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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/bredcrumbz on 2024-12-06 21:14:52+00:00.

I write this trip report as a means to cope with post-Japan blues. It was the trip of a lifetime and I still get teary-eyed thinking about how much it meant to me to spend this adventure with my wife. I've rewritten this a few times since the first draft was too long. Instead I will list our itinerary and only comment on things that I feel aren't touched on in this sub very often. I'm putting the extensive budget report (brought to you by YNAB) at the bottom for those not interested in reading my thoughts. Also feel free to ask me any benign or tedious questions. Even if you stumble on this post years later. I check reddit occasionally, so I will respond. Many here did the same for me.

Background

My wife and I spent a year planning our first trip to Japan (my first time traveling internationally). My first piece of advice would be to plan in the 6-8 month range. Waiting a year+ is agonizing and not really necessary for making reservations anyways. We both just turned 30 and had been dreaming of a Japan trip for a long time. Huge thanks to this subreddit for all the info. I spent many many hours doing research here. I really don't think you can overdo the research for the trip. But I would avoid looking at too many pictures lest you spoil the novelty before seeing the place in person. Highly recommend you use Wanderlog or some other itinerary app. It really helps to break down each day and have useful notes written ahead of time. We revised our itinerary a lot (check my last post to see how laughably overpacked each day was). We tried splitting the experiences between city life, cultural traditions, and the natural beauty of Japan. Tokyo, Takayama, Kyoto, Hakone, and Tokyo again. I'll try to stick to the interesting thoughts/experiences and not list out the entirety of each day.

Travel Info

We traveled on Japan Airlines from the DFW airport in Texas all the way to Haneda. Splurged for premium economy because this would be the longest flight of our lives. I had a hard time deciding if it was worth the extra cost. On one hand, ~$6k for plane tickets is obscene. On the other hand, I would've been even more miserable if the seats were even an inch smaller. Bottom line, premium economy was a very nice experience if you've always been an economy flyer your whole life. And Japan Airlines is my new gold standard. We even flew on their new A350 Airbus which just made the whole experience feel even more premium.

Itinerary

Oct 2 - Travel Day

• Left from DFW to HND around 11am central time.

Oct 3 - Arrival in Tokyo

• Landed around 3pm at Haneda.
• Took a cab to our hotel at the Conrad Tokyo
• Fought through the jet lag and made it to our 8:30pm omakase reservation at Sushi Kagura (great experience and amazing food)
• Passed out

Notes: Sushi Kagura is great for English speakers. Chef Sho Mochizuki enjoys practicing his English and he was happy to teach us a few Japanese phrases as well. He did an excellent job telling us about each dish as we ate. A great opener to the trip as his enthusiasm will force you through the jet lag.

Oct 4 - Harajuku and Shibuya

• Explored Harajuku at 10am
• Hit the Shibuya Scramble by 1pm
• Shibuya Sky 2pm entry ticket (highly recommend)
• Explored Shibuya
• Tower Records
• Quick nap at the hotel
• Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu 8:45pm reservation (the Kill Bill restaurant, do not recommend)

Notes: Go to Shibuya Sky even if you can't get the sunset entry time. It gives incredible views of Tokyo and really puts into perspective how huge it is. Also, they changed their reservation system so it's much harder for foreigners to fight for those spots. It's really not a big deal. Just go any time of the day. Just make sure you get a ticket ahead of time.

Oct 5 - teamLab Planets and Ginza

• ~~Tsukiji Outer Market~~
• teamLab Planets at 11am
• Suitengu Shrine
• ~~Art Aquarium Museum~~

Notes: We shifted our itinerary quite a bit across the whole trip. But today we definitely skipped the most. We just couldn't keep the energy up and we also spent soooo much time exploring Ginza. The Tsukiji market was skipped to sleep in. And we ended up doing some shopping instead of the art aquarium. Also, we did visit the Suitengu Shrine, but we didn't go inside or stay for very long. The locals take this stuff seriously, so it didn't feel right to wander around. TeamLabs Planets was the highlight and definitely worth it.

Oct 6 - Shinjuku

• Laundry day!
• The stairs at Suga Jinja (from the famous scene in Your Name) at 1pm
• Cafe LaBoheme (restaurant from Your Name)
• Kinokuniya Main Store
• Explored Shinjuku
• Rokkasen AYCE sukiyaki and yakiniku reservation at 5pm (plus all-you-can-drink)
• Explored Kabukicho
• Shinjuku McDonalds (the one from Weathering With You) at 8:30pm

Notes: Yeah today was the anime pilgrimage day mixed in with lots of Shinjuku exploring. The neighborhood that has the famous stairs is actually very cute and surprisingly quiet for being in the middle of Tokyo. If you like wandering, I recommend allotting two full days for Shinjuku. You spend so much time just exploring from store to store. We didn't even hit 1% of what it had to offer. We also did laundry at the coin laundromat in the morning which cut into the rest of our day.

