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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/MultivariableTurtwig on 2025-02-14 14:56:54+00:00.

Hello! Just wanted to write about my Japan trip from mid-January to the end of the month. This trip became my favourite vacation ever! It was our first trip to Japan, so we went for the standard Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto-Nara trip.

Being from Sweden I didn’t suffer from the cold, in fact I even won a few degrees compared to where I live. Point is, don’t let winter scare you from going to Japan, it’s mild (as long as you don’t go to the North I guess)! We only had 2 AirBnB accommodations: 1 in Tokyo (Shinjuku) and 1 in Osaka (Fukushima Ward). This worked really well, we ended up paying a total of around 350usd per person for 10 nights. I did quite a bit of research before the trip, so I had a rough idea of which areas I wanted to go to most days. I also tried to learn some basic Japanese on Duolingo and with a phrase book. Even learned hiragana/katakana, it occasionally helped with reading train station names before the english text came up but not much more. For the most part I feel you can survive with minimal Japanese, even though the English level in Japan seems low.

We were 8 people (friends), which is quite a lot for a Japan trip. We often had to split up to find space at restaurants for example, though it still went pretty well. Most of my friends shared a pocket wifi, but I went for an esim (Ubigi) since I sometimes liked to go and do my own thing! I recommend it, if anything I think that everyone should have like 1gb, in case they lose track of the person with the pocket wifi.

As a side note, I was particularly interested in shrines and temples this trip so I definitely went out of my way to see them. Did research about them before, so found out about collecting goshuin which became one of my main interests during the trip. I also of course tried my best to follow the correct etiquette at shrines/temples, although it felt like I (non-asian looking) stood out a lot when I did that. Still think it was fine though?

Tokyo

Day 1 (Harajuku, Meiji, Shibuya): we started the day at Harajuku and went through Takeshita street. Yes it’s overrated but still fun for the vibes, it was in the morning so it wasn’t so crowded. Right after we visited Togo shrine, like 100m or so away, and it was really cool seeing such a peaceful place right next to Takeshita. Then we went to Meiji, and where I bought my goshuincho. This was definitely the place where I had to wait the longest in line for goshuin. After that we walked to Shibuya and spent the rest of the day there, eating lunch and especially shopping. Shout-out to the Parco building with the Pokemon center and more, also bought an awesome phone case at Casetify. Also spent a lot of time at Loft, looove those decorative paper things that you fold out (not sure what it’s called, but for example it could be a paper sakura tree that you fold out and it becomes 3d).

Day 2 (Asakusa, Ueno, Tokyo Tower)

We started the day (weekday!) somewhat early at Senso-ji, which was definitely the most crowded thing we did in Tokyo. Though it wasn’t that bad, especially when you reached the temple itself. There’s also nice things to see around the main temple. We went to Asakusa shrine which was right next to Senso-ji, as well as a tiny fox shrine (Hikan Inari) right next to it. Very nice goshuin with little foxes on it! Overall I liked the temple/shrines. After walking around Asakusa a bit we moved on with out day. Some went to the Baseball Hall of Fame, though I opted for Ueno Park (and yakiniku lunch at Ueno). There were some really nice shrines/temple, and I went to the National Museum. Honestly not really a highlight to me, it’s cool but I think you can skip it especially if you’ve already seen many nice museums in your life. Then I joined my friends at Tokyo Tower and we stayed there quite a bit and saw the sunset. I can recommend it, maybe not the best view possible of Tokyo (heard Shibuya Sky is the best?) but the building is cool!

Day 3 (Shinjuku)

A lot of walking around/shopping in Shinjuku. Saw Omoide Yokocho, Godzilla head… Went to big stores like Yodobashi Camera with a seemingly infinite amount of floors, the day passed by quickly! Overall really cool part of the city. Went to Hanazano shrine which was very calm, can recommend.

