I went to Japan for 7 nights and just returned on Thursday so here I am to report about it while i still remember every detail lol
DAY 1:
Reached Narita Airport around 3:30pm, there was some confusion about whether to get a sim or a wifi box and we ended up getting one of each (family of 4) tho in hindsight maybe 2 sims would’ve been better, it still worked out tho. Took a bus to Tokyo Station and reached there by 6:30pm, activated our JR passes for the next day.
Put luggage in hotel and went to Akihabara.
It was pretty late so most places were closed so we went to Don quijote! It was so cool esp different floors having different things, you could spend hours in there if you have the time and i got so many things from there afterwards just roaming around Akihabara was so fun with all the ads of familiar anime and games everywhere we looked and we got lucky and saw the anime cars that roam around Akihabara parked on this street on our way back to the hotel!
DAY 2:
Went to Nikko! We got these 2 day bus passes over there. Very pretty waterfall and because it was peak fall season it was absolutely beautiful! Took loads of pictures. In the evening we went to Rinnonji shrine and Futarasan Jinja shrine. Then took a train to shinjuku
Saw the 3D cat billboard which was honestly so cool bcs I forgot all about it and saw it by chance haha and also the Godzilla statue. Then to Golden Gai and had some draft beer in this really cool bar it was decorated really well with pretty lights and witty jokes written everywhere around haha (even the dude running the place looked so cool). Anyway, Shinjuku at night was fun (Although I had a sneaking suspicion we may have accidentally ended up in Kakukicho Street while looking for Golden gai haha…)
DAY 3:
Went to Kokyo Gaien National Garden in the morning. We missed the tour so headed off to Shinjuku National Garden in Sendagaya for about an hour. After that we went to Tokyo Metropolitan building tho it was a cloudy day so the view was quite gloomy. Next was Meiji Jingu shrine, we witnessed a japanese wedding there! (Well, not the entire wedding but they entered in their wedding attire and paid their respects in the shrine then went off inside to continue).
Next was Shibuya, we were looking for Shibuya scramble so we followed this sign written but it was so underwhelming and not like the photos so i think we saw the wrong crossing 🙁 Afterwards we headed off to Akihabara again because this was our last day in Tokyo and I’m very into animanga so I really wanted to see the place again, we went to Lashinbang in Akihabara Culture Centre, shopped for like an hour (I got some really good stuff) and then we had a slot at Teamlab Planets so we ran there.
There was some confusion and they sent us with the wrong group to the last room (the flower room) and by the time they figured out there was a mistake the room with the water was already closed 🙁 Other than that huge problem the place was very cool! We were the last ones in most of the rooms so we got lots of solo photos without people in them and it was a great experience. Although, I would like to add it was like a 30-45 minutes thing max and not a 2 hour thing like many people online say… We were expecting more rooms since I read online it was a pretty long thing but the half hour slot they gave was for a reason…
DAY 4:
Left Tokyo and went to Yamanakako. It was raining so it was very cold. We walked by the lake and it was gorgeous it was really peak fall season there. We roasted marshmallows there! After freezing ourselves there the whole day we went to an onsen! The guy at our homestay told us swimsuits would be allowed so we got the tickets and found out later that of course they werent- was too late to back out so we went and im glad we did! It was definitely not something I had experienced before haha but it was really relaxing.
DAY 5:
Went to Hakone. Went on a cable car with a nice view then went to this museum there and we tried their special Kura Tamago (sulphur eggs) which are said to increase your lifespan by 7 years and they looked just like rocks but were normal eggs inside it was pretty cool. After that we went on this ship ride and the ship was SO COOL. Afterwards we walked over to Hakone shrine and my dads japanese friend we were travelling there with got all of us these talismans! Mine is for winning and it’s so pretty. After that we went to the famous Japan postcard gate. Left for Kyoto the same day.
DAY 6:
We went to Kiyomizudera shrine, the street leading up was so cool and the view from where the shrines are was very good. We got green tea cream puffs. Next was Ginkakuji. now Ginkakuji was the highlight of my trip to Kyoto the japanese garden was GORGEOUS, I got so many good pics and it was less crowded that Kiyomizudera. After that we went to Kyoto Gyoen National Park. The park was kinda eh because we were expecting a garden after seeing the pictures online but it just was a lot of asphalt and less garden, we finally had a veg version of Takoyaki at a nearby restaurant!
DAY 7:
Went to Nara. the shrines were okay… The bowing deer were cool, other than that I didn’t really enjoy it much.
after that we made an impulse plan to go to Universal Studios! got twilight passes bcs we reached around 3. I’m a huge Potterhead so of course we went to was the Harry Potter world first. I got a wand there and we also got hot butterbeers! they were good omg. We did the Sadako horror ride which was pretty good and the Harry Potter ride that took you inside the castle IT WAS SO GOOD. Our ride stopped in between bcs of some safety thing (it shut down right when there was a dementor in front of my face-) So they gave us a redo and it was literally the best part of the park. After that we went back to Kyoto and did some last minute shopping where I finally got one of those looks-sheer-but-actually-has-fleece-inside stockings ive seen everywhere online.
DAY 8 (last day):
Went to Kinkaku-ji, it was pretty but i had already been wowed too much by Ginkaku-ji, we spent maybe around 1h there? after that we ran to Arashiyama Bamboo Grove it was okayy imo the photos seemed better- and it was soo crowded, we left for the airport after that (Also I found it so cool that you have to take a train to the gates from the main airport).
All in all, an amazing trip! I just wish I had more time since I was kinda just running through everything all the time, don’t make the same
mistake haha- Will definitely be going back <3