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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/nimblerabit on 2025-01-07 18:10:32+00:00.

This is long delayed, but I wanted to share my experience visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka during the summer (June 3rd -> 19th) with a group of 4 people. The reports in this subreddit have been really helpful, and I want to share mine to add to the pool of helpful information.

Flights

My group decided to use ZipAir for our flights. This saved us several hundred dollars, despite none of us living at a place where ZipAir flys out of. We all got flights into LA, and then separately booked flights from LA to Tokyo through ZipAir. This was totally worth it. The flight is nonstop from LA to Tokyo, so with the additional step of getting to LA that makes it a 1-stop flight, and it was much cheaper than similar duration flights.

Accommodations

We used AirBnB, and it went pretty well. A few thoughts on the places we stayed:

• Tokyo:
  • We had two different AirBnBs here, one in Asakusa and one a bit north of Shinjuku (near Takadanobaba Station). Both were good, but we definitely preferred our stay near Shinjuku. When we were in Asakusa it felt like we had to do a lot of traveling every day to get to things (and to get back). Part of this is that we were about a ~15 minute walk from the train in Asakusa, but also it just didn't feel as well connected. The stay near Shinjuku was great, everything felt super close and convenient.
• Kyoto:
  • This was the most expensive AirBnB. We stayed here. I think the AirBnB was overpriced and looks much nicer in pictures than it actually is. Not much else to add here, sorry.
• Osaka:
  • The AirBnB we stayed in is possibly my favorite place I've ever stayed, just in terms of the house itself. It was a super cool place, looked gorgeous in person, and was very affordable.

IC Card

Couple things to note here:

• Pick up your IC card when you land at the airport. There was a long line, so we decided to skip getting the card at the airport and get it somewhere else (assuming this would be easy). Turns out that lots of stations don't have any cards in stock, and without having the card it was difficult to move around to find one. I don't know if this is still the case or not, but I would definitely recommend getting it at the airport before you leave.
• You can add Shinkansen tickets to your IC card. This makes it really easy and smooth to use the Shinkansen, so that's what I recommend.

Notes on Attractions

I wont go into detail on everything we did, just the highlights for things that I liked the most or the least. All personal opinion of course, but hopefully it helps others.

