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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/miles_away1012 on 2024-03-06 19:13:22.
Finally getting around to writing a trip report from our Japan adventure in October 2023!
Summary:
My husband (33M) and I (32F) spent two weeks here, traveling the typical first-timer loop. We spent 5 days in Tokyo, 2 days in Hakone, 4 days in Kyoto, and 2 days in Osaka. While we are fairly experienced travelers, we decided to hire a travel agent from Japan Travel to help us plan our trip. We tend to travel at a moderate pace, not overly relaxed but also not interested in waking up early every single day.
General Advice:
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Others have said this on this sub, but it’s worth repeating: plan for at least a one hour commute wherever you are going, even if it looks like it’s close on Google Maps! We were not prepared for the scale of the Tokyo until we experienced it in person.
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Luggage delivery is worth the cost! It was easy to arrange through our hotel.
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I felt like the Tokyo part of our journey was well paced, but things got a little to chaotic for us in Kyoto/Osaka. It’s possible to do everything, but we were exhausted at this part of the trip. One more day in Kyoto would’ve been great.
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This was my mistake, but I did not pack appropriate clothes for the weather we experienced on this trip. Because it was the end of October/early November, I packed sweaters, pants, etc. It was HOT (average 75 degrees fahrenheit through our trip). More shorts, dresses, skirts would’ve been great and a light jacket would’ve been fine for cooler temps at night.
Day 0 - Arrival in Tokyo
Our flight from Toronto to Tokyo was delayed by 3ish hours, so we arrived at roughly 8pm at Haneda. From deplaning to departing the airport, we probably spent 1 ½ to 2 hours in the airport - customs, waiting for luggage to be delivered, filling out the forms for luggage, etc. Our travel agent had arranged transportation from the airport to our hotel, which was clutch considering our exhaustion after travel. We walked to a nearby 7Eleven for dinner and went to sleep.
Day 1 - Tsujiki Market, Tokyo Skytree, Akihabara
We woke up at 6:10am (jetlag!), had breakfast at the hotel and then took the subway to Tsujiki Market for a market tour and sushi making experience. Our tour guide was fine, gave us a great overview of the market and we got to stop for a few snacks. I expected to buy fish at the market, but we did not. We then took the subway as a group to the sushi school and had a class with a chef. This was very fun and lowkey. The sushi we made was very basic but delicious. We enjoyed this tour and would recommend something similar for others.
The sushi class ended around 12:30 and we took the subway over to our next planned activity, Tokyo Skytree. We made a stop in Ginza, which was along our route, so that we could pick up a Pasmo. We were scheduled to to to the top of TST at 2:00pm, and we arrived there right on the dot. Lines to go up were pretty fast, but it was packed once we got to the top floors. We got an overpriced matcha at the cafe on the Tembo Deck and admired the view for a bit, then went to the Tembo Galleria. Lines to go down were extremely long (probably waited 40 minutes). TST is cool to see, but I believe there are better observation decks. If you go, I definitely do not think it is worth it to go to the Galleria - stick with the lower deck.
We returned to the hotel for a quick break, then headed out to Akihabara (roughly 20 minute walk from our hotel). We had dinner at Roast Beef Ohno in Akihabara, then went to Gigo to play some games. They have every arcade game imaginable and it was so cool to see the local gamers mastering their games. I am not a big gamer, but this was a super fun experience. Akihabara seemed a little slower and less crowded than I expected, possibly because we were there on a Monday, but I still think this is a must-see neighborhood.
Day 2 - Asakusa, Ginza, and our first big mistake
This was our first of a few very avoidable mistakes made on this trip. We expected to go to the Ghibli Museum today and planned to get the Totoro Cream Puffs, so we headed to that area around 9:45am. Arrived at the metro stop nearest to the cream puffs at around 11, walked up and discovered the cafe was closed. Womp!
We then headed to Gotojuki Temple. We spent roughly an hour here. It was very quiet and traditional and the lucky cats were fun to see. We are cat people and I would consider this an Instagram-worthy spot, but I would not go out of my way for it again.
