Trip Report: 14 Days in Japan (Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Hakone, Tokyo, Fuji) 12/30/22 – 01/12/23

Just got back from a 14 day trip with my wife. This was my second time visiting Japan. The first being in Fall of 2018.

Heres a write up of how it went with some recommendations, tips, and what I’d do different next time.

Before the trip:

– Booked JR Pass through official site, so we had the capability to reserve trains ahead of time on their web portal
– Booked all lodging
– Made restaurant reservations for places we wanted to try
– Made reservations to things like TeamLabs Planet and Tokyo Red Tower, HP cafe
– Did a lot of research on places to visit, things to eat, and how to ship baggage around Japan
– Prebought an esim plan via the Ubigi App, so that it worked immediately on arrival
– Submitted all required Arrival forms to bypass quarantine requirements, Immigration items, customs, etc…
– Lots of research on being prepared for Japanese winter in Kanto and Kansai Prefectures

**Day 1 Dec 30th (Arrival and travel to Osaka):**

In-bound flight: ATL-HND on Delta. Arrival around 2 PM Japan time. Cleared Customs and immediately picked up our JR passes from the JR East office in Haneda airport. The office was really busy and we waited in line for about an hour, might be better to just pick it up from another office at a large station, maybe Shinagawa Station or Tokyo Station.

This trip was planned literally 3 weeks in advance, I found decent mile transfer deal and got tickets. That meant hotels were largely booked up in Tokyo for our time frame due to the New Year (very busy travel period for Japanese citizens). This forced us to look outside of Tokyo to start our trip, I checked for hotels in Osaka and there was much more availability at decent prices.

So after picking up our JR passes, we headed to Shinagawa Station to catch the Shinkansen to Osaka. We grabbed some food from the station, bought some snacks, picked up cash from a 7/11 atm and caught our train.

One thing to note: People seem to ignore the reserved baggage area rule on Shinkansen’s. I purposefully booked the last row to store our baggage and folks had already put their bags there before we boarded, I was forced to keep bags in our row or above us. That was annoying.

We arrived in Osaka, got some more food and then headed to our Hotel close by Shin-Osaka station (the area is pretty quite, not much to do there, but the location can’t be beat if Osaka is your home base for the next week or so).

**Day 2 – Dec 31st (Day trip to Kyoto):**

We knew that Jan 31st would be a very busy day in Kyoto. People from all over Japan visit shrines to pray for a good new year, and Kyoto being a major shrine city…the crowds were massive. We first checked out Fushimi Inari Shrine, walked up the mountain a bit then headed back into town to eat from the street vendors. Since it was holiday time, a lot of street food tents are put up and they serve all the Japanese treats you can think of. We spent a good time just eating random snack from all the stalls. Our next stop was to the Monkey Park in Arashiyama area. We enjoyed the walk up the mountain, fed monkeys and then headed back to the shrine area. We got some lunch, checked out the bamboo forest and then enjoyed more food and shops that were bustling. The place was incredibly busy. Our final stop was in the Gion district, very beautiful and very busy as well…did some more shopping then headed back to Osaka (Love the 15 min Shinkansen ride between Shin-Osaka and Kyoto Station). Jet lagged and super tired we were asleep by 8:30 PM and missed any new years festivities that might have taken place at midnight.

**Day 3 – Jan 1st (Day trip to Nara):**

On New Years Day we knew that most of Osaka would be closed for the holiday so we decided to spend the day in Nara, knowing shrines and parks would be open and busy with people. And boy were they open. Thousands of people were there and once again the food stalls and vendors were out in full force. We ate so many snacks at the nara deer park that we didnt even have a full normal meal that day. We enjoyed feeding the deer, watching the festivities unfold and enjoyed Nara in General. A lot of shops were open in town outside of the park too. We ended the day in nara by going to an arcade near the JR Station, then headed back home. Got some dinner at one of the only places open a random curry shop in Shin-Osaka station. Again asleep by 8 or 9 PM.

