April was a busy month. I had some deadlines just before my vacation that would start at the beginning of May. When May had finally arrived I was happy to be able to go home and get ready for my trip to Japan. In Asia I already visited China four times and I’ve been to Korea the year prior, but I’ve never been to Japan thus I was already very excited.
A month prior me and my brother had already planned which cities we want to visit and how long we want to stay in each city. We would set off on the May 2nd and land in the morning of the May 3rd — during Golden Week — in Tokyo (東京). On the 6th we would head to Fujikawaguchiko (富士河口湖) which is located north of mount Fuji near one of the five big lakes. From there we want to go to Kyoto (京都) on the 8th and stay for four days until May 12th where we then head to Osaka (大阪). In Osaka we planned to take a day trip to Nara (奈良) on May 14. On May 16 we head for Kanazawa (金沢) which is the northern-most city that we are going to visit during our trip before we go back to Tokyo on the day after. In Tokyo we will stay for five more days and on May 22nd we will go back home.
We’ll later see that we actually deviated from the original plan a bit and headed off to Kanazawa two days earlier. But apart from that we had sticked to our plan. Below is a map with our travel itinerary. The colors from light blue to dark blue indicate the time progression between city trips. We mostly stay in the central part of Japan (though the region of Kyoto and Osaka seems to be already considered as East Japan). We had initially planned to also visit Hiroshima as a day trip from Osaka but that would have been too stressful so we instead decided on going to Kanazawa on our way back to Tokyo.
One consideration that we had made before and that might also be interesting for you is whether or not to buy the JR Railpass. We thought it might be more convenient to book the train tickets online however we would have paid probably 200€ more than by simply buying the tickets individually. The JR Railpass also includes some busses and even ferries but we wouldn’t have benefited much from that either. Therefore we decided us against the JR Railpass which in the end was the best choice we could have done. From my experience during the trip it was very simple to get the tickets for the Limited Express and the Shinkansen (the Japanese Bullet Train). In two instances we went to the JR ticketing office and asked an employee there to book the tickets for us thus it was very hassle free.
With all the planning done we were looking forward to the trip. We spend two days at my parents home where we both still had to work a bit and then when May 1st arrived we started packing our suitcases. Usually just before a trip I wouldn’t sleep well and wake up several times but in this case I actually slept quite well at that night.
Day 0 - Departure from Frankfurt#
On the 2nd of May we had to get up early such that we arrived at around 10 am at the airport. There were not that many tourists so the security check took us only a few minutes. We walked to our gate and waited there for the plane. Around 11:40 am we took a bus that stopped in front of the airplane. My seat was in the right row towards the aisle. I sat besides a German couple from Frankfurt. The flight itself wasn’t that eventful. The meals that they served were fine. We first received a small bag with a variety of small crackers, I fell asleep when I tried to watch the Napoleon movie with Joaquin Phoenix but woke up after only a few minutes. The remaining time I wasn’t feeling tired therefore I watched Godzilla Minus One and also played some game that I had installed on my phone. We eventually started with the landing procedure.
Day 1 - Arriving in Tokyo and visiting Asakusa#
After around 12.5 hours we finally arrived at Haneda airport in Tokyo. We got our luggage and left through the customs into the entrance area of the airport. First of all we got a Japanese SIM card for my brother and we both got a SUICA card that can be used in many train, bus and metro lines as well as in some shops. We also saw a sign for the Yamato Transport service. Prior to our vacation we read that they can send luggage to hotels. This would make our travel easier as we couldn’t check into our hotel before 3pm anyways. A small Japanese woman probably in her 50s helped us filling out the transport papers and measured the size and weight of our luggage. After we had paid she suddenly said Dankeschön (which means thank you) in German which surprised me as she had spoken only in English with us prior to that. After sending our luggage to the hotel we then took the train to our first stop: Asakusa district.
We arrived near the Sensoji Shrine. There were many tourist and Japanese travelers walking across the many stalls leading up to the Sensoji Shrine. Most stalls sold souvenirs or some sweets like ice-cream. Many people were queueing in front of the shrine, so we just looked at what they were doing. It seemed that they went into the shrine to light some incense sticks and then prayed. We then walked around some smaller streets beside the main road and entered a building that seemed to host a gambling hall. Young and old were sitting at slot machines and played Pachinko or normal slots. As we didn’t exactly knew where to get coins to play and how to play we decided to leave again.
We then saw a food stall that offered Kobe ramen. As Kobe meat was on our list we had our lunch there. The waitress was very nice and talked with us in English. We ordered some Kobe Ramen und Asahi Super Dry. The beer was served in an ice-cold bottle. While enjoying our food two guys from Austria stepped to our table and initiated a chat. They had arrived two days prior and would only stay one week in Tokyo before they would go back home again. When they had received their food we made space for them so they could eat at our table and then left.
We decided to further walk around the smaller roads in this area. We walked into a shop that mostly boasted with crane machines. There were a few arcade machines as well. One of which was a Mario Kart arcade where up to 4 players could play against each other. We played one round then looked at the other crane games. I also once tried a crane machine but its quite hard to succeed in actually getting some of the prices as the grip of the claw is intentionally very loose.
Nearby was a Don Quijote store which is a chain of malls that basically offers anything from make-up over clothes and snacks to electronics. The whole store had about 5 floors and quite some people were in there. The store was packed with tight allies which also didn’t help maneuvering around the mall. We only inspected all floors of the mall and then left without buying anything.
We were exhausted from the long flight and the walking around this cramped touristy area so we decided to walk towards the Sumida river. From there we could see the Tokyo Skytree Even though there was a park at the river side there were almost no opportunities to sit. We eventually found some stairs in the shade next to a children’s playground to sit and drank some water. By then it was almost time to check into our hotel.
We wanted to walk to the hotel but since we were quite exhausted we decided to take the metro to the hotel. It wasn’t that long when we eventually arrived at our hotel Tabist Ginza which lies in the Ginza district. Our luggage hadn’t arrived yet. We checked in and went into our room. The room was incredibly small. It offered barely enough space to fit two small beds and the bathroom was very cramped as well. My brother decided to go down into the small breakroom nearby the reception while I stayed in the room to relax. He then came back with our luggage a few minutes later after he had had some coffee. I was so tired that I slept for around 3 hours.
My brother was outside the hotel when I woke up. i joined him and we explored the area in search for dinner. We found a nice restaurant but were told that their kitchen would close soon, So we had to find another place to eat. After some more search we found a great restaurant that offered a rice dish in conjunction with some ramen. I was more than full after the dinner. On the way back to our hotel we passed by another office of the Yamato Transport service which was already closed. We took note of it since we wanted to send our luggage to Fujikawaguchiko in one of the upcoming days. That night I slept quite well.
Day 2 - Shibuya and Shinjuku#
We bought some drinks and snacks at a local store and then took the metro to Shibuya. When we arrived at Shibuya station we first took some photos of the famous Hachiko statue. There were many people standing in line to take a photo of them together with the statue. As we didn’t want to wait we simply took a photo from the side without needing to wait.
Next to Shibuya Square is Shibuya Crossing which is the Japanese equivalent to the Times Square in New York. Around 260,000 to 390,000 people cross this square every day. Shibuya Crossing seemed more impressive on pictures than in real but was still quite impressive. As we went there quite early it wasn’t that crowded yet. We walked through some streets with mostly foreign restaurants. We saw a queue of people waiting to go up a building. At that point I wasn’t sure what they exactly queued up for. Later I learned that they wanted to go to Miyashita Park. After strolling a bit we found a small restaurant where we had our food. The food was fairly cheap but very delicious. The dish consisted of several small bowls of egg and bacon, miso soup, wakame and rice.
A week prior we had bought tickets for Shibuya Sky, the top of a shopping mall that was great for taking photos. We went there perfectly in time to get in the elevator. The elevator was super quick and displayed some animation on the roof of the elevator while ascending. Shibuya Sky wasn’t too crowded. We spend probably an hour on the roof top and took several photos from all directions.
As the rooftop was on open space with a great view in all directions I decided to take a 360° photo. The photo didn’t turn out that great as there were many people moving around and I also might have moved a bit too much for the app to properly stitch the photos together. However I still liked the photo therefore I wanted to share it here. You can look around the 360° photo with clicking the left mouse button and dragging the mouse cursor around or by using touch input on mobile devices.
After taking lots of photos we decided to go down and take the elevator. The descend was much shorter because the elevator didn’t drop us at the ground floor but rather on the 6th floor. This was a clever move to make visitors of Shibuya Sky explore the different stores in the shopping mall. However we weren’t really interested in the shops and simply left the building.
