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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/hollabackgurl413 on 2025-05-23 18:58:04+00:00.

I started writing this and accidentally didn’t save so now I’m jet-lagged and mad. This is mostly for my travel journal, but why not post here too? I went with my husband, we are both in our early 30s and enjoy anime and Japanese food. I’m definitely a foodie and this will be food centered.

5/9:

Landed at KIX, checked in at **Dormy Inn Premium Osaka Kitahama** which we chose because Dormy Inn premium always has free nightly ramen, free ice cream and yogurt drinks, and a public open air bath. I don’t think we did much this day because we were tired from our 25 hours of flying/layovers.

5/10:

We got up early because of jetlag and had dormy’s buffet breakfast which was delicious and included things like congee, beef stew, small seasonal dishes, desserts, pastries, fruit, salad, etc. Definitely worth it for the price. We then ate takoyaki at **のびる屋 卵かけJr.のお店** which was delicious, this is a small restaurant with friendly staff and an extensive menu, they also have English menus.

Then we headed to **Osaka Aquarium** and on the way we had a very tasty sweet potato crepe with ice cream at **Tabanenoshi Shinsaibashi**. I wanted to try more of their crepes but we were too full. There was an interesting insect/lizard shop a couple doors down. The aquarium was crowded but still worth the visit. I was impressed by the large central tank with the whale sharks, other sharks and mantas, and they had a sunfish too. They also had several different penguin species, otters, seals, and a species of dolphin I had never seen before. I bought a couple keychains and towels from the gift shop which was small, but then when you exit downstairs there is a huge second gift shop! We were trapped there for a while.

We then went to **Shinsaibashi Shopping Street** which is one of several covered shopping streets with AC. We spent most of our time there at the Parco/Daimaru mall just browsing. They have high end shops and clothing but also shops that focus on cute characters like sanrio, sumiko gurashi, mofusand, chiikawa, etc. We each had a pair of glasses that turn to sunglasses in the UV light at **Zoff** which only took like 30 minutes and only cost about 9k yen. The first floor of the mall is entirely snacks/nicely packaged foods that seem like they’re for gifting. They weren’t giving out samples so I just had intense decision fatigue here. The basement is a food court but also had a grocery section with things like fancy fruit and sushi. We had packaged sushi here which was pretty fresh other than the uni. We walked over to **Dotonburi** but it was so packed we were just there briefly and to take pics of the Glica man. We went back to Dormy and had some free ramen.

5/11:

We tried to go to **Ramen Bukkoshi** by our hotel because it has creamy beef ramen that intrigued me, but it was closed so we instead went to **Ramen アゲイン** which ended up being amazing. This is one of those 8-10 seat ramen places where you order by vending machine ticket, and that is usually an indication that it will be fire ramen, which it was.

We went back to Shinsaibashi because we didn’t actually browse the street the first time, and did some shopping. Tried some cheese tarts at **Pablo** which were creamy and flavorful, and they had a nice iced chocolate drink too. I was able to find Cremia soft serve at a random cafe which I’ve been wanting to try. It was good, very creamy, but not life-changing. We also had **Chika Chicken** in the basement food court of either Daimaru or Parco and it was really good korean fried chicken. Very crispy and perfectly juicy and flavorful, it was interesting that all the pieces were boneless. The pickled radish was an extra charge and wasn’t the best, but would definitely come back here for the chicken.

We got on a train to Kyoto and checked in at **Royal Twin Hotel Kyoto Hachijoguchi** which is right across from Kyoto station. The room wasn’t as big as our king room at Dormy, but they also have an open air public bath that we used daily, and the jinbei they provide as PJs was definitely comfy and not as prison-looking as Dormy’s lol. I wanted to buy a jinbei for myself after this but didn’t get around to it this trip. It was raining so we browsed a nearby mall. The pet stores here have insanely cute puppies and kittens. We had dinner at the mall at **Pommes** which is probably a chain and had pretty good katsu omurice and mentaiko pasta. It wasn’t one of our better meals in Japan, but was cheap and hit the spot. The serving sizes are on the larger end.

