TRIP REPORT (17 DAYS): Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Okayama, Nara

Came back from a 17 day trip from Japan!

Stayed at Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima while making day trips also to Osaka, Nara and Okayama (Kurashiki & Kojima). Here’s how it went!

**PREP**

**TRANSPORT**

We got the two week JR Pass. Calculated all our trips we’d be taking and it was 100% worth it! We bought direct from JR site so we could make use of the online reservation system. It came in handy, but I’ll admit sometimes it bit us in the ass.

Once you have reserved and printed a ticket you’re locked in and you can’t change your ticket. The system will block you during that time too. Only way to have it changed is by going to a ticket counter. So part of me kind of wish I just bought a voucher to save like $60 even though I’d lose the ability to reserve tickets online as we started to just make reservations at the station.

**MONEY**

So we used my credit card with no foreign transaction fees for most things. We had also opened a Schwab account specifically because you get reimbursed on all ATM fees. We carried 20,000 yen between us most of the time and honestly most of it was just used to constantly recharge our Passmo. We pulled all our money from 7/11 ATMs with no issue and the conversion rate was great. Big shoutout to this sub for the tip.

I still highly suggest carrying some cash because plenty of food stalls do ask for cash only. But most places in the city can be paid via your credit card or even Suica/Passmo.

**LUGGAGE**

We brought two carry-ons, two medium sized check-bags and two clamshell Osprey backpacks. Our carry-ons and backpacks were packed with our stuff, meanwhile our check bags were empty. We put our carry-ons inside our check bags which made everything so much easier to go from the airport to hotel. We only packed a week’s worth of clothes as our hotels had laundry. We used luggage services back and forth from our hotels between Tokyo to Kyoto, which only took 1 day. Highly recommend.

**HOTELS**

As I mentioned, we picked hotels with laundry so we could pack less clothes and save more space for souvenirs. For our long stays our homebase hotels were in Tokyo and Kyoto. We had a one night stay booked in Hiroshima, but it overlapped with our Kyoto hotel so we left all our luggage in Kyoto, while only taking our backpacks to Hiroshima. It was awesome.

**IC Card**

We went with the Passmo Passport (Sanrio Edition card) and it worked flawlessly. It costed 1500 yen per card, but the nice thing was the amount was loaded onto your card. So my SO and I had 1500 yen loaded and didn’t have to worry about loading in more money until later. Passmo Passport worked for everything. Subway, vending machine, stores, bus, you name it and it worked.

**PHONE SERVICE**

We got Pocket Wifi from JapanWireless and it worked great. Picked it up from Haneda, turned it on and it immediately worked with zero issue. Very rarely had issues unless we were in the subway tunnels or somewhere off the beaten trail. I’d highly recommend. My SO and I got new phones recently so were e-SIM locked for a month, which made the choice between the two easy.

Honestly, for unlimited data though I’d pick Pocket Wifi even if I wasn’t locked in. Aside from navigation, we were posting, watching videos and I was playing a few gacha games which required me to download updates sometimes on the go. Unlimited data made all that never a worry.

**NAVIGATION**

We used Google Maps for everything and had very little problems. Great for looking for things to eat around us too. I’d say the only trick I learned was I’d always get directions from the station I was leaving from to where I was going versus using my GPS location.

I discovered that maybe due to my WiFi, my GPS location wasn’t always exact. So when I would look up directions, it would assume I’m still a 5 minute walk from the station and give me directions accordingly. So it would give me a train to hop on that was arriving in like 10 minutes when I was actually in the station and I could have hopped on a train that was arriving in 2-3 minutes.

Now let’s get on with the trip!

**TUESDAY, 10/3 – DAY 1: LANDED IN TOKYO**

* Landed in Tokyo at about 2 PM. With a layover the total travel time was about 14 hours total. I was naive and thought we’d get to our hotel early and still have time to do a few things.

* Grabbed our pocket wifi, Passmo Passport (after being lost for a little bit) then headed to our hotel.

* By the time we checked-in we were exhausted. Headed to a 7/11, pulled out some cash and enjoyed a nice konbini dinner before calling it an early night.

**WEDNESDAY, 10/4 – DAY 2: GINZA, TOKYO STATION, TOKYO IMPERIAL PALACE**

* We got up and left at around 8:30 AM. A mistake we soon quickly learned from was that most things in the city open later and close early (10 – 11 AM seems to be when most things open). Nevertheless, we found a nice breakfast spot and enjoyed some salmon paninins and got some coffee at a nearby cafe before starting our day.

* Our hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the Imperial Palace so we walked and enjoyed the sights for a bit before making it there. Stopped to enjoy some parks and scenery then walked around about as much as we could since we couldn’t go in.

* From the Imperial Palace we walked over to Tokyo Station. We picked up our JR Passes there and then went to the underground shops they had there as a journal company I’m fond of (Traveler’s Company) has a store there. Did a little shopping, walked around and then since most things were open at this point decided to walk over to Ginza.

