Before I start, here are the pictures – https://photos.app.goo.gl/M1EGtrVyHhpH8f4A7
(“Japan 2” because I took out group shots and condensed slightly from my private album)
I’ve respected the requests for no photos everywhere I’ve gone (and it happens a lot) so some things are missing from here – I’ve included a couple of links to sites with pictures of things I couldn’t photograph in my breakdown.
I’ve been wanting to try a solo trip for a little while and originally planned to do this all myself. In the end I chickened out and booked onto a group tour for some of it, but made sure I had a chunk of time on my own too. In the end I needn’t have worried about going alone – all the airport and hotel staff speak perfect English, restaurant/shop staff sometimes less so but it’s less important there, all navigation signs are translated to English (at least for the cities I visited), Google maps works great (when taking the metro make sure to check which exit it recommends), Google translate has a feature to use your camera and translate any text it sees which works very well most of the time (the tour company booked and collected my JR pass for me so I can’t comment on that, although I’m sure it would’ve also been fine) – although the group were all lovely and made the trip much more fun!
Food isn’t really a priority for me when travelling so I can’t tell you where I ate most of the time, often it was just the nearest ramen place with a not terrible score on Google. I did make sure to try all of the local stuff as I went (Kobe/Wagyu beef, curry, yakitori, kushikatsu, ramen, donburi, sushi, takoyaki, taiyaki, yakisoba, okonomiyaki, tonkatsu, shabu shabu, tempura, gyoza, souffle pancakes, dango).
Flight – opted to go direct as I’ve never done a transfer before, but could’ve saved a little bit of cash by stopping over in China for a few hours. The flight was at 9am (London Heathrow, British Airways, economy), 14 hours long and landed at 7am Japanese time (Haneda), so I decided to stay up through the night to make sure I definitely manage to fall asleep on the plane, which I of course did not.
**Saturday 13th April – Tokyo** Landed at 7am local time. From what I’ve read my experience is not the norm and you should plan to be there a while, but from the plane touching down, me getting through customs/passport control, exchanging some currency, buying a SIM and travel card through to stepping on the train… a little under an hour? Wont go into it too much but make sure you get a SIM and travel card at the airport, it’ll be a lot harder in the city. I got the “Welcome Suica” which is designed for tourists, there’s no fee to purchase the card but you can’t refund whatever’s left at the end – HOWEVER there’s a Seven-Eleven (corner shop type thing, they’re everywhere in Japan) at the airport (both before and after security) where you can pay with funds from your IC card, so you can make sure you don’t waste much (I had about 8 yen left on mine). Went to the hotel (one of the APA hotels in Shinjuku), too early to check in but dropped my bag off. First stop was the Ichiyo Sakura festival – a lot smaller than it is billed as online, I think it’s been scaled back a lot post-pandemic, there’s no longer a parade, just a little stage in a park with a few hundred attendees and a variety of performances of Japanese stuff – still quite cool, but I was sleep deprived and needed to keep moving so didn’t stay too long. I wanted to hunt for cherry blossoms as I knew it was almost the end of the season and they’d die off very quickly, and I’d also seen Tokyo Skytree in the distance, so those were my priorities, and I eventually found myself in Sumida Park. The pink blossoms were very wilted, but the white ones come out a bit later and were in full bloom. Had my first vending machine experience en-route (may sound like a dumb tourist for recommending a western brand but the grape fanta is amazing and I wish they would release it everywhere). Then it was time to check in to the hotel, intended to just have a nap but slept through til 5am.
**Sunday 14th April – Tokyo** Started at the Samurai Ninja museum. This is 100% tourist nonsense but well worth doing in my opinion, starts with a chance to dress up in samurai outfits (the website says something about the outfits not “looking good” on people over 5’9 but I’m 6’1 and I think it’s fine, would be more concerned about width than height) and take photos, then the guided tour (mandatory, included in the price, in English) which I thought was quite interesting (although I got all the same information again on the walking tours I did so not essential), then a chance to throw rubber shuriken (throwing stars) into a foam wall. Afterwards had a bit of free time so wandered in no particular direction, found my first temple – this was the only one I ended up doing that isn’t on all the tourist lists so while it wasn’t as spectacular as any of the others I did it was the only one that was actually quiet, so really glad I experienced it. Found my way to Senso-ji temple, but knew I was coming back here with the group so didn’t linger. Had some candied fruit on a stick on the way. In the afternoon I’d booked teamLab Borderless – you have to book this in advance and I’d highly recommend. I think it’s the sort of place you know whether you’ll enjoy it just from the pictures. You may have read that it’s busy and full of screaming kids, which was true of the big room in the middle but it’s easy to immerse yourself in the side rooms which have much better stuff in anyway. There’s another teamLab in Tokyo which is similar and I’m sure is also good, but I didn’t feel the need to do both. After, had dinner with someone from the group who also arrived early and then wandered around Shibuya for a bit – looked around a pachinko parlour but didn’t partake as they were closing in 30 minutes.
