Hello JapanTravel! It feels like I just got back but I guess it’s been two weeks or so? Oops. This is LONG buckle in.
Last month I went with my spouse to Kyoto/Osaka (and Nara/Wakayama/Hiroshima). This is our third trip together and my fourth trip. We’re in our 30s and not in the best shape due to both physical conditions and the types of jobs we have so I want to get that out there early because I see a lot of folks in here like “man I’m not in the best shape could I make it to the top of Fushimi Inari? (short answer yes, long answer, ‘ehh..’). Additionally, I hurt the muscle above my knee pretty badly like a week before we left and my partner has bad knees and a foot injury so! We did our best!
Overall, we like **temples and shrines**, anime and games, conbinis, stamp rallys, and **goshuin collecting**. So, this trip was focused a lot on the above. [What are goshuincho? Check out this Tokyo Weekender guide!](https://www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_culture/japanese-culture/a-beginners-guide-to-goshuincho-how-to-get-one-and-how-to-use-it/)
No pocket wi-fi, no SIMS/eSIMS, we have T-Mobile which connected to docomo when we landed but I ended up buying their overseas data pack since I was the map wielder. Did purchase a 5 day JR pass before the price went up because in those 5 days we went to Nachi Falls and Hiroshima/Miyajima so it was extremely worth it for our particular needs. Also, I never get money out ahead of time, I just go to 7-11 either the full conbini or the kiosk (there’s one really close to the limousine bus pickup place at ITM for example). Super easy, and I use my free Capital One 360 checking account for zero foreign transaction fees (I got jumpscared by Chase when I used my normal account and they gave me extra fees later)
A few notes: You will probably plan for a lot. You will not get to do everything you plan for, and that’s okay. Even me with my vast spreadsheet color coded our “really wants” with other stuff we were interested in placed geographically in order on the list. If you’re not solo travelling, have some ideas of what you might want to do if your partner/friend/family tires out so no one has to go harder than they’re comfortable with.
A note on goshuin collecting, from some things I saw in person: cash only (except Kawai Jingu in Kyoto for some reason??), get a glue stick for the ones that are paper-only or that are fancy, and DO NOT use your goshuincho book for anything other than the temple stamps/calligraphies! You can get a little notebook at any conbini for train station stamps etc. Remember that these are special and spiritual items and require extra respect.
Anyway!
**11/12**
We got in the night before to ITM Itami Airport (LAX->HND->ITM. The only crummy thing was because it was a United codeshare flight we had to get our bags at Haneda and recheck them for the short flight to Kansai) so we just took the limousine bus from ITM to Kyoto Station, then a taxi to [Toka Kyoto](http://toka-hotel.com/eng/index.html) (Booked on Airbnb.) This is an unmanned apartment hotel and my short review is that while the rooms are cute they are real small and the thin futon plus my recent knee injury made life REAL HARD. We actually kind of left a night early and stayed at LiveMax Kyoto Gojo nearby. However, the location is great and the Gojo River is lovely.
**11/14**
Taking advantage of PST to JST body clocks and up before 6am for **Kiyomizu-dera** where I bought my first goshuincho book (my partner’s had one since our first trip in February 2019 and even though I told them about the practice this year I was like ‘wait why not me too?’). About 7 is a great time to get there if you want to avoid most people BUT know 99% of shops and also the temple reception won’t be open by then. We kind of enjoyed the area until the reception opened at 8:30 and then headed over to **Ninenzaka Starbucks** which was quick, efficient, and crowded! But we found a place to rest and the only annoying thing were other white people tourists complaining about the crowding lol.
From there, we ended up finding the **Ryozen Kannon**, the big Buddha dedicated to the fallen WWII soldiers, and **Kodai-ji** which was just lovely. In that same area we took a break at the **Entoku-in** zen garden and then popped by some of the other smaller temples in the area/complex.
And then! **Yasaka Jinja**! Which was having some sort of food stall gathering so we got like five things and consumed them happily for lunch. Honestly Yasaka was a pleasant surprise; it was much bigger than the photos show and all the lanterns are super cool. We actually exited through the big torii that is more popular, and from there my partner went back to rest while I continued my journey around!
