Trip Report – 15 Days Osaka/Kyoto/Nagoya/Takayama/Kanazawa/Tokyo (April 2023)

Oh this is very long. I’ve somehow written way too much but maybe the details can be helpful to some so I’m leaving it as is.

Hello, just got back from my two week trip to Japan. I had initially planned on going in April 2020 so this was based off the plans I had then. It was my first time traveling abroad alone (though I did meet with friends while in Japan) but I’ve been to Japan four times prior to this trip.

I enjoy traveling to Japan for a mix of food, exploration, and because I like video games and anime/manga so my trip focuses on all those things rather than pure sight seeing.

**Trip Overview: Goals, Timeline, and Finanances**

This trip was meant to be a mix of experiencing traveling alone, relaxing after a stressful run of around 4 years without a proper vacation from work, meeting up with friends. My friends had varied availability so my itinerary revolved around being able to fit their schedule rather than optimizing my travel time.

I’ve been saving up for this trip since 2018 by putting a few hundred every month into a savings account so I’ve accumulated enough to afford to be relatively spendy on my accomodation. I didn’t choose the most luxury hotels but I was able to choose nice hotels near stations that had ammenities that I wanted (basically I wanted to most of my hotels to have either a bath tub in the room or a public bath/onsen). I booked everything back around November so I had the advantage of great USD to JPY exchange rates and just lower rates with early booking pricing. All in all I spent around $2,200 for my accomodation, including local accomodation taxes I had to pay in person at some of the hotels.

My trip timeline: Yokohama > Osaka > Kyoto > Tokyo > Nagoya > Takayama > Kanazawa > Tokyo

**Day 1 – Haneda/Yokohama**

Hotel: Hyatt Recency Yokohama (great) – Nice and quiet room and the location was decent though quite far from the train stations and is more accessible by bus. I like Hyatt but I’d pick a hotel closer to a JR station if I were planning on staying in Yokohama for more than a day.

Landed in Haneda in the late afternoon and of course, it was lightly raining. This was an intemediary day since I planned to head to Osaka the day after to go to Universal Studios Japan with my local friend. I took the airport limousine bus and it was convenient. A bus ticket can be purchased at a machine kiosk or at a counter at the airport. The bus staff have laminated cards in English asking you which stop you want. I chose the stop that my hotel had listed on their website in the access section. After checking in I went see the Gundam Factory (the moving Gundam). The area my hotel was in (Minato Mirai 21 I believe) seemed to be mostly western inspired food and I didn’t have a lot of luck finding ramen which I was craving. I ended up taking the subway (set up Suica on my phone while walking to the station) via Minatomirai Line to Bashamichi station and walked to Sakuragicho to get Ichiran (the ramen chain where you get a private booth with the curtain/don’t have to talk to anyone) since it was convenient and I was getting tired. I wandered around Sakuragicho to just people watch since it was a Saturday night before heading back to my hotel.

**Day 2 – Yokohama > Osaka**

Hotel: Swissotel Nankai Osaka (great) – Nice room, Good location basically on top of Namba station, a bit hard to access if you don’t know where is it (have to take elevator up to the lobby).

I ended up walking through the park area of the Yokohama Park next to the Yokohama Stadium to get to Kannai JR station. There was a flower display going on so it was very pretty and the station itself is baseball themed so it was cute. I ended up getting lost on the trains and took the wrong train/got off the wrong stop twice before making my way onto the right one. I activated my JR pass in Shin-Yokohama station and it took a surprisingly long time since there seemed to be a bunch of computer/paperwork the attendant was dealing with so I missed the train I had wanted to catch. Luckily I wasn’t on a short timeline and my friend that I was meeting up with in Osaka wasn’t in a rush.

Got to Osaka station and immediately took the Midosuji Line down to Namba to drop my luggage off at my hotel. They were very accomodating and actually checked me in and said I could pick up my key from the luggage counter after check in time. We didn’t plan this day out other than going to the Eorzea Cafe (if you play FFXIV you know lol) in the evening. My friend had booked a timeslot a month before the trip so we just had to show up at the cafe on time. My friend is a big Fate Stay Night fan (I don’t know anything about it) so there was a bridge in Kobe that is an important location with the game so we took the train over to Kobe and took our time walking around the area between the station and bridge. The weather was sunny and the sea breeze kept it from getting too hot from the sun. We missed lunch but my friend had bought some meat buns from 551 and they were delicious. We decided to head back to Osaka and check into our hotels properly before exploring the Dotonbori area a bit before heading to the Eorzea Cafe. The Cafe itself was very cute and I’d recommend it for any FFXIV fan – it was way easier getting a reservation here than the Tokyo one. After eating and drinking we left and decided to just rest for the night since we were planning on getting up early for Universal Studios Japan (USJ).

