Trip Report: 2 weeks walking around Japan viewing red leaves, going to collab cafes, and looking for G-Witch corn puffs

When it was announced back in September that Japan was re-opening, I auto-piloted to find a flight there, booked for November 13-27, and decided to figure the rest out later. The only thing that I knew for sure that I wanted to do was visit Square-Enix’s Artnia store / cafe, and I figured I would also be able to see some red leaves while I was there.

This was my 2nd trip to Japan. My first trip was back in 2019 during April, when I visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Takayama, Hakone and Kamakura. I also caught a cold front in early April, and as a result the cherry blossoms were in full bloom in multiple spots. I saw a shit ton of shrines and temples (I almost filled out half of a goshuincho on my first visit), traveled mostly with a group, had a 2 night ryokan experience, made various restaurant plans/reservations, and booked a lot of tickets (namely the Hida Ltd Exp to Takayama) to make use of my 7 day JR.

This trip was different from my last. I had a few ideas about what to do and had a fairly skeletal itinerary with a few days where I hadn’t penciled in anything. I visited during fall, only added 1 new stamp to my goshincho, was traveling entirely by myself, opted for more anime and hobby stuff since I was alone, walked into multiple random restaurants, etc. I followed the Japanese twitter accounts of various things I liked and saw the dates of events/etc that were happening and I planned accordingly.

**What I ended up doing**

* **Nov 13**: Landed at NRT ([Kitty greeted me](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/504124879021277205/1046818878006771813/unknown.png)), Asakusa train to Shimbashi, Artnia
* **Nov 14**: Garden Lounge in the New Otani Hotel, TeamLab Planets, flight to Fukuoka
* **Nov 15**: Golden Kamuy Exhibition, Ohori Park, Kirby Cafe Hakata, Canal City Mall (Gundam Base, etc), dinner at a food stall, got drunk and wanted 7-11 ice cream after
* **Nov 16**: Train to Hiroshima, drop luggage off, ferry to Miyajima, met deer, Itsukushima, Momiji park, Mt. Misen ropeway, ate eel, back to Hiroshima
* **Nov 17**: Found a 7-11 with the G-Witch kuji, Shukkeien, Atomic Bomb Dome, Peace Park, remembrance museum, train to Okayama for Korakuen and back, Okonomimura
* **Nov 18**: Train to Kyoto, Nishiki Market (sushi, matcha dessert, yuzu lemonade, uni, gyoza, goma dofu, and other stuff I don’t remember), Kiyomizudera night illumination, CocoIchi
* **Nov 19**: Shopping, kimono rental, Keage Station, garden viewing & refreshments Murin-an, Eikando night illumination
* **Nov 20**: Dropped off bag in Osaka, Hello Kitty bullet train to Kobe, Harbs, Nunobiki Ropeway up to the top, walked down to the middle station, shopping in Sannomiya, Sweets Paradise
* **Nov 21**: Head spa, walked around Dotonbori, found Eorzea Cafe, checked out Shinsekai
* **Nov 22**: Universal Studios Japan
* **Nov 23**: Met up with a friend at Minoh, had a very refreshing grape soft serve once we got to the waterfall, had dinner and dessert around Umeda, took the midnight Sunrise Express
* **Nov 24**: Left bag at hotel, lined up early for Artnia, went back 1hr later at seating time, checked in to hotel, napped, had Thanksgiving dinner w/friends who live in Tokyo
* **Nov 25**: Shopping in Harajuku, moved over to Ikebukuro, wandered around finding various K-Books / animate / Seria / Daiso, saw Suzume no Tojimari at Shinjuku Wald 9
* **Nov 26**: Had lunch around Shinjuku, swapped hotels, attended Maaya Sakamoto concert, asked room service for a comfort food recommendation for dinner while I played Luggage Tetris
* **Nov 27**: Breakfast a local cafe, Narita Express, plane out in the afternoon

Rather than a full play by play, I’m just gonna ramble about \[stuff\].

