This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/milkandvaseline on 2024-01-27 04:23:20.

Travelled in January, 2024 with my best friend. It was winter there and although Tokyo was not too cold, the Kansai region seemed much colder.

Our goals for this trip were to see the main sights of Japan, go thrifting and buy some merch from anime/games/other miscellaneous Japan things. I think we did a pretty good job checking these things off the list and don't really have any regrets!

Tokyo - 5 full days

• Day 1 - Shibuya and Harajuku:
  • We woke up too early and got to Shibuya whilst most shops were closed. We visited the Hachiko statue and the scramble crossing. The crossing was actually not as busy/big as we were imagining, however it wasn't peak hour when we went. We passed the time at a Don Quijote while we waited for the other shops to open. Then we grabbed lunch at Kura Sushi which became our obsession for the trip (we went around 4 times in total oop). Then we went to the Jujutsu Kaisen cafe located in the Shibuya 109 building (I think there's two locations, both in Shibuya).
  • Then we went to Harajuku. We thought the thrifting around here was quite disappointing, it seemed like there was a bit of popular-tourist-area-price-gouging.
• Day 2 - Asakusa, Kappabashi and Shinjuku:
  • We got to Asakusa pretty early and we rented kimonos. We walked down Nakamise Street in our kimonos and took some photos around there. We probably only spend about an hour in our kimonos before returning them as we were absolutely freezing. After we got changed, we did another round of the area and did some shopping and tried all the Instagram famous matcha places e.g the matcha mont blanc place and the gelato place. The gelato place (Suzukien) was a personal favourite, they do seven different levels of matcha gelato.
  • We then walked to Kappabashi (Kitchenware town). I absolutely loved this place. If you're looking for a knife, this is the place to get it. There was also so much good pottery at reasonable prices and I would've absolutely bought more stuff if I wasn't stressed about luggage space. There were lots of kappa statues and images hidden around the place as well, very cute.
  • We then went to Shinjuku at night to visit Golden Gai, Omoide Yokocho, the cat billboard and the Godzilla head. The bars and restaurants weren't super busy since it was a weekday and we were quite surprised by this.
• Day 3 - Shinjuku during the day, Studio Ghibli Museum, thrifting in Kichijoji and Ikebukuro:
  • First we went to visit the special KFC near Shinjuku station. Then we went to the Metropolitan building and were luckily able to get some views of Mt Fuji. Definitely recommend the Metropolitan building over the other popular observation decks e.g Tokyo Tower, Shibuya Sky since it's free.
  • Then we went to the Ghibli Museum. Definitely think this is a must go even if you're not a massive Ghibli fan. The exhibits were so thoughtfully put together, the building and surrounding park were beautiful and there's some unique merch you can get here.
  • We then went thrifting in Kichijoji since it was nearby. This wasn't on our original itinerary and we didn't have high hopes for this place but we were pleasantly surprised! The prices here were very reasonable and we thought it might be because it's less popular than the other locations. This ended up being our favourite thrifting spot.
  • We then finished the day in Ikebukuro. We ended up preferring Ikebukuro over Akihabara. We thought Ikebukuro was just a bit more...nicer? Ikebukuro was more female orientated and Akihabara seems more male orientated.
• Day 4 - Tsukiji market, shopping in Ginza, Akihabara: * Honestly we both thought Tsukiji marker was skippable. We thought all the "everything I ate at Tsukiji market" Instagram posts were overhyping this.
  • We did some shopping in Ginza and finished the day in Akihabara.
• Day 5 - Gotokuji Temple and thrifting in Shimokitazawa:
  • This ended up being an 'extra' day for us since we originally planned on visiting Akihabara on this day.
  • We decided to go to Gotokuji Temple, which is the temple with all the maneki-nekos. We're glad we did because the temple was super cute. We took the cat tram there as well which was also super cute, it's one of the only tram lines still in operation in Tokyo.
  • We then went thrifting in Shimokitazawa. This place had a good range of shops but we didn't find anything that caught our eyes. We think it might've just been an unlucky day for us.