I took a bus and a long walk over to **Eikan-do* which for me was actually one of the highlights of my trip. The 1000 yen entrance fee felt a little steep but when I actually walked in, no, this was definitely worth it. Because of the heat waves, autumn leaves were interspersed more with the green leaves but Eikdan-do is truly a gorgeous place that had me feeling real human emotions.
From there I went over to **Nanzen-ji** that I felt somewhat ambivalent about (I wanted to see the aqueducts! Also I was tired by then) but as I was leaving I realized… I had come in from the side… and the cool part of Nanzen-ji (besides the aqueducts, that was cool) was the front gate that has a similar vibe as Todai-ji in Nara. Pretty cool! (Dinner was just at Nakau, something simple and cheap and hearty so we could go to bed so early).
**11/15**
This is **Fushimi-Inari** day. We got to the Fushimi-Inari station at about 7am and I don’t think there’s anything to say about this place that 10,000 others haven’t said except personally I don’t think getting to the top was worth it for me. There’s no actual view of anything, and while there are three different places you can get goshuin, none of them are at the top. There’s a little shop where you can get ice cream, a long flat bench you can rest, and a lot of neat graves. Important if you are going there to pray. It took us forever to get up there due to aforementioned injuries but the best part was people from all cultural backgrounds being cute and cheering us on when we paused off to the side of the stairs to rest. Seriously the best! I would just recommend stopping at The Crossroads and going back down, or going up to the last sort of mini-shrine reception area that you can get shrine/temple items at and turning back. But there were so many places, especially before the crossroads, that just felt otherworldly. I’m glad I did it… but I probably didn’t need to. Honestly we spent six hours from the time we arrived at the station to the time we got to the station again because we built in big breaks for physical accommodations.
Lunch was **Panel Cafe**, the best fluffy pancakes we’ve had yet! I got the limited time Pumpkin ones! And then we moved to LiveMax that evening and did nothing else for the day haha.
**11/16**
It was my birthday 🙂 We also made some dummy traveler mistakes here so! Last day in Kyoto meant a walk along the Gojo River to get to **Sanjuusangen-do** which was recommended by two of my friends who don’t even know each other. A zillion Buddhas inside, it was really cool! Each one has a name and it definitely was an experience to see them. (We had lunch at an omurice place in Kyoto Station and did a little weeb shopping up at Animate/lashinbang)
Mistakes: Went to crosta in Kyoto Station, they couldn’t forward our bags to Osaka because we were staying in another unmanned apartment-hotel. Conbini upstairs couldn’t send them either. Okay, just hold them, we’ll come back tomorrow then. Didn’t notice they could send them to Shin-Osaka station at that point, but eventually we got them to send them there but wasted money in the holding part. My fault! I’m glad I can speak Japanese well enough but I was stressed so I was forgetting all sorts of words.
Anyway! After that all cleared up we went to Ikeda outside of Osaka for **Fushiokaku Onsen** (booked via Agoda). I splurged a little for a room with a private balcony bath and it was really nice… I wish we had left earlier but again, mistakes were made, and we were given a kaiseki ryori dinner that just kept coming. ALSO, Fusiokaku Onsen was able to easily accommodate my partner who can’t eat fish/seafood (allergy). I had a nice bath and was out like immediately.
**11/17**
We dragged ourselves back into the land of the living and trod off to Kyuan-ji which on this gently rainy morning was just exquisite. Seriously beautiful, and almost on one there. When we were leaving, a group of older mostly women were coming in on a tour or something and I got my first ‘nihongo jouzu’ from someone in this group who started chatting at me.
Then, sadly, to Osaka for MORE MISTAKES (lol). But first, a nice little ride and we stowed our backpacks so we could kill time shopping before we could check into **Tanimachi-kun Hotel** (via Airbnb) which was GREAT there was a walk-in closet and a kitchenette and from the 14th cloor we could see Shinsekai Tower… truly cool.
