Trip Reports Tokyo – Nagoya – Osaka

Part 1 of my trip reports for 12 days.

Day 1. Flight from US to Haneda was smooth, with minimal turbulence. We were lucky enough to leave before the numerous flight cancellations in US airport.
Arrived at 5:00 am. Having completed visit Japan web made it easy.
We opted for the Haneda monorail to Hamamatsucho due to simple transfer than the other option. Train was empty, probably because it was in the early hour.
After a brief rest, we continue to Akihabara. It was really crowded. Decided to just took a few pics and left. Wasn’t interested to inserted our selves with itaewon crowd crushed fresh in mind.
Next stop was Teamlab Tokyo. Thanks to my reddits family that answer my concern, we had a blast.

Day 2. Shibuya scrambled square, went to the observation deck. The view was magnificent, not to crowded. Shibuya crossing doesn’t disappoint. It was crowded, I mean really crowded. We had to cancel some itinerary because of jet lagged.

Day 3. Took the shinkansen to Nagoya.
Visited the OSU shopping District and Nabano No Sato at night via train and bus. The light show was amazing.

Day 4. Hired a private travel bus/ van to Shirakawa Go. The images you saw online doesn’t do justice. It was a winter wonderland. So peaceful. Ended day 4 with another shinkansen ride to Osaka.

Day 5. Osaka castle. The line to enter was long but not “Disneyland” long. Continued with a trip to Dotonburi to see the Glica running man and called it a day.

Things that might be helpful:
Do not overly packed your schedule. Our groups age range from 6 – 75. Flexibility is very important. It is a marathon, spread out your energy for your whole trips.

Get a really good walking shoes. You’ll be walking a lot. We thought we could get a break during lunch/ dinner, because of the small restaurant setting, there will be someone waiting for your table most of the time.

Keep an eye on your little one, especially when transferring in station. Assigned someone to look for directions and other to watch the group.

Watch out for cyclists, get a train pass/ IC, depends where you’ll be traveling.

Download Japan transit planner apps. I found out it is more reliable than Google maps.

Get a reserve seat on the shinkansen if you plan on using them from the airport. It took a long time when we did it from the local station.

Not all stations have elevator, if they do, not all will have the same exit as using the stairs/ escalator. Set a meeting point before hand if you group is separated.

I’ll report part 2 of our trips as the day go..

I hope someone finds this helpful.