Kyoto - 3ish full days

• Day 6 - Nishiki Market and Fushimi Inari:
  • We left for Kyoto and got to see Mt Fuji on the bullet train along the way.
  • Nishiki Market was close to our accommodation so we went there for lunch. We thought Nishiki Market was better than Tsukiji and we'd choose Nishiki if we had to pick.
  • We then went to Fushimi Inari. We decided to climb all the way to the top since we had time to kill. Would I recommend it? Probably not. At the top there's just a shinto shrine/statue. I'd recommend climbing up high enough so that there's not many people and and then taking some pictures there and climbing back down. There's a halfway point with a view of Kyoto that's not bad.
• Day 7 - Higashiyama area and Kiyomizu-dera:
  • We left early to visit the Starbucks in the Higashiyama area. It's quite cute inside the Starbucks and we had breakfast sitting on the tatami mats there. We then walked around the area and took some photos.
  • We then went to Kiyomizu-dera and finished the day by chilling in the Sanjo area near our accommodation.
• Day 8 - Arashiyama, Kinkaku-ji and Nijo Castle: * We first went to the bamboo grove and then to the Miffy Cafe for breakfast. We also got a coffee at Arabica Coffee which is all over Instagram and it's definitely a very touristy place. As a Melburnian, I actually thought the coffee was pretty good. We then went to Iwatayama monkey park and it was so funny seeing all the monkeys chilling around the tourists.
  • We then went to Kinkaku-ji. If you can, go on a sunny day because words cannot describe how beautiful the temple was when the sunlight reflects off the gold. The photos absolutely do not do it justice.
  • Nijo Castle was a spur of a moment decision since we had some time to kill. It was kinda expensive for Japan standards at 1300 yen for entry. I would say this is very skippable. The architecture was nice but not exactly unique. I did enjoy seeing and 'hearing' the nightingale floors but at the end of the day it is just a squeaky floor.

Kinosaki Onsen - 2ish days

• Day 9 - Kinosaki Onsen and bathing
  • We left Kyoto and arrived in Kinosaki around the afternoon. We explored the town, had dinner at our ryokan and then visited some onsens.
• Day 10 - Kinosaki Onsen, ropeway and Osaka
  • We had breakfast at the ryokan and did some early morning bathing before checking out of the ryokan. In the end we got to visit 5/7 onsens. Goshono-yu is definitely the prettiest and a must visit. Kouno-yu Onsen was also really nice. Satono-yu was skippable in my opinion.
  • We then went on a ropeway to see a 'Michelin rated' view and uhh...it was just okay, maybe because it was winter it wasn't as nice.
  • We then headed to Osaka and had dinner in Dotonbori.

Osaka & neighbouring areas - 4 full days

• Day 11Himeji and shopping around Dotonbori and Shinsaibashi
  • We took the Hello Kitty Shinkansen to Himeji and I highly recommend doing this if your schedule allows (the train only runs once a day unfortunately). It was a unique experience and although I'm not the biggest Hello Kitty fan, it was very amusing just getting on a train that was covered in pink ribbons.
  • We had time to kill so we just did some shopping for last minute souvenirs around Dotonbori and Shinsaibashi.
• Day 12 - Hiroshima and Miyajima
  • We left quite early for Hiroshima. We visited the bomb dome, the memorial park and the museum. I'd say the museum is a must go. It was probably the most educational museum I've been to and they planned the exhibits very well. The content was quite heavy but I think everyone should see it at least once.
  • We were feeling a bit down after the museum so we then went to get some famous Hiroshima okonomiyaki for lunch.
  • Then we went to Miyajima and just visited the shrine and the Grand Torii gate pretty much. I didn't know there were also deer on Miyajima island and they were really cute.
• Day 13 - Universal Studios
  • This is definitely a whole day thing. We stayed from opening to close pretty much. We spent most of our time in Super Nintendo World doing the Power Up Band challenges. This was my second time there and I still think the Flying Dinosaur is the only must go ride. I think Hollywood Dream is skippable, imo it's just your generic roller coaster. As someone with glasses I actually did not enjoy Koopa's Challenge since you get these glasses with the ride and they did not work well for me. We had express passes so we were able to save some time. If you're worried about not being able to get entry into Super Nintendo World, I wouldn't stress. When we got to the park, we saw there were still timed reservations for SNW available (we got to the park maybe 8:30-9ish?). We also had lunch at Kinopio's Cafe. The food was...okay but it was really cute inside. There was quite a wait so if you wanted to save time you could skip this.
• **Day 1...

Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/1ac158q/trip_report_two_weeks_in_tokyo_kyoto_kinosaki_and/