Hi everyone, me (F32) and my partner (M30) are heading to Japan for 3 weeks in mid-September. It’s my first trip to Japan and my partner has been once before.
This subreddit has been extremely useful so far in finding out information so I’d love to hear if anyone has any advice or tips for us.We’re trying to find a trip that will suit both someone visiting for the first time, and also someone who’s been before and done a lot of the ‘main sites’ as we’re keen to not repeat too much.
We’re into budget travel (although happy to spend for the right attraction), hidden gem restaurants, street art, thrift stores, alternate music (punk/ dub/ reggae/ ambient/ techno) so any venues or hangouts that might have those types of music will be great. Also enjoy most types of food (want to try as many new things as possible) and prefer to drink in stripped back rough looking/dive bars over anywhere fancy. I’d really like to do something involving cute characters such as Pikachu/ Totoro etc.
We’re planning to hit up some of the main cities, whilst also allowing time to enjoy some of the beautiful nature Japan has to offer by staying in a few rural areas for hiking, exploring and relaxing.A few weeks ago, I read someone comment on a post about their favorite restaurant that was called ‘OKO Okonomiyaki’ in Osaka, and that looks like a perfect spot for us. So if anyone has any other cheap-eat style gems like that, then please let me know!
We both appreciate slow travel, so don’t want to have too many plans each day, so that we have time to relax. We also don’t want many things that need booking in advance, so that we’re not bound by time and can be spontaneous.Here’s our planned itinerary (we’ve booked places with free cancellation so can change things if needed)
**Fri 15th – Mon 18th (Osaka 3 nights) – Naniwa Ward**
Oko’s Okonomiyaki bar
**Mon 18th – Thurs 21st (Kyoto 3 nights)**
Fushima Inari Shrine
Zen garden tbc
Ginkaku-Ji (Silver Pavillion)
**Thurs 21st – Sun 24th (Kumihama Bay 3 nights)**
Relax
Day trip to Kinosaki onsen
**Sun 24th – Tues 26th (Kyoto 2 nights)**
Nara day trip?
**Tues 26th – Fri 29th (Hakuba 3 nights )**
Happo Pond
Tsugaike National Park
**Fri 29th – Mon 2nd (Tokyo 3 nights) – Ikebukuro**
Tokyo Metropolitan Goverment Building
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Yayoi Kusama Museum
**Mon 2nd – Weds 4th (Hakone 2 nights)**
Romance car to Hakone
Hakone LoopOpen-Air Museum
**Weds 4th – Sat 7th (Tokyo 3 nights) – Akasaka**
Shopping
Pokemon cafe (if we can book)
Don Quijote
As you can see there’s loads of space for suggestions. We’re keen to go on a bullet train, do karaoke, visit onsens, zen gardens, record stores, sushi trains and izakayas. Please let me know if you have any recommendations for these in any of the above places.
Few questions I have:
I have a small tattoo on my thigh (approx. 12 cm). Will I have any issue going to onsens? If so is there anything I can do about it as I have heard about skin-coloured stickers that people can buy to cover them.
Do we need to book bullet trains in advance or can we get them on the day? (We’re not planning on getting a JR Pass)
Do you think we should book the Romance Car from Tokyo to Hakone in advance?
Anywhere to hear reggae/ dub music?
We like exploring abandoned buildings/ areas. Any good spots for urban exploring along our route?
Thanks!
2 comments
You are jumping around a bit by splitting Kyoto and Tokyo into 2 stays. Consider:
Osaka>Kumihama Bay>Kyoto>Hakuba>Hakone>Tokyo
8 nights across Osaka & Kyoto is pretty long unless you have a lot planned. I haven’t been to Kumihama Bay or Hakuba but seems long based on what you have planned. If you reduce your stays here you could include a stopover somewhere in Chubu before or after Hakuba.
Kinosaki Onsen is delightful, and completely tattoo friendly at the 7 public baths. So no issues there.
I’d recommend a day trip to Himeji from Osaka or Kytoto see the castle/ garden.
I’d definitely recommend staying in a traditional ryokan for a night. Yes, it’s more expensive, but 100% worth the experience. We stayed in Kinosaki, at Morizuya, which was one of the best parts of our whole trip by far. Alternatively, there lots of places in Hakone to stay as well.
In Hakone, Tenzan Onsen was tattoo friendly and lovely.
For the Shinkansen, use the ticket machines. Super easy to change the language and navigate in English. Unless you are going to travel during the peak of rush hour or a holiday, you are pretty safe to not buy ahead of time, although we got ours a day or two ahead just so we’d know what time to get up on those mornings! You also don’t have to get a reserved seat, and can hop on the non-reserved car.
Do get a suica /pasmo IC card. Made life so easy to tap in/out of all transit without worry and pay at the combinis.
Wouldn’t worry too much about food. There are so many restaurants and I never has a bad meal in Japan, and it’s surprisingly affordable. Even 711 food was great. Lits of options in the big train stations too. Though, did take my friend advice and went to CoCo curry. It’s a chain and was good on a rainy day.