[Trip Report] March 8-24 (Tokyo/Yokohama/Kyoto). 16 day weeb dream vacation – Kingdom Hearts concert, JJK exhibit, so many arcades!

I wasn’t going to do a trip write up at all, but I’m planning a return trip in the Fall and I realized some of the things I learned on my first trip might be useful for other people, so here we go! I don’t often see post write ups from people who are specifically into rhythm games/ arcades/ anime stuff

 

**Dates: March 8 – 24, 2023**
**Background:** Planned this trip mostly for myself but one of my friends decided to tag along fairly last minute. I had planned to spend the whole trip in Tokyo but the one thing she wanted to do was Kyoto, so we added a side trip + a very pleasant day at a Ryokan. I used Wanderlog to plan (HIGHLY recommend, this site is amazing), and my basic daily itinerary was morning shrine > pick an area to explore and have 1-2 major things per day. The person I was travelling with ended up taking a long ass time to get ready each day, so most of my morning stuff got cut or rearranged.
**Costs:** I will fully admit I did not budget for food/ shopping, 100% vibes. I simply do not acknowledge what I spent

– Flight: $1,500 (Delta from MSP > SEA > Haneda. Direct from MSP had not resumed yet)
– Hotels: ¥314,000 (Roughly $2,300 USD for all 3 hotels total)
[¥205,000 (Tokyu Stay Tsukiji, 15 nights) + ¥30,000 (Tokyu Stay Kyoto, 2 nights) + ¥79,000 (Kyokoyado Muromachi Yutone Kyoto, 1 night)]
– Shinkansen: ¥42,000 for 2 round trip tickets from Tokyo/Kyoto and back. Roughly $300 USD, machine did not take foreign CC only cash

**Highlights**

– The Kingdom Hearts concert, I maxed out my luck on this trip and we were able to see this on it’s last night in Tokyo. Absolutely incredible!!
– Sushi Yuu, Roppongi (omakase sushi for about ¥20,000 per person, we paid more with drinks)
– ShibuyaSky, the open air viewing makes the experience so much better, plus there’s a bunch of different spots to hang out up on the observation deck
– Fushimi Inari, the whole shrine blew me out of the water, absolutely must experience in person
– TeamLabs Planets, so few things live up to the hype and this is one of them
– Golden Gai, the bars were so much fun, got the full experience of a salaryman pissing on the side of the konbini

**Lowlights**

– Caffeine- if you are addicted to non carbonated caffeine like I am be prepared to be disappointed. The monsters are only 40mg compared to America’s 150mg+. I’m glad I brought caffeine pills
– Tsukiji market is really not worth going out of your way for, it’s nice if you’re near it but it’s really just a fish market + insane lines for most of the food
– I’m still mad about how bad the food was at the Square Enix cafe is, at least we got coasters + placemats out of the deal. This was genuinely my only bad experience in Japan
– Everything on this subreddit told me that people in Tokyo don’t really care about tattoos, however they do really seem to care about colored hair. I have very long, bright ombre hair and I was a bit of a sideshow attraction, including people taking photos of me in public multiple times. Probably the most frustrating part of the trip was being stared at constantly
– Japanese thrift stores love old American clothes, I was definitely let down by the majority of these

**Goals:**

– Buy anime stuff
– Play rhythm games
– Go thrift shopping
– See cherry blossoms
– Collect shrine stamps (goshuin)

