Hello everyone! I read a lot of trip reports before I left for my trip to Japan so wanted to give back.
About us: We went as a group of 3 people total (all 21M). We all just graduated college and wanted to take a grad trip. We traveled from May 9th to May 23rd (I got really busy after the trip so was only able to write it up now). We aren't huge drinkers so we didn't really visit any bars or clubs.
Day 0 – Arrival (8,872 Steps) May 9-10th
We arrived at Narita around 2pm JST. Customs took about an hour, and then getting the Passmo passport took another 30 minutes. After this, we went straight to our hotel in Shin-Okubo (right next to Shinjuku). We were pretty tired so we just walked around a bit and went to the Shinjuku Metro Government building for a (FREE!) observatory view of the city. For dinner, we went to Yoshinoya and were in bed by 10pm.
Day 1 – Tokyo (34,696 steps) May 11th
This was our first full day in Tokyo. We started the day off early and went to the Outer Tsukiji Fish Market. We wandered around for a while (there were a lot of tourists here!) and ate some dango and tamogoyaki. There was less fish here than I was expecting. Of the food streets we went to on the trip, this was definitely my least favorite. Afterwards, we went to the Hama Rikyu Gardens which were a ten minute walk away. The gardens are super pretty and very peaceful. We also got some tea and dango here at a tea house in the middle of the park.
Next, we went to the Ginza area for some shopping. In particular, we went to the Uniqlo Flagship, Muji Flagship, and the GU flagship. We are very cheap shoppers, so we didn't really hit the luxury stores (which is most of Ginza). In between our shopping, we got lunch at Orca Teppanyaki. We made the reservations before we went to Japan. The food was a bit pricey but was good. We also went to the Asakusabashi Matsuri after lunch. This was super underwhelming and I would not recommend going. There were a total of 10 stalls and not many people. After finishing our shopping, we went to the Ginza 6 mall which has a really nice rooftop garden and views of Ginza.
We got back to our hotel around 7pm and relaxed for a bit. Then, we went to Omoide Yokocho in Shinjuku. It was definitely overpriced because of all the tourists. After getting a couple of drinks here, we wandered around the Kabukicho and Golden Gai areas. They were all full of tourists, but it is a super pretty area at night. We were still a little jet lagged so we retired at 11pm and went to bed.
Day 2 – Tokyo (22,775 steps) May 12th
Today, we started a bit later because of the jet lag. We started the day at Meiji Jingu and walked around the shrine and surrounding park. It was very pretty and I highly recommend going just to chill in the park.
Afterwards, we headed to Odaiba. We went to go see the big Gundam at Diver City and walked around the mall. We also went to the Aqua City mall and had lunch at the ramen theme park. Finally, we went to the Tokyo Decks retro shopping street. This was super cool and we definitely could have spent more time here. However, we had a reservation at Team Lab Planets. Team Labs was really cool and I am glad we went. It was a lot shorter than I was expecting (it only took us 1.5 hours to go through it all) but the exhibits are all very interesting.
We came back to our hotel to chill for a bit and then explored the area around us (Shin-Okubo). There is a large Korea town around the station and I recommend staying in the area as it is quieter than Shinjuku. We got dinner at Torikizoku (a chain Izakaya) which was really good (honestly my favorite meal of the trip) before going to bed.
Day 3 – Tokyo -> Osaka (25,593 steps) May 13th
Today, we started early to go to Osaka. We took the local train to Shinagawa and then took the Shinkansen to Osaka. We also grabbed our Eki-bens at the station before the trip. You can find them pretty easily in the stations. Honestly, they are not that good (because they are cold) and I would recommend just getting some Kombini food instead.
We had planned to do Nara today, but it was raining, so we went straight to our hotel to check our bags in. We decided to stay in the Dotonbori area because it was the cheapest. After we dropped our bags off, it was still raining so we went to Round 1 Osaka (the biggest in the country). The arcades in Japan are super fun and pretty cheap (if you don't go for the prize games). After spending a good amount of money to win a figure, we played a bunch of rhythm games. We came back to this Round 1 everyday during our time in Osaka because we liked the arcades so much.
After spending a bit too much time and money, we checked into our hotel properly and walked around the Dotonbori area. We ate some Takoyaki and listened to the street performers. We also went to Don Quixote which was packed with tourists. Afterwards, we wandered down some of the backstreets (which were basically empty) to find some Okonomiyaki. We ended up eating at Bonkuraya which was decent. We ended the night by going back to Round1 and playing some more games.
Day 4 – Osaka and Nara (28,149 steps) May 14th
Since we were unable to go to Nara yesterday, we decided to go today. We took the special deer train (which was pure luck). We went to go see the mochi pounding at Nakatanidou but missed the scheduled show. They are approximately every hour so plan accordingly. We did eat the mochi though which was pretty good.