We walked back to the neighborhood with the foreign shops and found a small food stall that sold soft cheese cakes. I got one but it was quite big. I only ate a bit of it and kept the rest for later. The cake was indeed super soft as you might be able to see in the last photo where I hold and press the cake slightly together. It was also a bit warm what made it taste even better. If you happen to go to this food stall I’d rather recommend you to eat the smaller version where they take two smaller pieces of the cake and add some cream in between.
Our next destination was the Meiji shrine behind Yoyogi park. We therefore took the metro to Yoyogi park and explored it first before moving on. The way leading up to Yoyogi park was filled with many food stalls. As it turned out there happened to be a Cambodian festival at that day. We looked around and bought some beer. A band was playing some Cambodian music and some other stalls even sold souvenirs and tapestry from Cambodia. We walked into Yoyogi park after we had finished our beer. The park was filled with lots of people with picnic sheets that were laughing, eating and drinking. Some people were playing games or playing music. The park was very nice with a small pond in the middle. In contrast to other public places there were even benches to sit on. We sat down on a vacant bench near the pond and simply enjoyed the atmosphere for a moment.
In order to get to the Meiji shrine we actually had to get back to the entrance of the Yoyogi park and walk around it to reach the entrance to the park that surrounds the Meiji shrine. There was a big Torii gate at the entrance. Some people bowed before they passed through the Torii gate. We passed by a wall with lots of sake barrels when walking to the shrine. The shrine itself was also very full of tourists. Similar to the Asakusa shrine there were lots of people lining up for some ritual. This ritual supposedly grants a wish to whoever performs the ritual. It involves you throwing some coins in a coin collector. Next you have to bow twice followed up by two claps. You wait a few seconds then bow again.
After we had walked for what felt ages we got really hungry. We found another restaurant in Shibuya where we had some ramen with Udon noodles as well as a rice bowl with several toppings on it. I was able to finish it all despite being a big portion. The soup had a strong taste which was pretty delicious.
We were quite exhausted from the day so we took the metro back to the hotel. We relaxed a bit and waited for our guided night tour at 7 pm. We probably had 1.5 hours to take a shower and relax a bit before we had to take the metro again, this time to Shinjuku station. We arrived early and waited for our tour guide.
Our guide was a small woman called Kami. She was quite energetic and entertaining. We had to wait a little until all participants had arrived. It was quite a mixed group with one other guy from Germany, two people from Canada, a girl from Ukraine, an older guy from NYC and two guys from Spain.
The first stop was actually near our meeting point. There was a big building with a big screen on it. This screen displayed a cat that was the new mascot of Shinjuku station. Kami told us, that the cat suddenly had appeared during the Covid pandemic and quickly became the icon of Shinjuku since.
From there we went to Omoide Yokocho also called Memory lane. This small alley hosts many small restaurants —called Izakaya— that offer snacks and alcoholic drinks for two hours before you get kicked out. We quickly walked through the alley and were informed by Kami not to take photos of the people in the Izakaya which is understandable since noone wants photos of them when they are drunk. After Memory lane we walked around the corner and stopped in front of a street with a red gate. This road marked the entrance of the red light district. Prostitution in Japan is illegal however the people there found some creative ways to get around the restrictions. Rooms were rented out to women. They were disguised as massage parlors. The women would give some massage to the client which is completely legal. However if requested they would close their doors and since it was their private room they could do whatever they want within their private rooms. Kami also told us that most establishments there are run by the Yakuza. However they are not interested in the tourists but rather take money from the shops there. Though the Yakuza can be called if the customers make problems.
We walked into another street with big buildings that was nearby the red light district. At the end of the street is the Toho cinema. On its terrace is a big Godzilla head that spews fog every hour. We just arrived in time to see the performance. The show took about 3 minutes. We then turned left in front of the cinema and walked into a crowded road. There many young girls in uniforms holding signs with prices on it. These prices are the beer prices in the bar they advertise. In this kind of bar you would drink together with a male or female host. The expectation is that you also pay their drink which is totally overpriced and is how they make money. We passed by them and took a short break in the Kabukicho Tower. We went to the second floor to buy some drinks and then reunited with our night tour group.
In between those bustling streets is a small hidden shrine that was almost empty. What makes this shrine special is the symbol under the roof of the shrine that is preceded by several Torii gates. This symbol stands for good fortune. You can see the symbol in the slide show below.
From the quiet shrine a few streets down was a road with small love hotels. The difference between a normal hotel and a love hotel is that these have hourly rates on one hand and completely anonymous on the other. One would book a room via a robot and get the keys from some desk worker that can’t see the customers faces.
The last stop of the tour was the LGBTQ district. There were many bars that were so busy that many people would even drink in front of the bar. We didn’t stay long and just walked through some of the streets before we left the LGBTQ district again.
The tour guide concluded the tour from there. We said goodbye and walked back Memory Lane. We found am Izakaya that was still open and got some skewers and beer. After having beer and three skewers each we left Shinjuku and took the metro back to Ginza.
We met a guy from Canada on the subway. His hotel was also in Ginza thus we talked a while when being on the road until we parted ways. We came home and went to bed shortly after.
Day 3 - Visiting the Imperial Palace and Ginza#
We slept a bit longer today as we were exhausted from the day before. We walked around Ginza to find some place to have breakfast. We walked a bit until we found a street with several restaurants. We found a nice looking restaurant that was about to open a few minutes later. There we had salmon with rice, mochi and soup. One of the served dishes was some kind of raw scrambled egg. I was confused on how to eat it since we weren’t given any spoons. So I asked the waitress how to eat it. She replied that it should be poured into the rice bowl and mixed. It had an interesting taste but I found the texture of it a bit odd, though the other dishes were very delicious.
We read about an antique market that was supposed to take place at the Tokyo International Forum. We took the metro to the forum but saw that instead of the antique market there was a music performances because of the children’s day. There were some food stalls all over this area. We walked around the nearby area and bought some desserts from a dessert shop in a mall.
The imperial palace was quite close from the area where the antique market would usually take place thus we walked there by foot. The actual palace can’t be accessed by the public except for two times of the year during special events. However people can stroll through the east garden of the Imperial Palace. We passed through a Torii gate and then walked through the garden. We came by a tea house that unfortunately was closed. Just behind the tea house was a garden with a pond and waterfall. We sat down and took a short rest while enjoying the view. We walked over a bridge over the pond and walked by the waterfall. We then exited the imperial garden at a different exit.
On the bridge of the garden I took another 360° photo of the beautiful garden. I had to wait a bit until no people were on the bridge as it seemed to be a popular photo spot.
We didnt exactly know where we are but we decided to walk around and found ourself in an area where we’ve seen few to non people. We found a small Karage restaurant where we set at the bar and had some Karage at the counter. The dish consisted of a rice bowl with 5 Schnitzel inside and a miso soup at the side. When my brother wanted to pay and use some of the coins that accumulated since the last few days the waiter reminded us that Japan is the country of coins.
We were a bit tired and thus decided to go back to our hotel. Before we arrived at our hotel we came by the Toyama transit shop that was open this time. We entered the shop and asked them if they could send the luggage within a day to Fujikawaguchiko. An old woman that was working there said it takes usually two days but they try to make it work in one day. Thus we walked back to the hotel, packed our luggage and brought it to the shop to send it. Afterwards we rested a bit in the hotel.
We went out again for dinner. My brother had selected a nice restaurant in Ginza that we wanted to go to. There was already a longer queue in front of the restaurant. To order we had to select the dishes on a machine in front of the restaurant where we had to pay and get some small paper sheets with the names of the dishes on them. From time to time a waiter would come outside to collect these sheets. After waiting for around 20 minutes we were finally able to enter the restaurant. The customers were sitting on a long L-shaped counter. I wasn’t too hungry thus I had a small bowl with chicken which was quite delicious and just enough for me. We finished the dinner quickly and headed back home where we rested a little earlier than on the previous days.
Day 4 - Pagoda and trip to Fujikawaguchiko#
Before starting off our trip we went to a nearby 7/11 store to get some drinks and snacks for the way. We then took the metro to Shinjuku Station to take the express bus to Fujikawaguchiko. Before getting the tickets we bought some medicine since our throats were hurting due to the air-conditioned hotel air. In a small alley besides the train stations were Gashapon (Gacha Machines). I spent 100 yen to get one. I opened it and it was a small pomegranate juice bottle. When looking for the bus tickets we were informed that the bus tickets were sold out. We had to buy train tickets instead. Therefore we changed our plan and went directly to the Chureito pagoda.
We arrived at a small village called Fujiyoshida. Several tourists left the train together with us. It was cloudy and also quite windy. We followed the trail of tourists along some small street over the train tracks towards a small hill. At the start of the hill we were greeted by a Torii gate. There was some food truck and a small temple with a bell that can be rung for granting wishes. Left of the temple were some stalls the sold lucky charms. We bought some and then followed the stairs up the hill.
