Hello and welcome to another report of my 1 year stay in Japan. Slowly but surely, this thing is nearing its end with only 4 months left to cover. But they’re all pretty packed as far as activities and travels went, which you’ll see in this very report. Back in February 2023, three of my friends came to Japan on vacation for almost 4 weeks. Two of them were first timers in Japan, so I was fairly excited to show them around together with my other “veteran” friend (I know you are reading this, don’t think too highly of yourself now!). The travel itinerary was as follows: (Tokyo) – Sapporo – Hakodate – Tokyo – Kawaguchiko – Numazu – Osaka – Kyoto – Tokyo, with some day trips here and there and the FIRST SAKURA we/I had seen that year!
Be warned that this report may be a bit “special” as far as writing goes because I know they’re reading this.
Previous reports can be found below:
[Part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/178mxdx/one_year_in_japan_the_open_air_sauna_june_july/) | [Part 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/17kfjpl/one_year_in_japan_escaping_the_heat_august_2022/) | [Part 3](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/17yfls8/one_year_in_japan_sapporo_my_beloved_august_22/) | [Part 4](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/1b1mkrh/one_year_in_japan_big_news_first_mistakes/) | [Part 5](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/1b88w18/one_year_in_japan_a_most_enjoyable_kyoto_october/) | [Part 6](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/1bi2lvb/one_year_in_japan_kanazawa_and_nakasendo_november/) | [Part 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/1bsgtgx/one_year_in_japan_onomichi_and_the_famous/) | [Part 8](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/1c0nfqf/one_year_in_japan_a_boat_ride_and_first/) | [Part 9](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/1c8mxu2/one_year_in_japan_horse_meat_and_erupting/) | [Part 10](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/1cfgf43/one_year_in_japan_the_calm_before_another_storm/)
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**Sapporo**
Once again I would find myself in Sapporo. This was my first domestic flight in Japan and it definitely made my previous trip to Sapporo by train in September 2022 hurt because it further strengthened my opinion that I should have taken flights back then too. I went to Haneda, checked-in my suitcase and then waited for two of my friends who were flying into Tokyo from Germany. Another friend had been in Tokyo for a few days already and bummed about in Hokkaido already. My friends arrived, mentally drained as expected, we checked them into the flights from Tokyo to Sapporo and went on our way. The flight took less than two hours and went pretty smoothly. Which can’t exactly be said about our trip from the airport to our Airbnb because who knew that traversing a city with piles of snow with suitcases would be less than ideal? Especially because large parts of Sapporo don’t even get cleared from the snow. Some of the sidewalks outside the “center” (Susukino) weren’t cleared at all, which was …an [experience](https://i.imgur.com/Bvu7HH3.jpeg).
Either way, we arrived safely at our accommodation, which was an Airbnb not even 15 minutes away on foot from Susukino. And it had a fairly amazing [view](https://i.imgur.com/FmMFmE7.jpeg) from the balcony. We got ourselves some hot lemon tea (KIRIN hot lemon is a life saver) and a couple of snacks and that was it because it was already evening and my two friends had been travelling for 24h+ and multiple flights!
Regardless of jet lag, we immediately made our way to Otaru on the next day because there was a Snow Miku exhibition there and my friends are big fans. The train ride from Sapporo to Otaru was pretty bad, probably one of the worst rides I ever experienced in Japan due to the combination of _packed_ + heat blasting AC and multiple prolonged stops along the route due to snow being cleared off tracks. Otaru itself was very pretty and it had been a loooong time since I had seen this much snow – we just don’t get that much in western Germany these days but I always loved snow.
Once we had checked out the [Miku exhibition](https://imgur.com/a/tx2CyUJ), I made a little mistake (I will blame Google maps) and it took quite a bit for us to get back from the place the exhibition was held at to Sakaimachi street. The detour took us along the harbour and other fairly snowed in areas. Underneath [this](https://i.imgur.com/EBOlTyW.jpeg), for example, is supposed to be a park. Eventually we got back to Sakaimachi and [walked around](https://i.imgur.com/jPkkMRo.jpeg), looking for a place to eat. We decided on a place serving udon and if I recall correctly, all of us ordered [curry udon](https://files.catbox.moe/hrgfto.jpg) and it was fantastic. A hot bowl of udon really hit the spot after walking around in the cold for more than an hour. Afterwards, we checked some spots in Sakaimachi, bought some cookies at Rokkatei and then did the obligatory walk along the [canal](https://imgur.com/a/YVRFMhG) before heading back to Sapporo. Fun fact: one of my friends slipped only a mere 3 times in Otaru. Let this be a warning – if you go to northern Japan in Winter, please buy proper winter boots.
