I was looking back at our first trip while planning our second trip to Japan and remembered how useful other people’s trip reports were so decided to put this together. It was a couple of years ago, but hopefully a lot of the information is still useful
**Summary:** We spent almost all of October 2018 in Japan combining the Golden Route with some of our own specific interests. Our goal for this trip was to see all the tourist ‘must do’ places. We knew we’d likely have another Japan trip in the future, so we decided to get all the touristy ones done on our first trip.
I really enjoy planning our holidays, so this trip was heavily planned but we’re always flexible on what we do once we get there.
**The best places we went:**
* Original castles! We saw a number of castles, originals (Himeji and Hikone) and concrete reconstructions. The original wooden ones were awesome! The construction techniques were fascinating and next time we’re in Japan we’ll be specifically seeking interesting wooden buildings.
* Mascot festival: We knew a little about mascot culture before going to Japan, but mostly went to this for the novelty. Now I’m a big mascot fan and we will try go to another one!
* Car museums: Going to the Nissan Heritage Collection was one of the main reasons for our trip, it was totally worth it for us. Overall the quality of museums in Japan was excellent and we spent a lot of time in them.
* Toyota Factory Tour: Toyota offers a free tour in English. It was really interesting!
**Best memory**
* Near the end of our trip, for whatever reason, I was convinced I could navigate from Tokyo Station to our hotel in Asakusabashi on foot, without a map, at night, having never walked that route before. I took it as a personal challenge, we didn’t need to do it at all.
* It’s less than 3km (40minutes) (if you walk there directly) but I may have enjoyed a beer on the train prior to this challenge…
* We were going really well and then I followed my nose into an izakaya we stumbled on, and proceeded to enjoy the best food of our trip, meet some interesting locals, and have a couple more drinks.
* After dinner I may have led us in the wrong direction for a bit, but eventually we made our way back to the hotel. This was just such a strange turn of events, but proved to me that I had formed a good mental map of Tokyo.
**What went well:**
* Wherever possible, we walked between locations. The trains are extremely easy to use, but when you walk between places you get to see so much more of everyday life.
* We planned a lot of half-day hikes and these were all excellent. I really recommend looking into them before you go, to make sure you know when it’ll get dark and/or when the last train home is.
* We’re not very fit, but we did work on this before we went. Practicing on stairs was really important, there are so many stairs in Japan.
* Neither of us speak Japanese well, but I can understand, speak, and read a very small amount. We both learned key phrases to help ensure we could be polite. We didn’t need any Japanese to get around in touristy areas, but even just being able to say hello etc was very appreciated.
* Use coin lockers to store your bags, but also travel as light as possible. We each took a carry-on sized backpack and just washed our clothes as needed (cheap or free at our accommodation).
* The weather was excellent in October and the fall colors were beautiful everywhere we went.
* Full day trips where we got up early (e.g. 5am) were worth it for us. It saved the hassle of packing our stuff and finding accommodation for an overnight trip.
**What didn’t go as well:**
* Some of our accommodation ended up being inconveniently located, even if it was a short (<10min) walk to the train, we often had to transfer at a larger station to get where we wanted to go.
* We hired a car in Tokyo for 24 hours because it seemed fun and we wanted to go to some places that would be a hassle with public transport. This ended up being a terrible idea and I would never do it again.
* We tried to fit too much into a lot of days. Some days we missed things we really wanted to see, and other days we saw everything but were too tired to fully enjoy the following days.
* Some of the places people recommended I didn’t think fit our interests (mainly anything to do with nightlife). We went to see them anyway because of how highly recommended they were. Next time I’ll only go see things that actually sound interesting to me.
* We didn’t love Kyoto, I think we spent too much time here and should have spent more on nicer accommodation.
**Trip Summary**
(I tried to make this brief, since it was such a long trip – let me know if you want more information on any of it).
**03 October – Arrival**
* We arrived at Narita airport at about 5pm, picked up our pocket Wifi, bought PASMO and took the Skyliner into Nippori Station (40 minutes).