Dinner at **Capcom Cafe** for their Ace Attorney collab and the food was good! It was really cute and fun!
However, little did we know the MISTAKES were coming! We straight up could not find where we stowed our backpacks despite having the ticket. So not only did I have to ask like three people where the area on the ticket was but I could not find it and we walked SO MUCH trying to figure it out until I went into the fourth like train help area and was like BIG SAD MITSUKERARENAI…desu… so the nice guy found it on the map and walked us like FOREVER to find the dolphin coin locker area. GOODNESS. Then we picked up our luggage from crosta and took the longest taxi with the fastest Kansai-ben talkin’ taxi guy all the way back to where we were staying (near Nanba) because dude after so much searching and failing… it was worth my 3000 yen or whatever to not be on a train with three suitcases and two backpacks.
**11/18**
Hello Osaka.. we went to the aquarium! We saw Jinbee-san!! There was a stamp rally!! It was very cute. Today also I started collecting stamps from train stations as I had a little notebook from the aquarium to keep them in 🙂
From there we went to **Shitennou-ji** which won (for us) for most confusing temple or shrine layout. Not my fav but I always love a Fujin/Raijin duo. Dropped my partner off to rest and went over to **Kura Sushi** for lunch which we have close to my apartment here in Sacramento so I wanted to try one in Japan! So cheap… all the food was so cheap… even taking into consideration USD vs JPY like…
By the way, we ate a lot of conbini food so if I don’t mention a meal probably we got something from Family Mart or just something chill somewhere.
**11/19**
Slow morning, rambled over to **Nanba Yasaka Jinja** at like 10:30… crowded but worth it to see the cool lion stage! Ate at **Suki-ya** for an easy gyuudon and then it was another solo day for me! First **Imamiya Ebisu Jinja** where I learned that you can ask for more than one goshuin as the monk offered both the autumn gentei and the regular one, and then a tiny unmanned temple **Naniwa-ji** which was tucked in between more modern buildings like seeing-distance from Imamiya Ebisu Jinja. And then! I puttered around Shinsekai for a while, which was really cool! Found all three of the little shrines, pondered over Biliken-san and “Things-As-They” before finally looking it up, got souvenirs, and took a little feet break in McDonald’s for a crisply chocolate pie and a fruit drink. Shinsekai’s really cool, like obviously super touristy but the vibe is cool.
**11/20**
Went to **DenDen Town** for weeb/omiyage shopping as the Animate/lashinbang/etc are easily there!
Then we went to Nara for a few hours, starting with **Kofuku-ji** which is partially under construction, had a light lunch/drink break in a cafe, popped by Todai-ji for Reiwa-era updated goshuin… we went to Nara in 2019 and going in the afternoon this day was definitely a lot different than meandering over in the late morning like we did that February.
On the way home, we rode the **Aoiniyoshi Train**! I love trains! It was already a bit dark so we didn’t get the full sightseeing experience, but the semi-retro vibe and the seats turned toward the windows were cool. I want to ride more of these special limited trains (Ginga train I am COMING for you!!). Picked up karaage from Takkanmura which was a little place by our hotel and I finally got to eat the Tanaka Honten persimmon-wrapped sushi I have been thinking about since 2019… just lovely.
**11/21**
Activated our JR passes and headed down to Wakayama! **NOTE**: The Kuroshio trains require a reservation! You have to get this separate reservation even if you have a JR pass or a regular ticket! Almost got in trouble here.
So I went to Wakayama on my first Japan trip in high school (2001) and I’ve been thinking about it ever since I saw frameoftravel post the bottom of Nachi Falls at Hiro Shrine on his Instagram so I was really excited to go back as an adult. We started at **Wakayama Castle** (you can get paper goshuin at the ticket booth) and wandered around taking in the history, then settled in for the long train ride over to **Kii-Katsuura**. We stayed at **Oyado Hana** (via Agoda) which was very close to the station but everything was closed so we sort of just didn’t eat a dinner. I guess there was a Family Mart in the vicinity but we weren’t hungry either, just tired! OH I finally got to drink corn from a can too!
