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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Secure_Drawer_4829 on 2025-05-25 16:40:01+00:00.

Hello everyone! Loved reading your trip reports before my trip, so wanted to contribute back to this supportive community! This is my second trip report. Here’s the first: 2024 trip report to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Yokohama.

About me: 27F, I travelled solo between May 8th and May 23rd. I hit Hiroshima (3 nights), Onomichi (3 nights), Kobe (3 nights), and Tokyo (5 nights). I don’t drink, so this report will have no mention of clubs, bars, dancing, etc. I tended to wake up early, walk over 20k steps, and wrap it up at 10PM. I’m from Toronto, and a visible minority. I like beautiful nature, but prefer places with the hustle and bustle of people, so you will not find an overly quite itinerary. It’s balanced between quiet nature and lively people. This itinerary is more or less relaxed, and suitable for a solo traveler or maybe up to three people. It contains little to no pre-booking, no ryokans, no expensive souvenir shopping, and lots and lots of public transportation. I hope the ease of this itinerary will demonstrate how relaxed Japan can be.

Notably, I carried around a sketchbook, and drew in it around Japan! Imgur is refusing my PNGs, so I’ve posted my images on Tumblr. If you’d like to check them out, here you go: Japan Sketches

(All prices in CAD. If you see the $ sign, no, it’s not USD).

Plane ride + arrival

• This time around I packed like…nothing. 3 shirts, 3 long dresses, 2 pants, some undergarments, and a hat. Sunscreen, cosmetics, passport, some maple candies to hand out, presents for my friends, my goshiun book, a sketchbook, and some pens. My Switch for the plane ride. I think that was it lol. Just one small carry on, my backpack, and my Uniqlo cross-body bag. Was more than enough.
• Took AA to Dallas, AA to Haneda. On the way back it was JAL to New York, AA to Toronto.
• All I have to say is, absolutely screw AA from the bottom of my heart. AA made the entire process, from using my flight credit (which I got from the last trip, see the end of that report hehe), to checking in, to using their app, to getting flight updates, to booking a meal, etc. insanely difficult, more so than the last time. Every time I needed to do something I had to call them and be on hold for 2 hours. Not to mention, the last time I called them to redeem my flight credit, I used their “give us your number and we’ll call you back to secure your place in line” feature, and a SCAMMER CALLED ME BACK. When I went to the airport to sort out flight tickets, the attendant charged me in USD without informing me, and added extra fees that I had to call to get refunded. Upon time to check in, their app locked me out, and I was forced to become an AA Advantage member just to have access to my reservation. Just…absolutely screw AA. The flight there was mid, nothing to comment on.
• I arrived in Tokyo around 4PM, went through customs, bought a Shinkansen ticket to Hiroshima station on the spot, got my little eki-ben dinner, and went on my merry way on the 4.5 hour ride to Hiroshima. Arrived around 10:30PM to my hotel and crashed, then woke up with no jet lag at 8AM, yay! This time around I had a proper appetite (unlike my last trip), so I was able to eat well.
• Once again, getting a Welcome Suica from Haneda Terminal 3 was extremely easy. I took the subway (forgot what line) after. Even with my luggage (normal sized carry on, backpack, cross body bag) and a train full of people, it was easy. (I’m used to subways in Toronto). I put $100 on it at the start of the trip and only had to load $20 later. So about $120 for my 2 weeks.
• I’d prepared my Ubigi sim before coming (10 GB plan, used about 70% of it as I just used it as normal to watch videos and use google maps and google translate and everything). 0 issues with it. Absolutely amazing.