* From there it was a short walk to our accommodation in Yanaka.
* This was our first time traveling internationally. We were surprised at how easy we found navigating it all.
**04 October – Tsukiji, Harajuku, Omotesando, and Shibuya**
* We were excited and up early to head to Tsukiji for breakfast in the outer market. Tsukiji has now closed/moved – so I’m not sure how useful our reflections would be.
* We then went to Harajuku to check out shops, crepes and other snacks and pickup some necessities (sunscreen and coin purse). However, we arrived in Harajuku too early. Many of the shops were still closed. This was kind of fun, we got to walk around the area without anyone else around. But we had to wait for shops to open. I recommend going to Meiji Jingu first.
* We ended up walking through to Omotesando and exploring that area a bit too.
* Afterwards we wandered over to Meiji Shrine/Jingu. We LOVED Meiji Jingu so much that we came back again at the end of our trip.
* Note: Meiji Jingu is not meant to be ostentatious. It was built to honor the Emperor and Empress Meiji, who were responsible for the modernization of Japan. From a historical standpoint, it is one of the most important shrines in Tokyo. The forest surrounding the shrine was planted during construction with trees from every prefecture in Japan. The fact an entire forest was placed in the middle of Tokyo and has grown over the last 80-90 years is pretty impressive.
* In the afternoon we walked through Yoyogi park to Shibuya. It was a lovely walk after the crowded Harajuku streets. We’d planned to check out Shibuya, but It was late and getting dark when we reached Shibuya. We were tired and just wandered around a little before heading back to our accommodation. I wouldn’t try to do Shibuya and Harajuku in one day again.
**05 October – Nissan Heritage Collection**
* Our main plan for this day was a tour of the Nissan Heritage Collection (in Zama City, Kamagawa Prefecture, about 1.5 – 2 hours from Tokyo. This was absolutely top of our list and was more than we could have hoped for. Absolutely recommend!
* Note: you need to book online in advance.
* In the evening we checked out Shinjuku and went up to the Tokyo Government Office Observation Deck (free) for the view.
* We’re not interested in ‘nightlife’ and didn’t enjoy Golden Gai, Kabukicho, or Omoide Yokocho. It felt touristy/scammy and just not our vibe. An interesting experience though. Note: this was a Friday night.
**06 October – Yokohama**
* We had rented a car for this day to drive to the Nismo Omori Factory, Nissan Engine Museum, and Nissan Global HQ. We thought this would be a fun option. It was not – terrible decision!
* It did help us to get to some places that would have been difficult to reach by train/bus. Parking was ridiculously expensive, from memory (4 years ago) it was something like $20 an hour in central Yokohama. We also missed any interesting car scene in Daikoku parking area, the police were already breaking it up before we arrived.
* While we were in the area, we also explored Yokohama. We enjoyed the Hikawa Maru (golden age ocean liner museum) and Yokohama Chinatown. We’ll be going back on our next trip – by train!
**07 October – Yanaka**
* After returning the rental car we explored the Yanaka area. The Yanaka festival was on (I’m pleased I researched it in advance or we might have missed it). We had a really good time at this small local festival and just ended up exploring the area all day.
* I recommend Yanaka Ginza and Nezu-Junja (shrine), it has beautiful torii lined paths. There was also a great art exhibition in the Yanaka cemetery somewhere.
* We planned to check out the Tokyo station area and Ginza but we had such a good time in Yanaka, we didn’t make it to these areas on this day.
**08 October (a public holiday) – Asakusa and Ueno**
* We decided to walk through Ueno park on our way to Asakusa. It was really interesting to walk through some residential neighborhoods. We spent the whole day in Asakusa and Ueno checking out Senso-ji, Nakamise, the roof view from the Culture Tourist Center, Kappabashi St, Ameyoko.
* We didn’t go to any of the museums in Ueno as they were super busy because of the public holiday. We plan to go back next time.
