Trip Report: Mid-May Kyoto & Tokyo w/ “Limited” walking while Vegan, incl. TDR

Hello! I didn’t think I would post a trip report but I figured it might be helpful to share my experience because it was a little different than what I’ve seen due to the fact that it was a short trip and we took taxis/Ubers a LOT, plus I know my fellow vegans are probably scared and need some reassurance.

**Background:** I (30’s F vegan) have been to Japan before with friends about 15 years ago and was very inexperienced in traveling so I relied on a friend who spoke Japanese at the time to get us places. My mom (60’s F not vegan) was interested in shopping and eating conbini food. This trip was cut short because of an airline change so we only had 6.5 full days between Kyoto and Tokyo which unfortunately left us with only 1 of those days in Kyoto and we had to cut a lot. I have bad knees that make stairs difficult at the moment so please bear that in mind when you see that we didn’t do a lot of what would be considered must-dos 🙂

**Sunday, Arrival at KIX:**

* We arrived at **KIX** at around 6:30pm and it only took about an hour to get through immigration. The longest wait was the passport check but everything else was a breeze.
* We stopped at the JR ticket office to pick up the **ICOCA + Haruka** package because we wanted the souvenir ICOCA cards and Haruka discount. We didn’t wait at all.
* Instead of worrying about arriving in time to pick up a mobile wifi unit we opted for an **Ubigi eSim** and it worked incredibly well. I didn’t have a single issue. My mom got 3gb and I got 10gb. I thought I might use slightly more than 3gb for several reasons and instead of potentially needing to top up midway through I opted to just get the 10gb package and be done with it. It turned out neither of us used all 3gb for the week. Oh well! Still very happy with it.
* Took the Haruka train to Kyoto station, comfortable and convenient although a long ride (1hr). We stayed at **Hotel Granvia Kyoto** which is on top of Kyoto station. We chose it because we weren’t sure how long we’d be held up at the airport and after a long day we wanted somewhere convenient and easy to find. It ended up being a great choice for us and I really loved it. There was SO much to do in/around the hotel/station that I could have explored that block ALONE for a whole week. Goodness.

**Monday, Day 1: Kyoto**

* This was our one full day to check out Kyoto. I wanted it to be an easy-going day because quite frankly I was anxious about culture shock and navigation and with limited mobility I didn’t want to push too hard and exhaust ourselves before we even got to the theme parks. We took taxis/Uber everywhere which I will discuss later on.
* For breakfast we went to **Starbucks** and got the plant-based breakfast sandwiches and plant-based donut. One was a “sausage” muffin and one was a “meatball” sub. The sausage muffin was REALLY good and I had it multiple times on the trip because there was always a Starbucks a few feet away from wherever we were and it was a more substantial meal than I could get at a conbini. The sub was okay, but pretty flavorless. Didn’t get it again. The donut was ok, too sweet for me. Starbucks soy milk also hits different. How I wish I had a soy latte right now.
* Around 10am we went to **Nishiki Market** because I heard that was a good time to go to avoid crowds. That turned out to be correct. There were still people there, but I never felt overwhelmed. Not everything was open either. Not sure if that’s because some businesses were permanently closed or if it was too early but there was still plenty open. We went so my mom could try a bunch of things and I thought I wouldn’t have anything to try but I was wrong! We shared strawberry daifuku and I had a pickle and some tofu and some other things I don’t quite remember. It was enough that I was actually full and I can eat a LOT. I was very surprised.
* After the market we wanted to sit down for a bit so we went to **Mumokuteki Cafe** which is a vegan restaurant right around the corner from the end of the market street. It was in a really beautiful space but I didn’t enjoy the food that much. I got a set lunch and the “chicken” was good but I didn’t like the side dishes that much. I was surprised by that because it looked really beautiful. If you like healthy, light food definitely check it out though.
* After lunch around 12:30pm we went to **Higashiyama**. The intention was to start at Sannenzaka and walk down to the end of Ninenzaka, however our taxi driver dropped us off at Hokan-ji, and because I planned it so that we would only walk downhill we opted just to see Ninenzaka because I wasn’t sure how many steps we would have to go up the other way. In the end, it didn’t really matter because the place he dropped us off had the wow factor of seeing the beautiful pagoda and it was super hot that day and the walk we did was enough of a struggle. It was crowded, but not terrible. We were able to get in and out of the shops easily.
* After this we took a taxi back to the room to regroup because the sun was at full blast at that point and things were only getting more crowded. We explored the station and the mall underneath the station a bit. There is a grocery store called **Harves** on the Shinkansen side of the train station that had a very vegan-friendly selection of snacks and drinks. I did not find any vegan bento though.
* For dinner I went by myself around 5:30pm to Gion to eat at **Gion Tanto**. I heard they had a vegan menu and it’s been so long since I’ve had okonomiyaki that I needed to eat there. When I arrived there was no one waiting but I had to wait about 3 minutes in the waiting room. Then I went and sat at the counter and ordered my food. The staff at the time was all women which was badass and they brought me vegan mayonnaise and vegan sweet sauce. I got the okonomiyaki with soy meat and it was amazing! I was so happy to be in Japan eating okonomiyaki. It was perfect. I sat down at 5:45, finished at 6:30, and by the time I was leaving the restaurant the entire waiting room was full and there was a HUGE line outside. I recommend getting there early if you can. There was a pretty good amount of seating but I think the wait adds up because I personally eat very quickly, however the okonomiyaki was so big that it took me 30 full minutes to eat it. I can’t imagine how much longer bigger parties take to sit and eat.
* After dinner I walked around Gion for about an hour taking pictures. It was beautiful. I really wish we had more time there but I’ll definitely be back.
* **16,200 steps – 7.2 mi**

