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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/8o8asian on 2024-12-02 10:46:55+00:00.
11 day trip report – Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe
Background: This trip was my wife and I honeymoon trip so I went all out in terms of booking first class flights and staying at relatively nicer hotels. Funny enough, I only spent money on the flights as I was able to book all of the hotels with points so luckily didn’t spend a dime on those. We also did not come to Japan with much of a plan in terms of doing specific things. We figured we hit up 2 cities each day and go where the wind took us. I did make some reservations beforehand and there were some places my wife and I wanted to shop/see but we didn’t make a minute by minute itinerary.
Day 1 ( Travel day)
Departed HNL to HND in the afternoon. Arrived at HND at about 5pm. It took us about an hour to get through immigration as at least 3 flights arrived at the same time as ours. Luckily, we were able to get our bags relatively quickly.
Took a taxi to our hotel, Andaz Toranomon Hills, and we arrived in about less than 30 minutes. It would’ve taken us an hour on the metro to get us from HND to Andaz and since we had our luggage, I figured it would save us some headache to take a taxi instead. I think I paid around $60 but it was worth it in saving time. I must say, Andaz is a beautiful hotel and Toranomon is a nice quiet neighborhood at night. We were pretty tired from the flight and were still getting adjusted to the different time zone, we decided to not do much exploring. The Big 3 convenience stores (7-11, Family Mart and Lawson) were right down the street from the hotel so we decided to get dinner from there. I made myself the egg sandwich with a Family Mart chicken and my wife and some onigiri and other snacks. We went to sleep pretty early so that we could wake up in the morning refreshed and ready for Day 1.
Day 2 (Shibuya & Harajuku)
Day 2 started with my wife and I waking up at around 6am as we were still getting adjusted. We decided that we would get an early start so I could find a Suica card. We headed to Tokyo Station first but I realized I looked at the wrong JR East center and it didn’t open until 830 and it was only 7am. We decided to come back later and head out to Shibuya.
We got to Shibuya pretty early and nothing was really open yet so we settled for breakfast at Café Gusto. It was a pretty nice place and we both had the hamburger steak and it was good for the price. We then went to the Don Quijote to look around. I went to Shibuya Station to inquire where I could get a Suica card and the worker told me I could get a personalized one at one of the machines just outside. Thankfully I was able to get a personalized Suica card to use. After that, we stood in line for our Shibuya Sky reservation which was at 10. Unfortunately due to the weather, the top roof observation and escalators weren’t open but the views from the indoor deck was still amazing. We then headed to the Shibuya Parco and went shopping in stores like Hands and checked out the Pokemon Center. Lunch as was at an Omurice place which was super good then we went to Harajuku for shopping. I think we spent at least 3 or 4 hours shopping before we finally had dinner at Red Rock Harajuku (my favorite place to eat in Japan now). After dinner, we did a little more shopping before heading back to the hotel to relax and get ready for the next day.
Day 3 (Odaiba, Tsukiji, Shinjuku)
Day 3 started the same way Day 2 started, both of us waking up at 6am. Luckily, Odaiba was pretty far from the hotel so we didn’t mind a longer train ride. We had breakfast at Bills Odaiba, eating the Ricotta pancakes and the Aussie breakfast which was super filling. We then walked to Diver City to see the Gundam Statue. During the time we were there, there was a car show outside the building so it was cool to see. Also saw the Fuji TV headquarters. After that, we took a taxi to Tsukiji, as it was pouring rain. Tsukiji wasn’t as crowded as I thought it was going to be, possibly because of the rain. Eating all the fresh seafood is great, especially the fresh crab. After staying there for about a couple of hours, we headed back to the hotel to get a short nap in. We headed to Shinjuku as I have never been there before. I saw all the main tourists stuff, Kabukicho, Godzilla head, Mega Donki, Takashimaya Times Square, 3D cat board, etc. Had dinner at Ichiran and after that, did some shopping and found a nice dessert place, Caramel Monday’s. Went back to the hotel after to get some rest and get ready for the next day.