**Japan**

* **You are not safe from Mariah Carey**: The most shocking thing about this trip was walking into a DonKi and realizing that “All I want For Christmas Is You” was playing on the speakers. *She cannot be contained*.
* **Masks and other Covid things**: I would say that some 95% of the people I saw were wearing masks. I wear glasses and found the 3d masks to be most convenient as to not fog up my glasses. I don’t really wear one where I live unless I go to Costco where there’s a billion people at all hours of the day. No, there is no mandate afaik telling you to wear masks, but businesses and other establishments certainly expect you to wear one. I definitely recall people being asked to put one on in Tokyo. Tbh, when I saw how each business would provide you with a branded and/or mascot’d mask case to use, I feel like I instantly understood why masks were still a thing. (Relatedly, I bought a cloth Octopath Traveler mask case at Artnia. In my defense, you got a free shikishi for every 3000 yen spent.)
* **Language Barrier**: Knowing a little Japanese really went a long way on this trip, in terms of efficiency. There are a lot of places in Japan have an English menu that they’ll give you, but when you need to ask a question or something, it gets way easier to get help if you can say a few words. I’m an English speaker and my conversational Japanese is laughable and my vocabulary comes from video games, but being able to form simple sentences to ask questions or clarify things that didn’t make sense on the English things they gave me seemed helpful. Some of the service people seemed very relieved when I told them Japanese was okay (especially for stuff like hotel check-in where I’ve done this so many times before I don’t need English). It’s a bit awkward for me cause I was born in Korea but adopted by a white family and grew up in the US. Japanese people and other tourists assumed I was Japanese so I got Nihongo Jyouzu’d and Eigo Jyouzu’d this trip. 🤡
* **Lactaid**: Wew I came home with 1 Lactaid tablet left. I have been linked the tweet from 2019 about “asking a pharmacist for Biolacteeze” at least 3-4 times, and it did not work at any of the pharmacies I tried lol. When I looked up Biolacteeze on Amazon Japan, wondering if I could get it delivered to my hotel, I noticed it says it’s “**not** for use by people with lactose intolerance”. I just made my Lactaid last!
* **Ta-Q-Bin / Takuhaibin**: It’s pretty nice to be able to transfer your luggage to your next place while packing a couple things in a backpack / smaller bag to take with you. I think the easiest way to do this is by staying at a hotel and asking the staff for assistance, but you can also take it to a convenience store and ship it from there. I did this when I took the Sunrise train back to Tokyo since there’s very limited room on the Sunrise.
* **Money**: I used my Pasmo for transit, cash for places that only accepted cash, coins for vending machines / small purchases (you get tons of coins), and my credit card for everything else. Some machines prompted me to pay in Yen or USD (with a fee) when I used my card. I just did yen cause my Chase credit card has no foreign transaction fee. I also have a Schwab bank account that lets me withdraw my USD as yen w/no fee and refunds my ATM fees at the end of the month.
* **Airport Shipping**: Idk about Haneda, but the Lawson in Terminal 3 of Narita airport is a 24/7 location that you can get your pocket wifi or a sim card or \[whatever\] sent to without being worried about the airport post office being closed on a particular day/time. I got my pocket wifi from iVideo and used the Loppi kiosk at Lawson, but it’s probably faster to just ask the clerk if you have tracking info on hand?