**Advice:**

– TAX FREE SHOPPING: This has to be first because no one mentions it?? There are 2 types of tax free, discount and rebate. Everywhere has a minimum for tax free. Don Quijote you have to go to the separate tax free counter, and they will seal the bags shut. You’re not supposed to use the tax free items in the country – I didn’t know this and did it anyways? There seems to be no repercussions unless they open your bag and count every individual KitKat. I had to open the bags to repack everything anyways. The places that do rebates are generally malls, you bring your receipt + passport and they’ll give you the 10% back in cash (minus a fee). When you get to the airport, you scan your passport after you drop your luggage, indicating you made tax free purchases. You do not need to keep your receipts anymore
– Don Quijote does sell luggage but Ginza Karen is cheaper
– Besides the standard things that every single trip report has (get a suica, you’ll walk a lot, etc etc), the biggest thing I learned is *not to go to an area without at least 1-2 specific goals in mind*. For example, I had given us like a half day to go around Shibuya/ Harajuku, but because we didn’t look into what malls or stores we might like to go to, we ended up wandering pretty aimlessly and not really enjoying the area. This happened a few different areas we went to, so I decided that in the future I would pin some stores on Google Maps and try to make it to those specific stores
– Install LINE and set up an account. It’s crazy how much connects to LINE. For me the biggest thing was 1) making Sushiro reservations and not having to sit in the store for an hour plus waiting for our table and 2) being able to grab a chargeSPOT to charge my phone. I brought a battery pack but at this point it must be like a decade old, it took the entire night to recharge and died on me during the day a few times. I have a Pixel 6 Pro and was literally constantly charging my phone
– If you’re coming from the Americas, don’t try to do something on your first night. Get your Konbini dinner and go the fuck to sleep
– Getting from place to place can take longer than expected, you’ll have to navigate the stations, find the entrances (sometimes hidden in malls) and exits (sometimes closed), don’t make plans too tight together
– Navigating Kyoto was so much more confusing. At first our Suica cards didn’t work because we apparently didn’t tap out at a station in Tokyo, so we were buying day passes and paying in cash on the bus. Some of the buses have 0 English and 100% Kanji (navigation difficulty: extreme). Suica cards DO work in Kyoto so if you’re having issues go to a gate with an attendant and they can help
– It can be weirdly hard to find bathrooms, most konbini have them but you’re supposed to ask the cashier if you can use them. I speak very basic Japanese but hammed up the gaijin card here and would just ask to use the toilet in English, no one ever told me no
**Weeb specific advice:**
– If you want to do pop ups (like the Jujutusu Kaisen Animation exhibit), a Japanese e-sim will be a lifesaver. You need a Japanese phone number to do SO much, they really make it extremely frustrating to make reservations without it. I did manage to make reservations for the Square Enix cafe though, the [write-up is on my profile](https://www.reddit.com/user/Destrae/comments/11h1n6r/how_to_get_square_enix_cafe_reservations_as_a/). (Was it worth it? Absolutely not, worst food all trip, -3/10)
– Prices are all over the place for figures, especially prize figures. There’s a solid chance you might buy something and see it cheaper at the next shop, however going back/forth between shops in Akihabara can be a huge pain in the ass. I’d recommend 1) making a list of things you want the most and 2) setting a per item budget and a total budget. A lot of the anime stuff was cheaper in Kyoto as well
– You can find a ton of gachapon stuff at Surugaya, so you can just buy what you want and don’t have to gamble. Surugaya bins are organized by series
– Use collabo-cafe.com to find cafes and pop up events you might be interested. Plan ahead because reservations can be hard to come by

 

Now on to the super detailed trip report! Here’s the big [album](https://imgur.com/a/uq8yQkA) if you don’t want to look through photos separated by day. Warning for flashing video

 

**Day 1** (travel)

– Landed in Haneda around 3pm. Immigration + customs took about an hour (we did the visit Japan web ahead of time and had both QR codes ready). There was virtually no lines anywhere
– It took about an hour to navigate to the hotel. I chose to stay at the Tokyu Stay Tsukiji because 1) it was really cheap, 2) it was close to the Ginza line, and 3) it had a washer in the room. Although the location was slightly inconvenient for late nights, I’d say it was totally worth it for the ability to grab food in Tsukiji market, and the room was pretty large compared to some other areas of Tokyo. In fact, the room was so cheap that when we went to Kyoto, we opted to not check out of the Tsukiji room and just leave the majority of our possessions there. This didn’t cause any issues and made travelling on the Shinkansen way easier
– I thought we were built different and could do some stuff this evening. We ended up walking to the Donki and being assaulted by sound in every direction. 7/10 didn’t discover the 2nd floor until days later. At this point exhaustion kicked in and we got a Lawsons dinner and crashed

