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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/lindoreda on 2025-08-06 23:52:38+00:00.

Hi all,

My husband, mom and I just got back from an extremely hot 2 ½ week trip, and I thought I’d share. My husband and I are experienced Japan travelers specifically, having visited 44 and 45 prefectures respectively, but this trip sticks to sights mainly on the western part of the golden route due to my mom, who really wanted to see Kyoto (she visited Tokyo enough for her taste when my husband and I lived there). We tend to focus on historical sights and museums, local food (and beloved chains), and shopping for local mascot characters. Having done most of the classic sights in this region, we deprioritized a lot of them.

It’s entirely possible to do more stuff than we did in a day, but it was between 90 and 100 degrees F almost every day with high humidity, and my mom had a bad reaction to a knee treatment right before leaving, limiting her mobility for a while. And then we all got sick. It was a great trip, but definitely not a packed itinerary.

This did get long because I have a lot to say in the hopes that someone might find it useful, so I ended up splitting it into two parts. The Matsuyama and Kyoto parts will come in the second post, once I get around to fleshing out my outline.

A few logistics notes:

We all have physical suicas picked up from previous trips.

All transit except the boat to Matsuyama, the buses in Asuka and the airport bus were paid for with suica.

The only prebooked train was the shinkansen between Osaka and Hiroshima, using SmartEx.

My husband and I speak Japanese, my mother does not.

Thursday 7/10 - Osaka

We landed in KIX directly from the US, rather than having to fly to Tokyo first and transfer. We got through customs procedures in about 40 minutes, largely because I picked the slowest moving line. Then we hopped on the train and made our way to the Red Roof in Namba. Normally we don’t pick western chains when in Japan, but I guess we got a deal. Definitely a Japanese business hotel with western branding, though.

Generally on our first night we buy toothpaste, but the nearest convenience store had been raided, so we spent way too long wandering around Namba trying to find one that was less picked over. And then trying to find sweat-proof sunscreen. Eventually, we accomplished our missions and collapsed.

Friday 7/11 - Osaka

We slept in out of respect for jet lag and ate convenience store bread for breakfast (true most days). My mom meanwhile decided to test herself and got a breakfast sandwich at the hotel next door. Once we were all combobulated, we decided for an “easy” day at Osaka castle. This ended up being hubris.

We last went to Osaka castle in 2016, as part of a two castle day with Nagoya back in the halcyon days of the JR pass being a good deal. At the time, I assumed my feet hurt so much afterward because… well, we did two castles in two cities on one day. I forgot that Osaka castle’s park is huge, and they added shuttle “buses” to get around the park for a reason. We hit 10,000 steps before lunch.

We opted not to buy tickets in advance, which meant waiting in line for the ticket machines for maybe 10 minutes. The line was covered, which is an innovation I wish they’d implement at Niagara Falls, but that’s a rant for another subreddit. The castle ticket includes admission to the small, recently opened castle wall museum, which we hadn’t been to before. Where the castle itself was slammed with people and it could be hard to get to some of the exhibits, the castle wall museum was quiet and cool. There’s not much there, but if you want a break from the crowds and the heat, it’s right there. It’s also got great english.

From there we decided to get lunch at the Osaka Gourmet Expo, which was on the grounds of the park, but actually pretty far from the castle. We ended up walking the full circumference to get back to the Osaka History museum, so in hindsight I might have chosen to have lunch closer to the history museum if only to spare my mom some walking. The Gourmet Expo itself is a collection of stalls that you order from via QR code. The food was good (okonomiyaki for me and my mom, beef bowl for my husband), but I don’t like QR code ordering. If you don’t speak Japanese, it’s probably more convenient, though.

After that was the Osaka History museum, which doesn’t seem to have changed since 2016. Plentiful english, and my mom enjoyed the intro to Osaka’s history. But the heat had drained us pretty badly at this point, so after navigating the dungeons of Namba station to find the 551 Horai (steamed buns), we retired to the hotel to rest until dinner. My mom ended up staying in for the rest of the night for her knee. My husband and I got different regional katsu bowls at nearby Miyamoto Munashi, and then popped over to Den Den Town for a little shopping. This was interrupted by sudden, heavy rain, and I dipped after two stores. My number one Japan tip: always carry a collapsable umbrella.

