Hello! Just returned from my trip to Japan a few days ago and decided to do a little writeup on how it went.
**BACKGROUND**
* I’ve been to Japan twice before, both times in with family when I was younger. Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto on a guided tour the first time. Tokyo only on the second trip. This time, I’m now in my 30s, traveling alone, and can actually afford to do more stuff.
* Since I’ve been to Tokyo twice before, I skipped some things I’ve done before like the Ghibli Museum and going up Tokyo Tower, but I did have a few repeats from when I did the guided tour 17 years ago. I also generally don’t like theme parks so I didn’t bother with Disney or Universal.
* I don’t speak Japanese at all. I only know a few words and phrases that I’ve picked up from anime. I’m Chinese though, so I can at least read some kanji, which is still pretty helpful. I didn’t go anywhere outside of major tourist areas, so I could get by with English. Google Translate and its image scanning function is also super helpful.
* I got the JR Pass for 14 days. With the amount of train riding I did, it only just barely became worth it. It’s pretty tough to make those things worthwhile if you’re not covering a lot of ground, and then the tradeoff then becomes feeling like you didn’t spend enough time in one area. If I had cut one day trip, the pass would not have been worth it.
* I tend to have a lot of foot injuries so I take a lot of precautions with my feet, including custom orthotic inserts for my shoes, and taking lots of breaks when walking long distances. Japan is inevitably a lot of walking for a tourist, so I had to budget for lots of rest breaks. I also tried not to have heavy walking days back to back, and have days for long train rides in between them.
* I haven’t traveled much the past few years, so I was a bit looser with my wallet on this trip, e.g. stayed at 4-5 star hotels.
* I take my DSLR with me whenever I travel, so that adds a few extra pounds to carry around everywhere and space in my luggage.
* I got a pocket WiFi from Ninja WiFi. I only got the 1GB/day plan and it was enough for a single person. I really just used it for Google Maps and Instagram, and reading Reddit when I’m just waiting around. There were a few times I came close to hitting that limit when I uploaded some videos as Instagram stories, but usually I got around this by using local free WiFi to upload videos instead.
* I had an itinerary all written out for this trip. I probably stuck to it by about 80%. I always build in some flexibility in my itineraries in case things are unexpectedly closed, have long lines I can’t bypass, or just run out of time for, and then try to move things around to find time for it another day. I usually make restaurant reservations, but for this trip I only made one reservation (for sushi omakase) in advance and left my meal options open most nights in case I felt like having anything else.
**COVID STUFF**
Japan still takes lots of COVID precautions that most other countries have dropped, including temperature checks and hand sanitation stations at most stores and restaurants. One of my hotels required people to use disposable gloves to use the breakfast buffet serving utensils. As for facemasks, I’d say about 95% of people still wear masks. Not a big deal for me, masks are still heavily used where I come from (San Francisco) anyway. The 5% were mostly European and Indian tourists, but a handful of locals don’t wear masks either (usually teenagers).
**REPORT**
*11/11 OSAKA*
* Arrived in Osaka around noon. Getting out of the airport was a clusterfuck because they were still transitioning to using Visit Japan Web, which not everyone was using. Ironically it would have been faster to get through the airport using the paper forms since they had stations open for those and no one was using those.
* Picked up my pocket WiFi, JR Pass, and ICOCA card and exchanged some currency before I left the airport.
* Dropped off my stuff at the Royal Park Hotel Iconic Osaka Midosuji around 3pm. Was a great location near Hommachi Station, and the Midosuji Illumination was right outside.
* Got to Dotonbori around sunset. Ate a really late lunch at Dotonbori Imai, and ate at some food stands including getting some takoyaki. Then walked up Shinsaibashi, got some cheese tarts from Pablo, and got a latte from LiLo Coffee Roasters. Then walked back a different direction back down to Dotonbori.
* Stopped by Steak Ken and made a reservation for the following night. Was told he only accepts reservations in person because you have to put down a deposit, so I did that at this time since I was nearby.
* Went to Eorzea Cafe because I’m a huge FFXIV fan. Had some mochi and a drink before they closed, and bought some memorabilia.
* Okonomiyaki for dinner at Ajinoya. I was the last person they would allow in for the night.
* Stopped by Hozenji Shrine before heading back to the hotel.
*11/12 OSAKA*
* Started off my day with sushi at Endo Sushi out at the fish market. Kind of a pain to get to since the nearest station is quite a walk away. I saw some other tourists getting here by taxi.
* Visited Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan for about two hours, then rode the ferris wheel right next to it. Not much to see along it but was still fun to ride in the glass car.
