Japan (Travel-log)

Two-week trip to Japan

Destination: Japan (Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Hakone and Tokyo)
Duration: 14 Days, 15 Nights.
Date: 18th October 2024 to 2nd November 2024
Transportation: Mostly Metro, Bullet Train (Shinkansen) for larger distance, Taxi for very short distance.

Index

Itinerary
Attractions
Food
Recommended Stores
Some things to keep in mind
Gratitude Note
Gallery

Itinerary

Date	City	Places/Attractions	Accommodation
18th October 2024 - 22nd October 2024	Osaka	Dotonbori Street Universal Studios Japan, Osaka Castle	Traditional Modern for 6PaxKA05 (Airbnb) 1-chōme-10-6 Tsuruhashi, Ikuno-ku, Osaka, Osaka 544-0031, Japan
22nd October 2024 - 23rd October 2024	Nara	Nara Park, Konfukuji Shrine and Museum, Tadao-ji Shrine	NARA Visitor Center & Inn 3, Ikenocho, Nara, 630-8361 Japan
23rd October 2024 - 25th October 2024	Kyoto	Yasaka Shrine, Chōraku-ji Temple, Kiyomizu-dera, Fushimi inari shrine, Arashiyama, Okochi Sanso Garden	404/Kyoto Gion/MAX3guests (Airbnb) 241-2 Nakanochō Hostel inn Kyoto Gion, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto 605-0082, Japan
25th October 2024 - 26th October 2024	Kanazawa	D.T. Suzuki Museum, 21st Century Museum of contemporary art, Kanazawa Castle, Kenroku-en Garden.	Hotel Mystays Premier Kanazawa 2-13-5, Hirooka, Kanazawa-shi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa-ken, 920-0031 Japan
26th October 2024 - 28th October 2024	Hakone	Onsen (which was part of our Airbnb)	Hot-Spring House in Hakone by Norwegian Icons (Airbnb) Kowakudani 443-165, Hakone, Kanagawa, Japan
28th October 2024 - 2nd November 2024	Tokyo	Disneyland, Akihabara, Ginza, Shibuya, Harajuku, Ueno, Nakameguro, Tokyo Sky Tree	28th Oct 2024 - 30 Oct 2024 Far East Village Hotel Ariake, Tokyo 1-2-43 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo, 135-0063 Japan --- 30 Oct 2024 - 2 Nov 2024 Rona Hotel 7-24-4 Shinjuku, Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture, 160-0022 Japan

Attractions

Osaka

18th: Arrived at night, headed to our Airbnb.
19th (Dotonbori): Our first day in Japan. We didn’t know any better and spent most of the time in a Don Quijote (big store which sells everything, they are fairly common in Tokyo). Also went to a big claw machine store and lost some money there.
20th (Universal Studios Japan): This was a lot of fun. The highlight was surely Super Mario World. We bought Universal Studio Express Pass 7, which allowed us to skip the lines for seven of the most popular rides. It turned out to be a good choice as we were able to do all the fun rides in a day. Short review of all the rides we did:
- The Flying Dinosaur: One of the best roller-coaster rides I’ve had so far.
- Detective Conan 4-D Live Show: A mix of virtual and live action experience, something I had never experienced before.
- Chainsaw Man 4D: It was alright, just a 3D movie with some vibrating seats.
- Hollywood Dream- The Ride: Cool little roller coaster, where you can pick a song of your choice (out of 5 given choices) to listen to.
- Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge: This was amazing. It was a real-life Mario Kart where things opponents were rendered using Augmented Reality.
- Yoshi’s Adventure: A slow ride, with a great view of the Super Mario World.
- Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem: Great immersive ride, spherical screen with moving seats.
- Harry Potter and Forbidden Journey: Great. It was a ride through virtual + real sets.
- Flight of Hippogriff: Lame roller coaster. It was too short.
- Biohazard: Night of Heroes: Great live-action show where Resident Evil protagonist fights against Nemesis, while we are in the middle as civilians.
21st (Osaka Castle, Dotonbori): Visited Osaka Castle (museum) in the afternoon, went back to Dotonbori in the evening, and visited some stores (Bookoff, Uniqlo, GU, U-art).

