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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/SomeGuyFromVault101 on 2025-02-15 08:43:57+00:00.
A big thank you to the travellers in this subreddit and r/JapanTravelTips who have imparted their wisdom and experiences over the ages; they have helped me and many others in planning our trips!
I’m from Australia, and this was my first time in Japan. I spent 2 weeks in Tokyo through university exchange, and then stayed an extra 10 nights to explore Hakone, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Osaka. I already knew I would love the country before I went there, and I can safely say (having been to a few other places including the US and Europe) this was by far the best place I’ve ever travelled to. The culture is fascinating, the people are so considerate and kind (minus some foreign tourists!), and the food was legitimately some of the best I’ve ever tasted!
I can report that January is a really nice time to visit Japan. It’s a little cold (around 10 degrees Celsius during the days) but in the big cities it feels warmer due to all the buildings and the (really hot!) heating everywhere. The only places it got uncomfortably cold (low digits Celsius) were Nara and Hakone, so be prepared with thermals if you come in January, as those places mainly have outdoor activities!
The 2 weeks in Tokyo were a bit of a blur at times due to having to attend classes in Shinjuku, but I’ll do my best to recount each day. I also highly recommend visiting Tokyo as a student, as it was such an interesting vibe taking the train as a commuter in the morning and at times being squished in the train like a sardine! Even though the trains were amazing and frequent, I’m not sure how Japanese people do that every day!
4/1 - Arrive in Tokyo I arrived in the evening at Narita, and met a few other students and one of the teaching staff at the airport. For some reason, the uni recommended we take the skyliner and then a local train to our hotel in Ekoda. The skyliner was quite nice as it has reserved seating and there are spaces for luggage, however the local trains were sort of chaotic especially lugging around a big suitcase! Next time I’ll definitely take the airport limousine bus so I don’t have to worry about my suitcase. Thankfully it was around 7pm when we were on the trains so they weren’t that busy.
5/1 - Shibuya / Harajuku As part of our university orientation, all the students met at shibuya for a scavenger hunt! This was a bit silly but it was fun scrambling (ha) around shibuya and seeing the big sights such as the hachiko statue, the scramble (I thought it would be bigger, but it was still cool to see, although not as pretty as at night), the Disney store, and so on. I was feeling a bit jet lagged during this day, so our scavenger hunt became a bit blurry. At a later date I would return to shibuya at night which was a very different experience compared to the day. The tourists really seem to appear in droves at night, and I got the vibe that shibuya turns into part central when the moon comes out 😂 After the scavenger hunt, I checked out the miyashita park shopping outlet, which had so many options for food and souvenirs. I spent way too much money on presents for my family, and got a really nice “Shibuya” t-shirt with a drawing of the scramble. I also ate an unreasonably tasty pork bun and tempura chicken meal at a restaurant in the park. After this, I checked out Harajuku with another student. We went to Takeshita Street at around 4 or 5pm and it was genuinely unpleasant the amount of people wall to wall walking up and down the street. One thing that surprised me in Japan was that I rarely bumped into anyone, despite the overwhelming amount of people. Compared to Australians, who really don’t look where they’re going or if they’re in your way, Japanese people are hyper-aware of their surroundings and other people, and I love that. We did some souvenir shopping in some of the alleys of Takeshita street (cash only!) and checked out a “used” clothing store, which had prices that were definitely higher than I would have expected for used clothes! But this is Harajuku. Of course I had to try a Harajuku crepe. It was a bit tricky finding one without cream, but I managed to find a Nutella banana one which was decent! With the crepe success, it was time to retreat to the hotel and call it a night. But not before having a Katsu curry at coco ichiban, which became my favourite chain curry place in Japan! I’m now a convert of golden curry because of coco!
