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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/jetteaupied on 2024-10-14 19:10:33+00:00.

Hello, since this subreddit (and the associated discord) was quite helpful, I’m doing a trip report. I hope it can useful to some people.

I’m from France and traveled solo from Sept 11 to October 8. It was my first time in Japan (and in Asia in general), my main goals were more or less visiting cities and eating.

The itinerary :

• Sept 11 - Sept 18: Tokyo
• Sept 18 - Sept 25: Osaka
• Sept 25 - Oct 2: Nagoya
• Oct 2 - Oct 4: Fuji (lake Shoji)
• Oct 4 - Oct 8: Tokyo

I reserved the accommodations for Tokyo and Osaka a few weeks before leaving, and the rest while I was in Osaka. I didn’t prepare a detailed schedule, so the contents of my days were usually improvised the day before or right on the spot. Often I didn’t do any particular attraction but just walked in the streets. I usually tried to avoid too touristic places.

For accommodations, I just wanted a bed to sleep, so except for the 2 days at lake Shoji, I only stayed in dormitories in hostels. A bit spartan, but it worked for me. Between AC fans, people waking up early to catch a plane, etc. you probably want to sleep with earplugs.

Weather was in general hot. I had seen that the summer was really hot in Japan, and by checking historical temperatures, I thought it would be relatively OK from september. But days at >32°C with high humidity were common and those weren’t pleasant. There’s a lot of AC everywhere (or at least in big cities) so if you’re inside it’s not an issue, but just walking outside is brutal. Japanese people I talked to said that this year was hotter than usual in September and October.

• Sept 11 - Sept 18: Tokyo

Accommodation: Tomariya Ueno, near Ueno as the name implies, 29000¥ for 7 nights. Pretty much only a place to sleep.

There was a nice view of mount Fuji from the plane. Didn’t really sleep in the plane so I was a bit tired the first few days. Random bakeries (e.g. this one, which was just next to the hostel) are pretty good for breakfast, as well as chains like Matsuya/Yoshinoya/…

I went to Tokyo Skytree, apparently there’s debates on what the best observation tower in Tokyo. I didn’t try the others, so I can’t tell, but it’s quite mind-blowing to see how big Tokyo is. If you want to see farther (mount Fuji for example), it’s probably better in winter due to less humidity.

Tokyo National Museum was great (even if I only went to Toyokan (Asian gallery) and Honkan (Japanese Gallery)).

If you’re looking for second-hand books (mostly in Japanese though, but not always), Jimbocho is the place to be. The imperial palace gardens are nice, though probably more interesting in spring.

As with all the modern art museums I visited, the MOT (Museum of Comtemporary Art) had things that I liked and others that left me indifferent, but pretty neat anyway. The ward it’s in (Koto), despite being just next to the center, feels a bit like a village, I even saw people playing pétanque in a park.

I went to a couple of shows featured on GigsInTokyo which were great, though the day after the 10pm-5am one was obviously a bit harder ^^. Also met up a bit with people from the Discord in Shibuya/Shinjuku.

• Sept 17: Day trip to Yokohama: Lot of stuff to see (Chinatown, old foreign settlements, the docks…). I wonder what’s the price of land in Yamate/The Bluff. Nice views at night from the Marine Tower.
• Sept 18: Visiting Kyoto on the way to Osaka.

Did my quota of temples/shrines with Sanjusangendo and Kiyomizu-dera. I found the contrast interesting between the hordes of tourists visiting Kiyomizu-dera and the Ryozen shrine/cemetery/museum, just 500m to the North, a quiet place with really nationalist vibes (for example there’s a statue of a kamikaze pilot, or a monument to the only judge who thought all the defendants in the Japanese war crimes trial were not guilty). The gardens of the Heian Shrine were nice and pretty calm compared to other more touristic places.

• Sept 18 - Sept 25: Osaka

Accommodation: Mitsuwaya, 25000¥ for 7 nights. As hostels go, this one was pretty much the best I went to. Dormitories aren’t too big, there’s some nice common areas and staff is friendly.