The weather blessed us another time, with it being cold but mostly [sunny](https://i.imgur.com/tTwOPbD.jpeg). Having been to Sapporo before, the city looked so different, I sometimes didn’t recognise parts of it. One major reason we decided to start our travels up in Hokkaido was obviously because of the famous [Snow Festival](https://imgur.com/a/Prnvo9w) and while these pictures may not properly convey it, the sculptures were amazing in real life, some of them had crazy good detail. We went for lunch at an izakaya-esque shop serving all sorts of standard food. Decided on [chicken nanban](https://i.imgur.com/7lPwrVt.jpeg), which had become somewhat of a favourite of mine ever since I first had it in Tokyo. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the snow festival at night. Might consult my friends and add them on later!
On our third day, “disaster” struck as we all fell ill. Given my previous bouts with having a cold immediately after flights, I was just waiting for it to happen. We took the following two days a bit easier, starting them around mid-day whenever we felt good enough to go out. This [area](https://i.imgur.com/8FKMsHc.jpeg) usually has a park next to the river but alas, in Winter, it is completely covered in snow. Just like [Nakajima-koen](https://imgur.com/a/XyHivfR). The entire area with the pond is just buried under ice and snow, which was incredible to see. We checked out [Iyahiko](https://imgur.com/a/zzIPAas) and [Sapporo Gokoku shrine](https://i.imgur.com/ekNhxba.jpeg), which had barely any visitors, which made for pretty great pictures. I also took them to my favourite [ramen](https://imgur.com/a/eENdKEy) spot in Japan and they absolutely loved it, going as far as to devour their entire bowls – which was a rarity, apparently.
The final day in Sapporo had us go to Maruyama-koen, visiting [Hokkaido jingu](https://imgur.com/a/gZolRqv), walking through the snow covered park itself before taking a tram to Moiwayama for another couple of [shots of Sapporo from the mountain](https://imgur.com/a/SqJPZ83). Made me feel a bit nostalgic, thinking back to my first visits up there back in August a year prior. The mountain range really is amazing when it’s covered in snow. Since this was our last day, there was one particular dish native to Hokkaido we wanted to try. Now, for the sake of our friendship, I will not get into how the search for this place went or how the “transactions” within went, but I will say that Jingisukan was pretty good overall. Perhaps I’d rate it even higher had we not been rather stressed and made some mistakes in the restaurant itself but I am keen on trying it again some day. To cap the day off, we were supposed to meet up at the Sapporo TV tower. My “veteran” Japan traveller friend had spent most of her time with her parents in Sapporo but she assured us she’d meet us at the tower. Cue us arriving there and her realising that she thought we meant the JR Tower at Sapporo station. Sasuga, Veteran-chan. At least the other three of us got a great view of [Odori park](https://imgur.com/a/CTZqdKE) with its many snow sculptures and lights that evening.
And with that, our Sapporo time was already over. Next stop: Hakodate.
**Hakodate**
This was a fairly short endeavour as we took the limited express from Sapporo to Hakodate, arrived around mid-day, ate at Lucky Pierrot. Just don’t go there if you ever go to Hakodate. The burger was ass, the fries were pretty good but ultimately not worth – especially because I bet a year later, tourism has ramped up so much that there will be long queues to get in. We only stayed here for this half day and would go to Tokyo the day after. We walked around the[ port](https://imgur.com/a/npHWDiz) for a bit and then got the [Hakodateyama](https://i.imgur.com/rYEKufP.jpeg) view in before going to sleep. Truth be told, I’d rather have stayed here for a full day and swapped the cursed Nara day I will report on later down this post for it…
**Tokyo**
And with that done, we headed back to Tokyo. Coming from -10°C to 10-15°C in Tokyo felt as bad as you might expect but I was also glad I didn’t have to wear my thick Winter boots anymore. That being said, of course on the day of arriving in Tokyo, it was pouring rain from the heavens and my Google maps navigated me to the back entrance of our hotel! Sometimes you definitely should not trust Google maps 100% and keep your eyes open for possible flaws… We had arrived rather late in the day so we got quick Coco ichi for dinner and then just took it easy at our hotel. The two first timers were most certainly feeling the effects of being on their feet for multiple days in snowy Hokkaido.
And then two of them went on to see an idol concert the next day, which left me and one of my friends to just stroll around various places in Tokyo. My friend was hellbent on hunting down a Jinbesan plush, so we checked multiple places that sold San-X goods only to never find this shark. Funnily enough, she did see one in Sapporo but didn’t get it because “Surely we will find this in Tokyo as well anyway”. Lesson to be learned: sometimes, it’s best to just buy something you are interested in immediately.