**Day 3 – Osaka**

My friend was leaving in the evening so our timeline was based on them catching the shinkansen back to Tokyo whereas my timeline was relaxed.

Our USJ trip is rather unconventional and some would say wasteful since we both only wanted to see 2 things – Super Nintendo World and the Monster Hunter World Iceborne XR walk. We did not plan on staying inside of USJ after accomplishing those two things as we’ve been to Universal Studios in the US multiple times.

We planned on getting to USJ an hour before the official opening time as we’ve read online that they let folks in early and we did not book tickets early enough to buy the passes that would give you a guarenteed entry time for Super Nintendo World (SNW). We ended up getting in early and using the USJ mobile app to reserve a 9:30am entry time pretty easily. Wizarding World never had an entry time requirement while we were in the park. Since our entry time was later we took our time and enjoyed seeing USJ relatively empty since we were there so early on a weekday. We entered during our timeslot and SNW was already pretty packed but luckily the line for the Mario Kart ride was only listed as 50 minutes. We rarely stood still in the line and were early enough that they had only just opened some of the extra rooms in which the line twists and turns into. After this we walked through the gift shops and picked up a few things before leaving SNW since it was getting way too crowded and the other ride did not interest us.

We then walked into the Wizarding World to get some butterbeer and were pretty shocked to see how packed it was (and it was getting hot with the sun out) and it still wasn’t being locked behind timed entry requirements.

After searching for the Monster Hunter XR experience, we were told you needed to purchase a timed ticket for it. However, the only way to do it was to buy it at the front ticket booth (have to leave the park) or do it online (which had a convoluted sign up process). After much complaining from my friend they managed to sign up (the website made you put down a Japanese address iirc) and buy two tickets. The experience is in Japanese only and they asked my friend multiple times if we were ok with that since I don’t speak any Japanese. We were put in a party of two (max four) and the staff were doing their best to accomodate me since I didn’t understand any of the on screen instructions. Thankfully it was relatively easy and if you play video games the visual prompts are rather intunitive. The XR experience was definitely a highlight and really cool. I do recommend it if you’re a video game fan in general if possible, though it was very annoying to get a ticket for it.

After this we left USJ and went to Osaka Aquarium. Seeing a whale shark in real life was really cool and I enjoyed the aquarium a lot. Don’t miss the ramune ice cream from the cafe on the way through it! The building was surprisingly warm and I couldn’t tell if that was from us walking a lot, the body heat from the crowds, or if the building just wasn’t kept that cold unless you’re in an Arctic/Antarctic biome area.

After the aquarium we decided to just do a mini Osaka food tour and ate our way through some okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and finally I had wanted some Kobe beef since I wasn’t planning on going out of my way to get any this trip. We actually found a streetside shop in Dotonbori that sold Kobe beef sushi/steaks so we ate that on the street before my friend had to leave to catch the train. After parting ways I took some time to walk around the area and take some photos before heading in for the night.

**Day 4 – Osaka > Kyoto**

Hotel – Hotel Grand Bach Kyoto Select (good) – Tiny room, street noise, good location, they have a public bath that was very nice

I slept in and just walked around Namba a bit more before heading off to Osaka station to ride the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Kyoto was actually a fairly last minute addition to my trip. I had been ambition and thought to go to Hakone but after having trouble finding a Ryokan that allowed for single travelers that I liked I decided to just take it easy and stay in my favorite city in Japan. I had already seen the tourist sites in Kyoto multiple times so for this trip I chose to just take it easy. After check in I tried Mos Burger for the first time and it was pretty good – I enjoyed my burger. I walked around Shijo-dori and picked up a few gifts for friends. That evening I walked around looking for ramen and found Kyoto Gion Ramen Muraji. I think they’re known for their lemon ramen but I chose their regular ramen and greatly enjoyed the broth and noodles.