**Tuesday, Day 2: Kyoto to Tokyo**

* We took a bullet train around 10am to go to Tokyo. We looked around the station a bit before hand but I didn’t find much there to eat. Luckily I was already hoarding snacks and drinks so I had stuff with me already. I bought our tickets on **SmartEx** a few days in advance and linked our ICOCA cards so we could tap in at the gate and everything worked like a charm. I opted for the green car because I was seeing some footage from the other train cars that week that suggested it might be crowded so I didn’t mind the $10 extra per ticket for extra comfort. If you are prone to motion sickness don’t forget to take measures to control it on the Shinkansen. It seems like it would be a smooth ride but it swayed enough for me to feel glad I took Bonine that morning.
* Arrived at Tokyo station and asked someone at the Information booth how to get to **Character Street**. They gave us a map and we found it very quickly. I bought way too much. The Tokyo Station-specific merchandise was too cute not to. We then exited the station on the Marunouchi side (which was quite a trek and difficult to find for some reason) to take pictures.
* For lunch we took a taxi to Ginza to eat at **Komeda Is**. It is a beautiful restaurant. I got the Miso cheeseburger and fries with an iced coffee and a strawberry sando & soft serve to share. Wow. I’m the type of person who eats at a place I love multiple times on every trip and I absolutely would have eaten here several more times if I had the space. I’m considering staying in a hotel closer to this restaurant next time.
* After lunch we took a taxi to **Maihama Station** to start our Disney stay. We did some shopping at **Bon Voyage** which was more underwhelming than I thought it would be but at least we got some things there so we didn’t have to carry them around at the parks. We also looked around **Ikspiari** and I ended up getting a few items at the grocery store there. Nothing interesting though. Some rice, maybe? I don’t remember.
* Then we checked in at **Hilton Tokyo Bay**. We booked a basic room using points but they upgraded us when we arrived. Not sure why but there were a ton of school children at the hotel so I’m thinking they did that to make room for them or possibly to avoid noise complaints from us? Not sure. The room we stayed in was really ugly and it wasn’t as clean as the other hotels we stayed at. I’m far from caring about that stuff usually but I think I expected a bit more based on where we were. Otherwise it was a nice stay. The Lawson in the lobby was very convenient. They also have a merchandise store on the premises with a ton of the same stuff you’d find in the park. I wish we looked there first because I know I bought a few things in the park that they actually had at the hotel and wouldn’t have needed to carry it around.
* **15,960 steps – 7.4 mi**

