Trip Report, first time in Japan: Tokyo, Nikko, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Osaka

My husband and I just finished up our 14 day trip to Japan and had an amazing time! Will leave a detailed breakdown of cities, hotels, itinerary, restaurants, etc. below, and a few tips and notes we have about trip at the top. Caveat for all of this trip- we’re mildly overdoers with vacations and while this felt relaxed to us we were netting 23K steps/day (11 miles). Also to note, while I occasionally got a drink here and there we don’t really drink so I have few to no bar/club/drink recs.

Tips:

1. The yen makes trips way more affordable right now. We paid $6k for the whole trip, including airfare, a stay at Tawaraya, nice hotel stays, JR passes, multiple shopping trips, kaiseki meals, and generally not trying to budget. While this was by no means a budget trip it was far less than we expected for a pretty luxury two week trip in japan.
2. You can and should send your luggage ahead if taking long trips between cities. You can drop it off at any 7/11, fill out a form, and if you leave it in the morning it will arrive the next day at your next hotel. We told the hotels in advance that we were sending our luggage and it was super easy and cheap. It was 2,000 yen per large bag.
3. If you care about blending in with the locals (as much as you can) pack pretty subdued clothes and be very quiet on public transit. Think minimal black, white, grey, and blue clothes. I normally dress in more bright colors and the few days I did I stood out a lot.
4. People generally walk on the left side on sidewalks/stop on the left side on escalators.
5. If you smoke, note there’s no public smoking except in designated areas.
6. There’s often a cover charge at bars/izakayas or a minimum ordering level – especially in touristy areas. It’s normally pretty cheap, or have one drink and one meal minimums.
7. Google maps generally works for getting around but is not perfect with buses. Some advice here said you should search for restaurants using hiragana for the type of restaurant (ie if searching for sushi, look up すし) and while that’s sometimes true, google maps appears better at translating search terms.
8. Queuing culture is very much a thing and you should be aware of when places open and arrive slightly before opening or at off times if a place seems popular with tourists or shows up on listicles of best places to eat in a city.
9. An international phone plan is incredibly helpful. We have an unlimited plan with AT&T and paid $10/day to have our phones be completely covered. It was essential for our trip.
10. Have cash on you at all times- many places are still cash only.
11. If you’re ever lost on where to go and need to sit down or grab a bite, try a Starbucks or convenience store (like Lawson “Station”). Seriously. The Starbucks are bizarrely nice in Japan, sometimes some of the most aesthetic coffee shops I’ve been in. And as attested by everyone who visits convenience stores have great food.

Tokyo Overview:

* We love the city and it was our favorite place we stayed. The best times we had were just wandering around parks and neighborhoods, checking out cafes, and getting outside major tourist locations. Only regret was not getting tickets for the Ghibli Museum in time.
* Stayed at Yuen Bettei Daita and the Barn. Both are great in their own regards. The barn is incredibly inexpensive and great bang for your buck. Service at both was wonderful.

**Day Zero: Arrival Tokyo**

* Arrived in the late afternoon
* Stayed at Yuen Bettei Daita in Daita/Shimokitazawa. This hotel is amazing. I have nothing but good things to say about it. The location is right by a station, the hotel is beautiful, I had the best sleep of the whole trip there.
* We love the Daita area and surroundings. It feels very walkable, very friendly, very young.

**Day 1:**

* Walked around Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Shimokitazawa. Super easy to just walk these areas
* Visited and loved Shinjuku Gyoen Park- still one of the most beautiful parks we visited.
* Went to Meiji Jingu around midday. Way less crowded than expected.
* Ate lunch at ichiran. It may be a chain but it’s a delicious one!
* Thrifted in Shimokitazawa.

**Day 2:**

* Morning in Shibuya. Ate breakfast at Ivy Place. Nice meal for American food in Japan and the avocado toast with shrimp was probably the best I’ve had. Shopped around a bit.
* Team Lab Planets. Such a fun experience. Tickets book up fast so book in advance.
* Evening in Shinjuku, with dinner in Omoide Yokocho. This was so much fun but very busy. Also ran into food/drink minimums here.

