This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Visible-Reporter-433 on 2024-10-16 15:11:17+00:00.
Happily welcome questions of any kind!
Highlights - Going into a traditional sushi bar with no English menu for our first meal rather than easing into things.
Going into ChicagoRock in Osaka for a drink and walking into an open mic night which included a Japanese comedian who improvised a scene of a drunken Englishman eating ramen in very broken English.
Walking around the record stores and vintage shops in Kichijoji and Koenji. Main regret of the holiday is not going there until our last day in Tokyo.
TeamLab Borderless and Planets - can see why it doesn’t tick some people’s boxes but it definitely does mine.
Seeing the sun set on a couple of observatories and in Odaiba on the water.
General Thoughts - Places weren’t anywhere near as busy as I expected, even places such as Gion and the shops near the area. Other than Shibuya crossing at 6pm I never felt overly crowded, and many shops, bars and restaurants I went in (even in golden gai, though less so) were not busy. Maybe owing to this, a lot of places seemed overstaffed.
Walking 30,000+ steps a day in 30-35 degree heat and 70% humidity wasn’t pleasant, but having a vending machine every 100 yards meant keeping hydrated was easy.
Food was as high in quality as I expected and lower in price. It’s easy to get a very good meal for 1,000 yen and had several around 500 yen that did the job.
Service was invariably excellent.
It was easier to find places to dispose of rubbish (including supermarkets on every block) than I feared.
People were much more willing to speak in English despite not being fluent than Reddit had suggested.
Transport was much less confusing than I’d anticipated, though google maps helped.
Everything is very well signposted in English and the couple times I had to check the tube I was getting was going to the right place the first person I asked was able to confirm.
Ubers/Taxis in Osaka were reasonably priced, Tokyo less so.
Even in Tokyo it was remarkably easy to find somewhere to escape to somewhere more chilled. Hanazano Shrine outside of Golden Gai being a great example.
Highly recommend Ninja WiFi which was well priced for 3gb a day and gave us great coverage everywhere.
! - recommended activity , !! - highly recommended
Day 1 - Osaka: Tenmangu Shrine with Doll Museum which was our local shrine, Osaka Castle, Dotonbori inc Don Quixote w/ Big Wheel, TeamLab Botanical Garden
Notable Food & Drink - Izakaya Toyo for lunch (not outstanding quality food but worth it for the experience, was only a 20 minute walk from Osaka Castle). Drinks at Salamanca which does a great margarita and run by a very old, very interesting man who speaks English and Spanish.
Day 2 - Nara and Osaka: Few hours walking around the city and of course seeing the deer (found a couple hanging around alone in the afternoon which were much more pleasant to feed), Manyo Botanical Garden (!), Nara National Museum, Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Todai-Ji Temple (!!), back to Osaka and Dotonbori inc Round One Arcade and Hozen-ji Temple (!).
Notable Food and Drink - Delicious vegetable tempura dish at Mizuya Chaya in Nara for lunch (around 1000 yen), which was served before we had sat down, and dinner at Okonomiyaki Fun Bar in Osaka. Beautiful if not traditional okonomiyaki and self service drinks are 200 yen. Also hit a couple of Sake breweries in Nara - preferred the family run Kasaguyama to the more popular Harushika, but both were great and cheap.
Day 3 - Kobe & Osaka: Janjan Yokocho for breakfast, walk around Tennoji park and the Oktoberfest set up, trip to Kobe for the herb garden (!) and china town, train back to Umeda for the Sky Building (!)
Notable Food and Drink - oden, a miso cartlidge skewer and a beer for breakfast at Nonkiya for 1000 Yen. Ate on a couple of crates with salarymen as the bar area was full. Kobe Beef from Kobe Beef 5Star - touristy but very good quality.
Day 4 - Osaka to Kyoto: Walk around Gion (!), Geisha and Geiko Experience (!), night walk around Kyoto National Garden.
Notable Food and Drink - Honke Shibato for an incredible Eel dish (one of the best things I’ve eaten), New York Style pizza with a punk vibe at Pop Pizza, great cocktails at The Bar Straight and drinks at Bar Tonbo Anzu (both run by lovely people).
Day 5 - Kyoto: Kinkaku-Ji, Arashiyama including Bamboo Forest (!), Fushimi Inari. This was the only day that the weather was close to unbearable, possibly as we were mostly outside for 8-10 hours straight in 35 degree weather. Pocari Sweat was a saviour. Didn’t do the whole 10,000 gates at Fushimi Inari, it got a bit samey after 6,000 or so…
Notable Food and Drink - Amazing tofu based meal with lots of sides at Yudofu Sagano, one of the best meals we ate and at a beautiful location with its own Japanese garden.