**Wednesday, Day 3: Tokyo DisneySea**

* We spent the day at **Tokyo DisneySea**. We left our room at 7:30am and arrived a few minutes later. We waited in line until they opened the gates at 8:15am. We then went through security which only took a couple of minutes. Scanning our park tickets also only took 5 minutes for our entire line to get through. We then booked it to Journey to the Center of the Earth. While on the way there I tried to get show tickets but we did not win. We’ve been to the US parks multiple times and I’ve already been to TDR once so we didn’t need to ride absolutely everything. We also rode 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Electric Railway, Indiana Jones (single rider is a must), and Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage. I don’t remember waiting more than 15 minutes for anything. We did a ton of shopping, snacking, and sightseeing.
* As far as vegan food goes, I tried the black pepper popcorn which was super good. Got some French fries at Dockside Diner because we wanted to sit down and it wasn’t crowded. Also had the vegetable curry at **Casbah Food Court** which was DELICIOUS. It’s also a bigger portion than it looks in pictures so it was very satisfying. I can’t believe I was so full that I didn’t even get to try an ice pop. Check out @vegantokyodisney on IG for more info on all the vegan food available.
* We got so much done so quickly that we were ready to go back to the room around 2:30pm. Plus this was our highest step day, we were exhausted.
* **19,939 steps – 9.2 mi**

**Thursday, Day 4: Tokyo Disneyland**

* We spent the day at **Tokyo Disneyland**. Left our room at 7:30am again and they opened the gates at 8:45am I think? I knew the opening times varied but I remember being surprised by how much later they opened on this day. We immediately went to Pooh’s Hunny Hunt and I bought a Premiere Access Pass for Beauty & the Beast on the way there (side note: I had my credit card already loaded in the app thinking that would save time but for some reason it made me put in my credit card info again when buying PA. I only had my visa handy and it rejected it of course so I had to fish out my Mastercard from the bottom of my bag and it worked). We also rode Western River Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, & Monsters Inc. Also did not win show tickets.
* Today I got to try the caramel popcorn which was ok, but I can’t complain because how often do I get to have vegan caramel popcorn? Never. For lunch we went to **Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall**. I think we got there around 10:30am and there was about a 15 minute wait in the queue. I chose to eat there because of the atmosphere and because they are one of the restaurants that serves the Low Allergen Menu Vegetable Stew which is a vegan dish that you have to ask them to make for you. When I first arrived I asked the hostess about it and she brought someone out to talk to me about it and they had it ready for me by the time I got to the cafeteria counter. More info @vegantokyodisney on IG. It was delicious!!! Later on we went to **Sweetheart Cafe** to get the red bean rice bread shaped like a bone. It was also delicious. I regret not buying more to take back to the hotel.
* Again, we blew through the park while shopping and snacking and we were done by 3pm.
* **17,249 steps – 7.8 mi**

**Friday, Day 5: Shibuya**

* We left the Disney resort to go to our last hotel in Shinjuku. We ended up taking a taxi which I’ll touch on later. The hotel held our bags while we went to Shibuya for the day.
* We spent the day in **Shibuya** to shop and eat. The first thing we did was eat at **Jikasei MENSHO** at **Shibuya Parco**. We got there right after opening at 11:40am and there was no wait. The vegan ramen was absolutely delicious. I appreciate that they offer soupless ramen because that’s what I prefer. After eating we went to the **Nintendo Store** which had a super long wait for the cashier and was pretty crowded but I powered through because I needed Animal Crossing merch and that’s that.
* We then went to **Loft** which had several floors and had so many beautiful things. By the time we were done I was pretty tired and knew there was a vegan restaurant called **2foods** there so we went there just to get a snack and rest but I couldn’t resist ordering the vegan omurice so I had a full meal. Bro… I saw a few reviews that said they didn’t like this dish so while I was originally super excited to try it I ended up thinking I wouldn’t but then when I found myself there I decided to try it anyway. It was AMAZING! I’m not sure what the criticisms were. They use something called EverEgg and the texture was spot on! The rice had a ketchup note to it and the demiglace it was nestled in was sooo delicious. Maybe I’m a simpleton but I loved it and I need to have it again. The strawberry latte and pistachio donut we had were both too sweet.
* Once we were done in Shibuya we went back to our hotel in Shinjuku, **Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku**. We got to check in using a QR code they gave us earlier that day when we dropped off our bags. I loved this hotel very much. There is a vegan restaurant across the street from it.
* I think this was my best food day by far. For dinner I went to the vegan restaurant across the street called **Plant Based Tokyo** which was inside a bigger food hall. I had a soy meat bibimbap which was super good. Then later I went to a grocery store around the corner called My Basket where I found my holy grail: **Coolish Green**. If you’ve never had Coolish it’s a soft serve vanilla ice cream that you get inside a little bag with a spout like the jelly drinks. They’ve come out with a vegan version called Coolish Green and it tastes just as good as I remember. It tastes exactly how I remember McDonald’s soft serve tasting. I had been searching far and wide for this the whole trip and I read a few months ago that they were available at Aeon grocery stores which My Basket happened to be so check that out if it’s something you’re interested in.
* **12,957 steps – 5.7 mi**