**Day 2** (Akihabara, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/hajMXjr))

– Going to Akihabara on our first day in Japan sure was a choice. Thankfully neither of us suffered jetlag on the way in. Checked out like 10 different game centers and a ton of anime shops. Managed to find the only Monster Rehab of the whole trip here
– Konbini lunch + strong zero! That flavor was terrible :’)
– Dinner at the Monster Hunter cafe (no reservations required). Expectations were low but my travel partner is a huge MH fan. The food wasn’t bad but the drinks were awful. The ambiance is nice and there were definitely some regulars there playing MH on the consoles they had set up
– The new Namco game center had like 12 brand new Taiko cabs and all of them had phone mounts so you could film yourself playing! I was really intimidated by everyone there being extremely good so we didn’t play any games here

**Day 3** (Shibuya & Harajuku, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/4d4kmYC))

– Breakfast at Tsukiji outer market since we were already there
– Went to Shibuya Loft for the Bravely Default pop up shop
– Checked out Tower Records
– Ate lunch at Japanese McDonalds
– Went to Takeshita Street. TBH this felt like in-person AliExpress, I’m sure the charm of the early 2000s is long gone
– Visited Hachiko
– Shibuya Sky Observatory

**Day 4** (Asakusa, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/p3DL6KW))

– Started at Kaminarimon Gate & went down Nakamise shopping street. It was very crowded on a Sunday but I enjoyed it immensely, you just need some patience to get where you want to go. I liked trying all the food, most of the food stalls here were cash only
– Senso-ji temple, bought Goshuincho to collect stamps
– Ate lunch and dinner in the area, there’s a ton of food options
– We ended going all the way over to Yoyogi park as well but nothing was in bloom. Because it was overcast the park looked really sad

**Day 5** (Shinjuku & Kabukicho, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/lD4KOEi))

– Now is the time to come clean, I’m a huge Yakuza/ RGG fan. In the morning I had my Majima birthday cake delivered by PRIROLL. I pre-ordered it and chose the delivery day where we didn’t have morning plans. It comes frozen and needs to defrost in the fridge. While we left Majima to chill, we made the pilgrimage to Kabukicho to see the iconic gate. It was raining in the morning so we hit up some arcades then went shopping
– There’s a really cool mall that seems anime-centric (I believe it’s called Shinjuku Marui Anex). It had a Godzilla store, Cinnamoroll Cafe, a JJK pop up, and best of all… A Surugaya. These stores have bins where everything is ¥100-300 and we ended up buying way too much in every one we came across
– Went back to Kabukicho and explored a bit, went to Golden Gai and drank at a handful of bars. Almost missed the last train because I drunkenly insisted on a final game of MaiMai. 10/10 staying in Kabukicho next time

**Day 6** (Ikebukero & Rippongi, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/aBhDr2w))

– The plan today was to check out Ikebukero and Roppongi, but we ended up spending so much time at the first mall that we didn’t really do anything in Roppongi besides get dinner. Went to the Pokemon Mega Center and the cafe. The main cafe was closed so it was just take out, all the food was really cute but the waffles were kind of terrible
– Gashapon no Depato Ikebukuro was super overwhelming. A lot of the smaller gashapon stores are somewhat organized by what is in the machines, this one just felt chaotic, and it went on forever
– Sushi Yuu was incredible, I didn’t take photos of every single course but I was so full that couldn’t finish my dessert at the very end. The owner speaks some English and I made our reservations by messaging him on Facebook