February is also when plum season starts on Honshu and Yushima [Tenman-gu](https://imgur.com/a/qz6ujoa) has a bunch of them, which at the time weren’t in full bloom but cute nonetheless. We went to the typical spots first timers would go to, like Harajuku, [Meiji Jingu](https://i.imgur.com/WP5HzCJ.jpeg) and [Skytree](https://imgur.com/a/TWH7qLQ) as well. I can not recall the name of the restaurant, but we had [oyakodon](https://i.imgur.com/GYavCXx.jpeg) at a semi-fancy looking place in Solamachi/Skytree and it was really good. I ain’t gonna lie, since I had been in Japan for so long and already visited most of these places before, I didn’t take many pictures here and don’t really have much to say that you haven’t already read a billion times on this subreddit so let’s go to the parts that may be a bit more interesting! Like the next stop on our February travels, which was…
**Kawaguchiko**
A proper first for all of us, Kawaguchiko was a place we were very hyped about. We took trains very early from Shinjuku station (at around 8am) and Fuji was visible almost the entire day we were [there](https://i.imgur.com/HjPxaSm.jpeg). After arriving and dropping our luggage off at Hotel Mystays Fuji Onsen Resort (which we still have no idea how we go it for the price we did back then), we went off to get some lunch at a fairly mid (in my opinion at least) place near Kawaguchiko station. The closer a place is to a station in a place as tourism focused as this, the more “average” it will be in my experience! But we weren’t there for the incredible food – we were there for the incredible scenery.
It’s one thing to see Fuji in the distance from observatory decks in Tokyo or out of a shinkansen window. Being this close to the volcano itself is a whole different thing altogether. It’s absolutely breathtaking! I’ve mentioned many times how some of the things I have done or seen in Japan in real life don’t translate onto pictures well but without a shadow of a doubt, Fuji is the biggest example of this. The entire time I was there, I just kept thinking that it should be impossible for this to be real. This [shot](https://i.imgur.com/5VOwQsB.jpeg) of Fuji in the background and the cat being there at this moment is one of my favourite pictures! Here are a [bunch of pictures of the lake, surroundings and Fuji.](https://imgur.com/a/htJEzzR) _Unfortunately_ we didn’t get to the pagoda in time to see Fuji still, the clouds stole the view but it was still a pretty [decent one](https://imgur.com/a/LvyO2Ew)! And this place was very empty at the time, which has obviously changed since then.
Also, bonus… if you kept up with recent news, there has been a huge wave of people camping that one Lawson with the Fuji view in the back. Well, let’s just say we got that view a [year ago without realising this would turn into such a big deal.](https://files.catbox.moe/ospc04.jpg) There was practically nobody in front of it so it’s kind of wild to see how problematic tourism has become within just a year for this place in particular.
I can highly recommend the aforementioned Hotel Mystays. If you can get a good deal on it, it’s a really great hotel to stay in for like a day or two because the view you get from the rooms are great. I woke up the next day as the sun was rising and was greated with[ this stunning view](https://i.imgur.com/Nf68P7D.jpeg) of Fuji. Honestly, one of my favourite single day trips in Japan and I’ll 100% go here again to check more of the surrounding lakes out, possibly with some bikes. Winter is definitely the best time to get clear views of Fuji. With that being said, our next destination would be a town called Numazu.
**Numazu + Kawazu Sakura**
Now, I won’t be surprised if most people haven’t heard of this place. The reason we went there is because the Love Live Sunshine anime is set in this town and good old veteran traveller is still insanely into Aqours and can’t go a Japan trip without going here, apparently! We took a bus from Kawaguchiko to Mishima and then the train from there to Numazu itself. BUT let’s not skip out on the “fun” part of our departure from Kawaguchiko. Namely, none of us having any clue how to get from the hotel to the bus station without actually entering the Fuji-Q theme park with our luggage, walking through it in a hurry, one of us having a broken shoulder… and one just leasurely [taking](https://imgur.com/a/VFhbRr7) pictures as if we weren’t 2 minutes off missing our bus! Choose your travelling companions wisely, dear readers… <3
Numazu is a small port town and in all honesty – fairly rundown. If it weren’t for the fact that the aforementioned anime and group’s origin was here, I have no doubt it would be even more rundown considering that most visitors probably come here due to the anime. That being said – I love port towns so this one was still cute enough for a short 1-2 day endeavour, especially because seeing my friends get hyped over anime idols filled my rotten heart with joy ^-^. And the not-so-rundown parts of the town lent themselves to great photos considering it’s surrounded by the sea and hills/mountains. Of course, [Fuji](https://i.imgur.com/8PgkuXZ.jpeg) made an appearance as well. Shizuoka prefecture reminded me of Hiroshima prefecture a bit in terms of [fauna and climate](https://imgur.com/a/Ood1GZ2), I suppose? It felt fairly distinctively different from the rest of Japan in a good way. Even the [sunsets](https://imgur.com/a/NGhBzjp) over there feel different, but maybe that’s just a bit of imagination on my part.
