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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Ophidion on 2025-10-27 01:40:03+00:00.
This will be quite a long post so I’ll put the short summary here at the top before jumping into the detailed report. I’ve also highlighted specific places we visited to make skimming the post easier. We got many ideas for our trip from r/JapanTravel and I wanted to pay it forward by calling out many of those experiences here.
My wife [36F] and I [37M] went to Japan for the third time this October. We spent 16 days split up between 8 days in Tokyo, 4 days in Yakushima, 2 days in Takachiho, and 2 days in Fukuoka. I speak some Japanese as I studied it in school, but that was over 15 years ago and it’s been 7 years since we’ve last been to Japan. Since we’ve been to Japan a few times before, the goal of this trip was just to take it easy and not overstuff or overplan our days. As it turned out, the theme of this trip was food, drinks, and vibes. We aren’t big coffee drinkers but discovered amazing hand poured coffee cafes and several great places to just relax and pass the time. I think our favorite place overall was Yakushima and our favorite lodging was in Takachiho. Fukuoka is under-rated and we could spend months in Tokyo.
Tokyo - Day 1 (Landing)
We landed in the evening at Narita and took the bus to The MiraCosta at DisneySea. My wife is a big Disney fan and absolutely loved DisneySea the last time we were in Japan so she wanted to spend our wedding anniversary there for this trip. We splurged for a couple of nights there.
Tokyo - Day 2 (DisneySea)
I’ll keep the Disney section of the report brief, but we had a great time. For anyone who has never been, the food and upkeep at DisneySea/Tokyo Disneyland is very good compared to other parks and big Disney fans should 100% go to DisneySea.
Tokyo - Day 3 (Disneyland)
We spent the next day at Tokyo Disneyland and moved over to the Toy Story hotel for the night. The nice thing is the Disney hotels will move your bags for you so it makes it simple to change rooms/hotels. My wife wanted to see the Beauty and the Beast ride since it’s unique to Japan and we both loved it.
Tokyo - Day 4 (Shimo-Kitazawa)
We checked out of our hotel and dropped off our bags at the Tokyu Stay in Shinjuku sanchome before heading over to Shirohige's Cream Puff Factory to try their Totoro cream puffs. We didn’t get lucky for the Ghibli Museum lottery so this was our consolation. We grabbed a handful of cream puffs and ate them upstairs at TOLO Coffee & Bakery to enjoy the puffs with coffee (note: there is a small charge to consume the puffs upstairs in TOLO if you buy them downstairs at Shirohige’s. However, it’s the same price if you buy the puffs directly in TOLO itself). A great combination and the true start of the vibes portion of the trip. The cafe is cozy and a nice place to relax in Kitazawa.
The Shimo-Kitazawa neighborhood was very quiet and it was nice to walk around. We hit up another cafe for some savory french toast (Cafe Latte) and headed over to Nakano Broadway to knock out some of the shopping we wanted to do. I enjoyed Nakano Broadway a lot and, in retrospect, it was one of the best places to look around for anime/video game souvenirs that turned out to be much harder to find in other places.
We headed back to Shimo-Kitazawa for dinner but got confused and ended up in the wrong restaurant for dinner. We went to Toku Toku by mistake and I couldn’t read the stylized, handwritten Japanese menu. It was nice having some background in Japanese for this since I could pull the ripcord on ordering and just politely asked for the waitress’ recommendation for both of us. Japanese is required for this restaurant, in my opinion, since there was no English menu and the wait staff we spoke with only spoke Japanese.
We got very good grilled mackerel as a result and then headed over to Little Soul Cafe, a vinyl listening bar to just vibe out some more. I absolutely loved this place. The place is small, but lined almost completely with vinyl records. The owner knows exactly where every record is and keeps the music going so smoothly while serving some of the best rum you can get. I had never had cuban rum before and having a couple of cuban rum old fashioneds while vibing out to soul and funk music was a highlight of the trip for us.
Tokyo - Day 5 (Shibuya, Asakusa)
After sleeping in a little bit we were craving our favorite Japanese food: Tonkatsu. We headed over from the hotel to Katsukura Tonkatsu. Unsurprisingly the tonkatsu was excellent, but I also discovered hojicha genmai. I’m a sucker for hojicha and didn’t even know this existed. It’s hojicha blended with toasted brown rice, so there’s a nuttiness and savory notes that are really pleasant.
