My 90 Day Itinerary

35 comments

1. commenting for later, im planning on going on a 60day trip to japan in october and if you don’t mind i will be yoinking itinerary ideas from here. fingers crossed we’ll be able to go in fall. just received my first shot of the vaccine aswell

2. I wish for three things: 1. That we can travel again at that time. 2. That I could ever afford 90 days of accommodation like that. 3. That I could ever get 3 months off like that.

   remember: vaccines help you not get seriously ill. You can still catch and spread it. It’s not a magical shield.

3. How are you getting that much time off?

4. Have you worked out how much this is going to cost?
   And I’d be highly doubtful that Japan will be open again to foreign tourists anytime this year

5. FYI, Koreatown, Shin‐Okubo, is in Shinjuku, which is on the opposite side of Tokyo from Ueno.

   Also, Hasedera is in the same area, Hase, as Kotoku‐in where the Great Buddha is locatnd.

6. Good luck with it all. Save all the locations in Google maps and then you might find that some food/attractions Re only a stones throw away. You will probably wants 2 or more days on some areas. If you are exploring say akihabara/den den you may want to take your time.

7. Fingers crossed for you it happens! I have so many different theoretical trips planned… Hoping our cancelled two week trip from last May can get jostled to next April or May and a three weeker instead.

   I don’t really have anything to add because with that much time you can just do whatever you want – Glad to see you’ve got rest days pencilled in. I started reading and was like they are going to be knackered… And then I found a rest day and was like orrr not!

   Your Route looks well planned as you move down the country, you aren’t zigzagging all over the place.

   You have something you want to see each day so there aren’t any wasted days. Rest days seriously matter on a trip this long so are a great use of days don’t skimp on them!

   Only thing I would say just to throw and idea out there is why not squeeze in Okinawa while you are at it?

   September is hot (I mean we liked it hot and it made the vending machines so much more exciting) and into October is Typhoon season so be prepared to loose a day to staying in to avoid a typhoon but that could be a rearrange rest day so no biggy. Though on that point you’ll want a wardrobe with you for the change of season – Sure you’ve considered it but I forget things in excitement sometimes – Boiling in September to mild but maybe chilly in the evenings in November getting increasingly so towards the end of the month.

8. Good lord you really did plan out a 90-day itinerary. I thought the point of taking so much time off was so you didn’t have to do that. Why not just hang out in places till you get bored, then hop on the train/bus to go to the next destination? Or better yet, go to some spots you don’t know anything about but locals have recommended.

9. I did a 3 month trip a couple years back. We started south in kagoshima and worked out way up to Tokyo instead. Pretty solid work.
   I will say that for the cup noodle museum, just never expect it to be open bc their times on the internet aren’t accurate. Yokohama also has a neat Chinatown if you end up having extra time, or make a extra day, it’s worth checking out.

10. I was just in Kyoto and could see a big haunted house from my hotel. Maybe it will still be a thing in October.
    I wish I knew how to get more info on it but it’s near to the Kawaramachi station right behind Koe donuts…. I think it is called ‘Kyoto onryokan’

    Oh and I skipped them but I’m pretty sure Kinkaku-ji and Ginkaku-ji are on opposite sides of town.

    You can access the bamboo grove from the back of Tenryu-ji.

    As far as Nara goes, I don’t think it’s really necessary to set aside time to feed the deer because they are absolutely everywhere so you don’t really need to go out of your way to see them.

    Also Okinawa is very pleasant that time of year. If you have time the Keramas are worth a visit.

11. A bunch of your days are arranged between things that are very far from one another (particularly Kyoto). Check your distances — it would be better to re-group a few.

12. Just my opinion, but for a 90 day itinerary you aren’t accomplishing much more than the average two weeker. Maybe you just don’t like travel, and I’m not moralizing, but you aren’t visiting that many places. You jump from Tokyo to Kanazawa but miss the pretty obvious Takayama and Shirakawa-go. Or another example you include Nara as two separate days, but at this point have spent almost 2 months in Osaka and Kyoto from which Nara is an easy day trip.

    But hey. If that’s how you want it, then that’s how you want it. But if it were me, and I had 90 days, I would skip a lot more of the tourist crap, beef up how much I am accomplishing per day, and then simply travel the country from top to bottom.

    The three cities are cool, but I wouldn’t give them almost a month each.

