Hey everyone! While planning my trip I really enjoyed reading the reports here and got a lot of great tips, so I figured I’d write one as well, but from the perspective of someone who cares a little too much about logistics. For me, solid logistics and research (usually) ensures a smooth and easy trip, and I enjoy the planning/research process almost as much as the trip itself. I hope this report ends up helping someone else!
**About us:** a mid-30s couple from Canada with interests in history, sports, and exploring cities. We enjoy food, but it’s not a priority. Neither of us are into nightlife, especially with myself having a slight aversion to crowds.
**Travel Period:** 14 days in mid-November. Aimed for the autumn foliage, but was a little early due to this year’s longer/hotter summer 😞
**Travel Style:** I aim to plan only one or two big things a day and leave the rest relatively free for itinerary changes, and so that we don’t over exhaust ourselves. I’m glad we stuck by this as we found ourselves spending a lot of time exploring outside the typical tourist areas racking up a ton of unplanned steps.
**Route:** As first-timers, of course we hit up the typical route of Osaka > Kyoto > Hakone > Tokyo:
* Osaka: 4 nights
* Kyoto: 3 nights
* Hakone: 1 night
* Tokyo: 5 nights
However, instead of splitting time in Tokyo (i.e. 1-2 days in Tokyo first, Shinkansen to Osaka, then working back up), I chose to head straight to Osaka because:
* I planned on doing a lot of shopping in Tokyo and buying an extra bag there for everything as a checked bag on the return flight. This meant we didn’t need to lug around too much stuff.
* Jet lag: Coming from the EST time zone, we would be up too early and sleep too early for Tokyo. This also came in handy for waking up early to see things in Kyoto, since we wanted to beat the crowds.
* Save some $$ by flying cheap domestic flights instead of taking the Shinkansen.
Unexpected bonus of this was:
* There are less “things” to do in Osaka, so it was nice starting the trip at a slower pace.
* Easing into the transit system, as Osaka’s was a cakewalk compared to Tokyo’s.
* EXTRA BONUS: We got ICOCA cards, which don’t expire within a month like the Welcome Suica/PASMO Passport!
Suffice it to say, this really worked to our advantage and I do wonder why this isn’t done more frequently.
**Planning:** As an experienced and meticulous trip planner, I can definitely say Japan was the hardest trip to plan due to the immense amount of things to do. However, I managed to fight the FOMO and narrowed down our top priorities and identify things we were okay with skipping. Our itinerary ended up having a lot less stuff than others’ here, but we still easily managed to fill each day enough to fully exhaust ourselves by the end.
I was also sure to allow at least an hour or two mid-day for us to go back to our hotel and put our shopping down, nap, or just veg out on our phones. I’ve always done this, but I have never been more grateful for these periods than during this trip 😅
**Planning Method:** I often see a lot of questions on how to go about planning itineraries with so many things to do, so here’s how I approached it.
1. I pinned anything and everything of interest to us to Google Maps.
2. Googled for strings like “Osaka 3 day itinerary”, “Kyoto 4 day itinerary”, and pinned interesting things to Maps.
3. I had to break up Tokyo into further areas since there were so many things to do. For Tokyo, I used keywords like “Top things to do in Shibuya”.
4. I also searched for prebuilt 12-15 day itineraries from tour groups and incorporated a lot of their routing, since they’re quite optimized for time.
5. In a spreadsheet, I listed each pinned item along with their City, Category (Restaurant, Shrine/Temple, Shopping, etc), and Level of Interest
6. Finally, I jigsawed everything together each day based on their proximity, while doing my best to keep the amount of transit to a minimum.
**Transit:** We plugged each route of our daily and intercity itinerary into Google Maps to note possible routes, and found that the regular metro/non-JR trains were more than sufficient and much more efficient for all our transit. We didn’t even need to take a Shinkansen if we didn’t want to, but did it for the novelty anyway between Kyoto and Hakone.
We didn’t buy any passes, only relying on IC cards and bought Shinkansen/Romancecar tickets when needed.
“Practicing” how to use Google Maps’ transit function in Japan really helped with our level of comfort for transit, especially for Tokyo. A lot of posts here made it seem as though Yamanote would be the only train we’d need, but we surprisingly never took the Yamanote once. There were way more Tokyo Metro and Toei stations around, and using the JR meant walking farther out of the way and sometimes a more indirect route to our destination.