* Ginza was cool. We didn’t want to make a lot of purchases yet, but nevertheless was able to do a lot of window shopping and see what the area had to offer. Found a Yakiniku place that offered a 5-course Wagyu meal, so we did that for dinner.

We took our first two days about as well as we could since it was our first time in Japan. From here on out, we went hard and I had to deal with terrible blisters for the rest of our trip. RIP.

**THURSDAY, 10/5 – DAY 3: GHIBLI MUSEUM, SHIBUYA, GOLDEN GAI**

* We had reservations for Ghibli Museum at 12 PM. Dropped off our luggage with our lobby reception to get sent to our next hotel. Left at 9 AM to get some breakfast, then gave us ample time to get there since it was a bit of a ride from our hotel. We got in the are at about 10:30 AM and slowly made our way on foot to the Ghibli Museum. Got to enjoy a bit of the area and a really nice park we had to walk through to get there. We got to enjoy a beautiful view of a small lake and a shrine nestled away before we got to the Museum.

The Ghibli Museum itself was fantastic. Would highly recommend if you’re a Ghibli fan.

* From there we went to the Shibuya Crossing to see the craziness that happens there and then proceeded to walk through the area to see what Shibuya had to offer.

* Eventually, we made our way to Shinjuku’s Golden Gai and it was great. We got some awesome shots of it essentially being empty (went on a weekday) and had a few drinks will talking to other fellow tourists.

* From there, we headed into Shinjuku to find something to eat, then headed back to the hotel.

**FRIDAY, 10/6 – DAY 4: TOKYO TO KYOTO**

* Took the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and it was awesome. We checked into our hotel, explored the area for a bit (hotel was next to some shops, manga museum and the Kyoto Imperial Palace) before we found a nice Yakitori place to eat at.

* We sat at a traditional-style table so was on the floor and I kept shuffling around the entire time trying to avoid having my legs fall asleep lol

**SATURDAY, 10/7 – DAY 5: FUSHIMI INARI, NISHIKI MARKET & GION DISTRICT**

* We got up at 5 AM for Fushimi Inari. We heard you had to get there early or face the crowd so planned accordingly so. Got there at about 6:20 AM and even then there was a decent amount of people. BUT, most of those people stayed at the TikTok/IG locations which was like at the very beginning.

We hiked all the way up to Mt. Inari and the further you went, the less people there were. Eventually we had all the torii gates to ourselves and at a certain point I was begging for the never-ending torii gates to stop already LOL was not expecting that many steps.

We got back down at around 9:30 – 10 AM at which point the place was flooded with tourists so I’m glad we made it early. All the shops and food stalls were open so we spent some time enjoying the food and then getting souvenirs before making our way to the next location.

* Went back to the hotel to drop off the souvenirs, refresh ourselves then headed over to Nishiki market for some more food. Plenty of delicious stuff there. Eventually we walked our way over to the Gion district. Enjoyed what it had to offer and even got caught up with a climate protest rally happening! It was pretty big, peaceful and lots of singing. They walked all the way through Gion so we saw them a few times.

* We actually ended our day with conveyor belt sushi and it was DELICIOUS. Way better and cheaper than what we have back at home. From there we ended our day. We were dead tired.

**SUNDAY, 10/8 – DAY 6: OSAKA – CASTLE, SHINSEKAI, DEN DEN TOWN, NAMBA & DOTONBORI**

* This was a packed insane day, but well worth it. We took the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Osaka and started our day at around 10ish AM. Made our way to the Osaka Castle to check out it out. We did not go inside, but seeing the castle itself was already really impressive.

* From there we made our way to Shinsekai. This next part of our day was insane, but well worth it. Shinsekai, Den Den Town, Namba and Dotonbori were all really great locations for food, shopping and anime stuff (den den town). The best part though was they were all within proximity of each other. So we essentially spent the whole day exploring these areas and ended it with Dotonbori where we got to enjoy some delicious Takoyaki and izakaya.

Our friend who was staying for 3 months recommended this route for us and it was perfect. If you guys want a jampacked day hitting a lot of great places in Osaka. This was a great way to do it.

**MONDAY, 10/9 – DAY 7: MIYAJIMA**

So today was a big oopsie. We were supposed to leave from Kyoto to Miyajima at 8 AM. Had our tickets reserved and everything. But as soon as we got to the station, I realized I didn’t have my JR pass (It was inside my other jacket).

* Missed our train and had to book for the next one that wasn’t until like 10-11AM. This is where I also unfortunately found out the drawback to doing online reservations and having your tickets printed ahead of time. Your pass is locked in. You can’t make ANY more reservations DURING the time of travel. So we had to book for a shinkansen AFTER the one we missed had arrived at its destination.