Afterwards, we wandered around Nara park and saw Kofukuji Temple, Kasuga Taisha Shrine, and the Daibutsu. The temples were all super interesting and I definitely recommend going to Nara if its your first time in Japan. However, it is also packed with tourists and school kids. We also fed the deer who were more aggressive than I was expecting. If you don't want them to attack you, try to feed the ones without antlers (the females) as they are less aggressive.
After Nara, we came back to Osaka in the evening. We walked down Shinsaibashi and went to some of the stores. In particular, the cheese tarts at Pablo were really tasty. Afterwards, we went to America Mura and got some more Takoyaki. I really loved the vibes of the America Mura area and wished that we went a bit earlier in the day (as most things closed by the time we went). We ended up getting some burgers and fries at Rich Garden which was good. We ended the day by going back to Round1 to do the SpoCha and play some more rhythm games.
Day 5 – Osaka (31,777 steps) May 15th
Today, we started off by doing a hike outside of the city. We found out about it on another trip report (which I can't find anymore, but you can find the route by googling "The Takedao Abandoned Railway Hike"). It starts at Namaze station and takes you to Takedao station by walking on an abandoned rail line. It was super pretty and we didn't see many people on the trail. I highly recommend it and it was our favorite activity of the trip by far. As well, at the end of the trail at Takedao station, there is a nice onsen (called Azare) which we soaked in.
After soaking in the onsen, we came back to Osaka station and explored the area. In particular, we went to Nintendo Osaka, Pokemon Center Osaka, One Piece Osaka, pop-up Square Enix Store, Capcom Store which are all on one floor of a mall. The stores are really nice, but I recommend going to the ones in Shibuya (as they are tax free while Osaka is not). Afterwards, we went to Osaka Castle and walked around the park.
We then came back to the Dotonbori area and wandered around again. We ended up getting dinner at Chuka-soba Fuji Namba which was the best ramen of the trip. We ended the night off by grabbing some Strong-Zeros and chilling on the roof of our hotel.
Day 6 – Osaka -> Kyoto (29,000 steps) May 16th
We woke up early today to go to Kyoto. From the Dotonbori area, it takes about an hour to get to Kyoto. Our hotel in Kyoto did not let us drop off our bags, so we ended up using the coin lockers in the nearby station (which worked perfectly). After we arrived, we walked to Kiyomizudera. The temple is nice, but the whole area is packed with tourists and school kids. On the way back, we walked through Sanenzaka and Ninenzaka. We stopped by the Starbucks Machiya (which was way nicer than I was expecting) and chilled for a bit. We also went to Yasaka shrine which was a little less busy.
After exploring this area, we checked into our hotel and dropped our bags off from the coin locker. Next, we decided to walk to Ippudo Tea Store as one of my friends is really into tea. They had a wide selection (which I didn't understand anything about), and he grabbed some for himself. We then went to explore the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, it was already closed (but the surrounding park is nice).
At night, we explored Pontocho alley, but didn't really find anything we wanted to eat so we decided to try Coco Ichiban. The curry was alright but just tasted like garam masala. If you are good with spice, I recommend getting at least level 4 or 5.
Day 7 – Kyoto (38,046 steps) May 17th
We woke up extra early today to do Fushimi Inari. We arrived at 7:30AM and it was not too busy. We hiked the entire thing which took about 2 hours total. When we were coming back, the whole place was packed. If you want to go, I recommend going early. The shrine is also open 24/7 though, so I think a night hike could also be cool. Although it is super overhyped, I still really enjoyed Fushimi Inari and it is as pretty as the pictures make it look.
After Fushimi Inari, we went to Nishiki Market. This was the best food street of the trip. There was also a lot more fish here than in Tsukiji. We had tempura, kushikatsu, and unagi. Afterwards, we went to Arashiyama to see the bamboo grove and Tenryuji temple. Honestly, Arashiyama is pretty overhyped and I don't think its worth it. There are plenty of other bamboo groves in Kyoto and Tokyo.
Finally, we came back to the hotel and shipped our bags to Tokyo. Our hotel didn't have a front desk, so we did it ourselves at 7/11. It was a little bit confusing and took more time than I would have liked, but we got it done. We had a chill night and got Kaiten Sushi at Kura. The sushi in Japan is a lot better than at home and even the Kaiten sushi was good.
