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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/IMustSayThat on 2024-02-08 15:43:53.

Hi everyone! This is the part 2 of our honeymoon trip report. You can find part 1 here, covering Osaka, Hiroshima and Miyajima.

Before I pick it up from where I left, a few more general thoughts:

• Google Maps: worked really really well everywhere we went. We got the Ubigi e-SIM before going so we had internet at all times, and google maps got us everywhere we needed. It even tells you which train car to get in so you’re closer to you train station exit by the time you get out. Just once (on our way to USJ) it told us to stay in the train when we actually needed to change trains.
• Some places and restaurants will only take cash, so I would advise to always have cash with you. In the three weeks we were there we had to withdraw cash 3 times, and we got around 40,000-50,000 jpy each time.
• Before going we read about foreigners being denied entry in some restaurants or places with ‘No Foreigners’ signs - nothing like that happened to us in the entire trip. We were only asked to leave once from a shop in Matsumoto, because we were not wearing masks and we didn’t have any on us, but the man was very polite anyways and if we had masks he would probably had let us stay.
• Jet lag: it took us good 5 or 6 days to get over it completely. So I would recommend having some food in your hotel room! If your jet lag is anything like ours, you will wake up in the middle of the night and you will be hungry.
• Buying food for the Shinkansen: every station is different, but from my experience it is better to buy food BEFORE you go through the ticket gate, as you will have more options. In a good few stations you will only find very small convenience stores and souvenir shops with not a lot of food options after the ticket gate, so If you see something you fancy eating, grab it before going in.

Now to the interesting part.

Day 6 - Himeji and Kyoto

• We arrived in Himeji by 9.30am and had our Shinkansen to Kyoto booked for 1pm, so we were there for 3.5 hrs and I think that was enough. We headed straight to the castle - you can get a bus from the train station or walk for 20 minutes, we decided to walk as it was a beautiful day and we wanted to see the town. There’s no way of getting lost, you can basically see the castle from the train station and it’s a big straight line getting there.
• Himeji Castle: we arrived at 10am and there was no queue. The visit itself was pretty quick - there’s not a lot going on inside the castle. The interior is well kept and beautiful to see, but there’s not much of an exhibition or information on the history, so you basically just go up all the floors, then back down and that’s it. Still, the castle and the grounds are pretty impressive and I would recommend the visit. There is an English tour at 10am but we arrived too late for that (first come, first served), but I imagine the visit would have been more interesting in a tour.
• We bought the Himeji castle + Koko-en gardens combined ticket, so visited the gardens after leaving the castle. I do recommend going, especially if you’re visiting during spring or autumn. We spent a total of two hours visiting the castle and the gardens.
• For lunch we had a Kobe beef burger at Kushiyaki Kobe Beef, a solid 9/10.
• We still had some time before our Shinkansen to Kyoto, so decided to walk around Himeji, just to find out that there’s not much going on, the town is pretty dead. Most things worth checking are around the train station, so if you have any time to kill, I recommend spending it around the station and the shopping street close by (Miyukidori).
• We arrived in Kyoto, checked in to out hotel and rested for a bit. We got out for dinner and went to Aiba Curry. Such a good curry restaurant (9/10), so good we had dinner there twice.
• We then strolled along Teramachi-dori checking out the clothes shops, and walked towards Yasaka Shrine to see it lit up - it is really worth seeing it at night!

Kyoto hotel: Carta Hotel Kyoto Kawaramachi (6/10) - Excellent location, average room. I wouldn’t recommend this hotel for a single reason: they told us they would handle forwarding our luggage to Tokyo upon check out, but when we arrived at the reception with our bags for checking out they simply decided they didn’t offer this type of service. So there was a lot of unnecessary stress - checking out, going to a 7/11 to try to figure out the luggage forwarding and trying not to miss our reserved train tickets to the next destination.