**Saturday, Day 6: Shibuya & Shinjuku**

* One of the things we wanted to do was check out a Mega Donki. We went to a regular Donki in Kyoto but it was pretty small so I wanted to find a Mega one. This morning we woke up really early on accident so I thought it would be the perfect time to go. We went to the closest one I could find which was in Shibuya. We got there around 8am and left around 10:30am. There was barely anyone there so it was great. Bought a lot of junk I don’t need. I also found a lot of the **Kikkoman soy milk** flavors I had been looking for in the grocery department. Up to that point I only found banana and plain for some reason so this was exciting.
* For lunch we went to **Mos Burger**. I got the plant based Green Burger and I was very pleasantly surprised! The patty & bun had a great texture and the mayo/teriyaki sauce combo it comes with was super good. Apparently the onion rings are vegan too but I didn’t know that at the time and only got fries but they were also good. I used the pistachio soy milk I bought at Donki in my iced coffee. Very delicious.
* We went back to our hotel to rest a bit and then we went out again at night. We got dessert at **wired bonbon** at Lumine Est which is an all-vegan dessert place (with one non-vegan savory meal I think?). It was incredible! We got there around 6pm and had to wait about 30 minutes for a seat but it was worth it. I got the matcha adzuki parfait and my mom got the berry crepe. It was really hard deciding what to get. They also had a sampler plate but it was described as “greedy” on the menu so I opted out…
* After that we walked around the outside perimeter of Shinjuku station, basically, which took us to the cat sign and Kabukicho, through Omoide Yokocho and back. It was pretty chaotic but I never felt boxed in. I don’t mind crowds unless I start getting a crowd crush feeling but it was never like that.
* **13,578 steps – 6.2 mi**

**Sunday, Day 7: Shinjuku, Harajuku, Ikebukuro**

* This was our check out day and I guess I got a second wind because this was one of our busiest days. I woke up at 6am and was hungry so I went to **Coco Ichibanya** by myself for breakfast. I got the CoCoICHI vegetarian curry with soy meat hamburger and vegetables. It was absolutely delicious. Sitting down at a counter at 6am, ordering on a tablet and interacting with no one, and eating an absolutely incredible vegan curry while Corinne Bailey Rae plays over the speakers was heaven. This moment basically solidified my desire to come back on a solo trip because it’s an introvert’s dream. After breakfast I walked back through the completely empty backstreets of Shinjuku.
* When I got back to my hotel my mom and I took a taxi to **Meiji Jingu**. I felt like we hadn’t had any kind of nature or shrine experience yet and I had been here on my last trip so it’s the only place I knew about last minute. It was still early in the morning so it was beautiful and peaceful. After that we walked down Takeshita Street just to say we did even though nothing was open. It wasn’t on our list but we were there so why not.
* Then we went to Ikebukuro. The main goal of this trip was to do a lot of shopping and Daiso and Sanrio were on our list but for some reason we hadn’t come across any good ones at that point. We found one Daiso but it was tiny so I was determined to find a bigger one and we hadn’t come across an actual Sanrio store yet. I discovered that the **Tobu Department Store Ikebukuro** had both of these things so we went. I finally found an onigiri mold that I’d been looking for for months. I got some super cute things at Sanrio. The vibe around the station was really cool and there was live music and I was sad we hadn’t been here earlier!
* Now for the beast. We finally decided to tackle **Shinjuku station**. Yes, we had been in Shinjuku for 2 nights already but hadn’t gone in the station. I’ve heard nothing but horror stories and knowing us and our limitations I was really scared to take a train there. Just like everything though, my anxieties were completely unwarranted and our train platform happened to let out at the exact exit we needed and we were only in there for about 5 minutes.
* It was now time to stuff all our purchases in our suitcases and check out. Shockingly I was able to fit everything in my carry on bag and didn’t have to use the foldable duffle I brought.
* We took the **Airport Limousine Bus** to **Haneda** which was comfortable and conveniently used our hotel as one of their permanent stops. Haneda was nice, we got there 3 hours early and looked around some of the shops. Then when we were ready to go through security we saw that the line was as long as the entire departures floor. I was so scared it was going to take hours to get through security but it ended up only taking 30 minutes total, so if you see that don’t be scared. They actually show the wait time on a screen but I didn’t trust it and I was wrong!
* **19,351 steps – 9.2 mi**

