Trip Report – 15 Days in Osaka, Himeji, Nara, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Tokyo, and Fujiyoshida!

This subreddit has been an amazing resource for my solo trip prep over the last few months so now it’s my turn to give back. I did not have a set budget in mind since I save diligently for my trips. I am fairly well-traveled, a late 30s, solo traveler. This was my first time in Japan and my goals were a mixture of eating, exploring history, enjoying some theme parks, and enjoying experiences that only Japan could offer.

**Total USD Spend:** 17 days (2 travel days) came out to about $4200 USD total:
**\* Flight:** $1050
**\* Accommodations:** $1400
**\* Food and Snacks:** $1000
**\* Transportation** (IC card, buses, trains): $250
**\* Theme Park & Novelty Experiences:** $400
**\* Misc (souvenirs, shopping):** $200
I typically budget out about $5K USD for my trips and Japan was definitely on the higher side of the budget, but again, I splurged on some fantastic restaurants, premiere entry at Universal Studios Osaka, along with numerous day trips. As others have mentioned here, I also averaged between 25K-30K steps a day. I’m in decent shape but walking 10-15 miles everyday definitely took its toll and my body shut down for a day.

**Day 0:** Landed in Osaka in the late afternoon and ended up wandering **Dotonbori** for a few hours since my hotel was located a block away. Ended up eating some very mediocre ramen at a stand in Dotonbori which was pretty disappointing, but the carbs were enough to knock me out.
**Day 1:** Woke up early to walk around **Dontobori** at 5am and then headed out to few unique temples, including **Namba Yasaka Jinja**. Hopped onto the subway to enter **Ueno Sky Tower,** and overall, it was meh, I didn’t stay long just taking a few pictures and walked around **Ueno** for a few hours before heading to the **Pokemon Cafe** in Shinsaibashi. As others have noted, the food was very mediocre, but it was a fun experience nonetheless. Spent the rest of the evening getting drinks in Dotonbori before calling it a night.

**Day 2:** A full day at **Universal Studios Japan** to experience **Super Nintendo World**. I splurged on the express passes that gave me full access to a bunch of rides. SNW is pretty fucking awesome and I had a blast riding the Yoshi and Mario Kart rides, all the while taking taking in the atmosphere. The premiere pass also gave me access to a few additional rides including Harry Potter, Doraemon VR, and Jurassic Park. Had a late dinner at **Kyushu Ramen** getting their famous chashu ramen and it did not disappoint.

**Day 3:** Spent most of the day exploring **Kuromon Ichiba Market**, the local malls, and **Dotonbori** trying some street food. Went back to my hotel room and just relaxed for the rest of the day since jet lag was still bothering me. Watched some sumo matches on random Japanese tv before calling it a night.

**Day 4:** Took a day trip to **Himeji** to see the **Himeji Castle**. What a fantastic piece of history! I spent hours just taking in the sites and the nearby garden also highly recommended. Afterward, I had my first taste of Kobe beef in the form of a beef bowl at **Kushiyaki Kobe Beef**. Fantastic little hole-in-the-wall place with some really nice people working the counter. Took the train from Himeji directly to **Nara** where I was planning to stay the night.
**Day 5:** Spent the entire day playing with the thousands of deer and checking out some local temples, including **Todai-ji**. I didn’t do anything in Nara that hadn’t been mentioned enough times here, but as others have said, a day trip or one day is more than enough time in the area. Took a late train to **Kyoto**.
**Day 6:** Woke up in the early morning to beat the crowds to enjoy **Fushimi Inari**. Hiked the entire loop (about 2-3 hours) with only a fraction of the crowds, enjoyed some macha soft serve at the peak of the hill, and took my time going back down right rwhen the army of tourists and tour groups arrived. Grabbed an overly expensive Kobe beef stick from one of the food stalls by the temple gates and then spent an hour at a cute coffee shop called **Rickshaw Cafe** just people watching before grabbing an early dinner at **Ramen Sen-no-Kaze**. The food was solid, but it took 90 minutes to get a table. Not worth it and in hindsight I would have left.

**Day 7:** Woke up early again to check out the highly overrated **Arashimyama** bamboo forest. It was pretty underwhelming, but I did get a few nice photos before the crowds arrived. Strolled through the park and really enjoyed walking along the **Katsura River** seeing the catfish waiting to be fed and seeing the fishing boats tied up. A very tranquil place. After the nice long stroll, I walked back-and-forth the **Togetsukyo Bridge** and **Kimono Forest** (meh). The highlight of the morning was really **Tenryu-Ji** and the amazing zen garden. After a few hours taking in the peacefulness and silence, took the city bus to **Kinkaku-ji**, and the crowds were in full swing. Still totally worth seeing in person although it didn’t last very long.
**Day 8:** A full day experiencing the **Philosopher’s Path** on a gorgeous sunny day. Too sunny since I got some pretty bad sunburns! I visited too many amazing temples, including **Kiyomizo-dera**, along with old **Gion**, although I thought the area was bit overhyped. I preferred the smaller, more peaceful temples away from the mass of tourists. Some of my favorites during my day exploring old Kyoto included **Eikan-do**, a more secluded temple up in the hills, **Nanzen-Ji**, with its beautiful aqueduct, and just walking the streets aimlessly for a few hours. Went to **Nishiki Market** and ate some amazing oysters at **Daiyasu**. If you love oysters, this is the spot to try it! Spent too much money on oysters and decided to go cheap and ate at **Kura Sushi**. The food was mediocre by Japanese standards, but blows away the quality and cost of the Kura Sushi restaurants in my hometown of Los Angeles.