    — as an actually helpful suggestion, give Hiroshima a few more days. Miyajima island is a full day affair, so I wouldn’t include general Hiroshima site seeing on that same ticket.

13. If you only have one place to visit in Japan, I would recommend Kyoto. Kyoto is massive. I would divide Kyoto into quarters and spend as much time in each quadrant as you can as travel between temples and shrines will encompass the majority of your time. Even the lesser known shrines and temples can be moving places as there is so much history, arts and insight to be found.

14. I’d be surprised if the start letting people back in by then. Most of us don’t have had our vaccine by then, The way things are going.

15. This trip looks amazing and I’m jealous!

    If it were me, I would cut back on the # of days in Tokyo, just by a bit. Some of the things listed could be doubled up/don’t need a full day. I would spend 1-2 extra days in Kanazawa (it’s really lovely there). And 1-2 extra days in Nagoya, also an overnight trip to the Nakasendo Trail: Magome/Tsumago and don’t miss Narai. Honestly worth your time!!!

    Have fun and may the Quarantine Gods shine favourably on you!

16. It’s a shame you have so much time devoted to Tokyo but only have barely a full day in Kanazawa. The Myouruji ninja temple was amazing as well as the Higashi Chaya district, Nagamachi samurai district and museum. Got to enter a real samurai house and read letters from that era. The coolest part of my trip there.

    I agree with the other commenter who said you’re basically stretching out a 2 week trips contents into 2 months. You could be seeing so many more amazing things Japan has to offer with the time you have.

17. What kind of accomodations are you and your brother looking into? If safe, hostels can be a really good deal for the price. I had a good experience with Guest House Kinta in Kyoto, Backpacker Hostel K’s House in Kyoto, Oak Hostel Zen in Tokyo, Nagasaki International Hostel in Nagasaki City. Airbnbs also tend to be cheaper than hotels in Japan.

18. I am glad to see you are going to Koyasan. Definitely worth at least one night there and two is even better. I think you may want to devote at least a whole day if not an overnight to Miyajima. The ferry takes a while and so does the hike to the top of the island mountain. If you have 90 days in Japan I would spend one of those overnight on Miyajima. For context I was a JET in Osaka Japan for one year and did a fair amount of travelling and these two spots (as well as Nara and Kyoto) were my favorite.

19. I’m sorry, but from the first day, you are making a huge mistake. Do not go shopping at the start of the trip, save that at the end as much as you can so you do not have to lug all your purchase across Japan. I would even say that you can consider traveling as light as possible and buying an extra luggage at the end of the trip to bring back your purchase home.

    In other words, maybe spend a couple of days in Tokyo first to kill jet lag, but do the bulk of you stay in Tokyo at the end.

    I feel that if you are visiting a lot of place in Japan, you can easily do better onsen than Oedo onsen (that I would skip)

    Korea Town in Ueno ? I always thought that Shin Okubo was Korea Town…. maybe I miss something.

    Somehow I find that you have relatively relax day, like one day for Asakusa, one for Ueno, or 2-3 different day for Shinjuku or Harajuku (no, you won’t spend most of the day at Meiji shrine), but why would you go to Kawagoe and Omiya and the same day ? I think there is enough in Kawagoe for a day in itself.

    Nikko, I think it is sad if you go only for Edo wonderland. I would say that you should at least try to go check the temple and shrines in the area. Also, this is your first chance to stop at a proper onsen, so I would personally try to do two day 1 night. For example you can try to check out of your Tokyo hotel and ask them to keep your luggage for one day, or worst case, put it in a coin locker for a day, so you can go to Nikko only with a change of cloth.

    Second mistake in my opinion is Hakone only as a day trip, this is your second missed chance for onsen. There is quite a bit more to see in Hakone then what you listed. Same idea, just go with one change of cloth and let luggage in Tokyo.

    Kamakura, the buddha and Hasedera are next to each other, are you sure abou the order ? September will be way too early for fall color if this is your goal for Shishimai valley

    Kanazawa, I think that your are trying to go a bit fast on Shirakawa-go and the attractions in Kanazawa both on the same day, check what time you would take the bus, like is the plan to eat lunch at Shirakawa-go for example ? Then keep in mind that the castle open at 9 and you would need to be at the station around 11 to take the bus.

