Trip report: Solo trip in February 2023 to Osaka, Sapporo, and Tokyo!

Overall summary: This was my second time visiting Japan. I traveled for 10 days as an early 20s-yrs-old solo traveller from the US and had a lot of fun! Japan is an amazing country and it’s especially great for solo traveling IMO. My Japanese communication was pretty limited: I learned kana and read some of Genki before the trip and I knew some kanji so I could piece together some signs. Talking was more difficult, however; I felt that a lot of people in Japan had very limited English, so if basic phrases didn’t work, I had to use Google Translate. I love Japanese food and tried all sorts: okonomiyaki, sushi, yakitori, kushikatsu, jingisukan, ramen, etc. The highlight of the trip was a stay at a traditional ryokan in Hokkaido, which is an experience I highly recommend. At the end of my trip I met up with a friendly bunch of people from this subreddit and the associated discord group, so if you’re a solo traveler you should definitely join that!

Location overview: 1 day in Osaka, 4 days in Hokkaido, 4 days in Tokyo

**Day 1: Narita -> Osaka**

I landed at Narita airport in the afternoon. I had the immigration and customs QR codes ready but still had to wait in line for a bit. After exiting customs I bought a sim card at one of the stands in the airport. Just a warning: this might have been something up with my phone, but I burned through 1.5 out of 3 total GB on the very first day of the trip! For some reason Google Maps was eating up data like crazy even though I wasn’t using it that heavily. I ended up having to buy another sim card for the last few days of the trip, so just a heads up that you might use more data than expected.

I bought a Suica card at an automated machine in the airport train station and got my name printed on it. For this option you also enter your birthday, so that if you lose the card you can present your passport to a JR help desk and they can transfer or cancel the card. Ironically, the printed name ended up being useless, cause I lost the card like an idiot and was unable to cancel it. More on this later. Just a note: if you do get your name printed on the card, you can’t return it at the automatic Suica card return station, you have to go to the counter.

From the airport, I took the Narita Express (\~¥3000) to Tokyo Station and took the Shinkansen to Osaka. I hadn’t bought a JR pass because this would be the only Shinkansen trip I’d take the entire trip. Buying the ticket was a bit confusing, I initially only bought the “fare” but you have to buy the ticket as well, or something like that. In total it was \~¥14,000. Another confusing bit was that I had to present my ticket of transportation TO Tokyo Station, i.e. my Narita Express ticket. If you travelled via Tokyo metro, you’d present your IC card or something similar. I wonder what would’ve happened if you simply walked into Tokyo station and tried to take the Shinkansen? Anyway, I got to Osaka pretty late at night and went straight to my hotel, just a few blocks north of Dotombori River. It ended up being a good place to stay, as most of the nightlife and food in Osaka is around Dotombori/Namba.

**Day 2: Osaka**

I got up early and bought a 1-day [Osaka Amazing Pass](https://www.osp.osaka-info.jp/en/facility/free), which is really worth it- you can get into a ton of attractions for free as well as take the subway at no cost. My first destination of the day was Osaka Castle. After that I went to Shitennoji Temple as well as a quaint small garden in the middle of the city called Keitakuen Garden, both covered by the Osaka Pass. I had kushikatsu for lunch at Shinsekai not too far away before heading up the Tsutenkaku Tower. There was a decent wait, probably about 30 minutes, for the observatory. They also added this new slide thing where you slide down a colorfully lit tunnel, which I didn’t do because it was such a ridiculous tourist trap.

I headed back to Dotombori and walked around the shops and Donquijote. At this point I used the Amazing Pass to book a Dotombori River tour at night. I highly recommend it- it’s a short but fun river tour and it’s best viewed after sunset when all the flashy lights and signs are on. The boat spots also fill up quickly, so it’s necessary to exchange the ticket earlier in the day. The Namba and Dotombori area got quite lively at night. There were so many food and dessert options it was almost overwhelming- I picked a pork bone ramen place that was delicious.

**Day 3: Osaka -> Sapporo**

I spent the first half of the day in the Kita/Umeda district of Osaka wandering around the giant Yodobashi and other shops in the area. I headed to Kansai Airport for my flight in the afternoon and got to Sapporo in the evening. My hotel was near Susukino, so after I checked in I got dinner and went to the Susukino site of the Snow Festival. It was really awesome, there were a ton of intricately carved ice sculptures lining the street. It was also snowing and the city was really beautiful at night.

