I will preface this with the note that this was a (very) belated honeymoon from 2020 for my husband and I. So at this point, it was more so an adventure/vacay and not a honeymoon for us haha.
Prior to the trip, we exchanged $900 cash for Yen at our local bank. This took about 3 days for them to place the order and get it for us. I also made a Google Doc itinerary for us that I’d been working on for months before. If I don’t mention where we ate for breakfast on any of the days below, assume that we went to either Lawson or 7/11 to get yummy pastries and coffee! Haha.
**Day 1** \- Traveled from Kansas City to Haneda with a layover in Detroit. We arrived at around 2:30PM, and it took about 30 min to get through customs, grab our luggage, etc. This went pretty smoothly since we filled out everything in advance on the Japan Web app. We then went to go pick up our pocket Wi-Fi rental from Japan Wireless that we reserved a few weeks prior. It took us a bit to find that due to there being SO MANY Wi-Fi kiosks that all looked the same! But eventually we found it. After that, we bought Pasmo cards near the train, each loaded with 5,000 yen to start us off. We got a bit lost and got off at the wrong stop, but eventually got to our hotel (APA Hotel & Resort Ryogoku Eki Tower, $170/night) at 4:30PM. Also, we learned the hard way that it’s better to take the time to find elevators at train stations than to try and pull your suitcase up the stairs! Once we checked in and dropped our bags off in our room, we were starving. So we made a 4-min walk to a nearby street that was filled with delicious restaurants! We ate delicious meat and rice bowls and only paid about $5 each. So tasty and filling for super cheap!
**Day 2** \- My college foreign exchange friend from my dance team lives about an hour from Tokyo, so she hung out with us for the first 4 full days in Tokyo. We let her plan our first day for us. She met us at the hotel and we went to Akihabara first! (only 2 stops away from our station which was great!). We started off with eating brunch at a Maid Café called “athome”. This was so fun and I’m thankful that she was there to help translate! The maid servers didn’t speak much English. but she was able to tell us everything that was going on. It was so cute and we got to take home photos with the maids as souvenirs. The cocktails were tasty and the energy was so kawaii! We then went to GiGo nearby to play some arcade games. The highlight was definitely doing the idol photo booth! It was the most elaborate photo booth experience I’ve ever had, and we loved picking the backdrops and adding designs at the end. Once again I was thankful that she was there since the process was a bit complex/confusing! Afterwards, we took the train to Taito City. Here we walked to Senso-Ji temple. It was so beautiful and super crowded! We got to get our fortune papers and we made sure to cast out the bad-luck. We then wandered and ate street foods such as matcha ice cream, candied strawberries, and some Korean food. The matcha ice cream was by far my favorite! We then went to Harajuku to do some shopping. The two main stores that we shopped at were Uniqlo and Cosme. For dinner, we ate some delicious sushi!
**Day 3** \- We took the train and met up with my friend at Maihama Station to go to Disneyland for the day! My husband and I both worked at Disney in Florida, so we’ve been dying to go to Tokyo Disney! (we purchased our tickets a few months prior via Klook). Since it was a Monday, waits weren’t TOO bad. Longest wait was for the Beauty and the Beast ride, but we did that first thing so that we’d avoid the afternoon wait times which would’ve been a 90 min wait. By doing it first, we only waited 30 minutes! This ride was AMAZING and the best animatronics I’ve ever experienced in a storybook ride. Winnie the Pooh was another unexpected highlight ride of the day. Those two rides in addition to the Monsters Inc ride were all “trackless”, which made the rides so smooth! Only one that we missed out on was the Baymax ride, but it seemed geared towards smaller kids so we were ok with skipping it. The foods and snacks were overall AMAZING compared to Florida’s. So affordable considering it was park food, and the theming of the packaging and snacks was so impressive. We saw lots of people carrying these intricately designed popcorn buckets, and my husband really wanted the Pooh one. So we bought the bucket and had it filled with honey flavored popcorn. It was so tasty! There was easily over 20 flavors of popcorn to try throughout the Disney parks, which was so unique and fun to try! We wanted to see the electric parade and fireworks, but we were exhausted by 5PM and decided to head back. (we did 26,000 steps that day!)
