Trip Report: 18 Days in March 2023

Hey yall, thought I’d condense my thoughts in a single post rather than sprinkle information here and there all over this sub. My housemate and I did a massive 18 day all-Japan trip in March to satisfy my midlife crisis, and while I didn’t post an itinerary or anything, I did ask a few questions and got good answers to help us with minor issues, so I’m going to try to pay it forward. Most of this will be recommendations and positives, with a few negatives, but I’m also aware that what worked or didn’t work for us may be different for people with different interests, budgets, etc. We just went through our 1500 photos with an interested friend, so it’s as good a time as any.

For reference, we started in Osaka, and then went to Hiroshima, Miyajima, Kumamoto, back to Kyoto, then Matsumoto, Nagano, Ueda, Bessho Onsen, Sendai, and ended in Tokyo. 18 days on a 14 day JR Pass, totally worth it. Primary interests were Sengoku-period history and food, with a side of very specific anime/manga die-hard fandoms (One Piece and Sailor Moon).

Recommending:
\- Dotonbori/Nanba area of Osaka. Totally worth it if you’re a fan of good food and the real Osaka vibe. I found Osaka to be more laid-back and fun than Tokyo, and the Namba area generally easy to navigate, including to get connections to see the rest of Osaka. Our tiny room at the Vessel Inn Namba was a block from Dotonbori proper, absolutely do recommend. For food, try to hit the satellite locations of major Dotonbori brands that are just off the strip, the lines will be shorter and the food is just as good.

\- Miyajima. Just. GOD. It feels slightly touristy but in a good way, like everyone knows why they’re here and no one is weird about it. Absolutely recommend staying on the island instead of day-tripping; if you’re going to splurge on a ryokan experience, this is the place to do it. Props to Hotel Makoto for being an absolute delight, would stay there again in a heartbeat. Staying on the island leaves you with more time to explore the shrines and temples (for the historically-minded, Itsukushima is more than just a torii that sits in the water at high tide) as well as the omotesando, though you do want to leave room for your ryokan meal. Being able to hit the shops and cafes in the morning before the tourist hordes descend is also worth it. The highlight of my trip was overhearing a skilled obaasan telling her tour group the history of Itsukushima and the Taira clan in a classical sing-song lecturing manner, late at night, and then having a deer come up and sniff me while I walked the empty, silent streets in my hotel yukata.

\- being a little flexible. I know a small segment of people need to be rigidly scheduled but for the rest of us, playing things by ear and building a little padding into your schedule allows you to roll with the punches. It’s raining? Great time to sight-see in Kyoto because the big tour groups that clog Sannenzaka will vanish! You didn’t need 2 hours to tour a museum and can catch an earlier train? Great, now you have more time to explore the place you thought you could only cram in by being harsher with your schedule. Google “coffee near me” sure, Cafe Arrow is on the way to the castle, that sounds fine…wait what is this strange and magical little place run by an elderly man who has to be the embodiment of the owl who runs the cafe in Animal Crossing? WHAT IS THIS MAGIC? You will have unforgettable experiences of a lifetime if you’re willing to do something that isn’t literally dicated to you by someone’s blog or youtube channel.

\- planning for YOU. Ask yourself: why am I going to Japan? What do I really want to do and see? What experiences am I craving? Plan your trip for YOU, not to check off some blog’s checklist. My interest is Sengoku-period history, so I specifically chose temples, castles, and locations important to certain historical figures: the Sanada at Ueda, Date Masamune in Sendai, Toyotomi and Oda in Kyoto and Osaka, and the Hojo at Odawara. Completely worth it. In some cases, I found extremely hidden treasures – seeing Mori Ranmaru’s actual blades at the museum next to Honnoji, experiencing the brief opening of Date’s shrine at Zuihoden (in the snow, no less), strolling casually through the beautiful bamboo grove at Kodaiji (that is, I might say, better than Arashiyama), enjoying the vibe in Ueda where they really really love their Sanadas. Whatever your interests are, cater to them. Don’t do what everyone else does just because everyone else does it, do what YOU want to do. Skip things that appear on every youtube “top 20 things to do in Tokyo” list because they don’t appeal to you. This is YOUR trip, and you’re the only one who’s going to remember these experiences.

