My gf and I are going to japan for 20 days in october. We love trying local foods, and we would appreciate any restaurant recommendations.
We also have a rough itinerary of what we are planning to do, any tips here are also welcome.
Thanks in advance!
13/10 – Tokyo
Flight Tokyo 4 pm(Haneda Airport)
14/10 -Tokyo
Meiji Shrine, Takeshita Street, Ometesando, Shibuya(with Shibuya Sky)
15/10 – Tokyo-Nagoya
Imperial palace garden,
12h-15h Tokyo Station,
Nagoya(SCMAGLEV and Railway Park)
16/10 – Nagoya-Takayama
Nagoya Castle, Ghibli Park(Warehouse), Nagoya-Takayama(4h-4h30) Go at 3pm
17/10 – Takayama – Shirakawa Go
Go to Shirakawa Go in the morning and return to Takayama in the afternoon
18/10 – Takayama-Kyoto
Go to Kyoto(3h30), visit Kodai ji Temple, Senneizaka and Kiyomizudera. Explore Gion at night to dinner
19/10 -Kyoto
Fushimi Inari, Ginkakuji, Philosopher’s Path, Zenrin-ji and visit Nishiki market. During the night, visit Maruyama Park
20/10 – Kyoto
Arashiyama(bamboo forest and monkey park). Toji-in, Kinkaki Ji Temple. At night go to Ginza, Maruyama park or nishiki market(which one we couldn’t do it)
21/10 – Nara(Day Trip)
Nara day trip(Nara park, Kasuga Taisha and Todaiji Temple)
22/10 – Kyoto-Hiroshima
Free to do something that we couldn’t do, maybe check Jidai matsuri. Go late afternoon to Hiroshima(2h)
23/10 – Hiroshima
Peace memorial museum, Palace and Garden
24/10 – Miyajima-Osaka
Visit Tori in the morning(9am low tide), Mount Misen Ropeway and visit tori afternoon(4pm high tide). Go to Osaka.
25/10 – Osaka(Universal)
Universal day
26/10 – Osaka
Osaka Bay Area(maybe visit Aquarium), lunch at Temponzan Marketplace and explore Kita District
27/10 – Osaka
Explore Dotombori
28/10 – Osaka-Hakone
Go to Hakone Ropeway. Check in and stay at Ryokan
29/10 – Hakone-Tokyo
Check if want to do another thing in Hakone. Go to Tokyo
30/10 – Tokyo
Akihabara-Shinjuku
31/10 – Tokyo
Asakusa, Ueno Park(if possible),Tokyo Skytree(with Kirby Cafe) and Halloween Shibuya(Jujutsu Kaisen maybe event)
1/11 – Tokyo
Toyosu Fish Market and Odaiba Region
2/11 – Tokyo
Yokohama
3/11 – Tokyo
Akihabara-Shibuya for final shopping
4/11
Flight Tokyo 6pm(Haneda)
13 comments
Going to a similar trip, going to get some things from you!
Spend a good night with her 🙂 💞
Japan’s food culture is great, and you’ll definitely have a good time no matter where you go, so I won’t recommend any specific restaurants. I will say not to feel limited purely to Japanese restaurants, especially when you’re going to be there for 20 days. The high standards for food also apply to Indian restaurants, Chinese restaurants, etc.
> 30/10 – Tokyo
Akihabara
Take a short walk across the river from Akiba station to Kanda Matsuya, a very famous and old soba restaurant in a rare original pre-WW2 building. One street behind Matsuya there’s also a great local dessert place that serves agemanju and oshiruko.
Hi. Here in Japan and it’s been amazing. My biggest takeaway when it comes to finding restaurants is to use table log and google.
For the fine dining option. I used the Michelin Guide and The Worlds Top 50 List. I extremely enjoyed the restaurants I’ve been too and privileged to eat at these master’s restaurants, but I do wish I used “Table Logs Gold, Silver, Bronze List” for the fine dinning dinners before using the Michelin guide and worlds 50 best. Side note, for all the fancy dinners I had to use a third party website because of my limited japanese. I would say table all was my worst experience just because other website offered a different pricing. Also, Table log for me was much easier to navigate through on the iPad or computer. The phone works well, but it was easier for me on the tablet
For the non reservation dinners. My favorite meals has been using table log and google to find a restaurants for the day. Example: if I wanted ramen today, I would do a little research the day before on the area I’m going to and use that as a guide to find a ramen spot. I just ate amazing tsukemen after doing some google research in Akiharbara, and there were soo many good looking ramen spots at every corner. I would also think “what is my favorite Japanese dish”, and just research the area for that dish. My favorite meal so far has been this Okinawa restaurant in Kyoto. Taco rice is a dish that I grew up eating as staff meal, and to eat it with other Okinawa dish was so fun, emotional, and memorable.
