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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/fairyranmaru on 2024-03-18 21:26:24.
(edit- title should say kamakura instead of kanazawa oops !)
This was my third trip to Japan, and was actually intended to be a solo trip until the last minute when my BF decided to come along- so planning was a bit wonky! I tried to make this more of a laid-back trip without pressure to do too much. Regardless, we had a great time and I figured I would share our experience!
Important note; I’m vegetarian and my eating habits in Japan are basically “Objective: Survive” so don’t get your hopes up for food recommendations in this post :,)
Our main interests for the trip were anime (specifically Yu-Gi-Oh lmao)/subculture stuff, shrines/goshuin collecting, and just exploring some new places we hadn’t been to before.
Day 1
Our first mistake lmao. We had a layover at LAX that ended up being shortened to under an hour due to the flight’s departure time getting moved up after I booked the ticket. But thankfully, our flight to LAX was on time and we managed to rush between terminals and make it to our flight to HND, albeit while boarding had already started. Having such a short layover is definitely NOT worth the stress, would not recommend. Always plan your flights with time to spare…
The flight was fine, but man the vegetarian meals suck. We got off the plane at around 3 PM and took the train to our budget ryokan in Yanaka. I’ve never been to the Yanaka area before, and I was really delighted by it! I would say it’s a great option if you want something a bit removed from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, though still a pretty convenient walk to a subway line and Nippori station, both of which served us well.
We walked around the Yanaka Ginza shopping street, ate some 7-Eleven snacks, and rested after our super long day of travel. I didn’t realize beforehand, but the street was pretty heavily cat-themed, with many stores exclusively selling cat-themed goods and foods :3 There was also a cat café but we didn’t visit it during our trip.
Day 2
Jetlag time, we woke up pretty early and had some 7-Eleven breakfast. We took a little walk around the neighborhood and saw a lot of residents starting off their day. Then, we headed to Nezu Shrine. It was gorgeous, would def recommend if you’re looking for shrines in Tokyo. I loved the koi pond, rows of torii, and the shrine buildings. Plus, it wasn’t crowded at all.
Then, we stopped by Nezu Cafe nearby and I had a rare sit-down meal of vegetarian chickpea curry. It was good!
It was still pretty early, so we kept up our shrine run and headed to Kanda Shrine. There was a fintech event going on there at the same time, which was pretty amusing, seeing all the people in suits running around. I guess due to its proximity to Akihabara, the shrine is very technology-forward, and definitely has more modern buildings inside compared to other shrines. It’s beautiful though, another one i’d def recommend visiting!
As we wandered away from the shrine, we popped into a random used tech store where my BF bought some little things, and we peeked in a huge Book-Off. I did a little solo venture to the big Uniqlo/GU by Ueno Station and bought some clothes while my BF hung out in a nearby coffee shop. At this point, it was early afternoon, so we stopped back by our hotel to recharge and drop off our purchases.
We headed out again later, getting side-tracked by some small shrines in Yanaka and some yummy “cat tail” desserts from a vendor on Yanaka Ginza street.
We made our way back to Ueno, where I wanted to look in the huge Yamashiroya toy store, and found a few goodies. We exited and walked through Ameyoko Street, which was super busy but cool to see for the first time. We walked to Ueno Park and peeped the few early-blooming trees. We went to Kura Sushi for dinner, since my BF hasn’t had conveyor belt sushi before and he wanted to try it. I popped in a CAN DO 100 yen shop, would recommend! I bought some useful things including new shoe insoles, and for the price, you can’t complain :)
Day 3
We took a morning walk through Yanaka cemetery in the early morning on the way to Tennoji temple. Both were interesting to see but I wouldn’t go out of your way for them, unless you’re staying in the area.
We took the train to Tokyo Station and explored that a bit, then walked around the Imperial Palace grounds until it started to rain. We decided to do something indoors, and headed to Akihabara to browse the shops. We picked up a few Yu-Gi-Oh cards, but overall didn’t find much else to our interests. (I feel this way every time, but Akihabara is honestly pretty underwhelming. You’re better off going to Ikebukuro instead for anime shopping.)
