I (54f) and husband (53m) spent 3 weeks visiting our son (21m) who is studying in Japan for the year. Because we are older than the usual posters, I’m going to recap from a slightly different perspective and focus more on how we did things rather than what we did. I hope it is helpful to someone.
Arrived Haneda and had a driver meet us based on our kiddo’s recommendation. Our airbnb was in Nishi-Shinjuku and he (rightly) thought that navigating Shinjuku station after a 24 hour trip would be a bit daunting. If you can afford it, highly recommend. Approx cost was $65. Booked through Klook. Our airbnb was perfect. Small, spotless, affordable and with the most amazing bathtub and shower. On a quiet side street, 5 minute walk from Nishi-Shinjuku station, around the corner from the best ramen shop ever (according to our kid and his college friends), and a bazillion combini’s within a block in every direction.
Son had already picked up Suica cards for us, so we were set to start exploring as soon as we dropped off our bags. I’ve seen much discussion about the phone app on this forum and we found the physical card to be much easier to use than an app. Because you will be masked all the time (unless you are one of the asshole tourists. Please don’t be the asshole tourist!), opening the phone without face id is cumbersome, then the app was just an extra step too many. So easy to keep suica card in pocket and swipe.
Spent the first few days exploring tons of neighborhoods and husband and son played some golf while I went fabric shopping in Nippori. Set up our JR passes with the help of kiddo who speaks Japanese well enough to navigate everything. We got 21 day passes but probably could have reworked our schedule for 14 day pass but didn’t really want to worry about it. Still paid for itself. RECOMMENDATION: if you are traveling with someone who does NOT have a pass, strongly recommend NOT reserving seats. It was so complicated when we had reserved seats and then wanted to change our schedule. Husband and I could still blow through with our pass, but son kept getting blocked b/c tickets (although paid in full) didn’t match up with seat/day. Once we figured that out, we stopped reserving seats and just jumped on. Never had a problem finding seats together.
Everything about Tokyo was wonderful. So clean, quiet, easy to navigate. And the food. Oh my god, the food. We just ate our way across the city. Averaged 17,000 steps + 20 flights of stairs per day, so we burned it all off. Also, the bathrooms! Every public bathroom is spotless. Even in the subway. Can you imagine using a bathroom in the NYC subway system (if they existed)? The level of yuck would be horrifying.
First trip out of Tokyo was to the snow festival in Sapporo. Took the train even though it would have been less expensive and much faster to fly, but watching the countryside go by was well worth it. If we could do it over, we’d fly one direction. I was pretty sick in Sapporo, so didn’t get to explore much, but the boys enjoyed the sculptures. RECOMMENDATION: Backpacks rather than rollie bags in Sapporo. We had backpacks and were so grateful when we saw so many people struggling with their rollie bags in the snow.
Next trip out of Tokyo was Kyoto. Wandered, ate, explored, ate, shopped, ate, slept and ate some more. Did most of what everyone posts about, so won’t rehash. If you like fabric though, there is the most amazing fabric shop in Kyoto. If anyone is interested, happy to give details.
From Kyoto, did a day trip to Himeji. Simply astounding. So beautiful and so.many.stairs. If you are old (like us) and have any balance issues, strongly recommend bringing non-slip socks since you have to take your shoes off and the steps are really steep and slippery.
Next day trip from Kyoto was to Hiroshima. I’m glad that we saved this for the last day because it was heavy and we had the longish train back to Tokyo to process. I really wasn’t expecting to be as moved as I was. The museum is truly a kick in the gut. Spend the extra money and rent the headset. The narrator made the stories even more vivid. As children born in the 60’s, we were raised in the thick of the fear of nuclear war. To see the devastation that we (Americans) inflicted on someone else was heartbreaking. My uncle was a WWII hero who saved a bunch of people at Pearl Harbor so I’d only heard the “rah, rah ‘murica” version and to see, feel, experience Hiroshima was just inexplicably hard. I can only imagine that it must be similar to how Germans who visit Auschwitz must feel.
Back in Tokyo, we kept exploring, eating, walking, etc. Really thought that we could brave public transport back to Haneda, but we were exhausted and got a driver. Again, really worth the $65. We spent the final night at the Royal Park Hotel at terminal 3 at the airport. Not something we would normally do, but I screwed up our Airbnb reservation and had us checking out a day early. Oops. Fortunately, the hotel was great. We had the most amazing view of Mount Fuji and check in for our flight was soooooo easy. The lobby of the hotel literally opens onto the check-in areas for international flights.
22 days in Japan (most in Tokyo) flew by. Our trip was really focused on seeing our kid’s life: meeting his friends, eating at his favorite places, shopping for what he needed, etc, so not your typical “itinerary” type trip. It was amazing and reentry to the US has been jarring. Everything seems so loud and chaotic. Kiddo plans to go back to Japan for his graduate work and I hope he does because we are already looking forward to our next trip.