Now for the restaurants you see on Social media like tik tok, YouTube,and etc. The longest wait time I had to wait for was at a trending Instagram tik tok restaurant that serves gyu katsu. I enjoyed the meal very much, but it was probably my least favorite meal of the trip. Everywhere else I went to had little to no lines.
I can go on and on about the amazing dining experiences I had. Feel free to private message me so I can send you the actual name of the restaurants and bars I’ve been to. And as always, please be respectful and patient. You are about to dine in one of the best countries in the world. It is a privilege to be eating and dining in Japan. Thanks for listening!
Something to checkout is the Kawagoe Festival Oct 14th and 15th. Kawagoe is in Saitama outside Tokyo from Ikebukuro station. The city itself has some of the oldest building in use today.
Here is the festival website: https://kawagoematsuri.jp/
Fuunji in Shinjuku is a must! I always take my friends/family who are visiting here. They specialize in tsukemen, but the ramen is also delicious. Just trust me on this and order some extra meat as well. There is almost always a queue, the waiting time isn’t too bad. (Any restaurant with a waiting line is often worth it)
check out sugari ramen in Kyoto. one of my favorite meals when I was there. incredible space incredible food and really inexpensive
Han no Daidokoro bettei in Shibuya was incredible if you’re into Korean barbecue; they have premium Japanese cuts.
I’m currently on my Japan solo trip sitting in a bus from Shirakawa-go to Takayama. So far, my favourite destination has been by far Kanazawa, which is one hour by bus north of Shirakawa-go or it’s probably easier to use the train to go there straight from Takayama.
While Shirakawa-go was beautiful and is probably worth the day trip, it’s nothing in comparison to the beauty of Kanazawa, the hospitality I received there and the people I’ve met there.
As for restaurants, I can recommend izakaya’s, which are Japanese bars, where you can also get food. The best part about them is that they give you the opportunity to talk to the locals even if you don’t drink alcohol. The izakaya experience that I had in Kanazawa was the best eating experience I had anywhere in any country.
I haven’t been to Kyoto yet, so I don’t know how beautiful it is compared to Kanazawa. But I heard from a lot of foreigners who live here in Japan that Kanazawa is their favourite Japanese city.
So if you get the opportunity to include Kanazawa in your itinerary, I can highly recommend it. I stayed 2 nights there and I would’ve loved to have stayed longer, because I couldn’t fit everything into a single day.
Had Tai Sushi in Kyoto toward the end of our trip and can confidently say it was by far the best sushi/sashimi we had the entire trip. We got there at 4, they open at 5. Owner came out and said, basically, “you’re good, don’t wait an hour. Come back at 5.” We came back at 445 and the line was long. He came out, found us and brought us to the front. Then proceeded to feed us the most delicious sushi and sashimi.
Takeshita Street – I got this huge piece of fried chicken. The company is Tawainese and it’s a small stall/truck next to a small shopping mall called “alta”.
Nara – near the kintetsu-nara station is a “little Paris”. many french restaurants in a small area.
**dotonbori**
Tabutchan – “tantan” noodles. very spicy ramen with ground-pork. every seat at that place has a water jug. yes a jug. be prepared!
chibo okonomiyaki – you can get okonomiyaki in so many places in osaka, especially in dotonbori. what’s unique about this place is they do the cooking in front of you if you sit at the grill. it’s like a whole performance. and the okonomiyaki is really good!
steak house juju – an upscale teppanyaki (they cook in front of you) steakhouse. they serve a5 wagyu which is delicious but expensive. I went there and I was the only customer. The host was very nice and spoke a little english.
Honestly though for dotonbori, you don’t need to plan food. I just walked into the most random places and always had great food.
pizza studio tamaki