Trip Report 13 Days March 2024: Kyushu (Fukuoka, Kurume, Kagoshima, Yakushima, Kirishima) and Tokyo PART 2

I had originally drafted my trip report in one post and had to separate them due to the character limit but the formatting got a bit messed up, apologies! Part 1 can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/1c7akcd/trip_report_13_days_march_2024_kyushu_fukuoka/)

**DAY 8: Kichijoji, Tokyo**

While walking to breakfast we were tempted by the smell of donuts at **PIECE OF BAKE**. They were fluffy and filled with cream, this style seems to be trendy as we saw it a few times. Recommend! We continued to get in a line that we thought was for **Satou Kichijōji**, but actually was for a sweet shop next door, Ozasa. After getting in the correct line we bought their famous beef croquettes. They’d been sold to me as extraordinary and while they were really good they weren’t able to live up to the hype for me personally.

After the croquette we walked to **Inokashira Park** and began heading to the **Ghibli Museum**. The walk was lovely, I really love this park, with lots of flowers and many ducks. I especially loved passing all the people sitting in the sun reading books on park benches. We stopped at **Inokashira Benzaiten**, a Buddhist temple in the park by the lake. I don’t know if they normally write goshuin stamps directly into your book but when I handed my book to them they spoke to someone in the back and told me to come back in a few minutes.

My husband has never seen a Ghibli movie and isn’t into anime so I had just gotten a ticket for myself while he could do some exploring on his own. I lined up around 15 minutes early for my 12pm time slot, at which point there was already a fairly substantial queue. I think the people behind me had a later slot and after showing the attendant their ticket he pulled them out of the line.

To get my ticket I had three devices open, two phones and one computer, and signed into the website 30 minutes early. One of the phones randomly disconnected and had to be refreshed, for some reason that was the device that got the best number in line (7000 something). The other two devices got 13000 and 15000 if I remember correctly.

I’ve loved Miyazaki movies since discovering a VHS copy of Kiki’s Delivery Service at my library as a child but the museum was not for me. I’m not upset about my visit since the cost was very low and I’d wanted to go for awhile, but I doubt I’ll go back. As other people have reported it was very noisy and crowded with long lines for everything. It’s a lovely space and with fewer people it would have been fantastic, people with a higher tolerance for crowds may enjoy it more. I think the short film alone was worth the price of admission (adorable sumo mice!) but I didn’t stay long.

My disappointment was lifted when upon leaving from the museum I was greeted by several cherry blossom trees in full bloom. I’m fairly confident they were cherry blossoms since the flowers had the notches in the center of the petals, I’m no tree expert though. The trees were full of birds eating nectar, it was magnificent. We were too early for full cherry blossom season so I felt very grateful to be able to take photos and enjoy the ambiance.

After meeting back up with my husband we grabbed a drink at **Craft Beer Market Atre**, which had an excellent selection of Japanese craft beers, and then went to **Nakano Broadway** for shopping. I had read you could buy used watches there and wanted to get one for him as a present. Unfortunately I know nothing about watches and did not realize that even the cheapest ones were several THOUSAND dollars, which was more than I had to spend. Instead we window-shopped, looked at a bunch of anime figurines, and played a confusing quasi-gambling game with coins.

For dinner we walked to my favorite izakaya, **Bakawarai Junsui**. I went here on my first trip to Japan and it’s now a staple of any visit, it is the absolute best. The staff are incredibly welcoming and the food is amazing. I swear the friendliness is infectious as I always end up laughing and joking with the other patrons, if you do come here definitely sit at the bar if you can. There isn’t an English menu but if you tell the staff what you like they make great recommendations. We ate our way through sashimi, steak, this amazing cheese-honey thing, curry potatoes, and their signature omelet. After a lot of laughing and joking we ended the night taking tequila shots with the staff. At first my husband was a little confused why this was a required excursion, but by the end of the evening he was converted. If you’re going to be in Kichijoji in the late afternoon/evening for the Ghibli Museum I highly recommend this place for dinner.