\- shinkansen. God, I love the train system in Japan and I will die mad that we don’t have anything like it in the US. I can wax poetic about the shinkansen all day so ask me if you want specifics – we took JR trains from Osaka to Hiroshima to Kumamoto to Kyoto to Matsumoto to Nagano to Saitama to Sendai to Tokyo. We milked those JR Passes for all their worth and then some, our final day we used it to go out to Odawara to see the castle and the ocean (WORTH IT) and then back to shop Shibuya before heading back to our hotel.

\- luggage forwarding. We lived large thanks to takkyubin! Our first experience was stressful because we thought we had to do it through an office at a train station which was never open when we needed it, but then we checked online and decided to ask our hotel if they knew anything about it. Hotel clerk handed us the forms on the spot. From then on we checked at the hotel first, and every single time, they could do it, so we never had to do it at a konbini or train station. We had an enormous suitcase that was barely 3-5cm under the limit depending on how the person filling out the form measured it, so forwarding it from city to city, especially with 1-2 day flexibility during our onsen/ryokan stays, was totally worth the extra cost. We paid maybe $35 at most shipping 2 bags place to place, and even with our laundry day budget in Nagano we made the most of takkyubin. Highly recommend for long trips and multiple city stops, it’s easier than trying to lug bags around, find coin lockers, etc.

\- konbini. Do it. Just. Do it. My favorite thing about Japan after the trains. Wish we had anything so fun. That, and IC cards in general. Thanks to the yen/dollar we were getting 100Y for about 78 dollars every day, and our Visa debit cards from our local credit union worked just fine at 7-11. I already miss melonpan.

\- THE FOOD. OH MY GOD THE FOOD. I don’t have enough space to tell you about all the amazing food we had. The best non-ryokan kaiseki/set meal we had was at Calf in Kyoto, we had the entire restaurant to ourselves on a Sunday evening and it was worth every pretty penny. I have a weird soy allergy (a medication issue, pure soy protein is no but shoyu and soy lecithin is ok) and with allergy cards and limited Japanese, I was able to communicate my issue where needed and simply avoid trouble where I had control over ordering. That said, everything was amazing and I wanted to try all of it. I cook regularly at home and have cooked a lot of Japanese recipes, so I wanted to compare to the “real thing” while also having unique experiences for local specialties. The ramen in Kumamoto is to die for and gyutan in Sendai is everything they say it should be. Okonomiyaki, yes. Oden, yes. Early spring is strawberry season in Japan so I made sure to try every strawberry dessert I could find and would die happy if my last meal was that parfait I had on White Day in Kyoto. Also, Nagano/Ueda is apple country and I did not have a single disappointing apple-related food.

\- Do a onsen if you have the time and budget. I chose Bessho Onsen in Ueda thanks to location and our schedule and was honestly not disappointed – it’s an under-sung location and March was their off-season between Nagano ski winters and regular summer, so it was very quiet and charming. Less pretty than, say, Kinosaki, but still everything you want out of an onsen – gorgeous ryokan (special shout-out to Tamaya Ryokan, AMAZING bath, amenties, and meal), quaint local restaurants and bars, incredible public baths and footbaths, and a little history and culture too.

Things I do NOT recommend:
\- Uncle Rikuro’s cheesecake. there, I said it. It’s not cheesecake. It’s an egg souffle, and it tastes VERY eggy, like eating very aerated omelete. It wasn’t even sugary! I’m from the midwest, I KNOW cheesecake, and there was zero cheese in this cake. I appreciate being able to taste-test the texture but I also know that this is one Japanese recipe I will never re-create. Ugh.

\- Kura sushi. Of the conveyor belt sushi chains, I found it pretty bad. Sushiro was better. I’m sure if I’d taken the time to look up non-chain options I’d have had even better but…eh. Sometimes you’re just hungry for sushi and don’t want to work for it. And then you regret it.

