My fiancé and I recently got back from a 10 trip to Japan. I wanted to write up this post with some general tricks/tips we learned as well as tricks we learned regarding his diet and things to eat in Japan.
Please note that while my fiancé is celiac he is not a symptomatic celiac. If he eats too much gluten over his lifetime he will eventually lose the ability to digest any food. But he can still eat gluten and not get physically sick. So for this trip we were more easy going about his diet and didn’t worry as much as we normally do about cross contamination or sauces. So if you’re more sensitive to gluten these places/tricks may not work.
We traveled to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Minakami and we spent around 4k CAD per person for our trip.
**Yakiniku**
This was our go-to meal whenever we were too tired to find one of the gluten free restaurants that I had researched in advance. In general, the nicer and more expensive cuts of meat would not have any sauce on them and since you get to cook it on a new clean grill there was little risk of cross contamination.
**Lots of Restaurants Aren’t Open Until the Evening**
A lot of the gluten free restaurants in Japan don’t open until the evening and also yakiniku and other types of gluten friendly restaurants don’t open till evening. This did catch me off guard a few times as the restaurant I had planned for us to go to for lunch would be closed and we would then instead have to just grab stuff at the convenience store as nothing that my fiancé could eat would be open until the evening.
**Pocket Wifi**
We went with Japan Wireless and would highly recommend them. It ended up being around $10 a day for unlimited data. We never ran into any connection issues and it was nice being able to watch videos on the trains without having to worry about running into any data limit. The battery would last about 8 hours before it needed to be charged but they provide you with a pocket battery and I also brought my own. I would recommend investing and bringing your own pocket battery if you don’t have one. I have one that has two USB ports so we could charge both the wifi and a phone if needed.
The pickup and dropoff was also incredibly easy. They have a counter right beside the train station before you leave the Narita airport. To return, you do have to mail the envelope back to them. I thought I could just go up to the same counter that I got it from and physically return it to the staff as I was worried about the package getting lost in the mail. The post office box was just a few steps away right before the security screening checkpoint.
**Yamato Delivery**
We brought a backpack and a large suitcase for our trip. Once we arrived in Tokyo we used Yamato to deliver the large suitcases to our hotel. We then had a change of clothes and other daily necessities in our backpacks. At the end of the trip we had Yamato deliver our suitcases back from Tokyo to the airport.
We found that this worked really well and it was nice not having to worry about our luggage while using the trains. Keep in mind that it will take 1 day for Yamato to deliver the luggage from the Airport to Tokyo and vice versa. We sent our suitcases back to the airport 2 days before our flight home as we weren’t going to be back in our Tokyo hotel until the night before our flight back home. If you do something similar make sure to give them 24 hours to deliver your luggage.
**Get a nice hotel if you think you will need assistance**
We stayed at Hotel Coco Grand Kitasenju while in Tokyo which was around $100 CAD a night. This was our most expensive hotel (all the other ones we stayed at range between $40-80 CAD a night). I would recommend doing so though as they had the staff available to help up make phone calls to our ryokan and they helped us fill out the Yamato delivery slips and arranged for Yamato to pick up our bags and deliver them to the airport.
Some of the other cheaper accommodations that we stayed at didn’t have front desk staff available all the time so I think it would have been harder/impossible to get help or have our luggage delivered to another location.
**Luggage Management**
When we went to Kyoto and Osaka our hotel in Tokyo allowed us to leave our suitcases there for 4 days while we were away and we used our backpacks to carry clothes and other necessities. We mostly used our suitcases to change out clothes and pack away souvenirs.
We mainly did this as I didn’t want to book reserved luggage seats for the shinkansen in advance and we didn’t want to be a nuisance to others with our luggage. I had read it’s very rude to bring large luggage onto trains.
In hindsight I think this advice is a bit overblown as I saw many people bringing carry-on sized suitcases onto the trains all the time. I was personally fine with just my backpack but my fiance struggled with this a bit and found it heavy and uncomfortable to carry around our backpacks all the time. We did store some of our clothes and other things into lockers at the train stations and amusement parks when we saw them but other times we didn’t wander across them and didn’t want to waste time searching so we just toughed it out. So if you have more time on your trip you may want to consider bringing carry on sized luggage and then either storing that luggage for the day at the train station or going to your hotel in the morning to drop it off (most hotels do allow you to store luggage shortly before and after check in/check out).