**Day 5 – Kyoto**

My cousin who is more of a foodie than I am had informed me about this cafe (I guess popular on Instagram) in Arashiyama and I figured why not. I also knew the area was good for bicycling so I headed over to Arshiyama with the intent of spending the morning cycling and then heading to the cafe. Of course, after renting a bike, it started to rain. I rode along the Kyoto Prefectural Road No.801 Kyoto Yawata Kizu Bicycle Road Line for a few miles before turning back and returning the bike. I then ate at the cafe (had ice cream for brunch) – it was good but the matcha churros my cousin was looking for ended up being a seasonal thing – before heading back to my hotel. I walked around Shijo-dori more and had an afternoon meal at Ichiran (again, just easy and I was lazy) before spending the afternoon relaxing by the Kamo river near Gion. I then ate kaisendon at Wakasaya Kawaramachi for dinner at Nishiki market before doing some more shopping (if you like stickers then check out B-side label!). Then I hunted for dessert but it was getting late so most places were closing so I ended up at nana’s green tea and got an ice cream parfait. I decided that if I woke up early the next day (would not set an alarm) I’d do the Kurama – Kibune hike and pray I’d make it back to my hotel before check out time.

**Day 5 – Kyoto > Tokyo**

Hotel – Tokyu Stay Shibuya Shin-minamiguchi (good) – Small room, train noise, decent location, has washer/dryer in the room which was convenient

Lo and behold I woke up at 5:30am so I decided I’ll follow my word and go for the hike. Unfortunately even with the subway it took around 40-50 minutes to get from my hotel to Kuarma station so I knew I had to be efficient. The weather was looking good so I picked up water and food at the combini and made by way through a very nice and quite Kyoto. When I got to the entrance of the Kurama shrine, it was so early that the attendant at the toll booth was not working yet but there were no gates or chains blocking the bath. After some hesitation I just entered and started the hike. I’ve been terrible at exercising regularly at home so the beginning of the hike took a lot out of me but I would say the path is relatively easy and there are railing at steep sections. After strugging with shin splits for the first half hour my body warmed up and I was able to do the rest of the hike easily. I do recommend this hike – it’s pretty short and the views are amazing. I finished the trail before the entrance for the trail at the Kibune end was still not open so I didn’t have a way to pay the entrance fee. I returned the walking stick and made a quick stop at the Kifune-jinja shrine and wrote an ema before making the unexpectedly long walk down hill towards Kifune station. I think that walk was like a good 1/3 of my hike time but it was just down a road with cars and no proper sidewalk. I made it back to my hotel in time for a quick shower and checked out. The hotel let me keep my luggage there for an hour so I could find lunch at Nishiki Market (got unagi rice at Eel Rice 味彩, would recommend!). I picked up my luggage took the shinkansen to Tokyo to meet some other friends who were at the end of their own trip.

After making my way to Shibuya, I realized my hotel was near the New South Exit of Shibuya station, unfortuantely with all the construction going on and the exit being new, it meant you have to take an elevator onto another platform and then walk the length of the platform to the end to reach the exit. It isn’t the most convenient exit but hopefully after the construction finishes, they will have built an easier to find path to the new exit. This part of the trip was when my feet were especially hurting and even the quick 7 minute walk from the station to my hotel felt like forever. I spent the evening exploring Shibuya and got some shoyu ramen for dinner.

**Day 6 – Tokyo**

Spent the morning in Shinjuku taking pictures and visiting the arcades. I then headed to Nakano Broadway to meet with my friends. We spent the afternoon wandering around the Mandarake complex where they sell merchandise for almost any collecting hobby there is. My friends found a bunch of things they were looking for that they couldn’t find in Akihabara and we had some tsukemen for a very late lunch at Mita-Seimenjo Nakano. We then made our way back to Shinjuku since my friend wanted to do some night photography and wanted to check out the bar-filled alleyways like Golden Gai. Then we made our way back to Shibuya for more photography and late night ramen/beer before wandering a bit to people watch before parting ways.

**Day 7 – Tokyo > Nagoya**

Hotel – Mitsui Garden Hotel Nagoya Premier (great) – very modern, good views (could see Nagoya castle from my room), has a nice public bath, the room was very nice (there was a trouser press!)

