Trip Report: January 29th – February 9th | Tokyo > Hakone > Kyoto > Tokyo

Reminiscing on my fiance and I’s trip to Japan! I used this sub to plan a lot of things so I wanted to write up a trip report! Thank you to everyone on this sub for your trip reports and advice. This was my second time in Japan and my fiance’s first. We had an amazing time and can’t wait to go back again. We are 28/F and 37/M and live in NYC.

**Notes**

* Transit: We both downloaded the Suica app and loaded money onto it using Apple pay. This was so convenient, there were only a couple of times we had to buy a ticket for public transit. We did not buy a JR pass because the cost of our train tickets pretty much added up to the cost of the JR pass and we rode some trains that were not included in the JR pass, it didn’t make sense for us. We used the bus and subway to get around mostly.
* Google Translate: used this a lot to translate signs/photos and talk to people who didn’t know English
* Navigation: we used Google Maps which was amazing for both walking and navigating public transportation. We loved how it told us where to exit in train stations as well as which car to get on, so cool! Wish we had this in NYC.
* Coronavirus: I won’t mention it other than here. News had been coming out about coronavirus before our trip but we still decided to follow through with going. At this point not everyone was wearing masks, people in Japan were talking about it way more than people in the US. None of our planned activities were impacted at all.
* I bought [this really awesome book ](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/174117662X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)on Amazon before our trip and we used it to find tons of restaurants in Tokyo.
* I also [created a Google Map](https://drive.google.com/open?id=12_MUnVPBD4902HKkOqhnmS-zyr2UAGMU&usp=sharing) with places of interest / restaurants / our hotels so if we ever didn’t know what to do I would just open this map and see what was nearby.
* 7/11: We ate a crap ton of food from 7/11 so I won’t mention it throughout my report but we ate countless onigiri, egg sandwiches, and other sandwiches that we were obsessed with.

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**Wednesday, January 29th and Thursday, January 30th** Flight & Tokyo

**Morning**

We had a direct flight from NYC > Narita. We lucked out by getting emergency exit seats at the check-in counter. We were obsessed with the corn soup they served, so good! We purchased round trip JR Narita Express tickets for $38 each in the JR office in the train station. I had to show my passport to purchase.

**Evening**

Hotel: Onsen Ryokan Yuen Shinjuku

We checked into our hotel around 6pm. I had purchased a wifi buddy that was delivered to our hotel. In hindsight I kind of regret purchasing this, we used wifi whenever we could and we both kept forgetting to connect to the wifi buddy / letting it die. Both of our phone plans offer international usage for $10 a day, the wifi buddy was kind of a waste of money because our phone will automatically charge you $10 as soon as you start using international data. I feel like this subreddit persuaded me to rent one 😂

Onsen Ryokan Yen Shinjuku was a really cool hotel! It had an onsen on the roof that we used a lot. The room was extremely small so I think our one regret was not upgrading to a larger room, none were available when we checked in. We stayed here for 4 nights.

After settling in we went to the onsen to clean off and relax. For dinner, we went to this amazing Japanese BBQ restaurant in Shinjuku called Jiromaru. It is standing room only and has room for around 10 people. It was a perfect first dinner in Tokyo. We ate some amazing Wagyu beef and veg. We wandered into a Pachinko place on the way home and blew some money!

[Restaurant and food photo](https://imgur.com/a/aJsqtHI)

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**Friday January 31st** Tokyo – Shinjuku, Meiji Shrine, Harajuku and Kichijoji.

**Morning**

When we checked in we decided to book a traditional Japanese breakfast at our hotel the next morning. It was really delicious but in hindsight I think we should’ve eased into full on Japanese food as we were still jet-lagged and fish grossed me out for the rest of the day (even though I love it) lol.

[Breakfast](https://imgur.com/a/e2ZCqHW)

We both walk a ton normally so we opted to walk a lot of places to soak in the city! We explored Shinjuku and then headed to the Metropolitan Building for a view. There was a tour guide there telling us a lot of fun facts. It is cool that it is free!

Next we walked to the Meiji Shrine, there was some sort of wedding or ceremony going on. I purchased a goshuincho book at the shrine and got a stamp!

We then headed to Harajuku. We went into a store with all the toy dispensers which was really fun. We also went into an owl cafe but it ended up being really sad and I regret spending money there, I wish we did more research on this. We were really exhausted from walking a billion miles so we went into a little french cafe and had some drinks before going home to rest.

**Evening**

We booked [this Kichijoji drinking tour](https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/1376201) through Airbnb experiences and it was one of the highlights of our trip. Kichijoji was only a 15-minute train ride from Shinjuku and was such a COOL place. We never would’ve gone without this tour but it ended up being our favorite neighborhood in Tokyo. The tour mainly took place in Harmonica Alley.