    Next Nagoya is not the most natural destination, you could totally do it on the return route to Tokyo (as I said, you want to finish there for your shopping), so go direct to Osaka. Also, your two days in Nagoya can be done in onw, Osu and Nagoya castle is not too much in a day (I did both only walking all day, so you can be faster by using public transport).

    Osaka you are missing Kuromon ichiba as you seem to put a focus on food.

    Himeji, no, don’t do it as a day trip from Oasaka, do it as a stop on the way to Hiroshima.

    Nara, you can do Kasuga-taisha, Todai-ji and the Nara Park in the same day. So what I would consider is go to Nara and do things around Nara park, then at the end of the day, go to Kashihara to sleep there, you can then take the next day to explore the area, for example the historic neighborhood, or Asuka. Forget the onsen, that place seems to be quite remote and much more hassle than it would be worth to reach. Then from Kashihara area you can continue to Koyasan the next day.

    Koyasan, you can realistically do it in two days one night, ok two nights if you want to make it slow (but honestly, you are spending way less time in places that have more things to see).

    Fushimi inari and Hozugawa River are on the opposite side of the city. The river should be the same day as Arashiyama and the monkey park. You are also listing Kiyomizu-dera twice (once with the monkey park, again, two different side of the city). Also realistically, 2 days for Gion, Higashiyama (Kiyomizu-dera), Pontocho and Nishiki market is enough, and you list 3 days.

    If you go to Amanoashidate and Ine, don’t return to Kyoto just after. You might as well continue somewhere else, just as a tip, Kinosaki onsen is not that far, so you could have a night at a ryokan and enjoy nice onsen. From there you can go to Himeji, on the way to Okayama (I would consider to stay in Okayama and just do Kurashiki as a day trip and take one day for Okayama to see the garden and castle).

    Why go to Nara again, just go once to save time moving around, also, not sure about Yagyu village, but it seems hard to reach by public transport.

    What cat island in Onomichi ? Just onomichi in itself it a nice place but I’ve never heard of cat island. You are also missing Miyajima in Hiroshima. You could also stop by Onomichi on the way to Hiroshima instead of doing the round trip from Hiroshima (unless you planned to sleep there).

    In general, cut time in Tokyo, Osaka, Koyasan, Kyoto to give you more time for Nikko, Hakone, Kanazawa and Miyajima. You are also missing obvious day trip from Tokyo like Kawaguchiko (that is also an option of onsen) and as you have plenty of time, you could do day trips that are less known like Chichibu.

    ​

    I feel that most of the Tokyo Osaka and Kyoto day are quite light and on top of that you have rest days, I feel that you could visit much more of the country in 90 days, considering that there is people who would do most of this itinerary in a 3 weeks trip. I would really look into reducing the time spend in these 3 big cities and make more time for the rest of the country even if just making more stop between two locations, for example Matsumoto, Kamikochi/Hirayu onsen, Takayama, Shirakawa-go to reach Kanazawa from Tokyo.

20. I wouldn’t spend much more than a week in each major city. Nikko and similar places make for good overnight trips.

    I would probably pick 8 medium to big cities i am interested in exploring and also use them for hubs for overnight and day trips.

    I also would have a list of must do and want to do at each hub. Rather than plan it day by day, just tick things off the list – i never know if I will be hungover or going with randoms to something or other unexpectedly.

    If I was doing 3 months it would be Tokyo for a few days. Gunma 1 week, Kanazawa 1 week. Osaka for a few days, Nagasaki for 1 week. 6 weeks tour of Kyushu. 2 weeks in Okinawa. Remaining time used throughout to ensure each has at least 1 weekend (2 if I am lucky).

21. I don’t know you personally so take this with a grain of salt, but even as someone who is a pretty meticulous trip planner, I could see you getting pretty burnt out after a month. Personally, I would shorten the trip to a month at most and use the savings for your next trip somewhere else. Even as someone has dreamed of going to Japan for much of my teen and adult life, I don’t think I would want to stay there that long because the sense of wonder and excitement would be pretty much lost by the first month I’d say.

    I just can’t see most people doing a 90-day trip without either: Getting burnt out/homesick or running out of budget. This is just my opinion, but I wouldn’t commit to such a long trip unless I was planning to live there in the future and wanted to test the lifestyle.

