Me and my wife are two 30 year olds and had been waiting excited for our Japan trip for months and let me tell you that every moment of our trip was exactly how we imagined it to be. We travelled during the first week of March for 9 days and wanted to cover Tokyo,Kyoto and Osaka but ended up adding Hiroshima as well with some planning. Reading several threads in this forum we decided to head to Kyoto directly for 4 nights and then booked Tokyo for 4 nights.
**Do’s**
* Make sure you have your Suica Card ready on your Apple Wallet as we used that everywhere from buses,trains,vending machines and shopping.(Android Users will have to wait at the arrivals area to get a new physical Suica/Passmo/ICOCA Card)
* Cash is a must! I carried about 30000 Yen(exchanged it from my back before leaving) but had withdraw about 20000Yen more as we were eating alot on small local stands who mostly accept cash.
* Be READY to walk! Public transport is amazing but that also means walking alot even after you enter your gate at the train stations. (Both Tokyo and Kyoto stations are huge)
* Take sometime to wander in the train stations as the food options seem amazing everywhere
* It was generally windy/cold so DO carry warm enough jackets and scarves,
* Plan ahead if you are planning to dine at the famous restaurants as most good places were booked days out. That said, our hotel staff was kind enough to call on our behalf and got us into some last minute cancelled spots
* Download Go Taxi App as it really helped us move around when we did not want to walk to the train stations anymore
**Dont’s**
* Do not rush or hurry at train stations. Be observant as people will wait for getting on up the escalator.
* Do not fixate on eating at popular restaurants as you will find good food at many places without wasting time waiting to get your table
* Do not wait to get Shinkansen tickets until you get to the station as lines are long. Download the SmartEX app – ProTip – While using your QR code to Shinkansen, directly talk to the gate attendant as they will get your QR code scanned faster(at some stations, they scanned it on their computers itself)
* Do not plan to go go late as most tourist spots start getting crowded during the day, hence plan for early visits.
Food Recommendation with Itinerary below!
*Day 1 Arrive at HND*
Immigration and Customs are pretty fast and we were out of the airport within 45mins towards Shinagawa using the Keikyu line and were an hour before train was supposed to leave so had a good meal at Shinagawa station itself.
Since, we had already booked our Shinkansen tickets from the SmartEX app that helped save some time once we arrived and we walked around the central area with those beautiful pastry shops.
For Dinner we went to a local place **Shinpuku Saikan** **for some authentic Soy Ramen**. Queue was long but moved fast.
Had some energy left and wanted to avoid jetlag so pushed ourselves to walk around the Kyoto Yodobashi store before hit the bed.
*Day 2 Kyoto*
Started our day early at the Kiyomizu-dera Temple with some great early morning views
then walked down the Sannenzaka Path -> Ninezaka -> Famous Yasaka Pagoda spot
Grabbed some delicous Mochi treats and coffee from local vendors
Walked around the neighbourhood to end up at the Kodaiji Temple and walked over to Hanamikoji Street.
For lunch we went into Nishiki Market to realize we wanted to eat more food with some amazing **Wagyu skewers** on the way.
For evening we had booked a **Kimono Tea Ceremony** which was so much fun meeting other tourists and a fun experience.
For early dinner we ended up at Nishiki Market area again and found most places closed but some restaurants that were still serving some amazing sushi.
*Day 3 Kyoto*
Started our day with a short train ride to Fushimi Inari and hiked up the shrine which was another fun experience.
Once we walked out there were tons of street vendors selling amazing Gyoza, Noodles and skewers on the way.
Came back to Kyoto station and had some Ramen on the 8th floor then head to Kinkaku-ji Temple.
Late evening went to Pontocho Alley for some fusion italian japanese food and was not disappointed
*Day 4 Hiroshima and Quick Stop to Osaka*
Although our original plan was to stick to a day trip to Osaka we decided to take the early morning Shinkansen to Hiroshima and were not disappointed. The history is very important and we spent a good 2 hours at the Peace Musuem. Grabbed some good **Okonomiyaki at Nagataya** then head back to Osaka by 2pm.
Once we reached Osaka, we quickly took a taxi to Osaka Castle but the tours were closed by the time we reached so ended up taking pictures from the outside.
After Osaka Castle we went over to the Tsutenkaku area and ended the night at Dotonbori with some revolving **Sushi at Kura**
(Definitely could have spent more time here but we plan to visit Osaka back and have many places on our list for visit next time)
*Day 5 Back to Tokyo*
Took the Afternoon Shinkansen back to Tokyo for our stay in Ginza.
Got some good ramen at Ippudo before heading to the Uniqlo for some quick shoppping.
Got some good sushi in **SushiKan in Ginza** before calling it a night.
Day 6 Asakusa and Akihabara
Morning ride to Senso-ji Temple and a walked around Nakamise-dori Street, Nozoman Gate,Hoppy Street
(try the famous **curry bread at Komugi no Dorei** here)
Afternoon/Evening went to Akihabara for some Anime Souvenirs and some more street food
Day 7 Shibuya and Shinjuku
All the famous spots from the Meiji Jungu, Scramble Crossing to Hachiko Square and fun stores at the shibuya parco.
Shinjuku was a rather short visit as we were genuinely tired after so much walking and ended up at Kujira for a fun show with some drinks.
Dinner was at **Curry Udon Tatsuyoshi** was a great meal to have before some drinking.
Day 8 Ueno Park and more
We didnt realize how tired we were with all the walking so wanted to take a chill day at Ueno Park. Got some **Ichiran ramen** on the way before just walking around Ginza for more relaxed evening.
Day 9 Tokyo Tower and Fly back
Flight was on the evening so ended up spending half a day in Tokyo tower before heading to the airport.
We absolutely could have spend more time on each of these places but had so much on our list that we wanted to check out as much as we could. That said, would highly recommend more time in places like Osaka,Shibuya and Shinjuku as they have so much to offer
by RageufATL