**Day 4 – Jan 2nd (First day of exploring Osaka):**

Jan 1st – 4th is essentially a national holiday for most of Japan. Almost all places (Aside from shrines) close and truth be told I did not factor this into our trip when I first purchased tickets. Regardless, we decided that we should finally explore whats open in Osaka. We opted to get a 1 day Osaka Amazing Pass from the train station, and while a lot of the places were closed for the holiday, the major attractions were open to visitors with the pass. We first headed to the Osaka Castle, it was very busy with tourists both Japanese and foreigners. A lot of performances, food stalls, and entertainment around the castle. While there we looked at the castle, skipped going inside and then checked out the Action Figure museum thats in the basement of the gift shop building right next to the castle. That was definitely worth it. Afterwards we went to the dotonbori area, booked a river cruise for the night time, then grabbed lunch at a Japanese bbq type place that was open near Namba station. After lunch we headed to Umeda station and explored that area, went on the hep5 Ferris wheel and then back to Umeda station to catch our night time river cruise. River cruise was okay, mostly in Japanese so we didnt understand what was said. Checked out the busy areas of Dotonbori again then headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

**Day 5 – Jan 3rd (Hiroshima Day Trip):**

Today was Hiroshima Day trip. Caught a 10 AM Shinkansen to Hiroshima arrived around 11:30 or so, and went immediately to the Peace Memorial Museum. Afterwards walked around the memorial park a bit and noticed there was a water taxi docking headed for Miyajima Island. We didn’t have plans for that, but decided to take the taxi there anyways. Water taxi ride was about 45 mins and had a screen with cool information about places and points of interest on the way there, and we spent the next 3 hours on the Island. It was once again very busy with Japanese families visiting shrines, food stalls everywhere and the markets were packed with people. It was such a nice island and felt like a nice change of pace compared to the cities. We really wished we’d dedicated a whole day for the island but we were time bound and after visiting the main gate and eating oysters and sweets we had to take our water taxi back to peace park. We headed to a nearby sushi restaurant that was phenomenal and affordable, Enjoyed our dinner, then walked hondori st. market, did a little shopping then caught the 9 PM train back to Shin-Osaka. While in Osaka, all the sweet vendors sell a cake thats moulded into a maple leaf and filled with various things like custard, red bean and chocolate. highly recommend.

**Day 6 – Jan 4th (last day in Osaka city):**

This day was dedicated mostly to shopping and checking out shopping areas. Theres not much to say about day 6, we took it easy for the most part and prepared our baggage for our next area. A lot of shops were still closed for the holiday.

**Day 7 – Jan 5th (Travel to Hakone):**

Kansai was coming to a close and our next destination was Hakone. I arranged Baggage delivery through yamato takkyubin (this was super easy to arrange) to be sent to our Airbnb in Tokyo 2 days later and packed a small carry on bag for our short 1.5 day trip to Hakone.

Took the shinkansen to odawara station, then picked up our 2 day Hakone Free Pass (This includes all fares on trains, buses, gondola rides as well as ferry cruises in the area, and discounts to things like museums and experiences, its kinda pricey at 5000 Yen a person, but I honestly didnt do the math to see if it was worth it). From there we took a train and a bus to our hotel. One tip here, dont plan to bring large suitcases to hakone. The buses are cramped with visitors, and the roads are mountains and windy and the buses go fast. there is no space for large luggage and little standing room.

One thing that I really wanted to try while in Japan this time was Onsen. Booking a Ryokan was really tough because it was such short notice on my part and it was the holiday vacation for Japanese citizens. I used credit card points to book a Hotel room with a private onsen tub in room. We stayed at the Hotel Indigo by IHG in Gora, very nice place and the hot tub water line was directly fed from hot spring water sources. They also had public co-ed onsens to use on site as well.

After checking into the hotel, we took the hotel shuttle to the open air art museum, and explored the area. There are some nice installations and when you’re done you can soak your feet in a hot foot onsen bath and enjoy coffee and snack. There are machines close by that sell towels for 100 yen to dry your feet and legs after you’re done.

It got dark pretty quickly and we headed back to the hotel, got dinner at a local Chinese spot (massive portions) and then relaxed in our private onsen for the rest of the night.

**Day 8 – Jan 6th (Hakone exploration plus travel to Tokyo)**

This day we planned to hit up the rest of the sites available on our Hakone Free Pass. We started the day taking the gondola ride over the sulphur mines, then down to the lake. Fuji san was in full view on the ride down. Finally we took the boat ride across the lake and from there we ate lunch explored the town a bit, bought some handmade wooden items and then caught a bus back to Odawara station.

From Odawara we took a quick 15 min shinkansen ride back to Tokyo getting off at Shinagawa station and from there we checked into our Airbnb apartment a short 10 min walk from Shinagawa station. I purposely picked this airbnb since it would be close to a major station, and have easy access to Haneda airport when we were leaving. Shortly after checking into the airbnb our baggage from osaka was delivered. We then headed for akihabara – I showed my wife around the place and all the weeb stuff I went to last time I was in Japan. Honestly Akihabara had seemed toned down, the claw places werent as exciting for some reason and there was way more maid café solicitation going on. At this point we were really hungry and grabbed a donner kebab from the a street vendor. It was a nice change of food for us.