**Packing:** We always travel carry-ons only, and it paid off BIG TIME this trip with all the subway stairs and packed transit, especially as we watched people struggle with full-size hard suitcases…
* Carry-on Suitcases: ***AWAY Bigger Carry-on*** (one each)
* Husband’s Personal Item: ***LL Bean Stowaway Daypack*** – doubled as a daypack if needed
* My Personal Item: ***Patagonia MLC*** – packs a TON while fitting under the airline seat in front of you!
I’m an XS-S in Womens’ and Husband is XXL in Mens’, so I packed about 90% of my clothes into my backpack and let him overflow into my suitcase.
As for packed clothing, we always only pack a week’s worth of clothes and do a mix of hand (bathtub) and machine laundry throughout the trip. Detergent sheets are great for this, as they’re thin and save on liquid space.
**Luggage Shipping:** We only stayed one night at our Ryokan in Hakone, so I opted to ship our carry-ons from Kyoto to Tokyo, only packing a day’s worth of clothing in our backpacks. This was a GODSEND, as getting to our ryokan was quite the ordeal (discussed below in the review). All we had to do was ask for “Takkyubin” when checking out of our Kyoto hotel.
**Data:** eSIM – we used Airalo, which has worked great in several other countries. Unless you have a locked or incompatible phone, I’m not sure why Pocket Wifis are still so widely used/recommended in Japan.
I also have the Google Fi Flex plan for a US phone number/international calling, which really came in handy for when I needed to call our Ryokan for a pickup, or when my stupid bank fraud marked my credit card twice, despite me notifying them of my travel in advance…
**Money:** I exchanged $200 CAD cash in advance so we could hit the ground running and have no issues buying transit tickets at the airport. Throughout the trip, we transferred money onto our Wise cards and withdrew at 7/11 ATMs as needed. However, we used credit cards and our ICOCAs to pay for as many transactions as we could.
* If you have an Android phone purchased outside Japan or are using a physical IC card, you’ll need more cash as you can only load physical IC cards with cash.
* Digital IC cards on Apple Pay can only be loaded using Amex or MC.
**Reservations:** We did not make any food reservations, only activities.
* **THE ROOF at Shibuya Sky** – sunset time slot
* **Muscle Girls Bar**
* [**Osaka Shinsekai/Dotombori Walking Tour**](https://www.airbnb.ca/experiences/221858) **(2 hrs):** The guide (Masa) talks a lot about Osakan culture, food, and also Japanese culture in general. I would say this is an excellent tour if you’re not too familiar with Japanese culture. Not very much history covered.
* [**Kyoto Localized “Free” Walking Tour**](https://www.kyotolocalized.com/free-walking-tour-kyoto) **(3 hrs):** Our guide Rina was a Kyoto native and covered many topics about the city, such as its culture, geography, and especially history. I found it to be very in-depth and it was quite impressive for being a “free” tour, as we covered a lot of places I didn’t have in my own itinerary. Please note that it’s “free” in name, but it’s actually tip-based, just like similar tours across Europe (yes, even though it’s in Japan). We “tipped” 6000 yen total, as I usually do about 30 Euro/pp whenever I do these.
# Hotels
Also something I obsessively research, using a mix of Google Hotels and Expedia. Factors I look for when booking hotels:
* **Location:** It doesn’t need to be in the middle of everything, it just needs to be close to a subway station (5 min walk max), and have a konbini nearby.
* **Reviews:** Minimum of 4.4 stars on Google (aggregate). Sort by “Newest” to get the most accurate reviews. Also sort by “Lowest” to see what people didn’t like about the hotel.
* **Photos:** On Google Hotels, you can filter the photos by “Visitors” to get accurate pictures. The staging photos posted by the property itself are not indicative of what you’ll get.
* **Amenities:** We always plan to do at least one round of coin laundry in the middle of our trip, so you can search reviews for mentions of this (or whatever amenity you want).
Note that I used points for a lot of this trip’s hotels which does narrow down available options, but allows me to be a “baller on a budget” while splurging a bit on a bucket list trip.
>Osaka: ***Conrad Osaka***
Cost: 4 nights/375,000 Hilton Points
* Lovely hotel with impeccable service. Room was very spacious with amazing views and a huge soaker tub. Amazing way to start our dream trip and seriously helped with the jet lag.
* Massive and delicious breakfast buffet selection.
* The spa/pool area’s hot tub was heavenly.
* Location is okay since it’s on an “island” and not close to main tourist areas. But it has an underground connection to Higobashi Station/Yotsubashi Line which we used frequently to get anywhere.