**Travel**

* **Flying Zipair**: For my flight to Japan, I did LAX to NRT on Zipair. Zipair had fairly low prices compared to other airlines around the same timeframe. As I discovered, they are the budget brand from JAL, so they’re a legit airline but their business model is to nickel and dime you. When I booked, I bought the standard set of add-ons for a checked suitcase and an in-flight meal. Your in-flight wifi is free (I was able to access Reddit and Discord on it), there’s an ac adapter at your seat, [and there’s a half-sized higher up tray (over your meal tray) that you can put a tablet or phone on to watch things without craning your head over](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/504124879021277205/1046823442973995118/unknown.png). But if you want a green tea or ice cream or a coke or something, you’ll need to order it through the in-flight service app for 300+ yen. On the flight back to LAX, I brought green tea from 7-11 & hotel slippers with me.
* **Hotels**: I used Booking.com for my accommodations, and most of my bookings were at smaller hotels for business travelers. They’re cheaper, smaller rooms with just a bed and a bathroom, but otherwise have amenities you’d find at regular sized hotels (coin laundry, toiletries, waybills for luggage delivery, umbrellas). I tend to go out and roam for the majority of the day, so the hotel being large or spacious wasn’t really a concern of me. The hotels I stayed at in Fukuoka (Mitsui Garden) and Hiroshima (Dormy Annex) also had public baths on the top floors, which were nice to relax in. I got asked if I needed a business expense receipt (領収書) at practically every hotel I stayed at lol.
* **Domestic Flight**: On the evening of the 14th, I took a domestic ANA flight from Haneda to Fukuoka. The time listed on your ticket seems to be your flight’s boarding time, not the departure time. From what I read ahead of time, you can take like 1 liter of liquids on a domestic Japanese flight. I ended up checking my bag anyway since it was free. On my flight, the 2 older ladies next to me needed to get up to go to the bathroom. I replied something like, “Ah, toire?” and got up. So, they thought I was / spoke Japanese, and were surprised near the end of the flight when I told them I was a foreigner who can barely speak the language. 1 of them used the in-flight display screen to zoom in on England and ask me how to pronounce British place names??? I’ve only been to London once and I didn’t know how to pronounce Leicester Square until someone told me, so your guess is as good as mine!
* **JR West Sanyo Sanin Pass**: On my first trip, my perception was that the Japan Rail entity existed and that there was a Magical Pass you could buy for it and you could use it to go anywhere (or something). I did get $$ value $$ out of my JR Pass on my first trip, but now that I understand more about how “Actually, there are 9 million different JR Passes for each of the 90 JR companies, and also there are 9 million different rail companies that aren’t JR”. I wanted to get one that better suited my needs, so I got JR West’s Sanyo Sanin ticket. The Japan Guide JR Pass calculator is a simple way to estimate how much you’re spending, though for short trips it tends to assume you’re using the local JR lines. In my case, this was inaccurate since I took both of the special Hello Kitty trains which cost more than the regular lines. I think with the special trains I took and the various smaller cost local trains, the value I got out of the pass was something like 38k yen with a 20k price tag.
* **The Sunrise Izumo/Seto**: Originally I had booked a bullet train ticket on SmartEx from Shin-Osaka Station to Tokyo Station on the morning of the 24th. After seeing how many things were selling out at Artnia and how some of my Japanese Twitter friends were having difficulty with the cafe, I made the decision to be in Tokyo on the morning of the 24th to line up for the 2nd part of the Live A Live cafe. Initially, I was like, “I’ll just fly the night beforehand and be there for the morning”, but when I realized that the Sunrise train made a stop at Osaka station, I instantly went “I’m doing that”. Trains are just, idk, not really a thing where I live so stuff like the bullet train and the sleeper train are things I’m curious enough to try it. I watched a few videos on YouTube ahead of time of other people riding it and had an accurate impression of how small the rooms were (I splurged and reserved a Single compartment), but I didn’t get a feel for how *shaky* it would be. When I was laying down, I was fine, but when I was standing, I felt like I was back in the black bean bag room at TeamLab Planets lol.

