Hey gang,
My partner and I just got back from our first trip to Japan so I thought I’d do a write up of our experience.
* **13/05**: Flew into Narita Airport from Australia. Overall uneventful since we landed at around 6:30pm. Getting through customs and immigration was easy and quick thanks to the QR codes. Had a few issues with transport to the hotel. First being that the JR Suica/ticket machines don’t accept foreign credit cards, which we didn’t know and caused us a bit of panic thinking our cards just wouldn’t work in Japan. Thankfully we had cash and were able to load money onto the Welcome Suicas with that. We were staying in Shinjuku so we caught a train to Nippori Station and transferred there. Accidentally tapped the Suica card where I shouldn’t have and couldn’t get through the gate to transfer. One of the employees thankfully spoke fluent English and was very helpful, he took me to the counter to get the $13 I had just accidentally been charged refunded, but I think there was a language breakdown between him and the man at the counter, as the man at the counter charged me another $13 and made me pay for a physical ticket to Shinjuku. Eventually we got to Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku around 9:30pm and called it a night.
* **14/05**: Explored Shibuya, Harajuku, and Shinjuku this day. Shibuya was awesome to finally see in person, wasn’t as busy as we expected but to be fair we got there around 11am. Harajuku was packed though. Overall we felt that Takeshita street seemed a bit tourist trap-y. There were a lot of people to the point where we could barely move but a lot of the shops were much the same (so many crepe shops). There were also a fair few men following people in the crowds and trying to pull them into shops, which made us a bit uncomfortable. We made our way to Kabukicho at night and loved how alive it was (also had some of the best mochi there). The lights were definitely something to behold and for what is considered the “red light district”, we didn’t feel unsafe or anything (except for one moment where we were followed by some guys who kept trying to get our attention).
* **15/05**: Made our way to Disneysea. My partner had never been to a Disney park and I had only ever been to California Disneyland once a few years ago. Overall we loved it, the atmosphere was great, the popcorns were fun to try, and the end of night show was incredible. Not much more to say here.
* **16/05**: Today was Asakusa and Akihabara. Asakusa and Sensoji were really great to see in person. We got there early before the shopping street filled up (and before most of the shops opened) and it was great to be able to walk around without the crowds of people. The temple and pagodas were bigger than we expected. We went to Akihabara afterwards and were a little let down. Not sure what we expected but there just didn’t seem to be a whole lot there. The shops we went into seemed overpriced when comparing the stock to what we’d already seen elsewhere. That night we went and watched the Sumo Grand Tournament and loved it. Definitely something I’d encourage everyone to try and see once, it was an awesome experience.
* **17/05**: Day trip to Hakone on this day. Very picturesque, wasn’t super packed and touristy, which was nice. Around the Hakone Shrine was very busy though. There was a line about 50 people long to take a photo in front of the shrine. We waited in the line for about 40min and barely moved before we gave up and went elsewhere. Everyone at the front of the line was doing a full photoshoot with multiple phones and cameras. We got the Hakone Freepass so we hopped on the ship across Lake Ashi and caught the ropeway up to Owakudani. It was a little cloudy but we were still able to see Mt Fuji. Overall a good day, got a lot of great photos out of it.
* **18/05**: Travel day today. We caught the Shinkansen to Osaka for the next leg of our trip. Checked in to Hotel Intergate Osaka Umeda and it was an incredible hotel for the price. Can’t recommend it enough. Went to Dotonbori for dinner but I stupidly left most of our cash in the hotel by accident, so we couldn’t get a whole lot of food. Still, Dotonbori was really fun to just walk around and look at, albeit also very busy.
* **19/05**: Went to Universal Studios on this day and it might be the only day of the trip we would consider “bad”. The park is not designed well for the number of visitors it gets. It was raining this day which I obviously won’t blame the park for, but it did make things a bit more difficult. We went on a “quiet” day and there was still a 90min+ wait for almost every ride. Comparing it to Disneysea, it was obvious that this was an “American” park and not a Japanese park, if that makes sense. Our lunch here may have been our most expensive meal all trip and it genuinely just wasn’t very nice (I know you can’t expect much from theme park food but Disneysea raised our expectations a bit). Tip for anyone planning on going: disregard whatever the Universal website says is the opening time, it’s 8:30am. Apparently this is just something they don’t tell you. And expect Harry Potter land and Super Nintendo World to be packed no matter what.
* **20/05**: Nara. This was a nice little day trip, but definitely geared toward tourists with the deer. There were some nice temples and the deer were cool to see roaming around the street and parks, but it’s definitely somewhere I don’t think we’d go back to. Once you’ve seen the deer and the temples there didn’t seem to be much else around. Wouldn’t say it was a bad day though, but the deer are very obviously the main draw.