**STEP COUNT: 19,220**

**DAY 9: Asakusa, Tokyo**

We said goodbye to Kichijoji and headed to **Asakusa View Hotel** to drop off our luggage. An imposingly large hotel with fancy lobby, it was surprisingly cheap (something like $80 per night). It had a checkout time of 12pm, the latest of our trip. We were upgraded to an executive suite on the 24th floor, the room was narrow but the view was impressive. They also offered the most bonus amenities like a bunch of skincare samples and bath salts, and when we accidentally left some things they held them for us, I’d recommend this place.

The train ride was fine but at some of our transfers we weren’t able to find elevators and had to carry our luggage up several flights of stairs. It could have been worse, we only had a backpack and small roller bag each, but still wasn’t ideal. We also noticed that it is the custom to flip your backpack around to your front to make sure you don’t accidentally knock into anyone.

To my surprise I did not like Asakusa as a whole. It was crowded and had restaurants that seemed to have inflated prices. The hotel was neat and it was really cool to spend a night so high up, but if I could do it over I would have skipped staying there and added an extra night in Kichijoji. Even when we walked around at night or early in the morning it was already busy. I had heard Asakusa was nice to stay in because it’s quieter than Shinjuku or Shibuya, and I guess by comparison it probably is, but if you want things more mellow I’d stay elsewhere.

We first went to a sushi restaurant to meet our guide for a food tour I booked through AirBNB. On the tour we had sushi, soba, taiyaki and matcha ice cream, and for the first time on a tour we were paired with other tourists. It’s slightly more geared for first-time travelers to Japan but I think it was worth the cost, at the sushi place we tried selections we would not have picked on our own. Tuna head meat is shockingly tasty! The guide also made an effort to make recommendations for things to do around Tokyo which I appreciated.

After the tour we picked up shichimi togarashi at **Yagenbori** and some lovely pottery at **Dengama**, my favorite being a crescent moon and bunny chopstick rest. In the evening we checked out **ALL (W)RIGHT -sake place-**, a sake brewery that makes doburoku. Doburoku is a very traditional style of sake where the rice and rice molt are fermented but not strained. I consider myself a fan of sake, and while this is not my favorite style it was really cool to try it. They have other styles as well and you can tell they experiment (for instance they had an IPA sake with CBD).

For dinner I had put “find something good on hoppy street!” in the itinerary which not the correct choice. Places were full, the ones that had space seemed overpriced, so we wandered back towards our hotel getting increasingly hangry. We settled on a teppanyaki place with good reviews. They almost turned us a away for being full but after deliberating for a minute said they could squeeze us in. I’m not going to call them out by name as I don’t think we had a fair experience to judge them. The food was fine, not terrible but not really worth the price in my opinion, but what really colored the evening was how stressed all the staff seemed.

Our server American, and while I appreciate that he explained they were having a really tough night we probably wouldn’t have noticed so it mainly served to make us feel really guilty for inconveniencing them. He also said they partially took us because he had had so many negative experiences being turned away at restaurants for being a foreigner even though he spoke fluent Japanese, and he didn’t want us to think that’s why they said they were full. Honestly we wouldn’t have thought that way, and everywhere that turned us away on our trip appeared legitimately full, but still a nice gesture. Both him and the hostess apologized a bunch and gave us multiple gifts as we left, including a neat fold-out card with a hanging crane that is now displayed in our room, but I still feel guilty for adding to their stress and wish we had just made a reservation or gone to a different area.

**STEP COUNT: 19,920**

**DAY 10: Ebisu, Tokyo**

I was up earlier then my husband and decided to try **Cafe Tomorrow Asakusa** as I was craving a traditional Japanese breakfast. I should have been wary after I saw it only cost 880 yen, but it was still a letdown after how spectacular our breakfasts were at the ryokan and in Yakushima. It did, however, fill me up and was extremely cheap so I’m not upset. It opens at 7am and when I got there at 730 it was already pretty full, but the time I left at 815 there was a line down the stairs. If you’re looking for a budget breakfast option this would be a good place.

