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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/bromanceftw on 2024-04-12 09:51:50.

Just came back from Japan last week. I wanted to write this trip report to 1) journal my experience and 2) give back and share my experience with others so their future trip to Japan can be more amazing. Happy to answer questions!

Background:

  • First time in Japan. Originally was going to go with an ex in March 2020… finally got to go this year due to strong dollar/weak yen, 2 weeks off from work, and using my United points to pay for the flight.
  • Flight booked Nov 2023 using 110k points via United website. direct to HND, layover in YYZ on return to IAH.
  • Hotels booked Dec 2023. Checked roughly once a week to see if there was anything cheaper. Saved a few bucks 1) changing hotels in Osaka, and 2) choosing another, but same room layout for Kyoto hostel.
  • 34M Chinese American. Big foodie. When it comes to sights, I am more of a ‘checkbox’ traveler. I’d rather spend more time on the restaurant experience, and learning about products, such as origins, etc. As such, I wanted to pack a lot more sights in this trip, and walked a fair amount everyday. I didn’t use a step counter. Just reporting the miles walked via Google Maps timeline (I would +10% just in case).
  • When planning this trip, I put more emphasis on ‘older’ restaurants/stores, e.g. established in 1600s, or credited with creating a special product.
  • Wanted to check out the Tokyo antennae stores, which sell the regional/prefecture goods. They have mostly food, but also have crafts, sake, and some even have a restaurant. 99% of customers were Japanese, hardly any foreigners.
  • No interest in anime/manga products so I breezed through Akihabara/Den-Den Town, though I did buy the volume 1’s of a few popular manga. Difficult to find Jujutsu Kaisen Vol 1.
  • For food, I put more emphasis those with high ratings on Tabelog, aka Japanese Yelp.
    • 3.0 - average.
    • 3.5 - very good.
    • 3.6 - you’ll start to see lines, and prior to opening. Start checking online to see if reservations are required.
    • 3.8 - very tough to get in these. The ones that didn’t have reservations, had insane lines, like 3.86 donut shop in Kyoto, I waited almost 2 hours in the rain, and that’s arriving 40 minutes early.
    • 4.0 - seemed to apply mostly to high end sushi/kaiseki, e.g. you gotta know someone to get on the list.
  • For sights, I will assign a priority number (P1, P2, etc). Use this as datapoints for figuring out where to visit on a quick trip.

Resources

Monday, March 18 - Houston:

  • Arrived 7am at IAH, boarded 10:45am for 11:15am flight. While waiting, an ANA employee already mistook me for Japanese; confused, what little Japanese I prepared for this situation left my brain. Knew this won’t be the last time I get mistaken as Japanese.

Tuesday, March 19 - Tokyo --> Osaka (1.9 miles) - Just a travel day:

  • Land in Haneda around 3:20pm. I stupidly went through the door to the other Terminal 3 gates instead of going through customs, because I wanted to go by gate 108B to grab the special edition Pikachu plushies. Only the flight attendant plush was left. Then I realize I couldn’t get out. It took ~20 min to explain to the Info desk and wait for the person they called to escort me to customs. When I got to customs, it looked like there were two flights worth of travelers in front of me.
  • Once past customs, activated my Ubigi eSIM with no problems, got my Welcome Suica card (machines to the left when facing towards the exits to the stations).
  • Took the Keikyū line to Shinagawa, then took the Shinkansen to Osaka. At first I was going to buy the ticket via the counter at Shinagawa station but there was a line so I figured I would give the SmartEX app a chance. It was pretty easy to buy tickets via app. I linked it to my Suica card. Took the 5:46pm Nozomi, it looked like I was the only foreigner on my car.
  • Food - Dinner: Fukutaro Main Store (3.74 Tabelog, 4/5 rating, 20 min wait @ 9:30pm) - Ordered the triple negiyaki (recommended by staff) and beef okonomiyaki. Freshly made at the front grill, and placed on your grill to keep warm. Very bold flavors due to the okonomiyaki sauce (using Worcestershire), dired seaweed flakes, and pickled ginger. Great for drunk people. The worst thing about solo traveling is not getting to try a little bit of everything. Two entrees was way too much for me, despite eating closer to 10pm. I recommend getting okonomiyaki in Osaka, especially since many open late very late, I’ve seen some open until 3am.
  • Sight: Dotonburi (P2) - Very bright and lit up, lots of young people walking around. Felt like a mini Times Square.
  • Hotel: Tabist Hotel ASIATO Namba (5/5 rating, $39/night) - Business hotel. 10 min walk to station. Next block was Kuromon Market. Mix of Japanese and foreign guests. Pretty good for the price, and I had my own room and bathroom. The bathroom was a little tiny even for someone 5’10", particularly the space between the toilet and the opposite wall. Would stay again!