* Lunch at Moeyo Mensuke. There was a line that moved kinda quickly but I was able to cut everyone because I was eating alone. Didn’t have to say anything to the staff because you order through a vending machine.
* Visited Osaka Castle. I didn’t actually go inside, and instead sat outside on the benches for a bit to relax.
* Kuromon Market for some street food. A lot of the stalls were closing up since it was about 5pm but a handful of places were still open so I was able to eat some really great seafood.
* Dinner was Kobe beef at Steak Ken. Best steak I’ve ever had, and a really fun experience too. Highly recommend this restaurant if you are in Osaka.
*11/13 HIROSHIMA DAY TRIP*
* Took the shinkansen to Hiroshima. It began raining as I was on the train.
* Had a drink and small dish at Caffe Ponte near the Atomic Bomb Dome.
* Walked around the dome, and then the Peace Memorial Park in the rain. Regretfully cut the museum because I wanted to get lunch and have more time at Miyajima.
* Lunch at Anagomeshi Ueno’s location in the food court of the Mitsukoshi building downtown. I didn’t want to have to wait in line forever at their main location.
* Took the light rail out to the Miyajima ferry station. Got some oysters at Yakigaki no Hayashi, some momiji manju at various stands, and lots of other little snacks.
* Got to Itsukushima Shrine before sunset. It’s still under construction so the support bridge for workers was still surrounding it.
* Took the ferry back, then rode the light rail to Okonomimura and got Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki for dinner before heading back to Osaka by shinkansen. Went straight back to the hotel after because I was too tired to do anything else for the night.
* Things that were cut: Hiroshima Castle, Peace Memorial Museum, Miyajima Ropeway
*11/14 NARA AND KYOTO*
* Took the Kintetsu train to Nara instead of JR because the station is more conveniently located. Stored my luggage at the station.
* Picked up kakinohasushi at Kakinohasushi Hompo Tanaka. Found a bench to eat these as my breakfast.
* Walked around Nara Park, Todai-ji, and Kasuga-taisha. Fed some deer. Tried to stay alive when I tried eating some snacks myself. Note – some sources online said that Todai-ji doesn’t allow photos of the Buddha. Maybe that was the case in the past, but now their official policy is that you cannot use tripods or take large group photos (basically anything that would be an obstruction to others), but individual photos or phone cameras are fine.
* Got lunch at Maguro Koya – their ootoro was amazing and the couple who owns this place were so nice – it felt like eating at your grandparents’ house.
* Got some mochi at Nakatanidou before picking up my luggage and getting on a train to Kyoto.
* At Kyoto Station, did some souvenir shopping for matcha stuff at Nakamura Tokichi before heading to my hotel, the Cross Hotel Kyoto.
* Wanted to try the fluffy pancakes Japan is famous for. Went to A Happy Pancake hoping to try the matcha flavored ones they only serve in Kyoto, but they were sold out of that one. Got the tiramisu one instead.
* Looked up some places to eat and Onikai stood out. Tried going there but they told me they were booked completely for the evening. Went to Renkon-ya instead and it was a good experience. Lots of small dishes, including yudofu which I wanted to try while in Kyoto.
*11/15 KYOTO*
* Started off the day with breakfast at the hotel. Food was only okay but it was included in my hotel fee anyway. Their matcha latte was great though.
* Took the bus to the Philosopher’s Path and walked along this until I got to Omen, where I stopped to get udon for an early lunch.
* After lunch, walked up to Ginkaku-ji. Stopped for a matcha latte on my way out.
* Went all the way down to Fushimi Inari. Made a loop through the main area of torii gates.
* Got to Kiyomizu-dera just before sunset. Took lots of great photos here. I wish they started their nighttime event a few days earlier, but oh well. Walked back down from here to Gion, passing through Yasaka Shrine.
* In Gion, picked up some saba sushi from Izuju which was a little hard to find (it’s down a narrow alleyway that isn’t super obvious), and also picked up some more matcha items from Tsujiri. I wanted to try getting dinner at Gion Yuki but it was completely packed. I walked over to Miyako instead, and they told me they could seat me in about an hour. I chose to wait for this instead of trying for Yuki, and went to my hotel nearby to just eat the saba sushi in the meantime. Then came back to Miyako and had a nice dinner there. They felt like a restaurant that would be super expensive for small bites, but it actually wasn’t too expensive at all.
*11/16 KYOTO*
* Went to the hotel breakfast buffet simply because I wanted another matcha latte. Went to Arashiyama to see the bamboo forest. Walked through Tenryu-ji to get back to the station area. Got a coffee at %arabica which had a really long line. Decided to skip the monkey park because I didn’t feel like hiking.