* We set our JR pass to activate the next day, so we wouldn’t have to do it first thing in the morning.
**09 October – Day trip to Kamakura**
* I planned a very full day of walking, it was worth the planning for us. This was one of our favorite days of the whole trip, we actually plan to do a similar itinerary on our next trip.
* Note: We saw a lot of Jorō spiders – they hang stunning webs over the trails. Just something to be aware of if hiking at this time of year. We were taller than the other hikers, so we had to be careful not to talk into their webs…
* We left our accommodation at 6:30am to arrive at Kita-Kamakura station by 8am when the first temple opened. We activated our JR passes on the way. In the morning we followed the [Tenen Hiking Trail](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3113.html) (2 hours).
* Following the road, we visited Engaku-ji (a historic Zen Buddhist temple, built in 1282) and Meigetsu-in before heading through Kencho-ji’s grounds (the oldest zen temple in Kamakura – with an amazing zen garden). Following the stairs up the hill we reached Hansobo, where the Tenen Hiking trail (2 hours) begins.
* We actually took a wrong turn from the Tenen hiking trail and ended up walking through some residential areas for a while and missing Hokukoji. We saw Yofukuji temple site (ruins) instead.
* We hopped on a bus to travel to the other side of Kamakura, getting some lunch along the way. A good break for our legs.
* In the afternoon we visited Hasedera (has eleven-headed statue of Kannon) and Daibutsu (great buddha), Be sure to get taco (octopus) senbei (rice cracker) on the way,
* After that we followed the Daibutsu trail (60-90min/3km).
* We walked from Daibutsu to Zeniarai, I think it took about 1.5 hours. The Daibutsu trail was very fun. It felt like a fake trail someone had made in their backyard – most signs we saw were handwritten laminated bits of paper. It was already getting dark by the time we made it to Zeniarai so we skipped Jofukuji and walked along the road into Kamakura.
* Before heading back to Tokyo we checked out Tsurugaoka Hachimangu (the most important shrine in Kamakura, built in 1063). Tsurugaoka Hachimangu was pretty in the dark and well lit. It would be nice to see in the daytime next time.
**10 October – Hakone Day 1**
* We took a pretty standard loop in Hakone, using the free pass. We left our accommodation early (7am) to arrive when the Odakyu office opened. After traveling from Tokyo to Odawara (1.5 hours) we stored our larger backpack in a coin locker. At Odawara Station we bought the Hakone Free Pass (2 days) from the Odakyu office
* We took the Hakone Tozan Railway to Hakone Yumoto (15 min), than a bus to Hakone-machi. We’d planned to walk along a section of the Old Tokaido from Hatajuku to Hakone-machi, but the My husband’s legs were sore from the day before and we just took the bus further . We still walked through the Ancient Cedar Avenue and Checkpoint Museum. The Checkpoint museum was fantastic! We loved looking at the recreated buildings. We saw our first sightings of Fuji along the walk and were extremely excited!
* Then we took the Hakone Sightseeing Boat to Togendai (30 minutes), then the Hakone Ropeway to Owakudani, where we ate some black eggs.
* The Hakone Tozan Cablecar took us down to Gora (10 minutes) where we were staying for the night.
**11 October – Hakone Day 2**
* In the morning we spent 2 or 3 hours at the Hakone Open Air Museum. We particularly enjoyed the Picasso art, but if you were short on time it can be skipped.
* We planned to go to the Forest adventure park but skipped it as we were ready to move on to Kyoto.
* To travel to Kyoto you take the Hakone Tozan Railway from Gora to Hakone-Yumoto (35 minutes) then the train to Odawara Station (20 minutes). We picked up our larger backpack and took a train to Kyoto (2 hours).
**12 October – Northeast Kyoto**
* We had a lovely time checking out Northeast Kyoto from Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavillion) to Nanzen-ji (a zen temple with a cool aqueduct) along the Philosopher’s Path.. We went into some interesting shops and talked to some locals at a tiny woodblock print shop along the way.
