**Travelers:** Me (30F) and my Husband (30M) visited Japan for the first time from the US. Our top travel priorities were food and landscape design (gardens, parks, urban plazas, trails, etc). We are really enthusiastic about urbanism, walking, and exploring cities on foot everywhere we go, so Japan was a wonderful destination for us. We had an amazing time!
**Traveling in late August:** every single day of our trip was hot as h\*ck, with a high between 88-96 degrees Fahrenheit. My advice for traveling in this heat is to hydrate aggressively, take breaks on shaded benches along your walking routes, buy a hand-held fan, and prepare to go through extra laundry due to changing out of your sweaty clothes halfway through the day some days. The upside is that there is less tourism during this time, so hotels are likely cheaper, restaurant seating is more available, and tourist sites are less crowded. Gardens and natural scenery are also beautifully GREEN (my favorite color!), and there are obviously some flowering plant species in bloom.
**Navigating without data or pocket WiFi:** we kept our phones on airplane mode the whole trip without purchasing data or Wi-Fi. I assume most people would be most comfortable purchasing a plan of some kind, but we have been traveling this way for years, so we just stuck to what we know and felt secure. My husband is oddly passionate about learning subway systems and is very good at navigating. For those curious, there are multiple steps to do ahead of time to make this method possible : 1) download offline maps in google maps 2) star/save locations on google maps of accommodations, possible restaurants, sites to see etc. 3) download Japanese and English dictionaries into the apple translate app. The photo translation function works off Wi-Fi if you download the languages ahead of time 4) at the beginning of each day, plan using hotel Wi-Fi, look up subway lines needed, and then execute!
I’m not recommending this for everyone, but it could be a data-conserving strategy for some.
**Mid-budget lifestyle:** Maybe low-mid budget (?). For the cost below, our hotel picks were each in very central locations with basic / nice private accommodations (more info in itinerary). Our breakfast every day consisted of free or cheap hotel coffee and convenience-store snacks. Mid-range restaurants were pretty cheap in comparison to the US. We only had two meals that exceeded $25 USD per person: one splurge omakase dinner for $95 pp, and one huge Yakinuki dinner, including wagyu beef for $35 pp. We were not holding ourselves to a strict budget at all, but we gravitated towards cheaper places because we loved the cheaper food and generally prefer casual vibes. Our Ryoken in Kinosaki Onsen was a luxurious splurge, which included accommodations, large kaiseki dinners, large breakfasts, Yukata robes, and passes for the town onsens for 2 days/nights. In each city, we never hesitated to pay entry to museums, temples, or gardens, which were typically cheap ($2-6 USD per person); we paid 20+ entries per person over the 16 days. We didn’t have many other entertainment, activity, or rental expenses. Our whole time in Japan we only traveled by foot, train, & subway.
**Total Trip Cost (excluding flights):** $4,364 USD for two people for 16 days ($2,182 per person)
**Avg Accommodation cost (excluding 2 Kinosaki Onsen nights):** $113 per night for two people ($56.5 per person)
**Kinosaki Ryokan (separated bc cost was all-inclusive of food, overnight stay, Yukata rentals, and onsen passes):** $310 per night for two people ($155 per night per person)
**Avg daily expenses (includes meals, snacks, misc cash spending, subways, & site entries. Excludes 2 kinosaki onsen days, see above):** $56 per day per person.
**Average Train costs between cities:** $54 per trip per person
**Travel insurance:** $27 per person
**Souvenirs:** $46 per person
**ITINERARY:**
I logged my day-by-day activities and meals, but it’s too long to post, so I tried to pick out the most relevant info to share:
**TOKYO (4 nights)**
Accommodation: La’gent Hotel Shinjuku Kabukicho
Favorite meals: 1) Godaime Hanayama Udon, 2) Marudori Ruisuke Izakaya
Favorite site / experience: Hamarikyu gardens, East Gardens of the Imperial Palace
Sights seen: Meiji Jingu Park & Shrine, Togo Shrine, Shibuya Crossing, Metropolitan Government Observation Room, Central Park, National Museum, Ueno Park, Harajuku to Shibuya window shopping
Personal Thoughts: I LOVED Tokyo. It is one of the most bustling cities in the world with so much diversity of people, food, art, experiences — and all the density and activity is balanced with so many green spaces for resting and slowing down your pace. It felt foreigner-friendly and easy to find amazing food spots. Tokyo is among my favorite cities in the world that I’ve visited, and I know there is so much more to see and do that I couldn’t get to in 4 days! I would love to go back some day and experience more of the city neighborhoods.
**KANAZAWA (3 nights)**
Accommodation: Guest house Shiro. Guest house with private room but shared bathrooms, showers, and lounge room. My husband found this from a reddit recommendation, and we pass forward the rec!
Favorite meal: 1) Miyuke Oden 2) Midouen Yakinuki
Favorite site / experience: Yoshiro and Yoshio Taniguchi Museum of Architecture (which was a highlight because of the special exhibit about Cityscapes in Anime background art)
Sights seen: Higashi Chaya District, Utatsuyama Park, Kenroku-en Gardens, Kanazawa Castle, Gyokuso’inmaren Garden, Suzuki Museum, Maeda Tosanokami-ke Shiryokan Museum, Shinise Kinenkan Museum, Kanazawa Oktoberfest
Thoughts: I really enjoyed Kanazawa and found it so interesting! It seemed like a unique hybrid of a “typical” industrial Japanese city (not that I actually know what that is like) spliced together with some very historic areas, tourist attractions, and commercial areas to serve both locals and tourists. As we walked through the city, we would pass through streets and neighborhoods each with drastically different characters in a very short span. The city is very walkable and the areas of visitor interest are pretty dense, so we walked everywhere and never needed any public transport. People here were so warm, and it is very visitor-friendly and easy to navigate. Since we visited Kanazawa between Tokyo and Kyoto, it was a nice stop for slowing our pace in comparison.