My husband wanted a large meal before playing soccer later so we packed our things and walked to **Suke6 Diner**. We had a short wait but it wasn’t bad, and the diner is in a nice location by the river. He had a “full English breakfast” which didn’t quite live up to the name but was still good, and I had a chocolate croissant. Croissant was 10/10, I wish I had ordered a bunch to go.

Feeling reticent to schlep our luggage on the trains again we opted to take a taxi to our AirBNB in Ebisu. I picked the location for it’s price and because I’d heard Ebisu is a nice area, somewhat close to Shinjuku but not too close. On my first trip I had exclusively stayed in AirBNBs and found I enjoyed the experience of pretending to live in Tokyo so I wanted my husband to have that too, but I think AirBNBs have changed in the last 6 years. This one was nice but really just felt like a slightly larger hotel room, with the added benefit of a very fancy washer/dryer in the room. It was a single machine that does both! I’m sure that technology exists in the US, and there’s probably a reason they aren’t common here, but I thought it was super cool and want one. On the plus side the host let us check-in three hours early and I loved how quiet and residential the area was.

My husband left to play soccer with a group he found on Meetup (an experience he really loved and recommends) while I went to **IBREW EBISU**. I love craft beer, especially IPAs, and found this to be a cool place. It did take me embarrassingly long to find as it’s two floors down from street-level, and I struggled to open the heavy metal doors and thought they might be locked, but those minor hurdles made finding the bar more satisfying. Great selection, various price points, shockingly good falafel. I read my book and had a few beers before heading back.

My husband is a diehard Arsenal fan so after resting we left to check out **HIGHBURY -THE HOME OF BEER-** in Shinjuku. While trying to navigate we got terribly lost in Shinjuku station and spent a good 20 minutes attempting to locate our transfer. There were lots of signs but I think because of the construction that is happening they aren’t always accurate. After exiting to the street and walking a few blocks we did manage to find the connection and get to the bar. The theming of the bar is very cool but we unfortunately happened to go on a night where someone was doing an unrelated presentation on Chinese beer so it wasn’t the ‘meet local Arsenal fans!’ experience I was hoping for. The staff was polite and answered his questions about the memorabilia, the bathroom is especially themed, so we stayed for one beer and left.

We strolled to Shinjuku station, admiring the bright lights and party atmosphere, before making our way home. I had put “find something at the Ebisu yokocho!” for dinner but by the time we made it back most places were last-call or closed. While walking to the apartment we came across **Taihouki Gyoza** and picked it mostly because it stayed open until 3am. The place was packed with people, the food was hearty but nothing extraordinary, we had a nice time.

**STEP COUNT: 23,930**

**DAY 11: Ebisu, Tokyo**

My husband was feeling rather sore from soccer so I walked to **Sarutahiko Coffee** for coffee while he rested. The weather was perfect, I passed a small pond filled with aquatic plants and fish, it was just one of those lovely Tokyo experiences you get from just wandering through residential neighborhoods. Sarutahiko was pretty busy despite being quite literally next to a Starbucks and Blue Bottle Coffee, the coffee and the guava cake were both good.

In the early afternoon we went to **Takeshita Street** in Harajuku which was completely packed to the gills with people. We did a bit of shopping and then walked to Oreryu Shio-Ramen for spicy fried chicken and cheese ramen. They are cash only and at this point of the trip we were getting low, but we managed to pay with a bunch of leftover coins. The ramen was quite good, I’d put it below Seiyoken but above Ichiran.

We started walking to **Meiji Shrine**, this area was also pretty packed. We ended up paying to go into the gardens hoping for more quiet, something similar to Sengan-en, but I think March might be the worst time to visit. Everything was brown, very few flowers, and any tranquility was overshadowed by a loud concert happening in Yoyogi Park. We turned around before reaching the shrine, I think we either should have gone there first before shopping or visited early in the morning.