It took us maybe 5 minutes to reach the platform with the pagoda. From there we already took some pictures with mount Fuji before we walked a little further up to reach the platform where many tourists would take these iconic photos of mount Fuji together with the Chureito pagoda. We were quite lucky with the weather. Since it was cloudy and windy there weren’t too many tourists but it wasn’t too cloudy thus mount Fuji was perfectly visible.
We walked back to the train station as it got very windy and cold. Around the train station were a few little shops. One shop was selling souvenirs. We walked in front of the store but it seemed to be locked. Suddenly an old man opened the door for us and closed it immediately after we had entered it. The man despite speaking almost no English talked to us a lot in Japanese and showed us some of the souvenirs he was selling. I bought a shirt with mount Fuji on it and my brother bought some small figurine. The man was curious where we were from. We said we are Germans and he then started talking about some German writer that we didn’t know. He also gave us a post card of mount Fuji as a gift and put a stamp on both of the paper bags that were filled with the things we had bought from him. We said goodbye and left his store.
Apart from the Chureito Pagoda there were also three shrines that were just located somewhere in the small city. The first shrine was the most impressive as it looked quite traditional. There was a statue of some monk on the right and on the left some holy spring where people can wash their hands, head and mouth. I took another 360° photo that can be seen below. The second shrine was behind a cemetery. We had to walk besides the cemetery to get there but then realized that we could have taken a shorter way that wouldn’t have passed through the cemetery. The third temple was close by the second one. All temples had statues of monks. After exploring the temple grounds we headed back to the train station.
We had to wait for the train so we went into a Thomas the tank engine themed train that was there for taking pictures and to promote a theme park that was nearby. After boarding the real train we passed by a station with said theme park. A little bit later the train stopped at the Fujikawaguchiko train station. Compared to Chureito pagoda there were way more tourists waiting in line at the bus station in front of the train station. We luckily could walk past by the train station and walk to our hotel which was 30 minutes away by foot. We walked around some smaller roads. It seemed like Fujikawaguchiko is a very rural town with few bigger buildings.
The hotel was a small tower with Super Hotel written in bold letters written on it. The view on mount Fuji was partially blocked by another hotel. We were afraid that we might not see mount Fuji from our hotel window. The lobby looked like any western hotel. On the left was a lounge and behind it a breakfast area. To the left of the lobby was the entrance to the hotel Onsen as well as the elevator to the hotel rooms. Our room was quite the opposite to the room of the hotel in Tokyo. It was quite spacious with a big bathroom. Apart from the Onsen in the basement they also offered a massage service. We rested a bit and then wanted to go out for dinner.
The hotel was directly at a big road with 4 lanes. We walked down these roads to a traditional Hoto restaurant. This street looked very different from the rural road we took to the hotel. There were many small buildings surrounded by big parking spots which gave off the vibe of an American rural town with the big difference that you could always see mount Fuji in the distance. The restaurant itself was quite pretty. It had a wooden facade and a working water wheel. At the entrance we had to take off our shoes and then write our name in the customer book. The customers were called by their name by the waiter and then were guided to a table. There were two types of tables. Simple small tables with cushions as seats and tables with a lower inset in the ground such that you could sit comfortably under the small table. We were given the chance to choose and I chose the second option. We ordered the Hoto which is a pumpkin soup with thick noodles. We also ordered some other small side dishes. While eating a Chinese couple sat down to our left of the same table. I saw the man looking for something. I asked him in Chinese if he was looking for chopsticks and pointed at them. He nodded and took two sets of chopsticks. A few seconds later he looked very surprised at me as it must have taken him a bit to realize that a foreigner spoke Chinese with him. His wife asked me where I learned it and where we are from. I learned that they are from Fujian. We continued eating. At some point the couple got up to pay. I asked the man if we have to pay at the counter. He said yes and followed up by the question if his wife is beautiful. A bit surprises by the question i said yes and continued by addressing the man as 帅哥 (shuaige - handsome brother). The man started laughing out loud and they continued going towards the counter. After we had finished our dinner we did the same and then went back to the hotel.
We made it in time for grabbing free drinks in the lounge which was limited from 6 to 8 pm. After having two drinks we went to our room to get ready for the Onsen. We had to strip naked and wear a long pajama and carry a towel to the Onsen. The Onsen was separated by gender where the female entry was protected by a pin code. We went into our area and then started with the procedure. First we had to take off the slippers and pajama and put it into a locker. Next we had to wash every crevice of our body including the hair with shampoo and body wash. I saw that other men would occasionally fill a pod with water and pour it over their body. After intensive cleaning we were ready for the Onsen. The water was around 40°C and was infused by some minerals that have it a herbal smell. I slowly moved into the Onsen and then lay down with only my head being afloat. It was recommended to drink a lot before and after the Onsen since it was dehydrating the body. I put my head on the edge of the Onsen and looked at the roof where you could see the caustic pattern created by the water. After 10 minutes we left the Onsen and followed it up by a good wash. We then dried the hair and got ready for bed.
Day 5 - Round trip in Fujikawaguchiko#
We got up at 7 am. I was still very sleepy because I couldn’t fall asleep fast enough. We got ready and had dinner in the dining room of the hotel. We then went back to our hotel room and packed our luggage to send it to Kyoto. A luggage delivery shop was not that far from our hotel. We walked to their office and gave them our luggage. The woman in the store had a small device that allowed for a two way translation using TTS (text-to-speech) which helped a lot with the communication.
On the opposite side of the road was a French sounding dessert shop. I bought a waffle, some cake and rice cake on a stick dipped in some sweet sauce. From there we walked to the bus station.
The area around the train station was crowded with tourists. We bought two round-tickets where we could ride the red, green and blue bus lines. We first took the green line towards the Wind Cave. The ride took us around half an hour. The cave itself wasn’t that impressive, but pretty cold. From there we walked through a forest to the Ice Cave. The forest was quite unique as it grew on lava stone. This forest is infamous for that amount of people that go there to end their lives. We fortunately didn’t see anything unusual and arrived at the Ice Cave 30 minutes later.
Apart from some human made stacked ice blocks and some ice stalactites it wasn’t that impressive either. The exit lead directly into a shop with souvenirs and some food and drinks. From there we intended to see some waterfalls. However we wouldn’t be able to take the last bus back and the next bus back to the station would take another 1.5 hours to arrive. Therefore we asked the guy at the ticket booth of the ice cave to call us a taxi.
The taxi picked us up 15 minutes later and we asked the driver to drive us to the lake Kawaguchi panoramic ropeway station. From the we took the ropeway up to the top of a small mountain from where we could look down onto the lake. Mount Fuji was also supposed to be visible however because it was cloudy we couldn’t see mount Fuji. Before we descended again a man from near Washington D.C. approached us and we talked a bit. He had distant German ancestors and knew some phrases in German. We then took the ropeway down together before we parted ways.
Near the entrance of the ropeway was a stop of the red bus line. We took the bus that just arrived at that same moment towards the Itchiku Kubota Art Museum. The museum looked very impressive on the internet, it had a big outdoor park with a big old entrance. Unfortunately for us it was closed on Wednesdays so we could only take photos from the outside.
A little disappointed we made our way to Oishi park. It wasn’t too far and we were able to talk nearby lake Kawaguchi. The Oishi park consisted of a nice garden and a small building that sold some souvenirs. I took some photos from the Oishi park towards Fuji however the tip of Fuji was still obstructed by clouds.
We took the red line again back to Kawaguchi station and walked into a tempura restaurant not too far from there. The food was fine. The ramen I ordered was serviceable and the tempura were quite delicious.
We walked home and inspected the Hard Off store which is a second hand store for all kinds of things ranging from cameras over games to furniture and clothes. However we couldn’t reside there for long since the store was about to close when we arrived there. So we took a quick stroll and then went back to the hotel lounge to get some free drinks.
This time I only took a shower while my brother went into the Onsen again. I spent some time resting before we slept.
Day 6 - Trip to Kyoto#
We had some breakfast in the morning and then went back to the hotel room to get ready to check out. Before we left Fujikawaguchiko we went to the Bell shopping mall. At that time it was quite empty. We explored all three floors and bought some small stuff in a 100 Yen store inside the shopping mall. Around 10:30 am we went to the Hard Off store again since we didn’t have much time the day before. This store was indeed very big and had many old electronic devices like tape players, old cameras, small laptops, electric guitars and old game consoles. For the very cheap devices the store gave no guarantees if the devices are still working as they were unchecked second hand products.
Next we made our way to the bus station. There we took an express bus to Mishima which is located south of mount Fuji with a connection to the Skinkansen. There we bought tickets for the Shinkansen to Kyoto. We had to wait for the train for around an hour so we walked around the train station to kill some time.