**Monday 15th April – Tokyo** There was a sumo exhibition fight at Yasukini shrine that I spent almost the whole day at! This is a free annual event. Afterwards, had a little walk round near the Imperial Palace (sadly the main gardens are closed on Mondays) then went to grab my suitcase and meet the tour group.
**Tuesday 16th April – Kamakura** Day trip to Kamakura. Started at Engaku-ji temple where I bought my Goshuincho (at most temples/shrines you can pay a small fee for someone to hand-write a prayer in calligraphy which is unique to that location called a Goshuin, and they’ll only do it in a specific type of book called a Goshuincho – it’s the last photo in my album). I found it very strange that they were building another building on the site, you’d never be allowed to mess with a historical site like that in England. Then the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine. Struggling to come up with much to say about it but it was very pretty? And afterwards the great Buddha statue. We tried to watch the sunset on the beach but it was too cloudy, then headed back to Tokyo.
**Wednesday 17th April – Kyoto** Bullet train to Kyoto, dropped bags at hotel. Hired kimonos and wandered around the Gion district taking photos for a few hours, before we had booked a matcha tea ceremony (we were told not to worry about cultural appropriation, Japanese people think it’s funny seeing western people dressed in them, which did seem to be the case). After lunch we saw the Miyako Odori (each of the geisha districts in Kyoto performs a show/dance for the public once a year, this is the Gion show and is only on in April) – I obviously couldn’t take pictures, but there’s a snippet up here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm–yxNLMFU
**Thursday 18th April – Kyoto** Began at the Fushini Inari shrine (the one with thousands of torii gates). You can hike up to the top and back down in under an hour, but there’s lots of little side paths to wander down – we budgeted for 3 hours and still didn’t see everything. There’s a free audio guide online in multiple languages which is quite good. Quickly visited Sanjusangen-do temple (the one with 1001 statues of the deity Kannon) afterwards which I would highly recommend, my favourite of all the temples I saw. Couldn’t take photos of the inside, but here it is – https://www.discoverkyoto.com/places-go/sanjusangen-do/#features . In the afternoon we did a free walking tour (Kyoto Localised – obviously tips are expected, please do). I thought the guide was very good and made it entertaining as well as informative, a lot of the time tour guides can be very dry. In the evening, a sushi making class, and then rushed to Kodai-ji temple to see the illuminations before they closed.
**Friday 19th April – Kyoto (Arashiyama)** Got up early to get to the bamboo forest before it got too crowded. Have no idea why it’s so famous – I saw several bamboo forests on the trip (including at Fushini Inari), it’s not particularly big and you can only go on the paths – but there is at least some other stuff in the area worth seeing. Hiked up to the top of the hill, then down to the river to sit with our feet in for a while. Had a really strange encounter with some schoolgirls who wanted a picture with us, then went to Tenryu-ji temple. We took the scenic railway (romancecar) back to Kyoto – this is great, try to sit on the right hand side if you can. Rushed up the hill to catch the sunset from Kiyomizu temple. There’s a swanky hotel nearby with a rooftop bar that has a gorgeous view of Kyoto (expensive, don’t eat here, not sure if it’s meant for hotel guests only but nobody asked for a room number or tried to stop us).
**Saturday 20th April – Hiroshima** Bullet train to Hiroshima, then the ferry over to Miyajima island (ferry is kinda included in the JR pass but you have to pay a small amount of tax) for the floating torii gate. The island is nice to walk around and has lots of deer, we didn’t bother with the cable car though as it was quite foggy. Took the ferry back across, then went to see the nuclear bomb dome and peace museum. The museum is quite small and most people would know the history of it but I found the artwork done by survivors to be particularly striking, as well as the eyewitness accounts. Had okonomiyaki in the evening – they uniquely make them with noodles in Hiroshima, great if you’re a carb lover like me.
**Sunday 21st April – Himeji/Osaka** Stopped off at Himeji on the way back to Osaka. Himeji Castle is one of the few surviving castles in Japan (there are many that have been demolished and then replicas built). It is rather impressive in person, although there is nothing to see inside – audio guide is a must as there are no information signs either. Back in Osaka we had a guided food tour – kushikatsu (deep fried skewers), takoyaki (octopus balls), an izakaya (bar/restaurant that does a bit of everything) and finished with taiyaki (fish shaped pastry filled with red bean paste). The tour ended by dotonbori bridge where we then took a short river cruise up and down the street.
**Monday 22nd April – Nara/Osaka** Day trip to Nara! Starting in Nara Park, with all the deer that bow to you. Onto Kasuga-Taisha shrine, the one with loads of bronze lanterns. Probably one of the nicer shrines I saw, depending on how far along you are in your trip if you’ve seen enough it’s skippable, much more important you visit Todai-ji temple, one of the largest wooden buildings in the world which houses a huge bronze Buddha statue. There is a hole the same size as the statue’s nostril towards the back of the building which you can try to crawl through and is said to bring good fortune. Walk around Naramachi before heading back to Osaka.