**Day 7** (Yokohama, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/cm23EcB))

– We didn’t get to Yokohama as early as I would have liked – I took us out way into the suburbs to try to find this Yakuza plushie from the claw machines. I looked up the locations on the Sega website, unfortunately this machine was extra rigged and I couldn’t win it >:[ On the bright side all the rhythm games had no one else playing them
– Took the cable car over and went to the Cup Noodle museum. Unfortunately we didn’t have a reservation so we had to come back later. Found some cafes in the area and had a late breakfast
– The museum was really small, the main draw is making your own Cup Noodles. Entrance costs 500 yen and this is an additional 500. We had some trouble navigating this part because no one spoke any English
– Had dinner at a pie restaurant that was 10/10
– Explored a bit of Yamashita park (Yakuza 7, anyone?) I was kind of disappointed I wasn’t able to see this during the day
– Walked around Yokohama Chinatown & visited the local Round 1 😉

**Day 8** (Kyoto, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/tI73470))

– I bought the Shinkansen tickets to Kyoto the evening before, so we weren’t able to get great seats. The machines are also a huge pain in the ass and don’t take American CCs, so plan ahead here
– It took us longer than expected to figure out how to use the tickets and read the signage, so we weren’t able to get food before and I had to have one of the train bentos. I knew it was going to suck and it was worse than expected 🙁
– You can bring a full sized suitcase and just put it in front of you, seeing other people do this was unexpected
– My travel partner was destroyed at this point so she rested in the room. I went to the National Garden and Imperial Palace alone. The sakura were just starting to bloom and the weather was great, loved it. The National Garden is SO huge that I only ended up walking up the west side before I tapped out
– Checked out Heian-jingu shrine + the giant torii, I went to another smaller shrine with a great view but I can’t remember the name
– We did photoshoots at ESPERANTO Kyoto. There’s basically no reviews from foreigners about this place but it was fantastic!! Their online booking form didn’t work for me, so I emailed asking for a reservation. I emailed in Japanese and English and they replied in English. They gave me time options and I replied with what package and room each of us wanted (the website says they require a deposit but they told me they didn’t need one). When we got there they did our hair and makeup, and then you pick your kimonos out. The photographer spoke pretty decent English and we didn’t have trouble communicating with anyone else here. They had our photos edited and printed about 30 minutes after we picked which ones we wanted. The whole thing took about 3 hours (it was longer because we used the same set room). I don’t want to include my photos but I did add a video of my hairstyle because she knocked it out of the park
– Ended the day with okonomiyaki, one of my favorite Japanese foods

**Day 9** (Kyoto, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/xaefcrm))

– Fushimi Inari day! I ended up walking this alone, I did not realize how long it was going to take or the fact it was actually like 10,000 stairs. My knees were very upset on the way down
– It was not as busy as expected, I went at roughly noon on a Friday. Most people tap out before the actual mountain climb
– The Goshuin at Fushimi Inari are on paper, you can paste them into your books later. Even if you don’t have a Goshuincho I’d recommend buying them because they are very cute!
– Shrine cats!!!! You can buy photos of them to help pay for their food
– After Fushimi Inari I somehow managed to walk to Tofukuji Temple (I did the garden but not the bridge) and Daigo-ji Gojunoto pagoda and garden. I wanted to cut my legs off after today

**Day 10** (Kyoto, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/Uoh96Ks))

– I started my day at the Kyoto Round 1, I had visited it on day 8 as well. This one is ace because it was literally always empty 10/10
– Decided to explore Gion a bit, ended up at the Machiya Starbucks and had the best thing I ate all trip (a custard dorayaka, I regret not going back for another)
– Ended up at Kiyomizu-dera Temple totally on accident. It wasn’t super impressive in early spring but the view was still fantastic
– Ended the day at the Ryokan (Kyokoyado Muromachi Yutone). Ended up picking one without an onsen because we are both covered in tattoos, and I didn’t want to deal with finding a private one. The cypress tub was a great trade off, and the food was incredible

**Day 11** (Tokyo – Concert, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/F6oaQfJ))

– Today we travelled back to Tokyo and went to the Kingdom Hearts concert. I ended up trying for the lottery for tickets back in like December 2022. Winners were announced the first weekend in January and you only had a few days to buy tickets. I have a friend of a friend living in Japan who did me the biggest solid ever and bought our tickets. I met up with her during the trip for the hand off. The seats are randomly assigned and we had AMAZING seats near the front. This was also the performance Nomura was at!
– We weren’t supposed to take photos during the performance so I just have some before. Also, I made Organization XIII beads that attach onto my dress with magnets and I am very proud of it, so please excuse the bathroom selfie 😀
– The concert was about 3 hours long and after all the travelling we were beat. We ate dinner, played our nightly games of Ongeki, and passed out
– Bonus video of the music box that plays Dearly Beloved

