Hi folks,
I found this channel immensely helpful while planning our trip to Japan so paying it forward with a trip report. We visited Tokyo, Osaka, Naoshima Island, Kurashiki (Okayama), Himeji Castle & Kyoto at the end of March / beginning of April).
TLDR: Trip report on areas we stayed/visited, things we did & how we got to/from them. No specific hotel or restaurant mentions. Notes at the end about what we booked in advance.
**Tokyo**
Landed at Haneda & used QR codes (from Visit Japan Web) – this did not speed things up through immigration but it did allow us to use the electronic gates at customs. We had eSIMs and Suica cards loaded on our iPhones before we left so tapped through the metro station gates and off we went. To load the Suica, tap the + icon at the top right of the wallet app on your iPhone, select travel card and then you can pick Suica, Pasmo or ICOCA. You can add money via Apple Pay.
Stayed in Asakusa in a hotel 5 mins walk from the station. Picked the location because: it has great transportation links (there’s also a direct train from the airport that made it easier for our tired jet lagged brains to deal with); it has lots of restaurants & neighbourhood coffee shops; you can visit the temple when it’s not busy; & it’s a bit more relaxed than Shibuya / Shinjuku.
Things we did in Tokyo in no particular order (we visited things that were in the same location / on the same route as Tokyo is ginormous):
Temples & shrines (see Japan Travel Reddit: General Japan Travel Advice for temple etiquette guidance if you are interested):
– Sensō-ji temple – at night is particularly peaceful.
– Suitengu Shrine with its mama dog and pup statue. Lovely temple and had personal significance for us.
Tall buildings (love going up tall buildings):
– Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in the day time, can see Fuji on a clear day – they had a piano up there that people queue up to play for 5 mins (with a guard who’s job is to time keep)
– SkyTree at night. You don’t need to do both. SkyTree has the better views in my opinion (it’s taller and you can see Tokyo Tower) but the Government building is free.
Parks:
– Walked to Ueno park & glimpsed the one cherry blossom that had arrived early. There was a great atmosphere and lots of food stalls for Hanami (cherry blossom viewing parties). We tried dango which are sweet sticky rice balls on a stick.
Novelty & shopping:
– Hat coffee, for their 3D and 2D latte art, worth the trip, was so good!
– teamlabs planets, ok for a rainy evening, but not the wow factor a lot of people talk about (& smells a bit of feet given everyone is bare foot). Wear appropriate clothes for mirrored floors and walking through water. It was still very busy when we went at 8pm.
– Explored Akihabara at night to see the neon lights & got lost in the Yodobashi Akiba store.
– Shibuya scramble crossing (as a fan of Alice in Borderland manga & Netflix, this was awesome!). Viewed the crossing from Magnet shopping centre (it’s paid entry that includes a free drink to go to the viewing area).
– Kirby cafe which was great, definitely put a smile on our faces!
– Kappabashi street to browse the homeware & Japanese knife shops.
**Osaka**
Bought Shinsanken tickets via smart-ex website as the app isn’t available in my country (were able to use with an AMEX card). We picked the two seats on the right at the back of the carriage for Mount Fuji views & oversized baggage space (didn’t really need it as our bag fitted in the overhead space). Pretty straightforward to use, to note the credit card transaction did not show up straight away.
Linked the tickets to our Suica (you need to download the Suica app to find your Suica card number in order to designate the tickets). Tapped our iPhones at the Shinsanken gate and the paper seat reservation popped out the other side to pick up. Use your Suica/iPhone to tap out at the destination as the seat reservation isn’t a ticket.
You can use your Suica in Osaka (& all other places we went in Japan) so you don’t need to get an ICOCA card as well.
Stayed just north of Dotonburi, 10mins walk away. Chose to stay close to Shinsaibashi station as it had the two metro lines that took us to the places we wanted to visit.
Osaka is dubbed the kitchen of Japan so we tried a lot of food here:
– Taiyaki
– Okonomiyaki
– Takoyaki
– 551 Horai Butaman pork buns
– Kushikatsu & Udon
– Ichigo Daifuku – strawberry mochi, so delicious!
We did an AirBnB food tour with Chie that was fantastic, highly recommend!
We also went to:
– Sakuya Konohana botanical garden (another Alice in Borderland location – very cool to see this if you like the show);
– Namba Yasaka Shrine with its giant lion head; and
– Osaka Castle park (another one full of Hanami parties).
**Naoshima Island**
Recommended by a lot of friends and as a fan of art, especially modern art, were keen to visit. We didn’t pre-book Shinsanken tickets this time and were fine getting two seats together in one of the non-reserved carriages. The transfers and local trains to Uno port were pretty straight forward to get the ferry to the island.
Wanted to stay in Benessee House but it was fully booked so one to book early if you want to stay here. On Mondays most museums are shut, but also the restaurants…(!) There is a 711 in the port area where we got dinner from after seeing a lot of lost tourists wandering around looking a bit lost. I think everyone needs to try 711 food at least once on a trip to Japan (it’s so good!).
We had pre-booked tickets to the Chichu museum which is small but worth it – some nice experiential pieces in there among striking architecture. Benessee House museum was excellent (you don’t need to pre-book) and included tickets for Valley Gallery with a nice piece from Yayoi Kusama. We also made it round to see both of her pumpkins on the island.
Food options were limited so may be worth packing 711 lunch or thinking about where to eat lunch early if there’s a lot of tourists around.
