My wife and are I travelling to Japan in March, partly to celebrate my 40th birthday. Japan has been top of our bucket list for a long time, and it’s our first visit.
I’m a food-obsessive and, being one of the things I’m looking forward to most about visiting Japan, I’ve spent the last couple of months researching restaurants and trying (often in vain) to make reservations (I’m sure my photo is already pinned to the hotel concierge’s dartboard 🎯). I didn’t realise what a rabbit-hole that would prove to be! I’ve pretty much locked-in our dinner plans for the two weeks we’re there and I’m really happy with those choices, based on what I’ve read etc. I’ve deliberately left lunches open so that we don’t over-do it on the food front and also so we can just play those by ear depending on where we are.
I’m now wanting to flesh out the rest of the itinerary but feel totally burnt out. I don’t feel like I have the energy to go through the same process, looking for cool things to do, and the million browser tabs that involves. I’ve looked through a lot of posts in r/JapanTravel but am finding it totally overwhelming. At the expense of sounding lazy, I was hoping to get some suggestions from people with experience in travelling or living in Japan!
We’re travelling just by ourselves, no kids etc. We like great restaurants, bars, cocktails, coffee shops. Anything unique food/drink wise! My wife has a very sweet tooth, so any recommendations here would be great. We both love architecture (modern or otherwise), history, music (live or otherwise), museums, art galleries, nature and outdoors, hiking (although I’m not sure our destinations lend themselves to that very well).
We’d love to do a traditional tea ceremony, and was thinking Kyoto might be the best place for this? I also love the look of those small old streets that I’ve seen in photos of Gion, Kyoto (for example). So I think a walking tour of an area like that would be great. I’d love to see a Japanese moss garden, and go for a fancy afternoon tea (not the traditional kind) somewhere. I’d also really like to go to a Sake brewery or tasting experience, and we both like natural wines. Other than that, I have no idea what we should make a beeline for when we’re there.
I’d be tremendously grateful for any suggestions!
Our itinerary (so far) is below. I’ve included our hotels and restaurant reservations to show whereabouts geographically we’ll be staying/eating.
March 11th – Arrive in **Tokyo**. Staying at the HOSHINOYA Tokyo. Dinner at the hotel.
March 12th – Dinner at Sushi Shinsuke.
March 13th – Dinner at Sakai Shokai. Was looking at the SG Club for drinks(?)
March 14th – Dinner at Narisawa
March 15th – Travel to **Kyoto**. Staying at Kyoto Granbell Hotel. Dinner at Monk. Maybe L’Escamoteur for drinks(?)
March 16th – Dinner at Tempura Gion Fuji
March 17th – Dinner at Kiyama
March 18th – Travel to **Osaka**. Staying at Noum Hotel. I’m leaving dinner unbooked for the two nights in Osaka so that we can just wander around and stumble upon places. Any good Izakaya recommendations here would be awesome!
March 19th – Second night in Osaka
March 20th – Travel to **Kanazawa**. Staying at Hotel Kanazawa Zoushi. No reservations made for dinner here yet.
March 21st – Dinner at Respiracion
March 22nd – Travel back to **Tokyo**. Staying at Tokyo Station Hotel. Dinner at Sushi Ishiyama.
March 23rd – Lunch at Sezanne. Dinner at Nikuyatanaka Ginza.
Thanks in advance for any help!