Nara

22nd (afternoon) - 23rd October (morning) Pleasant small city, not crowded at all, which was quite a contrast from Osaka. Just walking around was a pleasant experience.

Nara Park: Although friendly deer can be found everywhere in Nara, there’s this park where you can find a lot of them. You can bow to them, and they’ll bow back and you can feed them deer crackers, which are sold around the town.
Shrines: Nara has some beautiful shrines, we visited: the Kofuku-ji Shrine and museums, and Todai-Ji Shrine.
Nara Starbucks: I know Starbucks?!, but Nara’s Starbucks has such a beautiful view of a pond in front that I had to mention it.

Kyoto

Kyoto wasn’t anything like I imagined it to be (and in a good way). Knowing that it was one of the big cities in Japan, I expected a bustling metropolis, but it turned out to be a beautiful amalgam of nature and civilization. There’s everything in this city from beautiful green mountains, quiet shrines, to all the modern stores and fancy restaurants.

23rd Visited these shrines; all of them were beautiful.

Yasaka Shrine
Chōraku-ji Temple
Kiyomizu-dera Visited Traveller’s factory store in the evening.

24th

Fushimi Inari: Possibly the most beautiful of the shrines we’ve visited. It has a nice 2-3 hour long trek which has hundreds of torii gates on its way and has a stunning view of Kyoto near the top.
Ariyashiyama Bamboo Forest: As the name says, it’s a bamboo forest. It turned out to be a bit smaller than expected and a bit out of the way as well, but the garden mentioned below more than made up for this detour.
Okochi Sanso Garden: The most beautiful garden I’ve visited in Japan (or anywhere else).
After coming back to the main city, we visited some of these stores in the evening: Mandarake, Nintendo Kyoto Store, and Loft.

Kanazawa

Just like Kyoto, Kanazawa surprised us; we expected a small city, but it turned out to be one of the most well-planned and modern-looking cities we visited so far.

25th

D.T. Suzuki Museum: Lovely architecture. It was peaceful, minimalistic, and pleasing to look at.
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art: It has a lot of contemporary art pieces in each room. One thing that caught our eye was PLYWOOD SHINCHI, 2017 by UJINO Muneteru. (It was an automated musical performance using wooden crates commonly seen in daily life, used to transport industrial products and artworks such as electric guitars and home appliances.)

26th

Kanazawa Castle: A gorgeous all-white castle resembling how a castle would look during snowfall, with museums inside.
Kenroku-en Garden: One of the Three Great Gardens of Japan.
The rest of the day was mostly spent traveling from Kanazawa to Hakone.

Hakone

26th evening - 28th morning I spent all my time in the beautiful Airbnb we booked, which was surrounded by what seemed like a forest. It was inspired by Norwegian architecture. I spent my time enjoying the atmosphere, resting, and soaking in our personal onsen. It was the best (and most expensive) Airbnb/hotel I’ve stayed in so far.

Tokyo

28th

Ginza: one of the fanciest streets in Tokyo, we visited a popular stationary store called Itoya.
TeamLabs Borderless: A gorgeous immersive museum/art gallery, containing digital art which surrounds every wall and even the floor, artwork even flows from one room to another and changes with time.
Shibuya: saw the famous Shibuya crossing and had dinner at a conveyor belt sushi place called Genki Sushi.

29th

Tokyo DisneySea: Personally, I found this experience to be quite disappointing, especially compared to Universal Studios Japan. There was nothing memorable about this place. Many of the rides were just generic and bland, despite Disney owning so many IPs. Nothing about this place was memorable.
Akihabara: It is known for its vast department stores selling all kinds of electronics, manga, anime, and video games. I spent most of my time at Yodabashi Camera. It’s a giant electronic store with 6 floors.