**Day 3:**

* Moved hotels to the Barn outside Ueno. We wanted good jumping off points for both sides of the city so switching was fun. However, we might’ve done one more day in west Tokyo if we could do it again, loved how new and young it felt. The barn is lovely and very affordable. Decent sized rooms, comfy beds, NETFLIX, really nice bathrooms.
* Tsukiji fish market for brunch. It was fine but a bit overwhelming and honestly most of the food there was kind of mediocre. Get there early if you go.
* Rest of the day in Akihabara. We’re both anime nerds to this was a fun time. We hit up most of the main stores (Animate, kotobukiya, radio kaiken) and shopped around. ⁃
* Forgot to each lunch, almost stumbled into gyakatsu motomura without any wait, thought no that’s too much food, went to a maid cafe as a bit, not great overall.
* Dinner at ise sueyoshi. This was lovely. The chef is an absolute gem and prodigy and has so much care and love in all of the food he makes.

**Day 4:**

* Walked around Ueno park for the better part of the day. Visited Tokyo National Museum and loved it.
* Went to Ueno and looked around the shopping stalls, actually went to Gyakatsu Motomura and had an hour+ wait for lunch. The only queue we indulged in. Totally worth it, 10/10.
* Went to Imperial East Gardens for a stroll after lunch.
* Went to Asakusa and looked around. Got a kare pan/curry bun from Tokyo Curry Pan that I’m gonna be thinking about for the rest of my life.
* Dinner at Benten Yama Miyako. I enjoyed it, my husband less so. Really great fish quality and lovely service.

**Day 5:**

* Morning: Migraine and rain so we just hung out.
* Lunch at Hoshinoma. Lovely tempura and soba. Not groundbreaking but good.
* Got a massage at ほぐしハウス to help with the migraine. Very hard language barrier but it didn’t matter, a great massage.
* Afternoon and evening walking around Yanaka and Yanesen. This was one of our favorite areas of Tokyo. There are so many beautiful little back alleys with cafes, hot chocolate shops, little bakeries, etc. it was beautiful and a really idyllic place to spend time. I can’t understate how beautiful and homey this area feels.

**Day 6:**

* Breakfast at Tsumugi (reservation). A fun experience but not in the top of food we had. More aesthetic, less delicious.
* Hung out in Yoyogi park and went to Fuglen for coffee (amazing, very cute).
* Walked through harajuku and up to Shinjuku again. Took pictures of Golden Gai, walked through Ni-chome to see how it compared to the Castro. It didn’t.
* Late lunch at Onigiri Manma. The fried chicken onigiri was phenomenal. Groundbreaking. Life changing.
* Dry Head Spa reservation at ドライヘッドスパ専門店アタマファクトリー. 14,000 yen for 2 hours. This was wonderful. Husband went rock climbing nearby.

**Nikko Overview:** The main temples and shrines in Nikko are stunning and very worth the visit. However, the Lake Chuzenji area felt pretty desolate and we might’ve only done this as a day trip if we could go again.

**Day 7: Nikko**

* (Shipped our luggage the night before to Kanazawa).
* Stayed at Nikko Hoshino Yado. It was ok and the food was quite good but the rooms felt a bit bare and had a weird smell? Perhaps old tatami mats.
* Went to Lake Chuzenji, rode the ropeway, visited the falls, saw a few temples, ate at 観光食堂 which had some of the best broth in their udon I’ve ever had.

**Day 8:**

* Morning at the world heritage area. Gorgeous. Stunning. 10/10.
* Traveled to Kanazawa

**Kanazawa Overview:** We loved this little city. The two nights we stayed seemed like the perfect length of time. It was easy to walk around and was really beautiful. We stayed at the Kanazawa Zoushi which was the best hotel we’ve ever been to in our life. Hands down. The service was also amazing- the host ran out into the rain to give us an umbrella as we left when she saw our umbrella was too small?? Just gave it to us. The bathroom was otherworldly. There were all free drinks and snacks, espresso machines in the morning, Netflix, dango on arrival, everything was perfect.