**Shinkansen & Reserved Seats**
You can and should reserve your shinkansen ticket. We bought all of our shinkansen tickets the day of and on our first trip the station attendant asked us if unreserved seats were okay as that’s all they had left available. I didn’t completely understand what they were asking. I thought unreserved just meant you might not get a seat in your preferred car or you may not sit together with your partner. But what unreserved means is that you buy a place in the unreserved car and there may or may not be a seat available for you there. The train to Kyoto only had 3 unreserved cars and the rest of the cars (10+) were reserved seats. On our way to Kyoto we ended up purchasing unreserved seats not realizing that only the first 3 cars were unreserved. We ended up looking for a seat all the way at the end of the train and then going up to the front of the train and realizing there were no seats left. So for the first 1-1.5 hours we were just sitting on the floor. Eventually near the end of the trip someone got off the train and we were able to sit down. But sitting on the floor was not a fun experience so I would definitely recommend always buying reserved seats even if you aren’t able to sit together with your partner or have to take a later train.
**Universal Studios Japan**
My primary goal with going to USJ was to see and experience all of Nintendo World. We did buy the express passes so we had a guaranteed entry into Nintendo World at 12pm. But I wanted to get into Nintendo World as soon as possible as I knew the lines for the mini-games would get longer in the afternoon (and there were no express lanes for these) and that toad cafe would be harder to get into. This is the timeline of how our day went:
**7am:** Arrived at universal studios. Waited in line
**8am:** Staff started letting people into the park. Tried to use the USJ app to get a time entry ticket into Nintendo World once they scanned our tickets but they were listed as unavailable. We rushed to Nintendo World and were able to just walk right in. In hindsight, I believe the time entry tickets only start appearing once it reaches maximum capacity and they close off the area. So as long as you are one of the first people into the park like we were you should be fine getting into Nintendo World right away.
**8:15:** We waited in line and bought our power up bands. This took about 15-20 minutes. Later on in the day we noticed a seller on the lower floor so it may have been faster if we walked down and waited in line on the bottom floor for the power up bands.
**8:30-8:45am:** We waited in line for the Toad Cafe to open at 9am. We got let in and we were seated and served within 20 minutes of opening. If you want to eat here, I would recommend going first thing in the morning like we did.
**9:45am-12pm:** We did all the power up band mini-games.
**12-1pm:** Our scheduled express pass time for the Mario Kart ride and the Yoshi ride came up. This was actually perfect timing as we had pretty much finished all the other mini-games around the park and we were ready to leave after this.
**1pm:** We had a time entry ticket to Wizarding World but we never actually needed it as this portion of the park never reached capacity when we were here (this was on a Tuesday).
**1:30-5pm.** We rode the rest of the rides that our express pass allowed fast entry for. I get easily motion sick though so the only ones I actually enjoyed were the Flight of the Hippogriff and the Jaws ride. I did go on the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride and the screen made me immediately sick. Luckily I made it through and avoided all other screen based rides for the rest of the day.
**Takaragawa Onsen Osenkaku**
Was a highlight of our trip and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who is looking to experience a more traditional onsen experience.
It’s about a 1.5 hour shinkansen from Tokyo. The onsen then provides a free shuttle from the station back to the resort.
We got to the station at 10am as we originally planned to go to the tanigawadake ropeway for a picnic lunch on top of the mountain. Unfortunately, we only realized that the ropeway was closed for maintenance when we arrived at the station. So we ended up going and exploring a park near the Jomokogen station instead.
The park was absolutely beautiful. It had cherry blossoms, a water wheel, a big powerful river, and there was even a little shop in the park that you could order food from. There were only a few people there so it was really quiet and serene compared to the parks we visited in Kyoto and Tokyo. If you aren’t going up to the ropeway I would still recommend spending a couple of hours here before going to the onsen as it was really nice to enjoy these beautiful sights with minimal people around.
We ended up taking the bus to the onsen at 1pm. Once we got settled in we used the onsen both before and after dinner.