Hiroshima

• Itinerary:
  • 9th: Arrive at 10:30PM, sleep.
  • 10th: Mitaki-dera temple, cafe, Peace Museum, Peace Park, lunch, Atomic Bomb Dome, Hondori shopping street, long walk around Hiroshima, dinner
  • 11th: Itsukushima/Miyajima, cafe in Hiroshima, dinner in Hiroshima
• Mitaki-dera temple was a nice start to my day. Still a wee bit groggy from travel, just walking around the temple and getting my hunger back was nice. I accidently started doing the hike at the top before I climbed down, haha. There was like no one here, just old people hiking back down from the mountain by 9:30AMish.
• I highly recommend the museum. Personally, I loved it. It was like $2 and I bought the ticket on the spot. Not very busy. Very sobering, and really made me look at the city differently. I kept walking around the lively Hiroshima streets and bustling cafes thinking “this was literally RUBBLE less than a hundred years ago…”. There are small monuments around the city, ex. some bent windows on display that were bent from the blast. What stayed in my heart the most were the artist depictions of the event. I won’t spoil it, but that art – as a fellow artist – really moved me.
• Lots of great food and cafes in Hiroshima. Got to try a variety of things this time because I had an appetite, yay! Had Coco for the first time and it was just curry but on my hungry stomach I loved it. Went to a cafe with floor seating (blankets on the floor and pillows around it) and had a parfait. So relaxing!
• Miyajima was lovely and breathtaking. It was raining, and looked lovely in the rain. The deer were quite nice and funny here haha. I got to see the Tori both in the ocean and with the ocean receded, and both were lovely. Getting there was easy: I subwayed to Miyajimaguchi, and took the ferry for a couple bucks (ticket machines are available at the ferry port). I know there’s another ferry from the Peace Park area, but apparently it’s more expensive.
• I know people say to take the cable car up to Mount Misen, but I don’t mind a little hike, so I told myself I’d take the easy trail up (Daisho-in route), but somehow got lost and ended up on the HARDEST TRAIL (Omoto route)!!?!? I’m actually stupid. I climbed stairs for over 2 hours! My thighs were like jelly by the end!! The views were lovely at the end but I was too out of breath to enjoy them (but I still enjoyed them). Took the cable car down for a rewarding view at the end of a hard hike. Honestly though, I don’t regret it. I felt a lot of pride at the end of the day that I was able to accomplish that, and the tea and dessert I had at the end plus the lovely dinner I had really made up for it.
• I tried oysters on the island for the first time, and they were good, but I wouldn’t have them again. I normally love all kinds of fish but they’re not my cup of tea (fresh or fried).
• Went back to Hiroshima at around 4PM and relaxed for the rest of the day.
• Ah, I had Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, but didn’t like it as much as the classic okonomiyaki. Too much extra stuff going on, just give me my simple cabbage + batter + bonito + sauces!

Onomichi

• Itinerary:
  • 12th: Subway to Fukuyama, subway to Onomichi, leave my luggage at the hotel (pre-check-in), head out: Onomichi shopping arcade street, lunch, cat alley, check-in, dinner, walk around.
  • 13th: Bike reservation with Shimanami Bike Rental, biked half (4.5 hours) of the Shimanami Kaido (just to Setoda Port), ferry back, dinner.
  • 14th: Tomomoura, come back to Onomichi, rest and relax (as the past few days of hiking, hiking some more, climbing 2 hours of stairs, and biking for 4.5 hours destroyed me HAHA)
• Onomichi is BREATHTAKING. So breathtaking I kept whispering “beauty like this has to be illegal, right? RIGHT?” I could have relaxed there longer if I was with someone. Seeing boats everywhere, eating many lemon-themed things and drinking different orange juice “shots” (they’re known for citrus), just inhaling that sharp sea air…amazing.
• Bike reservation through the Shimanami Kaido Bike Rental website was easy. I did feel the need to book about 2 weeks in advance as by then most bikes seemed to be taken (though they apparently have some day of, I didn’t want to risk it). I booked a city bike (with a basket) but on the spot asked if I could take a cross bike and they said yes. Got my bike and was on my way!
• People make the biking route out to be intimidating, but it’s not. I haven’t biked in years and am not particularly active beyond swimming once a week and walking 10k steps twice or thrice a week. I easily biked half-ish of it to the Setoda tourist information center, dropped off my bike, then walked ~10 minutes to Setoda Port to take the ferry back at 5PM. There are convenience stores and ice cream along the way, and I stopped once or twice. To go uphill to the bridges, I walked my bike 10ish minutes or less up the hill (easy mode lol I know my limits), then rode across the bridge, no e-bike needed. I didn’t explore much of the island beyond the main recommended route as I just didn’t really care/didn’t have much energy/was conscious of time. The route was so breathtaking that I think at some point my eyes got tired of breathtaking views haha.
• In short, literally grab your bike and go. There’s nothing else to it. (There’s a bike-friendly ferry you have to take that’s 180 yen that was a bit hard to spot, but otherwise easy peasy).
• The f…

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