We were a group of 6 friends in our 20s and for most of us, this was our first time in Japan.
Tokyo 20/4 – 25/4:
We stayed close to Shimbashi, and while it didn’t have many points of interest it was easy to get anywhere in Tokyo; nothing took more than a 20-30 min train or subway ride.
We stumbled completely by accident upon the Nakizumo Crying Baby Festival in Sensou-ji, which was epic.
Pro tip: if you like Tsukemen there’s a store in the Ramen Street in Tokyo Station, though there’s an *extremely* long line. They are called Rokurinsha, and they have a store in the Solamachi Mall under the Tokyo Skytree with no line.
Odaiba is cool. The Gundam glows at night and the mall next to it has some nice stores.
Nothing is open in Asakusa Underground Street during the day, just FYI.
Nakano Broadway was pretty strange, but it was fun seeing all the unique stores (it gets weirder as you climb the floors).
The Gazebo from The Garden of Words is in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden if you like the movie, but the Garden is definitely worth it anyway, it’s immense and gorgeous.
If you go to Meiji Jingu, do yourself a favor and pay 500 yen to enter the inner gardens there. It was beautiful.
Yoyogi Park is not particularly interesting, skipping it would not be a big deal.
Kyoto 25/4 – 26/4:
We took the Shinkansen, booked the ticket like 2 days before the ride, and had window seats.
Kyoto was pleasant, Fushimi Inari Taisha was very crowded at first but it cleared more as we climbed further. I wanted to do the full path but sadly didn’t have the time. Take into consideration that it takes a while.
Osaka 26/4 – 30/4:
Universal Studios Japan was epic. To go to the Spy x Family show, you have to solve a scavenger hunt puzzle; it’s in Japanese, but with some Google Translate we cracked it. Make sure to take one puzzle pamphlet for each person in your group, because it will serve as your ticket for the “secret” show (it was in Japanese, but still fun).
Himeji Castle is beautiful.
Nara is a bit overrated, the deers were nice but the rest was nothing special.
Chuubu 30/4 – 7/5:
Here we rented 2 cars (for 6 people):
Day 1 – We drove to Kanazawa and traveled around the city. It was nice until we accidentally got locked inside one of the parks there and eventually had to jump over the fence 😐
Day 2 – We drove to Takayama and stayed in a Ryokan.
There is a main street that everyone goes to in Takayama. It was good, and got some gifts there for friends and family. Eventually, when we got bored, we climbed a hill to see some castle ruins; there was nothing to see there but it had a pleasant view.
Day 3 – We woke up early and went to Kamikochi. It was incredible: the water was a clear pale blue, the mountains were white, and everything there was beautiful. Later that day we arrived in Matsumoto and went to the castle there (it was nice, Himeji is better).
At night we found a place near our hotel with plenty of small izakaya restaurants and bars. We sat there with 3 locals we met there, chatted, and had a blast.
Day 4 – We went to Kita Yatsugatake and it was breathtaking. We didn’t have the appropriate gear to go on the long hike (there was some melting snow there), so we did the short one and it was very pretty (kinda gives Kaer Morhen from The Witcher vibes). After that, we went to Suwa Taisha Kamisha Maemiya, which was not too interesting, and Narai-juku, which was fairly similar to Takayama.
We slept that day in Fuefuki in an AirBnB.
Day 5 – Even though Golden Week had already started, the Chureito Pagoda was not crowded at all (we did get there around 9 am). We then went back to Shosenkyo which was very nice. We slept that day at a cottage in Fujikawaguchiko.
Day 6 – We planned to go to Hakone but it was full due to Golden Week (insane traffic just to get near the town) so we decided to drive straight to Yokohama instead. We went to the Gundam Factory (didn’t enter, we just watched the Gundam move) and traveled a bit in nearby Chinatown.
Day 7 – We returned the car to Tokyo and it took a free day to shop and travel to Tokyo.
Tokyo 5/7 – We did a last bit of gift shopping, then took the train back to the airport to fly home.
Overall it was an incredible trip and I can’t wait to come back to Japan.