My 3 Weeks in Japan in the Fall

Hi,

I went to Japan in the fall 2 years ago and with Fall approaching, albeit under completely different circumstances I thought it might be useful for those planning their trips in the future.

I went to Japan with 5 of my friends. 4 spent 2 weeks there and I spent an additional week with another friend. We paid about $900 round trip from IAD Airport to Narita Airport.

The first day we arrived at the airport and took the train to our Airbnb in the middle of Tokyo. On the way we passed by some tight streets with a bunch of Izakayas and restaurants. We decided to have our first dinner in one of them.

Day 2 (Halloween):

* **Disney World Sea:** We had been trying to figure out when the best time to go to Disney, after this day it would be Christmas themed. On this day it would have the Halloween decorations and from our experience they were pretty limited. However, the special thing about Halloween is that it is one of the few days where guests are allowed to dress up as Disney characters in the park. The experience felt like a giant convention, but despite this special day it was not unreasonably busy and by taking advantage of fast pass we didn’t have to wait much for anything. Be warned that they were on the paper fast pass when we visited in 2018.

Day 3:

* **Meiji Shrine Festival:** One of the best things that you can do on a vacation is find some special event and be a part of it. To me the interesting part of the temple this took place at, is that although you are in the middle of the city it feels like a nature sanctuary. The actual festival activities were pretty sparse and it looked like probably a good deal of the activities and food wouldn’t start till later.
* **Travel to Kyoto:** Traveling to Kyoto was an experience in itself, we took the Shinkansen which most people tell every tourist to buy the JR Rail pass. Most of the people in my group did so but when I planned my trip I found since I was taking the bus and other forms of travel that weren’t covered that I wasn’t actually going to be saving any money.
* **Adachi:** Honestly I don’t remember much about this place. I remember one of the first nights in Kyoto we tried to randomly go into several restaurants and got denied in a way that we think was prejudice. Basically as we entered a few establishments they began to greet us but once they saw my Pakistani friend they began to suggest the place was full. We tested this a few times and even one time he called a restaurant in Japanese. He asked if they were full or he needed a reservation. They told him no, that we could just walk in. So immediately we walked to the restaurant and as soon as they saw him they immediately told us that they were full when it was very obvious they weren’t.

Day 4:

* **Nijo Castle**: The location for this place is superb. You really don’t need to go out of your way to get to it and it’s one of the best temples in Kyoto. Many of them you don’t see exquisite interiors so this place has both good indoor and outdoor scenery. For this place they have guided tours or audio tours. I usually never do audio tours but I was pleasantly surprised how it added to the experience. We did go out of order a few times which confused us while listening to the audio.
* **Bike throughout Kyoto**: With metro and public transportation not the best in Kyoto and bike infrastructure being prevalent it soon became my preferred form of travel. Biking through a city also provides an excellent way to experience it. You can take time to stop at anything that piques your interest. My recommendation would be to find a bike shop close to your hotel and AirBnb, rent it for several days so you don’t have to return it every afternoon and don’t think about getting around any other way.
* **Kinkaku-ji Temple:**You basically get to see a golden temple from a distance. Your route is pretty strict and there isn’t much to do here. It is a nice view but you aren’t going to get that much out of it. If you are already close by it might be worth going. Or if you have really nothing else to do but kill time it’s fine to do.
* **Menbaka Fire Ramen:** You go to this place for the entertainment value with all the fire and hot oil. The food is fine, but not really the purpose. Get drinks and have some fun with friends.

Day 5:

* **Kiyomizu-dera:** I rode my bike to this temple through some narrow roads weaving between the pedestrians while tailing the cars and motorbikes. When I got to the top there was no officially dedicated bike parking, I therefore took a risk attaching it to a random piece of metal hoping that I wouldn’t get a ticket or boot. I then continued forward to the top of the temple area which held a tall red spire. There wasn’t any obvious thing to look and see at the top but a person was offering entrance into this dark tunnel for a few Yen. I was intrigued, paid and went below. What I found was an oddly spiritual experience of a dark tunnel where you could not see anything before you. There were people around that you could and sometimes bump into. We all walked in a line, feeling the walls as our guides. Slowly we moved till we found the only source of light to be a small beam coming from the roof and lighting a large stone in the center. The path moved me close to the stone and I, like many others before me, touched the stone, which illuminated my fingers. From this, there wasn’t much to do besides the most fun racing down the hill, chasing cars and weaving through pedestrians.
* **Vietnamese Komugon Kyoto:** In the DC area most Vietnamese are either Pho or Banh Mi. I believe the cooking style was more South Vietnamese and had flavors that I hadn’t experienced before. The soups felt more curry based, similar to some Thai soups. This was one of the better places I went to on a whim.