The next morning I layered up since the temperatures in Sapporo were around 10-20 °F and headed to the Odori Park snow festival. I walked the entire length of the park, which was full of all sorts of cool sculptures. I went up the Sapporo TV tower afterwards which had great views.

Sapporo Beer Museum was my next destination. I had to take a bus from a station near Odori Park to get there. The beer museum honestly wasn’t impressive. It isn’t actually a distillery or factory; it’s just a walk-through exhibit with a bunch of history printed on plaques for you to read. I was looking forward to trying the jingisukan lunch in the beer garden there, but the wait for unreserved tables was over two hours! So I didn’t wait and just did the paid tasting instead. After the beer museum, I took the bus back to Odori Park and walked around the shops and streets.

At night, I had ice cream at a cozy little place called [Milk Mura](https://goo.gl/maps/o1nG7w4njZ21P9Kx8) on the sixth floor of a building. You order from one of two sets of vanilla soft serve ice cream along with a couple different liqueurs. Hokkaido ice cream is some of the best I’ve tasted! Afterwards I picked up the Sapporo-Otaru-Noboribetsu JR pass (¥8000, bought through Klook) at Sapporo Station. It’s a pass that allows you to take trains for free between those cities within four days. If you post to social media advertising their pass, you also get a free ticket to the JR T38 tower observatory, which also had fantastic views, along with a free slice of cake and a drink!

**Day 4: Otaru**

I took an express train from Sapporo to Otaru in the morning. The train ride was quite beautiful, as the tracks are right next to the sea. The train was super crowded and I had to stand the whole way. I got off at Minami-Otaru and first went to [Tanaka Sake Brewery](https://goo.gl/maps/Yfm9Y9nvCsLcphZB6), where you can do a self-guided tour and see the actual rice and brewing vats. I totally would’ve bought a bottle of authentic Otaru sake but I only brought a carry on suitcase to Japan, and all the sizes exceeded 100 ml unfortunately. Afterwards, I had sushi on Sushi Street and took a bus to Yoichi for the [Nikka Whisky Distillery tour](https://www.nikka.com/distilleries/yoichi/). I had to make a reservation online beforehand, and the weekend I went they filled up really fast so I was lucky to get a spot that happened to open up. There aren’t a lot of buses or trains between Otaru and Yoichi, so I barely got to the distillery in time. Even though I couldn’t understand any of the Japanese the tour guide was saying, the tour was really cool and I highly recommend it if you’re any bit interested in alcohol. At the end I got to try three different types of Nikka whisky. It was impressive that the whole thing was totally free.

I headed back to Otaru, and it was at this point where I lost my Suica card. I went to a JR help desk to try to cancel the card since it had my name on it, but they were unable to do anything, since I was in the JR Hokkaido region and I had purchased the Suica from JR East! Despite both being “JR,” they’re apparently different companies. This was pretty frustrating… as modern and clean as Japan’s train system is, this seemed so outdated. I had just topped up the card too. When I got back to Tokyo a few days later to try to transfer the card, someone had already stolen it and used all the balance .\_.

Anyway, I went back to Otaru and walked along the European-style street in the middle of the town. It started snowing and the street was beautiful. I visited a popular matcha store, Sa wa wa, and some glasswork exhibitions and the music box museum. When evening rolled around, I went to the Otaru Canal for the snow light path festival. It was crowded but beautiful. There is also another less known festival site along the old rail tracks which I visited briefly. The express trains ended sometime around 7 pm, so I had to take a local train. It was also really crowded so I ended up having to stand the whole hour.

**Day 5: Noboribetsu ryokan stay**

I checked out of my hotel in the morning and wandered down Tanukikoji shopping street. There are a lot of nice souvenirs and foodstuffs to buy along this covered shotengai. I headed to Sapporo Station for the last time to take the train to Noboribetsu for my one-night ryokan stay. This was also a pretty scenic train ride along the southern coast of Hokkaido.

Before the trip I was deciding between one of the larger onsen hotels with a lot of different springs versus a smaller ryokan, and I picked the latter. It was such a great decision. The hospitality and authentic experience you get at a smaller inn is seriously unmatched. I got a multi-course kaiseki dinner served in my room which was one of the best meals I had while I was in Japan. Sitting outside in the snowy Hokkaido weather while in a steaming hot spring was a wonderfully unique and relaxing experience.

