April Trip Report (Tokyo, Karuizawa, Yudanaka, Kyoto, Hakone) – vegetarian/vegan travellers

We used this subreddit extensively for trip planning, so here is my trip report as a contribution!

A couple of general notes:
– We are vegetarian (no fish, meat, eggs), the Happy Cow app was a lifesaver! We did find options not listed on the app, but there was something listed on there everywhere we went
– We pre-ordered a portable wifi pack from Japan Wireless and picked it up at the airport upon arrival, super simple. It came with a backup battery pack that we did not use, the battery lasted all day. Data was unlimited and fast on both phones throughout. We dropped off at a post box in Shinjuku prior to heading to the airport.
– there are lots of clean and nice public restrooms all over Japan, and very few public garbage cans (expect to carry your garbage around all day), also very little/no public waterbottle refill options
– We found public transportation to be very easy to use in combination with Google maps, no issues getting around without taxis or Ubers
– before we left, we printed out some papers that explained our dietary restrictions, hotel names and addresses, emergency contact info on English and Japanese

Tokyo (2 days)
– stayed at Citadines Central Shinjuku, nice hotel, nothing fancy but a great location right across the street from Golden Gai
– Day 1 highlights: Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, Tokyo National Museum
– Day 2 highlights: vegan ramen at Jikasei Mensho in Shibuya

Karuizawa (2 days)
– Stayed at Hotel Karuizawa Cross, the hotel was very nice but due to the time of year the town was very quiet (literally no one on the streets after 6 and very few restaurant options)
– I would skip this stop in April, unless you’re here to see cherry blossoms, which the town is covered in

Yudanaka (2 days) – recommended
– Stayed at the Sakayea Ryoken, highly recommend! Breakfast was incredible and they veganized it for us without losing out on any dishes ($22/person was a steal of a deal), the private onsen was also amazing, highly recommend spending the ¥7000 to book it for 100 mins
– the Snow Monkey park was great, close up with hundreds of snow monkeys after a nice forest hike
– 9 Hot Springs tour in Shibu Onsen area, this was a very nice experience, prepare to be naked with strangers (separated by gender)
– spent a half day in Obuse, The Hokusai museum was great and the town centre is a nice strolling area with many cafes and shops, if you’re vegetarian/vegan be sure to stop at Irohado (a chain in the region so you can find it in a couple other places)
– we were surprised at the number of veg options in the area! We had amazing vegan ramen and vegan udon ar two different places, both listed on the happycow app

Kyoto (4 days)
– lots of line ups at popular restaurants, we found arriving close to opening led to the shortest line ups
– Day 1 highlights: Arashiyama area, prepare for huge numbers of tourists (arrive early for fewer people, tour busses seemed to arrive around 9), we hiked to the top of Mount Ogura for a panoramic city view and there were very few tourists on the hike
– Day 2 highlights: vegan ramen at Engine Ramen (go right at opening to avoid a line!), Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine (tour busses arrive at 8:30-9, arrive before that to beat the crowds)
– Day 3 highlights: Nara day trip, we didn’t plan anything specific for the day trip and kept it relaxed, easy to make it to Nara and back with a full late afternoon/evening left in Kyoto

Hakone (2 days)
– stayed at Hakone Kowakien Miyamafurin, it’s a bit of a journey from the train station but was in the most lovely and quiet location, there was only one other group in the entire hotel so we had a very relaxing and quiet stay
– Hakone round trip was nice, recommend purchasing the Free Pass at the train station upon arrival
– if you are vegetarian/vegan I would highly recommend packing food for this stop, we were able to get lunch in town but where we stayed was very quiet and isolated and there were no options for us (only place on our trip we ran into this), we packed instant ramen and some other supper-ish snacks and ate in our hotel room

Final Tokyo night (1.5 days)
– scheduled in TeamLabs, honestly I would skip it, we stayed in Shinjuku so it took a while to get there and there were lots of closer things that we would have done instead of spending 2hrs of our last day on the bus! The exhibit itself was fine, but we aren’t big instagram posters so didn’t have the same level of interest as ppl who go to take pictures

Quick overviews here 🙂 if anyone reading this has questions please feel free to send me a message any time! Have a great trip 🌸