Day 6:

* **Fushimi Inari Taisha:** These are the famous endless red gates that you hike through. The scale and sheer number is impressive. The hike itself wasn’t terribly difficult, with options along the way to purchase refreshments or souvenirs. After reaching the top you can relax and enjoy the view. The way back down intersects the way up so you usually don’t gain much on the descent but it’s significantly faster so not a big deal. A friend and I found an alternative descent which looked like an unmarked path down the side of the mountain which we would later find was a fire route. What we found was a fantastic view of a mountain of giant beautiful fallen trees. Some of the best shots were taken there and was an incredible experience not knowing where the trail led or how we would get back home.
* **Travel to Osaka:** We had a choice to stay in Osaka or commute from Kyoto every time. We initially didn’t have too much planned in Osaka so we chose to commute with it not being too long.
* **Ichiran:** This is a very popular ramen shop with an extended line out of the building. You get placed in individually isolated seats. I managed to sit next to one friend, while the rest of the group got split up. The overall experience is a little unique since they deliver the ramen directly to you from the kitchen. However, the ramen quality didn’t blow me away and didn’t necessarily feel worth the long wait. I for sure had far better ramen experiences in japan with less waiting and equivalent pricing.
* **Dontonbori:** A landmark high-rise shopping building with themed floors for various items. When you are in there you basically feel like you can find anything there.

Day 7:

* **Round One Stadium Arcade:** A fun multi-level arcade that you can easily kill some hours with your friends. They have a bunch of interesting cutesy / weird photo booths that you can capture the experience with your friends.
* **Hozenji Sampei:** Kind of a late night drunk food place. I think you ought to get a bit drunk to enjoy it though.

Day 8:

* **Kurama Hot Spring:** This seemed like an isolated mountain retreat in a beautiful hot spring. It did take some time to get away but felt underwhelming in the bath and view aspect.
* **Travel to Takayama:** For this I took a bus from Kyoto to Takayama which was a several hour ride with 1 stop in the middle.
* **Takayama:** This is a beautiful little mountain town that you can traverse pretty quickly by foot. You can view nice streams and trees with a few picture-ess moments.

Day 9:

* **7-Eleven:** This place and family mart became the de-facto morning breakfast place. I couldn’t tell you how many egg salad and pork cutlet sandwiches I have had.
* **Konji Ryokan:** There are a bunch of ryokan’s at the bottom of the mountain. This particular one I was basically the only guest, there was an indoor tiled bath. Outside was an outdoor natural spring. I actually enjoyed this far more than the Kurama Hot Spring. I did spend from 2pm to the end of the day in this town relaxing. I thought I would be very tired from the bus ride but what I actually found is that I had too much energy and really wanted to do something. I didn’t end up doing anything besides try to orient myself in the tiny village and find food. Since I can’t read Japanese and google maps did not show proper restaurant locations I found myself accidentally entering someone’s home on occasion before following a group of people into a building and hoping that it was a restaurant. I did try to communicate to a shop clerk and ask here where there was a restaurant but I think she thought I was asking her if her store was a restaurant. She then responded by giving me the standard Japanese X which means no.

Day 10:

* **Shinhotaka Ropeway:** This is a gondola of sorts that provides great views of the Japanese Alps.
* **Hike the Japanese Alps:** The gondola takes you to a giant visitor center with a gift shop. From here you have a bunch of trails and routes to go. If you start walking, there is a hiker registration area where you basically list where you are going, how many are in your group, and how long you intend to be gone. The purpose is to make sure that if something happens they can make sure all the people are accounted for. Near this place, a Japanese grandmother saw me as a lone and clueless foreigner who might get lost without direction. I think her impression was not far off from reality and therefore she assigned some random college kids to guide me. I joined them on the initial hike which brought us to a hut at the top of the mountain, one of which I had been trying to book leading up to the trip but they didn’t have online registration and my phone calls were not going through. These guys helped me book a stay at the hut and we went on our way. I decided to do so because it had been said that sundown was around 4pm and if I was to take the rope-way everyday, I would probably not be able to reach the more remote areas and there is a cutoff time for rope-way and I didn’t want to be stranded at the top of the mountain. The main hike I did, which was me booking it most of the way was completely down the mountain to Taisho Pond and back up to the Nishiho Hut.
* **Nishiho Hut:** A bit expensive but very convenient if you want to continue hiking and relax at the top of the mountain. When I was there it was not particularly busy, there are only a few rooms and so normally you sleep in the group on a Japanese Futon around other people. I was alone in my room and could move around alone very easily. Food was included in the stay and it was filling, hearty and brought much needed sustenance after a night of hiking. The only real problem I had with the place was the absolute lack of running water available to the guests. I’d understand if it was rationed but after using the bathroom you couldn’t wash your hands, after the meal there was no water to freely drink and washing up was no option. By the end of the day of hiking and sweating I really wanted to wash my face. The way I did manage was by buying the overpriced bottled water from the vending machine and using it to drink and wash my face.

Day 11:

* Without having taken a proper shower and feeling properly icky I decided to head back down to Konji Ryokan after breakfast to relax and freshen up.

Day 12:

* **Bus to Nagoya:** The plan to go to Nagoya was an afterthought, I had assumed since it was the 3rd largest city in japan that it must have quite a bit going on. I think it can easily be avoided to avoid ill feelings to yourself. I can’t actually think of anything particular that we did besides trying to go to some random clubs that were underwhelming and spending time roaming random city parks at night. At this point in the trip it felt great to finally meet up with another trip mate and we spent the time catching up on our separate adventures. Instead of going to the mountains with me, he spent his time going to Hiroshima and Fukuoka meeting with Japanese locals, doing Airbnb experiences and partying with random Japanese guys. While I was relaxing in the mountains he told me about the crazy clubs in Osaka he went to and all the fun things he did.
* **Hostel Wasabi:** This was my first hostel experience and when comparing the price to my friend, it wasn’t substantially cheaper than his Airbnb accommodations which he had privacy and AC. This hostel you basically have to walk on tiptoes, you are constantly surrounded by people and the lack of AC makes the nights a bit more difficult to sleep.

Day 13:

* **Noritake Garden:** This is a quaint small garden and fountains, surrounded by beautiful trees and a backdrop of a brick style industrial building.

Day 14:

* **Akihabara:** I didn’t originally plan to go to Akihabara but I found that it was just fun hanging out with a buddy and chill here. Go into random stores and see all the anime stuff on sale. Go into random arcades and just waste tons of time.

Day 15:

* **Maach Ecute:** Such an interesting shopping area made from an old train station. The shops themselves were fairly interested, we spent a good deal of time listening to music from a very upscale audio company.
* **Hitachino Brewing Lab:** Located in Maach Ecute with a great view of the area and a wonderful place to relax. The beer sampler was so good, every beer tasted so good.

Day 16:

* Basically spent the day going to random record stores and spent the day in Shibuya

Day 17:

* **Sushi Ya:** Probably the best restaurant I went to in Japan and probably the best sushi restaurant I’ve ever been to. We managed to get into this restaurant last minute. The other restaurants like Sushi Sauto and Sushi Kanesaka often require months of reservations or can only be made by going through specific channels such as by booking it directly through an expensive hotel.

Day 18:

* **Hey Taito**: We were leaving Japan this day so we chose the last activity to do was to hit this arcade in Akihabara again.

There are a few things that I want to share that are not captured in the itinerary. Thrift stores in japan are next level and I’d recommend spending a good bit of time searching and snagging deals on very unique pieces. Between Day 11 and 12 I found myself in Shirakawago as a stop on my way to Nagoya and spent the day going through the UNESCO world heritage site. There isn’t exactly much to do besides walk through the town, relax and climb to the top of a mountain and see the town from a view. I’d recommend it as a several hour event if it’s on your way.

If you want to see a map based view of the trip with an hourly breakdown, check out my itinerary here.

[https://www.voymas.com/#/?schedule=9eb067af-5d86-4e9f-a3b9-2681fe4b506f](https://www.voymas.com/#/?schedule=9eb067af-5d86-4e9f-a3b9-2681fe4b506f)