Later on we discovered we can rectify this at the ticket counter.

* So we made it to Miyajima at around 1 PM instead of closer to 11 AM like we wanted to. Our JR pass got us on the ferry, which was nice. What was a bit upsetting though is that if we had made it, we could have caught the ‘floating shrine’ during low tide, but we missed it.

* Nevertheless, we made it all worth the trip. Got to eat plenty of oysters and other food then took the ropeway. We didn’t get to climb all the way up Mt. Misen (The ropeway back down would have closed since we arrived late and we weren’t prepared to hike back down LOL) but got plenty of beautiful views.

From there we enjoyed some more things in Miyajima before heading back to our hotel in Hiroshima.

**TUESDAY, 10/10 – DAY 8: HIROSHIMA MEMORIAL PARK, KOJIMA JEAN STREET, KURASHIKI**

This was another really busy day, but it was also my birthday. 🙂

* We checked out of our hotel and walked through the memorial park, which was beautiful, would highly recommend. Our hotel was just a 5 minute walk from there so it worked out really well.

* From there we left Hiroshima and made our way to Okayama. Where we then went to Kojima which is really well-known to being like the “Holy Land of Denim”. I’m a big raw denim guy so this was a MUST visit. And honestly, it was REALLY cool. The vending machines had a denim look to them, pants were hanging about and some of the best Japan denim stores were there. Even the cats walking around had denim collars lol

My favorite part was how refreshingly quiet it was. Raw denim is awesome, but is definitely a bit niche. We essentially had the entire place to ourselves and it was cool to be in a smaller town for a change where there really wasn’t a lot of people. I think total there were maybe 4 other tourists there I saw.

* Then we headed to the Botan Historical District Kurashiki which was gorgeous and surprisingly not that busy. I saw it online so I assumed it would be a major hotspot, but I guess since you have to travel to Okayama, it’s not really on a lot of people’s MUST SEE list. I’d highly recommend it though for sure. The only thing we did not realize though was it was the day AFTER Sport’s Day, which is a big holiday in Japan. So a lot of stores that were usually closed on Monday were closed on Tuesday too to observe it.

Nevertheless, still great and we made our way back to Kyoto after.

**WEDNESDAY, 10/11 – DAY 9: OSAKA PART TWO**

Since we were dead from the previous days of non-stop go, go, go we made today an easy day. We knew most places in Osaka didn’t open til 10 – 11 AM so we slept in and took our time to get ready.

* We got to Osaka and did all the good ol shopping/souvenir hunting stuff. Which led us to the Nintendo Store, Capcom, Store, One Piece store, a few anime shops and some other places.

* We decided to head to Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori again at the end of the day for more shopping and dinner. Then I realized the Eorzea cafe was really close and we went there! Great for any FFXIV fans out there!

**THURSDAY, 10/12 – DAY 10: NARA, TODA-JI, TOJI**

* Today was another early day for Nara! We got going at around 8 AM and one of the things on the list was the “Mochi Men” but they didn’t open til 10 AM. So we went to Toda-Ji temple in the meantime and got to see the absolute enormous buddha statue it houses. It was awesome.

* From there we made our way to the mochi shop and got to try the mochi, it was delicious. I got to be honest though, it’s being kind of overblown due to all the TikTok/IG fame. Even at opening it was packed and we couldn’t really get to see the mochi men make fresh mocchi. They only do it for a few minutes every now and then and when they start EVERYONE CROWDS.

What ended up being the MVP was the Takoyaki shop next door. I got delicious fresh 8-piece Takoyaki for 400 yen. When everyone was crowding the mochi shop, I was enjoying my takoyaki lol

* We then went to a nearby shrine, fed some deer crackers and then made our way back to Kyoto, took a break at a nearby cafe then went to the Toji temple. After that we had dinner and called it a day.

**FRIDAY, 10/13 – DAY 11: ARISHIYAMA BAMBOO GROVE, TENRYU-JI, KATSURA RIVER, KYOTO IMPERIAL PALACE & Kurashiki/Osaka RE**

At this point we’re so used to being dead what’s another day waking up at 5 AM. We got up early to get to Arishiyama at around 6:30ish AM, dropped off our luggage to be sent to our next hotel in Tokyo and this was already worse than Fushimi Inari was.

* We were able to get some nice shots, but we were a little disappointed from the Bamboo Grove. It’s a pretty small strip that you can walkthrough in about 5-10 minutes. So we made our way through a nearby park and found ourselves walking down to the Katsura River, which was the real MVP. It was GORGEOUS and empty. It blew my mind how a place only a 5-10 minute walk away from the super crowded forest was so quiet. Awesome to see. From there we had breakfast at a traditional restaurant and then went back to walk through the Tenryu-ji temple.