**Random Things**

* **Kyoto night illuminations**: There are some places in Kyoto that have red leaves and night illumination. I went to two – Kiyomizudera and Eikando. Eikando itself is pretty and had a lot of red trees. [The view of the water with the trees at the end was great,](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/504124879021277205/1046817664204537946/unknown.png) but the experience of going through it was miserable. You got corralled and sent through a long line through the grounds with staff constantly yelling instructions at you. The upskirt-photo-detection-noise on Japanese camera phones going off didn’t help with the atmosphere. Kiyomizudera was a lot more chill (the grounds are bigger, so people are more free to roam around and not get herded places). I did visit Kiyomizudera before, but this was before the renovations were complete, and not at night.
* **Following other people into restaurants**: On my last trip I made quite a few food arrangements (2 nights at a ryokan, Takano Fruits Parlor, 2 shojin ryori experiences, etc etc, there were multiple restaurants listed on my plans). This time, aside from booking Thanksgiving dinner (large group of people) and some collab cafes (just to make sure I had a seat), I really winged the food stuff. Initially I had thoughts about trying to book Shoraian in Arashiyama, or lining up for Tomato European Curry in Tokyo. But at some point I just went “naw” and started walking into random restaurants that other people were eating at. This led me to stuff like an eel restaurant on Miyajima that I saw other people line up for before it opened, a 5 course lunch prix fixe in Shinjuku, curry near Shin-Osaka station, etc. Dotonbori also had a lot of food things and I just walked around and ate whatever.
* **Dissociating for 2 hours at the head spa**: I saw a video on YouTube about the head spa treatment and wanted to try one out. I decided to do this in Osaka cause I would be in Osaka half-way through my trip which was probably roughly the time I would want to dissociate and relax. And it was super relaxing to get your head put in a steamer bag multiple times and get your scalp massaged. The before and after photos of your scalp are also equal parts gross and fascinating to look at it. The salon didn’t speak English, but I was able to communicate pretty well (I do know some beauty words because I used to read a lot of skincare labels).
* **Collecting bags**: I had heard about stores charging for plastic shopping bags, so I brought my backpack to carry stuff around in. But then some of the designs on the bags they offer are really cute and before long I turned into a bag collector… The Umeda Rilakkuma store has a super cute Christmas bag of all of the bears dressed up in little Christmas outfits and berets to go caroling…
* **Luggage Tetris:** This was kind of a shitshow for me. I brought a smaller suitcase and a foldable duffle bag with the assumption that I would eventually buy a bunch of stuff and put it in the suitcase then pack my clothes away in the duffle. I ended up buying a lot of stuff throughout the trip, and I think it would have been less trouble to just bring a larger suitcase and let it fill up over the course of the trip. I found the 70 yen or so Mercari cardboard boxes sold at convenience stores / Daiso / Seria were a cheap and useful way to compartmentalize things in your suitcase.

**Character / Collab Cafes**

* **Square-Enix Artnia Store/Cafe**: Artnia is Square-Enix’s store / cafe / display thing that’s an egg-like white building near their office, right above the Shinjuku 3-chome subway station, and I visited for the Live A Live collab. Unlike other Artnia cafe things, the Live A Live collab has no reservation system. If there’s occupancy, you can just sit at the cafe and order – I did this on the 13th at night time when there was only a few people there. But if there’s a line outside Artnia, then at 10am (1hr before opening), they distribute numbered tickets with time slots for people to come back. I did this on the 24th for the 2nd half of the collab, and managed to line up early enough to get a ticket for the first seating at 11am.
* **Kirby Cafe Hakata**: The Kirby Cafe at Skytree in Tokyo is always booked very quickly (I believe reservations open on the 25th for the next month), but the one in Fukuoka at Canal City Mall had plenty of occupancy. I went late in the afternoon for a dessert/snack. It’s extremely cute and the waiter will take your photo with the gigantic Chef Kirby and Waddle Dee at the entrance to the cafe. I also got to pick where I sat (I sat at the Willow, ofc) since there were a lot of empty seats. Unfortunately I visited a few days before the new winter menu started, tho I did still get to eat a Kirby car cake.
* **Sweets Paradise Sannomiya, Spy x Family Collab**: SpyFam seems popular right now so I made a reservation for this just in case. Miraculously, my American phone # let me register for a reservation through the Sweets Paradise app? I’m not sure if it’s all Sweets Paradise, but I could only use cash at this one (meal ticket machine), and I could only order from the collab menu once. I like the new opening and ending for the second season but I came away feeling that I liked them less cause Sweets Paradise had the TV sized cuts both looping endlessly.
* **Eorzea Cafe Osaka**: After my head spa, I was walking around Dotonbori near the Ebisu Bridge when I stumbled upon Eorzea Cafe. I was able to walk-in without a reservation. I think the Osaka cafe is a lot less busy than Tokyo, but it looked like multiple dishes and drinks were sold out. This felt geared towards people who don’t wanna talk to wait staff lol. You scan a QR code and order stuff and they bring it to your table. This was also my first time trying Okinawan taco rice – I ordered the Eden Titan version that came with monaka cut outs of his wheels. I am now a big fan of taco rice because it’s basically a deconstructed Taco Bell taco but on rice. Genius. Because I’m complete cringe, I signed the guestbook as “Heavens Legend, by the way”.