**Tuesday 23rd April – Tokyo** Visited Senso-ji properly in the morning. Most of the day was spent on a walking tour (Tokyo Localised) from Akihabara to Ueno Park – this one wasn’t as good as the one in Kyoto, a lot of it was spent sitting and listening rather than walking and the guy was quite pushy with tips. Had a bit of time to mooch around and get some shopping done, I picked up some matcha tea that my Aunt had asked for and some funky Kit-Kat flavours to bring back to housemates/colleagues/friends (liked all the fruity ones I tried except apple which was really bitter – best one was melon). We had dinner at a shabu shabu restaurant (Momo Paradise) and then spent the night in Shinjuku/Golden Gai.
**Wednesday 24th April – Tokyo** Began the day with a maid cafe experience – this is creepy af and should be avoided at all costs. Went to Harajuku, didn’t actually see anybody dressed up but enjoyed the rainbow cheese toastie and giant candy floss all the same. Flying visit to Shibuya to cross the crossing (if you do go, maybe try one of the upper floor people watching cafes/restaurants that always get suggested for this area, it didn’t feel worth it to go just to cross, it felt like a normal street crossing), then up Tokyo Tower to the viewing platform – this was nice, but we chose a day with really poor visibility.
**Thursday 25th April – Tokyo** Travel with the group ended here, a few with later flights came with me to Odaiba beach in the morning. This place is beautiful if it’s clear and sunny, I think the tide was in but there were a few rocks we could climb on. Saw the Statue of Liberty and the robot statue. Then I had to head back to the city as I had a ticket for a baseball game (Tokyo Swallows v Hiroshima Carp). This was loads of fun – I work in sports data so had a rough idea of the rules but would suggest others having a quick read beforehand if you go. I caught a really good game, 9-8 to the home team with a home run in the final inning (and with 2 men already out) to win it, also saw a ‘grand slam’ (home run with a man already on each base for 4 runs). They bring umbrellas to the game and wave them up and down when they score!
**Friday 26th April – Hakone** This was my favourite day of the trip! I bought the Hakone freepass, which gets you free travel to, from and all around Hakone, plus a couple of discounts. You display the ticket on your phone so it’s very easy to use. I’ve heard Hakone can get busy, and I’m sure it was much worse at the weekend, but I had no queues whatsoever! Started at Shinjuku station, usually the advice is to pay for an upgrade to take the romancecar, rather than sit on the Odakyu line for hours with a transfer at Odawara, but I was lucky that there was a super express train due when I got to the station that was almost as quick as the romancecar (quicker when factoring in the queue to buy the upgrade – I did take the upgrade on the way back though). I went straight to the open air museum which was absolutely stunning, I could’ve spent the whole day here. I also thought the Picasso exhibit was very good – I’ve seen more than enough of his paintings before, but this focused more on his sketches and ceramics work. I completed the rest of the loop, cable car up to the top to see the sulphur vents and the view of Mt Fuji, had an egg cooked in the sulphur, car down the other side to the lake, cruise over the lake (I actually got one of the last boats, keep an eye on departure times). Was too late to visit the shrine but could still go up to the torii by the lake, then bus back to the station to get to Tokyo. In the evening I went to a small local band showcase at a venue called Nine Spices.
**Saturday 27th April – Tokyo** My last day in Japan was left without a plan, so I could go back and finish off whatever I felt I’d missed. Started with a walk through Yoyogi Park to see Meiji Jingu shrine, then went on towards the Imperial Palace to see the gardens. Had a really nice curry at a restaurant called Sama in Harajuku – not sure it’s particularly Japanese but it was very popular, I’d skipped breakfast so had a really early lunch and got straight in but the queue was out the door, down the stairs and along the street when I left. I really wanted to see some Japanese artwork (more so traditional stuff than anything modern) and had a hard time deciding which art gallery was best for this, eventually settling on Tokyo National Museum rather than a gallery, and I think I made the right choice. The main exhibition is mostly about the history of Japanese art, from during the isolation period where the focus was mainly on producing art as useful items – folding screen doors, tables, chairs, sword handles, samurai armour – through to the end of that period and the start of international trade, where the West rejected the idea of these items being classed as “fine art” and so lead to the development of the wood block (ukiyo-e) art style. The museum is laid out in a way that tells the story chronologically and is really interesting. The gift shop at the end is also the best place to get good quality souvenirs – I got some folding screen style prints (smaller, the right size to go on a shelf) and a paper fan (sensu). There’s a few other buildings on the museum grounds with smaller exhibitions – I didn’t see all of them as it was getting late, but I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about what I did see, it’s all about the main building in my opinion. I finished the day at the Pit Inn (jazz club, the band I saw was called the Suga Dairo Trio).
Sunday 28th April – checked out of hotel, went to airport, 1pm flight.
I’m very happy with my itinerary but there were a few places I didn’t get to see. I didn’t get to see much of Osaka, I also wish I’d tried harder to get Ghibli museum tickets. I’m not sure that I’d cut anything but with another few days I’d have built in an overnight stay in Kanazawa and a day trip or overnight stay in Nikko (or I might’ve considered a few nights in Seoul as I’m unlikely to be back in this part of the world anytime soon).
by Different_Horse6239