The reason why we picked this onsen in particular is because it had mixed-gender baths so both myself and my fiancé could enjoy the same bath together. They provide everyone with a swimsuit so if you are the type of person that gets shy about being naked in front of other people that’s not a problem here.
The facilities were beautiful. We had a lovely view of the river from our room. The hotsprings were right along the river and had some beautiful Buddhist statues and trees to look at while in the bath. When you got in they had a few different styles of nemaki that you got to choose from and could wear around the resort and at dinner. We also got to sleep on tatami mats which were surprisingly more comfortable and cozy than it looks.
The staff was also incredibly nice and accommodating. Our original plan was for my fiancé to just eat the rice and whatever else was safe for him to eat. We brought snacks for him to eat if he was still hungry. The week before our stay though they emailed and specifically asked if we had any dietary restrictions so I told them about my fiancé’s wheat allergy. During breakfast and dinner they had a specific note placed about our table to signify which meal was gluten free and did substitute items with gluten friendly alternatives (for example, I had a battered fish for dinner and my fiancé got a cooked eggplant instead with tomato and cheese on top). They also had gluten free soy sauce that they provided. I’m still not confident at how gluten friendly my fiance’s meal was as they did have to send a few clarifying emails and asked if battered foods were okay. But they were very understanding and said my fiance could leave whatever he couldn’t eat and he was able to eat more than usual because of the extra effort so we really appreciated it.
When I initially posted my itinerary on Reddit many people recommended that I try to find a private onsen closer to Tokyo/Kyoto. But I’m so glad I went to this one and would highly recommend it to anyone else who wants to stay at a traditional ryokan that has mixed baths and is looking for a more rural location to visit.
**Gluten Free Restaurant Reviews**
These are the different gluten friendly restaurants we visited:
* **Soranoiro Nippon Tokyo Station:** It was a bit hard to find because Tokyo Station is so huge. They have salt ramen that uses rice noodles.Overall it was okay but not the best ramen we had on the trip.
* **Gluten Free T’s Kitchen:** We had the karrage, takoyaki, and some gyoza. It was all very delicious and we would definitely recommend. The full sized order of karrage comes with 6-8 large pieces and it’s very rich so I would recommend doing a ½ portion instead.
* **KYOTO ENGINE RAMEN:** This is one of the best places and the best ramen places that we ate on the trip and I would highly recommend visiting. All of their broths are made gluten free so you can pick any soup you want and sub in rice noodles to make it gluten free.
* **Genji-Soba:** Soba place that uses 100% buckwheat noodles which makes their soba gluten free. They provide an english menu that specifies which soba dishes are gluten free and you can request a gluten free dipping sauce for the soba. Soba isn’t our favorite food but it was still worth the trip for the experience. It was a small restaurant with only 8 or so seats and the owner is the only one working there. You get to sit right in front of him and watch him as he makes you your meal which was a cool experience.
* **Hokkaido Shintokucho Tsukada Nojo Akihabara Manseibashi:** Delicious cheese options but the portions were small and expensive. My fiancé got the salted lamb that we thought would come with 3 lollipops based on the picture but it actually only came with one.
**Trip Highlights**
These were some other standout places we visited:
* **Kyoto Botanical Garden:** One of the most beautiful gardens we visited during our trip.
* **Himeji Castle:** Seeing the castle from the street as you start walking up to it, then seeing the castle from the grounds and then eventually going up and walking around it and seeing the view from the very top was an amazing experience. The cherry blossoms were so beautiful and we got a lot of beautiful pictures of the cherry blossoms around the moat of the castle.
* **Universal Studios Japan (Nintendo World):** I’m a big nerd and haven’t seen Nintendo World in America yet so this was an amazing experience. Seeing the Mario franchise re-created in real life was amazing and I cried tears of joy. My only regret was that we were a bit too early to see and experience the Donkey Kong portion of the park.
* **Nara Park:** I really didn’t think I would be a fan of this as we have plenty of deer where we live. But it was fun feeding the deer and once you got away from the main entrance of the park there were plenty of quiet places you could sit, relax, and enjoy the view of the park.
