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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Roman_Statuesque on 2024-11-24 02:16:54+00:00.
Hello everyone! I returned from my trip to Japan back in September, and since I used this community as a resource for planning, I figured it was time to contribute my experience back to the community. I meant to post this weeks ago, but chrome decided to delete almost 40K characters of writing, so I had to remake this entire first post from scratch. Everything here is based on the travel log I kept during my trip that totals to just under 35K words.
For context: ~~28~~ 29 YOM traveling solo. Technically fourth time in Japan, but the first stay longer than 20 hours. Previous experience living and traveling in South Korea and Europe.
All flights/hotels were booked through Amex travel. Hotels were selected based a combination of centralized location relative to Points of Interest (POIs), proximity to public transit, English speaking staff, and included laundry rooms.
While I did make reservations for several locations that required it and one restaurant, most places I visited I just purchased a ticket day-of.
I brought three pieces of luggage with me: a soft-sided top-opening suitcase, a backpack, and a gym bag. The suitcase was primarily shipped between hotels with the exception of the Tokyo-Yokohama leg. The gym bag was used to transport clothes and other items when the suitcase was in transit and to handle overflow when the suitcase was filled with souvenirs. The backpack served as my day bag.
SIM card was pre-purchased from Japan Experience prior to departure.
I did not change any cash prior to or after arrival. I generally used my two credit cards at places that accepted them. For cash, I generally withdrew from ATMs in 10K yen increments as needed and never walked around with more than 15K at one time.
While I downloaded several apps prior to arriving in Japan, only ones I found myself using regularly were Google Translate, Navermap, and ChatGPT.
I did study some basic Japanese and etiquette before departing, but I found most of the service workers I interacted with spoke at least some English and Google Translate was able to fill in the gaps.
I actually forgot to load my itinerary onto either of the devices I brought with me and didn’t realize until my first full day in Tokyo. Thankfully I had gone over it enough times I effectively had it memorized, and for everything else, there were automatic reservation reminders. I assigned a few locations I wanted to visit per day, based around reservations and geographic proximity, but left a few days more unstructured for travel and rest. The entire Yokohama leg was almost completely unstructured and organized by the friends I stayed with. Other locations visited came from friends, coworkers, The Lonely Planet guide, and of course, here.
Day 1: Haneda Arrival & Early Expeditions
I flew into Haneda around 2:00 local time. I had pre-completed the arrival form and screenshotted it on my phone. Immigration and Customs went smoothly. They have a lot of staff, English signs, and regular PA announcements to deal with all the sleep deprived foreigners. Everything, including getting my luggage took about an hour. Once I got out onto the concourse, I pulled 10K yen from an ATM and headed over to the travel counters and exit. I got my SIM card switched out and activated and attempted to load the Welcome Suica I had ordered online, but I could not get it to work and ended up just getting a new card. Took the train and got a little lost trying to find my way through Shinjuku Station, but after a few wrong turns I was able to find the exit before passing out from heat exhaustion. I headed straight to my hotel the WPU Shinjuku. The room was small, but it was well put together. I got myself checked in and took an hour to cool off and rehydrate before heading out again. I took the train down to Shibuya and saw the Hachiko statue, walked through the Scramble and wandered through the Shibuya streets, eventually making my way up to Harajuku. However, by the time I got there, most of the businesses had shut down. Took the train back to Shinjuku and hit up the Family Mart for dinner before turning in.
Notes: The climate hits you as soon as you step out of the terminal. Walking around Shinjuku station was suffocatingly hot and humid.
Walking around Shinjuku felt like I was in a virtual reality simulation, something like Ready Player One.
