Trip Report – 17 days Cherry Blossom Trip March/April 2023 (Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka)

I’ve always wanted to go to Japan. Last year, I booked everything and aimed to go during cherry blossom season thinking that the country would be open by then but that didn’t happen. So I canceled everything and got refunded for most and finally gotta go this past Spring.

It was a whirlwind. My husband and I only had about 16 days and decided to take the Ebisu route one way, arriving in Tokyo, down to Kyoto and leaving from Osaka. Along the way, we planned to go to Hakone for some Fuji viewing and a Ryokan experience and Nara for the deer feeding, mochi making demonstration and Todai-ji.

We live on the opposite side of the world and both my husband and I are getting OLD, so we thought this would be our only chance to see Japan. I’m a type A planner so we packed everything we could in this once in a lifetime experience. After reading and watching tons of YouTube videos, I’ve mapped out all the spots I wanted to go on Google Maps and grouped them by proximity. Using that info, I made an itinerary planned down to the minute and posted it on here to get critique. Thanks to other helpful redditors, I’ve taken all their pointers and adjusted my itinerary into a more realistic and doable one. I wanted to share my experience here as a way to give back to this generous community.

The purpose of this itinerary is just to show what was possible. Everyone has their own pace and limitations.

**Day 1 03/24 (Friday)**

5:30pm NRT

8:15pm Check in Shibuya Hotel

8:45pm Family Mart, Sukiya

9:30pm Sleep

* Plane delayed by 45 minutes, immigration took another 45 minutes

* Hour-long line for JRT but I didn’t need it and found a Suica card machine with no wait and hopped on a N’Ex

* Don’t schedule any major events on your first day

**Day 2 03/25 (Saturday)**

9:30am [Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum](https://www.tatemonoen.jp/english/) in Koganei Park (Recommend)

1:45pm Omoide Yokocho

2:30pm Shinjuku Takano Fruits Parlor (hour-long wait, Recommend)

4:00pm Hanazono Shrine

4:30pm Kabukicho

5:15pm Golden Gai (Highly Recommend)

7:00pm Osaka Osho (Forgettable)

8:00pm Shinjuku-Nichome

* Clear umbrellas are so smart and you can get them at most convenience stores. Your hotel might also have umbrellas for you to borrow.

* Originally I paired Edo-Tokyo Open Air with [Ghibli Museum](https://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/tickets/), but I missed the online release of the tickets by 3 hrs and they were gone by the time I checked. Be vigilant if you want to go to the Ghibli Museum. If you want to go to Ghibli Museum in March, you have to book it on Feb 10th at 10am Japan Time. Tickets will be gone within minutes.

* Golden Gai could be intimidating but just look around to find the right vibe. The barkeeps are very friendly and it’s a great atmosphere.

* Loved Kabukicho because I’m a big Yakuza/Ryu Ga Gotoku fan. I wish I had more time to explore it thoroughly but it’s not like I can speak Japanese or can afford to go to any host/hostess clubs.

**Day 3 03/26 (Sunday)**

9:00am Tsutaya Starbucks/Shibuya Crossing

9:45am Blue Bottle Coffee (Recommend)

10:30am Yoyogi Park

11:00am Meiji Jingu (Highly Recommend)

12:15pm Takeshita St (Not Recommend)

2:00pm Bills (Half an hour wait, OK)

3:30pm Tokyu Hands/MEGA Don Quijote

4:30pm Hotel

* It was another rainy day and a Sunday. Shibuya Crossing is a little quiet. Still a lot of people fighting for a window seat at the Starbucks. Mark City across the street also offers an awesome view.

* You can hardly move or appreciate anything in Takeshita St during a rainy day with all the tourists and their umbrellas.

* It was somewhat difficult to find an eatery with a shorter line around Harajuku during lunch time.

* Originally had tickets for [Shibuya Sky](https://www.shibuya-scramble-square.com.e.apy.hp.transer.com/sky/ticket/) but they don’t allow people on the roof during rain. Tickets are only available for the 30 days.

* Was going to take a nap before heading back out but jetlag caught up and I didn’t wake up until the next morning. But after the coma, my body adapted to the new time zone for the rest of the trip.