Before the tour started the guide gave us all these hangover drinks, I think they worked, we ended up drinking them every night before imbibing 😂We went to a bunch of the little 6-8 person bars. I mostly drank lemon sours. Each bar had its own specialty food, we ate at one of them and had horse sashimi for the first time! The tour included 1 hour of unlimited food and drinks at a big Izakaya bar/restaurant place where we had lots of snacks and drinks, played drinking games, and the waiters chugged beers with you. We ended the night at another bar that had karaoke, we also hung out outside and drank corn soup from a vending machine.

[Kichijoji / Airbnb tour photos](https://imgur.com/a/Z9gmerO)

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**Saturday, February 1** Tokyo – Fish markets & Kappabashi-dori street (kitchen district)

**Morning**

I don’t know whose idea it was to book a 6 hour, 6am tour of the fish markets after our drinking tour, but we pulled through. We [booked this tour through Airbnb experiences ](https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/71924)and LOVED IT as well. Our tour met at the Toyosu fish market and we did not want to mess around with the subway that early, our hotel booked us a cab for 5:15am and it showed up right on time.

The tour ended up being longer than 6 hours and we covered SO much. The guide dropped so much knowledge on us.

* Toyosu Fish market, walked around where vendors are selling everything, saw tuna auctions. Saw a guy filet a fish and held a bunch of fish / crabs.
* Tsukiji fish market, walked around the outer market and bought Dashi and a few other items to take home
* Asakusa Shrine
* Went to the guide’s home and his wife prepared us a meal with the fish we had just purchased at the market. This meal included A LOT of sake! We got to eat day old / fresh tuna and the difference was interesting, we ate special tuna from the head, a huge crab, oysters, sashimi, tempura, freshly grated wasabi (2 ways) and so much more. He also had a cool ice cream machine and we all made our own cone

[Tour and meal photos ](https://imgur.com/a/WMlpFjo)

**Evening**

The tour ended around 4pm and I’m not sure how we managed to continue our day after 4 hours of sleep and copious amounts of alcohol the night before but we stuck with our plan to go to the kitchen district. Maybe it was all the sake at lunch?

We went to a bunch of stores on kitchen street. We bought knives, cups, bowls, and miniature food magnets. We bought the knives from Kamaasa, they engraved our knives which was really cool. We also bought stuff from Dengama and Asakusaumegen. I’m pretty sure we took the subway back home and had a lowkey night afterward.

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**Sunday February 2** Tokyo – Akihabara, Jimobocho, Shinjuku, Yurakucho

**Morning**

The next morning we forwarded our luggage to our hotel in Kyoto with the help of the front desk. For 2 large suitcases and one carry on it was around $50. We were a little nervous doing this but just went for it, we each brought a backpack to carry our essentials.

We went to Golden Gai for breakfast and had yakitori, we just stopped at a random stall where a woman was already cooking food. It was so good!

[Photos of breakfast](https://imgur.com/a/esnYmsD)

After breakfast, we took the subway to Akihabara which was probably one of our favorite neighborhoods. We went to Don Quijotes, M’s, Mandarake, and a few other unplanned shops we wandered into. One of the highlights of Akihabara was going to a maid cafe, there were so many choices but ended up going to u/home cafe. We had to stand in line for around 15 minutes. Some people were leaving and getting back in line which was crazy! We paid for coffees and 2 polaroid photos. We felt like if you spoke Japanese it would’ve been more enjoyable but was still a really cool experience. Props to the people who work there because after 30 minutes it was a sensory overload.

After our jaunt around Akihabara, I was determined to get some Japanese curry. The Tokyo book I purchased had an entire section dedicated to curry, so it was time. The book recommended the Jimbocho neighborhood to get curry, it also is known for used book stores. We first tried to go to Curry Bondy, we took an elevator upstairs with another couple and realized that there was a winding line all the way down the staircase. Both couples got back in the elevator, the other couple got in line but we were too hungry to wait. We ended up going to another place recommended in the book called Ethiopia, which was also busy but had seats for us right away. We paid for our meals at a vending machine. A woman came over and asked us how much spice we wanted, I opted for no spiciness and my fiance got medium spicy, based on how much he was sweating whilst eating the curry, I can confirm medium was very spicy. I’m also pretty sure she gave us something different than we ordered on the vending machine but she probably knew best.

[Photos of Curry ](https://imgur.com/a/thaBegt)

**Evening**

We went back to the hotel to rest for a bit then headed back out. Before dinner, we went to Kurand Sake Market which was really freaking cool. You pay for unlimited sake for certain amounts of time, you can also bring in your own food. Since we were going out to dinner afterward we paid for 30 minutes. I think there are a bunch of locations but we went to the one in Shinjuku near our hotel.