Wednesday, March 20 - Osaka (5.9 miles) - Food & Aquarium:

  • Sight: Kuromon Market (P2) - Pretty dead at 8am, many shops are closed, some are setting up for the day. Would recommend sleeping in. Or you could get your shopping in early at the Don Quijote in Umeda (only Osaka Donki that’s open 24 hours).
  • Food - Pastry: Rikuro’s Namba Main Branch (3.51 Tabelog, 5/5 rating, 45 min wait @ 8:20am) - The famous jiggly cheesecake. Was 3rd in line 45 minutes early. Turns out there are two lines, one for the cafe, one for just cake, the two people ahead of me were 3 hours early for the cafe. Line was about 20-30 people when it opened. Not sure how long it’d be middle of day or on weekend. Not as jiggly as the IG posts, but damn good. Note, there are raisins at the bottom. I had to save half for later, it’s a good size for 2-4 people. Another note, cheesecake is take-out only, unless it’s bought at the cafe (with possibly a more ridiculous line).
  • Food - Appetizer: Fukahiro Honten (3.5/5 rating, no wait @ 10am) - Saw a Youtube vid that said the scallops were very good here. Pretty fresh, No line. Note, most of the scallops at the market will grill it all, ovary included. So you’ll get an orange sac to eat. The muscle part was juicy and delicious grilled, the ovary part I could do without.
  • Food - Appetizer: 満福 / Manpuku (1/5 rating, no wait) - AVOID! Figured I’d try a wagyu on a stick, price seemed okay ~¥2000. One of my worst food ordered this trip. It was microwaved in plastic wrap before being put on a skillet, not grill. Then he added lots of salt/msg and lastly torched and sauced. Terrible quality meat, super sinewy and I could not chew down. Seems to be Chinese-run, only the cashier was Japanese as the other staff were talking in Chinese but spoke Japanese to her. I don’t have high hopes for the other stuff.
  • Sight: Osaka Castle (P2) - Beautiful up close. This area was super windy. Pretty long lines to go in, so I skipped the interior.
  • Food - Lunch/Dinner: Kadoya Shokudo (3.84 Tabelog, 3/5 rating, 60 min wait @ 2:30pm) - Late lunch since the original place I had in mind for some reason was closed. This was the highest-rated ramen in Osaka, which explained the line at 2pm. Shoyu ramen was very solid and rich but wasn’t salty like many of the ramen in the US. However, I didn’t think it was necessarily ‘memorable’. I also ordered the stamina rice bowl. Delicious and well-braised, but still not worth the wait time.
  • Experience: Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan (P1) - Reservations recommended. Though when I went, there wasn’t a line to buy tickets. Good amount of people @ 4pm. You may have to wait 15-60 seconds each exhibit for the people in front to finish up. The main twin whale shark exhibit is huge, there are many many many angles to view them, so if you are pressed for time, you have plenty of chances. At first I thought the aquarium was less impressive than the Atlanta one, considering Osaka only had 1 river otter, but the later themes were pretty impressive/unique such as the twilight/jellyfish one, artic waters/Japanese spider crabs, and coral. Gift shop was pretty neat, much better than Atlanta’s. Picked up some ceramics with otter designs for the girlfriend.
  • Shopping: Don Quijote Namba Sennichimae - The original plan was to buy my Donki haul in Tokyo since I didn’t want to lug it to Kyoto/Uji/Tokyo. But I saw some sign that said the Biore sunscreen was the cheapest in the region and all reason flew out the window. Oops. I had a shopping list from the girlfriend, so much of what I bought was to fulfill that. It’s somewhat organized, categories I remember: food on 1F, cosmetics on 2F, alcohol, electronics, suitcases, pharmacy on 3F. There’s a fairly long line for the tax-free counter on 3F. You can get an [extra 5% off](https://www.djapanpa…

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