Numazu and specifically Uchiura definitely do embrace the aforementioned idol anime series existence and have a [bunch of places with merch](https://imgur.com/a/udG5tO9) and restaurants and [cafés](https://i.imgur.com/XEgaq9m.jpeg) with items referencing the characters and such. There’s also a deep-sea museum there, which was pretty interesting but given the nature of it, taking pictures wasn’t exactly possible. I will say that I enjoyed this museum more than the big one in Osaka but more about that later. As usual with port towns, a lot of their economy is made up of the fishing industry and this town was no stranger to that. There are plenty of seafood restaurants and we decided to hit up a few. My choice of food was rather boring, keeping to [tuna and sashimi bowls](https://imgur.com/a/coz5KuF). One of my friends was more adventurous and ordered this monstrosity of a [kakiage tower](https://files.catbox.moe/3ixcwk.jpg) on top of rice. We could not finish this but it was delicious nevertheless, even if it looks intimidating.
One thing about Japan that is somewhat rarely brought up when it comes to sakura is the fact that there are a whole lot of varieties of them. The bog-standard one everybody thinks of is the somei-yoshino variant, which have white petals and are the predominant variant which marks the beginning of “the” sakura season people think of. But there are also plenty of variants that bloom early or even late. One such variant is the Kawazu sakura, which – as the name suggests – has its roots in Kawazu on the Izu peninsula, which holds an annual cherry blossom festival which coincidentally was happening when we were in Numazu. A round trip took a whopping 4 hours but the chances of being anywhere near this place again any time soon were low so we decided to go.
And it was spectacular! The [Kawazu cherries are pink](https://imgur.com/a/bh6mD3c) instead of white like the somei-yoshino variant and the entire little town is full of them. But arguably the main “attraction” is the [river, lined on both sides with sakura trees](https://imgur.com/a/MCjv6bL) as far as the eye can see. We were a bit late for peak bloom but it looked beautiful nonetheless and is one of my favourite sakura spots. We spent around two hours walking around, eating some of the typical festival food, even having a brief chat with a Japanese man who made some amusing comments about a certain Eastern European country’s leader. All in all a fantastic visit and I’d highly recommend going here if you are in Japan during February.
On our last in Numazu, we had a few hours before our train down to Osaka so we took another [walk around town](https://imgur.com/a/tfALgrJ), friends bought some mikan and then we were off to my behated Osaka…
**Osaka**
Ah, Osaka. My hate-hate relationship. Throughout the years of visiting Japan, I have never quite warmed up to this city but alas, the giant aquarium is located there and we chose Osaka as our base for Kansai. [The aquarium is one of the few in the world that keeps whale sharks!](https://imgur.com/a/z3chlyp) The place is rather dark overall and taking pictures is a bit difficult, especially because – as you may expect – the number of people (especially KIDS WITH IPADS) blocking the views is high. Honestly, I think most of our group didn’t enjoy this place as much as the smaller aquarium in Numazu. On top of that, there’s quite the irony in this place. There’s a section about plastic waste and how it’s found in every body of water and how humanity needs to take care of that. Then a couple minutes later you enter the aqarium cafeteria which uses a whole lot of plastic wrapping…
We hit up [Osaka castle park, which had some blooming plum trees](https://imgur.com/a/awjrxFo) as well. I think the first place we actually had a “large” meal at in Osaka was Sushiro. We just wanted sushi and I remember we were all pretty dead that day and just wanted to eat somewhere and Sushiro was around the corner. My god did we destroy those plates. I’ve never seen my friends eat this much food. I think me and one of them ate around 18 plates each. We also visited a [vegan cafe](https://files.catbox.moe/0sfmv4.jpg) on one of the days there and it was overall a very nice experience. Vegan food options in Japan have increased over the years. Let’s just hope that one day, vegan restaurants and cafes will serve portions that aren’t for ants.