**Day 9:** Took an early morning train to **Kanazawa**. Enjoyed my first ekiben while taking in the sights from the comfort of the **Thunderbird Limited Express**. Spent the rest of the day visiting the **21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art** (meh) and **Kenrou-ken**, probably the most beautiful garden in the Kanda province. Wrapped up the day by visiting the **D.T Suzuki Museum** and wow, the tranquil pool area was amazing. Do yourself a favor and stand on the corner and just stare at the water. You’ll feel like the entire world is moving along on a plane and you’re the one that is frozen in place. It was pretty trippy. Ate well at **Mori More Sushi Omicho** and stopped by the **Pokemon Center** to pick up the exclusive Pikachu Kimono figure only available in the Kanazawa store.

**Day 10:** Torrential rain the entire day but I powered throughit with my trusty umbrella. Enjoyed breakfast and snacks at the **Omicho Market**, enjoying a tuna-don at one of the stalls, fresh uni, and more oysters. Not cheap but fresh! Walked around the **Higashi Chaya District**, doing a bit of window shopping and ate some gold leaf macha soft serve at **Kaikaro,** spending more time people watching. Walked around the **Kanazawa Castle Park** in all its empty glory as well as the **Oyama Shrine**. The castle was pretty underwhelming esp. after seeing Himeji so I probably would have skipped it in hindsight. Wrapped up the day visiting the **Naga-machi District**, probably my favorite part of Kanazawa. Had more sushi at **Sushi Rekireki Omicho**, an enjoyable omakase.

**Day 11:** Took the Shinkansen to Tokyo eating the most expensive ekiban I could find, and spent the rest of the entire day in Asakusa in Tokyo. Walked around **Senso-ji**, had a few beers in **Hoppy Street**, and finally tried **Ichiran**. Called it an early day since I would be doing **DisneySea** in the early morning.

**Day 12:** Took the express bus from **Tokyo Skytree** to **DisneySea**. Thanks to the early forecast of rain, the park was barely 50% full? The longest wait for most rides was under 20 minutes so I was lucky enough to ride everything at least once. My meals consisted of a bunch of unique Dsney parki food: gyoza hot dogs, alien mochi, Mike watermelon bread, etc. Stayed until the fireworks and went straight back to the hotel and crashed. That was a 40K step day!

**Day 13:** Visited **Akihabara**, spending way too much money on crane games, browsing retro games, and looking at figures. Headed to Shibuya to eat breakfast for lunch at **A Happy Pancake** (meh). Went to the **Nintendo Store** in the PARCO mall, only to be disappointed to find out that all of the Nintendo World store t-shirts were sold out. Actually everything semi-interesting was sold out. Went up to **Shibuya Sky** to watch the sunset, spending a few hours just watching the day slowly turn into night. Did the Scramble a few times and then headed to Shinjuku where I’d be located for the last few days.

**Day 14:** Another torrential rainstorm sadly ruined my plans of visiting **Shinjuku Gyoen**, **Meiji Jingo**, and **Harajuku**. Maybe next time. I was hoping to buy **Tokyo Giants** tickets but they were all sold out so I ended up going to the **Tokyo National Museum**. I won’t lie, I was pretty bored, and in hindsight I wish I went to the neighboring **National Museum of Nature and Science** instead. After strolling **Ueno Park** in the rain, I was craving tonkatsu and googled **Tonkatsu Yamabe**. Good decision as it was the best tonkatsu I had in Tokyo. Went to a nearby **Taito Game Station** wasting more money on crane games before heading back to Shinjuku. The area is insane and in hindsight, I would probably pick somewhere like Shibuya or Ueno, somewhere slightly more chill.
**Day 15:** One of my favorite days in Tokyo! **Teamlabs Planets** lives up to the hype but ONLY if you can get first admission at 9am. It was glorious to be among the first people in the exhibits as I could take in experience the way it was intended. There were only a few people in each room giving each space such a great, peaceful, and chill vibe. Headed to Ginza to the Michelin-rated **Sushi Toyama**, where I had a chance to finally experience bluefin toro (worth it!). Probably the most expensive lunch ever but it was quite the experience. A sunny and beautiful day, I bought a bunch of souvenirs and clothes (a 12-story **Uniqlo** with its own coffee shop, **Muji Ginza**, **Ginza Six**), checked out my favorite Toy Story in Japan, **Hakuhinkan Toy Park**, intricate stationary stores like **Itoya**, and went to a very popular Ginza Starbucks to people watch. Spent the evening in Shinjuku exploring **Golden Gai** getting swarmed by Nigerian dudes. Wanted to try a hole-in-wall ramen spot in the area but the line was stupid long so I ended up just going to **Kyushu Ramen** and was satisfied enough. A good day.

**Day 16:** With the break in clouds the day before, I decided to call an audible and set up a last minute day trip to **Mount Fuji**. Took an express bus from Shinjuku to Fushiyoshida and got dropped off in front of **Chureito Pagoda**. It was cloudy for most of the day, but for the last several hours I saw Mount Fuji in all its glory. It was a gray day but no complaints — it was nice to cross another bucket list item from the list.

Wow, this was much longer than I anticipated. Well if you got this far, feel free to ask any questions! In the meantime, I’ll be planning my next trip to Japan soon!