22. I highly recommend Hitachino Brewing Lab in Akihabara if you like craft beer. Also, I don’t recall the restaurant name in Tokyo but you literally fish for what you want to eat and they prepare it however you want(sashimi, fried, etc.)!

23. I had a similar yet shorter trip to Japan in 2018. I will share below 1) an overview of my trip and 2) some comments that may help you (or not, up to you!)

    **My trip**

    – **Context:** first time visiting Japan, solo traveling, total of aprox. 45 days (end September / mid November) –> Similar to your case, initial plan was to travel in the first half of the year but had to postpone (it was great actually: more time to plan, better food, and autumn is great in Japan)

    – **Objectives of the trip:** see different faces of the country, find experiences that would make this trip unique, enjoy and learn about Japanese cuisine

    – **Itinerary (summarized, approx number of days):** Tokyo (8 days) -> Ise (2 days) –> Magome to Tsumago (Nakasendo trail, 2 days) -> Matsumoto (2 days) -> Takayama (3 days) -> Shirakawago (1 day, sleeping there) -> Kanazawa (5 days, including 1-2 days with no specific plan, to rest) -> Kyoto (7 days) -> Hiroshima (1 day) -> Miyajima (1 day, sleeping there) -> Hagi (2-3 days) -> Kumamoto (1 day sleeping there) -> Kurokawa (2 days, onsen town in the mountain) -> Oita/Usuki (1 day, sleeping there) -> Shuki (5 days, meditation retreat in a temple) -> Tokyo (3 days)

    **Comments / advice**

    – **Itinerary:** For your reference, the itinerary above never felt packed, and I never felt I was missing out on things I wanted to do (except for Kyoto, see below)

    – **Luggage / shopping:** Someone already mentioned it, but I will re-iterate: do the Tokyo shopping at the end. My plan was arriving to Japan with 2 pieces of luggage, one being empty. I filled the empty one throughout the trip (excl. Tokyo), and concentrated my last 2 days in Tokyo for shopping (ended up buying a third one). Luggage forwarding is super convenient, so I would recommend using it often (basically shipping your luggage to your next hotel so you travel luggage-free; hotel reception will help you in filling out the papers; hotel of destination keeps your luggage until you arrive)

    – **Kanazawa:** get a hotel next to the market, and have breakfast there every day. Sashimi breakfast is best breakfast. Visit the old Higashi neighborhood and look for the ice-cream place Chayu. If you have the time, visit the Nomura house (nice garden, but do not skip visits like Kenrokuen for this)

    – **Kyoto:** only place I really felt like I needed some more days (but even with 15 days it would not have been enough tbh). Kyoto landmarks seemed to be always packed, may be different these days. Daigo-ji and Sambo-in are a bit out of the way, but are a great option to visit the typical “temple & noble villa” from Kyoto, and they have very few visitors (I was practically alone, and they were great, probably better than the ones in the city center). Regarding the Katsura Imperial Palace, keep in mind that you need to request the visit in advance

    – **Miyajima:** sleep in the island. This will allow you to do the (easy) walk to the top of the hill, with impressive views over the Hiroshima bay. Also, crowds disappear around 17h (or so) and then it’s only you, deers, and the sea. Dawn and dusk are great at Miyajima. Also great to have a short walk at night by the sea

    – **Shirakawago:** take a detour and go to Ainokura. It is a smaller version of Shirakawago, and so much nicer. There is a bus that brings you there from Shirakawago (check schedules beforehand). If you go, there is a path that brings you to a small hill with a great view of the hamlet. If going to Shirakawago + Ainokura this will be a full-day trip (in my case, I slept in Shirakawago)

    – **Matsuris / special stuff:** Japan has tons of matsuris (festivals) and events that happen in specific days. Check the calendar of events in the cities within your itinerary to spot the ones that can be interesting to you. Examples of the ones I planned for: To-ji market in Kyoto, Jidai matsuri in Kyoto, night visits to temples in Kyoto (lasts for several days IIRC, Kodai-ji temple was great), Autumn matsuri in Takayama, Soba matsuri in Matsumoto

    – **Guide:** it should not be me saying this, but I think the trip itinerary I prepared was great. Having a good guidebook helped a lot, and I used “Gateway to Japan”. I don’t think there is a better guide for Japan out there. It requires some time to get used to it, but it tells you everything you need to know (I have no type of relationship with the guide owners, apart from buying this guide twice, digital and paperback!)

