go to **Kichijoji** since neither of us have been there before, and tbh I wanted to see the locations featured in Persona 5 lmao.
We got there a bit too late for the shrine in Inokashira Park to be open, so we took our time first going through the **Sunroad** shopping street. BF needed lunch so we stopped in an **Ichiran** and I got some plain rice for myself, which was weirdly the best plain rice I’ve ever had. Even my BF agreed it was unusually good. Then, we continued down the shopping street and peeked in a Book-Off that actually had figures at pretty good prices, a lot better than Akiba. We stumbled upon a taiyaki shop selling Magikarp taiyaki, so naturally we had to get some.
Then, we walked to **Inokashira Park**, which was beautiful, even in winter time. I’d love to come back here in the spring/summer. We strolled around and rented one of the row boats, which was really fun. (and also Yusuke is best p5 boy, gotta relive his social link lmao.) Seeing the groups of high school students try and fail to pilot their boats was super funny, and a group of boys yelled “HELLO!!!” to us and tried to challenge us to a race, but they kept going in circles :,D
We looked at the **Benzaiten** shrine from a distance, it’s gorgeous from across the water. We’re not particularly Ghibli fans so we didn’t try to get Ghibli Museum reservations, but that’s near the park too, and would be cool to visit another time.
Finally, we left the park and ducked into a **Taito arcade** on the way to the station. We played some rhythm games and had lots of fun, then found a crane game filled with Yu-Gi-Oh plushes. A worker watched us waste about 500 yen and then mercifully set it up in basically an assured victory on the next try. 🙂 Content with my stuffed Millennium Puzzle, we headed back for the night.
**Day 6**
We got up a bit early and headed to **Kamakura** for a day trip. Luckily we got seats on the 1.5 hour train ride, and it was pleasant. We got there and realized we needed to withdraw cash, so we walked along the **Komachi-Dori** shopping street towards a 7-Eleven, stopping along the way for street food- I had some sweet potato balls on a stick that were sooo good. The shopping street was pretty crowded, with a lot of students walking around. Then we hit up **Tsurugaoka Hachimangu** shrine, which rocked. The shrine’s grounds are large, and fun to explore. This is when we realized Kamakura is home to a *very* sizeable pigeon population. Also, everyone and their mom was carrying a yellow bag with a pigeon on it. We were curious and wanted one too! As we were leaving the shrine, we passed over a small bridge to a little area and were approached by a group of students doing English interviews for their class. My BF was super enthusiastic about it and had fun answering their questions (“Why did you come to Kamakura?” “What’s your favorite Japanese food?” etc), meanwhile pigeons were basically swarming all of us and we were having a good laugh. One of the boys gave me some pigeon feed and a pigeon landed on my hand, and another pigeon landed on my HEAD.
After that, we left the shrine and stumbled upon the store with the yellow bags, which turns out sells pigeon-shaped cookies called Hato Sablé that originate from Kamakura. Ofc we bought some to understand the hype!
BF was super hungry so we stopped in a Chinese restaurant that was otherwise empty. We spoke to the waitress in our basic Japanese, and she not only nihongo jouzu’d us but asked if we live in Japan LOL. She was so nice, probably the sweetest interaction of our whole trip. She showed us a dense notebook filled with her English study notes, and when we told her we’re from Florida, she flipped to a page specifically about Florida and mentioned different cities and tourist attractions there! We took turns asking each other questions in basic Japanese and English so we both got to practice, and at the end we both said it was lots of fun to talk to each other and wished each other the best in our studies! 🙂
Then, we took the bus to the **Giant Buddha**. It’s pretty cool, mostly because you can pay a measly 50 yen to actually go inside it! Then, we walked to **Hasadera Temple**, which was amazing. Super beautiful and you get a great view of the coast and city.
Now nearing nighttime, and with rain beginning to fall, I decided I still wanted to check out **Enoshima**. So we took the enoden there and walked to Enoshima Island. We trekked up the many sets of stairs and enjoyed the unique nighttime view of the island and sea from the high vantage point. Somehow, we didn’t stumble upon the entrance to the Sea Candle before it closed, so maybe that view would have been even better, oh well lol. Next time! There was hardly anyone else there though, and it still felt like a magical experience.
**Day 7**
My BF had plans to meet up with his friend who also happened to be in Japan today. We all met up in **Ikebukuro** and explored the huge Animate shop there, which was insanely crowded. We ate at a **Saizeriya** nearby, which for a chain “Italian” restaurant actually had less vegetarian options than I’d hope, but their cheese pizza is pretty good and insanely cheap.
We checked out the **Evangelion Store** where my BF bought a few things, and I realized the Chiikawa Restaurant is in the same building, and lamented my lack of reservations. (I love Chiikawa…)
We stopped again for some coffee, and then I went into a Book-Off to try to find the Yu-Gi-Oh GX ichiban kuji that came out today. Luckily they had it, and my BF and I each bought 3 tickets (the max amount allowed lol); sadly we didn’t get the A or B prize but I was still satisfied with our haul.
Then, my BF and his friend headed to a certain anime-themed club in Akihabara- I went there last trip but wasn’t really in the partying mood this time, so instead I opted to go see the Golden Kamuy movie by myself at **TOHO CINEMAS Ueno**. As a huge fan of the GK manga, I didn’t have super high expectations for the movie but honestly I was blown away at how much I liked it! Seeing it in theaters was super fun, I unknowingly got tickets to a ‘roaring’ showing with slightly more expensive tickets, with the gimmick being more immersive speakers/sound quality, and tbh the sound was pretty good. I ate and shopped around afterwards, then we all met back up at the station.