Day 8 (cont.):

* Walked between Korimbo and the Sai river, checking out all the izakayas and bars.

**Day 9:**

* morning at Omicho market. amazing food here. Best market we visited.
* Walked through Kanazawa castle and Kenroku-en. ⁃ Ate lunch at Turban Curry and this meal was really one of the best we’ve ever had. So delicious, so filling, so perfect.
* Walked through Higashi Chaya and Kazuemachi, felt a little crowded and touristy mid day.
* Went to a little pottery store outside Kazuemachi where the shop owner took us into his private back room and showed us all the Edo era collections from his grandfather and told us his family history?? It was the most intimate memorable experiences of the trip. I owe this man my life.
* Dinner at Izakaya Hanagumi. An absolute feast.

**Day 10:** Kanazawa — Kyoto

* Lazy morning of packing and then a quick visit to Omicho market for Oden before our train.

**Kyoto Overview:** Ok. This is gonna be controversial. But we didn’t love Kyoto. It felt so overwhelmingly touristy, although it got a little better when we strayed from The Path™. Something about it just really felt off compared to the rest of the trip. We hadn’t planned to go to Osaka but we felt deflated in Kyoto and we needed a change of pace. Maybe we were in the wrong areas. Maybe we didn’t dig deep enough. But I didn’t enjoy my time there as much as the other cities. We stayed at Tawaraya and Good Nature Hotel. Good Nature was great for a western hotel and a really nice way to finish off our trip. Huge beds, big tub, great location. Tawaraya was okay at best and honestly didn’t live up to the hype or price. The room was beautiful, the space was beautiful, the tub was huge and spacious, etc. But I constantly felt uncomfortable by the formality and excessive service there and i guess all the constant presence in our room really wasn’t our cup of tea. It might be more someone else’s speed but it wasn’t ours. It felt like visiting my parents somehow.

**Day 10 cont.:**

* Arrival at Tawaraya. Lots of care and service on our arrival. The kaiseki was amazing. They do charge extra for any drinks you get with the meal as a heads up.
* Night walk around Gion. Not guided or with a tour group. This was beautiful and we got to see the Yasaka shrine all lit up and empty.
* Only time we went to a bar and I can’t remember the name but there’s tons of cute little bars in Gion.

**Day 11:**

* Transferred hotels from Tawaraya to Good Nature.
* Huge walking day: went from Kiyomizu-dera all the way up to Higashiyama Jisho-ji. We hit up a ton of sites in between but by far our favorites were the philosophers walk and Eikan-do. Of all the temples we visited in Kyoto this was the prettiest.
* Lunch at a random little empty okonomiyaki restaurant.

**Osaka:** We loved Osaka and only got a tiny little sampling of the city. We wish we’d spent more time there.

Day 12

* tried to get to Kyoto to get to Osaka. Found the public transit in Kyoto was far more confusing than Tokyo, though still better than most US cities. Kyoto stations layout and my confusion caused the only missed train on our trip. I only broke down mentally once.
* Morning in Shinsaibashi at The Roasters for breakfast and coffee, wandered around and through Dotonburi.
* Visited the Ghibli store and Jump store.
* Went through Kitahama neighborhood and found some lovely farmers markets and makers markets around Naniwabashi.
* Spent the afternoon and early evening in Nakazakicho.
* Dinner: ramen Kikuhan. 10/10. Only Japanese menu and we arrived 10 minutes before opening.

**Day 13:** Kyoto again

* Morning at Nijo castle and wandering around neighborhoods there.
* Lunch at Ten You. Phenomenal tempura. One of the better meals.
* Afternoon in Arashiyama. The temples were good, but the monkeys were the highlight. Really glad we ended up doing this.
* Dinner at Aje Kiyamachi Donguri. Amazing Yakiniku. Really hit the spot.

Day 14: ⁃ Left via Tokyo

Overall, best trip we’ve ever been on. When we go again we will definitely go to Tokyo and Osaka and maybe try heading north to Sendai and Hokkaido.