>Kyoto: ***Hotel Wing International Premium Kyoto Sanjo***
Cost: 3 nights/$546 CAD
* A conventional Japanese hotel chain a little outside main tourist areas, but fantastic location for transit — very close to Sanjo metro station (serviced by two lines), and bus routes to popular sites like Kiyomizu-dera.
* Walkable to Shinkyogoku shopping area and Gion district. Lovely at night.
* Many free amenities as well as a coin laundry that can also be paid for via phone app/credit card!
* Small but clean room and bathroom.
* Great value due to it not being “central”, but its proximity to Sanjo station makes it a very underrated hotel.
>Tokyo (Shinjuku): ***Hilton Tokyo***
Cost: 3 nights/240,000 Hilton Points
* Location isn’t super close to main tourist areas, but has excellent proximity to transit (5 min walk to two different subway stations/lines via a sprawling underground path). The Marunouchi Line from Nishi-Shinjuku station got us basically anywhere we needed with just one or no transfers.
* Large, standard, clean room great views, and decent buffet breakfast.
* Massive, busy property with many floors resulted in long elevator rides with lots of stops.
* Not really worth its value (IMO), many other smaller Japanese hotels with same/better offerings at lower prices. I used points, which I kinda regret.
>Tokyo (Ginza): ***AC Hotel Tokyo Ginza***
Cost: 2 nights/47,000 Bonvoy points
* Excellent location. Situated right by main Ginza drag, and a quick walk to both Higashi-Ginza and Ginza stations. 10 min walk to Tsukiji Market.
* The most practical/well laid-out hotel room I’ve ever stayed at. So many plugs, surfaces to put your suitcase on/lay out your stuff, etc. So clean.
* Fantastic value, though I think the points cost was lower because it was a new hotel at the time of booking.
# Ryokan Experience
Lots of say about this one, hence its own section.
>Hakone: ***Hakone Yuyado ZEN***
Cost: 1 night/$725 CAD
To start, I knew I wanted a ryokan with a private onsen, and was okay with splurging for one with a budget of $1200-1400/night. However, all the luxury/highly recommended places were all booked up by the time I was ready to reserve. I eventually found one remaining room at the ZEN at almost 50% less the price of more popular ryokans – likely for the reason that it’s quite the pain to get to, and very isolated.
From Kyoto JR Station, we took the following:
1. JR to Odawara Station
2. Odakyu Line to Hakone-Yumoto Station
3. Hakone Tozan from Hakone-Yumoto to Gora Station
4. Funicular from Gora to Sounzan Station
5. Ropeway from Sounzan to Owakudani Station
6. Ropeway from Owakudani to Ubako Station
7. Hotel shuttle from Ubako to ZEN.
For some reason this wasn’t something we had researched thoroughly, so it took WAY longer than we had anticipated. The Hakone Tozan from Hakone-Yumoto to Gora was packed and very slow due to the switchbacks up the mountain, and the funicular was even slower and more packed. I saw many people with full sized suitcases who were definitely at their wits end… don’t be these people, and ship your luggage if you can.
By the time we arrived at ZEN around 3 pm, we were absolutely famished as we hadn’t eaten yet, other than the Kyoto hotel’s breakfast buffet (thank jeebus) and some snacks for the train. Dunno why but we anticipated being able to eat something at the ryokan… only to find that they weren’t serving any food until dinner time, and there was nothing walkable in the area.
So we ate whatever we had left of our snacks and eagerly waited for our kaiseki dinner. And if you know what kaiseki is, you’ll know that it’s not conducive to being *extremely-hangry-as-fuck*. After a couple hours, we eventually left with full bellies and an enjoyable experience. I’ll be honest in saying that I didn’t love all the food, but I did like a lot of it.
The rest of our stay was absolutely amazing. The room was large, super clean, and our balcony onsen provided such immense relaxation, which was much needed after a week of 25k+ step counts. Scheduling an onsen stay in the middle of the trip was a strategic move that definitely paid off big time.
In the end, we absolutely loved staying here and would recommend it if you think an extra bit of traveling is worth the $500+ of savings when comparing to other properties with in-room onsens. Just bring extra food if you get hangry easily (like me).
# Itinerary
Very brief since this post is already way too long. The “main sights” I had planned are highlighted. Also noted our hotel breaks because they were key to keeping us sane, even if it was only for an hour or so.
**DAY 1: Arrive in Japan**
* Arrive at Haneda, domestic flight to Osaka
* Sushiro by Osaka Station, bought IC cards, then crashed at hotel.