We had 2pm tickets to **TeamLab Borderless** so we headed there next. I had decided on Borderless instead of Planets because I don’t love getting my feet wet, and I thought it would be cool to check out Borderless right after it reopened. The space is located inside a mall so be mindful about giving yourself time to navigate, it’s not a standalone building. I had heard there were long lines to get in but there weren’t any for us, we were able to drop off our shopping bags at complimentary lockers and walk straight in.

Borderless was excellent, if you go make sure to take your time with the different rooms. I wish we had been slightly less tired when we went, by this point in the trip our feet were pretty sore. I recommend the experience but wouldn’t necessarily go again unless it was changed significantly.The previous day I had made a dinner reservation for **Mizunotori (previously GEM by moto)**. It was easy to make one through Google, but don’t be like me and tell yourself that the reservation was for 630 when you had actually made it for 6! They graciously still sat us and were nice about my error. This was an awesome restaurant, really delicious food and a great place to get exposed to different types of sake. My husband is not a sake guy and they were able to find one he liked. We felt a bit underdressed so I’d wear slightly nicer clothes if you come here. The staff was attentive and chatty, they educated us about sake and we stayed until closing.

**STEP COUNT: 23,000**

**DAY 12: Asakusa, Tokyo**

Our last day(s) were centered around staying at **cyashitsu ryokan asakusa**, which I had seen recommended on this sub. It’s has a minimalist tea house aesthetic, since it was our last night I had booked the room with a private outdoor bath. If you book this room they will warn you that the bathroom is not inside the room, but it’s quite literally one door over and we never ran into anyone in the hallway, honestly two of our other hotel rooms had bathrooms that were further away. It was lovely but I don’t think it’s necessary to get the room with it’s own private bath, they have a larger outdoor bath that you can reserve that seemed empty most of the time.

After dropping off our luggage we went to **The Burger Craft**, picked mostly because of the reviews and proximity to where we were. Service was slow, there was just a cook and a waitress and they were handling both dine-in and take out orders, and my husband and I are split on the food. I loved my Quattro Cheese Burger, he got the BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger and disliked the buns and found it under seasoned. You do have to order a beverage other than water so keep that in mind if you’re budgeting.

After lunch we decided to check out the **Asakusa Don Quixote** and **SkyTree**. Don Quixote was a zoo but fun, we picked up gifts for people but actually found a better selection with cheaper prices at Asakusa ROX the following day. At SkyTree my husband attempted to get a ticket to the observation deck but saw the line and decided to skip it, I hate heights and had Starbucks while he investigated.

We explored for a bit, I swear it looked very different in 2017 but that could just be my mind playing tricks on me. While adding money to our IC before getting on the train a solo tourist in front of us in line tried to add money using a credit card but all the charging stations were cash only. She seemed really stressed so we lent her some cash, but another good reason to always carry a bit of cash with you if you don’t have Suica on your phone!

We left early to get to **Saitamaya Yakiton** as it opened at 4pm and I had heard the lineup starts as early as 330pm. It’s a bit out of the way to get to, and on this particular windy Monday there was only one person waiting when we got there at 345 so that information may be outdated. We were seated at 4 and they began service, by the time we left around 6 the place was full and there was a line.

If I could only recommend three restaurants to people it would be Umi-no Cottage Tida, Bakawarai Junsui, and this place. You have to order at least one alcoholic beverage, it’s also not a great choice if you’re a picky eater, but if you’re open to trying new things and want a fun night this is the place for it. You get 9 grilled meat skewers, what they are varies but you don’t get to pick them, there are also additional small plates you can purchase.

This was the first time I’ve ever enjoyed liver or intestine, if they normally tasted like this I’d eat them all the time. Also the pig cartilage was unreasonably good?? It’s a family run business, no phones or photography is allowed so you get to know your seatmates (we did use our phones to communicate through google translate which was fine), the man on our left has been coming here once a month for 20 years. We showed him our pictures from Yakushima, he showed us pictures of his hometown, it was a nice conversation.