**KYOTO (4 nights)**
Accommodation: Hotel Resol Kyoto Kawaramachi Sanjo
Favorite meals: 1) Akutagawa ramen, 2) Ninenzaka Sushi Numoto omakase
Favorite site / experience: walking the philosophers path and seeing the temples and gardens off the path in North Higashima & strolling home along the Koga River.
Sights seen: Maruyama Park, Kyimizu-dera temple, Sannenzaka, Kodai-ji Temple, Chion-in Temple, Nanzen-ji Temple, Eikan-do temple, Honen-in temple, Higashiyama-Jisho Temple, Saiho-ji temple, Arashiyama overlooks, Ksura River, Bamboo Forest, Okicho Sanso Garden, Nishiki Market, Fushimi Inari, Daitoku-Ji
Thoughts: Kyoto took my breath away with the amount of beautiful scenery, landscapes, gardens, and views! Kyoto is a Mecca for seeing Japanese Garden design, which was an amazing experience for me! I also loved the many hiking trail opportunities and the architecture of the city — it is one of the most beautiful city landscapes that I’ve ever seen. I’ve read that there are some complicated local feelings about tourists, which is understandable because Kyoto has such a historic and traditional culture and a very intense saturation of foreign tourists. At times we felt self-conscious in the traditional restaurant environments, and unsure if we were violating some local etiquettes.
**KINOSAKI ONSEN (2 nights)**
Accommodation: Morizuya Inn. 4 star Ryokan, traditional japanese breakfast and dinner included, pass to use the 7 town onsens included.
Thoughts: Visiting Kinosaki Onsen was so pleasant and beautiful. I’m not the type of person who is good at sitting and doing nothing, but that was basically our goal of coming to Kinosaki and spending a full day strolling a small beautiful town between Onsen baths. I loved the un-self conscious culture of the baths – at first I was nervous to look awkward nude or accidentally violate some etiquette, but reading the signage and observing others made me feel quickly comfortable. There is something goofy about going to a hot bath while the temperature outside is also 90 degrees, but I really enjoyed it (and one of the bath houses had an amazing icy bath for relief from the heat).
**OSAKA (3 nights)**
Accommodation: Hotel the Flag Shinsaibashi.
Favorite meal: Yukari Sobezaki honten for yaki soba and okonomiyaki
Top favorite site / experience: Umeda Sky Building & Dotonburi night time exploring
Sites Seen: Osaka Castle, Koji Kinutani Tenku Art Museum, Ohatsu Tenjin Shrine, Dotonburi Bridge, Kuromon Ichiba Market,
Thoughts: Osaka is such a fun city with a very lively energy and awesome food culture! There were a lot of cheap, casual food counters that were amazing; I loved how relaxed and unpretentious it was. I’ve heard high-end food in Osaka is also great, but we didn’t end up doing anything pricier, because we were so satisfied with the endless cheap eats. There is definitely a chaotic vibe when walking around, since many streets are narrow lanes shared between cars, bikes, and pedestrians. Unlike Tokyo, there is not an abundance of shady parks to stop and retreat. I was glad we booked one of our more expensive hotels in Osaka, because it was nice to have a restful and spacious place to regroup between outings. We did our souvenir shopping here and it was a super fun scene to browse, even for my husband, who usually hates shopping. I thought we may make a day trip to Kobe or elsewhere from Osaka, but once we arrived we were happy to take it easy and just soak in the city atmosphere without much structure.
2 comments
>The upside is that there is less tourism during this time, so hotels are likely cheaper, restaurant seating is more available, and tourist sites are less crowded.
The difference is actually not as big as you might expect. in 2018, there was 2,58M visitors in August vs 2,90M in April that was the strongest month, so in August there was only 11% less foreign tourist. 2019 you would have had a slightly higher difference, but the highest month was July and the number of visitor dropped in August. This drop was caused by Korea, in 2018 there was 593K Korean going to Japan in August and only 308K in 2019, that is because of some political tensions between the two countries (Korean where boycotting Japanese products, canceling their Japan trip, etc).
The difference in August will be the origin of the tourist, for example July and August are the two most popular months for Chinese tourists. You can also have different type of domestic travel crowd, with family and children in summer vacation. The type of attraction that attract crowds can also be different. I would just not expect to have that much difference between August and other more popular months.
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My first trip to Japan was in 2008 and while I had internet at my accommodation, I did not even had a smartphone. I only relied on notes and on paper maps of the subway/train. Would always look for the tourist information kiosk to get a map of the area (I still do). For language, I had studied Japanese in university before, but for sure I was not that good. If I had to give a tip for people who want to use less data on their internet package, on iPhone, you can go in network and select what app you want to give data access. To limit usage of data, close anything you do not need, like no streaming service, no social media, just keep what you need like Google Maps and Translate. And on top of that if you pre-download the map, it will use less data.
May I ask what your stay at Hotel Resol in Kyoto was like? I’m due to stay there in two weeks and would love your feedback (especially regarding air con!).