    – **Enjoy the planning:** probably you don’t need this advice based on your post, but the trip planning process was super interesting, so enjoy it! Finding out about the matsuris, food specialties for each city / region, some local history, local crafts, etc.

    – **Write:** during the trip I took some notes in a paper notebook. Places visited, opinions about hotels, meals (courses, price, and other details), people I met, tips for future visits, etc. If you feel like it, I think it is a great thing to do. I used some time before going to bed, trains trips, or . Now I was reviewing my notes and it brings back great memories!

    I hope this helps. I could be writing for hours but need to stop at some point. Let me know if you would like any additional detail (I have some of my trip research documented), happy to help.

24. How much do you plan on doing shopping wise? You can really end up buying lots of random things if you’re not careful. I was there last year for about a month and had quite a lot of stuff that needed to get shipped back home. Traveling around for 3 months I can’t even imagine how many random things you’ll acquire. Just something to keep in mind in terms of how much luggage you’ll need to carry with you.

    Echoing what some others have said, I’m honestly surprised you planned single day. While its good that each day is pretty light in terms of planned activities, it may be better just to have a pool of things you want do do within each location and pick from those each day. This will be good if you have a bad day, or are just not in the mood to go somewhere or eat something on the day you planned for.

    Also keep in mind weather conditions. I’ve been a couple of times during same periods of time you are planning. One time I arrived a couple weeks after a typhoon hit and almost had to change flights since the airport was flooded. Another time I was there during a super typhoon. Luckily our plans weren’t too messed up. We were staying at a ryokan on the day the typhoon hit the area we were in so there wasn’t much of an issue for activities that day since we just chilled at the ryokan. However, the following day we needed to cancel our plans since the train service in the direction of travel was suspended. We ended up needing get our train tickets canceled and refund vouchers issued, then double back to reroute.

    Also for the time you’re in the Kansai area you can probably make your Nara days day trips from Kyoto or Osaka since everything is fairly close to each other. You’ll loose some time transiting, but you’ll save having to deal with checkin/checkout at hotels and stuff.

    Another thing since you have all this time you might want to consider including some of other islands like Shikoku and Kyushu into your plans. It sounds like you’re a fan of ramen so you wouldn’t want to miss out on the change to visit the birthplace of tonkotsu ramen.

25. Well, I have worked in Japan and visited again 5 times, so I’m not a novice…

    But frankly, without going into details, your itinerary looks a bit weird. I’m off to bed now (it’s after midnight in Germany) so I will have to keep it short by now. Some places you visit too long while missing others… and for my taste too much bars and clubs.

    I recommend the Toyota commemorative museum in Nagoya, great exhibition of Toyoda’s pre automobile enterprise and later the car manufacturing. If you happen to know the science museum in Manchester, UK, you can even compare the cotton treating machines and see stunning similarities 😉

    Kobe has free tours and tasting in the Kirin brewery, and is also the place of the Kawasaki museum.

    Saijo on shigoku island has Japan’s second highest mountain, Ishizuchi-san, which is much easier to climb than Fuji-san. And an interesting historical museum on the hillside. The neighboring town of Niihama has a very interesting copper museum (and a childish “copper world”). AFAIK there was the biggest copper mine of Japan from medieval times on. In Kochi on the south side is a cave with stalagmites.

    This was just from the top of my head…

26. How did I read this as 90 day fiancé.

27. [deleted]

28. as others have mentioned: way too much in Kyoto/Osaka, but too little on Nara and Hiroshima (half a day is barely enough for Miyajima), you could easily shave off some days in Kyoto as you could pack some of the temples shrines even into a day by bycicle. Others have also suggested going for Takayama on a different route, not directly for Kanazawa.

    On that note you might want to go for Tohoku for 2w, as it’s really off the beaten path with lots of things to see and eat, maybe with Sendai as the base, afterwards going for Takayama via Niigata or something. (or going Tokyo->Sendai->Kanazawa via Tokyo)

    Also take some days off of Osaka and go for Shikoku and Kyushu, both have unique cities and things to see/eat, like ramen in Fukuoka.