* We walked over to the Keage Incline. Apparently there’s a trail from behind Nanzan-ji’s aqueduct along a small canal to the Kaege Incline, but it was closed when we were there. The incline has an interesting history and I would like to know more about it.
* From there we walked along the canal at the bottom of the Incline to Heian Shrine (there’s a garden behind the shrine that we absolutely loved, I got to see turtles!)
* In the evening we walked around some shopping areas near our accommodation (adjacent to Gion and the river). However, we couldn’t believe how crowded with tourists this area was. It was hard to walk anywhere as the footpaths were crammed with people who just kept stopping in the way. I know we’re tourists too, but this was a bit ridiculous.
**13 October – Kurama hike**
* We planned to do a [hike in Kurama](http://www.insidekyoto.com/kurama-to-kibune-hike) this day, but the trail was closed due to a recent-ish typhoon. We decided to go out to Kurama anyway, it was a nice way to rest our feet and interesting to see the typhoon damage.
* We’d like to go back to do the hike sometime.
* We tried to go to Fushimi Inari in the afternoon. But when we arrived we found all the paths being closed and locked with gates.
**14 October – Arashiyama**
* We spent the day in Arashiyama. Starting near Togetsukyo Bridge we walked to Tenryu-ji and the Bamboo grove (very crowded, as all the reviews said – it was far from the best bamboo we saw on our trip. But, at the end of the bamboo grove is Okoshi-Sanso villa which we absolutely loved. The entrance fee included a cup of matcha and a sweet in the tea house. There are 5 acres of gardens, and we wandered for 1.5hours.
* After that we walked to Jojakko-ji and Gio-ji. Gioji was another favorite, the moss garden was spectacular (if you like moss). We then walked the short distance to Saga-Toriimoto (a historic street lined by traditional townhouses), it was practically empty of tourists while we were there. It was lovely.
* Another short walk (15 minutes) from Saga-Toriimoto is Otagi Nenbutsu-ji (a temple with grounds covered in small buddha statues. This temple was great! The statues were hilarious – check it out if you’re in the area.
* We walked further to Daikaku-ji – it was interesting to walk past rice fields and residential neighborhoods. It was a bit late by the time we arrived and we had seen enough temples for one day, so we caught a bus back to our accommodation instead.
**15 October – North Kyoto**
* We devoted this day to North Kyoto. We had planned to rent bikes this day, so our walking plan doesn’t make much sense on foot (long distances between locations). I can’t recall why we didn’t but it would probably be better…
* Starting with a craft market at Chionji Temple, we then walked to Daitoku-ji (a Large walled temple complex) then on to Genkoan (famous for the windows of enlightenment and confusion and a ceiling made from the floor of a castle where hundreds of samurai committed seppuku). Genkoan was particularly nice, my husband had wanted to see the windows of enlightenment and confusion and wasn’t disappointed.
* After lunch we made our way to Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion).
* We’d planned to see Nijo Castle on this day too, but ended up seeing it on a different day. But it shouldn’t be missed, it’s somewhere we’d like to go back to.
**16 October – Fushimi Inari and Kiyomizu-dera**
* After our Fushimi Inari plans were scrapped on an earlier day, we managed to make it there this morning. The famous torii lined paths were excellent and worth the walk all the way to the top. While in the area we also went to the post office and sent some things home.
* Next we went to Kiyomizu-dera (one of the largest wooden structures in the world, constructed without nails). Unfortunately for us, a lot of buildings were covered with scaffolding and being renovated for the olympics. While in the area we also saw Kodai-ji, Entokuin, Ninenizaka Yasaka Shrine, and the historic shopping streets of the Higashiyama District.
* This was a much better pace than some of our other days.
