Trip Report – 20 days (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Tokyo) Pt. 2

This is part two covering Kyoto and Osaka of our three-week honeymoon in Japan. Part one is linked here.

**November 10th (Travel to Osaka)**

After our AirBnB experience was complete we headed to Tokyo Station for our 5pm Shinkansen to Osaka. By the time we arrived to the station we had about 4 hrs to kill before our train. Of course it wasn’t until later in the trip that we realized we could change our tickets to another time free of charge lol. So I don’t recommend having that much time to kill at the station because while there is plenty of shopping, there aren’t many places to plop down and chill, unless you go into a restaurant to buy food/drinks.

\*something to note: I downloaded SmartEx before our trip and also set up Suica cards for both myself and my husband. I set up the SmartEx account in advance as well so that buying train tickets would be easy. It was seamless after that initial effort. Purchasing a ticket through the app was very straightforward and so was changing the time of the trains after the purchase had been made. Through the app there is also an option to designate the train ticket to your Suica card. This worked very well for us and all you have to do is tap in and out! No physical papers required, although it will spit out a hard copy ticket after you scan in. I kept those for my scrapbook.

In Osaka we stayed at *The Cross Hotel Osaka* in a Non-Smoking Standard Floor Superior Double room. This hotel was sooo nice! Very roomy and modern. The location was right off of Dotonburi St. but we actually found it to be quite loud, as many people would ride their loud ass motorcycles up and down the street into the night.

After a heavy seafood lunch with Toshi-san, we were craving something familiar so we ate dinner at McDonald’s. I loved the white grape juice (soda?) and the choco-pie! The red pepper Shaka-shaka chicken was also delicious!

​

**November 11th (Osaka)**

We started off our morning at Sot Coffee. This was one of my husband’s favorite coffee spots of the trip and he is a self-proclaimed coffee snob with an affinity for pour-overs. He said the coffee was delicious and felt that the experience was really nice as they provided a cup of ice on the side to finish off the hot drink with something cold for a different drinking experience. I had a really delicious latte with a rim coated in Nutella and covered in almonds. Afterwards, we walked to Osaka Castle. We opted out of buying a ticket to go inside but we still enjoyed ourselves! The grounds were huge and while they were crowded, it didn’t feel claustrophobic. We took the metro to Kuromon Market afterwards. We loved to retro Osaka metro trains! Market eats were limited to sweet potato sticks and our first (and last) takoyaki of the trip lol. The rest of the day included:

Shopping: Namba Parks, Parco, Ugg

Conbini standouts: 7/11 sweet potato cream puff oh my god?!!?! This was an autumn speciality item but I still think about it regularly; Manneken chocolate waffle (first of many), apple juice (what on earth is in the apple juice in this country? It is so SO good)

Meals: mid Korean food at a restaurant in Namba Parks after an impulsive decision before reaching peak hanger levels. Beer at Craft Beer Gulp. Dinner at Critter’s Pizza. This was a standout meal of the trip! In addition to the pizza, we had a Hokkaido wagyu beef bolognese that was absolutely incredible. We got Cremia for dessert after hearing that it was the best ice cream ever; it was good but it was so creamy and fatty that it felt as though it left behind a film inside of my mouth which was a little weird.

​

**November 12th (Osaka & Travel to Kyoto)**

Started off the morning with 7/11 melon pan. Yum! Walked to Streamer Coffee Company and then to Studio d’ Artisan Osaka for more selvedge denim. We shopped around Amerikamura for a few hours and had lunch at Tsurumaru Udon Yotsubashi (beef udon and potato croquette) which ended up being about $5 USD for the two of us, which coming from LA is absolutely insane to me. Got a treat at the colorful and dog-friendly Mill Wood Bakery before heading to the train station for our train to Kyoto.

In Kyoto we stayed at Hotel GoCo Stay Kyoto Shijo Kawaramachi in a Queen room. This was a small but lovely hotel with a very thoughtful and helpful small staff. Another big draw to this hotel was the washing machine and the bathroom that converted to a drying room! Another big draw was the location – just steps from Nishiki Market and Teramachi-Dori.

Dinner was at Donguri, also just steps away from the hotel. We loved this spot and would wholeheartedly recommend it! Each table has a steel plate grill and a tablet for seamless ordering. I think they specialize in Okonomiyaki but our favorite dishes were the yakisoba and the butter corn with bacon. Yum.

​

**November 13th**

6am wake-up call to beat the crowds to Kiyomizudera! We were not the only ones with this plan and while the temple was not *crowded*, there were still a decent amount of people. Either way we enjoyed some beautiful unobstructed views. That being said, I’m sad that we missed out on the fun shops and food stores on the surrounding streets that would not have opened until two/three hours after our arrival. We did lots of wandering and shopping around for the rest of the day with a lot of time in the covered shotengais near our hotel. The rest of the day included:

\-Coffee: Weekender’s Coffee..such a cool, zen spot. Also loved our lattes and toast at Common Well.

\-Conbini standouts: spicy Famichiki, peach juice, egg pudding ice cream parfait

\-Meals/Snacks: lunch at Ichiryu Manbai for salt ramen with egg and soy sauce ramen; delicious donuts from Koe Donuts – sweet potato orange and white chocolate and blueberry yogurt donuts to be exact; delicious candied apple from a stall in Teramachi-dori; dinner was Indian food at Mughal which was SOOO good and hit the spot hard.