After lunch we spent a bunch of time at the MEGA Donki in Shibuya to buy candy, cosmetics, and souvenirs for people back home. Don Quijote is crowded, hard to move around in, and the theme song will absolutely drive you into an unshakeable madness but we love Don Don Don, Donnnki, Don Qi….JOOOTEEE.
To soothe our minds and get back on track with vibes, we walked from Don Quijote over to the kissaten Chatei Hatou. After waiting a bit we were directed to sit at the counter where we got to watch the staff making hand-dripped coffee to serve with chiffon cake. It was a perfect way to reset after Don Quijote and the light rain that had started.
We dropped our haul off at the hotel and jumped over to Asakusa to see Senso-ji at night and walk around. We grabbed some quick unagi and beef at Asakusa Yadoki Gyu Una and some tayaki at Taiyaki Sawata before heading back to Shinjuku. My wife was tired and I wanted to explore more so I walked through Golden Gai to scout it out. It’s a really cool area but, honestly, I didn’t think it was our kind of scene so I headed back to the room and we decided not to give it a go. Maybe if I was 15 years younger and with a larger group of friends I’d have given it a shot.
Tokyo - Day 6 (Yokohama Oktoberfest)
We woke up a bit earlier today to wait in line for Cafe Aaliya. We had tried to go the previous day but decided not to wait in the long line and headed to tonkatsu instead. Seven/eight years ago we went to Cafe Aaliya and loved the french toast so we knew we were going to go probably more than once during this trip. Today worked out as we only had to wait about 35 minutes to get seated. It was a weekend so I thought that was actually pretty good. If you like fluffy french toast and good coffee this place is wonderful.
After breakfast we caught the train down to the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse area to experience Oktoberfest. And, you guys, I’m telling you it was a surreal experience. We walk in about 45ish minutes after the gates opened and there are hundreds of people in the tent surrounding the oompah band with over a dozen different breweries lining the perimeter offering fest beers, pretzels, Japanese food and desserts. No joke the minute we walk into the tent there’s an enormous conga line dancing around inside the tent and everyone is joining in with the music. I’m so happy I dragged my wife down there because it was such a unique experience.
At the same time as the Oktoberfest there was a huge dog meetup happening in the Red Brick Warehouse area. So we’re walking around with giant steins of beer and pretzels just watching all of the dogs in costumes, dog strollers, and dog vendors lining the area. We found a Leonard’s Bakery that stopped us in our tracks. We had no idea there was a Leonard’s in Japan and we love the malasadas they make in Hawaii so we dutifully stood in line for half-a-dozen deep-fried donuts.
Heading back to Shinjuku we hit up a favorite gyoza place of ours that we had gone to on a previous trip Gyoza no Fukuho. We ate 46 gyoza between the two of us then walked over to the east exit of Shinjuku Station to watch the curved LED screen with a giant 3D cat.
Tokyo - Day 7 (Shinjuku Gyoen and even more Vibes)
We started the day by going over to All Seasons Coffee and having oreo cheesecake with our lattes. Did I mention food and drinks played a major role in our trip?
From there we walked around Shinjuku Gyoen for a couple of hours. We always enjoy seeing people picnicking on the grass and the lush green gardens in the center of an enormous city like Tokyo. From there we hopped over to Yanaka Ginza to indulge in cat-themed shopping. We got some hilariously funny shirts, nice figurines, and baked goods.
For dinner we jumped down to Meguro for more tonkatsu over at Tonki. We have a soft spot for Tonki and really enjoy watching the assembly line production that is going on at the first floor while enjoying great food. That area of Meguro is known for great tonkatsu restaurants so I’d recommend looking around there if you’re interested. Opinions vary on which is truly the best of the tonkatsu in that area but they’re all great in their own way.
After dinner we journeyed over to the Hotel New Otani Tokyo near the center of the city. It’s surprisingly hard to reach, but we found our way to Trader Vic’s to indulge in our love of Tiki. The Halloween theming was on point and the tiki drinks were unbelievably good. We even grabbed a few tiki mugs on our way out. The fugu mug was too clever to ignore. The one thing I will say though, is that I was sad how empty the place was. While we were there on a weekday nig...
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