    I do have to agree that for the time you are there, it is a bit too planned out, too lax on some days and really too much emphasis put onto Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. When I had 2w to spend in Japan, I only planned 1w in Tohoku which wasn’t enough, but 1w (with 2 previous trips 1w each with quite some overlap) was enough to see most of Tokyo. I then just stayed in the hostel for a substantial amount of time and went around some parks and places in Tokyo, but all how I was feeling. I think that’s the strong point of your 90 day plan, don’t make it too stringent, rather just leave the city/place when you get bored/have seen all, which I highly assume will be faster than you expect.

    Edit: And since it seems Abroad in Japan is partly responsible for this list, I highly recommend his advice of going to Tohoku, since that is what he always does. I followed his advice and it was as described, no regrets going there for sure. You can go all the way into Hokkaido, only into Aomori or even stay only south of Aomori prefecture, all based on your preferences. But if you got there: there are some destilleries/breweries and hiking/nature spots with lots of onsen places, so maybe look for these there too.

29. Have you considered a motorcycle tour? As others have said, you could bang out every single thing on your list in 15 days, easy. If your goal is to check boxes from a compilation of lists, you will succeed. If, rather, you want to get a feel for Japan and have an experience carve out two weeks from your itinerary in late October. Go to a driving school and spend a week getting a motorcycle license, unless you already know how to ride and have your endorsement in your home country. Then spend a week riding through the countryside from Osaka north to the coast, then along the coast. The weather is perfect, the pavement is the best on the planet, and crab season will have just kicked off so you can have amazing crab to your hearts content. In particular, Kinosaki just outside of Toyooka (either Hyogo or Kyoto, can’t remember) is full of onsen and has many amazing mom and pop restaurants serving fresh crab. You’d learn more about Japanese culture riding motos through the country side and staying in small ryokans than you will on your 90 day foray.

    Nothing wrong with the way you have it setup currently, just make sure you’re trying to understand what your motivation is here.

    I’ve got heaps of routes from different rides I’ve done all over the country, DM if interested.

30. When you spend that much time in Japan, why visit only cities between Hiroshima and Tokyo? You will have set foot in barely half of the country!

    Assuming you have a generous budget for the trip, I would begin in the Northernmost point of Japan at Cape Soya, Wakkanai in Hokkaido, and slowly enjoy your way to the Southernmost point at Cape Sata in Kyushu. Since the autumn foliage season begins in mid-September in Hokkaido, you will have the opportunity to “chase” red leaves across the entire country. Your trip will be much more outstanding and memorable than simply visiting well-known and touristy attractions.

    Since your B-day is on September 3, could you possibly move up your trip by a few days? The reason for this is that you may climb Mount Fuji on September 2, spend the night on the mountain, and view sunrise on your B-day. That would be a unique and personal experience money can’t buy!

    Good luck and safe travels! But actually I am not optimistic that Japan will be fully open to foreign tourists by September. Hope I am wrong!

31. I would recommend going to a theme park, like Disney Sea or Universal; just experiencing the service there is exceptional

32. Just two points:

    1) For your Nagoya leg, Yabaton is hot, overpriced garbage.

    2) Unless super structured trips are your thing, this is a bit much

    3) This fall probably isn’t happening.

33. Too much planning. You have a list of things to see, so let how you feel along with the weather determine each day’s activities.

    If you don’t read Japanese the manga museum will be a disappointment and take less than an hour to visit (if at all).

34. Hello from Japan 😀

    For Shibuya would recommend visiting the Nintendo Tokyo if you are into video games, can find things only available there. Also weird advice I tell any foreign friends who wants to visit Japan but I would really recommend playing Persona 5R cause its pretty cool to visit a place you know from video games.

    If your into sneakers, for Harajuku sneaker shopping here are some locations I go quite often.

    Retail: Atmos/Nike Harajuku/Kith Tokyo(Shibuya but can walk very easily from Harajuku)/Tokyo 23/Nike lab

    Resell(after market): WormTokyo/Kickslab/Small shops scattered in Urahara(Ura-Harajuku)

    Other than that if you have time, a city called Kichijoji in the west side of Tokyo is pretty fun with small shops and a sneaker shop called skit 🙂

    Hope you enjoy the trip with your brother 😀

35. You absolutely must try:
    Afuri Ramen in Harajuku, Tokyo (Best ramen spot)
    Okonomiyaki Chitose in Osaka (Very top-notch local okonomiyaki shop that gives visitors souvenirs)