**Practical Info & Observations:**

* We used **taxis/Uber** most of the time due to mobility limitations. We used Uber more often than just getting into a taxi because I felt it was easier to state where I wanted to go if it was a specific place and not somewhere easy to find and I could get a sense of how much the ride would cost ahead of time, plus I could ensure they’d take my credit card. In Kyoto it was more common for there to be designated areas where the taxi would pick you up. When you open Uber and put in your locations it would then show a blue area or point where you needed to walk to get a taxi so once when I was wanting to pick up a regular taxi, I opened Uber so it could show me where the nearest taxi stand was and it was incredibly helpful. The only con for me with Ubers was that I had to wait a bit longer because there are less of them. I think the longest we waited was 20 minutes and I was watching the guy go round and round on the map so I’m not sure what was happening there. Most of our rides were around $15-$20USD, so yes it was pricey but for us it was worth it most of the time. On our last day (Sunday) we wanted to take an Uber from Ikebukuro to Shinjuku but it said there were no cars available and the taxi stand had a very long line so keep in mind that weekends can be tough all around. All of the Uber drivers spoke great English and opted to do so immediately. You can also see the driver profiles in the app and several of them said they were driving for Uber to practice English so I thought that was cool.
* Going in to this trip we were excited about **shipping our luggage** around but I was unsure about the timing of when the luggage would need to be dropped off and what we could get away with shipping instead of carrying to the next destination. It turned out that whether we were shipping from Kyoto to Tokyo or from one area of Tokyo to another, it was requested that we drop our bags at the hotel counter by 3pm the previous day. I thought maybe we would be able to ship in the morning from Tokyo Bay to Shinjuku and get our bags that night but that was apparently not possible. After the first time we shipped our luggage my mom felt that her night bag was too heavy and didn’t want to carry it again to ship our luggage a second time, so we ended up taking a taxi van from Tokyo Bay to Shinjuku which was $90USD. Ouch.
* **VEGANS**: There is nothing to worry about. I only had one meh meal, every other sit down meal I had was incredible. A lot of the time we ate at conbinis which were very slim pickings. I ended up eating a lot of pickled plum onigiri although I’m pretty sure at least one of the conbinis makes one that isn’t strict vegan so I probably messed up there. I drank a lot from vending machines and had breakfast at Starbucks several times because their breakfast sandwich was super good. My main food research resources were @veganminniemouse on IG/Youtube, @veganjapan_restaurant on IG and @wanderlustwellman on Youtube. All three have very recently been to Japan (or live there) and there’s a lot of outdated info out there so I highly recommend checking these out. We flew with Japan Airlines and 50% of my meals were disgusting mush and 50% were delicious and would eat again, as far as airplane food goes.
* **Water pressure** in all three hotels: IMMACULATE.
* I have an iPhone 12 Mini and used my Apple MagSafe battery pack in addition to bringing an external power bank. I never once used the external power bank. I would never discourage anyone from bringing one but I thought it was weird that I didn’t use it at all.
* In my title I used quotations around the word Limited in Limited walking. That’s because even though I tried to avoid walking at all costs it simply can’t be done, however stairs were easier to avoid but at a cost. The fact that there is nowhere to just sit anywhere is also a huge bummer. Not a single conbini we went to had a seating area and vegan restaurants are not prevalent enough to be able to just sit down for a meal when you want to rest. Don’t underestimate this fact! There are bathrooms everywhere though so…
* As a final note, I mentioned at the beginning that I had been to Japan before over a decade ago. I experienced pretty intense culture shock at the time. Now that I was going back and bringing my mom who has never been overseas, I was anxious about a lot of things and how she would react. I don’t know if it was me who changed or if Japan has also changed a little bit or both but my experience this time was much different. Neither of us experienced culture shock. Sure, Japan operates differently but I don’t know, it was just a lot easier this time. I am so excited to go back.

I can’t believe I wrote as much as I did. Please let me know if you have any questions!