Day 2: Tokyo I
Grabbed some croissants and orange juice for breakfast at the hotel before catching a train to the Shinjuku Gyoen. Arrived a little before opening and chatted with some other travelers before heading inside. My first stop was the traditional Japanese garden, where I quickly found the Taiwanese pavilion and across from it, the first stop of my anime pilgrimage, the gazebo featured in the film The Garden of Words. From there I made my way to the European style gardens and the small history center about the park. I then walked through the greenhouse before concluding my tour with the mother and child garden. The park was quite nice. At some points it was easy to forget that you are in the middle of a city, and it felt cooler than other parts of Tokyo as long as you weren’t in direct sunlight. It costs 500 yen to get in, but the park is very well maintained and there isn’t a sticker or graffiti tag in sight. There were also plenty of water fountains. Next I walked Suga Shrine. The shrine counter was closed when I got there, but I was able to grab a few pictures of the famous stairs featured in Your Name.
For lunch I stopped at a small restaurant called Island Burger that I spotted on my way to the shrine, and then made my way to the Metropolitan Government Building. I took the chance to rest a bit and browse the gift shop while admiring the view. After getting back to ground level I made my way back to Harajuku and browsed through some of the shops and checked out a small shrine off of Takeshita Street. The place was a zoo and smelled like sewage in a few spots. The speakers were playing Fatal by Gemn and Undead by Yoasobi on a loop.
Headed back to the hotel and took a break to rest and rehydrate. I grabbed dinner at the hotel café and used the free beer ticket that came with the reservation.
Kabuchiko was next, and was just as sketchy as I had heard. I tracked down the McDonalds seen in Weathering With You and ended up tailing a tour group to keep the touts all over the place from harassing me. Stopped by Burger King for snack. From there I walked over to Golden Gai and after some searching I found a bar called ”?” and spent the rest of the evening drinking with a pair of Finns and an Australian couple on their honeymoon.
Notes: Part of the reason you can’t hear the city in Shinjuku Gyoen is because the cicadas drown out everything else. It was also home to some murder hornets (which there were posted warnings about).
The Shinjuku Gyoen gazebo is smaller than it appears in the film, and the red railings of the Suga Shrine stairs appear more orangish to the naked eye.
Do not attempt to keep up with an Australian couple on their honeymoon. You will lose.
Day 3: Tokyo II
Barely slept and woke up severely hungover. Somehow managed to grab breakfast and get to Odaiba right on time for my TeamLabs Planets reservation. I recommend walking through twice. It gives you a chance to hit things you might have missed the first walk through, and some of the exhibits felt different with more people. I thought it was well worth the price. For lunch I got the vegan uzu ramen at the café across from the exhibition entrance. Paid a little extra to sit in the nice, air-conditioned meditation room.
My next destination was the Divercity Mall. I saw the Gundam Statue, walked around the mall for a while and visited the Gundam Base. Decided not to buy any larger souvenirs, but did grab a Gundam bust from one of the capsule machines in the Gundam Base Annex.
After finishing up at the mall I continued my anime pilgrimage. First going to the Tokyo Teleport Station and then over to a walking trail near Akihabara seen in the last scene of Weathering With You. Lastly, I went over to the Hijiri-Bashi Bridge seen in Suzume.
My last POI for the day was Tokyo Skytee where I had an evening reservation. I went straight to the Temba deck to try and catch the sunset, but the cloud cover caused by the typhoon obscured most of the view. So instead, I checked out the Pokemon collab they had going on at the time. My dinner was a cup of fried chicken from one of the cafes. I also stopped at the Pokemon café for a cupcake and enjoyed the view. Ended up walking the last quarter mile to the hotel in the pouring rain since the typhoon reached the hotel before I could. Did some laundry and packed up.
Notes: Shinjuku station is markedly more difficult to navigate than the other stations in Tokyo and Japan in general.
Do not attempt to navigate Shinjuku Station during rush hour while severely hungover.
Day 4: Yokohama I
Got breakfast at the hotel again and ran over to Family Mart for an umbrella. After checking out, I hopped onto the train to Yokohama with my suitcase. I met up with the family friends I would be staying with. After dropping my luggage off we went to Chinatown for lunch where I tried out Sanma-men. We walked around Chinatown a bit more before they took me to the waterfront. We toured the Hikawa Maru...
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