We didn’t make it but did hear very good things about the I Love Yu art deco onsen (public baths) to sink into after a day exploring the island.
**Kurashiki (Okayama)**
To get there included taking our first bus in Japan. You enter at the back and tap your Suica/IC card or pick up a paper ticket where relevant (some buses had this, some didn’t). You then leave the bus via the front & tap out or pay cash to the driver if not using a card. You need exact change for the bus fare, there is a money changer by the driver which you can use when the bus is stationary.
We stayed right in the Bikan Historical Quarter which was a great choice. Our hotel had an onsen in it which was a nice extra to have (please follow the rules around onsen etiquette if you plan on going). We spent a lot of time wandering around, browsing the shops, and visiting the museums/Achi shrine. We also took the train to Okayama city to go see the Kōrakuen garden and Okayama castle – both beautiful spots with cherry blossoms in bloom. Also loved spotting the colourful manhole covers across the cities.
**Himeji Castle**
On the way to Kyoto we stopped to visit Himeji castle which was busy but worth it, especially with the cherry blossoms out in full bloom. If coin lockers are full at the station, try the Grand Festa mall outside the station – there were lots of lockers available (near the bathrooms) to store luggage.
**Kyoto**
Probably the hardest to choose a hotel as there are so many. Opted for one near Sanjo station so we could get metro/train connections to Nara and Arashiyama.
We were in Kyoto during peak cherry blossom blooms and at a weekend so it was packed. If you can’t deal with people, then don’t go to Kyoto during Sakura season. That said, you can plan around the crowds / it’s not that bad if you are used to busy cities.
Note many restaurants in touristy areas (like Gion) were full, were reservation only or had long queues due to it being a weekend during peak season. We had a couple of bookings made the week before (via TableCheck), our hotel helped us find places away from the tourist areas & there are also decent options in the food court restaurants at the top of big stores. You will find food but don’t expect to stumble casually into a 12 seater restaurant, in a touristy place, during peak season, at the weekend.
Things we did:
– Arashiyama -> we took the Randen train to Arashiyama station which was a lovely little train. Once we got to the station it was, as expected, very busy (especially the path leading to the main bamboo grove). We jumped in a taxi and headed up to Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple which was beautiful & peaceful. We then walked back down the hill back and stopped at Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple & its bamboo grove. I would highly recommend this one if you don’t like crowds, we were there early afternoon and it wasn’t busy at all. We continued on & stopped at various temples en route to Saga-Arashiyama (the JR station), this was much less busy with no queues for the train to get back.
– Fushimi Inari Taisha – got up early and arrived here around 7.15am. It’s worth a visit, the gated path leads you up the mountain with some nice views on the way and of course all the red gates are striking. Did have to navigate a lot of people trying to get ‘the photo’ without people in the background. It’s open 24h so have heard going at night is a good option if you want to have the place to yourself.
– Nara – we headed to Nara for the day which was wonderful, spent the day wandering aimlessly around the park, chilling out & meeting the bowing little deer.
– Walked around by our hotel and found the Chion-in Temple, Maruyama Park and the Yasaka Shrine.
– We did the Samurai experience which was fantastic – learnt about the history, how to use a katana and did some zen meditation at the end. On the way back we walked through Nishiki Market & bought some more Ichigo Daifuku.
We then headed back to Tokyo Haneda for our flight and were lucky enough to get Mount Fuji views from the plane to top off an incredible trip.
I hope you have a fantastic time in this beautiful and magical place!
Few notes below on what we booked/ tried to book/ didn’t book in advance as this often gets asked:
– Flights & accommodation: prices of course go up and choice goes down the later you leave it. We booked in January for March/April.
– Kirby Cafe: slots book up at lightning speed (slots open 10th of the prior month at 6pm Japan time), so if you are desperate to go then practice booking beforehand to get your details 100% correct (I struggled with getting the phone number in the correct format) or I hate to say it but if you can’t beat the bots then use one.
– Ghibli Museum: March tickets were harder to get than Beyoncé or Glastonbury tickets (tickets go on sale 10th of the prior month at 10am Japan time). Apparently over 20,000 tried alongside us. I’ve read it can be easier to get tickets if you live in Japan via the Japanese site, as opposed to the one for foreigners. Again, practise / have a strategy if you’re desperate to go or Fiver has people offering services to help purchase tickets.
– Experiences: Osaka food tour with Chie and the Kyoto Samurai experience via AirBnB. We booked these in Feb.
– SkyTree – booked the week before, lots of availability for the main deck, all sold out for the upper deck.
– teamLabs Planets – booked two weeks before, it was school holidays in Japan so day slots were fully booked but evening slots were free. It was still very busy (maybe as it was raining that day).
– Chichu gallery tickets on Naoshima island – booked two weeks before, had a lot of availability then but tried to book another gallery the day before and it was sold out.
– We did not book any restaurants before our trip. The only time we struggled & needed help was Friday/Saturday night in Kyoto during peak cherry blossom blooms. Otherwise we were spontaneous / got recommendations from locals and managed to book them whilst we were there (either using TableCheck or asking our hotel to help). Try everything, the food is so good – from 711 all the way to fancy omakase & Kyoto Kaiseki!
– We did not plan something to do every morning and every evening, we blocked a good amount of our trip for exploring, getting lost and having a nap/resting our tired feet (Lion foot resting sheets from the Konbini are amazing for tired sore feet).
by ztaA7JjW
