Just got back from Japan and I feel empty now.
I spent 3 nights in Asakusa, 2 nights in Shinjuku capsule hotel, 2 nights in Hakone, 5 nights in Osaka (my friend insisted). It is my second trip so I skipped Kyoto, if it’s up to me,
I would spend more time at Tokyo, absolutely love Tokyo and Hakone was also really fun.
My itinerary is pretty standard so I will just list highlights and interesting things I noticed, feel free to ask more details.
**General Highlights and notes:**
– Japanese people are absolutely polite, a group of thugs looking drunkards bumped to me while walking in Shinjuku and they bowed and apologized to me.
– People in stores and restaurants welcome, greets you and apologizes to you several times. I was buying some shirts at Uniqlo and the worker there explained to me in details
about the price and apologized several times to me and packed my shirts very carefully into the bag.
– Even though it is end of September/beginner of October, it was really hot and humid. We got lucky and our whole time at Tokyo and Hakone was sunny and warm everyday,
same in Osaka except it rained heavily on last day.
– Japanese toilets are the best, public toilets pretty much everywhere were very clean.
– I used only Visa debit card on absolutely everything in Tokyo, from the stores, restaurants, even small local shops had the option to pay with card. Hakone had a lot of
cash only stores and restaurants, Osaka had mix of both but a lot of vending machines in Osaka doesn’t have IC card option.
– People in Japan are so fashionable, especially in the Tokyo. I felt pretty out of place wearing shorts and t-shirts while everyone were wearing really fashionable clothes,
especially female.
**Asakusa, Ueno, Ginza, Tsukiji, Odaiba:**
– I absolutely love Asakusa despite it being touristy place, also huge shout out to our apartment/hotel Minn Asakusa. Absolute huge room with all kind of amenities and
great location. The price is definitely cheaper than high end hotels.
– Tokyo Skytree was fun to experience but I wouldn’t say it’s must to do, it was really crowded.
– Took a river cruise to Hamakyu Garden from Asakusa, the ticket to the garden is included. Very fun and relaxing ride, walked to Tsukiji after this.
– Tsukiji very touristy area but I had fun eating all kind of street foods, drinking beer with the vendors and eating A5 wagyu on stick.
– A lot of good Tonkatsu restaurants in Asakusa/Ginza area.
– Ginza was nice area but all the stores are so luxury so it wasn’t for me, Asakusa and Ueno had a lot better stores.
– Our initial plan didn’t include Odaiba but decided to go there and it was totally worth it! Recommended, a lot of good spots for photos. Gundam statue and Odaiba divercity
which has a lot of nice stores and great food hall.
**Shinjuku, Shibuya, Yoyogi, Kamakura, Enoshima:**
– Wanted to experience capsule hotels so spent 2 nights in one, was more fun than I expected. A lot of amenities and free food, free drinks, great service.
– Meiji Jingu to Yoyogi park was totally nice walk, by chance there was international food festival near Yoyogi park so we got a lot of food here.
– Shinjuku and Shibuya shopping, a lot of fashion for young people, was nice to look around but Shinjuku/Shibuya is pretty much always crowded.
– Saturday night and walked around Omoide Yokocho, golden gai and other food streets looking for food but every place were full and there were a lot of foreigners in
pretty much every stores. Ended up in Roppongi at midnight, people were chilling in front of Roppongi tower, a lot of people were partying but I didn’t feel unsafe at any point.
– Took a daytrip to Kamakura Enoshima, totally great day. We did Kamakura then Enoshima but I suggest Enoshima first personally. More street foods, ramen, udon, soba.
Went to all kind of temples, Great Buddha, beach, Enoshima cave, garden, escalator.
**Hakone**
– Bought Hakone pass and romancecar tickets from Shinjuku station
– Explored Hakone-Yumoto bakeries and restaurants before going to Gora
– Very crowded and the train from Hakone-Yumoto to Gora takes long because of the zigzag, our Ryokan was near Gora.
– Shout out to our Ryokan Mizuno, great staff and nice onsen. We had a bath tub in our room, on top of that there were 2 spacious public onsens and 3 private onsens.
Also Kaiseki dinner was memorable with free drinks for 1h, I tried every sake, shochuu, wines and beer.
– I totally recommend to book a ryokan with dinner and breakfast, totally life-changing experience to me. There were free drinks, desserts and free midnight rame which
was really tasty and fun. The staff didn’t speak best English except for 1 or 2 that accompanied us, thanks to them that made our experience a lot better.
– Did the loop on the second day, had an option to choose breakfast at 7.30am, 8am or 9am. Was going for 9am but staff member recommended 7.30am cause it’s very peaceful
then and she was right. After our breakfast we went to onsen which was empty. Then did the loop, there were like 10 people with us so not crowded at all.
– Got to Owakudani, but couldn’t see Mt.Fuji. Ate black eggs, black ice cream, bought souvenirs. Took pirate ship to Motohakone.
– Saw there was still time until dinner so took a bus to Mishima skywalk, huge bridge, did a zipline from the bridge.
– Got back just in time for dinner, soaked in private onsen and chilled in Ryokan for the rest of the night.
– Decided that we wanted to see Mt.Fuji so we went to Owakudani again and managed to see Mt.Fuji this time!
– Went to Odawara station and bought shinkansen tickets to Osaka
**Osaka**
– Now I’ll say this, my advice is don’t spend more than 2-3 days in Osaka unless you have a certain purpose. My friend went ahead and booked NINE days in Osaka, I told him
there’s no way I’ll stay 9 days in Osaka so decided to make it 6 but even that was way too much.
– Did all the usual Tsutenkaku tower, shinsekai, dotonbori, Namba, Osaka castle and spent the rest of the time just eating and eating. Ate a lot of yakiniku, wagyu, sea foods
and takoyaki every single day.
– Spent a whole day at den den town just browsing anime shops, antique shops, collectible stores. You don’t even need to like anime to enjoy browsing these stores.
– Saw a lot of maids pretty much from morning to late at night just camping the streets (I’m pretty sure the girls were underaged) talking to middle-aged and old men.
– Had a lot of great ramen, friend insisted to go to Ichiran at 7am (I already tried Ichiran on my previous trip). Even at 7am there was a 1 hour queue!! Totally crazy, so we
waited for 1 hour, the ramen was very good, but you can get better elsewhere. For example Ippudo had better ramen.
– A lot of great restaurants in Namba city/parks area and stations, but a lot of bad ones as well.
– A lot of time were spent at Taito, Aviod, Round 1 arcades playing crane games, mario kart, street fighter and rhytm games.
**Ending Notice**
– I totally liked Tokyo and Hakone more than Osaka (or Kyoto), could spend so much more time in Tokyo.
– Cheesecakes, familymart chickens, Lawson fruit sandwich, Takashiyama food halls, random ramen places were our best eat. Also Yakiniku, Yoshinoya, Matsuya, Sukiya and other
fast food places serve really cheap and great food. Seriously the quality of the food in fast food restaurants are really great.
– You don’t need to understand Japanese, but knowing common words and knowing the numbers is more than enough. Also if you are Asian, just talk english to them if your
Japanese isn’t fluent. I know some Japanese and can listen pretty well but if they talk too fast, I can’t pick up all the words. I started to speak Japanese and they talked
Japanese back to me and was like “sorry english please”, pretty embarrassing.
– Also talking about embarrassing, my most embarrasing moment was when someone said to me “Irashaimase” which means welcome, I somehow said “Irashaimase” back and another
occassion when I bumped into someone and instead of saying “gomennasai” (sorry), I ended up saying “Arigatou” (thanks)