Didn’t went inside the Osaka castle, but the gardens around were really nice. Beside the tourists, there were a lot of locals just chilling there. I spent almost a day just looking at various shops of Nipponbashi, even if I had no intention of buying stuff there, some are almost like museums. Good music show at Namba Bears (Buddhadatta, Kegawarashi, Zipper Clone). Also met some people from the Discord.

For some reason there’s a lot of temples near the hostel. Do they all have their specialities? Tennoji was nice anyway.

• Sept 23: day trip to Kobe: There was some kind of festival in Chinatown, various dances/martial arts demos. The sight from the hills behind the Shin-Kobe station at night was quite nice.

The aquarium of Osaka was interesting. There was a temporary exhibit on jellyfishes.

I often heard that people in Osaka were friendlier (or at least easier to approach) than in Tokyo, and it seems true. I found a good way to talk to Japanese people was to go to a random, small izakaya (like 8 seats and only one cook/server), and just eating/drinking whatever.

• Sept 25 - Oct 2: Nagoya

Accommodation: Glocal Hostel, 216€ (~34000¥) for 7 nights, though contrary to other place that I booked directly on their websites, this one I reserved via booking.com. Quite nice, though the beds were not completely enclosed beds like the previous hostels, but simply bunk beds with curtains.

Each time I told Japanese people I was staying one week in Nagoya they seemed surprised, but I found enough stuff to do there (or around).

The main towers of Nagoya castle are closed, not sure when they’re supposed to open again. The Honmaru palace decoration is a bit flashy (they sure loved gold). There’s lot of interesting stuff to see, for example they’re showing the archives made before WWII that allowed to rebuild the castle as it was before it burned down.

• Sept 27: day trip/hike between Nagatsugawa and Nagiso: I decided to pick a train line, go to the end of it and find whatever is interesting there. Apparently the thing to do once you’re in Nakatsugawa is to walk on the Nakasendo. I went all the way to Nagiso to take the train back to Nagoya, though I started a bit late so I ended the hike in the night. It would probably be better to start sooner and/or take a bus for part of the way. Anyway, really nice hike, with old buildings (some rebuilt after the usual fires) and it was a nice change from the city. There were warnings for bears, but not sure how common they really are.

I met a friend and we went to the SCMaglev and Railway Park (a JR museum with a lot of trains), interesting stuff, even if you cannot enter the driver’s compartments :(. They had an impressing railway model/diorama, some train model nerds probably had the time of their life building it. Next day we went to the Toyota Commemorative Museum which is really interesting if you like machines and engineering. They have a lot of working machines as well as live demonstrations of metal working (foundry, forge, machining) and usually explain in detail how things work.

I went to Legoland, which honestly was more for children, though all the things built in lego (decorations, the miniatures cities) were impressive.

• Oct 1: day trip to Shinojima: I wanted to go to the beach, so I took the train to Kowa, but it didn’t really look great there, so I took a boat to Shinojima. The island was really nice. Even if it probably wasn’t the high season, I was surprised that no one was taking a sea bath (or even was on the beach itself).
• Oct 2 - Oct 4: Fuji, lake Shoji

I took the shinkansen to Tokyo and stopped at Shin-Fuji to get on a bus. It stopped just in front of the Shoji Lake Hotel which was practical. The hotel was 29000¥ for 2 nights, it was nice, though there was no meal included (which would have been practical since there’s not a lot of things around). The sauna/exterior bath was nice.

The weather was clear on the 2nd so there were nice views of Mount Fuji, but the next days were super cloudy.

Hiked in the mountains on the 3rd which was nice but a bit frustrating since despite walking on a mountain ridge for a few hours, there were almost no good point of view because of the trees. On the other hand, there was nobody else and I saw a deer. It started to rain at 1pm so I ended up soaked.

Since weather didn’t seem to be better on the 4th I took the first bus to get back to Tokyo.

• Oct 4 - Oct 8: Tokyo part 2

Accommodation: Plat Hostel Keikyu Haneda, 17000¥ for 4 nights. Not as spartan as Tomariya Ueno, but still pretty basic. I went there to leave more easily for the airport on the 8th, but that makes it a bit far from the center.

During these days I mostly walked around the city and searched for a few souvenirs. The Fukagawa Edo museum was interesting, they recreated a fe…

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