* **21/05**: Kyoto on this day, it was lovely. All of the old temples and shrines were great to see. We got to Fushimi Inari early in the morning so it was quiet and we were able to experience without hoardes of people. Kiyomizu-dera definitely had to be seen to be believed. The view seemed unreal. Be aware though, the old streets of Higashiyama got VERY packed, almost as busy as Takeshita Street in Harajuku.
* **22/05**: Had a bit of a shopping day today. We had breakfast at a very lovely bakery near Osaka Castle and checked out the castle in the morning, then spent the day shopping around Osaka. That night we went to Shinsekai and were incredibly underwhelmed. Not sure what we expected but it wasn’t what we got. A lot of storefronts were either empty or were rundown and just had a few capsule toy machines in them. It reminded us of an old carnival. We didn’t stay very long here.
* **23/05**: Another travel day back to Tokyo on the Shinkansen. Checked in to Hotel Sardonyx Tokyo and it was a fine hotel. Lovely view from the corner suite but the room itself needed a clean. Also had the comfiest bed and pillows of any hotel we’d stayed in this trip, granted the other hotel beds were hard as stone and the pillows weren’t much better. We went to Teamlab Planets on this day as well and while it was nice, we came to the conclusion that if you’ve seen everyone elses Instagram posts, you’ve seen it all. We aren’t huge social media people so we were in and out within 30-45min. I’d imagine the only way people could spend 2 hours in there is if they were taking a lot of Instagram photos everywhere.
* **24/05**: Day trip to Yokohama. This may have been one of our favourite days of the trip. Yokohama was a lovely city. That was clean and modern but without the crowds of Tokyo, and it was only a 30min train ride out of Tokyo. The Cupnoodles Museum was fun and Cosmoworld was really cool to see. The Air Cabin gave us a real view of how picturesque the city was. We made our way through Yamashita Park to the Gundam Factory to check out the giant Gundam. Initially we thought it was a waste of money since it cost a bit to get in, but after seeing the giant mech move we decided it was worth the money. We aren’t huge Gundam fans but where else can you see a giant robot doing that? It was just a great thing to experience. That night we went back to Tokyo for dinner and had probably the most uncomfortable dining experience of the trip. We found a street of cool looking restaurants the previous night so this night we found one that looked good, had a huge menu, and advertised that there was an English menu. We went in and were told there was a 350yen cover charge per table, which we were fine with. The lady began to seat us at a booth near the entrance to the restaurant but was stopped by a man who I assume was her boss. They seemed to begin arguing in Japanese and eventually he led us to a very cramped back room near the smoking area and seated us on a bar table. In this room were mainly Americans and sleazy looking older businessmen. The menu they gave us had significantly fewer items on it than the one outside and there was hardly enough room for us to get on to our seats. We figured that we were probably being treated a bit differently because we were foreigners and we felt a bit uncomfortable. So we just ordered a plate of gyozas and asked for the bill. When the bill came, the cover charge was 700yen (350yen per person), which was more than the gyozas. I put 5000 yen in the tray to pay and the waitress walked off with it and didn’t return with my change. We sat there for a couple of minutes before the man who had seated us in this back area came back with my change and we promptly left and got dinner at a 7/11 instead.
* **25/05**: Tokyo Disneyland. We were excited for this, I think I was more excited though since I had such fond memories of California Disneyland. The park was great, but something about it wasn’t as good as the park in California. I can’t fully put my finger on it but it felt different. It wasn’t a “child vs adult” thing because I was 21 when I went to California. I think the different language on the rides played a part in the enjoyment. Not a huge part, but it just throws you a little bit. We obviously didn’t expect the rides and whatnot to be in English, but we didn’t think we’d notice it as much as we did. That being said, however, the rides were still obviously incredible. My partner loved the Beauty and the Beast ride and we both thought Pooh’s Honey Hunt was one of the best rides we’ve been on (seriously that trackless system is a game changer). I loved Pirates and Haunted Mansion before getting to Tokyo and my partner, similarly, was in love with both from the first time we rode them. They cancelled the night time fireworks due to “weather” (we really aren’t sure if this is the real reason as the weather was fine, no rain and barely any clouds). But overall a good way to end the trip.
* **26/05**: Our last day. The flight was at 8:50pm so we spent the day packing our bags and getting some last minute shopping done. There was an earthquake when we were in the airport that made the building shake, so that was an especially interesting way to end the trip.
All in all, we enjoyed the trip. It had it’s hiccups but we’d definitely go back.