6/1 - Shinjuku / Ikebukuro First day navigating the morning trains at ikebukuro station! This station was absolutely packed, and there were so many amazing smells such as fresh croissants that would tempt me every day. Because we had to change trains at ikebukuro station to get to classes, I felt like I never fully explored the area, which was a shame as I missed out on trying the pikachu sweets cafe and many other things! Ikebukuro was a really nice area with lots of shops and restraurants! I would highly recommend staying here as it’s on the Yamonote line which makes it easy to get around Tokyo. Successfully making it to shin-okubo station, we walked to the university (about 10mins away). I used the digital suica card on my iPhone, which made it really easy to simply scan my phone through ticket gates, and top up my balance through Apple wallet. I will say that even though public transport is cheap in Japan, the price does add up especially if you are taking 2 trains each way, so budget more money than you think you’ll need for this! After university orientation (where we did some fun activities such as mochi-pounding and sake tasting) I went to Shinjuku station and then got lost 3 times in the station! It truly is a labyrinth of a place and (as our teacher let us know) the biggest station in the world! Thankfully I was pointed in the right direction by a few locals and made it out to the surface, on the way towards kabukicho! As I’m a fan of the Yakuza games, I had to check out the iconic cine city square. It was surreal wandering around kabukicho in real life after having run around the area so much in the games (props to RGG studios for how accurate they were able to capture the area in game!) I saw the Godzilla head and even though it’s a red light district, it felt pretty tame, there were no aggressive touts or anything like that. Of course, I also had to check out the Shinjuku batting cages as a fan of the yakuza games. This was an incredibly fun experience for me, as we don’t really have batting cages in Australia! For 400 yen, I got to swing (and miss) and have so much fun whacking baseballs. I had to pay for another round as it was so much fun! This worked up quite an appetite, so I got some amazing and cheap ramen from a local place that I couldn’t tell you the name of! The ordering machine was all in Japanese so I stood there looking dumbly at the machine. Before I could use google lens (genuinely so useful on this trip) a kind patron pointed to one option and said it’s the most popular. So I went with that and it was incredible, I believe it was a pork ramen with a hunk of fresh garlic and spring onion on top! It had just been starting to rain before I entered the ramen shop (it only rained once or twice in the whole 3 and a half weeks, the weather was really surprisingly sunny and clear for winter) so I had been using my umbrella. As I sat down in the ramen shop, I mistakenly placed my wet umbrella on the counter (!) and a Japanese man who sat down next to me seemed very upset! I quickly wiped off the condensation from the table and put the umbrella in my bag, but the man stood up and was visibly upset. Fascinatingly enough, he didn’t really look at me or direct his anger at me, but rather the store owner! I felt so bad, and the man refused to sit back down next to me, but after a short time he eventually left. “Sumimasen” didn’t seem to work here unfortunately! But I learnt a valuable umbrella lesson! In the evening, I checked out the Sunshine City department store in ikebukuro and the observatory, which had a really sweet view (but not as good as skytree) with a unique indoor “garden” space which seemed very popular with couples and families. At night, the lights were also dim and there was soft music playing throughout the observatory, it was a very relaxing way to end the day!
7/1 - Akihabara / Tokyo Dome After classes, I checked out akihabara with a few other students. I felt a bit rushed exploring this area and would love to go back another trip to see more of it. As someone interested in gaming but not anime, Akihabara was just ok. It was interesting seeing stores which were entirely devoted to trading cards, anime figures, and so on! But it didn’t really do much for me. There were some really nice bakeries and restaurants here though, and I managed to pick up a cheap copy of Dragon’s Dogma 2 at Book Off (however, if you’re using the wise travel card, be careful as book off declined my card, as well as 7/11 and Lawson! I’m not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but it’s a problem specifically with the wise visa debit card, as my normal visa debit worked in these places). I also ate an amazing katsu egg curry from a place called Hakuyotei Curry! After this, we checked out Tokyo Dome as they had a winter illumination… event? I was expecting a massive festival, but it was mainly a few attractions including a big igloo dome where you could take selfies and a long hallway of lights. It...
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