**Day 4 03/27 (Monday)**

7:00am Tsukiji Fish Market (Peppers Coffee, Marutake, Teppanyaki Jyujyu, Maguroya Kurogin, Yoshizawa, Kitsuneya, Donburi Ichiban) (Highly Recommend)

9:30am Namiyoke Shrine

10:30am DiverCity Unicorn Gundam

12:00pm Statue of Liberty

1:30pm [TeamLab Planets](https://www.teamlab.art/e/planets/) (Highly Recommend) (Tickets sold 3 months in advance)

4:15pm [Tokyo SkyTree](https://www.tokyo-skytree.jp/en/ticket/individual/) (Tickets available 30 days in advance)

5:15pm Unagi Maekawa

6:00pm Senso-Ji (Highly Recommend)

* Tsukiji is every food lover’s dream. Peppers Coffee has the best coffee of our whole entire trip. I’m usually not a fan of uni but put them on top of an A5 Wagyu skewer and it became transformative. The Gyu-don and Horumon-ni at Kitsuneya were delicious and quite filling but there are no wrong answers here. (Closed Wednesdays)

* TeamLab wouldn’t let you get in early so we headed to Odaiba first. I originally planned half a day there but it wasn’t as interesting as I thought so we headed north after getting done at TeamLab.

* Senso-Ji after sundown is awesome. We got there while some stores in Nakamise are still open and the whole experience was superb. Not to mention all the great pics we got.

**Day 5 03/28 (Tuesday)**

11:00am Senso-ji/Asakusa Shrine

12:15pm Asakusa Menchi/Asakusa Kagetsudo/Sunny Cafe/Sukine

2:00pm Kappabashi Shopping and Shrines

4:00pm Kanda Shrine

5:00pm Gyukatsu Ichi-Ni-San (Highly Recommend)

7:15pm Akihabara Shopping

* Doing Senso-Ji during the day because I took on goshuin collection. You can pick up a goshuincho in most bookstores and temples. It’s a good way to support the existence of these temples and have a memorabilia for yourself, but it’s also somewhat time consuming and costly.

* Menchikatsu was alright but the melon pan ice cream was superb. Sunny Cafe was completely charming with the older shopkeeps. Their sando has a very nostalgic taste.

* Went to get a personalized chef’s knife at Kamata Hakensha to level up as a home chef. The duty free place is surprisingly far from the store.

* Had the best meal of the whole trip at Gyukatsu Ichi-Ni-San. The line is deceivingly long, marking at 75 minutes. They only have 11 seats and will wait until their restaurant empties out before allowing the next batch of customers. I regret not ordering the largest portion. Also you’ll learn that lines usually indicate the quality of food.

**Day 6 3/29 (Wednesday)**

10:00am Yasakuni Shrine

11:00am Chidorigafuchi Park (Recommend)

12:00pm Nemuro Hanamaru

12:30pm Tokyo Station

3:00pm Nemuro Hanamaru (Recommend)

4:30pm Imperial Palace

7:00pm Zauo Meguro (Recommend)

8:15pm Meguro River Cherry Blossoms (Recommend)

* Stumbled upon Chidorigafuchi Park and was mesmerized by all the cherry blossoms around the moat. There were a lot of people and it spat us out on the other side of the Imperial Palace.

* Tokyo station was a maze but there were a lot of interesting shops especially in Character Street.

* Tokyo Bananas have a short shelf life so I got some other langue de chat cookies from them instead. Little did I know that you can get Tokyo Bananas outside of Tokyo later on the trip.

* If you’re in the area of the restaurant you want to dine in, make sure to prioritize scoping it out first. Nemuro Hanamaru uses a ticketing system and it had a 3-hour wait. We were able to grab the ticket and check out the spots in that area before heading back to eat.

* Zauo is a restaurant where you can catch your own fish. They gave you a huge hook with no bait, we pretty much just waited for a fish to swim near the hook and yanked it out.