**17 October – Nara**
* We spent the whole day in Nara on the way to Osaka. After traveling to Nara (1.5 hours) and storing out bags in a coin locker. Wandering through Nara we saw Kofuku-ji, Yoshiki-en Garden, and Isui-en Garden.Most of our day was spent in Nara Park. We particularly enjoyed Todai-ji (absolutely huge wooden building) and then my husband fell in love with Todai-ji Shoro (Bell Tower). I think he spent half an hour looking at this huge cast bell. We ended up buying a model of a similar bell to hang in our living room. He often sees it and then tells me how much he loved that bell and its tower…
* The deer in Nara are pretty interesting, it was funny watching the cracker vendors tossing crackers to them to make them stay in the area. It was like they were the deer drug dealers.
* We spent the afternoon in Naramachi (Former merchant district). The Koshi-no-Ie Residence (Naramachi Lattice House) was worth visiting. It was very cool to see a traditional house like this.
* We really enjoyed Nara and wished we’d spent an overnight trip here.
* In the afternoon we continued on to Osaka (after collecting our bags at Nara station)
**18 October – Osaka / Himeji day trip**
* We based ourselves in Osaka for a few days, but spent most of them on day trips. This was a perfect balance for us.
* Our first day trip was intended to be a half day, but Himeji is worth a full day! After traveling to Himeji (1.5hours) we went immediately to Himeji Castle and Kokoen Garden. The castle is even more stunning than we expected! We spent most of the day here.
* In the afternoon, after traveling back to Osaka we walked around some shopping areas of Osaka. There’s so much to see, with Minami District, Shinsaibashi-suji shopping arcade, Kuromon Ichiba Market, Hoken-ji, Hoken-ji Yokocho, Doguyasuji Arcade, Den Den Town, Amerikamura, and (of course) Dotonbori.This is a long list, but it was just a suggestion of areas for us to walk around. We mostly wandered around to whatever looked interesting.
* I recommend the Kamigata Ukiyoe (woodblock prints museum).
**19 October – Osaka / Minoo half-day**
* We made a half-day trip to Minoo (about an hour away). There’s a nice walk by a river to a waterfall. The shops along the path sell an interesting snack called momiji tempura: maple leaves deep fried in batter. We enjoyed Minoo and the waterfall walk. It might not be worth it for others though, we wanted to go as we like Yuzuru the local mascot.
* We’d planned to spend the afternoon at Osaka’s Open Air Museum of Old Japanese Farm Houses. However we ended up getting lost and confused about which bus to take so we skipped the museums and did some more exploring of the shopping and eating locations in Osaka.
**20 October – Mascot Festival in Hikone**
* We went to Osaka Castle early, when it opened. But we didn’t go inside, we’re not very interested in concrete reconstructions from the inside. It was good to see the outside though.
* Then we traveled to Hikone (2 hours) for a Mascot Festival. This day ended up being a trip highlight. The mascot festival was so much fun, we didn’t see many other non-Japanese people and it was such a different experience to other areas of Japan. .
* We were heading to Hikone for the mascot festival specifically, and planned to just check out the castle while we were there. However the castle was very very cool and worth a trip on its own. It was close to closing time when we arrived, but I’d love to go back and see it in more detail another time.
* Once we were back in Osaka we headed to Osaka Bay area. It was quite late by this stage, so we only checked out the aquarium and ferris wheel. The whale shark made us sad, so I can’t recommend the aquarium.
**21 October** **- Koyasan**
* Koyasan was about 3 hours away, but it felt further than other 3 hour trips as we had to make a few connections and that was a bit tiring (leaving our larger backpack in Osaka). Once we arrived in Koyasan we headed up to Okunoin Cemetery (200,000 tombstones along a 2km long approach to Kobo Daishi’s mausoleum) then walked back through town to our accommodation. The rock garden at Kondobu-ji was very pretty.
* We didn’t know before we arrived, but there was some kind of event happening in Koyasan where we could collect free samples from a lot of the shops. This felt like a treasure hunt and we had a blast.
* We stayed in a temple overnight, as is frequently recommended. The food provided was excellent!