\- standing in line longer than 15-20 minutes for anything. That includes shops – we waited in a line to get into the Mugiwara flagship store at Magnet Shibuya and it was a waste of my entire life. So much disappointment, the merch was pathetic and jacked up in price, I found some of the same items for resale at Book-Off for 1/3 the cost. I stood in line for takoyaki and that was worth it, but I picked a place that had a short line versus a place with an hour-long-plus line a block over. A line doesn’t necessarilly mean whatever is there is worth it, it just means it’s been hyped, and we all know that hype isn’t automatically worth it. In terms of attractions…I don’t know, man, we had the most impeccable timing and never waited in line for a single castle or museum. Either we missed the crowds by mere minutes or we went places that didn’t have lines. Lucky us?

\- Animate and Mandarake. For anime/manga shoppers, anything you do in Tokyo is not about the store so much as it’s about the series you’re into. Animate is great if you’re into only whatever is hot, new, and now (and/or idol mobage), Mandarake is fine if you’re into very specific niches like kaiju movies, sentai shows, or shojo pinups, but it’s a lot harder to navigate for older, obscure shows and games. Even KBooks gave us trouble because of its utter lack of organization. We’re into slightly older properties like Saiyuki and Kyou Kara Maou, so we had a hard time finding anything except in Book-Off. Book-Off was our saviour! That said, we stumbled into a Koei popup as well as an unexpected Final Fantasy anniversary store in Shibuya Parco, so if you’re lucky you’ll find exactly what you want when you want it without even trying. Better places for nerd shopping: literally any Book-Off and/or Hard-Off, Yodobashi Camera, Tokyu Hands.

\- Tokyo in general. Honestly, I did not like Tokyo. We had already done a million temples and shrines so Meiji wasn’t interesting to us, so we really didn’t find much to do there besides shop – which was why we scheduled it for last, but after the glorious, magical experiences we had from Kumamoto to Sendai, Tokyo was legit a let-down. We’re not city people, so it was just A Big Loud City and thus, not that interesting. Ikebukuro catered to some of our interests but Sunshine City was boring, and Nakano Broadway was weird and off-putting aside from the basement-level kimono seller. That said, we did have a great day at Nippori Textile Town and bought way too much fabric and trim to fit in our suitcases. On the other hand, reports that Harajuku is a sad shell of what it used to be 20 years ago are correct. We couldn’t make time to get to Shimokitazawa so that would be my only real regret.

Overall, we had very few negative experiences (that weren’t due to our lack of planning or just being a stupid hangry idiot) and I’ll even say that the one day it snowed – on top of Aoba-yama in Sendai, but only on top of the mountain – wasn’t that bad. We’re from the midwest so March is usually pretty snowy, we were prepared with gloves, scarves, coats, and umbrellas. The main thing I had to keep telling myself, and is valuable for other travelers, is that: you’re in a country very like your own. It may not feel like it sometimes, but it’s more like home than not. You can go out to a drugstore or konbini if you run out of something or forgot something. A belt, an umbrella, more ibuprofin, etc. It wasn’t like a resort vacation or a convention where I’m trapped in a hotel, this is a real place where people are living their lives. That said, speaking a little Japanese helped, as did google translate with the photo function as well as speaking into the mic – our server at Tamaya Ryokan LOVED being able to speak into my friend’s phone and insta-translate. Speaking enough Japanese to order food, ask simple questions, and understand the answers got us a lot further than knowing nothing. Not saying it’s a requirement, but it definitely helped me make a new friend in front of the Luffy statue in Kumamoto…

Open to offering specific hotel and restaurant recs in the cities we visited. I can’t say enough about Calf in Kyoto, Tamaya Ryokan and Hotel Makoto, and Nakara in Nagano, oh and the Chion-in Wajun Kaikan in Kyoto that I booked because it had Japanese-style rooms only to show up and find out that it was a classy ryokan connected to Chion-in Temple that was way too good for a couple of wisconsinites who live in jeans and t-shirts…