Saturday 7/12 - Asuka

My husband has been wanting to visit Asuka over in Nara prefecture for years because he’s a fan of kofuns - japanese burial mounds. He thought he had it figured out perfectly. We would walk less and take buses everywhere, because the buses are more frequent on Saturdays. This is true… in April and May. For those two months, they run extra buses on Saturdays. Otherwise, they’re once an hour. So we bought a day pass for the buses, but I’m not sure we ended up breaking even in the end.

In Asuka, we visited the Asuka History Museum first. It was light on English, but introduced a lot of the interesting artifacts from the area and the historical sites. We ended up getting lunch at a plant based food spot outside of the Asuka Museum of Manyo Culture, which was better than expected but small. They also ran out of food after we ordered so clearly if you need plant based food in Asuka go here early. The museum itself was pretty immersive with good english explanations, I would recommend it! The focus is on song and poetry, and even if you can’t understand the songs, you can definitely feel them.

After this we hopped on the bus to the Takamatsuzuka tumulus park, and specifically the mural museum within the park. Genuinely very cool, both in terms of vibes and temperature. The tomb found here had colorful murals inside, which is pretty uncommon in tombs from this period.

We could have walked around the park more, and I guess the thing to do is actually to bike it, but heat and pain were winning, so we took the bus back to the station, and trained back to Osaka. We had to make a poorly indicated train transfer (if you don’t speak Japanese), but luckily it was cross platform and I was paying attention, so we made it.

My mom wanted okonomiyaki for dinner, so I found Fukutarou in Namba station, and remembered it being recommended somewhere. Possibly here? There was a short wait, and they were clearly prepared to try and do everything through gestures up until I revealed that I speak Japanese. My mom tried the negiyaki and liked it, but my husband found the okonomiyaki under-sauced and with not enough ginger. As with everything, ymmv, I liked it.

After dinner, we took a break until dark, and took a walk through Dotonbori. I’ve always avoided it because I’m not one for crowds and nightlife, but it was worth doing once, at least as a fan of the yakuza games. It’s totally possible to take a walk down the canal without being sardined, once you get past the lines for the boat rides anyway.

Sunday 7/13 - Osaka

We started the day with a pretty niche set of shrine and temple visits: one in honor of Sanada Yukimura, and the other on the former site of the Sanadamaru. Almost no english, really only interesting if you’re into this particular sengoku period warlord. Or if you want to see the alleged tunnel to Osaka castle.

The next stop was the Museum of Housing and Living, which my husband and I had done before, but thought my mom would be interested in. She loved it, so, win. If coming by subway, the museum is easy to find and well signed from within the tunnels. We came by JR years ago, had to find it on the street, and ended up having to ask for directions. So take the subway. One thing about this museum, the permanent exhibition after the model town relies on QR codes for their multilingual information, which I feel really slows down the flow of visiting a museum.

Now, the big mistake of this day. We forgot about the expo. Specifically, that it was Sunday, and many people might choose to take the Chuo Line to the expo on their day off. But we bought advance tickets to Kaiyukan for my mom, and we had a 1 pm slot. So we crammed ourselves onto the Chuo line and assured ourselves that the mall at Tempozan was still a great place to get lunch.

We ended up getting takeout from a katsu restaurant in the mall, eating them in a back corner of the old Osaka nostalgia alley. And it was honestly really good! But the place was a zoo, and we should have known better. The true pain was getting out, though. I think it took us four trains before one came out of Yumeshima with enough space for us to get on, which was another lesson learned. Expo traffic does exist, mainly on the Chuo line, especially near the western end, mainly on weekends. Plan accordingly.

My mom really enjoyed Kaiyukan, she got a go pro basically for this purpose. But it’s gotten kind of expensive and they surge price, so I don’t suggest just showing up without planning…

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