**Day 7 3/30 (Thursday)**

9:00am Check-Out/Mail Luggage

10:00am Zojo-Ji/Tokugawa Cemetery/Hoshu-in (Recommend)

12:00pm Tokyo Tower (Tickets can be booked 2 months in advance)

2:15pm Roppongi Hills/Mori Art Museum

6:00pm [Sushi Ten](https://inline.app/booking/-NEVp618YYgwWIDrlqag:inline-live-1/-NEVp6DWNzv7ecwQ5Vrk?language=en) (Recommend)

8:00pm Check-in Capsule Hotel in Otemachi

* Highly recommend people to mail their luggage from one city to another via Yamato. It’s not very expensive and you can travel easier. Since we planned to just get up and go around Hakone, it makes sense to just pack a change of clothes or two in our backpacks and mail the big stuff to Kyoto. It does take about 48 hours for the luggages to arrive but it fits our plan. Our hotel concierge pretty much did everything.

* Once you’ve been to an observatory like SkyTree, Tokyo Tower is just another tall building. It still looks nice on the outside but you might not need to go up.

* Normal Omakase experience costs more than 30K yen per person. The Sushi Tokyo Ten chain offers a more reasonable option and this unaffiliated Sushi Ten in Nishibazu offers 28 courses for about 15K yen. It was really good and the chef didn’t mind pictures or even videos. I would recommend this.

* Husband wanted to experience a capsule hotel. It looked cool but it’s considerably less comfortable. The pods we have produced sleep analysis reports and emailed them to us a week later.

**Day 8 3/31 (Friday)**

6:30am Shinjuku Station for [RomanceCar](https://www.odakyu.jp/english/romancecar/) (Tickets available 1 month in advance)

9:40am Hakone-Yumoto

10:30am Hakone Shrine (Recommend)

1:20pm Lake Ashi Pirate Ship (Recommend)

2:15pm Owakudani

4:15pm Hakone Open Air Museum (Highly Recommend)

5:30pm Ryokan

* Make sure to book RomanceCar ahead of time.

* Lined up for 75 mins to take a picture at the Hakone Shrine lakeside torii gate. If you’re planning to do that, just think about the poses you want ahead of time and go out and execute them. I saw some people taking their sweet time with all possible poses and combinations of people. Don’t be like them.

* I took the clockwise route, thinking the Hakone Shrine line might be shorter, but by the time I got to the open air museum, we only had 45 minutes left. If I’d known better, I would have spent less time at Owakudani and just gone to the museum instead.

* The staff at the ryokan called us when we weren’t there at 5. Our attendant was flustered and rushed us to the room so she could serve us dinner at 6 and go home. It’s my first ryokan experience and I didn’t know what to expect. The meals were very elaborate but all I wanted was to relax and soak in our ensuite hot tub. As nice as the experience was, I don’t think the ryokan life is for me, especially when it’s at around 40,000 yen per person per night.

**Day 9 04/01 (Saturday)**

9:40am Odawara

12:30pm Kyoto Station

1:30pm Kinkaku-Ji (Highly Recommend)

5:00pm Check In Gion Hotel

* You should always arrive at stations earlier than you have to. Right outside of the station there’s a Lawson’s in traditional Japanese facade. But more than anything because mishaps happen. I printed all the hotel booking, plane and train tickets I’ve purchased ahead of time but apparently other than the ticket, there’s also a QR code to get in the gate. I couldn’t find ours, so I had to buy the tickets all over again. That’s another 20,000+ yen down the drain.

* Don’t buy shinkansen tickets ahead of time. It doesn’t pay and they are usually not fully booked and you should be able to buy them the day of.

* Long bus ride (60 mins) from Kyoto Station to Kinkaku-Ji

* Our luggages were waiting for us at the hotel when we arrived. We spent the night doing laundry. The Japanese people have a strange obsession about fire safety and their dryers are all low heat. It took us all night to dry our clothes so we stayed in and got konbini food instead of going out.

**Day 10 04/02 (Sunday)**

8:15am Ginkaku-Ji (Recommend)

9:15am Philosopher’s Path and Surrounding Shrines (Highly Recommend)

11:30am Nanzen-Ji

12:45pm Kaege Incline

1:30pm Hei-an Shrine

2:30pm Ryozen Kannon (Recommend)

3:00pm Kodai-Ji

3:30pm Kongo-Ji (Recommend)

3:45pm Hokan-Ji/Ninenzaka/Sannenzaka (Highly Recommend)

4:30pm Kiyomizu-dera (Highly Recommend)

9:00pm Yasaka Shrine (Highly Recommend)

* Philosopher’s Path is an easy and beautiful walk but coffee shops usually don’t open until 11-ish so if you need coffee, it might be a little tough.