5/12:

I think we probably ate 711 breakfast this day before heading out. We got to **Fushimi Inari** around 8:20AM and it was beginning to fill up. We were never planning on going all the way up, and there was an easy way to loop back down to the shrine after walking through several sets of the red gates. We still were able to get some good pictures and the vibes were pretty serene while walking through the gates and down the forest path back to the shrine, even without getting up at dawn. We didn’t really feel that appetized/interested by the food stalls at the bottom, and then I saw the special Chiikawa store and pretty much screamed! There was a line but we figured out that it opens at 9:30 and it was just before then, so we walked in and did some shopping. The first floor had shrine/fushimi/kyoto specific chiikawa goodies including plushies and snacks, and the second floor had clothing and a bunch of items that were not specific to the tourist site we were at. I got a hoodie, shirt, and some plushies and the whole store was so cute, albeit a bit expensive.

We then took a train to Uji, got to **Nakamura Tokichi Honten** by around 10:30ish, and put ourselves in the queue to eat at the cafe. This is pretty much the number one/premium teahouse/teamaker in Uji and I didn’t do a ton of research about the others, so I figured we’d try to shop and eat here. And so did everyone else of course. This place opens at 10AM and by the time we got there we were already #80 something in line. As we waited, we shopped at their store, which gives free tea samples and everything tasted great. I got some hojicha and their nakamura special tea, and we also bought some hojicha and matcha chocolates and madeleines, etc. We then looked around the nearby streets which were picturesque, and ate at **Food Park** which was in a little food alley. They have very cute photogenic wagyu over rice sets with a raw egg, and the burger was great as well. After our meal we checked our status in the queue and we were up (it was probably around 12:30 so about a 2 hour wait)! So we rushed back to the teahouse and were able to get one of only 3 outdoor tables overlooking the garden. Which had an interesting tree that was shaped to grow in grid-like pattern with wires, kind of like a bonsai but not small. They give you a free serving of shincha which is the freshest batch of green tea of the season, and you order via QR code menu. They have interesting things like matcha soba but we were already kind of full so we got two desserts, the hojicha tea jelly and matcha shiratama zenzai. I honestly wanted to try so many other things, but didn’t want to overdo it. Both desserts were fantastic. The hojicha one had hojicha tea jelly, hojicha ice cream, red bean, and mochi balls. The matcha one came with hot or cold matcha soup kind of thing (we got cold) with mochi and red bean in it. I want to go again. I do know they have other locations for their store and cafe but I think some of the menu items are specific to the main store we were at.

We took a bus to the **Nintendo Museum** which I had reserved maybe 2-3 months in advance, there is a lottery system for tickets. You can design your own Mii on the website when you register your account, and when you get there they actually print out a ticket with your Mii on it! It’s a nice little free souvenir. They have many opportunities for photos in the museum as well as right outside with the green pipes. As you enter the building you can stand in line for a photo with the Toads (there are a bunch and if you touch their heads they make different toad noises, it’s really cute). The museum floors do not allow photos for some reason, but you can take photos of the interactive parts where you play games. There were not a ton of explanations on the walls in any language. It was mostly display case after display case of the different Nintendo games, consoles, and other products that have come out year after year. It was a ton of stuff and very interesting. They had this very early VR headset that you could look into/experience a short clip of play. Downstairs you can use your 10 tokens to play games. There were regular console games you could play but also ones you can team up with someone for with giant controllers. There was a batting cage where you get points for hitting fake furniture/props. There was a compatibility test that was kind of corny but fun. And pictures of you playing the games are loaded into your online Nintendo account so you can see and download them. The gift store was also very cute, with some giant plush controllers as well as blind boxes for mini keychain versions of the controllers. I think these are limited items and each person can only buy 1-2. All other items didn’t seem so exclusive to this store. We spent a decent amount of time here…

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