\-Activities: I had bought advance tickets to the night illumination at Ninna-ji which also included a special viewing of the Godai Myoo paintings. It was cool to see and a fun activity to occupy our night as we hadn’t really done a nighttime activity prior to this. It was a small group of people and we got to go inside of the temple to see the paintings.

​

**November 14th**

Coffee and small breakfast at East 42nd Street New York Brownie which was a spot we stumbled on near our hotel. We were drawn there by the smell of warm freshly-baked brownies literally wafting down the streets. Had the most delicious maple butter croissant. Today was Fushimi Inari. We didn’t make it there until around 11 following some silly train mistakes that got us turned around. Yes, it was crowded but it wasn’t unbearable. What was unbearable was all of the people who thought they were important enough to stop the ENTIRE flow of traffic to try and get a picture with the gates with no one in the background. It was so constant it became absolutely infuriating. Like everyone says, the crowds do thin out the higher up you go. We did not go all the way to the top, but we were able to see shrine cats and stop in a little store where the owners served us tea while they wrote our names in Japanese on a miniature tori gate which was fun. We stuffed ourselves on the street food at the bottom afterwards and particularly loved the grilled miso mochi, the yakisoba, and the ichigo daifuku. In the afternoon we shopped around some more and hit up Loft, Uniqlo and B Side Label for some stickers. Dinner was kaiseki at Kyoto Sakuragawa which was reserved well in advance through JPNEazy. This was a very special and intimate experience with a lovely chef and host who both spoke English well enough to describe each dish. Meal standouts included steamed crab with ginger vinegar jelly, fried Hiroshima oyster, smoked bonito with mustard soy sauce, and minced wagyu and sardines on top of rice with picked onions and ginger and miso soup.

​

**November 15th**

Today’s highlights:

\-Coffee: School Bus Coffee & Bakery (loved!) and Kurasawa Ebisugawa (most delicious matcha latte EVER)

\-Shopping: Ball & Chain (such a cool bag store; would make awesome/affordable gifts, purchased two for myself that I used repeatedly throughout the remainder of the trip!); Sumikko Gurashi specialty store at Ginkakuji and OMG…first time learning of this character group and I am officially obsessed

\-Meals/Snacks: Lunch at Katsukura Tonkatsu Sanjo Main Store (one of my favorite meals of the trip, kicking myself for not buying a bottle of their yuzu salad dressing); small dinner at Spring Valley Brewery (would not recommend)

\-Activities: Ginkakuji (we loved this one. it was far more peaceful than previous temples even though we visited later in the day); Chion-Ji Handicrafts Market (this was so fun! We picked up some art pieces here. Really cool and felt very local).

​

**November 16th**

We started the morning at Kinkakuji – we took the bus from our hotel and arrived at around 8:40 before it’s opening at 9am. The line was already deeeeep and getting longer by the second. There were a bunch of large groups (students and foreign tourists). This spot is obviously stunning, which comes as no surprise as we have all seen the pictures. Unfortunately it felt like we were being ushered right on through and we were in and out within probably 15 minutes…the crowds were insane! I thought that getting there at opening would be better and maybe it still was better than a later arrival but it was a bit of a letdown. It felt a bit like “ok go in, get your pic and get the f out”. We walked to Ryoan-Ji right after which was cool and relatively peaceful. Afterwards we took the bus/metro to Arashiyama where our first stop was Arashiyama Tenryu Ramen (yum!). Headed to the monkey park afterwards which was a blast. The hike was tough for sure, especially with a belly full of ramen and beer lol, but there are benches placed intermittently up the trail for resting if needed. Luckily it is totally shaded so it was actually much cooler than outside of the park. Seeing the monkeys was a really fun experience and you could spend an hour or more just observing them and their weirdness/cuteness. Some of them were sort of scary tho lol. Finished out the day doing some wandering and shopping around Arashiyama. Wanted to go to %Arabica for an afternoon pick-me-up but the lines were intimidatingly long.

​

**November 17th (Nara)**

We wanted to try %Arabica because we weren’t able to yesterday, and luckily there was a location right across the street from our hotel in the Fuji Daimuru, but it didn’t open until 9am so we decided to sleep in and accepted that we would have a late start to Nara. Recommend this location though – it’s a small stand inside of the department store and as a result it is not crowded at all. The Kyoto latte was sooo yummy. We took the rapid train to Nara and beelined for Kinari Pizza which I think was my favorite meal of the trip and probably the best Neapolitan pizza I’ve ever had, and I studied abroad for 6 months in Florence, Italy. It’s an unassuming food truck tucked away on a side street but man, those pizzas were unreal. I also had a glass of fresh Aomori apple juice and I swear there were drugs in it, it was one of the best drinks I’ve ever had…ever. Spent the rest of the afternoon completing the typical Nara itinerary sans feeding the deer because just seeing them was enough for me. Todai-Ji was sick of course, and we finished up the afternoon with strawberry melon pan and shine muscat mochi. Dinner was at Yakiniku Rin, right outside of our hotel.

Next part will cover our short weekend in Hiroshima and our final week in Asakusa, Tokyo!

​

Some takeaways: I don’t feel that I was able to form a fair opinion of Osaka due to our short time there. Next time, I will try to spend at least three full days wherever I go. We had some good food there, but our limited time there could have easily been replaced with another day in Tokyo/Kyoto without feeling that much was missed. If I go again, in addition to staying longer, I would stay somewhere other than Dotonburi.

​