I hesitated about spending a night in Nagoya but a friend told me the food there is great even if it’s typically considered boring. Unfortunately for me it was raining while I was here which hindered any great exploration but I do agree the food is good here. I ended up staying around Nagoya station since it’s covered and there is a lot of food around here. My impression of Nagoya is that the station is really neat but the fact that it’s also where the locals/people not intending to travel also hang out it makes the station very crowded. It also has surprisingly few lockers for you to store things for how large it is. There were some places recommended to me but all the places had huge lines since it was the weekend so I mostly just went with whatever I found that didn’t have a long line and all the food I had here was good. I had kishimen (flat udon) at Ekikama Kishimen inside the JR station, it was pretty good, though I didn’t expect the fishcake in it to be sweet. I went back to my hotel, took a bath, and went back out for dinner at Hakata Motsu Nabe Yamaya also inside the JR station. I initially wanted to check out the much recommended Maruya Honten which sells Hitsumabushi (Nagoya style grilled eel) but the line here is epically long. I’m sure it’s delicious but for this trip I did not want to stand in line for over an hour so I decided to skip it.

**Day 8 – Nagoya > Takayama**

Hotel – Ryokan Asurano (great) – A ryokan with a nice onsen, location is good

I took the Hida wide view to get from Nagoya to Takayama and the views were indeed nice. I thought it was cute that they had announcements pointing out the history and views along the route. I skipped lunch so I just snacked on some curry pan I got from the bakery inside the station which was really good.

Today was my onsen day basically. I enjoy ryokans but it is pretty difficult to book one as a solo traveler in Japan for various resons. Asurano was one that was open to solo travelers and they seem very foreigner friendly. The staff greeted me by name at the entrance and took my luggage before the check in process. During check in they asked me if I wanted to pick an earlier time slot for the kaiseki dinner since the hour I’d originally picked was really busy. I accepted and was led to my room by a staff member who pointed things out in the room before leaving. I took a quick break and a bath before heading to the dining room for dinner. The kaiseki was great and they had a card explaining each course and how to eat it in English which was a nice touch. I relaxed and went out for a walk to the combini to get ice cream before going to sleep.

**Day 9 – Takayama**

Hotel – Wat Hotel & Spa Hida Takayama (good) – location is a bit far out, nice baths

I switched hotels since I did not want to spend the money for two nights at the ryokan since half the experience is the meal and I only wanted kaiseki for one night. The public bath is large and there is even an outdoor area which was nice. The family/private bath is neat but they don’t clean the baths other than during cleaning hours so unless you’re first for the day, you gotta hope the person that went before you is respectful and cleaned up after themselves. The one family bath I looked into had some hair left in the bath (gross) even though they ask you to clean up using a little scooping net. I understand that this is a normal thing in any public bath but with how small the tub is for the family bath (could maybe fit 3 to 4 people max), it’s extremely noticable.

After sleeping in a bit I took the bus from Takayama Station (you can buy a ticket at bus station) to the Hida Folk Village. It was raining on and off in the morning so the village was fairly quiet. The area was really interesting and the houses were cool. I went back into town and found myself some good Hida beef and sushi for lunch. I had planned on splurging a bit for food while in Takayama and the ryokan had a book of recommended restaurants. I went to Matsuki-ushi for lunch which was right next to the station. I got the steak bowl and ordered a piece of salmon nigiri and Hida beef nigiri. It was all delicious and resturant was pretty quiet given it was a weekday and an off hour.

I then walked around Takayama exploring the city and Sannomachi Street. I had arrived the day after the spring matsuri so things felt a little calmer but I did notice a lot of other tourists around. Some stores had signs posting they were closed an extra day this week (I assume to recover from the festival) so it a bit inconvenient if you had a specific restaurant in mind that might have took an extra day off. For dinner I debated having one last Hida beef meal or if I wanted to try the Takayama Ramen but I went for the beef. Matsuki has two locations in Takayama the other one being called Matsuki-sushi. This location was a lot smaller and filled with locals during dinner time. I ordered a meal set that included a steak and eight pieces of omakase. The set also came with crab miso soup and an egg custard with seafood. It was all delicious and I say this as someone who does not particularly enjoy eggs. I went back to the hotel and turned in for the night.