Day 7 - Kyoto

• Early start to try and get some nice photos around Hokan-Ji/Yasaka Pagoda. We arrived right before 7am and there were about 30 people there. We then headed to Kyomizu-dera, arriving at 7.30am and leaving at around 8.15am - the place wasn’t too busy, but there were A LOT more people there we we left than when we arrived.
• We then walked along Sannenzaka and Ninnenzaka, but because of the time all the shops were closed (most shops open around 10-11am according to the signs). So basically if you want to visit the above places with less crowds, you won’t be there at the right time to check out the shops. There was a massive queue (50+ people) waiting for the Starbucks to open.
• We had brunch at Kacto (9/10 for the pancakes).
• We then visited Nishiki Market, arriving there at around 12pm. I almost decided to skip it because I was sure we’d seen enough markets in Osaka and Hiroshima, but I’m glad we didn’t. This market is great. It was SO BUSY though. We spent around 2 hours looking at all the shops.
• We walked around Gion, then checked Chion-In temple and Maruyama park, which are cool spots, but not a must-see if your time in Kyoto is limited.
• Since we were close by, we decided to go back to Sannenzaka and Ninnenzaka. SO MANY PEOPLE, but we had fun checking out all the shops. We had apple pie at the Apple Pie Lab (10/10).
• At this point it was around 5pm and we decided not to do any more walking as we were already at 21k steps. So we just went back to the hotel and did some laundry, then went back to the Curry place for dinner.

Day 8 - Arashiyama

• To get there we got Bus #11 from Kawaramachi Shopping Street at 7am. There were only 2 empty seats in the bus and it’s a 45-minute bus ride, so if you don’t wanna stand, go early.
• Arashiyama Bamboo Forest: we arrived at 7.45am. Not a lot of people there, so we got some really good photos. We then walked around the park and checked the observatories, and left by 8.15am.
• We then visited Tenryuji Temple. It is located in a very beautiful garden, so we really enjoyed going there.
• We had tickets booked for the Sagano Romantic Train at 10am, so we walked to the train station and had breakfast at the Rickshaw Cafe (6/10) right next to it. Buy the tickets beforehand in Klook, as the ticket queues at the train station were MASSIVE. I recommend booking even-numbered C/D seats for the best views. The first train is at 9am, but I booked our tickets for 10am just to make sure we would have enough time to visit the Bamboo forest first. However, we could have easily boarded the 9am train if I had booked earlier tickets. I really recommend doing this, the views from the train are AMAZING.
• Once you get to the final train stop, you can get a train or a boat back. We opted for the boat - just follow the signs! A bus will take you out to the boat ride starting point. We didn’t pre-book tickets to the Hozugawa River Boat Ride, and it took less than 10 minutes to buy tickets on the spot. It is a very slow boat ride (16 km in 2 hours), but I think it’s worth doing it if you have the time. It was a sunny day, so the scenery was beautiful.
• Two hours later we were dropped off at Togetsukyo Bridge - I was shocked at the amount of people in the region. You could barely walk. We were starving but there were queues to get EVERYWHERE. So we decided to just leave. If you wanna check out the bridge and the shops around it, do it earlier, this was the busiest spot of the whole trip.

What I would do differently: Visit Togetsukyo Bridge and shops in the area right after Tenryuji temple. Then after that, get the Sagano Romantic train (with pre booked tickets for around 11am) and the boat ride. You would be done at around 2pm and could just head back to Kyoto.

• Back to Kyoto, we went to Kinkaku-ji Temple (Golden Pavilion). Honest opinion, I don’t think it was worth it. The temple is a bit out of the way and VERY BUSY (like most things in Kyoto). So you are basically walking in a queue from the entrance to the exit, going around the temple and getting out.
• After visiting the temple, we got ramen nearby at Sabanji. 9/10, they only have one dish that comes in two sizes, a bit spicy for my taste but my husband loved it (hence the high rating).
• In the evening we had drinks at a rooftop bar. 10/10 for the views, 6/10 for the bar, as the staff …

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