We arrived in Kyoto after around 2 hours. We exited the train station from the east exit and decides to stroll through the small side streets even though our hotel was at one of the main streets. This is because these small side streets are quite unique as they are intertwined with some shrines in between and you also see mostly small buildings. Most of these smalls streets are one-way streets which makes Kyoto not so attractive to traverse by car. But that’s fine since its a quite compact city that also offers busses and a metro.
The hotel was even more impressive than the Super Hotel in Fujikawaguchiko. The lobby was big an had a dining area and an area with cushions and a DJ table for drinks and custom music every evening. There were two options for check-in, one via a card and one via face check-in. We chose the normal check-in as we didn’t know how reliable face check-in would work as it would also be required for the elevator and room. The hotel room was also a bit bigger than the previous room, however the view from the window wasn’t as good. Apart from a big lobby did the hotel also offer a sauna and an Onsen. Each day one was reserved for only men and the other only for women and these would switch every day.
We then walked around our area until we found a nice looking small restaurant. One group of customers were there and they were about to leave. We sat at the counter, looked at the pictures of the menu and tried to translate some of the options. We finally ordered something and then waited for the food. A Taiwanese couple entered the restaurant and sat down next to us. They seemed a bit overwhelmed with the menu so i talked with them a bit in Chinese to help them. They were a bit surprised but happy with the help. Later on two more groups would enter, all foreigners. The old couple that ran the restaurant couldn’t speak English but it was still possible to somewhat communicate with them.
With a full stomach we walked over the small creek to a traditional area in Kyoto. There were many shops and the main attraction which is the Yasaka pagoda. What this area makes really special are the Geishas or Geiko called in the local dialect. It was fairly empty when we walked towards the pagoda. Though there were still enough tourists such that we tried to find the right time frame where no tourist would be on the photo of the pagoda. However even after staying there for 20 minutes we couldn’t find the right timing where no tourists would be in frame. So eventually we gave up and continued our stroll through the traditional district. We walked through an area that was almost empty. We didn’t really know what to think of it this time since there were many buildings but they didn’t seem like restaurants. Eventually we walked back home to rest.
On the way back we stumbled upon a cool shrine that was completely empty, therefore I took another 360° image which is probably my favorite one among all 360° images I took during my trip.
Day 7 - Busy day in Arashiyama#
We got up at 6 am and got ready. We went to a bus station and then transferred to a train that took us to Arashiyama. From there we walked a little bit and arrived at our first spot, a small bamboo forest. When we arrived there it was around 8 am and there were already some tourists walking around the bamboo forest and took pictures. The forest wasn’t as impressive as depicted online because we could only walk around the designated paths and there were too many tourists walking around. Near the end of the forest we saw some sort of temple that wasn’t open yet. We decided that we would come back for it later.
The end of the bamboo forest connected to a park where we sat down on a bench and took a short rest. We then walked up a hill and enjoyed the nice view. We could even see the train tracks from the romantic train that we wanted to take later.
We then went back for the Tenryu-ji temple that we’ve seen before. We only visited the garden, for the villa we would have had to pay extra. As we could see the inside of the villa as it was open, we decides not to enter it.
We then walked towards the Arashiyama Monkey Park. We entered a full touristy street. We followed the general trail to the mountain. We walked uphill for 5 minutes until we saw the first monkeys. Interestingly they were not interested in humans but rather in themselves or food. People had to go inside a small house and feed them from inside out through a window with bars.
After descending the mountain we went to a plaza near the mountain and found a small restaurant there. We first checked out the other restaurants but they were quite expensive.
We walked back to the train station. From there we could book a ticket for the romantic train. We sat on the right side which was quite neat since most of the time we had the river to our right. We got off at the last station and transitioned there to the JR line that took us back to the city center of Kyoto.
We then visited Higashi Honganji Temple. Its architecture was really impressive. The building burned down and people from another city tried to bring a huge tree for the reconstruction but unfortunately had an accident when a avalanche hit them. We had to take our shoes off before entering the temple. We sat down and listened to the prayers of an old man for a while.
We came back to the hotel to wash our clothes in the washing room in the basement. We then planned to go to the fish market. However we passed by a hairdresser and i wanted to cut my hair there. It took a while and even though the older hair dresser couldn’t speak English he cut my hair to my liking. As we didn’t have enough time for the fish market we quickly went to a nearby cafe and then had to go back to get our clothes out of the washing and drying machines.
We came back to the hotel. Our clothes were still a bit wet so we let them dry for another half an hour. In the meantime we sat down in the hotel lobby and had another cafe while waiting for our clothes.
We then went to Gion to find some dinner. The small streets were bustling with life. A lot of tourists were roaming the small streets. Many restaurants were already full by that time. We spent what felt like an hour until we decided on a fancy looking sushi place. The sushi was fine but a bit expensive and the waiters seemed a bit distant such that we didn’t really enjoy the stay there and left quickly after finishing our dinner. We had spent around 13.000¥ on the few sushi we had felt fairly expensive. We then walked home and went to bed.
Day 8 - Inari shrine and Geiko tour#
We had to get up early again and took a bus and train to the Inari Shrine. There was a big crowd of people, amongst them many school excursions. The Inari shrine has around 10,000 Torii gates leading up to the top. Most tourists probably left after the first 100 Torii gates. Still a hand full of people climbed further up the hill. In between climbing stairs were platforms with shops. Most sold souvenirs and drinks and some also sold food and ice cream. At these platforms were sometimes shrines with fox statues and small Torii gates that were placed on or around stones. We weren’t sure if they are grave stones or just some form of wishes or spells.
There was an old Japanese couple that we’ve seen around three times while ascending. Despite their age they were still quite active. They even greeted us once when they saw us around a shrine.
It probably took us 45 minutes to reach the top. It was quite hot that day and we were sweating a bit. The descend was actually more relaxing as we took another path that lead to an exit that’s different from where we have started the ascend thus there were only few people that came past by us. Probably around the half way mark did we walk behind another old Japanese couple. The man used walking sticks and walked in front of his wife when his walking stick suddenly got stuck and he started falling backwards taking his wife with him. My brother was luckily directly behind the wife and could stop her from falling on the ground and in turn also stopped the man’s falls. I helped the man up while my brother helped his wife up. They apologized to us but probably were happy that we were there in the right moment.
When reaching the foot of the Inari mountain I treated myself some Macha ice cream. However it was a bit less sweet to the one I’m used to from Germany. It was still tasty nevertheless and I finished it quickly as it started to melt.
The next destination was the Sanjūsangen-dō temple. While the temple itself looked similar to other temples we had seen so far, it was what was in the temple that was super impressive. A long hall hosted 1001 life-sized statues of the god Kannon each of the statues looking distinct from the others. In addition there were also more statues of other gods as well.
From there we walked uphill along some traditional looking street (called Asahizaka) and encountered many people wearing traditional clothes. In one of these streets we found a small restaurant. It was almost empty when we entered it. I wasn’t too hungry so I only ordered some rice with meat. The dish was quite delicious and also cheap.
We then continued further to a nearby Kiyomizu temple that was also very crowded with tourists and school classes. The temple consisted of different areas with some pagoda and some nice view onto Kyoto.
From there we were already close to Gion, so we decided to walk back to the hotel. When we arrived we were a bit exhausted and took a nap.
After the nap we got ready for the guided Geisha tour we had booked. We didn’t have that much time to get ready and eat. However we were a bit hungry, so we decided to eat dinner in our hotel. They offered a Wagyu burger which we both ordered. The burger was nothing special but fairly expensive compared to other meals we had the days before. But of course not as expensive as the sushi we had the day prior.
We went to Gion. The meeting point was next to a statue of a woman in a traditional dress holding a sword. A jazz street band was playing some cool songs next to it. Our tour guide was an Indonesian girl that studied in Kyoto.
She started by talking about the woman depicted by the statue. This woman was called Okuni from the Izumo province and she invented Kabuki and performed it in a public place for free. When the government forbid Kabuki, it transformed into an only man Kabuki until that was also forbidden and some time later transformed again into the Kabuki that is still performed today. After Kabuki was forbidden for women Okuni then became the first Geisha or Geiko how they are called into Kyoto dialect. Geishas are entertainers that have to learn how to sing, play instruments, play games and generally be interesting entertainer. In the past only women from Kyoto could become Geishas but nowadays any Japanese women can become Geisha but they have to learn the Kyoto dialect. Before becoming a Geisha, girls start as a Meiko which are apprentices and usually quite young. You can differentiate Meiko and Geiko by their appearance. Meiko wear more colorful clothes and have their hair styles in some floral pattern. Geiko wear more matte clothes and usually wear a wig to hide the loosing hair. Also their clothes are matte as they don’t need to rely on the appearance but rather on their skills. Both perform either in tea shops for private guests that have to get an invitation to attend a Geisha show or they sometimes do bigger performances for a bigger audience.