We wanted to go to a new area so we headed over to Yurakucho where there are a bunch of restaurants and bars under the tracks. It was pretty dead when we got there and a lot of restaurants were already past last call, it seems like this place is better to come to during the weekday. We ended up getting some gyoza at a place that was still open which was really delicious!

Afterward, we went back to Shinjuku for some karaoke. We went to a place called Karaoke Kan. It was so cool! We got our own private room and if we wanted to order drinks we just picked up the phone in our room and someone brought them to us.

[Sake market, dinner, and karaoke photos](https://imgur.com/a/D8HXZT4)

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**Monday, February 3** Tokyo > Hakone

**Morning**

We took the Romance car train from Shinjuku Station to Hakone-Yumoto station. It was about a 1.5-hour train ride. I had booked our seats in the front of the train as soon as I could (I think it’s 2 months in advance?) and then we purchased a limited express ticket & Hakone free pass at the station. After we got off at the station we walked to our Ryokan, it wasn’t too far of a walk. We bought so much food on the train because it came in themed Romance car packaging. We also got an amazing view of Mt. Fuji on the way.

Hotel: Yama No Chaya Ryokan

This Ryokan was amazing! We had never stayed at a Ryokan before and we arrived earlier than check-in so we dropped our stuff and went off to explore Hakone. We stayed at this hotel for 1 night. We had our own onsen in our room as well as other onsens in the hotel we could explore. The nightly rate included breakfast and dinner. The woman who was assigned to our room was amazing and very attentive. We both agreed that it was really cool to do this for one night but we wouldn’t have wanted to stay here longer as we like to go out and explore and this is the kind of place you stay and relax.

We toured around Hakone. We took a bus (used the free pass to pay) to Togendai Station to see Lake Ashi and took the pirate ship sightseeing cruise, we opted for an upgrade to sit in the front of the ship. After the cruise, we got on the cable car and got off at Owakudani. We did not eat black eggs but we walked around a bit. We hopped on another cable car and got off at the end, the railway was closed so we took a bus back to our hotel, the bus didn’t accept the free pass so we had to pay. All of these activities were a lot of fun and it’s really cool that it’s included in the free pass.

[Hakone tour photos](https://imgur.com/a/OaxAi29)

**Evening**

We went to the hotel bar dressed in our yakutas and had a couple of drinks. When it was time for dinner, we ate our kaiseki dinner in our room, which was delicious and so. much. food. After dinner the hotel staff switched out our table for our beds. The rest of the night we went into one of the Ryokan’s public onsens, our own private onsen, and watched movies on our little TV in the room. They had a DVD collection in the lobby.

[Photos of ryokan and dinner](https://imgur.com/a/Dfhednu)

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**Tuesday, February 4** Hakone > Kyoto

**Morning**

In the morning we had our kaiseki breakfast and checked out at 10 (checkout was really early). We took the train to Odawara on the Odakyu limited line then went to Kyoto from there on the shinkansen. We had a bit of time in Odawara so I grabbed some Udon noodles. We hadn’t booked any of these trains, we were able to just buy tickets at the station.

[Photo of udon](https://imgur.com/a/8qeQ0xv)

Hotel: The Thousands Kyoto

This hotel was BEAUTIFUL. The hotel was right next to the station which is about a 20-minute walk to the touristy areas of Kyoto. We stayed in this hotel for 2 nights.

When we arrived at our hotel our luggage was waiting, yay! We got some drinks in the hotel bar then walked to the Fushimi Inari shrine. The walk was about 45 minutes. It was dark by the time we got to one of the viewpoints and we had a really pretty view of the city.

[Kyoto hotel photos](https://imgur.com/a/EjZP6IU)

**Evening**

I think I was extremely jet-lagged this night and passed out but fiance went out and had dinner and drinks somewhere.

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**Wednesday, February 5** Kyoto

**Morning**

In the morning we slept in a bit and eventually walked over to Nishiki market. Before leaving our hotel we sent our luggage off to our hotel in Tokyo, it was the same price as before. We were hungry and hadn’t eaten proper sushi yet so we decided to eat at Sushi No Musashi for brunch which is a conveyor belt sushi place, so yummy! Afterward, we took a long bus ride over to the Tenryu-Ji Temple, bamboo forest, and Arashiyama Monkey Park. The bus ride was kind of cool since we got to see a lot of Kyoto.

