Hi all! Just wanted to start by saying that I have been on this thread and a few others for months now, planning my trip and reading everyone’s first hand experiences!
This will be Part One of my two week trip report, I’ll add the link for Part Two when it is complete.
I am sharing my personal experiences and opinions, which of course are going to be unique to me in some way and shared commonalities in others. Just because I did or did not like something or had issues / smooth sailing with something else shouldn’t deter you or draw you in. Take everything with a grain of salt…we all like different things and experience things in our own unique ways 🙂
To start, I am a 30-35 year old female from Canada, first solo trip. I’ve been to a few European countries before. I live in a small town and am fairly unfamiliar with big city etiquette and public transit. I speak about 3 words of Japanese.
**February 26** \- departed Canada in the early morning, flights were cheap at sub-$1200 round trip, only one connection (if I had the money, I’d pay for premium economy or business class for the long haul flight)
**February 27** \- arrived at NRT mid-afternoon – I wasn’t feeling well, probably from lack of sleep / food / anxiousness – navigating the airport to find Customs and the trains was fairly easy, I had already pre-purchased and pre-installed an eSim – I made it to my hotel in Asakusa and fell asleep fairly quickly around 8pm
*Note: I did not read the fine print and thought an eSim allowed for voice / text – this is not the case – data only, Whatsapp is your best friend for communicating with family, or FB Messenger*
*Note: I have 0 experience with public transportation, and only lived in a “big city” for a handful of years – I found navigating the train system extremely easy with the help of Google Maps and reading signage / looking for colors to match the lines, etc….if this part is giving you anxiety like it did for me, I assure you, it’ll be okay!*
**February 28** \- I woke up very early (like 1 am), feeling slightly better from the day before, so I ventured out to a 7/11 and Family Mart and got some snacks – it was a light day, but I was able to check out Senso-ji Shrine, Asakusa Shrine, and Hozomon Gate
*Note: I tried using the Timeshifter App to reduce jet lag, but I’m a shift worker and I think I was doomed from the start – as of this writing (March 5), I am still exhausted by 5pm and waking around 4am.*
**February 29** \- I woke up at about 3am, found a McDonald’s for an early breakfast and watched some Netflix until things started opening up – I walked to Shinjuku Gyoen National Park, Meiji Jingu and Yoyogi Park, the Pokemon Center and Nintendo Store in Shibuya, and took in the Shibuya Scramble – train back to the hotel
**March 1** \- Day trip to Kamakura
**March 2** \- Rest day – after walking nearly 50,000 steps over the previous two days, my body hurt and was begging me to stop, I only walked to one restaurant around the corner from my hotel and had two baths to recover
**March 3** \- took the train to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace and Nijubashi Bridge, walked to Pokemon Center DX – today was a bad day to be in this area as it was Tokyo Marathon and multiple streets were blocked off, I wanted to go to Animate Akihibara and Yodobashi but I couldn’t figure out how to cross or where to cross – I instead went to Ueno Park and Zoo
**March 4** \- checked out of Tokyo hotel and travelled to Nikko where I stayed overnight – visited the World Heritage Shrines and Temples, as well as taking the Ropeway to see Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji – arrived in Nikko approximately 9am and crashed at about 6pm
**March 5** \- woke at approximately 4am and will be travelling to Kyoto for the next leg of my journey
**As for Food and Accommodations:**
*Tokyo* \- APA Hotel Asakusa Kuramae Kita – 4.5 stars, clean, techy, washer/dryer facilities, staff were friendly, well-placed near train stations and restaurants
I ate at McDonald’s, Denny’s, Dominos, Ichiran, a place that ordered off Uber Eats that I can’t even begin to spell, much less say, McLean Old Burger Stand, and I had lots of snacks from convenience stores and even sushi – I know it sounds super North American, but I wanted to ease into the culture and sometimes having familiar things helps with anxiety too – overall, Ichiran was my favourite experience and food quality
*Nikko* \- Nikko Station Hotel II – 3.8 stars, clean, basic, central to trains and buses
I only had three meals here – Cafe Fleur, Azuma, and the hotel breakfast – all three meals were reasonably priced and tasty – the Nikko Belgian beer at Azuma was very good
**Final Thoughts**
I have a lot of anxiety and this was my first solo trip – so far, I’ve had a fantastic time and I’m starting to become more familiar with the culture and vibes of Japan – also, for all the female travellers, I’ve never felt uncomfortable or unsafe once so far
Everything that I was anxious about has been fairly simple to navigate
A few things I’ve found: there aren’t nearly as much English speakers here as anticipated, but Google Translate and “sign language” works well to get by – things are fairly inexpensive here – trains are super efficient means of travel in city
Over / Under rated: I planned 6 nights in Tokyo, I could’ve done with 5, I’m not one for shopping or nightlife and the time of year I came didn’t really exploit the beauty of nature – the Parks are probably much more beautiful in summer or fall, I would skip the National Park next time – I would also skip the Imperial Palace and East Gardens – I really enjoyed all of the shrines and temples, even the little roadsides ones you pass as you walk around the city – Kamakura seems over-rated to me unless you’re into checking out all the little shops and restaurants – Nikko is something that should be enjoyed in summer or fall, I’m from Canada and it is friggin cold here / windy, Kegon Falls had very little water flow this time of year…with that said, you can’t miss the World Heritage circuit including the Shogun Mausoleum
*I’ll keep you updated for part two! Thanks for reading :)*
by First_Middle_Last-00