**Anime Stuff**

* **The Hunt for the Elusive G-Witch Kuji**: Before I went to Japan, I knew about the new Gundam kuji that would be at 7-11s. They changed the date from “Nov 12” to “rolled out gradually starting Nov 11”. I would go into random 7-11s during my trip to use the ATM or buy a drink and got used to checking to see if they had G-Witch or not. The only place I found it in was in Hiroshima, at a 7-11 near my hotel. The cashier had me pray before I pulled, and I got the B prize. Prayers worked. I also went into the Ichiban Kuji shop at Ikebukuro Sunshine City. They didn’t have G-Witch, but I tried my luck at the Suzume no Tojimari kuji and won the A prize. 😤
* **The Hunt for the Elusive G-Witch Corn Puffs**: In addition to go into random 7-11s and looking for G-Witch kuji, I also found myself stopping in random Daily Yamazaki and looking for Yamazaki Biscuit’s Aerial product with the G-Witch promotional bags lmao. I found 3 of the 4 by the end of my trip. Elan evaded me. I’d not had the Aerials before, but they’re quite similar to Bugles.
* **Golden Kamuy Exhibition Fukuoka**: I went to the Golden Kamuy exhibition, which had many historical items on display, as well as various manga panels and drawings. I happened to go on a Tuesday, which was the day they were giving out a shikishi of Ogata to visitors. He isn’t a favorite of mine, but he’s one of the more popular characters for sure and plenty of people were there taking photos of his gun. I appreciated seeing the Ainu cooking display at the exhibition, as I joke with some friends that Golden Kamuy is “my favorite cooking anime”.
* **Universal Studios Japan**: I planned to go to USJ on the 22nd, which was 1 day before the Japanese Labor Holiday. I bought an Express Pass (inc. Nintendo World timed entry and rides) from USJ’s ticketing webpage via Apple Pay cause I figured a lot of people would be there. Unfortunately USJ was sold out of the JJK mini-character headbands, so I got a cute headband from Nintendo with Boo on it. Nintendo World was very well-decorated (there’s also a Christmas tree!), but it was very packed as after you get a timed entry you don’t get kicked out. Shooting shells at the cheater game characters with winged go-karts on the Rainbow Road was extremely satisfying btw. American Dream is a good coaster; kinda wish I had lined up for the reverse version. I also went for Jujutsu Kaisen and got food at Saido so I could send my regards to the absurd lifesize Gojo doll. After you get seated, the waiters are like, “Omg are you here to see Gojo? Come see Gojo! He’s so cool! He’s the best!”
* **Make it a Suntory Time:** I feel like Lost in Translation qualifies as a weeb thing at this point. I had a bunch of Hyatt points saved up through the pandemic, so I stayed 2 nights at Park Hyatt and 1 night at Andaz (Park Hyatt ran out of award rooms, so I went to the other fancy Hyatt). The views, amenities, and service at the Park Hyatt were all excellent – the lobby area [had the best view of Mt Fuji I caught during both of my trips](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/504124879021277205/1046835052710989934/unknown.png), my room had a scenic overlook of Yoyogi Park, and I think I spent 30mins opening random drawers in my room and seeing what amenity would pop out next. 1pm check-in time was great too. But the distance from the Park Hyatt to the train station sucks ass and I kept getting the 100 yen We Bus that picks you up at Shinjuku Station and drops you in front of the Park Hyatt (I hate Shinjuku Station). I actually liked Andaz better as a hotel, but this is all very “first world problems”-tier and I’m never going to bother booking at hotels like these again unless I have more points laying around.
* **Suzume no Tojimari**: I went and saw the new Makoto Shinkai movie at Shinjuku Wald 9. I understood a great deal of the dialogue, but some of the specifics of the plot regarding Daijin and >!Sadaijin !<were lost on me. The vibe I got after thinking on it is>!they were symbolic of / reflects the story of Suzume and her aunt, which is why both Sadaijin and her aunt enter the story properly during the Tokyo part? 🤔!<
* **Maaya Sakamoto Un\_Mute**: My last big thing on this trip before leaving was Maaya Sakamoto’s concert on the 26th. My ticket was a scalped fan club ticket that came with a Japanese male name on it, and welp I’m a woman. I did some research on this beforehand, and there was nothing about Maaya’s concerts ever checking ID. Additionally, the concert hall it was being held in had a maximum occupancy of like 5k people, so I doubted they were going to check 5k peoples IDs. They didn’t check anything besides your temperature, so I was able to get in without issue and had a fairly decent seat on the first tier. I loved it – she had such great energy & cute in how she interacted with the band and the audience. I hadn’t seen her since Anime Expo many years ago. 🥺 I’ve been bad about following her musical career, though. I only recognized the Deaimon opening.

