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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/ib_examiner_228 on 2024-03-23 12:24:04.

About me: 23m solo, first time in Japan. When I travel, I love exploring nature and the culture of the country. I managed to learn about a couple hundred words in Japanese, which as you will see later, improved my experience in Japan a lot. I don’t like shopping, all I bring home from my travel is memories, pictures and magnets for my fridge. Also it’s important for me to enjoy local food as much as I can. I’d never go to a McD’s even if I was hungry and I’d try my best to find something that’s actually unique to Japan.

My itinerary was quite fast-paced for a first timer. When I posted my initial itinerary here, many of you thought that it could be too much for me, suggesting the classic Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka itinerary. That would never work for me. I wanted to see more nature and get away from the cities for some time, especially after I read reports about how crowded some places are (like Kyoto) In the end, I believe I made the right choice, except that I should’ve rearranged my itinerary a bit, so that I would lose a bit less time and money on the trains. So, here we go.

Day 1: Arrival in Tokyo, Akihabara

I booked using award miles and the only option was BKK-ICN-NRT, with the first flight being a red-eye. I’ve barely had any sleep and wasn’t feeling that great, but after a couple of cups of coffee on the second flight I was excited for my Japanese adventure.

At the airport, passport control and customs took a while because I haven’t filled out the online forms in advance. Tip: don’t be a lazy dumbass like me and actually do them! You will definitely save time at the airport. I arrived at 11am and was out of the airport at 12:20. My future plans were dependent on good weather and the forecast was promising, so I bought the Tokyo Wide pass at the airport (spoiler: it saved me roughly 10,000 yen), got myself some cash and took a local train to my hotel in Koiwa (~900 yen).

I stayed at Ryokan Fuji, which had the nicest host ever who even spoke some English. I really wanted to stay in a Japanese-style room, and given that it was cheap (28,000 yen for 4 nights) I really enjoyed it. The location isn’t exactly the best, 20 minutes to Akihabara and 40 minutes to Shinjuku, but for the price I’m not complaining. The futon was comfortable enough, I slept well and had no back problems at all.

It was already 3pm when I made it to Akihabara. This is when I found out that most restaurants close at 2-3pm, which was quite unfortunate because I was pretty hungry at this point. I spent way too much time looking for a place, in the end I walked around Akihabara and at 5 I went to the closest izakaya and had my very late lunch. Honestly, walking around Akihabara didn’t impress me that much, it’s all a bunch of shops and arcades and the buildings were… normal, nothing impressive. I played at the arcades for an hour and found a yakiniku restaurant for dinner with wagyu meat. Now that was quite impressive, even given my absolute lack of yakiniku experience. I under- and overcooked the meat all the time and yet it was still very tender and melted in my mouth. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I paid roughly 6,000 yen for ~200-250g of meat.

Day 2: more Tokyo

I had a really long sleep and woke up at about 10am. I went to Senso-ji, roamed around the market to have a rough idea of what they even sell there, got myself a Tokyo magnet and enjoyed Senso-ji. It was so fascinating to me that there is this old temple in the middle of a huge city, in a lot of countries important historic and cultural buildings aren’t preserved at all. I got myself a “bad fortune” which really sounded so terrible and I had no idea how to tie it to the rack :D but I managed to do it in the end, I didn’t wanna take it with me at all!

I walked for about 20 minutes to the Tokyo Skytree. Didn’t have any prebooked tickets (I hate planning my day to the hour), I stood in line for about 15 minutes. The views were amazing, but I wish I’d do this on a less cloudy day. It all looked a little too grey for me, and having been to the Burj Khalifa, I know how much better a city can look from up there when it’s sunny.

I then took the subway to the Imperial Gardens only to find out that they are closed. I still roamed around the area and there are still some nice city views. The clouds cleared out, the sun was setting, I enjoyed the sunset and walked around in Ginza. It’s a shopping district, and as I said earlier I’m not a big fan of shopping, so an hour later I found an unagi restaurant, which offered a kaiseki-style unagi dinner. It wasn’t a proper kaiseki, it was basically unagi prepared with different ingredients. I loved it! I called it a day after dinner.