**Day 10- Takayama > Kanazawa**

Hotel – the square hotel KANAZAWA (good) – nice bath, room is big, noisy, check in somehow took ages since the two clerks seemed to have a mountain of paperwork for the two guests in front of me to do?

I slept in and woke up to check out and stored my luggage in a coin locker at the station. I walked around Takayama more and got myself some Hida beef nigiri from a stall on Sannomachi Street and found some Takayama ramen for lunch at Kikyou-ya, a little hole in the wall in the Dekonaru Yokocho (area with lots of bars and nightlight) area of Takayama.

After lunch I took the Hida Wide View up to Toyama and transferring to the Hokuriku Shinkansen to get to Kanazawa station. The station is beautiful and busy. Kanazawa has a bus-based transit system and there isn’t a subway to get around the city with. I did try to use the bike rental app but the cursed app seems to either broken or only work with locals since there wasn’t a way for me to do the SNS verification. I ended up just walking everywhere during my stay in Kanazawa.

I checked into the hotel, took a bath, and walked around the area around my hotel. It was getting late so I was looking for dinner and most of Omicho market was already closed so I ended up at Sensai Enishi on the 2nd floor of Omicho and ordered some kaisendon. After dinner I explored the mall across the street, threw some money away at the gachapon machines, and went back to the hotel for a bath. The hotel has a cool balcony on the floor with the bath and sold milk in the vending machine so I relaxed out there for a while, watching the rain.

**Day 11 – Kanazawa**

I explored the Kanazawa Castle and Kenroku-en. The castle park is beautiful and the castle itself focuses heavily on architecture and explains how it was reconstructed and is really neat for anyone interested in architecture or woodworking. Kenroku-en is one of Japan’s ‘perfect gardens’ and it really is beautiful, albeit crowded and noisy. If I had a do-over I’d probably visit Kenroku-en first to avoid some of the crowds.

After failing to figure out the Docomo bike-share app, I walked to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art which had a lot of interesting things both inside and outside the museum. Then I made my way towards the Naga-machi district with a stop at Ippudo Ramen in the Katamachi-Korinbo area for lunch on the way. After going through Naga-machi and spending some time in Katamachi-Korinbo (and somehow getting the same Anya figure 4 times in a row in gachapon…) For dinner I got myself a kaisendon in Omicho and got a melon-melon frappe at Starbucks for dessert (good if you like those Korean melon popsicles).

**Day 12 – Kanazawa > Tokyo**

Hotel – NOHGA HOTEL UENO TOKYO (good) – Good location, modern hotel. A bit noisy.

Woke up to get breakfast/brunch in Omicho. I ended up eating some raw oysters from a stall in the market, trying out some soy ice cream, and some fruit before heading to the station. Took the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Ueno station where I was staying for my days in Tokyo. After checking into my hotel and resting, I made by way to Ashikaga Flower Park. This involved getting back on the Hokuriku Shinkansen for Takasaki Station and then getting on the JR Ryomo Line which is a local line to get to Ashikaga Flower Park Station. The travel time is a lot but the Flower Park is beautiful and the wisteria were blooming and they are currently doing the night time lights. It was very crowded and all the lines I saw for food were immense. After the long journey back to Ueno I enjoyed some 10pm Ichiran which was very delicious after a long time. I noticed that Ueno is very popular with younger folks and there is a lot of night life in the area that I didn’t used to associate with Ueno. A friend tells me it’s a fairly recently development so if you’re into barhopping and such it might be worth considering checking Ueno out.

**Days 13-15 – Tokyo**

I’m lumping these days together since I spent a lot of time shopping, playing games at the arcades, and just general merch hunting. Just the usual Tokyo things for a nerd. I’ll just write down interesting places and experiences.

Team Lab Planets – I did Borderless back in 2017. I think I liked Borderless more (spent more time just enjoying the exhibits) but I enjoyed what Planets was trying to do. The water stuff is definitely not for everyone but I enjoyed the interactive surfaces (the bean bag room was fun). I went early in the day so we didn’t have any gross water concerns but I did notice a lot of people immediately beelining to touch the LEDs after the staff literally said to not touch them and some people using flash (why? it ruins the photos in there anyway lol). It felt a lot shorter than Borderless to me and the visuals using lights in Borderless felt more interesting to me.