We then walked to a street where Geishas can usually be spotted. We were lucky and actually saw a Meiko quickly walking down the road. Because they are sometimes photographed or chases they usually either walk fast or sometimes take a taxi to the boarding home where they sleep. Therefore our tour guide asked us not to take photos of Meiko and Geiko. We then walked into a different street where the most famous teahouse — Ichiriki Chaya — was located. We didn’t see any Geishas there but we saw a delivery guy entering the building meaning that a Geisha show was going on there since these tea houses offer no kitchen and food is usually ordered elsewhere. We then walked to a shrine and on the way we saw three Geishas waiting on the other side of the crossing. At the shrine where many lantern with writings on it. Funnily enough these were no blessings nor any spiritual texts but rather the names of companies that sponsored the restauration of the temple. From there we walked back to the statue which was our meeting point which concluded the tour.
As we were already in Gion we wanted to have some dinner there. After walking around again for a while we found some Izakaya. We sat down at the bar and ordered some skewers and also some beer. We saw that the guys left to us shared some rice bowl, so we ordered that one as well, however our rice bowl looked different. We weren’t sure what they had ordered as we couldn’t find it on the menu. After a while a group of drunk Japanese folks showed up and sat down in the second floor. As it was a bit too much for the two people working in the Izakaya they must have called another girl to help out as she suddenly appeared and started to help the other two waiters. After eating some more skewers and beer we went home to take a rest.
Day 9 - Kyoto imperial palace and garden#
We found a nice and cheap breakfast restaurant near the hotel that offered many small dishes. There were quite some people but it wasn’t full yet. In some cases i didn’t know what I was eating but all in all it was quite delicious.
We then took the metro to the Kyoto Imperial Palace. The castle itself was surrounded by a big park. Several people did some picnic other kids played baseball. When we went into the imperial palace there were quite a few tourists relaxing in some meeting room for group tours. We just refilled some drinks and then walked through the imperial palace. None of the buildings could be entered. Thus apart from the architecture and the garden there wasn’t too much to see.
We then left the imperial palace and garden and split up. While I went back to the hotel to relax, my brother went on a hike to visit some temples that were outside the city center.
We then reunited for dinner. We met again at the statue of Okuni where our Geisha tour had started. From there we wanted to visit a Gyukatsu restaurant in Gion. When we arrived at the restaurant a waiter told us that they were already full and we had to wait for a long time. A couple consisting of a German guy and Japanese girl had heard that and the girl told us that there is a similar restaurant not to far from there. They took us there then left for another Sushi restaurant. While we were walking to that place the German guy told me that he moved to Japan after high school and had taken a language class before studying in a Japanese university before he eventually started working in Japan. We still had to wait in a queue but we at least managed to eat some Gyukatsu that night. However we couldn’t get any refill as they already wanted to close shortly after we had finished eating.
Day 10 - Trip to Osaka#
In order to save time we got the breakfast in our hotel before we checked out. We then asked the hotel personnel to send our luggage to Osaka such that it would be easier for us to travel there.
We then took the bus to the Minamiza Theatre where we watched the show Kabuki for Beginners. Kabuki is an old form of theater where only men would play the role of male and also female characters. They are accompanied by some men playing instruments and chanting what currently happens on stage. This show in particular was split into parts. The first 50 minutes long part was moderated by a Takarazuka Revue actress 桜花昇ぼる (Ōka Noboru) and the Kabuki actor 片岡千壽 (Kataoka Sen Hisashi) explained the origin of Kabuki which originates from Okuni as already mentioned before during the guided Geisha tour. The second 20 minutes long part was an excerpt from a Kabuki piece about a talented artist who fell in love with a Oiran (a high-ranking courtesan) and built a doll that looks like her. This doll comes to life and first acts like a man since it inherits the soul of the artist, but when given a piece of the Oiran starts acting more female.
The first part was pretty interesting as the actors explained how they appear more female and they also showed the musicians that make the sound effects using a Taiko drum for the rain and water sounds as well as using sticks to imitate the sound that wooden shoes make while walking. Noboru also explained the difference between Kabuki and Takarazuka Revue which is an all-female theater. For a more detailed explanation check out the video that seems to be quite similar to the show we had watched.
We then went to the Kyoto train station and got tickets to Osaka at the JR info station. We still had some time so we walked through the Kyoto train station. It was huge with multiple levels. We went downstairs and found a floor with mostly food stalls. We bought some bread and donuts for our trip. We then boarded the Limited Express to Himeji via Osaka. The trip was relaxing and we eventually arrived at Osaka station. This station was even bigger than Kyoto station. But we didn’t stay there for long and instead took the metro to a station near Dotonbori. We arrived at our hotel and it was very small compared to the ones we had the days before. It might have been even smaller than the hotel in Tokyo. We just dropped our bags and then went out as we wanted to meet up with my friend Natsumi for dinner.
Dotonbori is a crazy and colorful place. Once we arrived in Osaka the people looked quite different from the people in Kyoto. Many had their hair colored and they wore colorful and sensational clothes. We agreed to meet with Natsumi at a BBQ restaurant and waited there for her. We had dinner together and talked a lot. Next Natsumi showed us around the huge shopping district consisting of many roads with lots of people. We bought some souvenirs and looked into some clothing and hat stores. Natsumi gave me some beauty products for me and some friends in Germany.
At some point we said our goodbye. We then went to an Izakaya and had some skewers and beer. Afterwards we went to a bar that offered videogames while drinking. There I met a teacher from the US that was living outside of Osaka and came here to relax. When he left I talked with one of the owners which was a cool guy from Den Haag. After two beer we wanted to move on. We saw that this videogame bar had a flier from a karaoke bar. We decided to go there as it wasn’t that far. There we had a couple more beers. It became quite crowded after a while. We met a cool guy from the US that is a writer for games and TV shows and also a pilot that grew up not to far from my hometown which was crazy. He now lives in Thailand and came to Japan to travel. After several beer we decided to go home and fell asleep rather quickly.
Day 11 - Exploring Dotonbori and Umeda Sky#
We woke up early but were quite exhausted from the drinking the day before. It was tough for me to get out of bed but it was a good idea to get some food for a faster recovery. We went out and first wanted to have ramen in a nearby restaurant. However the restaurant was dark and empty. Instead we found another ramen restaurant around Dotonbori.
It was very rainy. Funnily enough, a lot of people had the same transparent umbrellas we just bought in the morning from 7/11. We walked around the many shops in this area and got some souvenirs. We saw a very big Don Quijote mall that had this London-Eye revolving carts at it’s front facade. We explored most floors, they were all very packed with products and also with people. I found a Totoro themed pencil but when I saw the super long queue at the checkout I decided not to buy it. We left the mall.
We walked around some more and ate some ramen around the Dotonbori area. After eating dinner we ended up back at the hotel.
I slept for around 3 hours as I still was quick knackered. When I woke up my brother was outside shopping for a shirt. We eventually got ready to go to Umeda district. There we had bought tickets for Umeda Sky, similar to Shibuya Sky in Tokyo however this time we wanted to take pictures at night. We arrived at the Umeda station that was also an incredibly big multi-leveled shopping mall.
But before heading to Umeda Sky I wanted to check out the Nintendo store that was also in the Umeda station. The Nintendo store was in the 13th floor. It was quite crowded, many fans were exploring the merch that was offered there. I got some souvenirs there and we also checked out the other stores of Capcom and the Pokémon company that were on the same floor. Finally we left the station.
From there we navigated our way around the train station past by other skyscrapers towards the Umeda Sky building. The building hosted several stores including a multi-leveled cinema.
To get to the right elevator we first had to get to the 3rd floor and then walk down some hallway to reach the elevator to the top. Of course we first went to the 4th floor before we realized that we had to go down one floor again. After leaving the elevator we had to take escalators to went from one building to another with nothing beneath. We arrived in some kind of torus like lobby with seats on all the big windows. We were only allowed to sit on the seats when we had bought something from the cafe in that lobby. We got some Oreo flavored waffles on sticks sat at the window and took some photos.
Next we walked one more level up. Now we were in an outdoor area with a great view on the city. The floor was covered into small dots that would shimmer because of the black lights that were all around. We took one round around the circle and took pictures of the impressive view. It was a little cold due to some mild wind so we went back down.
When we reached the ground floor we saw a sign that talked of traditional Restaurants in the basement floor. Indeed this area was pretty awesome it looked like an outdoor area of small streets with old restaurants. We left the building through a door into some garden. The garden was close to a fancy lounge and we finally reached the streets where we then went straight to the metro station and went back to the hotel.