Oct 7 - Tokyo DisneySea

• Left early and took the Keiyo Line to DisneySea to get there before open (9am)
• Stayed until 7:30pm

Notes: I've never been to any Disney park so I had to research a bit for this. Highly recommend reading TDRExplorer guide for DisneySea. We didn't hit everything, but still had a fantastic time. The park wasn't as decked out with Halloween stuff as you'd think it would be, but they still had a ton of Halloween merch. We bought it all. Get the fancy themed popcorn bucket, you won't regret it.

Oct 8 - Arrival in Takayama

• Took the 9:56am shinkansen to Toyama
• Got on the 1:08pm Hida limited express to Takayama
• Arrived at our small ryokan, Oyado Yoshinoya at 3:15pm
• Funasaka Sake Brewery at 4pm
• Explored Takayama old town

Notes: The Hida limited express does NOT do IC cards at all. Make sure you buy TWO paper tickets at the Toyama (or Nagoya depending on which end you're coming from) station. It isn't a huge deal if you mess up, just be prepared to pay when you're on the train because they will check for both your base fare ticket, and your limited express ticket.

Oct 9 - Takayama Autumn Festival

• Miyagawa Morning Markets at 9:45am (highly recommend)
• Explored the town all day
• More sake breweries
• Sukiyaki restaurant at 3pm
• More exploring
• Watched the parade floats from 5pm to 8:30pm

Notes: We timed our trip for the Takayama Autumn festival and we were happy we did! The morning markets happen year round. But to get to do both fulfilled our dreams of experiencing a Japanese festival. Takayama is also quite the picturesque town, so the atmosphere was perfect. Our accommodations were quite different from Tokyo (think staying with your long lost Japanese grandma and grandpa), but the Watanabes were so friendly. Oyado Yoshinoya had a few other guests staying there too and it was so much fun getting to start each morning eating a traditional breakfast with them! Our stay in Takayama was probably the most memorable of the whole trip.

Oct 10 - Kamikochi

• Took the 10:30am bus to Hirayu Onsen and then another to Kamikochi
• Arrived at 12:30pm at Taisho Ike Pond
• Walked north to Kappa-bashi Bridge
• Left at 4:30pm

Notes: I won't write much about Kamikochi. I can't even find the words to describe how incredible it is. Just go. It's gorgeous. I was the most unsure on planning this part of the trip. But you can easily hop on a bus out of Takayama during the second festival day. Be warned that unless you're staying in Kamikochi or Hirayu Onsen, your last bus out is the 4:30pm bus. They say the last bus is 5:30pm, but that's also the last bus out of Hirayu Onsen. We made it out, but just barely. And that's because we took the 4:30pm out of Kamikochi.

Oct 11 - Arrival in Kyoto

• Took the 9:36am Hida limited express to Nagoya (it was jam-packed)
• Hopped on shinkansen around 1:45pm for Kyoto.
• Arrived at our hotel, Nohga Hotel Kiyomizu Kyoto at 3:30pm
• Explored downtown Kyoto a little bit

Notes: Try to get on the Hida limited express early if you can. We had to stand the whole way to Nagoya (2.5 hours).

Oct 12 - Gion District

• Kimono rental reservation at 9am
• Explored Gion
• Tea Ceremony at Camellia Flower at 2pm (recommend if you're already in Gion)
• Explored downtown Kyoto some more

Notes: I'm happy we did the Gion district and Kyoto, but I would be perfectly content if I never went back. Gion felt more like a theme park than the actual theme park we went to (DisneySea). The highlight was the kimono rental and tea ceremony. We did the 45 minute tourist version since my knees can't last for the real deal. It was very enjoyable and the staff at Camellia Flower took great care to explain the meaning behind everything.

Oct 13 - Nishiki Market

• Laundry day!
• Nishiki Market
• Fushimi Sake Village (highly recommend)

Notes: Our legs were giving out on us by this point, so we heavily reworked today to skip the Fushimi Inari shrine. Surprisingly, we had a great experience at the Fushimi Sake Village. A buddy of mine stumbled upon it during his trip and recommended it to us. So now I'm doing the...

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