**DAY 2: Osaka**
* ***Kuromon Ichiba*** market/surrounding area
* ***Den Den Town***
* *–Hotel break–*
* Kamitora Higobashi (ramen) for dinner, walked around hotel neighbourhood.
**DAY 3: Nara Day Trip (rainy day)**
* Met up with my Aunt’s friend, who drove us around.
* ***Hozan-ji Temple, Nara Park***
* *–Hotel break–*
* Explored ***Osaka Station*** area and dinner
**DAY 4: Osaka**
* ***Osaka Shinsekai/Dotombori Walking Tour***
* Round 1 Spo-Cha (so fun)
* ***Dotonbori*** (hated it)
* *–Hotel break–*
* Matsuya (gyudon) for dinner
**DAY 5: Osaka to Kyoto**
* Keihan Main Line to Kyoto, then checked in to hotel around 1 pm.
* ***Shinkyogoku*** shopping area, ***Nishiki Market, Pontocho street***
* *–Hotel break–*
* ***Eikando Temple*** for Autumn Illuminations
**DAY 6: Kyoto**
* ***Kiyomizu-dera*** (7 am arrival)
* ***Ninenzaka/Sannenzaka, Isibekouji***
* Kyoto Station to buy JR tickets and lunch (Isetan basement sushi)
* *–Hotel break–*
* ***Kyoto Localized Walking Tour***
* Dinner with friend from Osaka at Tendon Gion Hoten (yakiniku)
**DAY 7: Kyoto**
* ***Fushimi Inari*** (7 am arrival)
* Lunch at food stalls at the foot of the shrine.
* Biggg hotel break for laundry, nap time, and post office.
* ***Shinkyogoku*** for shopping and dinner
* Dinner at Katsukura Tonkatsu
**DAY 8: Kyoto to Hakone**
* Shipped luggage upon hotel check-out.
* See above review of Hakone Yuyado ZEN.
**DAY 9: Hakone to Tokyo**
* Arrived in Tokyo via Romancecar, then checked in to hotel around 3 pm.
* ***Akihabara***
**DAY 10: Tokyo (rainy as fuck)**
* Shibuya Station crawling/exploration due to rain, in place of Harajuku.
* Rain ended, so explored ***Shibuya*** above ground
* ***Shibuya Sky/THE ROOF*** — okay, we got SO lucky with this since the rain let up shortly before our reservation time of 4pm. It had been closed the entire morning due to the weather, and it opened right in time for our time slot.
* *– Hotel break–*
* ***Shinjuku*** (Sushi Zanmai for dinner)
* ***Kabuchiko*** (meh.)
**DAY 11: Tokyo**
* BASEMAN baseball store
* Spo-Dori! Batting cages at ***Tokyo Dome***
* ***(Japanese) Baseball Hall of Fame***
* ***Kanda-Ogawamachi*** for baseball/snowboard shopping
* *–Hotel break–*
* ***Muscle Girls Bar*** (interesting experience, lemme know in the comments if you want more details)
* ***Ikebukuro***
**DAY 12: Tokyo**
* Checked in to AC Hotel Tokyo Ginza
* ***Shopping in Ginza*** (Sunday pedestrian street, yay!)
* *–Hotel break–*
* ***Asia Professional Baseball Championship FINALS***, Japan vs S. Korea (more info below!)
**DAY 13: Tokyo**
* Breakfast at ***Seagen/Tsukiji Market***
* *–Hotel break–*
* Yodobashi Camera (Akihabara) to buy a duffel bag to make space for souvenirs.
* ***Asakusa/Senso-Ji temple***
* Dinner at Imahan Honten (sukiyaki)
* Walked across the ***Sumida River Walk***, then subway back to hotel.
**DAY 14: Tokyo (last day)**
* Breakfast at Ramen Street in ***Tokyo Station***
* Explored Tokyo Station (Character Street, Candy/Alcohol Don Quixote)
* Back to hotel, then Narita Airport 😭
# Misc Comments/Experiences
Since our itinerary was pretty standard, I figured I’d put down some miscellaneous comments/experiences that I don’t see too frequently:
1. **Not all machines sell ICOCA Cards** at Osaka JR Station. You need to look for specific machines that say “IC Charge/IC Card”. It took us way longer than necessary to figure this out, and being awake for the past 24 hours didn’t help…
2. **Den Den Town >>> Akihabara.** The gaming arcades and shops were just so much quieter with mostly locals, which made it way more enjoyable. My husband (transit nerd) discovered the train sim Densha de Go! where he spent at least 30 mins (and about 1500 yen) before I had to drag him away.