* We went to Nanzen-ji because we wanted to see the aqueduct, not knowing that the aqueduct is actually outside of the temple and free of charge.

* Temples and shrines are everywhere and it can get tiresome. We were lucky to pass by 1) people in anime costume promoting their games at Kaege Incline, 2) a spring dance festival at Okazaki Park right across from Hei-an Shrine.

* We got to Kiyomizu-dera a little early for their last [Spring night viewing event](https://www.kiyomizudera.or.jp/en/location/#OpenHours) but the pictures you get after sundown makes me feel like a photographer. There’s something about temples after dark that are just breathtaking.

**Day 11 04/03 (Monday)**

8:00am Arashiyama Bamboo Forest (Highly Recommend)

9:15am Bread, Espresso, Arashiyama (Recommend)

10:00am Tenryu-Ji

12:30pm Arashiyama Monkey Park

1:45pm Togetsukyo Boat Ride (Highly Recommend)

3:30pm Otagi Nenbutsu-Ji (Highly Recommend)

4:15pm Kimono Forest

5:00pm Pontocho Alley (Recommend)

5:45pm Yakiniku LIKE

7:00pm Exploring Gion/Hanamikoji-dori (Recommend)

* Is it weird to say that the randen ride to Arashiyama is one of my favorite things?

* Bamboo Forest was good at 8:00am but started to get crowded around 8:30am, Tilt your camera up.

* Originally I bought Romance Train tickets to Hameoka and planned to take the riverboat down but there was an incident on the river a few days before and they canceled the riverboat and gave me a refund so I ended up not taking the train up. We took a boat ride around the river instead. It was an hour long and the boat would go up to a snack boat that sold dango and beer. The ride was my husband favorite’s thing. That and Golden Gai, so let’s just say he likes to drink.

* Check out Otagi Nenbutsu-Ji. There is a bus that goes back and forth.

* There was a crane on Takase River outside of a coffee shop. I haven’t seen a real crane for a long, long time so it felt magical.

* Saw 2 maikos at Hanamikoji-dori rushing to their gigs.

**Day 12 04/04 (Tuesday)**

7:45am Fushimi Inari (Highly Recommend)

12:00pm Nishiki Market (Highly Recommend)

1:45pm Nishiki Tenmangu

2:30pm Yasaka Shrine

3:15pm Matsuri Festival Gallery

4:00pm Kennin-Ji

6:45pm Omen (Highly Recommend)

* For Fushimi Inari, I would say just spend 60-90 minutes and get up to the lookout spots, there’s no reason to go any higher. There are some interesting shops on your way down, the temple for academic success has strains of colorful paper cranes that’s worth a look as well.

* I didn’t know that most restaurants closed on Tuesdays but was happy that Omen was open. It was some of the best udons I’ve ever had.

**Day 13 04/05 (Wednesday)**

10:00am Nijo Castle (Highly Recommend)

12:00pm Takakura Nijo

1:00pm Honnoji/Hozoji

6:00pm Kyoto Ushimitsu

7:00pm Final Walkaround

* Got an audio tour for Nijo Castle that was worth it.

* Honnoji and Hozoji had some of the best goshuin designs.

* Saw a long line of people at Kyoto Ushimitsu, so I tested my theory about lines=good food.

* Saw the same crane at the exact same spot on the Takase River, must have been a loyal customer.

**Day 14 04/06 (Thursday)**

7:15am Check out Gion Hotel

8:00am Toji

9:15am Kintetsu Kyoto Station

10:30am Nakatanidou (Recommend)

11:15am Noborioji Park (Highly Recommend)

11:45am Todai-ji (Highly Recommend)

1:00pm Mizuya Chaya (Recommend)

1:30pm Kasuga Taisha (Recommend)

2:45pm Kintetsu-Nara Station

3:30pm Osaka Namba

4:00pm Check in Namba Hotel

7:00pm TeamLab Botanical Gardens (Highly Recommend) (Got tickets 6 hours before and still fine)

9:30pm Honke Otako Hozenji (Recommend)

10:30pm Dotonbori (Highly Recommend)

* We went to Nakatanidou to get mochi and watched how they were made but soon found out that the crowd gathering around the store is more of a nuisance to passing traffic. The mochis were ok, it’s just everyone wants to record a video and it’s somewhat of an issue.