**Day 6: Flight to Tokyo**

There isn’t much to do in the Noboribetsu onsen town other than Hell Valley, which is a sulfurous hot spring area with some walking paths. In the morning I took the train to New Chitose airport (also covered by the four-day pass) and flew to Tokyo Haneda. I stayed in Akihabara not too far from the train station. After getting dinner, I went to see the nighttime illumination at Tokyo Dome city, which I found to be a really nice quiet area. Afterwards I went to Jinbocho, but unfortunately all the book stores were closed that late in the evening.

I should mention that on my first trip to Japan, I already visited some of the Tokyo spots, including Meiji shrine, Asakusa and Tokyo Tower, so I skipped those on this trip. I also visited Kyoto so I skipped Kyoto this time around.

**Day 7: Tokyo**

I spent the first half of the day in Akihabara looking around at the anime and manga hobby stores. Heads up: there are some stores that sell goods at ridiculously inflated prices because they put the items outside, but the same items can be found inside or at different stores for cheaper. In the afternoon, I went to Ginza and walked around the streets full of stores. I visited Muji and another similar store called Itoya, which sells fancy stationery. Ginza reminded me a lot of 5th Avenue in NYC, or similar areas in American cities with high end shopping. I’m not much into fashion, but looking back, I wish I would’ve spent a bit more time just window shopping around the clothes stores, cause people in Tokyo do be wearing fancy drip.

In the evening I met up with a bunch of other solo travelers from this group and the discord in Shibuya. Usually I’m not certain about meeting up with strangers from online but this group was a lot of fun, and it was refreshing to talk with other people after traveling solo. We hit up a few restaurants and bars in Shibuya and Shinjuku.

**Day 8: Kamakura and Enoshima**

This day was a day trip to Kamakura, which was about an hour by train. There’s a pass you can buy that allows you to train from Shinjuku to Fujisawa and get on the Enoden an unlimited number of times, but I wanted to start at Kamakura and end at Fujisawa, so I didn’t buy the pass. This area outside of Tokyo is really beautiful and it was one of the most memorable parts of the trip. I got okonomiyaki on Komachi-dori and then visited a couple of shrines in the area: Hokoku-ji, Kotoku-in, and Hasadera.

I took the picturesque Enoden train and got off at a few stops along the way to see the beach. The sand was really soft and you could see the island of Enoshima. It also wasn’t too crowded as it was winter. I took the Enoden to Enoshima, where I had donbori at [Tobiccho](https://goo.gl/maps/egGngoNuceuoLRbv8), a well known spot. This place gets quite busy- I had to wait half an hour at 5pm. At night, I paid ¥1000 to walk through the wonderful wintertime light illumination in the Samuel Cocking garden and the Sea Candle.

**Day 9:** **Tokyo**

I did TeamLab Planets in the morning. I bought my ticket the morning of as kind of a last-minute decision, although if you’re going in the morning, you should buy them the day before since they sell out. I had to wait about half an hour to get in. It was a sick exhibition where you get your feet wet and walk through several immersive rooms.

In the afternoon I had karaage and went to Ikebukuro to tour around the many shops and stores. I got a couple souvenirs and snacks to take home. From Ikebukuro I went to Shinjuku again with a couple other people for dinner and drinks.

At night, I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Tower to soak in the views of Tokyo for the last time. I went late enough so there was no line at all, and it’s also free which is nice.

**Day 10: Flight back to the US :(**

I took the Keisei Skyliner from Nippori in the morning to Narita Airport. It’s about ¥200 yen cheaper to buy online and pick up at the station (¥2300 total). Again, I had to show them my method of transportation to Nippori, which was my Suica card in this case.

At Narita Airport, if you return the Suica with more than ¥220 on it, they’ll deduct ¥220 before returning the ¥500 deposit. So I drained my Suica card to exactly ¥0 by buying some snacks at a convenience store and asking the cashier to first use up all the money on the card, then paid the rest with cash.

I don’t know if it was just the terminal my flight was in, but it was surprisingly empty. I was the only person in line at security. The airport has a bunch of duty free and souvenir shops which I roamed around before leaving.

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This trip was a blast and I’ll be reminiscing through my photos and videos of Japan for a while. It was really awesome to be immersed in a different culture. I only wrote about the tourist activities I did in this post, but the everyday life aspect, like taking the subway, walking on the streets, and people-watching the Tokyoites go about their daily lives, was also really interesting. I like taking public transportation and the trains in Tokyo are top notch in terms of cleanliness and timeliness. Also, I loved the vending machines you can find on practically every street and tried all sorts of different drinks. I really liked Japan and there were still a bunch of things I missed this time around, so I’ll probably be back sometime in the future!