**Day 8**
We took the shinkansen to Kyoto (in retrospect I would’ve left a day earlier for Kyoto to have some more time, but this is how it worked out) and checked into our hotel in downtown Kyoto near the **Shijo**/**Kawaramachi** streets that have tons of fun shops to explore, and have a bunch of equally nice covered shopping streets nearby. We stayed at the same hotel last time and really liked the location, and coming back it did not disappoint! IK a lot of people might come to Kyoto looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of a downtown area but since we stayed in the mellow Yanaka part in Tokyo, this was a nice change of pace for us. It’s definitely a super crowded/touristy area so ymmv 🙂
My BF wanted to rest so I checked out the Lashinbang and Surugaya stores nearby and picked up some cheap Yu-Gi-Oh clearfiles! Then we ate at **CoCo Curry**, my fave chain tbh bless them for their vegetarian options.
After, I stopped in a **Kiddie Land** store and did some shopping; I’m a big fan of the manga/anime Dungeon Meshi and I actually found the first DM gachapon machine of the whole trip here, so I gave that a few tries.
As the sun set we walked around the shopping streets some more, and ended the night with karaoke at **Round 1**. 🙂 (i would rec going somewhere else for karaoke tho, their packages are pretty expensive)
**Day 9**
We started off the day with a nice walk along the Kamo River, and then took a train to **Fushimi Inari** at my BF’s request; he’s only been there at night and wanted to see it in the daytime. He was shocked at how crowded it was, and we weren’t willing to walk super far through it, but it was still lovely to see. We got some street food nearby afterwards and I shopped at the **Chiikawa MoguMogu Honpo** store near the shrine, that sells exclusive fushimi inari/kyoto-themed Chiikawa goods 🙂
On the way back we stopped by **Tofuku-ji** which was basically empty by comparison, and was quite pretty though undoubtedly would be even better in autumn. Then, we went to **Heian Shrine** and enjoyed the garden there, which imo is definitely worth the entry fee.
(Sidenote: we’ve spent a good amount of time in Kyoto on our past trip and have already seen many of the shrines/temples, so we weren’t going crazy trying to visit as many as possible.)
This is where things get a bit weird. I actually had a job interview at 2 AM Japan time (dont ask why it worked out this way…) so we went back to the hotel as the sun began to set. We got our towels and headed to a nearby bathhouse, **Tama-no-Yu**, which was nice and refreshing.
Then, we headed back to the hotel and I took a nap before my interview. My BF agreed he’d leave at some point to give me privacy for the interview, so when I woke up at 1:30 AM he was out. I did my interview and my BF returned shortly after, having had met some Japanese people at a bar in Pontocho and gone to karaoke with them afterwards. The leader of the group was an older man who was wearing a lot of jewelry and throwing a ton of money around, and the karaoke bar was a whole bar the older guy had rented out? So my BF is really curious who that guy is, but I guess we’ll never know… But I’m glad forcibly kicking him out of the hotel room led to him having a good time, lol.
**Day 10**
We woke up a bit late after last night’s events and took the train to Osaka. It was rainy, so we went to **DenDen Town** to shop for some anime goods and Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and scored some cool ones. Also found a different Dungeon Meshi gachapon! Again, def better than Akiba imo (though still pretty touristy.) Only later did I realize we missed something here though… I found out that one of the card shops in DenDen Town, “Dragon Star Nipponbashi Nigo” has a life-sized replica of Yusei’s D-Wheel from Yu-Gi-Oh 5DS!! We would have killed to see that lmao. But we know for next time I guess :,)
Afterwards, we headed to the **Osaka Aquarium** which was pretty cool, the whale sharks were crazy and even though a few things were under construction it was still worth visiting. On our way out, we rode the **Tempozan Ferris Wheel** next the aquarium; the nighttime view of Osaka from the top is very cool, but it was also a bit scary!! We headed back to Kyoto for the night and I was really craving the green burger from **Mos Burger**, so I ate there and stopped at one final Book-Off right before it closed. We walked around the busy nighttime streets of Kyoto for a bit, lamenting our flight the next day 🙁
**Day 11**
We basically just took the shinkansen from Kyoto to Shinagawa Station, then took the train to Haneda Airport to await our flight. Not much to say other than we enjoyed our final shinkansen ride with some yummy snacks and a view of Mt. Fuji!
**Overall Comments->**
\-I wish we stayed a bit longer, 11 days is not enough 🙁
\-We averaged around 20k steps a day. I brought 2 pairs of shoes, some comfy sneakers and some waterproof boots. Swapping out shoes depending on the day’s weather helped keep my feet refreshed and was a good move imo. Also, get insoles.
\-Overall (individual) budget was \~$970 for the flight, \~$200 for shinkansen, \~$400 for my half of the hotels, and idk probably another $400 in other costs like transportation, food, souvenirs, and other random expenses for a grand total of $1970 (more or less)
\-100-yen stores are great for souvenirs, and you can avoid the insanity that is Donki
\-I out of the major cities would only really recommend taking taxis in Kyoto (especially if traveling with luggage! don’t bring your big luggage on the bus), you can get by fine with public transport for the vast majority of your travels. Also consider using luggage forwarding/TA-Q-BIN to avoid traveling with luggage.
by fairyranmaru