Day 6 - Kyoto to Tokyo: Another walk around Gion before heading to Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Building (!), walk around Shinjuku including Golden Gai and Omeide Yokocho
Notable Food and Drink - drinks with free snacks and puzzles at Bar Lonely, cold tempura udon noodles for 500 yen somewhere in Omeide Yokocho.
Day 7 - Tokyo: TeamLab Planets (!), Small Worlds (!!), Joypolis, Odaiba Beach to see the Statue of Liberty and see the sunset (!) - the entire area was surprisingly quiet. drinks again in golden gai before a club night at Zero Tokyo (which has an amazing soundsytem and had a good mix of different strands of hip hop and dance)
Notable Food and Drink - ramen at the place associated with TeamLab Planets, wasn’t amazing for a Michelin recommended place but well priced and great ambience. Drinks at death match in hell which is a must if you like metal and or horror movies.
Day 8 - Tokyo: Late start due to a late night, strolls through Shibuya including a browse of Tower Records, walk down to Ebisu for a gig at Liquid Rooms (Again superb sound and atmosphere), followed by drinks back in Shibuya and Nonbei Yokocho.
Notable Food & Drink - Apple pancakes from Micasedeco. I’m not a dessert guy but these were incredible, especially the hot apple at the base of the pancakes. Had a really good tempura udon meal at 1am at Takemura in Kabuchiko. I read a couple comments about the wait staff being inattentive on google reviews - I found the staff to be lovely but did have to call them over when I wanted to order or pay. Which I don’t think is an issue at all personally…
Day 9 - Tokyo: Asakusa including Senso-Ji Temple and the surrounding shops (much more pleasant in the morning, started to get busy around 11ish), Tokyo Skytree (the only observation tower we did that had a long queue to get up/down), KuraSushi (more of an experience than anything, the food was good but no more than that), walk around Shinjuku before more Golden Gai drinking
Notable Food and Drink - within golden Gai: Bar Ji had probably the most pleasant ambience, more of a whiskey bar than anything else but had a chandelier and nice lighting. Hair of The Dogs was playing Killing Joke when I walked it so instant favourite. A punk equivalent of Death Match In Hell, and perhaps less touristy. Bar Roundhouse kick had an amazing yuzu sake and the bar woman was lovely. I’d walked past a couple days before and it seemed to be a little overly boisterous but not when I returned.
Day 10 - Tokyo: TeamLab Borderless (!!) which I thought was amazing and could’ve spent longer than the two hours we did, Azabudai Hills inc the food market, Momoji Park and shrine for views of Tokyo Skytree (!), Rikugien Gardens where we stumbled on a couple of entertainers doing tricks and playing a koto and also had traditional tea, Sugamo for shopping, back to Shibuya for some walking and shopping. Shibuya Sky observation deck (!).
Notable Food and Drink - various items from Azabudai Hills Food Market which were all of a very high standard if pricy, Coco Curry for dinner which was good, better than the equivalent in England would be. Drinks at Bar Piano which had an abundance of decorations and a frightening steep set of stairs but good cheap drinks.
Day 11 - Hakone: Essentially did the typical Hakone loop. The weather had cooled down a few degrees so this was more pleasant than it might’ve been. The pirate boat ride (worth getting the first class option for an extra 1,000 yen) and the chair lift were highlights, as was stumbling on an overgrown seemingly un-used shrine where a raccoon was mooching around.
Notable Food and Drink - Not much other than some chocolate rusk snacks sold on the pirate boat.
Day 12 - Kamakura and Yokohama: Went to Kamakura for the beach, which was a wasted trip due to strong winds kicking up sand, but the giant statue at Kotoku-in and a delicious cheese bread from a bakery nearby almost made it worth it. An unscheduled stop at Ofuna to go to Kannon-Ji (!) with a similarly giant statue is more highly recommended, and then it was off to Yokohama for the Cup Noodle museum (!), chairlift and CosmoWorld (!) - loved the VR coasters there.
Notable Food and Drink - Steak at Ribera. I went as a wrestling fan but really enjoyed the steak outside of that. Cooked perfectly medium rare and brought out sizzling with rice.
Day 13 - Kichijoji and Koenji: Kichijoji for vintage clothes and gift shopping before a walk to Inokashira Park and Pond, did go to the zoo but wasn’t planned or recommended. Then to Koenji for record shopping at a number of alternative record stores (Base being the highlight) then to Koenj…
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