Thought I would share, as I lurk here quite a bit for info.
About us: early/mid 30’s and newly married, both of us have worked in food and drink. This was my second trip to Japan and his 5th. I speak a little bit of Japanese (2yrs in high school), and our main goals were wandering into cool bars/restaurants and didn’t keep a super strict schedule. We were there for two weeks.
Before the trip:
Checked out a post about Esim cards, so we both downloaded Ubigi and purchased a 10g plan for like $20 I think. It was insanely easy, and we had no issues. It lasted our whole trip with some to spare.
We also each had a Suica from our 2019 trip, and added them onto our phones. Adding them was easy, refilling then was a bit harder. You can’t add cash between certain hours (like 3-5am I think?), and it would only work with my Mastercard that has the 3D Security.
First couple nights:
Stayed in Akihabara. Awesome location to stay, as it’s not too crazy but still feels central. Walked down to Ginza, ate at our favorite izakaya, hit a few bars, and checked out the beautiful window displays for the holidays.
Next few nights:
Shinkansen to Osaka, stayed right in the middle of things (we could see Glico man from our window, lol). More of the same, food and drink.
Went down to the local version of kitchen street (namba-sennichimae) which is great for buying gifts, and to a food market in nihombashi for seafood and wagyu snacks. Hit up Bible Club for some amazing cocktails, as well as stopping by some tiny bars around Namba.
Also hit Tsurutontan which is a fantastic Udon chain. We also made our first late night McDonald’s stop (just out of curiosity), and omg, it was surprisingly amazing. Beef stew pies and Teriyaki McBurger were the hits.
Next half:
Shinkansen back to Tokyo, staying in Shibuya. Next time we go back we def won’t want to stay so close to the scramble, but we are used to staying way out in west Tokyo (kokubunji) so we wanted to try something new.
Food, drink, shopping, etc. Our second day back was spent at Disney. We arrived around 10am (the entry line was pretty tame), and immediately got Premiere Access passes for Beaty and the Beast, which was for 2:50-3:50. We weren’t gung-ho about hitting rides (I don’t do roller coasters, and husband is not the hugest Disney guy), so we walked around and went on a few rides (Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion Holiday, etc), ate snacks, did some shopping, went on B&B then moved over to DisneySea.
Yes, there is no park hopper option. We wanted to just quickly see both parks in one day, so we bought full day tix for Disneyland AND weeknight passes for DisneySea. The weeknight tix were a little less than the full day, and let us in at 5pm. By that time it was getting dark, and VERY cold, and apparently the food/drink stalls begin to shut down around six. So the only ride we went on was Sinbad, and essentially walked a lap around the park, grabbed a drink and a snack, and left the park when the nighttime show was starting.
More food and drink…. Highlights include: Gucci Osteria (the food was kind of lackluster, the space is beautiful), Bar Landscape (great drinks, great service), Kigari ramen (the BEST paitan, but there will be a line full of tourists), MAZ (by FAR the best meal we ate. Amazing experience). Shopping in Kappabashi.
Spent one night in Kyoto. Essentially we tried to get a reservation at the Yamazaki Distillery, but the only slot available meant we had to make another Shinkansen trip out west. So we chose to go to the distillery (tasting room only, no tour), and then spend the night at an Onsen Ryokan in Kyoto/Arashiyama. The distillery was nice, unfortunately nothing great in the gift shop whisky-wise, but you can get some excellent pours in the tasting room and the grounds are beautiful.
Our ryokan was awesome; way cooler than we expected. We had a room with our own private tub (we are both heavily tattooed, and apparently that is still an issue). We had a nice dinner and a late night ramen (it’s part of Dormy Inn, I guess late night ramen in their thing?) and a good breakfast. Short and sweet trip, but it was a highlight for us.
One or two more nights later (on Xmas day), we made our way back to the US.
I’m trying to not be too verbose, so please feel free to ask for any specifics!
3 comments
Sounds like my kind of trip! Sorry if I missed these, but what izakaya did you go to in ginza and which ryokan did you book?
You are excited about your trip and rightly so. Glad you both had a good time. You spent a lot of time traveling but stayed in urban giants full of plenty of the same stuff. Ryokans in Kyoto are always fun, though. I might have suggested Sapporo. Land at Chitose, train it in Sapporo for one night and hit Susukino hard. The next day a short train trip to Yoichi for the Nikka Whiskey history tour (crazy stuff), then a quick train ride to Otaru for your Airbnb and the world’s finest sushi tour. Train it back to your short plane ride to Tokyo or back home. If you’re into seafood or whiskey Hokkaido is a stand-alone destination. But that’s just me and my taste buds talkin’.
Out of curiosity, what was your issue with staying near the scramble in Shibuya? My wife and I (both early 30s) will be in Tokyo in April and currently are booked to stay at the Cerulean in Shibuya.