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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Pyrodraconic on 2024-10-31 09:19:52+00:00.

Roughly a month ago, I (24M) embarked on my first ever solo-travel journey to Japan. It was the most magical, incredible month in my entire life. I fell in love with the Japanese people, culture, language and landscapes. I had everything preplanned, which ended up being a blessing. I got to do (almost) everything I wanted, and everything aligned quite perfectly.

My itinerary: Osaka - Kyoto - Nara - Tokyo, with daily trips to Hakone, Yokohama, Mount Fuji and Nikko during my time in Tokyo.

I would be glad to share some tips for future travellers:

1. Travel in October - The weather was perfect. At least for me. A lot of websites say that October is one of Japan’s rainiest months, but I honestly don’t know why. It rained 3 times throughout the 22 days I was there, the rain wasn’t strong, and didn’t last long. The temperatures were mild (around 27C-22C on average throughout the month), days were mostly sunny, and you could find Halloween themed stuff everywhere. Nikko in October is absolutely gorgeous, probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. More on that later.
2. Plastic utensils - This is super embarrassing - but I’m really bad with chopsticks. Having a pair of plastic utensils in my backpack at all times was super helpful. Most restaurants would give you a fork if you ask for it, but if you buy some dumplings in China Town, or get yourself a nice bento box before the Shinkansen - a disposable fork could save you. If you’re an incompetent chopsticks user like myself - this is my tip for you!
3. Universal Studios Preplanning - I would highly recommend to research online what kind of attractions you would want to do in Universal Studios before you go. Some of them have really long queues, some of them are limited access, and some of them kinda suck. I came to the park with an attraction priority list and an idea of a path, without an express pass ticket - and got to do everything I wanted.
4. Super Nintendo World - I found the information online quite confusing, so I’ll try to explain it in the simplest way I can here. For those who don’t want to spend extra money like myself - arrive an hour before the park opens, and when it does, run towards Super Nintendo World. You don’t need a standby ticket or to do anything with the app - since you’re going to be one of the first people entering the park. If you want to enter a second time (or just wasn’t lucky in the morning) - apply for a standby ticket through the app, with your park ticket added to your account beforehand.
5. Wake up early - I know this is not a new tip, but there’s no way I’m not going to include it. I woke up every single day at around 6 AM, and because of that, got to experience so many beautiful touristy places almost completely alone. The nice temperatures of the morning, sounds of early birds, and the fact there’s almost no one around you - just you and the nature - is a feeling I’d never experienced before, and man, I hadn’t known how addictive it was.

6a. Highly rated restaurants: Pretty much consistently, I found highly rated restaurants to be quite underwhelming, if not bad. I’m not sure why this correlation exists, but I can share that one time, I was asked by a restaurant’s owner to rate their restaurant 5 stars on Google - to get a free drink. On the other hand, food places I found randomly while waking the streets of Japan hungry proved to be the best.

6b. Trendy desserts - Before going to Japan, I had accumulated a list of trendy foods that I saw on Instagram and the like - stuff like the cheese coin in Dotonbori, the rainbow toast in Harajuku, etc. I found all of them to be bland and underwhelming. And this connects to my previous point (hence 6a, 6b): I think food in general is not something that should be preplanned, at least when it comes to Japan. At a certain point I just ditched my ridiculous list and felt immediately better after.

7. Don’t give up on tickets - The new Nintendo Museum in Kyoto is a place I somehow hadn’t heard about for the 5 months that preceded my trip. I randomly heard about it 3 days before my flight, tried to book a ticket - but obviously it was fully booked for the upcoming 2 months. I decided not to give up, and for 3 days straight, in pretty short intervals, refreshed the page constantly, until suddenly, one timeslot was freed. And it happened to be just on one of the days I was going to be in Kyoto. I tried this with 5 other attractions, and it worked with all of them except one - the Ghibli museum (I guess I have a reason to go back!). My point is - I don’t think it’s just a luck thing - dedication and time could be very helpful. They were for me at least.