**11/22**
We did leave a touch later than expected and got off the bus to go up to Kumano Nachi Taisha at about 8am and trod up… all the stairs… but it was so worth it, there were barely any people and we were there early enough to hear a monk opening up one of the smaller shrines with a chant while we were vibing taking photos of the mountain range… a really special place. Kumano Nachi Taisha is the home of the Yatagarasu legend and with the amount of crows we saw/heard/enjoyed the last week or so it felt really a little extra special. I talked to a man about his dog — people are really friendly down in Wakayama! Just in general! So we did the long walk down to the falls via Seiganto-ji (it’s always so wild seeing The View that famous photos are taken from) and paused at Miyamatei for lunch before heading down to the falls itself.
Being in that sort of old forest and looking up at this hugely tall vertical falls was just an experience in its own, especially after having been so high up earlier in the day. We stayed here for a long time people watching (dog watching– some people brought their little dogs all the way down!) before heading back up the longggg stone stairs to take the bus back to Kii-Katsura.
I was in luck! Because right where we were, after I retrieved my backpack from the inn, was **Bodai** a restaurant serving freshly caught mid-fatty tuna, lightly breaded and fried so the inside is soft and fresh and the outside has the lightest crunch. (aka chuutoro maguro katsu). EXQUISITE.
We were thinking about heading up to Shingu originally for the castle ruins and other things but nah, time to go back to Osaka, time to be sleepy on the train.
**11/23**
Out “late” to go back to the Capcom Cafe and do some shopping, and we made our way over to **Osaka Tenmangu** where despite various warnings about wild monkeys I saw my first monkey of Japan– working in a little show at the shrine. (Also we stopped at words. cafe which seems famous from the amount of signatures on the wall! But it was quiet and chill, very nice.)
I went back solo to DenDen Town to take care of some shopping for self and friends and hit up Assist and K-Books and Mandarake Grand Chaos while I was there. Makes me miss Ikebukuro but everything is nicely in a very small area in Osaka that I needed!
**11/24**
Lugged our suitcases over to Nanba Station and had Yamato send them to our next hotel back in Kyoto! We had a delicious gyuudon lunch in the station and headed off to Himeji. HONESTLY… we were both pretty tired this day and should have skipped Himeji altogether but did not communicate that mutually in time. So, we took the bus over to **Himeji Castle** by way of Gokoku Jinja and we ended up just… sitting on the benches outside of the gift shop taking in everything and watching the crows and the tiny birds. We’ll go back for the full castle/garden experience one day.
From Himeji we went to Hiroshima where we stayed at **Daiwa Roynet Hiroshima** (via Agoda) which was nice! We added on the breakfast the next day for 880 yen each and just chilled the heck out with conbini dinner. Zzzz lol
**11/25**
Up not early enough to head over to **Miyajima** which was SO CROWDED when we arrived at 9am. Honestly our fault, I wanted to be there at 8 for high tide but we just did not get out and moving early enough. TBH I feel like because we were still tired and kind of overwhelmed by the vast amounts of people I would like to go back! As early as possible in the day! Maybe at low tide too/instead.
We did meander around the island for a bit and ate a few things before taking the ferry and railcar back to Hiroshima proper. We spend some time observing the Atomic Bomb Dome and I sort of called out a tourist for cutting in front of the Peace Memorial (do you not see the big line… “But he did it” he shouldn’t have! Tour Guides teach your people better please) . The Rest House near the Atomic Bomb Dome is quite nice too (you can buy goshuin there!)
On the way back to Kansai we stopped at Kobe Beef Steak Mouriya for the most expensive meal I’ve ever purchased in my whole life, but we had meant to go there in 2019 except a concert ran late (they were very understanding when we cancelled our reservation even though I know that’s a faux pas!) so we made good on it this time. Lovely though, the steak was good, the vegetables were so tasty, and they very specifically checked in about any allergies or things we couldn’t eat. Now I need to eat more lotus root, thanks!