**General Tips/Tricks**
* A lot of bathrooms will not have any way to dry your hands and some won’t even have any soap in them. So carrying around a hand towel and bringing some hand sanitizer with you is a must.
* Garbage cans are rare to find even in places where you think there should be one such as a park. So bring your own bag or buy a bag at the convenience store (even when you don’t need it) to store your garbage in.
* Keep an eye out for reserved trains/train cars. Certain trains/train cars in Tokyo will require you to purchase a seat. We accidentally got on a train a few times and realized it was reservation only and had to quickly hop off.
* Everyone online said to bring comfortable shoes as your feet will get sore. We bought some sole inserts in advance and brought our most comfortable running shoes and socks. We walked a fair amount and I never once had issues with my feet being sore or uncomfortable.
* Give yourself more time to get to destinations. Especially for any train ride that you may be trying to take to get back to the airport. Google maps underestimates how much time it takes to walk and find your train platform. Most of the trains in Tokyo leave every couple of minutes but for other less popular locations you may be waiting up to 15 minutes if you happen to miss your train. If you have somewhere you need to be at a specific time, give yourself 15-30 extra minutes to get there and use the Google Maps feature to arrive at a certain location at X time to more accurately understand when you need to leave your current location.
* Would highly recommend booking hotels with onsens if you are into taking hot baths after a long day. Both my fiance and I love onsens and we visited 3 different ones during our 10 day trip. The one we ended up going to the most was our onsen located directly in our Tokyo hotel. After a long day it was a lot easier to mentally work up the energy to go to the onsen in the hotel. Whereas, when we stayed at other places that didn’t have the onsen located in the hotel we ended up not going to them as often as we didn’t feel like walking the 5-10 minutes it would take to get to the nearest one by our hotel.
* We did end up eating at convenience stores a lot for breakfast and lunch. Some of the more gluten friendly options (but may still be cross contaminated) includes apples, grapes, bananas, plain rice onigiri, salted chicken, peppered beef/steak, yogurt and salted popcorn. We used the lens feature in Google translate lens to double check the back of anything we were unsure about.
Finally, here are some more gluten friendly restaurants (either are entirely gluten free or have gluten free options) that I researched but didn’t get a chance to try. This is based entirely off of online reviews, some places only have 1-2 reviews mentioning gluten free options so proceed with caution if your gluten allergy is more sensitive.
* Shimbu Sakiya Ramen (Shibuya)
* Nabezo Shinjuku Sanchome Store (gluten free hot pot)
* Nabezo Shinjuku Meijidori (gluten free hot pot)
* Teppan Baby Shinjuku (gluten free okonomiyaki)
* Kuriya (Izakaya Shinjuku)
* Namiki Yabusoba (soba near tokyo tower)
* Otsuna Sushi (gluten free soy sauce)
* Moyan (curry chain with gluten free options)
* Coco ichibanya (Curry chain. Has an allergen free curry option)
* Gonpachi (Chain restaurant that has gluten free izakaya items/rice bowls)
* Azabujuban Yakuzen Curry (Shibuya)
* Nabezo Shibuya Center-ga (gluten free hot pot)
* Gluten Free 61 Cafe and Bar
* Komehiro Bakery
* Biossa (bread)
* RiceHACK/Onden House (pizza)
* Setagaya Gluten Free Cafe
* Comme’N Gluten Free (bakery)
* Ikinari Steak (steak house chain)
* KYOTO ENGINE RAMEN
* Ramen Kazu (Kyoto)
* Kobe Beef Steak Mouriya Gion (Kyoto)
* Teppan Tavern Tenamonya
* Karasuma Rock (yakuniku)
* Cafe & Bar Maru ＠恵花 Gluten free (Kyoto)
* Teuchi Toru Soba (Soba Kyoto)
* Ikkakuju Karasumaten (gluten free okonomoyaki Kyoto)
* Sugarhill Kyoto
* Steak House Pound Kyoto Honten
* Pound Kyoto Ekimae (yakuniku)
* 薬膳スパイスカレー＆グルテンフリーバルSpys Oasis (Osaka curry)
* Genji-Soba (Osaka soba)
* Afuri (gluten free ramen chain) Order with konnyaku noodles and Shio (salt) broth
by TheNintendoBlurb