We took advantage of a United award sale and then realized we had booked our 8 day trip exactly coinciding with Golden week. So we decided to stay in Tokyo, with one overnighter in Kawaguchiko. I had been to Japan a number of times, and it was the second visit for my fiancée. I speak toddler level Japanese after trying to learn over many years and methods, currently using Memrise. Our focus was gardens, museums, and food. I’ve enjoyed reading through other reports and hope to add some tips/thoughts for those heading out soon (lucky you!). Our trip was over before we knew it and we hope to bring her adult children next year. Other than our outbound flight being delayed 4 hours (thanks United), almost everything went off as planned.
Arrival: Upon arrival at Narita (\~7pm local), we breezed thru immigration and security, having completed everything on the Visit Japan website. Our immunization was not checked, although that isn’t supposed to take effect until 5/8. I had read about long waits so was worried, but I think the delay had one benefit in that all other U.S. based West coast and Midwest flights had already landed!
Lodging: We stayed four nights at a U.S. military-only hotel in the Ebisu/Hiroo area, which included an American style breakfast buffet. One night at the HOTORI no HOTEL BAN in Kawaguchiko. Nice hotel, good sized rooms, best toilet of our stay, easy bus ride from station, minimal breakfast included (bread/hb egg/soup) but no restaurants nearby that were open for dinner. Two nights at Conrad using a free night cert and points. We don’t (read never) stay at this level of hotel so it was a nice luxury and great way to end our trip.
Transportation: Since our stay was primarily Tokyo, no rail pass, and we took the bus round trip from Tokyo station to Kawaguchiko. Since it was Golden Week, I purchased the tickets online about a week prior, which was good because the outbound trip was sold out. Because of traffic it took almost 3 hours out, and only 2 hours return. I thought about taking a train, but the bus pickup in Tokyo (also leaves from Shinjuku) worked out better because we stowed our big luggage in a locker and it was close to the Conrad. We already had Pasmo cards from our last trip for local transportation.
Tips:
* As others have noted, you will walk a LOT. We averaged from 12k-21k steps/day, and my fiancée was not happy with all the subway stairs in the older stations. Bring comfortable, broken in shoes.
* It was post-cherry blossom, tail end azalea, pre wisteria season. Many gardens/parks/shrines had activity and food booths because of either Golden Week or azalea season, which made us wish we hadn’t eaten so much at breakfast!
* I bought an eSim thru Ubigi before I left. Upside: Used Google maps daily for directions and used less than 2Gb of my 10Gb allotment. Downside: Text/sms would not work, kept getting an error and never figured out how to fix.
* The ONE reservation I did not make was the river cruise from Asakusa to Odaiba. Prob because of GW ALL six? daily cruises were sold out, same for the day after. I didn’t preorder because I didn’t know what time we would arrive in Asakusa and foolishly thought I could just buy same day.
Activities:
* We went to the Snoopy Museum in Machida (reserved two weeks ahead), a one hour trip from Ebisu. We’re both big Peanuts fans so we enjoyed it, and their gift shop had items only available there.
* Shibuya Sky – Had 6 pm reservations (one week ahead), and as other reviewer noted, there were lines at each ‘corner’ for selfie shots. We originally were going to stay until it got dark and lights came on, but it was cloudy so sunset was ‘meh’ and it was a bit windy plus we were starving. I would say it is worth going to once, but I don’t feel a need to go again.
* Kawaguchiko – We got lucky and it was a pretty clear day so were able to view Mt. Fuji, which I would like to climb on a future trip. It was nice to get ‘away’ from the city for a day and it was nice to be a 2 min walk from the lake. It is a popular area though, and we did not go on the ropeway as there was always a line. Probably a one and done visit.
* Walking Tour – We used Tokyo Greeters, a free, volunteer guide. You have to register, and submit a date/time, which I did a week ahead. They are extremely popular, with more demand than supply, and will assign one volunteer per request, so you get a custom experience based on what you want to see. We had our guide take us to Koishikawa garden and Nezu shrine (just west of Ueno). We paid for her admission and lunch afterwards.
* National Showa and Minato City Museum – These are history museums which we found very interesting with english (Minato) or english app (Showa) available. Would also highly recommend the Edo Tokyo museum, although it won’t reopen until \~2025!
Food: just a few highlights. I’ve found after multiple visits that for many types of food, there’s no point in going across town to eat somewhere specific. For things like udon, soba, conveyor sushi, etc., just seek out a place where you are and it’ll be great.
* [Mawashi Sushi](https://www.sogo-seibu.jp.e.ld.hp.transer.com/shibuya/topics/page/180803restaurant-katsu.html) Seibu Department store 8th fl. This was \~5 min walk from Shibuya Sky. No sign in, just musical chairs as people get called in. We got there around 6:45 and waited around 15 minutes. Touchpad ordering in english. They had fresh items on rotation and we special ordered 80% of our food.
* [Kyushu Jangara](https://kyushujangara.co.jp/) Tonkotsu ramen in Ginza. This is a small chain. No sign in, there were two parties ahead of us, and a waiter came out to give us a menu (english) and take our order. I first went to the Harajuku location a long time ago and I think the portions got smaller, although since it’s tonkotsu it is hearty and filling.
* [Buta Daigaku](https://butadaigaku.jp/) Pork belly bowl in Shimbashi. I heard about this place on a YT channel. They close at 3pm for lunch and I got there around 20 minutes before and got an open spot. You order off a machine. It was really good, cheap, filling and tasty.
3 comments
Thank you for sharing. Your step counts are especially appreciated as I see so many posts with 30k+ step counts, and I know that isn’t for me. It’s reassuring to see the numbers you posted and know you were able to have a good time and see so much. My plan is to work up to 20k steps per day as my norm, and add in a dozen or so flights of stairs too. I’m hoping that gets me ready for the trip and I don’t suffer too terribly. I am also budgeting a fair amount for taxis, just in case.
Glad you had a good time!
Concerning your issues with your esim, not being able to call or text is the norm. If you’re using an iPhone, you’ll still be able to text & FaceTime other iPhone users (video or audio calls).
Nice write up! I’ll have to put that Sushi spot on a list for our next visit.
Quick question was it insanely crowded to a point it felt like a detriment or annoyance? Last time wife and I went was in January and I loved that it didn’t feel that crowded, however, we would like to go during another season as well and flights in the early May/late April have really good deals with United points as you said. We’re an off the beaten path type of people so would be staying away from most of the big touristy things if we didn’t happen to already do them last time but just wanted to get a gauge from someone else.
Also, the eSIMs don’t do text/sms so that’s why you never got it working. It’s data only so you would have to do a 3rd party app like WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal to text with people on Android or if you’re doing iOS to iOS you can just use iMessage.