**Day 3** \- Similar to the day prior, we met at the station again to go to Disney Sea. Longest lines were for Soarin and Toy Story Mania, so we decided to skip Soarin. We got to ride Tower of Terror 3 times due to short lines, which was awesome! In Florida we would’ve easily waited an hour to ride this. I got the Duffy popcorn bucket that day, and filled it with berry cheesecake popcorn which was so so yummy! Overall the theming of this park was so different than any other Disney park! I highly recommend going if you’re a theme park fanatic. The area for Journey To The Center of The Earth was this massive volcano that had a futuristic steampunk aesthetic. It rained a bit and there was a lot of wind that night, so they sadly cancelled the fireworks show. Food and snacks were again so so delicious. I loved the seashell ice cream near the Little Mermaid area, and my husband ate like 5 different flavored churros that day haha. At both Disney Parks, it was so cool to see the different attire that everyone had in the parks! Guests were commonly carrying Duffy plushies and wore cute character hats/ears that I’ve never seen in the U.S. Even adults had plushie purses! I was obsessed and quickly bought a StellaLou plushie keychain and plushie purse!
**Day 4** \- MY FAVORITE DAY. The activity that I was looking the most forward to was happening this day! My husband and I finally got to visit the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, which was a long-time dream for us. We are huge Ghibli fans! I even wore a Spirited Away dress for the occasion 🙂 We purchased the tickets back in March, which was super stressful… I was unsuccessful in buying them but my friend ended up getting them for us! Let me start off by saying that this is a MUST for anyone who remotely enjoys a Ghibli movie or two. Some of the exhibits brought tears to my eyes… the sheer amount of detail and effort that went into Miyazaki’s drafts of his animations are truly remarkable. The stained glass windows and the building itself was gorgeous. I spent way too much on souvenirs and books at the gift shop, but it was worth it! The food at the museum was super tasty, especially the chicken! The short film that they showed was also amazing. 10/10 would recommend grabbing tickets (only $7 each) and making the trip here! Afterwards we walked to Inokashira Park next to it, and went shopping on Nanaibashi Dori. They had an AMAZING crepe stand there! We then took the train to Shinjuku to go Izakaya hopping. There we ate delicious Japanese BBQ and went to a few bars. We couldn’t go to very many since they were all so packed and there was constantly people trying to find seats at every and any bar. But it was so fun and the alleyways were so cool!
**Day 5** \- My friend was no longer with us to help us at this point. My husband and I went to the car parts store that he’d been eyeing (called Up Garage). We then went back to Akihabara to hunt down some trading card stores and more anime/manga stores. My husband bought lots of Pokémon cards that day! We then went to Don Quijote and the Nintendo store in Shibuya to get even MORE souvenirs! (We truly should’ve packed lighter hahaha). Our backs and feet hurt so badly at this point in the trip… So we really should’ve planned for more down time in our itinerary! We spent the rest of that afternoon at the hotel to rest up. For dinner, we ate at 3 different sushi places that were on that strip near our hotel. It was so fresh and the tuna melts in your mouth! Afterwards, I took FULL ADVANTAGE of the public bath spa that was in our hotel. It was free to use for guests, and the jet tubs felt AMAZING on my back and feet! (Ladies, you just have to face your fear of being nude in front of other people because it’s SO WORTH IT to relax!). The spa alone was worth the hotel price. We will definitely stay at this hotel again when we come back one day!
**Day 6** \- We slept in a bit longer than normal this day, and took our time getting out of our hotel. We ate breakfast at the nearby McDonald’s just to try out their version! Super yummy bacon potato pies! We then went to Ginza to check out the Sanrio and Zara stores. We had a reservation made a month prior for the Pokémon Café in Chuo, so we killed some time at the mall and Pokémon DX Store nearby until the reservation time. Going to the café was a LITTLE pricey considering the food quality… The desserts and drinks were far better than the meals there. But seeing Pikachu come out and dance made it worthwhile! And of course the theming was on point! Overall pricey but so adorable. Most character cafes are like this.
**Day 7** \-MY BIRTHDAY! Honestly getting to spend my birthday in Japan was unforgettable. Since it was my special day, my husband agreed to go shopping for some cute clothes with me! I quickly realized that most of the fashion stores in Tokyo only carried size “F’, meaning “Free/one size”. Being a size 8, almost everything was too small for me. I literally had to shop at a “plus-size store” called PUNYUS. And yes, Punyus translates to “chubby” in English hahaha. That’s ok though, because I bought an adorable dress and a chunky sweater that had strawberries on it there! We also went to ANOTHER Don Quijote because I truly couldn’t get enough of that store. For lunch, we ate at a local ramen shop. It began to rain as we were eating, and the kind waitress gave us an umbrella to have on our way out! The overall hospitality and kindness of all employees in Japan was such a culture shock as Americans. I truly wish it was more like this in the U.S….. Anyways, for dinner we wanted to mix it up and find Italian food. Near our hotel in Ryogoku was a pizza restaurant called “Miagolare”. When I TELL YOU this was the BEST pizza I’ve ever had… believe me!!! Who knew that Japan would also have such amazing pizza??? And they made me a super special birthday dessert with sparklers in it! Can’t recommend that restaurant enough! We had even more dessert afterwards at Dutour. The iced matcha lattes there are so so good….