The other notable thing of our stay in Osaka was me losing my wallet. Now, I have never, ever lost my wallet before and I was kind of losing my mind. My wallet contained everything; credit card, residency card, shinkansen tickets, suica, a good amount of cash and I was just going through it, mentally. Thankfully, my veteran friend redeemed herself by asking staff at the 7-11 we were last at whether they had found a wallet and they sure did. I was so wrecked mentally, I didn’t even register the cashier asking for my name to confirm I was the actual owner of the wallet. Needless to say, I guess the best place to lose your wallet in would be Japan. Still, wouldn’t recommend.
What I would recommend, which isn’t an Osaka specific thing, is karaoke. If you travel with a few friends and you are somewhat on the same wavelength, karaoke is an absolute must. It’s one of my favourite activities to do with friends and always a blast. We probably spent a combined 10 hours in karaoke booths on this trip and we’d do it again. Sometimes you might find places that have a Torikizoku in the same building as a Joysound and if you “dine” at the former, you get 10% off at the latter, which is nice.
**Kyoto + Nara**
Unfortunately, we didn’t really have much time allocated for Kyoto as a whole – just one day so we made up a small itinerary with things that are must-sees. It was a bit tight considering we took trains from one side of the town to the other, but we managed to hit up Arashiyama on one side, w[alking along the Katsura river, checking out the monkey park, bamboo forest and the garden within.](https://imgur.com/a/noFL9Sh) On the other side, we went about half-way to the top of [Fushimi Inari before heading back due](https://imgur.com/a/RyZmXtS) to it not really being _that_ worth to go to the top, especially considering some of us were fairly gassed at that point.
Our daytrip to Nara… Let’s not get into specifics but we left late, we wasted a bunch of time and I personally just shut down that day, mentally. The only thing I remember from that day was us getting pulled into some type of earthquake museum (?) and given a small tour by one of the staff members, which ended up being more interesting than expected. The deer were pretty “aggressive” that day, too, if I recall correctly. As far as pictures go, I didn’t take many. [This](https://i.imgur.com/D35cgEG.jpg) is the only one I took, right outside the Starbucks near the deer park.
We capped the last day off with a visit at another Torikizoku + karaoke round. Now, Torikizoku isn’t fine dining or anything BUT the[ strawberry ice cream + chocolate whipped cream + chocolate syrup](https://i.imgur.com/kKkdJfC.jpeg) is a seasonal item there served during winter. It’s most definitely just supermarket ice cream, cream and syrup but it was our guilty pleasure.
And then it was time to return to Tokyo for the final two days of my friend’s stay.
**Tokyo**
Again, two of them went off to their idol concert, which left the other two of us to hunt for that elusive whale shark plushie…but we did not find it this time either. The weather was pretty bad that day, extremely windy and cloudy. We decided to check out [Hamarikyu Gardens](https://imgur.com/a/6cNXW3E) to pass some time. We had a delicious McDonald’s meal (don’t judge), an obligatory [Sumidagawa river walk](https://i.imgur.com/YpENoqX.jpeg) and then met up with our friends again.
Final day was just a laid back affair mostly. We went to Nakameguro, got some vegan ice cream at [this](https://maps.app.goo.gl/UHJDvXomftsrkUYM9) place which was great but pricy as hell – but that’s just vegan food in general, still. We did some last day shopping, hitting up a bunch of anime stores in Ikebukuro before once again getting our vocal chords fried at karaoke. Some unfortunate news cut our night short but given that my friends had to leave early the next day, that was probably for the better. At least we got a nice, quiet walk through Akihabara with a final [late night visit at Kanda Myojin](https://files.catbox.moe/cw678h.png) in before heading back to our hotel.
My friends packed their things, I left my suitcase at the hotel after checkout and went off to Haneda to see them off. Final meal would be a mid Mos Burger one and then it was time to say goodbye as they went on their way to security and I made my way back into Tokyo proper, got my suitcase and then a train ride to Kunitachi where my airbnb was located. After spending almost a full month with my friends, the train rides definitely felt a bit sad!
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I apologise if this report is a bit all over the place! It felt difficult to write about some of the stuff we did because I didn’t really take many pictures in some spots as I had already visited them multiple times and because I was vicariously living through my friend’s first timer reactions. Kawaguchiko and Kawazu were definitely my personal highlights and if you ever get the chance to, please visit the latter when the sakura bloom. It’s really cool to see them way before the actual season starts! Travelling with a group of friends was a great change of pace and after spending a month with them, the following couple of days were very lonely. That being said – they are forever banned from entering Matsuya establishments in Nara 🙂
But my friends weren’t the only ones visiting me in Japan. March was coming and with it, my mother’s first visit to Japan during sakura season. Might be the penultimate report I do, we’ll see. Thank you guys for reading and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
by Dumbidiot1323