Day 4 (Setagaya, Akibahara, Ueno again)

My friends spent the morning at the Metropolitan Government Building, while I went to Setagaya to see some bucket-list shrines (like an hour of transport, as I wrote earlier I definitely went out of my way to go to shrines). Started with Gotokuji temple, a cat (maneki-neko) temple. Highly recommend, although it is somewhat touristy despite being quite a way from the more central Tokyo. Then I walked like 30min to Sakura shrine, which was nice and was selling really nice omamori, goshuincho, etc. The visit was less worth it since it wasn’t cherry blossom season, but I still got satisfaction from it. The 30min walk was one of the least touristy ones I did, but I still appreciated getting a little insight on the vibes of residential Tokyo. Then I joined my friends at Akihabara and we spent the whole day there looking at stores. I also of course went to Kanda Myoujin shrine, which happened to have some kind of show/ritual/ceremony (???) with masked people playing music, holding a hammer-like object. A lot of people there praying, definitely the most lively shrine experience I had, felt a tad bit out of place as a non-Japanese but it was interesting. We finished the day in Ueno park, since there was a food festival going on.

Day 5 (Mount Takao)

Many in the friend group were craving a nature experience at this point, so we hiked Mt Takao. We went on a weekday (important I think!) so it wasn’t so crowded. The hike was definitely easy, even on the more “difficult” paths. Of course went through Yakuōin Yukiji Temple on the way. Ate some nice soba noodles around the top. I went to the monkey park on the way down, though I think it’s very skippable, the monkeys didn’t look that happy. I took the chair lift both ways, because I found it super fun having my legs out in the air (as opposed to being inside a cable car). Unfortunately too cloudy to see Fuji. Overall I recommend Mount Takao, but it’s not an absolute must-do. Would not do it if you suspect that it will be crowded. We finished off the day at the onsen near the station, which was really nice and accommodating to us non-Japanese.

Day 6 (Shinkansen to Osaka)

Travel to osaka via Tokyo station, went very smoothly! We were in the non-reserved cart. We were quite tired when we arrived at the accommodation, so we didn’t do that much. Did some sake-tasting at a restaurant nearby.

Day 7 (Osaka)

Osaka was the part of the trip that i did the least research on, mostly followed my friends’ advice. Went to Umeda Sky for some views, was cool but maybe not a highlight of the trip. Then I went to some shrines: Namba Yasaka (awesome!), Hozen-ji. Also went to Isshin-ji temple which was pretty, though had an interesting interaction with the priest when I went to get goshuin. Basically she seemed very skeptical of me, and wanted me to read some japanese words that were relevant to the temple, and read a brochure. To be clear I really appreciated this, I was genuinely interested in temples and wanted to learn more. With that being said it was a bit scary because I felt like the whole conversation had a bit of a negative undertone… anyways also went to Shitennoji shrine because it happened to have a flea market around it that day! Was a very impressive complex. Then I joined my friends at Osaka castle, which is super pretty. In the evening we went to the illuminage show right next to the castle (I believe it’s a winter-only event), which was fun. Then we ate dinner in Dotonbori.

Day 8 (Kyoto)

I left the accommodation in Osaka at 6:30AM (alone) and was at Fushimi inari shrine a bit before 8. I often felt alone in the Torii gate tunnels, and it was trivially easy to take pictures with no one in them. I’ve read some say that even 7-8am is too late to avoid crowds, but i definitely did (maybe because it was January?). Aside from the shrines on the way, the nature was really nice. At some point in the middle of the mountain I went off-path and was in the middle of a forest alone. Then when I was back at the bottom around 10am, tourists were flooding in and the torii gates were super crowded. At that time I found the “secret” bamboo forest, and was completely alone. Overall these 3 hours of Fushimi Inari + bamboo forest where my favourite part of the trip.

Then I went to the Ninenzaka/Sannenzaka and ate some street food, the pork buns were pretty nice. Then I visited Kiyomizu-dera at around 11-12. This part was definitely crowded since I didn’t have the early morning on my side anymore, but it was still tolerable (less so on the streets leading up to the temple). Then I walked to some other places of interest, like Kodaji temple and had a brief stop at Gion. After that I made my way to Philosopher’s path, in the pursuit of a less crowded calm place (recommend the Kyoto Travel Congestion Forecast). Ginkakuji was beautiful, and the path was indeed peaceful. Though it’s probably much more worth going during cherry blossom season! Then as my phone battery started getting dangerously low I joined one of my friends at Nishiki market. Yes it’s probably tourist-trappy but what I bought was nice, and the sight was s…

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