**Day 12** (Ginza & Sumida, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/naJpt1V))

– We were really starting to tucker out at this point. We managed to drag ourselves to the Ginza art Aquarium in the AM and the Tokyo SkyTree in the afternoon. Today was the Equinox so everything was crazy busy, the line to buy tickets for the SkyTree was literally like 2 ish hours long so we bought them online and went shopping in the mall
– The Art Aquarium was really cool, but a lot of the fish were in really small tanks. I didn’t include photos of those 🙁
– The SkyTree just let people up as fast as they could so it was extremely crowded at the top, and not super enjoyable imo
– I spent the evening at the arcades in Akihabara 😀

**Day 13** (Tokyo – JJK Exhibit, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/v4oxDRR) – flashing video warning)

– Today I went off in the am to see if I could buy a ticket to the Jujutsu Kaisen animation exhibit in person. The online site wouldn’t let me buy a ticket because I didn’t have a Japanese phone number. UNFORTUNATELY you couldn’t buy tickets in person. I got super lucky again and 2 foreign exchange students from Europe were trying to do the same thing, however they did have a Japanese phone number and the site allowed you to get 3 tickets at a time. They were able to grab them for all 3 of us for that evening
– Putzed off to Hie Shrine, anyone that tells you it’s a mini Fushimi Inari is lying
– Went back to Akihabara, found a Miku racing pop up!
– Went back to… Ginza? for the JJK animation exhibit, it took about an hour to go through. I included a ton of photos so just skip today if you’re not interested in that show

**Day 14** (Tokyo – TeamLabs Planets & SquareEnix Cafe, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/FU7PUFo))

– TeamLabs was so cool! I didn’t include many photos since it’s 95% selfies. Make sure you explore a bit as the string light room had a couple of different areas that are easy to miss, and it’s possible to accidentally skip the hanging garden, which was beautiful! TeamLabs took us about 2.5 hours but we were 100% those bitches taking forever to get a million photos
– Since we were staying in Tsukiji we ended up just slowly walking back to the room for a much needed nap
– Back to Akihabara yet again! More rhythm games, some awful food at SE

**Day 15** (Shinjuku, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/RM2i5G3))

– This was our last full day in Japan, we honestly didn’t want to do anything but we managed to drag our asses to Shinjuku National Garden for the cherry blossoms. Unfortunately it was sprinkling a bit, at least it kept the crowds away
– Managed to check out Meiji Jingu, but at this point my travel partner was sick of walking and tapped out
– I went back to Kabukicho, walked around a bit and ended up back at an arcade (bless Ongeki for having stools)

**Final thoughts** (Misc, [photos](https://imgur.com/a/DW2WxCv))

– We were literally so annihilated by the trip that we took a taxi to the airport, it was about ¥8,000 from Tsukiji ($60 USD ish)
– I ended up buying a 24″ suitcase from Ginza Karen for ¥6,000. It was 100% full of stuff I purchased. We also used one or those giant ¥500 bags from Donki as a carry on
– My Goshuincho was my favorite souvenir, I’m so proud of all the stamps I collected (I did get doubles at some shrines). I plan to bring this back late 2023 to try to finish it
– I have the old school GoogleFi plan and don’t have to do anything extra to have international data. Lots of places & stations have free WiFi but you’ll need to put your email in
– I don’t really sleep that much and my schedule in the US is already busted, but it took me about 2 full weeks to get back on normal human hours. I’m tired again just writing this up and looking through all my photos
– My main regret is not trying more food, we ended up waiting until we were dying of starvation and ate at the konbini a lot (typical)

 

*Edits for formatting*