Our luggage had already been delivered to our new hotel in Kyoto (RESI THE STAY near Nijo) so after checking in and paying the minimal Kyoto city tax we went to relax.
**11/26**
Meandered over to Uji, arriving about noon. Uji River is so pretty, and we were able to see **Eshin-in** and **Ujigami Jinja** and **Byodo-in** which is the sister temple of the similar one in O’ahu we visited before, and also **Agata-jinja** on the way back to the station. Of the three Eshin-in was the cutest, with little ceramic bunnies you pulled fortunes from and could keep afterward. Agata-jinja was also a nice neighborhood shrine that was a breath of peace after how extremely crowded Byodo-in was.
Today I had my first Famichiki at Family Mart while we waited for the train, and after splitting with my partner I went back to Kyoto Station to do a little shopping … and to Yodobashi Camera, the most liminal space I’ve ever been, to bite the bullet and buy a PS5. Thank you exchange rate and tax free services.
**11/27**
Today we had reservations at **Saiho-ji** (Koke-dera) which were a bit costly but so worth it? Included is time and materials to copy a sutra, and then freedom to explore the beautiful moss garden. The combination of the moss, the quiet pond and streams, and the red red leaves in some of the trees was again one of the highlights of this trip. Peace. The cost helps with overcrowding too, as well as being able to fund the upkeep of this special place.
We had lunch at Yu no Chaya and I was reunited with my love zarusoba, before I popped up to Kegon-ji (Suzumushi-dera) after finding out this is a temple dedicated to crickets? What’s that about? What it was about for me was after answering affirmatively if I could understand Japanese I was pulled into this LONG talk about not only all these crickets in a display, but this Kansai-joking monk talking about every single item the temple had to offer for sale (which were similar enough to what every shrine/temple has for sale). I couldn’t leave despite my bum knee either because he definitely would have called me out (like he did to someone else). BE WARNED. Also the goshuin is in the garden! Not even at the buying-things area after the talk!! It was beautiful though.
Having escaped the crickets we went to **Nishiki Market** for some snacks and to see what was up and this is again one of those places that’s max crowded and people ignoring signs (in English even) not to stand around and eat. We had some good beef skewers and **Snoopy Cha-ya** was so charming. We popped into **Nishiki Tenmangu** for our goshuin and then booked it outta there.
Having recently read The Tatami Galaxy (and The Tatami Time Machine Blues) I wanted to go to Shimogamo Shrine before we left Japan but by the time we got there it was almost dark, we had to walk the whole way, and there was like tree cutting happening? Maybe we should have saved it, especially as I was about out of yens with no 7-11 in sight, but we made it, it was big and lovely (plus we saw Kawai Jinja on the way, the only temple/shrine I’ve seen that takes cards). I found out later they’re known for lace omamori but… I didn’t know… also I was out of yen…
I also filled up my goshuin book with this last stop!
Dinner at Ippudo in Kyoto Station, then we went back to PACK finally.
**11/28**
I got up.. not that early and went back to Kiyomizu-dera for coworker souvenir shopping, got on the wrong bus no less than three times trying to get back, and honestly even though our flight wasn’t until like 8pm we took the limousine bus at like 1pm. The nice lady at ANA gave us an earlier flight to Haneda, so we split our waiting time and got dinner in HND (udon!) and waited… for midnight… and rode the Star Wars R2-D2 plane to LAX!! (Where we then had to schlep our luggage to Southwest to go home to Sacramento)
Favorite shrines and temples? Eikan-do, Kyuan-ji, Saiho-ji, Kumano Nachi Taisha. Greatest food? The chuutoro maguro katsu at Bodai in Kii-Katsura. Also Famichiki honorable mention. We ate a lot of half fruit sandos for breakfast haha. I don’t normally eat breakfast but it was nice and light so I could deal! (Even with walking one million I still have no appetite for breakfast.)
Lessons learned? Honestly for the type of people we are we should have done two-nighters instead of overnighters. Having that extra time to relax in Oyado Hana or Hiroshima and see more of the area outside our main hits would have been nice. I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time.