We sat down to look for a lunch spot before our Ghibli Museum time and realized that our Museum tickets were for the following day! We were glad that we didn’t go all the way to the museum, only to be turned away. We hopped back on the metro and went to Asakusa.
When we arrived in Asakusa, we were in search of lunch. We landed in this little ramen bar near Senso-ji. We were eating a little late for the Japanese crowd, but the chef was very kind to accommodate us. The ramen was extremely delicious!
After lunch, we went into Senso-ji Temple (roughly 3pm). It was very pretty and very crowded. We drew fortunes, explored the buildings and gardens, then headed down the shopping street. From there we walked over to Kappabashi Street. There were a few shops that I wanted to visit, but a Japanese knife was at the top of my list. Kama Asa was recommended to me as the place to go, and I am paying that recommendation forward. The shop was extremely professional with a wide variety of knives. The clerks were very helpful and multi-lingual. I found a versatile knife for myself and a knife for a chef friend. There were a few others shops I wanted to visit but it was near closing time and my husband was losing steam. We walked to the big chef head, which was exactly like it sounds. Then we went to Mister Donut for a pick-me-up and headed back to our hotel.
For dinner, we took the subway over to Ginza. We didn’t have much of a plan here, we walked by a couple of dinner places and ended up at one of those “grill your own” places. We ordered beef, seafood, and veggies and had an excellent dinner. We were too tired to grab a nightcap, so returned to the hotel.
Day 3 - Ghibli Museum
Trying this again! Our travel planner had recommended that we take a day trip to Nikko on this day, but we obviously couldn’t make that happen with our Ghibli mistake. That said, I would not recommend trying to do that day trip to anyone who only has five days in Tokyo. There is so much to do and see that it doesn’t seem worth it to spend all that time on a train.
Anyway, we headed out and went to the Totoro Cream Puff Factory. I have read lots of opinions on this place, but to me it was worth the trip. It was adorable and not crowded at all. We had the option of buying small cream puffs for take away or we could wait 15 minutes to sit in the cafe. We decided to wait and were so glad that we did. We had a lovely little table in the corner and enjoyed some matcha and two cream puffs (chocolate and chestnut). They were adorable and delicious.
We headed to the Ghibli Museum after, roughly 45 mins by train and then a 20 minute walk through a beautiful serene park. We stopped for lunch at a small noodle shop near the museum (delish!) then lined up for our 2pm call time at the museum. It was absolutely beautiful and I loved seeing the short film. I did expect the exhibits to be a bit more focused on the movies and animation, but it was more like an art museum. Like the films, everything was a feast for the eyes. A great stop for Ghibli fans and art lovers.
After the museum, we took the metro to Shibuya. This was the first station we had visited that had a JR Pass office, so we decided to find the office before heading out to explore. This station is absolutely bonkers during normal times due to the amount of people, but the insanity was exacerbated by the construction that was occurring. It took us 40 minutes to find the office.
After the debacle, we were both like “I need a drink”. We decided to go to the Family Mart that has the whiskey bar. This place was extremely charming and the whiskey selection was excellent. We enjoyed some konbini and chatted with a few other travelers who were at the bar. I loved this experience, it was very silly and fun.
We left the bar and started wandering around for dinner. Everywhere had lines, so we just started waiting. It turned out that we were at Gyukatsua Motomura, which I have seen many times on Tiktok (this was a great surprise). We waited for 45 minutes, but really enjoyed the experience once we sat down. We ended our day after dinner, which was around 10pm.
Day 4 - Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku
We left our hotel and headed over to Harajuku. We got there a little too early for the shops to be open, at around 10:45am. We primarily explored Takeshita Street, which was a little bit like a beach boardwalk in my opinion. We are not big shoppers, so we didn’t spend a lot of time here. I hoped to see cool street fashion and interesting foods, but I think we were too early.
From here we went to Shibuya for a lunch reservation at Sushi Tokyo Ten, which was arranged for us by our travel agent. We had an omakase lunch here that was incredible! This was our first omakase experience in Japan and it really blew us away. Highly recommend!
After lunch, we needed to walk off all the food so we went to the Meiji shrine. Google Maps routed us the long way, but it allowed us to see a great de...
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