30th

Ginza: Spent all day in Ginza shopping exploring at these stores: Muji, GU, Uniqlo, Onitsuka Tiger, and Loft.

31st

Harajuku: A colorful street which has a lot of street wear and used clothing stores. I went to Capcom Gatcha Machine store, had 10 yen bread, which is a popular snack, visited Daiso, Asics, and New Balance stores.
Shibuya: visited Hands. It was alright. It didn’t have anything that Loft doesn’t have.
Akihabara: visited Bookoff, Mandarake, and SuperPotato.
Ueno: Mode-off, Hard-Off, Hobby-off, and Yusha Kobo Keyboard Specialty Shop.
Went back to Shibuya for its popular Halloween celebration. So many people were cosplaying all kinds of characters you can think of. It was the most crowded place we’ve seen during our trip. There were also cops all around controlling the flow of the crowd.
Went to Don Quijote in Shinjuku during late at night to buy some chocolates for home.

1st Nov

Traveller’s factory in Nakameguro
Starbucks Reserve Roastery had stunning architecture and one of the best coffees and tiramisu I’ve had. Apparently, there are only 7 Starbucks Reserves in the world; this was one of them.
Tokyo Sky Tree is the tallest tower in Japan; you get a 360-degree view of Tokyo from the top. The mall surrounding the building was also pretty cool and had a variety of stores for shopping.

Food

Osaka

19th

Halal Ramen: Ordered Large sized best-selling Ramen, shouldn’t have done that, It was too much. (8/10)
Acchichi Honpo Dotonbori Had Takoyaki for snacks (6/10)
Fried Shrimp and Some sort of Skew at “forgot the name” (6/10)

20th

Mel’s Drive-in (Universal Studios Japan): Burger meal, Burger patty tasted like cardboard, French fries were okay (3/10)
Woflgang Puck Pizza Had Margarita Pizza, the place was expensive, even had seating charges, but the taste was alright (6/10)

21st

New Light: Quite a small shop, It seems like a family-run place, a very friendly grandmother took our order, Had Curry Rice with Chicken Katsu and Egg, The taste, the texture, I can still remember it . (10/10)
Susuruka, Susuranka.Tofu Romen (8/10)

22nd:

Rikuro’s Nambahad their delicious fluffy cheesecake. It just melts in your mouth (9/10)

Nara

22nd

Hand-rolled sushi at “forgot the name” (8/10)
Nakatanidou had the famous mochi. Although the texture was great, I didn’t find it that appealing (6/10)
Tonkatsu Ganko: Curry rice with cutlet and shrimp katsu. (7/10)
Starbucks: Go there for the view. They also serve decent coffee. (7/10)

Kyoto

23rd

Ramen War Kyoto had shoyu ramen (8/10)

24th

McDonald’s (6/10): Coffee and bacon egg and cheese muffin.
Tsuke-yasai Isoism They serve a lot of salmon mushroom rice with 12 seasonal dishes. Some of them were just mind-blowing in a way that I have never tasted such flavor and felt such texture. They also served a delicious Miso-onion soup with it. (10/10)
Unomi Italian restaurant. Had tendon stew pasta (6/10)

Kanazawa

25th Oct

Haru: Had Okonomiyaki and Yakishoba (8/10)
Mister Donuts: Chocolate Old Fashion and Pon De Ring Strawberry. The former was better than the latter. (7/10)

Tokyo

28th

Coco curry house: It’s a chain of restaurants. I found the taste not great compared to curries I’ve had so far. (5/10)
Genki Sushi Shibuya I love conveyor belt sushi places; they are yummy, the service is fast, and there’s no human interaction :P (9/10)

29th

Disney Seas restaurant (6/10)
Sushiro yet another conveyor belt sushi chain (8/10)

30th

Choushiya: Takeaway Katsu Sandwich place run by a friendly elderly couple (8/10)
Ken’s Coffe Shop cappuccino with cats made out of foam (8/10)
Kushikatsu Tunka Higashiginza. The second-best fried food I’ve had during my trip (9/10)