**22 October – Koyasan / Jidai Matsuri**
* Another early morning to be up for Temple Prayers (6am) and breakfast (7am). We didn’t mind getting up early for the prayers, we’re early risers anyway. However, then we rushed back to Kyoto (3 hours) for Jidai Matsuri. We had to leave by 9am to arrive in Kyoto by 1pm to zoom to the parade. This was not a good plan…
* If I was going to do this again, I would plan to spend most of this day in Koyasan too, or skip it completely.
* The Jidai Matsuri involves a parade from the Kyoto Gosho (Imperial Palace) to Heian-jingu Shrine. The parade begins with characters from the Meiji Restoration in 1868, and then continues in reverse chronological order until the beginning of the Heian Period in 781. The historical costumes were really interesting. But if I was doing this trip again I would skip this, it wasn’t necessary and made our trip rushed.
**23 October – Miyajima**
* Another day of travel, this time to Miyajima (3 hours). We caught the 8am shinkansen and stored our larger bag at Hiroshima Station. This meant we arrived in Miyajima by 11am.
* We dropped off our overnight bag at our Ryokan, grabbed some lunch and water to prepare to climb Mt Misen.
* We followed the Daisho-in Course which offers the nicest views and is not as steep as the other two. It’s about 1.5-2 hours to summit, so we had to start by 2:30pm. After spending a long time looking at the view, and a short stop at Miyamajinja shrine we took the ropeway down (reminder it’s 30 minutes to the ropeway from the summit, and you need to be at the ropeway before 5:30 for last ropeway).
* This walk was awesome! The scenery was fantastic! It was raining so we couldn’t see far from the summit, but it didn’t matter. We were pleased we walked up instead of down, Going down that many stairs would have ruined my knees.
* Before dinner we explored central Miyajima briefly, but lots of things were starting to close by the time we arrived back in town and we had to be back at our ryokan for dinner (7pm ish).
* We were disappointed to find out our ryokan locked their doors at about 9pm, so we didn’t have much time after dinner to walk around town. The shrine was stunning after dark, it was worth staying the night just for that.
**24 October – Hiroshima**
* After breakfast at our Ryokan, we finished up in Miyajima. The Itsukushima Shrine (the main shrine with the famous Torii gate), was much better in person than the photos I saw online. Then we traveled back to Hiroshima, collected our bag, and checked into our hotel.
* I wish we’d planned to spend this day in Miyajima too. But we wanted to check out Hiroshima too.
* Our only real plan for the day was the Peace Park and Museum, and the A-Bomb Dome. The main museum was closed for renovations while we were there. However a smaller annex was open with a display. The museum and dome were absolutely worth visiting. But we were so emotionally drained afterwards that I would recommend not planning anything else for the rest of the day.
**25 October – Nagoya (Toyota Museum)**
* The next leg of our trip was a bit off the standard route. First we traveled to Nagoya (3 hours travel (leave by 7:30)) amd dropped our bags at our hotel.
* Then we went to the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology. There’s a textile museum first and an automotive technology museum second. There were heaps of staff running demonstrations while we were there and lots of interactive exhibits.
* We’d also planned to go to the Toyota Automobile Museum (exhibits Japanese, European and American automobiles from the late 1800s to the 1960s). However we ended up staying at the industry museum until they closed. It was the greatest museum I’ve ever been to (and it’s free).
**26 October – Toyota Factory Tour**
* We booked a Toyota Factory Tour for this day. We had to leave our hotel at 8:30 to arrive in advance of 10:30am tour. Tours leave from the Toyota Kaikan museum ( a small museum that is probably only worth visiting if you’re going on the tour). This tour was totally worth it! They’re free tours, in English (or Japanese) and they take you through multiple factory sites over 2.5 hours. I hope we can go back and do it again sometime.