The hotel wasn’t that great, compared to the past two hotels the one in Osaka was fairly small and had no access to an Onsen. We also were a bit fatigued by our fully packed days. We discussed some options on what we wanna do for the remaining days. We wanted to spend the second part of the vacation more loosely with less planed activities. We first talked about going to Okinawa for a few days thus skipping Nara and Kanazawa. However the hotels for Kanazawa and Tokyo weren’t refundable anymore. Then we considered leaving Osaka early, skipping Nara and going straight to Kanazawa on the next day. Since we would arrive early we booked a good hotel with an Onsen for two nights before we would move to the Ryokan hotel. After having agreed on this plan we got to bed.
Day 12 - Trip via Nara to Kanazawa#
The day before we discussed about going to Kanazawa early because we were a bit exhausted from the packed trip so far and our hotel wasn’t that good. We were a bit spoiled by the hotels in Fujikawaguchiko and Kyoto. We therefore packed our suitcases to send them to Kanazawa. The day before we first thought of going directly to Kanazawa, however Nara might be a unique experience. Thus we decided to take a detour and took a short stroll through Nara before heading to Kanazawa via Kyoto.
We checked out the hotel and the receptionist was a bit confused. She showed us the booking information with the checkout date two days later. We told her that we had change of plans and wanna check out early. She understood and took our door cards. We said goodbye and left. We took our luggage to the next Toyama transport shop and let the worker there fill out our transport forms. The luggage was supposed to arrive the day after.
Next we searched a while for a restaurant to have breakfast. We walked through some small side roads in Dotonbori and finally found a ramen restaurant. It’s the first place while being in Japan that offered fried rice. I ordered a big portion or ramen together with a big bowl of fried rice. We were more than full afterwards.
After our brunch we headed to the metro and took the train to Nara. The train was the prettiest themed train I’ve seen here so far. Each wagon has a different color scheme and all carts depicted deer and anime girls. Even the handles for standing passengers are deer themed.
It took us around 50 minutes to arrive in Nara. After leaving the train station there were already trails of people including many school classes going along the main road and after only a few minutes a park appeared on the right. At the entrance of the park was already some guy selling snacks for the deer. There were many deer surrounding the snack stall. Many tourists were standing in the park and taking pictures with the deer. What’s unique about these deer is that they were taught to lower their head as a greeting or sign of respect in order to get the snack. Of course some are better at it than others and some don’t wanna do it at all. One naughty deer bite into my brothers pocket when he didn’t immediately gave the deer the deer snack. Though I took some nice photos where both of us are nodding our heads.
We passed by a shop where I bought some souvenirs. When we wanted to leave the shop some deer already decided to lay in front of the store.
From there we walked along the park and arrived at another park that was almost completely on a hill. We walked the hill up almost completely to get a good view of Nara.
We left the park and continued the path towards the big Buddha shrine. This Buddha is really huge and the building is one of the highest built wooden buildings. The Buddha statue was created by casting iron into a huge mold. We walked around the Buddha statue, I bought a book about the temple and the Buddha statue and then left the temple again. From there we made our way back to the train station.
We took a regional train to Kyoto which took us about 45 minutes and from there we bought a ticket for the connection from Kyoto via Tsuruga to Kanazawa. On our platform was finally a bento box store but we were still quite full from the big brunch. We arrived at Kanazawa around 6:30 pm. The sun was already settling down and some buildings appeared to be golden due to the reflection of the light.
We exited the train station through the main exit and saw the big gate which Kanazawa is famous for. There was a funny sign behind the gate that used small water fountains to display text or the time. We wanted to go to Shirakawa-go the next day which was outside of Kanazawa. There was a ticketing office near the train station where we bought bus tickets for the next morning. From there we walked for around 15 minutes to our hotel. The hotel was pretty fancy again with a café in the lobby. The rooms were quite big however this time we only had bath tubs but no proper shower. We rested a bit before we decided to go out.
Not too far from the hotel was a nice small restaurant that had bar seats at the counter and then two areas with wooden floors and several short tables. We sat at one of these short tables. We had to take our shoes off before going on the wooden floor which was a bit higher than the ground. The food was quite good. There were quite a few foreigners in the restaurant
We walked back and rested some more. Then we went into the Onsen. This hotel offered an Onsen that included an indoor but also an outdoor area with no roof. However we didn’t see any stars while relaxing in the hot water. Afterwards we rested since we had to get up early the next day.
Day 13 - Day trip to Shirakawa-go#
The day before we had booked two way bus tickets to and from Shirakawa-go, an old traditional village that is a popular sightseeing spot among tourists. We got ready early in the morning and first went to Omicho market. This market consisted of several streets that were selling fresh sea food for either take away or to eat there in some of the small restaurants. Apart from sea food they also sold all kinds of food like vegetables and fruits as well as ice cream and seasoning. We arrived there quite early so many stores were still closed or shop owners just started to open their shops. We had some honey melon at a fruit stall and then explored the area. We found a restaurant that sold Sashimi rice bowls however it wasn’t open yet so we decided to explore Kanazawa castle and the nearby garden first before coming back for lunch.
Thus we started walking towards Kanazawa castle. We went through a small park towards Kanazawa castle. There we only entered a small museum that talked about one of the gates of the castle.
We left the castle through a different exit and soon after came to Kenrokuen Garden. Many tourists walked around there. We walked through the garden and were looking for the trees that were supported by ropes. When we couldn’t find them we studied our map again and read that these ropes are only used during the winter season to support the trees in case of heavy snow. Other interesting spots apart from these trees were a small plum tree area and a waterfall that we also visited.
By now the restaurant was open so we went back to Omicho market and had our brunch there. The food was delicious but we didn’t have too much time. Thus we walked back to the hotel to get ready for the trip to Shirakawa-go.
We went back to the train station after a short refresher. On the other exit of the train station was a bus terminal. There we waited for our bus that arrived around 10 minutes later. The bus ride took over an hour. We passed by smaller towns with rice fields. I sometimes saw small cemeteries near these rice fields which seemed an odd placement to me but maybe there is a reason for them to be placed there. We finally arrived at Shirakawa-go. The first thing we did was to climb up a small hill to take pictures of the whole village. We then walked a different path down directly into the city.
Some of the houses were inhabited by locals but others were turned into museums, restaurants or souvenir shops. We tried to take some paths with fewer tourists and then visited on the many houses that were turned into museums. The house had 3 floors where the floors 2 and 3 were filled with tools that were used to produce silk or to walk on snow.
We then tried to look for somewhere to eat. Unfortunately for us many shops started to close. Maybe because it was already late afternoon or because they close early on Wednesdays, we are not sure. We then had some ice cream at an small ice cream store. Other Cafés and museums also started to close. We realized that we had picked the wrong time slots to go there. We walked to another area which was designated as a big museum consisting of several buildings. When we arrived there it was also closed. We still had almost 2 hours left before our bus would come but there was basically nothing to do anymore. By now almost all shops had closed. We tried to go back to the bus Station and book an earlier bus, however the woman at the counter said the next buses were already booked out. Then she closed the bus ticket counter. It seemed like we had to wait at the bus stop for almost 2 hours for our bus. But then suddenly the bus driver of the bus that was currently waiting at the bus stop said that the bus still had seats left. We were pretty happy that we didn’t have to wait for another 1.5 hours by then.
When we came back to the train station in Kanazawa we went to a nearby building called Cross Gate that was filled with restaurants and a fancy hotel on the top floor. The building itself looked also super fancy but several restaurants seemed to be empty. We went into a Gyukatsu restaurant and were the only guests there at first. Later a Japanese woman and an English couple also entered the restaurant. The food was good and fairly cheap.
We returned to the hotel with a full stomach and then relaxed that evening. We still had to wash our clothes. There were only three washing machines. When I went to the washing room all were occupied so I had to wait for an hour but then managed to wash my clothes. Around 1:30 am I finally got get my clothes out of the washing machine and then tried to sleep.
Day 14 - Roaming around Kanazawa#
We slept long and then checked out around 11 am. We then brought our luggage to the nearest Toyama transport store which happened to be near Omicho market. We then sent our luggage to the hotel in Tokyo. As we were already close to Omicho market, we walked over the market and had our breakfast in one of the shops. It was a rice bowl mixed with different kinds of seafood. For dessert we bought some mochi from one store and a milkshake from another.
There was a big mall next to Omicho market. We checked out all 9 floors when the weather started to change and it began raining. We planned to visit the Maeda clan and Geisha quarters but due to heavy rain the weather had become very cold.
We went to a nearby western cafe as there were no signs for the rain to stop and stayed there until 2 pm. The café was mostly filled with foreigners. The owners of the shop seemed to be an American Japanese couple that had been living in Japan for several years already. I had an espresso with vanilla ice-cream and a chocolate cake which both were delicious.