Day 4 (Asakusa, Akihabara, Ginza, Shinjuku)
Finally got adjusted to the time zone and was able to sleep in a little. We headed to Senso-ji in the morning right as everything was opening. Got some omiyage on Nakamise Dori before we walked around the area to try and find lunch. Saw a nice tonkatsu place, Tonkatsu Toyama, which was a nice little shop. The tonkatsu was super good and the quality of it was great. We then walked to Fan Fun Street by the Bandai Namco offices to take pictures with the characters outside. After that, we headed to Akihabara because my wife needed some earphones. We went to Yodobashi-Akiba to get some headphones and also checked out Radio Kaikan. Dinner was in Ginza as we went to one of the restaurants at Ginza Six. After that, I took my wife back to our hotel as she wanted to rest for the night while I went out with some friends who just so happened to also be in Japan at the time. We went to Shinjuku and hit up some of the bars in Kabukicho. One of the places we went to was Beer Pong Grove, a super cool bar with karaoke, darts and beer pong. We hung out there for a few hours then went to Ichiran at around 2am for food. I was able to taxi back to the hotel and was able to get some rest for the night.
Day 5 (Shinkansen to Osaka)
I got only about 3-4 hours of sleep after the previous night and luckily we weren’t doing much as we had to catch the shinkansen to Osaka. My wife and I got a convenience store breakfast before we packed up our things and headed to Shinagawa station to catch the Shinkansen. The Shinkansen was a nice 2 and a half hour ride to Osaka and I ate a MOS Burger that I picked up before leaving Shinagwa. It was raining heavily so there wasn’t much to see outside. When we arrived to Shin Osaka, we took a taxi to our next hotel, the Conrad Osaka. After we got settled, we went to dinner at Sushiro, which I thought had more choices than Kura Sushi and thought the fish tasted a bit better. Due to the rain, we went back to our hotel and decided to have a night in and enjoy the view of Osaka from the hotel.
Day 6 (Osaka Castle, Umeda)
We got another early start to the day but luckily the hotel had complimentary breakfast service which we took advantage of. We then headed out to Osaka castle. It was a very overcast day but it brought very cool weather. We walked the grounds of the castle which was pretty cool and also saw the capsule display that they had in one of the buildings of characters like Godzilla, Kamen Rider and Ultraman. After spending a few hours at the castle, we walked to a Sukiya’s for lunch. Love those gyu-don bowls. After that, we headed to Umeda to do some shopping which took some time. We were super tired by this time and headed back to the hotel to rest. We were planning to go to Dotonbori but it began raining super hard again so we just decided to rest up and have dinner at the hotel.
Day 7 (Kyoto)
My aunty and her family live in Osaka so she and one of my cousins decided to show us around Kyoto. They picked us up from our hotel and drove us to the Kyoto area. Along the way we passed Yamazaki, and my cousin tried to get us into one of the tours of the distillery but they were sold out. Our first stop was Arashiyama, where we saw not only the bamboo forest but also the Togetsukyo Bridge and the Monkey Park. We had lunch at MUKU, which was a very interesting experience. We then headed to the Toei Kyoto Studio park, where they shot a lot of old, Japanese samurai shows. It was cool to see some of the sets from shows that I grew up watching. After that, we went to the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine. I was definitely interested to see all of the Tori gates but we didn’t make it far because of how tired we were lol. My aunty then took us to her house, which is about 30 minutes out of the main city in Osaka and we had dinner at a local yakiniku place run by an older husband and wife. I had some of the best wagyu meat I’d ever eaten. We hung out for a little after that at my aunty’s house before my cousin dropped us off back at our hotel later in the night.
Day 8 (Kobe)
My wife and I got a very late start to the day and our travels were finally catching up to us but we managed to get to Kobe at a pretty good time. We checked out Chinatown, Motomachi street, the Port Tower area, Daimaru and Ijinkan-Gai. We honestly didn’t stay here very long but we still managed to see a lot of cool things. We headed back to Osaka and met my aunty at Shinsaibashi because she wanted to eat dinner with us before we left for Tokyo. She took us to President Chibo for okonomiyaki and it was really good. She also gave us some gifts to take back home and also bought us a Rikuro Cheesecake LOL. We then went back to the hotel and packed our stuff again before we headed back to Tokyo.
Day 9 (Shinkansen back to Tokyo, Ginza)
We took a taxi from our hotel to Shin-Osaka station to catch our Shinkansen back to Tokyo. ...
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