* After loving Nagoya, we took the train back to Tokyo where we had booked a business hotel in Asakusabashi. Tokyo is only about 2 hours from Nagoya, but the Toyota tour was pretty out of the way, so it was about 3 hours back to Tokyo.
* In the afternoon/evening we checked out Akihabara (shops and arcades). We tried to go to the UDX parking garage to look for interesting cars, but didn’t see anything of interest.
* It was nice to not really have a plan, just wander around and see what looked interesting.
**27 October – Tokyo**
* We planned to spend this day shopping in Tokyo, first at the Ohi Racecourse Flea Market. However, the flea market wasn’t on the weekend we were there. It’s quite far away from anything else, so double check before you go… We’ll try again next time.
* Then we ended up spending the rest of the day mucking around and checking out Tokyo Tower.
* We heard the Jimbocho station area was good to look for vintage posters/books etc.There was unexpectedly a book fair on! We spent hours and hours looking at stalls full of interesting old books.
**28 October – Tokyo**
* The plan for this day was ‘Museums and art’. We started at the Tokyo Edo museum (awesome, but I understand it’s closed for renovations for a while) and the Hokusai Museum.
* We’d booked at Woodblock print workshop at Mokuhankan. This was a lot of fun and made a really unique souvenir.
* In the evening we went to a Don Quijote to buy snacks to take home, spent too long waiting in the duty free line and almost missed the last train! Next time, I recommend picking them up as you go. It wasn’t worth the hassle of carrying large bags back to our hotel.
**29 October – Nikko day trip**
* Our final day trip was to Nikko (timed to later in the month for the fall colors). This was a very full on day, but one of our favorites. We had to leave our hotel by 5:30am to arrive Nikko at 8:25am, and then take the 8:37am Tobu bus from Nikko station to Yumoto Onsen (arriving at 10:05am).
* From there we walked the Senjogahara Plateau Nature Trail (6-8km, around 2.5 to 3 hours to complete).
* We took the bus back to Nikko (1hour) (1-2pm), explored Nikko’s famous shrines (unfortunately many of them were covered and closed for renovations).
* We had dinner on the way back to the station and left Nikko at about 7pm to arrive in Tokyo at 9ish.
* An overnight trip to Nikko would be better if you want to do the walk and see the shrines properly. We were too rushed (and tired) to look at the shrines properly before they closed.
**30 October – Tokyo**
* We specifically planned this as a catch up day in Tokyo, where we could see anything we missed on the earlier days.
* After overdoing it the day before, we took it pretty easy this day. First we went around the Imperial Palace and Ginza. We spent the afternoon in Odaiba, it was interesting as most things were closed or closing, so there were hardly any other people around. We went to: Venus Fort, Tokyo Joypolis, and the Trick art museum.
**31 October – Tokyo**
* We booked the Ghibli Museum for the final full day of our trip. This was worth the hassle of having to book so far in advance, and good timing as a way to wrap up the whole trip. We absolutely recommend it,
* Then we went to Nakano Broadway to check out all the shops! We could have spent much longer here, and plan to go back next time. We managed to find some great things from anime we like.
* On the way back to our hotel we had to pass through Shibuya, and nothing could have prepared us for Halloween in Shibuya. We didn’t really know what to expect, but were interested in observing. As I mentioned earlier, we’re not really interested in nightlife, but this sounded like an opportunity not to be missed. Nothing could have prepared us for this experience. I didn’t know so many people could be in one place at any one time… The police had to wade into a sea of people to clear a path for traffic. All the bars and restaurants were overflowing with people. I couldn’t find a toilet (the konbini had all locked theirs). I wouldn’t do it again, but I’m pleased we went to check it out.
**01 November – Tokyo**
* Time to travel home 🙁
* We took our suitcases to Tokyo Station and stored them in a coin locker, then spent the day however we liked.
* We went back to some of our favorite spots and did some last minute shopping.
I’m really looking forward to our next trip (hopefully October 2023). On our next trip we’re planning to base ourselves in Tokyo and just do day (or overnight) trips.