**Day 8** \- We packed up and re-organized our luggage to prep for taking the Shinkansen to Kyoto. I used the Rail Ninja website to buy our tickets a week prior. Once we arrived at Tokyo Station, we used our QR code to get our tickets from the machines. Getting onto the train was a bit confusing since we had to put the ticket in AND tap our Pasmo cards at the same time in order to get through the gates. Perhaps they do this in order to connect the two together in case you make purchases on the train? I’m not entirely sure why the Pasmo was needed since the tickets were already paid for. But note that you DO need an IC card of some sort when getting on the bullet train! The ride itself was super fun and scenic. Once we got there, we had to take a bus in order to get tour place (The Kinoe Ryokan). The busses were pretty confusing not gonna lie. It’d say “Bus 206” but then there was multiple busses numbered “206”. So we had to do some asking around but eventually we found the right one. Also having our large luggage on the small buss was a hassle, so keep that in mind. We wanted to try a Ryokan just for one night to have the experience. The food served was VERY traditional, and I won’t lie, I didn’t like all of it. But that’s ok! It was really cool to try and experience new foods! The workers were very nice and it was surprisingly comfy sleeping on the floor.
**Day 9** \- The next day we switched hotels, and the new one was a 7 min walk from the Ryokan we were at. Th new one was called “Granbell Kyoto”, and it was very nice! During the day we explored Kyoto and went to local shops/restaurants. My fave being a place called Star Restaurant in the Nakagyo Ward. They had the BEST omurice! Then at dinner time, we met up with my husband’s friends that he’d only known online for the prior few years. They met us at a mall in Osaka and we went to a local pub to eat. It was really nice meeting them and hearing about their life in Japan! They were Canadians that’d been living in Kyoto and Osaka for the past 20+ years.
**Day 10** \- We left early in the morning to head to Universal Studios in Osaka! (about 1.5 hr train ride). Not gonna lie, the train stops were way more spread out in Kyoto/Osaka, so standing for such long periods on the train was a bit painful. But we got into the park just fine! (Bought these tickets on Klook prior, AND bought the express pass so that we could ride the Mario Kart ride without a long wait). The park was pretty busy, and the rides with the longest waits were definitely the Nintendo World rides and Harry Potter rides. We had fast passes for a few, but we didn’t get to do the Yoshi ride or Flying Dinosaur ride. The Hollywood Dream Backdrop was my fave coaster there! And the Nintendo World was AMAZING. Such cool theming and so fun for us as Nintendo fans! Harry Potter was cool too, but we’d already been there a few times in the states. So it wasn’t very different. The butterbeer was yummy as usual! Also LOL that we didn’t realize the Jurassic Park ride was a water ride… boy were we surprised when we got soaked hahaha. Snacks were decent but Disney had way better food overall. Riding the train back was the worst since we were in so much pain and had to stand most of the ride. I definitely sat in the public bath that night!
**Day 11** \- We sadly left this day and headed back on the bullet train to Tokyo. In hindsight, I would’ve done an extra day in Kyoto or Osaka to explore other sites that we missed such as the Bamboo garden. But that’s just another reason to come back! Once we got back to Tokyo, we stayed at a hotel that was closer to the airport for convenience! It was called “Hotel Monday Haneda”. This was by far our least favorite hotel that we stayed at. The staff was very scattered and they tried to let another guest cut us in line (we got to the hotel 10 minutes before she did, yet they tried to say she was next). But I digress. Overall it had less amenities and no public bath. There was also not much to do or see around the hotel itself. But we ate dinner at a local italian place which was super yummy! I believe it was called “Luce” in Ota City. It had yummy pizza and desserts!