* Deers are everywhere in Nara and they look somewhat unkempt. Crackers are also available all around town so it doesn’t have to just be at Noborioji Park.

* Todai-ji is one of the best temples during my trip and I enjoyed almost everything in my 5 hours in Nara.

* I loved everything TeamLab does even though some concepts are repeated between exhibits.

* I wanted to go to Houzenji Sanpei but the line ended around 9pm.

**Day 15 04/07 (Friday)**

10:30am Sumiyoshi Taisha (Recommend)

11:45am Shitennoji

12:30pm Shinsekai (Highly Recommend)

12:45pm Kushikatsu Ichiban

2:30pm Kuromon Market (Highly Recommend)

3:30pm Hozen-Ji

4:00pm Explore Namba

5:30pm Kyocera Dome Baseball Game (Recommend)

* Hokkaido Monotagari in Kuromon Market has Tokyo Bananas and other souvenirs.

* We wanted to experience a baseball game in Japan and it was definitely different in many good ways.

**Day 16 04/08 (Saturday)**

9:15am Osaka Castle (Recommend)

10:15am Hokuku Shrine

11:15am Sukunahikona Shrine

12:00pm Osaka Tenmangu

3:00pm Dotonbori (Highly Recommend)

3:30pm Lord Stow’s Bakery

6:30pm Tombori River Cruise (Highly Recommend)

7:30pm Gyukatsu Motomura

* The interior of Osaka Castle is a museum and has lost most of its original architectural charms. It’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth going in.

* The Lord Stow’s Bakery here featured a few different flavors that don’t exist in their original store in Macau.

* The Ebisu Ferris Wheel happened to be closed those few days.

**Day 17 04/09 (Sunday)**

9:30am Namba Yasaka Jinja (Highly Recommend)

10:15am Dotonbori for the last time

12:30pm KIX

* 10 Yen Cheese Coins were all the rage but I think it’s more for the satisfying Instagram worthy cheese pull than for its taste factor.

* There’s a train from Namba station to Kansai airport that makes it very easy.

**General Tips:**

* Money: There is no need to exchange currencies ahead of time. Even if the exchange rates are in your favor, your bank uses a lesser rate and will charge you fees. It’s much easier to just get cash from an ATM while you’re in Japan.

* Phone: We called our cell phone carriers for an international plan in which we paid $50 extra for that month instead of using a pocket wifi or eSim. My phone performance suffered (T-Mobile) while my husband’s (Verizon) worked perfectly.

* Directions: Google Maps is king. It will save your hinds again and again.

* Train: I’m still a lot confused about the train system (not subway). It seems like you have to buy tickets and you also have to pay to reserve seats. You can’t sit in train cars that are reserved.

* Flights: Redditors have recommended I do a one way trip entering from Tokyo and leaving from KIX. instead of traveling back to Tokyo on my last day to leave from the same airport. Since my next stop after Japan is Taipei, it just made sense for me. I don’t know if it is going to work for everyone. Also, because of this it doesn’t save me money to have a JR Pass, so I decided not to get one.

* Taxis: I took 3 taxis during my stay and I don’t know if it’s because of the favorable exchange rate or maybe it wasn’t that far, all these trips didn’t end up costing that much. It’s comparable to Lyft or Uber.

* Walk: We walked anything from 17K – 24K steps a day.

* Hotels: Shibuya Granbell: OK location, dislike that they would only clean your room every 3 days, wanted Shibuya Excel or somewhere in Asakusa. Kyoto Granbell: Awesome location, dislike that they would only clean every 3 days, room layout doesn’t make sense but would highly recommend because of location. Hiyori Hotel Osaka Namba: Good location, would recommend. All of them offered affordable mid range rates.