Just got back yesterday from my trip, had a great time overall in Japan, got really lucky with the weather – it only rained once in Kyoto which was actually enjoyable and it was a steady 20 C to 25 C for rest of the time with sun and clouds alternating.
Anyway, I did the usual route or Osaka, Nara, Kyoto and Tokyo in 11 days which I felt was plenty. I dislike overly saccharine trip reports so I figured I’ll make it balanced by formatting this in a +/- format so other people get a balanced view of what travelling in Japan is like.
1 THING I LIKED: Osaka was really nice and it felt like the perfect starting point for someone’s first time in Japan as it’s more compact and not as overwhelming as Tokyo or as complicated to get around as Kyoto. It’s overall easy to just walk around the city without relying on any transport and there are continuous interesting neighbourhoods you can make nice walks out of for a number of hours and days.
1 THING I DISLIKED: Tokyo is the opposite of Osaka for this. It feels like a number of small cities crammed together with fairly boring bits between them. I dislike taking the subway/buses/taxis when I travel but was forced to do it in Tokyo just because of how big and spread out the city is. It felt like any place like Shinjuku/Shibuya/Ikebukuro has a small busy area of interest with shops and restaurants but it ends it feels like end of the map in a video game and you’re stuck with with boring residential streets and feel like turning back.
Only exception to this was one day we walked from Shinjuku to Harajuku then to Omotosande then to Roppongi then to Tokyo Tower then to Ginza and finished off watching sunset next to Kachidoki bridge. This was probably my most enjoyable day of walking and it was interesting from start to end with mix of busy and residential streets so recommend doing that if you want to get a feel for Tokyo on a nice day.
2 THING I LIKED: Kyoto/Nara had a very different vibe from rest of my trip. I really enjoyed the more quiet neighbourhoods and more historic streets. Especially enjoyed walking around Kiyomizu-Dera in the evening and walking around Kyoto at night when it was raining. Nara was also the only place I managed to enjoy a real onsen and it was totally worth it for the hotel stay and still much more convenient than going all the way to Hakone for onsen which I sadly didn’t have time for on this trip.
2 THING I DISLIKED: Kyoto’s traffic is badly managed. After enjoying lots of quiet pedestrian only areas in Osaka previously, I was at first disappointed at how many cars there are in Kyoto and the pavements felt more narrow and overcrowded. It felt overall like Kyoto city council was stuck a few decades in the past when compared to modern European cities where entire city centres are pedestrianised and vans only allowed for deliveries in the early morning – Ljubljana in Slovenia would be a good example to follow for Kyoto. It pissed me off especially that there were some guards directing people to make space for some taxis in Hanamikoji street – like why do they need cars there in the first place. Just felt a bit odd.
3 THING I LIKED: Food and drink was extremely convenient which meant that I didn’t need to waste too much time in restaurants and could spend time sightseeing. I like to maximise my time on travels so it was nice just to grab some sandwiches / fried chicken / quick drink from a convenience shop and be on my way.
3 THING I DISLIKED: Japanese food lacks variety in flavour in general and I sometimes felt overly full after a big bowl of ramen or noodles and missed my fibre and vegetables. It was unfortunate maybe that I had just spent a week in Chengdu, China before going to Japan. After eating some of the most spicy and flavourful food in China, it felt like a huge downgrade coming to Japan and I wish that they had more spicy options in restaurants and more healthy options with fibre and vegetables & fruits. I did try a number of Japanese dishes like grilled eel, a fair amount of seafood, stand-up sushi restaurant & the usual ramen/yakiniku and a number of chains they had but all the things felt samey after a while – just too much fat, carbs and umami flavour. The best meal I had in Japan by far was a Chinese Uighur restaurant in Ikebukuro haha.
4 THING I LIKED: Just walking around is great, I felt on most days that I didn’t need to do anything specific to have a nice time. There’s plenty of things going on in the streets. For example, first night in Osaka I saw: 1) an idol group performance next to the river, 2) one guy acting like a dog on a leash next to his “owner” as part of some type of perverse roleplay and 3) people just having a merry time and loudly talking in Japanese. Same goes for Tokyo, especially on a weekend, there’s just so many random events and markets you can explore.
4 THING IS DISLIKED: I already knew this before but Japan lacks specific attractions to go to like you’d do in European historic countries. I think that this is fine as long you just like walking as said above but I felt like Japan could get boring on a longer trip because you’d eventually run out of neighbourhoods to explore in the absence of other attractions. I grew to be apathetic about temples the longer I was on my trip but I did enjoy various shopping malls and observation decks in Tokyo which I suppose are attractions of sort of their own.
5 THING I LIKED: People are extremely polite and well-mannered which makes for a pleasant experience for tourists – this goes without saying almost. Hotels were most expensive but I felt like you got more worth for your money – better service, cleaner rooms and more convenience.
5 THING I DISLIKED: The politeness can almost get too much when you’re tired – I couldn’t muster the energy to say the polite phrases after walking in the sun for 10 hours. Also, I found that Japanese do some things that annoy me e.g. not use both sides of the escalator which would be faster and in general walk slow and get in faster walking people’s way. Not the end of the world but I felt that people have less spatial awareness compared to other countries. For example on the street, one guy randomly did a 180 from standing and hit my gf pretty hard on the shoulder which was sore for a while. Never had that happen before in other countries.
Anyway, hope this helps others and happy to get other viewpoints and opinions as well!
by rw1337