* After that, I went to Ginkaku-ji.
* Went back downtown and got a late lunch at Honke Owariya. Got the nishin soba here. Then walked to Nishiki Market from here and tried a handful of snacks, including the tako tamago.
* From here, I headed north to Kifune Shrine. It was really cool taking the train there because at one point they shut off the lights on the train and light up the trees outside instead. Checked out the shrine, but unfortunately a lot of the restaurants around here were closed so I headed back south.
* I wanted to check out the Ichijoji Ramen Street. I was a little disappointed because it wasn’t a bustling night market type environment and was instead just a handful of quiet shops in a residential neighborhood. I was able to get into Menya Gokkei without waiting since it was a really quiet night. Ramen here was really great, never had a broth that thick before. After that, I took the train back to the hotel.
* Things that were cut: A lot of other shrines.
*11/17 HAKONE*
* Went to Kyoto Station first thing in the morning to take the shinkansen to Odawara Station. Since I had to take my giant luggage with me this time, I had to go to the JR ticket office and make a reservation (free, by the way). I got seated next to some other people, but the seats across the aisle were empty for my entire ride so I just moved into those instead. A ticket inspector came up to me when he noticed I moved into seats that weren’t supposed to be occupied, but he was cool with it when he saw that I had a reservation for nearby seats and was getting off by Odawara anyway.
* From Odawara, I took the train to Yumoto, then took the ryokan shuttle to my hotel (Hakone Airu) to drop off my stuff, but it was still too early to check in. So I went back down to town to find something to eat. But everything with decent ratings had a long line, and by this point it was already close to 2pm. I still wanted to do some stuff before sunset, so I just went to a restaurant with an open table and got a curry udon which wasn’t that bad.
* After the late lunch I hopped on a bus to Lake Ashi. I bought a one way cruise ticket from Motohakone to Togendai. Unfortunately after getting to Togendai, I had just missed the last ropeway ride, so I would have to take a bus all the way back to Yumoto from here.
* After getting back to Yumoto, I had to walk to my hotel since the shuttle stopped running. After checking in, I had the kaiseki dinner at the hotel. Hakone Airu provides private outdoor onsen baths for each room, so after dinner I tried it out.
*11/18 HAKONE TO KAWAGUCHIKO*
* I woke up pretty early, so I hopped back into the private onsen until it was time for breakfast. After breakfast, I finished up packing, but took a third and final dip in the onsen before checking out.
* I had originally planned on just checking out a museum (like the Venetian Glass Museum) this day but since I couldn’t do much the day before, I decided to check out Owakudani. I left my luggage at Gora Station, then went up to Owakudani, had the kuro tamago, and then headed back to the station.
* I had to get to Kawaguchiko before 7pm in order to get dinner in my hotel, so I planned on taking a bus that would arrive by 5:40pm. Unfortunately the express buses were suspended, so my only bus option was a local bus. Things were going well at first, but not long after leaving the Gotemba outlets there were a crapton of tourists all headed toward Kawaguchiko as well, and it took forever for the driver to help them sort out how to pay their fares and store their luggage. Then we got stuck in traffic on the way there, and had to make frequent stops to pickup tourists along the way. The bus was scheduled to arrive at 5:40pm but it didn’t get to Kawaguchiko Station until about 6:30pm. Fortunately I was able to email the hotel along the way to keep them updated on my situation, and they sent their shuttle to the station to pick me up so I could get to the hotel before dinner.
* I stayed at Hotel Asafuji, right along Lake Kawaguchiko. At this point it was late so I couldn’t see anything outside. So I just had the dinner and then got ready to sleep.
*11/19 KAWAGUCHIKO TO TOKYO*
* Woke up really early and it was super foggy outside so I couldn’t see anything yet. So I went to the public onsen within the hotel. Since it was 6am, I was the only person there and had it all to myself for about 30 minutes.
* When the fog started clearing up, I went outside to take photos of the lake and of Mt. Fuji before breakfast. Afterward, I packed up my room. As a parting gift, the hotel manager gave me a bunch of printed photos of Mt. Fuji and the Five Lakes area as souvenirs.
* I stored my luggage at Kawaguchiko Station. However, all the lockers were full so I had to leave them with the luggage desk which closes at 5pm, meaning I had to be back by then to pick it back up. This was fine since I had to go to Tokyo anyway.
* I headed up to Chureito Pagoda. The stairs leading up to it was brutal, but worth it for the view. Afterwards, I headed back down, got some ice cream at a small shop on the way back to the station, and then headed back to Kawaguchiko.