3. Maybe controversial: After having visited Kuromon and Nishiki markets already, **Outer Tsukiji Market was just… overrated**. It was way too crowded with massive lineups for almost everything. Most foods there could be found in Osaka and Kyoto with way shorter lines and cheaper prices too. Not to say you shouldn’t visit it if you’re a first-timer, but I wouldn’t have super high expectations. (Seagen DID exceed my wildest tuna dreams, tho)
4. **IC card for everything, bruh** (well, almost). Even many small shops took IC card, and you could use it to add extra credits to many arcade machines, or get coins for gachapon, making it criminally easy to spend money – especially with the ease of charging through Apple Pay.
5. Although you can’t use a digital IC with Androids purchased outside Japan, you can at least **check your physical card’s balance with the app** called “*Japan train card balance check*”, so that it doesn’t get too low.
6. **For Tax-Free shopping**, some places won’t take the Tax-Free QR Code and will only accept your passport. It’s probably best to bring your passport for shopping, just in case.
7. We **bought the wrong time for one of the Shinkansen** tickets, but this was very easily changed by visiting one of the green JR offices. My husband went right when they opened and no one was in line.
8. Next time I’m in Kyoto, I would definitely set aside a chunk of time to really **explore Kyoto Station**. That thing is an architectural marvel. My Osakan friend also told me it’s a very popular date spot, and I can see why!
9. **Getting up early** was soooo important for avoiding crowds at the main sights in Kyoto. Kiyomizu-dera and Fushimi Inari were much easier to appreciate and we managed to take so many pictures of us with no one else in the frame.
10. Aside from Shijo-dori, we never really experienced overwhelming crowds in the city. It was so easy to find ourselves alone and isolated just by walking through smaller side streets, admiring the unique old houses.
11. If you plan to go to Shibuya Sky, **I highly recommend THE ROOF reservations at sunset**. These seats face the east of Tokyo, meaning you get almost-private access to the outdoor view of Tokyo Tower and Skytree. You even get a selfie corner to yourself and the other lucky few during your reservation time.
12. Ending our trip with 5 days in Tokyo really helped with our enjoyment of the city since we were fully able to shift our sleep schedules by then. We were usually up around 9:30-10am and out til about 11pm-12am.
13. **If you’re into snowboarding, you MUST check out Kanda-Ogawamachi**, a sporting goods shopping district in Tokyo that has a ton of snowboard stores and more selection than I’ve ever seen in my life. And if you’re Asian, you’ll actually find goggles that fit our low-bridge noses. I almost cried at the validation I felt from finally finding goggles that won’t fog up.
14. In a similar vein, if you like baseball, Kanda-Ogawamachi also has a massive Mizuno store with a dizzying selection of baseball gear.
15. Also for baseball fans: be on the lookout for batting cages! Unlike in North America, batting cages are nestled into cities as fun and accessible entertainment for everyone.
16. Loved Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. They each had their own charm and vibe that made them very memorable in their own ways.
# Favourite Experience:
I mentioned earlier that we’re sports fans, but we love baseball the most. And it’s exciting to be a baseball fan if you’re in Japan. But never would I have imagined something like this…
While in Tokyo, we realized that the Asia Professional Baseball Championships were on so we decided to buy tickets to the Finals between Japan and South Korea. Note that this was a dream come true for us, as baseball games in Asia are generally way more fun than those in the US and Canada.
After we found our seats, an older man sat next to us and glanced at us a few times. Sensing his curiosity, I broke the ice with a question about one of the players using Google Translate… completely breaking down the wall between us and our new friend Yoshi-san, who spent the game teaching us about Japanese baseball with the help of Google Translate and the limited English he knew.
He taught us all the cheers so we could cheer with him. His favourite team was the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, and would get excited whenever one of his players were on the field or made a play. He gestured strikes and safe calls, just as we would. When a beer girl poured our beer from her keg, he noticed me filming the beer and excitedly told her, “They’re from Canada!”.
Japan ended up walking off South Korea with a single to win the game. We cheered and high-fived with Yoshi-san and the people behind us, revelling in the crowd’s excitement of their country having just won the championship.
We then thanked Yoshi-san profusely for showing us a great time, not really sure how else to show our gratitude. It was bittersweet; aside from a picture together, we knew we’d never see him again, despite him being a key part of a night we’ll never forget.
# Fin
And that’s it! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing and reminiscing.