I consumed many lemon sours, my husband found he loved the lemon hoppys, and when we told the owner we were on our honeymoon he grilled us some special wagyu beef which was probably the best single bite of our trip. The owner and his family speak a bit of English but we mostly used our phones to communicate which worked fine.

After resting at our hotel we decided to search for a karaoke bar to finish our trip. I can’t find the name of the place but while it was fine I don’t think you’d need to add it to a trip plan. There was a sign outside that said ‘karaoke!’ so we went in, but after sitting down we found out the karaoke started at 9 which was in about an hour and a half. We decided to stay, had a few more drinks and some snacks, only to discover at 9 that the karaoke was in a separate small space down the street that you rented by the hour.

I wasn’t thrilled with this turn of events, we had really enjoyed singing with others in Yakushima and if we wanted to rent a space to ourselves we could have done that earlier in the night. Looking back I wish we had just said this wasn’t what we were looking for and left, but at the time I was worried about coming across as rude so we went along with it. It was fine but the sound quality was worse than the bar in Yakushima. On the bright side it did make me appreciate how nice that place was!

**STEP COUNT: 19,880**

**Day 13: Asakusa, Tokyo**

Our flight wasn’t until 9pm so I had set aside this day for shopping. The breakfast at cyashitsu was very nice although probably ranked lowest of the ryokan breakfasts (Umi-no Cottage Tida first, Anraku Onsen Shumine second), but it was still better than any hotel breakfast I’ve had in the States. They also very sweetly gave us a special plate wishing us a happy honeymoon and took a polaroid picture of us in our yukata.

I had paid to check out late but we were still almost even more late after I lost track of time in my bath, but we made it downstairs at 11 on the dot. They very nicely agreed to hold our luggage while we went shopping, and made some suggestions on places to go.

We first went to **Asakusa ROX**, a multi-story shopping mall with a bunch of small shops, mainly to get some children’s books for my friend’s children. It took us awhile to find the bookstore but while searching for it we found a ton of other rad souvenirs. The bookstore had several bilingual books, which is what I was searching for, so all in all an unexpectedly successful excursion.

We then went to **B-Side Label**, a really cool sticker store, in Harajuku. I love this store and have been every trip since discovering it, but I usually go to the Kichijoji branch. If you have the option I’d recommend that branch over the Harajuku one as it’s a larger store and less crowded. Their other merch is also really neat and the stickers make great gifts.

We started getting hungry around 3, which is no mans land restaurant-wise as many places close after lunch and reopen later for dinner. I had a bunch of restaurants pinned but they all fell into this category so we ended up at **Gyukatsu Kyoto Katsugyu Harajuku**. There was a short wait but this place was excellent! Instead of pork katsu it’s beef, and you grill it at the table over these small pots. Maybe too many options for dipping, it was kind of overwhelming, but that’s not a really a complaint per se, and the beef was excellent. When we went to pay there was a group of tourists ahead of us that got frustrated with the staff when they couldn’t split their bill three ways so maybe keep that in mind if you’re a larger group.

After our late lunch we went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and decided to get to the airport early since we were checking bags. The least amount of walking had us taking a bus to Nippori Station and then transferring to the Narita Skyliner, we briefly panicked when the bus took slightly longer then estimated and our transfer window was only 8 minutes but we made it in time!

The Narita Airport is nice, something I read said the food options were better before security so we went to grab dinner and did some last minute Uniqlo shopping where I found the best pair of workpants, I wish I had bought 3 more. Security took roughly 2 minutes, afterwards we did a bit more shopping and loaded up on snacks at the Family Mart.

I liked ZipAir, it’s a budget airline but the katsu sandwich was surprisingly good and the service was attentive. We got lucky and there were multiple empty rows so we both moved and slept most of the flight.

**STEP COUNT: 18,310**

**FINAL THOUGHTS:** If you’ve gotten this far I hope you’ll find some of it helpful for planning your own trip, my husband and I had an amazing time and are hoping to return soon. If you have any questions please let me know, I’m happy to answer!

by Junekri

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