**Day 9 – Jan 7th (1st full day in Tokyo – Harajuku, Shibuya)**

Started off the day exploring Harajuku. Its honestly the most stereotypical tourist trap and least Japanese place I visited while in the country. Its a hard pass for me here. This place is weird strip of souvenir shops, edgy t-shirt shops, long lines for some desserts and scammers walking around. Hard pass for me. Afterwards we went to Shibuya Station, marveled at the crazy crossing, walked around the area and visited a few shops. Around sunset we went to Shibuya Sky, which we had reserved from a while ago. It was really beautiful to watch the city lights come to life and witness the sun set behind mount Fuji. We had some Udon at a place we came across, then took a bus to Starbuck Reserve Roastery and enjoyed some coffee and desserts.

**Day 10 – Jan 8th (Day Trip to Mount Fuji)**

On the 10th day we had planned a day trip to Fuji. We got tickets on the Fuji Excursion Train from Shinjuku to Lake Kawaguchiko. Truthfully we started the day late and didnt have a full day here. So many days of activities really burnt us out, so we took it easy here. Our first stop was the rope way up a mountain to get a good view of Fuji…. Even though the day was clear and sunny, Fuji was still shrouded behind a curtain of haze and made it really hard to capture in photos. After spending some time up there, we headed down and did the scenic boat tour. Its quick 20 min ride on the lake with great views of the mountain. Next we were enticed by the Fujiyama cookie smell and went into the bakery to try a bunch of cookies. We ended up buying a few boxes as gifts for family and friends. After that we had a quick dinner and headed back to the station to catch our ride back to Tokyo.

**Day 11 – Jan 9th (Tokyo – Akihabara, Okachimachi, TeamLab Planets)**

We had booked TeamLab planet tickets for this day. We did the experience and I highly recommend it. Very well put and fun to do. Afterwards we went back to Akihabara and did some shopping at anime stores and random shops. Then we to a Wagyu steak dinner reservation we had made in that area. After dinner we hit up a Donquito bought a bunch of snacks, chocolates, and other cheap goods for ourselves and as gifts for friends. Ended the night trying out mochi donuts, takoyaki, and other japanese treats.

**Day 12 – Jan 10th (Tokyo Station, Asakusa, Jimbocho Shibuya Shopping)**

Today was mostly dedicated to shopping. We hit up Tokyo station character shops, souvenir shops at Asakusa, book shop district of Jimbocho, then the evening we went to the Nintendo store and Pokémon center in Shibuya.

**Day 13 – Jan 11th (Art Aquarium, Tokyo Red Tower Arcade, organizing baggage)**

This was a chill day, at this point we’re getting pretty exhausted from all the travelling and walking. We hit up the art aquarium in Ginza, then a Tokyu Hands to get some gifts and ended the day at Tokyo Red Tower arcade. The arcade was cool but kinda dead and gimmicky. I would skip out on this one. The view from the top of the tower was pretty nice tho.

**Day 14 – Jan 12th (Haneda Airport)**

On our last day the original plan was to take our baggage to the airport, early in the morning after our airbnb checkout and then spend the rest of the day in Tokyo. We didnt have any places dead set in our minds, we were just going to wing it.

We get to the airport around 10 AM, check our baggage into a baggage hold facility in Terminal 2. But decided too look around the airport. Whats cool about Japanese airports is that the majority of the shops are all before security. We somehow ended up spending 7 hours exploring the various terminals of Haneda. I’m a big Avgeek and spent 3 hours on the observation decks of Terminal 2 and 3. Then checked out all the stores and shops around the airport getting last minute gifts and sweets. Even had lunch and dinner there. Before you know it, its check in time. We were also interviewed by Tokyo Tv on “Why did you come to Japan ” program. (If anyone knows how to find the episodes that would be great).

We proceed to check in, chill in a lounge for the remaining couple of hours and then head back home.

**My final thoughts:**

– The weak yen really helps make this trip affordable, especially food
– Winter isnt too bad in japan. A thermal undershirt, long sleeve shirt and a winter jacket and hat were more than enough to keep me warm throughout the trip.
– I love the toilets
– I wish I factored in more down time and relaxing…I’m still recovering from this trip. Day 10-14 were really exhausting for us, and we felt discouraged at times from going out.
– Would avoid going in the new year, simply because the city sometimes felt dead and many many shops and restaurants were closed.
– I never got used to the really firm mattresses and sleep was an issue for my wife and myself throughout the trip.
– I would spend an extra day in Kyoto, Miyajima and Fuji
– Cant wait to go again in the future