8. Nintendo Museum for solos - PSA - Most of the attractions in Nintendo Museum are for 2 or more people. I really wanted to try one of the big controller games, but they’re all for duos. Yes you could team up with a rando, but I didn’t see anyone doing that. I still had a blast being solo though. What I think to be the coolest attraction there (Zapper & Scope SP) can be done solo.

9. Bamboo Forest in Arashiyama - The forest is short, small, and incredibly crowded, yes even very early in the morning (I was there at 7 AM on a Thursday). There are so many bamboo forests in Japan (apparently), I don’t know why this one is so touristy. For example - on my way walking to Saihoji Kokedera (in Kyoto), I randomly found a bamboo forest (with 500 JPY entry) that was completely empty. Completely! I was there by myself. It was even smaller than the one in Arashiyama - but I feel like they give the same vibes.

10. Fushimi Inari Taisha - With the map in my hand, I decided to do every single torii bridges route. Yes, even the ones that were very small and out of the way, and yes, even if it meant going up the mountain more than once. I can’t say that it was worth it. It’s pretty repetitive, and the view at the peak is not that nice. What I will say, is that it’s certainly less crowded the higher you go, so bear that in mind. Also - there are some articles online about a ‘hidden bamboo forest’ in the shrine - I went there, and sadly, it’s closed. The reason is (as it says on the sign in the entrance), is that the bamboo trees tend to fall off, and it’s dangerous.

11. Eikando Zenrin-ji - This is the best park/temple I went to in Kyoto, 100%. Not only the park is gorgeous and has a lot to offer - from nature, mossy areas, pagodas, temples, lakes, bridges, and even coy fish - but also, there were barely people around. And I was there at noon! The best thing about this place, is that randomly, in early October, many of the trees there had already changed their color to yellow, orange and red. It was actually my first time ever seeing trees with those colors, so it felt very magical. Everytime I show pictures of my trip to people, all of them constantly say that my pictures from Eikando are the best.

12. Don’t be afraid to try new foods - There are so many things I ate for the first time in Japan - jellyfish, squid, crab, lobster, whelk, sea urchin, wagyu, and the list goes on. Most of them were surpisingly very good. I am quite picky when it comes to food, so I was really surprised to actually enjoy things like a sea snail (which was very hard to get into my mouth, let me tell you that).

13. Deer in Nara Park - The deer in Nara Park are really cute, but some of them are quite aggressive, especially in the entrance to the park, next to the station. Three different deer launched at me (I didn’t buy the crackers or had any food in my hands), and one of them ate my phone-charging cable (lol). I stayed there for quite some time thinking it was their main area - but when I left the place, I discovered that the deer are actually everywhere, even next to the temples or deep inside the park. And the ones there were much nicer.

14. Temples look better in real life - Something that was proven to me consistently is that pictures of temples online don’t do them justice. One good example is Todai-ji in Nara - It’s so much bigger than what it looks like in pictures, and much more impressive. If you look at some temples online thinking they’re not that great - you might be missing out on places you’d find astonishing in real life.

15. Phone reservations - There were some places that only accepted phone reservations. A big chunk of them, for some reason, didn’t really answer the phone - nor when I tried it, and nor when the hotel staff did when they tried to help me. One time I decided to just go to the place physically, and ask the person in charge to reserve a place for me - which turned out quite well.

16. Ueno Zoo - Skip. Large crowds, and very small cages to the animals. The line for watching the pandas was the longest line I saw in my entire trip - and I’ve been to both Universal Studios and Disneysea. It’s probably the only place in my trip that I did not enjoy.

17. Teamlab Borderless & Planets - I went to both Teamlab Borderless and Planets. I think both of them are nice and would recommend to visit both if you can, but if you must choose one - go with Borderless. It has much more to see, it’s bigger, and more impressive in my opinion. It’s also quite fun to look for the secret rooms, and easier to get to from central Tokyo. Borderless’ strong suit is the visuals, and Planets’ strong suit is the way it immerses you in it, and kind of way it makes you feel. For exam…

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