Shibuya Toriki – I believe this is a chain of yakitori izakaya. We went with a local friend who showed this place to us. It was really cool and we had a great time. The food was good and somehow every affordable. It was packed with a lot interesting groups and even if you don’t drink much it’s fun to people watch a bit in here.

On our way back from here (so almost midnight) we had a drunk local man barely hanging on in our train. After a few stops and the train emptying out he found a place to sit and at one stop right before the doors closed he tried to rush out and got caught between the doors. He struggled for a while but got out only for the platform gates to close on him. Another local Japanese man stood up to watch, ready to call for help but the drunk man got out. Not something we expected to see and it was pretty scary. We ended up wondering where the emergency button on the Yamanote line trains are anyway because they weren’t obviously visible.

**Notes and Tips**

Itinerary/Timeline Planning

* Research when stores tend to close in each city, Kanazawa was really cool but being there on a Wednesday meant a lot of restaurants were closed for their one day off. Some businesses in Takayama were also closed since the Spring Matsuri was the weekend before so I suppose they were taking an extra day off.
* Google maps and Navitime are a great combo to use when trying to figure out the trains and buses.
* Some areas have multiple stations, do keep in mind which station/which rail company you’re looking at when planning where to stay and which trains you’re taking. My friends booked at hotel thinking it was right on top of the station but it was actually the Tokyo Metro station and not the JR station. They’re usually very close together anyway but just something to keep in mind.
* Coin lockers are invaluable but also remember some stations have offices where you can store your luggage if you’re doing a short day trip in between hotel stops or it’s your last day and you want to explore a bit before heading to the airport. The larger ones that can fit suit cases can be hard to find due to demand but I’ve had the most luck with the coin ones vs the ones that take card/digital payment.

Money

* Apple Wallet Suica is super convenient. However, some train station kiosks like those for Suica only seat reservation machines for the Narita Express only take the physical IC cards so you might want to plan ahead if you know you will need to reserve seats.
* Do consider getting a fee-less/fee-reimbursing debit card. Japan still has a lot of cash only places from street food to the arcade so being able to just use an ATM is so convenient. I personally use a Charles Schwab debit card for my traveling and it’s great. The only downside is you have to make sure the ATM can take interntional cards.
* On that note, coin pouches/wallets are your friend. The Yen has a lot of coins and it’s just very handy. I’ve had friends saying they’d be fine with their card/paper money focused wallets only to end up needing to carry a plastic bag or buy a coin pouch while there lol.
* If you haven’t been back to Japan in a long while, the current JR pass is a lot easier to carry around than the old ones (where it was taped onto a booklet and didn’t fit into smaller wallets easily lol).

Misc.

* Please bring comfortable shoes, especially if you don’t usually walk a lot daily. I bring shoes I know that fit my feet well at home and my feet ached for most of the two weeks. Walking 20,000+ steps for 80% of my trip probably didn’t help but if you’re like me and come from a place that is very car-centric so you have to actually go out of your way to walk more than 10,000 steps daily your feet *will* hurt so definitely wear comfortable shoes.
* On that note Salopas patches (basically Icy-Hot/Bengay type pain relief but in a bandage form) is my best friend.
* If you know you’ll buy a lot of things do consider bringing an extra suitcase, a packable duffle bag, or be prepared to buy one there. I knew that I’d bring home a lot of merchandise since I like to buy plushies, clothes, figures, go to the arcades, etc. so I brough a packable duffle bag in my carry on. I just threw my shoes and clothes into the duffle back at the end of my trip and checked it on my flight home. This left my suitcase free for my electronics and merch.
* Why are the sidewalks in Japan so slippery? It rains so much there but there are so may slick surfaces?? I don’t think it’s my shoes my shoes are fine in the rain at home…
* Somehow I saw/noticed more tourists in Takayama (I heard a lot of French in the area) and Kanazawa than anywhere else during my trip. Compared to my previous trips Kyoto felt less packed but Tsukiji market in Tokyo was crazy packed to the point of uncomfortable.
* Most people were wearing masks. The few I saw that didn’t were usually fashionable young people (I assume locals) whom I thought didn’t want to mess up their make up or something, obvious tourists, and just random individual locals. My flight home actually had more people without masks than with.

Edit: formatting