Trip Report: 3 Weeks (Tokyo, Northern Alps, Osaka/Kyoto and more)

We (my fiancée and I) just came back from a three week trip to Japan, and felt like writing a post to summarize my thoughts.

Our itinerary ended up like this:

Day 1-5: Tokyo. Visited Meiji Shrine, walked around Shibuya/Shinjuku, visited Ginza/Ueno/Akahibara etc, and Koenji. TeamLab Borderless.

Day 6: Overnight stay in Matsumoto. Saw the castle, visited the City Museum of Art, bought some local crafts.

Day 7-9: Climbed Mt. Yarigatake from Kamikochi. Stayed in the mountain lodges.

Day 10: Rest and relaxation at Hirayu Onsen after the hike.

Day 11-12: Two days in Takayama. Old Town, ate some amazing Hida beef, went bouldering at the local gym.

Day 13-14: Kanazawa. Visited the fish market, Kenroku-en, Kanazawa castle, Museum of Modern Art. Ate a bunch of sushi.

Day 15-19: Osaka. Shopping, street food. Osaka castle. Went out with a couple of friends we made at Yarigatake. Had a sick day. Day trip to Nara to see the deer park.

Day 20-21: Hiroshima. Visited Miyajima and took a hike up Mt. Misen. Peace Park + Dome Building.

Day 22: Return to Kyoto for one day. Saw a couple of shrines/temples, ate food.

Day 23: Left Japan from Osaka airport.

Positive experiences:
1. The absolute highlight was Mt. Yarigatake. Holy hell what a view, and the mountain hut being a 15 minute climb from the peak meant that you could get up at 05:00 to see the sunrise from the top. One of the best mountain hikes of my life. The first 2-3 hours of the hike on the first day from Kamikochi were pretty uninteresting with a long, flat stroll with way too many other hikers, but once you got away from the Kamikochi area there were far fewer people around, and the first lodge had an onsen which was unexpected and amazing. The second day climbing the actual mountain range was amazing, and we did a detour to do some adjacent peaks on the way to Yarigatake. I'd say it's perfectly hikeable for anyone with an average level of fitness.

The downside of climbing Yarigatake in late September was that we had to pack accordingly, and carrying around hardshell jackets, hiking boots, fleece jackets, silk liners etc for the rest of our trip was very cumbersome. In the end we didn't need warm clothing but we were lucky with the weather (no wind or rain). If you're climbing in the summer months you won't need to pack as extensively.

1. Tokyo was great, and much quieter and cleaner than I expected. The Meiji Shrine was not at all as overcrowded as I'd thought it would be. I can't understand what the fuss is about Shibuya Crossing though, it felt like a perfectly ordinary, if a bit busy, crosswalk. Koenji was a highlight and if I'd recommend staying there if visiting Tokyo. TeamLab Borderless was overrated, but to be fair we visited on a Friday evening so the immense crowd might have ruined our experience a bit. Unless you're interested in some good photo-ops, I'd say skip it, or at least plan your visit outside of peak hours.

3: Miyajima was beautiful, and I recommend climbing Mt. Misen so that you are at the top around sunset, as you'll get a great view from the top and also get a nighttime view of Itsukushima Jinja with a stunning reflection from the water. You'll need light on the way down, though!

1. Japan was much less complicated to travel around than I thought. With an IC Card, eSim and Google Maps getting around was a breeze. I'd heard some people say that you have to plan everything and have bookings weeks to months in advance, but that wasn't the case. When we landed in Tokyo we had booked the first four nights, and the mountain lodge, and that was it. For the rest of the trip we booked our hotel 1-2 days before, and stayed longer/shorter some areas as we felt like it. Sometimes we shipped our luggage to our next hotel, but even when we didn't we were several times able to meet up at the train station and book a Shinkansen with extra bag space that left in 15-30 minutes. We may have just been lucky, though.

Now some negative opinions/experiences:

1. When going from city to city, we quickly got sightseeing fatigue. In Tokyo and Matsumoto, we were excited to see all the temples, shrines, parks and castles, but after a few cities things just felt… Too similar. I can't help but be a little disappointed that almost every castle in Japan is a reconstruction, and Kanazawa Castle was a real letdown as we paid to enter the castle only to realize that most of the exhibition is just a display of the renovation efforts. Kenroku-en was also disappointing, but thats probably because we visited in late September. We didn't bother going inside Osaka castle as we read that it was pretty much the same as Kanazawa.

The absolute low-point was taking a day trip to Kyoto. We were at the end of our vacation and were already feeling tired of Old Towns, Castles and Temples, only to arrive in the arguably most touristy area in all of Japan. In the end, we only visited for 5-6 hours before we called it quits, bought snacks and chilled at the hotel and took an early night.

In hindsight we would have skipped at least one of the cities (maybe Kanazawa) and found a calmer region with a smaller city centre and easier hiking opportunities to stay for 2-3 days just to relax, and feel more excited to go sightseeing again. Perhaps Noto Peninsula would have been a good idea? This is just a personal preference though, as we are definitely more nature lovers than metropolitans.

1. Food: While most of the food we ate in Japan was amazing (shout-out to Udon Noodles and Umeshu), it is definitely possible to get bad and/or bland food in Japan. I'd be very careful to trust Google Reviews as some restaurants have artificially inflated ratings (e.g. free dessert if you give 5 stars). Japanese people use Tabelog which is more reliable but I'd still just recommend winging it and take the L if you had a bad meal (which is still unlikely). Restaurants that have local customers is usually a good idea.

If there is one advice I'd give to people visiting Japan, it's this: Skip Japanese breakfast. I can understand much about Japanese culture, but starting your day with soup, fermented/pickled vegetables, slimy fermented beans and then a piece of grilled mackerel with rice is incomprehensible. Either don't have breakfast at all or eat Western-styled breakfast. We are Norwegians though, and breakfast is a big deal for us.

1. I love Japanese culture and Japan is a calm, safe and comfortable place to visit. It is, however, a culture with some strange contradictions. I get the impression that it's important to act properly and not do anything that's viewed as obscene/rude. While nobody reacted negatively when I kissed my girlfriend or if she gasp used a toothpick in public, I've heard that both things could be frowned upon, among many other things. At the same time that this "proper and well-behaved Japan" is showed, when walking around the bigger Japanese cities it is brimming with Love Hotels, Erotic Spa Treatments (did someone say testicle massage?) and girls in skimpy outfits advertising their prices (which I understand is actually just for talking with them, but you get the drift). The contrast is startling. Also, in the land of extreme politeness, I can count on one hand the amount of times I saw someone give up his or her seat on the metro/train to an elderly person.

4: Nightlife: We didn't really get a hang of it. In Kanazawa we randomly stumbled upon a beer festival at 6:30 PM, and were excited to spend the evening there drinking good beer and eating street food, only to realize that all the stalls close at… 7 PM. On a Saturday. This seemed to be a general theme where the night life seemed to die out at around 7-8 PM, and the streets emptied (Shinjuku and Namba were obvious exceptions). Do people go home or do they all go to the bars behind closed doors with no windows? Out of fear of ending up somewhere shady, we didn't enter any of these bars.

Final thoughts: We had an amazing time, but remember to relax while you're there. It's a vacation, after all. If you're feeling fatigued and/or overwhelmed by all the things you want to/should do, just take a break for half a day or a day and recharge your batteries and enjoy reading a book in one of the many parks and cafés.