Day 8 – Kyoto -> Hakone (18,166 steps) May 18th
We woke up early today to head to Hakone. We took the Shinkansen to Odowara station (seeing Fuji-san along the way!) and then bought the Hakone Free Pass at the station. If you want to see most of Hakone (by doing the Hakone loop) then it makes the most sense to buy it (it covers all the transportation there). Once we got the pass, we headed to Hakone shrine. The torii on the water had a massive line to take a picture, so we just looked from afar before leaving. On the way back, we found a bridge that had access to the water where you could take a super similar picture (which had no one there) so we took a photo there instead.
After Hakone Shrine, we hopped aboard the pirate ship and took it across the lake to the cable cars to Owakaduni. After standing in line for a while, we were able to make it to Owakaduni to get the black eggs. They honestly just tasted like normal boiled eggs. We also grabbed lunch here at the cafe. Unfortunately, they closed off the walking path so you couldn't see much of it.
Afterwards, we headed back to the city to go to our ryokan. We chilled there for the rest of the day soaking in the onsen and eating the kaiseki dinner.
Day 9 – Hakone -> Yokohama -> Tokyo (23,279 steps) May 19th
After a relaxing day at the ryokan, we woke up early to eat the provided breakfast. Once we stuffed ourselves, we made our way to Yokohama on the local trains. We wandered around Cosmo world (an amusement park) while making our way to the cup noodle museum. We got a reservation for the make your own cup noodle experience (which was about 1.5 hours later), and decided to wander around Yokohama a bit more. We went to the red brick warehouse which was full of western themed shops. We also saw an impromptu car show which was pretty interesting. There were a lot of chinese EV's which we don't see at home.
Once our reservation time came, we went back to the cup noodle museum to do the DIY experience. It was honestly much cooler than I was expecting and I highly recommend the experience. Yokohama was pretty cool and I wish we spent more time here. But, after the cup noodle experience, we made our way to Asakusa in Tokyo to check into our hotel.
After checking in, we saw that the Sanja Matsuri was happening so we wandered around there. This redeemed our earlier matsuri experience in Asakusabashi. It was crazy how much fighting there was (I highly recommend watching some YouTube videos, I did not expect to see the yakuza there). After eating the standard matsuri food (yakisoba, choco-banana, okonomiyaki) and watching the precession, we chilled at our hotel and spent some time on the rooftop garden. We had a perfect view of the SkyTree and Senso-ji so we spent a lot of time up here over the coming days.
Day 10 – Tokyo (25,745 steps) May 20th
Now that we entered the final days of our trip, it was time to go shopping. We are all huge anime fans, so we dedicated the entire day to Akhibara. Most of the stores open up at 10AM, so we arrived then. We spent the entire day here, making this the most expensive day of our trip. Here is the list of all the stores we visited: Yodobashi Camera (massive electronics store), Ed-on (electronics store), Mandarake Complex (anime megaplex), Animate (general anime goods), Super Potato (retro video game store), Book off (second hand store), Mulan Akiba (figure store), Akiba Culture Zone (figure and second store), Astop (second hand figure store), M's (look it up), Galleria (PC gaming store). We also visited a couple of smaller interesting stores (like a store dedicated to VTubers) we saw along the way, but I can't find them on google maps.
After spending all day in Akhibara, we ended the day off by getting Tsukemen at Mendokoro Wakamusha Asakusa and doing Karaoke. We also did a nightime stroll through Sensoji which was very aesthetic at night (and also empty!).
Day 11 – Tokyo (26,506 steps) May 21st
Today, we went to Shibuya to do some more shopping. We participated in the scramble and saw Hachiko. Then, we walked around and hit the stores we were interested in: One Piece Store, Nintendo Store, Pokemon Center, Tokyu Hands, Tower Records, and Don Quixote. We also stopped for lunch at Royal Host (a family restaurant).
After Shibuya, we went to Ikebukuro to visit Sunshine City mall. We visited the Pokemon Center, Moe Garden (Ghibli Store), and the Disney store.
Day 12 – Tokyo (34,644 steps) May 22nd
This was our last full day in Japan. We went to Kappabashi street in Asakusa to buy a couple of chef knives. There are a lot of interesting cookware stores and you can try a bunch of different types of knives here. Once we acquired our goods (which took a while), we went to Ueno Park to visit the museums.
We ended up visiting the Natural History Museum which was alright. If you have been to a big natural history museum already, there is not much that is unique here. I wish we had done the Tokyo National Museum instead (as it seems to be more unique to Japan). After the museum, we grabbed lunch at Ichiran. The ramen was better than I was expecting, but it tasted fairly standard. I definitely preferred the more local places we went to.