• Tokyo:
  • Harajuku / Shibuya / Shinjuku - Obviously there's tons of things in all of these places, but I'll just mention that if you aren't into shopping then you might not love them as much as others. My group spent a ton of time walking through and shopping in these areas, and I should have split up from them to do my own thing since I'm not a big shopping fan.
  • Akihabara - I thought I would love this place since I'm a huge video game fan, but I really didn't. It's a spectacle for sure, and it's worth visiting because it's so unique, but the arcades themselves weren't all that fun, especially since I can't read Japanese, and overall I just didn't find there was a lot to do here.
  • Golden Gai - Awesome! Super fun vibes, really enjoyed hanging out at the bars and chatting with people here. This was one of the highlights.
  • TeamLabs - Surprisingly another highlight. I thought this would be a lame tourist trap, but I ended up thinking it was very cool. I'm not even a big picture / instagram person, and that's definitely a big draw here. I still loved it.
  • Senso-ji - This is pretty fun, it's just so huge and there's a ton of variety. We actually walked through here a bunch of times to get from our AirBnB to the train. It's worth visiting early in the morning as it's quite beautiful and pleasant to walk around, and it's also worth visiting when everything is open and it's super crowded and crazy.
  • Shibuya Sky - Another touristy thing that I wouldn't normally recommend which turned out to be pretty incredible. I think this is better than just about any other viewing platform type experience I've done elsewhere, just because it's very open and has a decent amount of space to get away from the crowds and just appreciate the views. Definitely recommend.
  • Mt Takao - This was my personal favorite thing we did while staying in Tokyo. I don't recall exactly which hike we did (maybe #6, it is confusing), but I know it was one of the harder ones. Reviews online made me think this would be overcrowded and not worth it, but the hike was really enjoyable, the scenery was beautiful, and it was extremely nice to get away from the city. Tokyo is a lot, and the nature was very appreciated after being in Tokyo for a while. Oh, they had some interesting and delicious food here as well (I remember some of the cheese tarts being absolutely incredible).
• Kyoto:
  • Fushimi Inari - Crazy busy, absolutely full of people. We got here around 10am and it was completely packed. The crowds dropped substantially as we kept walking though, and by the top there weren't all that many people. It's a very unique experience to walk through, and it's absolutely worth doing despite the crowds. I wanted to come back late at night to experience it in the dark, but I never did get a chance.
  • Pontocho Alley - Awesome spot. Just a great atmosphere, with lots of delicious restaurants and bars to choose from. We came here most nights for dinner and drinks, and I don't regret that at all. I'm a whiskey fan, and there were multiple bars in this area that were great for trying local whiskey.
  • Arashiyama Bamboo Forest - Personally I don't understand the appeal of the main area. It's a walk through some bamboo, and it's crowded. That said, there were a few things near here that I loved. Make sure you go to the Arashiyama Park Observation Deck, the views of the river from that spot are pretty spectacular. After that, we walked down some steps from the park to the river, and there was hardly anybody around. My group ended up just sitting here and appreciating the serenity and beauty of the river, and that was one of my favorite experiences. We didn't do a boat ride.
  • Arashiyama Monkey Park - The walk up here was excruciatingly hot, because we had just done a bunch of walking through the bamboo forest, park, along the river, etc. It was humid and hot and terrible, so keep that in mind if you do a similar itinerary during the summer. The monkeys were pretty cool, and you get to feed them. Personally I didn't love it, but if you have an interest than it's worth doing.
  • Nishiki Market - Pretty cool spot. It's fun to walk through and get food at a bunch of different places, and there's a lot to buy if you're interested. I ended up picking up a chef's knife here because I needed one and the prices were very reasonable.
• Osaka
  • Nara - We did a day trip to Nara from Osaka. This is probably the most memorable part of our entire trip, it's just so unique, weird, and fun. 100% recommended, everyone should come here once. Don't just go to the very start of the park where everybody is, walk further, explore the town some.
  • Osaka Aquarium - This is a really good aquarium. If you've been to other good aquariums, it is not necessarily a must visit, but it's definitely one of the better ones out there.
  • Karaoke - I don't recall the exact name, but we ended up at a karaoke bar and joined in for some karaoke one night. There seem to be a lot of these in Osaka, catering to both Japanese and English speakers, so if that sounds fun to you then it's a good thing to do in Osaka (at least we definitely saw it more here than anywhere else).
  • Food - I don't have any specific restaurant recommendations, sorry, but I wanted to mention here that the food in Osaka was delicious. I think they must have a different style of Yakisoba here because I had Yakisoba a couple different times, and it was absolutely incredible. Again, I don't remember the names of the restaurants, we tended to just look things up on google maps near where we were and went inside anywhere that looked good.
  • Minoh Park - We decided to do another nature day since Mt Takao was such a success in Tokyo. A quick train ride from Osaka is Minoh Park, which we saw had an easy hike to a waterfall, so we went. While we were walking through the charming town towards the hike, a nice old lady asked if we were going to the waterfall. When we told her that we were, she mentioned we should stay until dark because it was apparently firefly season (which I didn't realize), and she gave us some recommendations for where to see them. The hike itself was beautiful, the waterfall was pretty (although nothing mindblowing), we ended up seeing several monkeys, and we walked back as night fell and got to see the fireflies (with the help of a very nice local who used google translate to communicate with us and offered to let us follow him to all the best spots). This was an unexpected highlight of the trip. The nature in Japan is incredible, and it's definitely worth getting out of the city to see it.

I'm tired of typing now, sorry this is so long. Hopefully this helps someone out in the future, and if anybody has any questions, I'll do my best to answer.