**Day 12** \- On this morning I was mentally and physically preparing myself for a tattoo appointment that I had made at a shop in Tokyo. I’d been wanting another tattoo, so what better souvenir to get in Japan right??? Plus I made sure to wait and schedule it for the last day so that I wouldn’t need to stress about the aftercare in Japan. The shop was called Hyakki Tattoo (you can find them on Instagram). Super kind people and a great shop! They gave my husband and I juice boxes and played anime in their shop which was a nice distraction from the pain haha. I got an adorable tattoo of Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service! After this we went to some more trading card shops to find some last-minute cards and souvenirs for our friends. We then went to dinner and ate even more sushi to commemorate our last full day in Japan.
**Day 13** \- Going home!!! So so sad. Our hotel was only one train stop away from the airport which was SO NICE. We got there 3 hours before our flight, but probably could’ve done 2 hours prior instead since the Delta gate wasn’t even open yet. The journey home was relatively easy and flight time was quicker on the way back. Customs was easy in Detroit.
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**Closing notes:** This was the best trip we could’ve ever imagined. My husband and I agree that if we could stay in Japan forever, we would. The people there are so hospitable and kind. The food was so amazing and affordable. The culture as a whole was what we already align ourselves with. The only truly expensive part was the flights and some of the hotels we stayed at. We definitely could’ve hunted for cheaper places to stay, and perhaps we could’ve found slightly cheaper flights. But shopping and eating there was very affordable! I didn’t get overly detailed on some things, but *feel free to DM me with any questions!* For payment throughout our trip, we relied on my Discover card and my husband’s Bank of America card. I applied for an Apple Credit Card prior thinking it would work best being a Mastercard. Sadly the ONLY place my Apple Credit Card worked was at Disney. Which made no sense since it was an “International Mastercard” according to Apple. Anyways! I highly recommend getting Yen beforehand so that you can use it to reload your Pasmo/Suica. For each of us, we spent 15,000 Yen on each of our Pasmo cards. We used it for all of our bus and train rides, along with occasional vending machine drinks. I don’t recommend getting a 14-day J-Rail pass since those were like $300 on Klook, and we only spent HALF of that using our loaded Pasmo cards. Not sure how you’d use up $300 worth of train passes in only 14 days… So definitely not worth it! Remember to build in some down time and wear your most comfortable shoes! Itineraries are nice to make before going, but don’t worry if it doesn’t go as planned. It’s better to have less expectations and to explore on your own! The only thing that you’d need to plan in advance is special reservations or ticketed things. As far as the language barrier goes, using Google Translate was our best friend! We used it anytime that we had a complicated question. But as long as you can say “Thank You” and “Excuse Me”, you’ll get by just fine. The bathrooms are super nice and clean throughout Japan. But there won’t be paper towels, so make sure to have a small towel in your purse. It’s also smart to keep a plastic bag for trash with you in case you don’t find trash cans along your journey. Next time, we’d want to visit some more parks and historical landmarks. We also would like to try more bars/breweries outside of Shinjuku.
6 comments
Seems like a great trip!
Wondering – how long did you spend in Ghibli? And did you think that was enough? Thanks!
Hi! This was a great read, thank you. I was thinking of applying for an Apple credit card as well and am surprised it didn’t work for most places! Did you try using it to withdraw money at atms?
Why did you have to stand so much on the trains?
Did you get to eat in kinopio in Nintendo world?
Thanks for the info!
Sounds like you really had a wonderful trip!
You really don’t need to exchange that much yen beforehand. There are ATMs located in nearly every 7Eleven that have lower rates than the banks do.
Japan Wireless also has the option of sending the pocket Wi-Fi directly to your hotel. You can choose the date/time you want it to arrive at your hotel. If it arrives at the hotel before you check in, the front desk will hold the package for you. You can opt to do that if you decide to rent from them again in a future trip so you can avoid having to to wait in line to pick it up at the airport kiosks.
To figure out if a JR pass is worth it, use a fare calculator to calculate your trips. It will let you know if purchasing a JR pass will pay off or not so you won’t make the mistake of purchasing one. If a JR pass does not pay off then you can buy individual Shinkansen tickets online and reserve seats in advance from the SmartEX Japan app as another option besides purchasing the tickets at the train stations.
Your trip sounds wonderful – it’s lovely to read such a happy and enthusiastic post.
Question about the hot tub at APA Ryogoku Eki – is it just indoors or is there open air bath like stated online? What were the beds like?
Question, I’m a Canadian traveling to Japan in 11 days. I haven’t booked a pocket wifi yet. Would you suggest booking one online at the airport or pick one up at the airport??