To grab our final souvenirs, we went to Tokyo Station. However, there was not much that was unique here. Everything that is here, you can also find at the airport, so I would not recommend going just for the souvenirs. We also grabbed kakigori nearby which was worth the hype. We cleaned up our souvenir shopping by going to the Don Quixote in Asakusa to grab the snacks we forgot earlier. We also grabbed dinner at Yayoi Tonkatsu which was very good and homely.
Day 13 – Tokyo -> Home (9,485 steps) May 23rd
Today was our final day in the city. Our flight was at 4pm, so we spent the morning walking around Senso-ji. The contrast between visiting at night and in the day was insane (as it was SUPER busy in the day). We visited a local arcade for our last rhythm game fix and then hopped on the train to the Narita airport. After clearing security, there are a lot of souvenirs shops so we did our final shopping here. A lot of the foods I was looking for (unique Kit Kats, Royce chocolate, unique Black Thunders) were all here, so I recommend saving a bit of space to pick them up here. After shopping around, it was time to hop aboard and come back to LAX, ending our trip.
Tips and Things We Wish We Knew
- When you are going to the arcades, you should grab an arcade card. While they sell multiple, the one that pretty much all the games is the Nimo (or Bandai Passport). The other cards are much less used (I only found 2 games which didn't accept my Nimo card). The card will track your progress, let you skip tutorials, and sometimes gives you a free play too. You can normally find a vending machine somewhere which will let you buy one for 300 yen.
- For clothing, pretty much everything is 1 size smaller (Japanese M = American S). As well, most stores (including the Uniqlo Flagship) only carry up to Japanese XL (American L). If you are fat (like me), you will have to order online and then pick up at the store. It is a pretty easy process, but make sure you order at least a week in advance of your pick up date (as it takes time to ship from the warehouse to your pick up store). We didn't know this so I was unable to get clothes.
- For souvenirs, pretty much all the Nintendo Stores, Pokemon Centers, and Don Quixote carry the same things. I would recommend going to the ones in Shibuya as it has the only Tax-Free Pokemon Center and the largest Don Quixote in Tokyo. None of the Nintendo Stores are tax free so you can visit any of them. Also, for snacks, the airport has all the big souvenirs (like Tokyo Banana), so you can buy them there before your flight back.
- For the coin lockers, the process is super simple. You find an open one, put your stuff in, then go to the main tablet to tap your Passmo and pay. When you come back, tap your Passmo at the main tablet, and it will unlock your locker.
- For luggage sending, if your hotel doesn't do it for you, you can do it at pretty much and 7/11 or Family Mart. Ask the cashier for Yamato Takyu-bin, they will give you a form to fill out. For the receiver, fill out the address as it shows up in google maps (and put the hotel's phone number). We were told to write the receiver address in Kanji so just try your best :). For the sender, put the hotel you are staying at (and use your phone number).
- For Karaoke, the machines generally have an English song option so you can type in the song and find it. If you want to sing Japanese songs, you have to type in the Katakana for the song, so make sure you know how to type it in Katakana. Also, the lyrics are only displayed in Katakana so you should pull up the Romanized version on your phone.
Overall Thoughts and What We Would Do On a Second Trip
We all loved our trip to Japan and definitely want to come back. However, there are some places we would not visit again or spend less time in.
- All of us loved Osaka the most and wish we spent more time here. As well, there are a lot of small cities near the main Osaka city so you can take a lot of day trips from here. Instead of 3 days, we wish we spent a week here.
- Kyoto was alright. While it was definitely good for the first time, we don't think we would come back because it is just so packed with tourists. We wish we took day trips here from Osaka (rather than staying overnight for 2 days).
- Nara was similar to Kyoto. It was good for our first trip, but its just too packed for us. I don't think we would come back here.
- Hakone also has a massive amount of tourists. While it is very pretty, I wish we went to a different countryside area instead (like in north Japan).
- Tokyo is massive and you can spend infinite time here if you wanted. If you have any extra days, I would recommend you just stay in the city.
- In general, we enjoyed the things that were off the beaten path (like the abandoned railway hike) more than the standard tourist fair.
Costs
Here is the cost breakdown for the trip. I used a conversion rate of 155 YEN = 1 USD
- Flights: $1071.3
- Hotels: $535.69
- Shinkansen: $152.08
- Local Trains: 19,500 YEN = $125.81
- Food: 52,986 YEN = $341.85
- Activities: 23,430 YEN = $151.16
- Souvenirs: 70,984 YEN = $457.96
- Misc: 4,354 YEN = $28.09
My total cost for the trip was $2863.94. I definitely bought a couple more souvenirs than I needed (and spent a bit too much money at the arcades), but the yen is really weak right now. In total, I got 7 figures, 8 plushies, 2 knives, a switch game, and a whole bunch of snacks so I got my money's worth at least.
by Pokepal23