1st Nov:

Starbucks Reserve Roastery one of the best Cinnamon Coffee and Tiramisu I’ve ever had. (9/10)
BiBiBi The most amazing dining experience we had during our trip; we had a fried platter which turned out to be the best fried food we’ve had in Japan. We also had a sushi bowl which was gorgeous to look at and tasted amazing. But the best part about this place was the amazing, friendly, enthusiastic… couple running the place. This was perfect. (10/10)

Convenient Stores

Convenient stores like FamilyMart, 7-Eleven, and Lawson are everywhere in Japan. They offer a wide variety of snacks, including sandwiches, rice balls, bento boxes, ramen, and pastries—you name it. Most of the Items we tried from them were good.

Recommended Stores

Book-off/Hard-off/Mode-off/Hobby-off: Great 2nd hand/open box stores that are present in all the big cities in Japan. I found some great deals on action figures and art books; they also have video games, movies, and electronics. (Mode-off has clothes.) (Has stores in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and more.)
Mandarake: Similar to Book-off but on average.) I found them to have a better and bigger collection of items. (Has stores in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and more.)
Uniqlo: A high-quality fast-fashion brand; it’s available outside Japan as well, but prices were a bit low compared to India. (Has stores pretty much everywhere in Japan.)
GU: A sister brand of Uniqlo, has even more affordable options; they have a great collection which is unique from Uniqlo; it’s currently not available in India. (Has stores pretty much everywhere in Japan.)
Muji: You can find everything at Muji from food to high-quality stationery to furniture. It’s available in India, but prices are about 3x more than they were in Japan. They also have a much larger collection there. (Has stores pretty much everywhere in Japan.)
Super Potato a store dedicated to retro video games and consoles.
Yusha Kobo Keyboard Specialty Shop has a great selection of mechanical keyboards. (Tokyo)
Stationary Stores
- Itoya: One of the most popular and fancier stationary stores, they have every stationary item you can ever imagine and more, but the main store had the most popular items sold out, which was a bit disappointing. (Has stores in Tokyo (Main), Osaka, Kyoto)
- U-arts: Cute cat-themed stationary store in Dotonbori, they also have a great collection of all the popular stationary products (Osaka)
- Loft: My personal favorite because they had stuff I wanted (great collection of Midori Notebooks, etc.), They sell everything else, including household goods, bags, etc., as well. (Has stores in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and more)
- Yodabashi Camera: It’s mainly an electronic shop, but they have a great stationary collection. I found some pens that weren’t present in other stores. (Tokyo, has stores in other locations as well, but I am not sure if they have a stationary section there.)
- Traveller’s Factory: It’s sort of a niche store. I love it, but it might not be for everyone. They sell high-quality customizable leather notebooks and they sell a lot of custom inserts (like card files, a file for paper, zip puch, etc.). I bought one in Kyoto and loved using it throughout my Trip. (Has main stores in Kyoto and Tokyo but their products can be found in Loft, Itoya, or other big stationary chains as well.)

Some things to keep in mind

Be respectful, follow the social etiquettes
Try to wake up early, and go to bed early. Most things close by at 8:00 p.m.
Don’t lose your IC card, don’t put too much into it at once in case you do lose it.
Taxis in Japan are very expensive, but public transportation is so good that you probably won’t need to use one.
Some hotels might be self-checking kind. In that case, you won’t be able to keep your luggage there if you arrive early. Check for this in advance and plan accordingly.
There are so many interesting things to explore/do in Japan (and in Tokyo itself) that no matter what you’ll always miss out, so don’t try to do everything since it’ll only lead to disappointment. Be present and savor every moment. (Hmm…well this applies to life in general)

Gratitude Note

Japanese people were among the kindest, most humble, respectful, hardworking, and helpful individuals I’ve ever encountered. Despite English not being their native language, most of the places we visited were English-friendly, and many people were knowledgeable enough to interact and assist us. I am incredibly grateful and thankful for their hospitality.