* After that we made our way back to our hotel, but decided to walk to the Kyoto Imperial Palace as it’s right next to our hotel. Even after all that we were shocked with how much time we had left. It was only 1 PM. To be honest, we weren’t expecting Arishiyama Bamboo Grove to be so quick.

* So we did what any sane person would do. I mentioned before when we went to Kurashiki, it was after Sport’s Day so a lot of stores were closed. Including one store I WAS REALLY wanting to go to…. Well, we hopped on the Shinkansen to go to Kurashiki again so I could go to the shop (bless my poor SO). It was much more livelier today though as everything was open! And I managed to go to the shop I was hoping to go to for my bday!

* After that, we went back to Osaka to pick up some more souvenirs, ate dinner and headed back to Kyoto as it was our last day and needed to start prepping!

**SATURDAY, 10/14 – DAY 12: KYOTO TO TOKYO & AKIHABARA**

* Made our way back to Tokyo from Kyoto and checked-in our hotel. Decided to go to Akihabara and hit up all the anime shops and left with my GRAIL figure, it was a good day.

**SUNDAY 10/15 – DAY 13: YOKOHAMA, CUP OF NOODLES MUSEUM, CHINATOWN, GUNDAM, DENIM**

* Went to Yokohama to make our own cup of noodles and check out the museum. It was cool, but really didn’t need more than maybe like 1 1/2 – 2 hours. We took a bus from there to Chinatown and enjoyed a lot of good food. Then we made our way over to the Gundam Factory and got to see the 1:1 Gundam! Really cool.

* Finally, as I mentioned, I’m really into raw denim. And one of the biggest well-known shops are in Yokohama so of course I had to go there and pick up a new pair of pants. Well worth! Yokohama was great! The only painful part was that you need to take a bus EVERYWHERE. The subway doesn’t really run everywhere like it does in Tokyo, so that was new for us.

Best part of the day was that when we made it back to Tokyo heading back to our hotel. A local sat next to me, handed me a subway map and asked where I was from. Told him I was from “America, California” and he immediately started to Google foods from my State.

He asked for the subway map back, drew a hamburger that said, “You can do it!” told us to enjoy our time and left! Will be cherishing that map forever. 🙂

**MONDAY 10/16 – DAY 14: DISNEY TOKYO**

Not much to say here. We spent the day at Disney Tokyo.

I will say though, if you live in California or Florida and have gone to Disney plenty, Disney Tokyo is definitely a half-day thing. It’s VERY similar and most of the rides are the same. Beauty and the Beast was 10/10 absolutely worth it though.

**TUESDAY, 10/17 – DAY 15: DISNEY SEA**

Much better experience for us than Disney Tokyo. Disney Sea was really different and awesome. Something amazing that you don’t get at Disneyland or Disney World is the cosplay. EVERYONE cosplays and it’s AMAZING.

**WEDNESDAY, 10/18 – DAY 16: AKIHABARA, SHIBUYA, SHINJUKU (failed love hotel experience)**

* Today was our last full day so we went hard on all shopping. We went to Akihabara so we could really take it in this time. Last time as soon as I got my grail figure, we immediately left so didn’t get to see everything.

* We then went on to explore more of Shibuya and Shinjuku (Kabukicho).

We did have an unfortunate experience when we wanted to try a love hotel that kind of ruined it for us. My SO and I saw there were plenty of love hotels in Kabukicho so went into one to give it a try. We made our selection and then an older lady in a booth started to tell us to leave in Japanese and refused us.

She kept saying something along the lines of, “This isn’t a normal hotel, do you understand???” and kept repeating herself. I was trying to say in my best broken Japanese. “Yes, I know. We just want to stay for a short rest/2 hours.” But she kept repeating herself. I then tried even using Google Translate cause I thought maybe I wasn’t expressing what I was saying correctly, but she just told us no and then asked us to leave.

Really disappointing and probably our only time ever on the trip that I felt we were being kicked out since we were foreign. As during our struggle, two local couples came in with no problem.

* From here, we met up with our friend though and explored more of Kabukicho, a nearby shrine then ended our day with drinks again at Golden Gai.

**THURSDAY, 10/19, – DAY 17: CHECK-OUT AND FLY HOME :(**

* Checked out, took a taxi to Shinjuku Station Bus Expressway and took a Limo Bus to Haneda. HIGHLY recommend. At this point we both had our carry ons, check bags and backpacks COMPLETELY full. So it was nice not needing to worry about walking around and taking the subway with all our luggage.

* Grabbed some breakfast at the stations since we arrived some time before we left

* A lot of shopping done at Haneda. Tried and failed to get the airport Pikachu too : (

The limo bus was only $18 for the both of us. Taxi ride was $14. And it just made everything so easy, so I’d highly recommend those services.

From there we just had to go home.

Thanks for reading! We loved and miss Japan so much already we said forget going to Europe next year and are planning to go back to Japan again!