Day 3: Kawaguchiko

When I woke up, there was not one cloud in the sky. I didn’t have to think twice and took the 9:30 Fuji Excursion train from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko. Of course, I forgot to reserve a seat when I was at the airport, so I found a seat on the other section of the train to Otsuki and had to stand till Shimoyoshida, where I got off and walked up to Chureito Pagoda. Wasn’t too difficult for me but there are a couple hundred stairs, a lot of people were taking breaks in between.

The views can’t really be described with words. I’m so lucky that Fuji-san decided not to hide and the huge crowd at the famous picture spot was a clear indication of that. To be honest, I felt like people were there to post it on Instagram and show off. They clearly didn’t fully appreciate the view, as they were quickly going down after taking their ‘mandatory’ 200 pics. I found a less crowded area and just stared at the view for about an hour before walking down to the station.

I took the next train to Kawaguchiko and got lunch at a sushi place very close to the station (Shaw’s Sushi). They offered lunch sets which were basically sashimi bowls with rice. Absolutely delicious and so fresh. Don’t go to the noodles place with a long queue, go enjoy some sushi instead.

I walked to the panoramic ropeway and found a nice 20-minute boat tour on the way. The only thing that wasn’t great about it is that the tour only 20 minutes long. I would totally be up for 60 minutes, given the views from the lake. Again, the view is something that you have to see yourself. I can’t and don’t even want to describe it, just come and see it.

The queue for the panoramic ropeway was roughly 45 minutes. It was absolutely worth it because it’s the only place that offers 360° views around the area. There is also a 6 hour hike to another mountain which I didn’t go for as it was already too late. Again, I was fascinated by the view and spent about an hour at the top.

I made my way back to Shinjuku, had to stand till Otsuki again and by the time I arrived it was already dark. For dinner, I went to Yakiniku Like which is a chain yakiniku restaurant. Their slogan is “tasty! quick! value!” and they deliver on all 3. Yes it’s not the best meat in the world, but it was still delicious. You can get sets with a soup, rice, kimchi and the meat itself for 1500-2000 yen. The only downside was that the meat portions were quite small and I had to order extra meat. Oh, and it wasn’t very comfy to sit there, but as a solo traveler it was the perfect place to get some nice inexpensive and tasty food.

I walked around Shinjuku for about an hour and a half, enjoyed the evening city views and called it a night.

Day 4: Nikko

Unfortunately I woke up quite late at 10am. I took the Shinkansen to Utsunomiya and then a local train to Nikko. I didn’t want to take the limited express from Asakusa because I’m a bit of a train nerd and this was my only chance to take the Tohoku shinkansen.

By the time I got there it was already 12:30pm, so I only had time for the shrines and temples. There are a lot of them and I loved the vibe of the quiet forest with several big temples. I even got to see a traditional prayer, however, I didn’t understand much of what was being said. Seeing all the interesting places took more than I expected, in fact, it was already sunset when I walked back to the station. Nikko is a very unique place, you don’t get to see anything like this in the big cities and I wholeheartedly recommend to come see it.

I got back to Ueno and went straight for Yakiniku Like again. Had a good time there again and went back to my hotel to pack my stuff.

Day 5: Ryokan time!

The ryokan is called Kashiwaya and it’s in Shima Onsen. It’s not so easy to get there: first you take a shinkansen to Takasaki, then a limited express to Nakanojo (it’s possible to take this express from Ueno. I didn’t) and then a bus to Shima Onsen. It’s a very quiet place where you can relax after many days in a bustling city. Some of the staff speak English but don’t expect much. This is where I got my first “nihongo joozu desu”! The dinner was very nice, maybe not Michelin star level but certainly very delicious. I relaxed in the onsen after dinner and went to sleep.

Day 6: Full day at the ryokan

It was my birthday and I was very much in the mood for it. The Japanese breakfast was impressive and I don’t even know how I could manage to finish it all. I’d imagine that it’s not how the Japanese have their breakfast every day, it took about 45 minutes to finish it all. I strolled around the town, but not for long as it was raining quite a bit. I had lunch at a local burger place (for some reason a lot of places were closed on …

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