**Special Transit**

* **Hello Kitty Haruka**: The Sanyo Sanin pass doesn’t cover the bullet train past Shin-Osaka station, so I took the Hello Kitty Haruka to Kyoto. [Kitty looks very cute in her little kimono](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/504124879021277205/1046819786421702778/unknown.png) and the train exterior and interior are decorated with Kitty and flowers.
* **Hello Kitty Kodama Bullet Train**: On the 20th, I rode the Hello Kitty bullet train on a short trip to Kobe. The cars are definitely a bit beat up by now, but it’s still adorable. [The 1st car is a Hello Kitty themed sitting room and store](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/504124879021277205/1046815903188275220/unknown.png) (because of course there’s a store) that has a gachapon machine (because of course there’s a gachapon machine) and there was even a lottery for regional specialty goods. It wasn’t very crowded, so I was able to chill around the 1st and 2nd cars, which have all of the decorations.
* **The Hankyu Miffy to Minoh**: Some of the Hankyu trains have a gigantic Miffy doll in a Hankyu conductor uniform that sits in the train, [and the train itself has decal stickers of Miffy and her friends](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/504124879021277205/1046816264074571786/unknown.png) and stylized imagery of sights from Osaka. At one point the conductor got up, leaving Miffy in charge of the train – she did great.
* **Hachiko Bus**: I discovered that there’s a 100 yen bus called the Hachiko Bus which has a drawing of a dog and paw prints on it. I totally rode the Hachiko Bus to Harajuku Station.

Overall, I had a great time. Was nice to travel around again after the pandemic. Things I would do differently is… buy Tokyo Banana in Tokyo since it was sold out at Narita. I bought the little custard cakes that have Pooh faces on them instead. Whenever I go back again, I’d like to go in spring again as there are multiple gardens I’d like to see in person (Hitachi Seaside Park, Ashikaga, Fuji Shibazakura Festival).