* I ate at Houtou Fudou across the street from the station. These types of noodles are the local specialty so I had to try them. After lunch, I had a choice between trying another restaurant nearby, or taking a bus back to the north side of the lake to get photos as the sun was setting behind Fuji. I chose poorly and went with going back to the lake. This was a mistake because the bus got stuck in traffic heading north, and rain clouds were starting to come into the area, obscuring the sunset anyway. So after reaching the lake, I snapped two quick photos and just turned back around to get back to the station to get my luggage just in time.
* I headed for Tokyo, but had to wait for a specific train that would be covered by my JR Pass. Once at Shinjuku Station, I walked to the Keio Plaza Hotel and checked in.
* For dinner, I walked over to Omoide Yokocho. First I had the absurdly cheap noodles at Kameya, then I sat down at one of the little stores selling pork and beef skewers. I sat next to a couple from New Zealand and had a nice conversation with them as we ate a variety of skewers.
*11/20 DAY TRIP TO KAMAKURA*
* Got on a train to Kamakura from Shinjuku Station. I knew it was going to rain this day so the plan was to just do as much as I could outdoors before focusing on food in the afternoon.
* From Kamakura Station, I headed to Kotoku-in and Hase-dera. Note – Hase-dera does not allow photos of any kind inside. I ate at some food stands along the way, including a manju shaped like a Buddha, and an crispy octopus cracker sheet.
* From Hase-dera, I walked to Matsubara-an for lunch. I really liked eating here because it was like eating in a real Japanese house. The set lunch was great, the duck was especially good, and the soba was really good too. The rain started coming down while I was eating.
* Next I went to Kamakurakoko-mae, and I didn’t expect there to be a huge crowd there especially in the rain, since it’s just a train track crossing a street. I got a few photos but it was a bit difficult with the crowds and umbrellas. Afterwards I got back on the train and headed back up to Kamakura Station.
* I walked down Komachi-dori and tried some street food. A few places had space to eat indoors to get out of the rain. My favoriet spot was Imbiss for the beer and sausage. At the end of Komachi-dori is Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu, but at this point it was pretty dark so it was hard to take some photos. I did what I could and then turned around. For dinner I tried curry at Caraway. Honestly I was a bit disappointed by this place, I wasn’t a fan of their thicker curry. I guess I was expecting something that tasted more like CoCo Ichibanya. Headed back to the station to take a train back to Tokyo after.
* Things I cut: lots of shrines because of the rain.
* Once back in Tokyo, I mostly chilled for the rest of the night. I got hungry again after midnight so I went out to Golden Gai, just to see what it’s like. Even in the rain with not many people around, it was way too ratchet for me. I went to Ramen Nagi and got some ramen to satisfy my hunger and then headed back to my hotel. Got approached by some 50ish year old prostitute along the way, which was… weird. I just ignored her but I could hear her calling to me in both English and Chinese (she must have known I was a tourist since I was coming from Golden Gai).
*11/21 TOKYO*
* Started out my day with a nice walk to the Meiji Shrine, followed by a quick walk to Yoyogi Park. Didn’t have to spend much time at either of these since I’ve been to both before, but they were near the hotel so it wasn’t much to re-visit.
* I really loved the movie Your Name, so next I went to the staircase featured at the very end of the movie. It’s kinda weird because it’s in a small shrine in a quiet residential neighborhood, but I’m sure they’re used to it at this point. I went to Taiyaki Wataba after, which was a short walk away.
* From here, all the walking from the past two weeks was really catching up to me and having its toll on my feet. So I rested in a station for a bit to ease up on all the walking. When I was ready to go again, I went to Asakusa. I’ve been to Senso-ji before so I didn’t have to spend much time there, and I was primarily there just to check out Hoppy-dori (got some good food and tried hoppy too) and get views of Tokyo Skytree. I took a train to get just outside Skytree too, but didn’t want to go up it since I wasn’t really impressed by the online photos of what you’d be able to see from it. I went to the Ghibli store here to get some souvenirs for friends back home.
* The one restaurant I booked in advance of my trip was omakase at Isana in Roppongi. I really liked it here because it was high end sushi in a really relaxed setting (I’ve heard omakase at other high end sushi restaurants can be very formal and strict). All five customers that night did sake pairings and were chatting with each other between food coming out. The chef also explained to us about how the sushi industry works within Japan which was pretty enlightening.