We went back to the hotel, rested and showered, before heading out to Roppongi for an event I was highly anticipating; a concert by the visual kei band NIGHTMARE. As a fan of their music, this was an amazing experience for me!! Despite not knowing the furi (choreography/hand movements the crowd does during v-kei lives) I sat in the back and pretty much just observed/copied the people in front of me, and got the hang of it eventually. The concert was a highlight of the trip for me; I felt grateful that tickets were available overseas, since usually that seems not to be the case. :,)
Day 4
This day was super cold, so we layered up and took the train to Yokohama Station. This was my first time in Yokohama! When we arrived, it was super rainy, windy, and cold. We had a few hours to kill before the baseball game we were going to later, so we took shelter in the Marui City Yokohama Department Store connected to the station. Specifically, to check out the Suruga-ya and Lashinbang stores there. After our disappointment in Akihabara, I was unsure whether we’d find anything. But we hit the jackpot!! And by jackpot I mean a ton of cheap Yu-Gi-Oh merch, especially of my 2 favorite spinoffs, GX and 5Ds.
By then, it was time to head over to Yokohama Stadium for the Yokohama BayStars game. Seeing a baseball game in Japan was def a bucket list item for me, and I was thankful we were there for the pre-season at least. I loved everything about it!! The rain miraculously cleared up right as the game started, and the sun even came out. The people around us were super nice and were amused by our American-ness I think lmao. We ate a bunch of stadium food and enjoyed the game, which ‘our team’ won :) Afterwards, we bought a few souvenirs at the stadium’s gift shop.
Then, we walked through China Town, which was super cool. We ate some street food/drinks and walked over to the Giant Gundam, because I heard it was being taken down at the end of the month and I felt like a trip to Yokohama wouldn’t be complete without it… It was pretty neat; we weren’t there at the right time for one of the more impressive movement displays (i think), but it was still super crowded. On the way out, a worker with really good English chatted us up and told us to submit a response on their google form, saying we should mention if the giant gundam made us want to buy gundam merch lol so clearly they’re trying to convince someone to let them keep it open longer :)
The nighttime view of the harbor was gorgeous. We walked alongside it, returned to our hotel in Tokyo, and did laundry.
Day 5
We got some coffee at Yanaka Coffee, which was good but kinda expensive. We ate our 7-Eleven breakfast and though about what to do today. Usually, I’m the planner, but I’d found out I’m getting laid of from my job the night before and wasn’t in the best state of mind. :,) We decided to do something chill, so we took the train one stop over back to Ueno Park and went to the Tokyo National Museum. The museum is neat, and there’s even a garden around it that we strolled through. I was feeling somewhat better at this point, so I made the executive decision to go to Kichijoji since neither of us have been there before, and tbh I wanted to see the locations featured in Persona 5 lmao.
We got there a bit too late for the shrine in Inokashira Park to be open, so we took our time first going through the Sunroad shopping street. BF needed lunch so we stopped in an Ichiran and I got some plain rice for myself, which was weirdly the best plain rice I’ve ever had. Even my BF agreed it was unusually good. Then, we continued down the shopping street and peeked in a Book-Off that actually had figures at pretty good prices, a lot better than Akiba. We stumbled upon a taiyaki shop selling Magikarp taiyaki, so naturally we had to get some.
Then, we walked to Inokashira Park, which was beautiful, even in winter time. I’d love to come back here in the spring/summer. We strolled around and rented one of the row boats, which was really fun. (and also Yusuke is best p5 boy, gotta relive his social link lmao.) Seeing the groups of high school students try and fail to pilot their boats was super funny, and a group of boys yelled “HELLO!!!” to us and tried to challenge us to a race, but they kept going in circles :,D
We looked at the Benzaiten shrine from a distance, it’s gorgeous from across the water. We’re not particularly Ghibli fans so we didn’t try to get Ghibli Museum reservations, but that’s near the park too, and would be cool to visit another time.
Finally, we left the park and ducked into a Taito arcade on the way to the station. We played some rhythm games and had lots of fun, t…
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