We (me 44F and my friend 30M, both Belgian) flew with Lufthansa from Brussels via Frankfurt to Tokyo, return was Osaka via Munchen to Brussels.
Arrival :
Flight was uneventful, arrived around 6pm at Haneda where we picked up our mobile wifi from sakura mobile (we pre ordered a limitless 2 week AP, it worked flawlessly).
Then we picked up Pasmo pasports from the counter at the airport and each loaded 5k yen on to them.
Process was easy, staff were super friendly.
We took a limousine bus to Tokyo Kabukicho tower and walked to our hotel from there (wich was like 15 minutes from there) GLOU Higashi Shinjuku. Simple but clean and comfy rooms.
After checking in we walked around the neighbourhood a little, went to eat at this little place in a basement where everything costs 300yen (it was great).
Came upon Hanazono shrine (wich was awesome at night with all the blooming sakura trees).
We walked trough Golden Gai and past all the touts, this was the only neighbourhood we didn’t like, way to tourist trappy tbh. (The touts left us mostly alone, some assumed we were a couple and wanted to take us to a “nice couples bar”, we just ignored them).
Day 1:
We are both wrestling fans, so i got us tickets for NJPW Sakura Genesis at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, but since it started in the late afternoon, we used the morning to take the subway to Senso-ji Temple and walk from there. There was a crowd, but it was doable and the temple is very nice. We crossed the Sumida river and walked to the stadium trough Yokoamicho park.
Had lunch near the stadium (a menu with Udon noodles, really good).
After the wrestling show (was great) we took the subway back to the hotel.
Day 2:
We had booked Teamlab Borderless at 3pm (via Klook) today, so we took the metro to Ropongi in the morning and walked from there, just sight seeing and shopping. Saw a few shrines along the way and had FamilyMart lunch on a bench in a little park. Teamlab was awesome, we both really enjoyed it, there were alot of people, but it wasn’t too crowded I thought.
Afterwards we had dinner in Azabudai Hills.
Day 3:
We walked to Shinjuku and all the way to the Meiji shrine, shopping and sightseeing, just taking our time to enjoy Tokyo, after the shrine we went to the Nintendo and Pokemon stores at Shibuya Parco. We returned with the subway to the hotel and had dinner in Shinjuku.
Day 4:
We took the subway to Akihabara and went shopping there, had McDonalds lunch and in the afternoon we took the subway to the Imperial Palace where we walked the park around it. It was really nice and we were very impressed by the scale of the city standing there.
Day 5:
Checked out in the morning to take the Shinkansen to Osaka (pre booked with Klook).
We took the subway to Tokyo station, had some breakfast there (really nice sandwich and cheesecake smoothie) and at noon we boarded the Shinkansen. Really smooth ride to Shin-Osaka and then another subway to Shinsaibashi, our hotel was Shinsaibashi ARTY inn, a very cheap but extremely nice hotel right in America-mura (we absolutely loved this neighbourhood). We highly recommend this hotel.
In the evening we walked trough Dotombori a bit, went to see the Glinko man and had Karaage for dinner at a bar called Dragon Punch.
We also found a really nice 70’s rock bar called Phoe-be, very close to our hotel, we went there often for drinks at night, really friendly owner and nice atmosphere.
Day 6:
Went to Osaka port today, we had reservations for the Aquarium Kaiyukan in the afternoon (also Klook). We took the subway there and explored the neighbourhood, had lunch in the little mall at the aquarium, went tot he Lego store there. The Aquarium was busy but we both enjoyed it a lot, the sharks are cool, we really like watching the otters and the pinguins.
In the evening we had dinner in Dotombori, Fumo smoke parlor (amazing food).
Day 7:
Took the subway to Osaka Castle and walked around the park and the castle grounds (really nice, very touristy).
In the afternoon we took the subway back and went to DenDen-town for some shopping.
Had diner at a BBQ place in the evening (not bad, nothing special).
Day 8:
We took a local train to Kyoto today, we decided on the East side of the city and went to see Nanzen-ji temple and walked north over philosopher’s path (it was a little too crowded there but very nice with all the falling Sakura leaves).
We also had really good Breton crepes and cidre there for lunch (place called Breizh).
In the evening we took the same train back to Osaka.
Day 9:
We took a local train to Nara today, we walked towards Todai-ji temple. It was very crowded, but the temple and the buddha are really impressive, highly recommend visiting.
We walked back trough random streets and just enjoyed the scenery.
Day 10:
We stayed in Osaka today and took our time to shop for souvenirs, went to DenDen town again, did karaoke and in the evening we had a nice dinner at a little Udon place.
Day11:
Early flight home from Osaka to Munich, we had to land in Vienna to refuel cause of the bad weather.
Notes:
I used Booking.com to book the hotels. Booked the flights with the lufthansa website. Used klook for teamlab, shinkansen and aquarium. Used buysumotickets.com for the NJPW Sakura Genesis tickets. We each spent about 800€ on food, drinks, souvenirs and transport during this holiday. Used googlemaps for getting around, worked flawlessly.
The Japanese were all super nice and helpful, we learned early to combine the few japanese words we knew with very simple english and some pointing. In a few cases we just used google translate and showed the japanese text, it allways worked out.
Didn’t have a single bad experience with anyone there, Japan is an amazing country, we had an excellent holliday and we’ll definately come back in the future.
by 1rule