*11/22 DAY TRIP TO NIKKO*
* This day was PAIN. A really bad blister started developing on one foot, and I didn’t have as much energy as I had in previous days. On top of that, lots of problems occurred on this date. First, I had booked a different hotel (Prince Park Tower Tokyo) for my final days in Tokyo because I wanted to get a room with a beautiful view of Tokyo Tower, so I had to switch hotels and move from Shinjuku to Minato. On top of that, there were some track issues for the Tohoku shinkansen so trains were delayed. So I had to begin my day with moving my luggage to my new hotel and storing it there, and then waiting for a delayed train, so I didn’t even get to Nikko until 1pm. That really limited what I could do there before sunset.
* While in Nikko, I tried the fried yuba buns at Sakaeya, had matcha and a red bean dessert at a little cafe by the bridge, and then walked up to Tosho-gu and Rinno-ji.
* I wanted to see the waterfalls too, but the buses were extremely limited so I wouldn’t have been able to get to the waterfall area before 5pm. So I just walked back from Rinno-ji to the station. Fortunately there were lots of shops along the way selling sweets such as mochi and pudding.
* Once I got back to Tokyo and checked into my new hotel, I went to the nearby Pizza Studio Tamaki and got a pizza since I was craving something more western but wanted to see the high quality pizza they make in Tokyo.
* On my way back to my hotel I walked around Shiba Park to take some photos of Tokyo Tower.
*11/23 TOKYO*
* My final full day in Japan. It rained the entire day, limiting what I could do. On top of that, all the walking I had to do in Nikko really screwed up my right foot, and that blister got so much worse. So I had to take it really easy this day.
* First thing I did after finally being able to comfortably walk was go to Shiro-Hige’s Cream Puff Factory to get the Totoro-shaped cream puffs. They need better signage here because it’s not clear that the line which extends outside is for dine-in, but most people there really just want to get the cream puffs which there is a small shop specifically for.
* After this, I went to Shibuya. I really wanted to see Shibuya Sky on one of the previous nights but was too tired to do so. It was raining, which meant the outdoor area was closed, but the gallery was open. I decided to check it out anyway and just sit up there even though there was not much of a view because of the rain clouds. Was still a nice relaxing environment, considering I was having trouble walking at this point.
* After a while in Shibuya, I decided to just go back to the hotel and rest up. Given the rain, it was probably the best thing to do in my condition anyway. Fortunately my hotel had a great view, so while laying in bed I could still watch as the sky got darker and Tokyo Tower lit up. It was actually a really nice thing to sit and watch.
* Once I was feeling up for it, I headed out to Akihabara to try out Jiromaru on recommendation from a friend. I was fortunate that the rain was stopping as I went here. I was able to make it for last call, and got some pretty good beef as my final dinner in Tokyo.
* Watched the World Cup match between Germany and Japan in my hotel room.
*11/24 LEAVING TOKYO*
* My flight was at 2pm, so I really only had the morning. If my feet were feeling better I would have tried to go to Showa Memorial Park at 6am when I woke up, but I just couldn’t walk well this morning so I had to cut it. After I finished packing, I just went downstairs and ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
* I had thought that my hotel had a shuttle bus to the airport, but it had been suspended. So I was forced to take a taxi to Tokyo Station and take the Narita Express to the airport. Fortunately my JR Pass was still valid and would cover this. But I still had to get a reservation for the Narita Express, and the ticket office gave me a ticket for noon, arriving at 12:50ish, when my flight was at 2pm. The 11:30am train arrived and the station employee on the platform told me I couldn’t board it with my ticket, even though the train was basically empty. I got on my noon train, and was baffled that they didn’t even check my ticket then.
* Once I got to the airport I rushed to my airline to check in, and then dropped off my pocket WiFi. Getting through security and immigration only took 10 minutes, so even with the really late train, I made it to my flight with plenty of time.
**CONCLUSION**
Overall, a great trip. I’ll definitely return to Japan again in the future so I’m not too disappointed about losing out on some activities. I’d love to go to other cities too including Fukuoka and Sapporo.
In retrospect, I probably should have cut Nikko on this trip, but it’s not like I could have really predicted any of the problems that arose back when I was planning this trip, including weather.
I also regret not having a coin purse. American style men’s wallets don’t work well with all the coins you inevitably get. I was able to routinely get rid of a bunch of coins by going to a convenience store to buy a drink or two every few hours, but you still end up getting a bunch of them bulging your wallet throughout the day. The worst thing that happened to me was when I used a vending machine to make change from 1000 yen to pay for a coin locker, and while it gave me enough 100 yen coins to use the locker, it also gave me 300 yen worth of 10 yen coins.
I probably should have taken advantage of luggage forwarding, or just having a smaller suitcase in general. Lugging around a 29-inch suitcase is not fun. It would have been much better to just forward my luggage from Kyoto to Tokyo, and packed a small duffel bag for Hakone and Kawaguchiko.