As the weather hadn’t gotten better we decided to check into the Ryokan. We took the bus there and walked for 10 minutes. The Ryokan was quite big. There were different rooms for multiple guests and there were two Onsen for men and women respectively. The entrance hall was a bit messy but it had some charm. We were greeted by the owner and also by a small but very loud dog. The owner gave us some info on what activities are nearby and showed us our room. The room was big enough but it was a bit cold due to the cold weather. We stayed there for the afternoon as we couldn’t do anything due to the strong rain.
The rain stopped around 7 pm. We went out to a nearby Shabu Shabu restaurant. The experience was quite fun. Our waitress was very kind and took her time to explain everything. She helped us with ordering and using the pot as well as mixing the sauce. There were some robots driving around serving dishes which was odd to watch. Though sometimes they wouldn’t leave if some remains were still on their plates. In the end we spend around 13.000¥ for eating and drinking all we could within 100 minutes.
We then went back to the Ryokan and then went into the Onsen which was nice and warm. At that time no one was in the Onsen which was pretty neat. I suspected, that no one except for us was staying in the Ryokan at that day. After relaxing in the warm water, we went in our room and then slept on the special beds on the ground.
Day 15 - Coming back to Tokyo#
I got up around 9 am and did a short Onsen session before getting ready to check out. We just gave the owner the key to our room and then left. Our initial plan was to go to a beach nearby Kanazawa. We missed the first bus and waited for the next one. However it was already 10 minutes due when we decided not to go there and instead went to Kanazawa station.
We went again to the Cross Gate building with the many restaurants — that we had been to after coming back from Shirakawa-go — near the train station and looked for somewhere to have breakfast. The area with the restaurants was still closed but was about to open at 11 am. We waited a little bit in a park in the 3rd floor of the same building until it was 11 am. We passed by all restaurants on the second floor and then decided to have some tempura rice bowls. The bowl was served with a miso soup. I hadn’t been that hungry before so I was quite full after the meal.
We walked back to the station which was close to the Cross Gate building and bought tickets for the Shinkansen to Tokyo. We still had almost an hour to spare before taking the Shinkansen and thus set down in a café and had some dessert and coffee
We looked around at some clothing stores and eventually went to the platform. We took the faster Shinkansen that takes around 2 hours from Kanazawa to Tokyo. At the Tokyo station we took another train to Hamamatsucho where our hotel was located. The hotel was also fairly small but luckily not as small as the first hotel we had in Tokyo. It also had a proper rain drop shower this time.
We relaxed a bit but then headed back to the Tokyo station to meet up with my cousin, his girlfried and his colleague. They had just attended the ICRA in Yokohama which is a bigger conference on robotics and automation. It was the last day of the conference and they had gone to Tokyo’s center to stroll around. They had picked a vegetarian ramen shop were we wanted to meet up. We were lucky as there was no queue in front of the shop. Though we had to wait a bit before they had a table for 5 people. We exchanged our experiences about Japan we had thus far. They had planned to go to Kyoto the next day so they didn’t have much time to explore Tokyo. It was quite funny to meet my cousin there as I haven’t seen him in over a year and in all the places we could have met, we met in Japan. Life is strange sometimes.
After we had said bye to them we took the Metro to Shinjuku to explore it further as last time we didn’t have much time after our guided tour. When leaving the station we saw a big arcade building which we entered. We looked at the different games they offered and played a round of Street Fighter IV against some other player there.
From there we went to Memory Lane and sat down in an Izakaya since one of the guests there, an old Japanese lady said that two of the seats were available. It was fun. We set beside two Korean friends that traveled together. The girl studied biomedicine while the guy worked as a project manager in the IT sector. After some beer, highball and skewers we left Memory line to the Tokyu Kabukicho Tower. From there we tried to find Golden Gai. My brother had read about a particular bar that was supposed to be nice. We went up the stairs but since it was a small bar we had to stand for the first few minutes. The waitress there turned out to be from a small village in Korea and the girl behind the bar was from Hokkaido. After a while we could sit beside two guys from Palestine, one of them grew up in Berlin and still spoke some German. At some point I heard that one of the other people there was from Denmark. I told him that I’m going to attend a conference in Odense soon and we talked a little. He was doing a gap year before studying political studies. It already got quite late. We had to leave to catch the last metro connection. All in all it was a fun experience. We took the metro back home and got some snacks at a 7/11 before entering our hotel. We sat in the lobby to eat our snacks and then eventually got back in our room where we fell asleep soon after.
Day 16 - Shopping in Harajuku#
I got up around 10 am as I didn’t sleep well the night before. My brother already went out to Shibuya to go shopping. I got ready and walked around the area near our hotel. I walked into a Conbini and bought some Onigiri and some sweet bread as well as a coffee. I found a small park near some mall and set down to eat the food I just bought.
By then I got a message from my brother that he was about to go to Harajuku which was directly next to Shibuya. We agreed to meet there thus I took the Yamanote line to the Harajuku station. We met up there and then walked into a busy street with lots of shops. We walked into various clothing shops and I bought myself a shirt there. The shops there were ranging from second hand to branded clothes. Curiously there were also a lot of hat shops.
The street wasn’t that long but due to the concentration of shops that were sometimes distributed over different floors of a building and the sheer mass of people, it took us probably over an hour to traverse it. From there we got into an even bigger street with mostly expensive brands. We decided to have some coffee in a café situated in a smaller street nearby. There we were planning our next steps.
We passed by a UNIQLO and decided to check it out. The store had around seven or eight floors. Compared to the crazy shirts we’ve seen in Harajuku these shirts were quite basic. We went up to the second to last floor. There was one more floor where we couldn’t understand what exactly was sold there. Our curiosity got the best of us and we also checked out the last floor. This turned out to be a good decision as this floor had shirts from popular anime and games and in general had cooler designs than the shirts in the previous floors. As the shirts were also quite cheap I got 4 different shirts there.
We went back to Hamamatsucho to find a Tonkatsu restaurant. The restaurant was full thus we had to wait in front of the restaurant. A group of four Korean girls arrived. They also wanted to eat in the same restaurant. I talked a little with them and they asked us for some food recommendations. As the dishes were all quite similar to each other, except for the type of meat we just suggested them. We were also going to get the same dish. Then it was time for us to take a seat. We were lead through the restaurant into a small separate room at the end of the corridor. The room had a small table where we were sitting as well as a big table for around 6 people that was currently empty. We initially wanted to sit at a table near the entry that was also vacant in order to be closer to other customers but in the end it wasn’t too bad to eat in a quiter environment.
We passed by a Conbini and got some drinks and I bought a funny Mario themed snack. We returned to the hotel and went to bed shortly after.
Day 17 - Colorful Akihabara#
We got up earlier this time and went to a breakfast restaurant not too far from our hotel. My brother already ate there the day prior and wanted to eat there again. We’ve actually eaten in a similar restaurant in Shibuya before we’ve gone to Shibuya Sky. The food was inexpensive and delicious. We paid and left. Directly next to this restaurant was a shop that sold sweets. I got there a fish-shaped pastry filled with red bean paste as dessert.
With a full stomach we took the metro to Akihabara which is the anime and tech district. The district had many high building that consisted mostly of shops that sold figurines, Manga, Pokémon trading cards and other electronics. We first walked into a big building called Akihabara Radiokaikan. This multi-floored shop sold all the aforementioned products. We checked out all floors up to the last one and then went down again.
What was also quite unique for this area were the many girls in maids outfits on the streets that advertised maid cafés in the Akihabara district. As multiple friends had suggested me to check them out we too went into one of the maid cafés. There were four waitresses in maid costumes. One of them showed us our table and said that we have to say Meow Meow in case we want to order. The prices were quite high compared to a normal café. The options on the menu were also quite unique. There was an option to get some alcohol together with a photo of one of the maids holding said drink. There was also an option to take a picture together with a maid. From time to time one of the maids would go on a small stage and sing a song. Once she finished the song she went from table to table to ask the customers if they want to draw a price from a tombola. The table besides us did so and got the forth price which was some small cute pins. I decided to also draw from the tombola just for the fun and to our surprise I got the first price: a photo with all maids together. I felt a bit embarrassed at first but in the end I decided to take the photo and it wasn’t that bad, the maids were all quite nice and we all did some cat pose for the picture. As it was a bit embarrassing I didn’t provide the picture here but just imagine a blond tall guy besides four small Japanese women all of us doing some cat paws while standing on a small stage together. After having taken the photo we finished our coffee and left.
There was a Taito store in the same street. It featured multiple floors of different video games as well as crane games and Gashapon. We found an arcade machine where we could play Street Fighter II. Besides that I also checked out some shops that sold retro games and consoles which were fairly expensive.
We started to get up hungry and found a nice Tonkatsu restaurant. This restaurant finally had some salad sauce otherwise the salad would have been fairly dry. From there we went back to Hamamatsucho to a nice place called Highballer where we had — surprise, surprise — two Highballs. At a sign next to the entrance we saw that there was a place for darts and pool in the floors 2 and 3. We first played some rounds of darts and then a few rounds of pool. In both cases the shop was fairly empty besides us there was only one other person playing darts and one other couple played pool. Nevertheless it had been super fun. We then went home and slept.
