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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/IronyCat on 2024-10-29 01:12:27+00:00.

Me and a buddy traveled around Japan doing the usual route of Tokyo(Ginza) -> Hakone -> Osaka -> Kyoto -> Tokyo(Shinjuku), and instead of writing down my entire itinerary I will just mention the highlights, lowlights, and things I wish I knew.

Ginza:

It seems like Uniqlo Ginza store is always crowded with tourists lol, but I was able to get what I wanted. Jetlag helped us go to Tsujiki Fish market early, but I think we went TOO early. We were there at 6AM and they were still setting up. I shouldve researched ahead of time which restaurants would be worth it here, but I know these types of places tend to have tourist traps but I stumbled upon an Onigiri shop run by a really nice lady and they were the bomb. Going to the top floors of Don Quijote Akihabara blew my mind when there were arcades/DDR Machines with passionate people playing them, I don’t knows something about arcades and game machines set up above a 6 floors in a discount store is amazing to me lol. Drinking beer from Asahi HQ top floor was a major highlight, we did this when they opened at 10 am and it felt like a private observatory (who drinks at 10 AM? me)

Hakone:

Filled with tourists but the entire Hakone trip was amazing. If you get the Hakone Freepass, I would recommend an upgrade on the pirate ship. It was around $5 USD per upgrade but there were WAY more people on standard class and I feel like it was really worth it for extra space to take in the scenery. Also no fighting for space to take photos. We splurged on a Ryokan stay and it was amazing.

Osaka:

I thought I was going to enjoy Osaka more, but when we arrived I immediately got somewhat anxious by the amount of people. I guess it turns out I’m not much of a city tourist person as much as I thought I would be. Not sure what it is but it felt like there were way more people in Osaka than in Tokyo in the streets and stations. It might be because there are only 2 “big” stations close to each other in Osaka while in Tokyo there are more. It felt like every time I went to Umeda station where we stayed near I always had to struggle to be near my friend. I used one of the days to get out of the city and visited Minoh Falls and Ikeda and it was wonderful.

Kyoto:

Theres a lot of tourists here but there is so much to do we weren’t able to do everything we wanted. The big highlight for me was actually a rafting tour of Hozugawa River. I first stumbled upon the paddle boat tour but then I found out there was a rafting tour so we went with that. Well worth it as the raft had 5 of us total with a guide. Get to Arashiyama Bamboo Forest early. We got there at 9AM and I thought that was too late, but it was fine, but as we were leaving at 11 AM it got WAY more crowded. Nintendo Museum was a great experience and in Uji, I thought Nakamura Tokichi Honten was not worth it for the wait (we were in queue for 4 hours I believe, but we walked around while waiting).

Shinjuku:

We stayed in Shinjuku because I thought we were going to do some nightlife but my buddy got sick so we stayed in every night (which is fine because I was already somewhat exhausted at this point). I really enjoyed all the shrines, parks, and things to do near Shinjuku/Shibuya much more than the nightlife stuff ironically. A highlight here was the Shinjuku Batting center. I went every morning to get some swings in, was really fun.

General:

We did both teamlab planets and borderless and I personally was underwhelmed. It felt like everyone just had their phones out and was trying to get videos and pics for the gram. I was unable to get an early booking so maybe that would make it better. I’m glad I did it once, but if I return to Japan I would not do it again.

it felt like the restaurants we ate at in Tokyo all accepted cards, while in the other cities were about half cards OK half cash only.

Things I wish I knew:

I wish I knew more things about etiquette. I knew already things like standing on the left on escalators in Tokyo and on the right in Osaka, being quiet in public spaces, and not eating and walking. Things I wish I knew: if you have a backpack wear it in the front if the train is crowded and elevator etiquette where the last person entering holds the door open button for everyone else leaving the elevator when it gets to the first floor.

I wish I knew about oshibori. it turns out the wet napkin is primarily for your hands only and my gaijin ass was using it on my face until halfway into the trip lol.