[Photos of sushi and bamboo forest area](https://imgur.com/a/ZV0Omzf)

**Evening**

Later on, we took another bus ride to the Kyoto University area and just walked around. We had our sights set on Tonkatsu for dinner but it didn’t open until 5pm so we stopped off at a random cafe called Trentanove for drinks and an appetizer. It was completely empty except for us and a man taking a cappuccino design lesson. Super cute place! It oddly started hailing outside while we were there for a bit. Finally, the restaurant we wanted to go to for Tonkatsu was open, it’s called Tonkatsu Yamanaka, so we made our way over. The door was locked but the owner heard us trying to come in and opened up. I guess Google was showing the incorrect hours and it actually opened a ½ later than Google said. It was an old school restaurant with wood paneling and old school TV playing the news. The owner was so nice and gracious and chatted with us a bunch.

[Drinks, appetizers, and Tonkatsu dinner](https://imgur.com/a/IAjarcv)

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**Thursday, February 6** Kyoto > Tokyo, Kichijoji

**Morning**

We were supposed to stay in a capsule hotel in Kyoto for another night but felt we had seen enough of Kyoto and wanted to go back to Tokyo. We liked Tokyo a lot more than Kyoto. Thankfully we hadn’t pre-booked our train or capsule hotel so we were able to go to the station and book a train to head back to Tokyo.

**Evening**

Hotel: Park Hyatt Tokyo

We had been psyched to stay at this hotel for our entire trip. We, of course, were inspired to stay here by Lost in Translation. This hotel was awesome, we spent a lot of time at the New York bar and loved our room. The only downside was that it is not close to the station in Shinjuku, the walk is 20 minutes. They did have a shuttle to the station every half hour that we used to get around but we probably wouldn’t stay here again based on location. Our luggage was waiting for us when we arrived!

It took a few hours to get from Kyoto to Tokyo. After we checked into the hotel we relaxed and went to the hotel bar. After the bar, we headed back to our beloved Kichijoji for more Harmonica Alley drinking and ramen!

[Park Hyatt, Kichijoji, and ramen photos](https://imgur.com/a/7b0rSCk)

**Friday, February 7** Tokyo, Bunkyo City, Shinjuku

**Morning**

After a nice lie-in, we went to a Tamago Kake (egg over rice) restaurant called Kisaburo Nojo. I’d been wanting to go here after seeing them go to it on Terrace House. They have several different menu items but the star of the show is being able to go up to the egg table and pick out which eggs you’d like to crack over your steaming hot rice. They have all types of eggs, some hens are only fed rice their entire lives which makes the eggs a different color. The food was excellent and I was happy to Terrace House fangirl out for a bit. We walked home which took a few hours.

[Tamago Kake photos ](https://imgur.com/a/28YMqie)

**Evening**

After resting at the hotel, our next stop was the robot restaurant! We were expecting something really cheesy, fully flying our tourist flags, we were pleasantly surprised with how well of a production it was. We bought drinks and popcorn and watched the show. The pre-show was almost better than the actual show.

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**Saturday, February 8** Tokyo – Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ebisu, Meguro

**Morning**

Our last full day in Japan, so sad! We went back to the same yakitori place in Golden Gai for breakfast. We had not been to Shibuya yet so we hopped on the subway down to Shibuya. We went to Starbucks to watch the people on the giant crosswalk which was fun! One food that we had not yet eaten was soba so we stopped by a soba restaurant called Kamiyama in Shibuya, it was delicious and had really pretty decor.

[Breakfast, Shibuya and soba photos ](https://imgur.com/a/qJpwuEu)

**Evening**

Time for another alley! We decided to explore Ebisu Yokocho. We were debating whether we should go back to Kichijoji but we decided to go somewhere new. This alley was inside of a building which was different than the others we’d visited before. After downing some hangover drink we walked through a few times to try and find a seat. We ended up at Bekohira which is a place famous for their beef tongue. We stopped at a few other places for other snacks. We wanted to continue exploring and we were still hungry (how?) so we walked to this yakitori restaurant in Meguro called Kushiwakamaru, it was awesome! There was a guy next to us that had been going to the restaurant for 10 years and he told us what to order. We ended the night at a punk rock bar called Tatemichiya, it was cool but extremely smoky inside.

[Ebisu and Kushiwakamaru photos](https://imgur.com/a/ohnBmq9)

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**Sunday, February 9** Tokyo and Flight

**Morning**

Fiance wanted ramen for breakfast so he went to piss alley to get ramen at this vendor we’d seen another early morning. I wanted to do some last-minute shopping. I stopped by Beams (love this store) and the Depachika in Shinjuku to buy some goodies to bring home. I was so excited to find this prime minister cup we saw at the restaurant the night before, we tried to buy it from the restaurant but they said no. Later on, we took a cab to the Shinjuku station and caught the Narita Express to the airport. The flight home was smooth.

Oops, that was really long! I hope you enjoyed the report and I can’t wait to go back to Japan. Feel free to send any questions over!