Day 18 - Hamamatsucho and Ginza#
My brother was already outside when I got up fairly late. I had a shower and took the elevator downstairs. My brother was sitting downstairs in the hotel lounge. He told me that he just had been to a Conbini to get some water and snacks when he heard some people talking in German behind him. He turned around and suddenly realized that one of the people was actually his colleague. This colleague had also attended the ICRA conference in Yokohama.
My brother already had his breakfast, so I walked around Shinbashi station in search for some restaurants. Many stores there turned out to be Izakaya or weren’t open or quite full. I walked around the neighborhood for a while until I found a big building called Shiodome City Center with lots of restaurants. I entered the building and saw some shared space where people could order there food from any of the restaurants and just sit in some seating area. I was quite hungry and just had some burger with coffee which is quite a weird combination.
My brother was on the way back to Hamamatsucho and we met in the Shiodome City Center from where we then walked back to our hotel. We relaxed a while and then went to Ginza in search for some dinner. My brother had found some nice sushi restaurant online. We walked around an area that almost only consisted of Izakaya. When we eventually had found the restaurant it actually didn’t look that nice. So we tried to find something else in the vicinity. There was some restaurant that offered fish with rice which looked quite inviting. Though we weren’t fully convinced, thus we continued walking down the street and then explored a nearby block. However there were mostly night clubs. So after walking around for already an hour we decided to go back to the restaurant with the fish and rice dishes. When we arrived, there were only a few guests left as the restaurant was about to close in an hour. Luckily we still were able to order.
After dinner we went back to Hamamatsucho. There was a nice park not too far from where we live with a nice view onto Tokyo Tower. It was already quite dark, several Japanese students were sitting on their picnic blankets and were talking and drinking. The gras was a bit wet so we couldn’t sit down. We walked down some stairs and there was another area of the same park that had some benches. We set on a bench near two other Japanese girls that were listening some J-pop songs on their phone. The view onto Tokyo Tower wasn’t that great from there but at least we could rest for a while. We enjoyed the mild temperature that was luckily not too cold. Eventually we decided to go back to the hotel and sleep.
Day 19 - Shopping in Akihabara#
I got up around 10 am and prepared to leave the hotel. My brother went to Harajuku and Shibuya for some shirt he wanted to buy. I went to Akihabara in order to buy some souvenirs for friends and family. I took the Yamanote line again to Akihabara and after around 10 to 15 minutes I was already at the Akihabara station. I was a bit hungry, I saw a nearby restaurant that had a machine where you can order your food and receive some small pieces of paper with the names of the dishes. After selecting the dishes I realized that this machine only accepted credit cards, thus I canceled my order. Besides this machine there was another machine that accepted cash on the other side of the door. Thus I made the same order on the other machine, this time a bit faster as I knew what I wanted. I gave the waiter the pieces of paper with the names of the dishes and after only 5 minutes I already got the meal I ordered. I had some Tonkatsu with egg and a miso soup together with some beer. All of it was quite delicious.
On my way to Akihabara I’ve seen a building with Book OFF in bold letters. I wanted to go there as they had used books and also electronics. I actually wanted to help a friend finding a very specific Manga that was a bit older and wasn’t main stream. I asked the clerk for this Manga but he said that they don’t have it. I nevertheless checked out the other things they had but didn’t find anything interesting.
Next I went to a shop called BEEP which focuses on old Japanese computer games from the 70s and 80s, though they also had old consoles and console games. To reach the store I had to walk down the stairs and into a small but charming store. I just looked around and since I also didn’t find anything interesting there I left again.
After checking out some more small electronics stores where I bought some souvenirs I wanted to go to a store called BIC Camera. It’s a big store with mostly new electronics and game products. The store had probably 6 floors. One floor for example was only dedicated to Bluetooth products. I found the two way translation tool that all the Yamato Transport shop personnel had used. The product was called Pocketalk and two versions were offered. I wasn’t sure which version these transport stores had used. It was a fun gadget but since it was a bit expensive I moved on. Another thing that I wanted to buy were new earphones as mine didn’t fit comfortably. I checked out some earphones that were quite similar to what I already had but wasn’t very convinced by them. Then I saw some bone-conducting earphones. I tried some of them on and was quite surprised by how well these worked. So far I haven’t had seen anyone in my surrounding that used them so I thought they might not work that well or were more of a techy gimmick. Though I was positively surprised as they only sat next to my ear but the sound quality was fairly good. They were a bit expensive but I still decided to buy them. I went up to the top floor that sold games and merchandise and bought some more souvenirs there.
My brother was already back at the hotel after he had played some darts at the place we played together two days prior. I actually wanted to check out more stores but then decided to go back as well to have dinner with my brother. I took the same subway line back to Hamamatsucho and walked back to the hotel. From there we went to a nearby Tonkatsu restaurant as my brother wanted to eat it one more time before we would leave Japan. I also was up for Tonkatsu and thus we walked to the restaurant. We were quite hungry so we ordered a big portion of rice and also ordered some additional curry sauce for both of us. I also added some salad sauce to the dry salad which tasted quite well together with the sauce.
We passed by some FamilyMart where we bought some drinks and snacks for the next morning. We also saw that they sold some Pokémon TCG Starter Pack and just bought it for fun together with some booster packs. We walked back to the hotel. In the foyer were some tables with chairs. We sat down there, ate some snacks and also opened the booster packs. I have to admit, that I didn’t recognize most of the Pokémon as I wasn’t up to date with the newest generations.
We then took the elevator up to the rooftop and enjoyed the view. From our hotel we could see the illuminated Tokyo Tower in the distance. We sat on the provided seats that had no cushions and were therefore a bit hard. I sat there for a short while and enjoyed the atmosphere. I started to rain slightly a few minutes later, thus we left the rooftop. We went back to our room and started packing our suitcases. I had bought a lot but I still managed to close the suitcase. We then went to bed as we had to get up early to rush to the airport.
Day 20 - Going home#
We got up around 6 am. We both took a shower and checked if we had everything. We then took the elevator down to the foyer and did the check-out at a machine as there was no staff around at this time. We walked to the monorail that was next to the normal subway station. From there we took the slower monorail to terminal 2. We were quite surprised to see that terminal 2 was fairly small. It seems that terminal 2 only hosts ANA airplanes. This was an advantage as the check-in of our luggage as well as the security control was fairly quick.
The area after the security control only had a handful of shops. We walked into one of the shops to buy some gifts there. I bought mostly sweets and cake. Next we sat at some table that offered power outlets. We charged our phones until they were almost full and then walked to our gate. After around 30 minutes we already were able to board the plane. I sat on the right row at the window, my brother sat in the middle row near the isle. We couldn’t sit together as we had done the checked-in too late.
The flight itself was mostly relaxed. This time I managed to sleep a bit. When I woke up only 6 hours remained. From there on I watched some videos that I had downloaded or listened to some music. When I checked our route I was surprised to see that we were flying eastwards instead of going back the same way we came from. I assume due to the jet stream it might be faster to go eastwards. What that meant for us is that we actually went once around the world which was quite exciting. What was not so exciting though was the food. While the first meal after taking off was fine, the second meal seemed to be like half of the first meal. It wasn’t all bad since I wasn’t that hungry anyways.
Our parents were already waiting for us when we landed in Frankfurt. The plane took around 20 minutes after landing to reach the gate. We then left the plane and walked to the baggage claim. Our luggage arrived within 3 minutes and we could finally reunite with our parents. We drove home for about an hour and then had some dinner. I was fairly tired due to the time difference and lay down on the couch. I must have fallen asleep shortly after. When I woke up the room was dark and everyone had already gone to bed. So I also got up and then went into my bed.
Wrap up#
All in all I really enjoyed the trip. We were first a bit concerned that the money wouldn’t suffice for a 20 day long trip but we spent less than 100€ every day. I was really thrilled about the Onsen. I enjoyed having a hot bath where no one talks and you can simply sit in the hot water and relax for 10 to 15 minutes. In general Japanese tend to be quieter than people from Germany. I can totally understand that people who take the metro to or from work just wanna have a quite atmosphere because they might still be tired in the morning or were exhausted after work. I also really liked the Japanese politeness, I felt respected when I had interactions with most people in Japan. People also were understanding that we didn’t speak Japanese and tried to communicate with us in English as much as they could and otherwise we used some translators. For the future I would love to have some basic understanding of Japanese because it would help me to connect more with the Japanese people.
Food wise I really got to love Tonkatsu and Gyukatsu, which is no wonder as Germans like Schnitzel. I also really liked these dishes that consisted of multiple small dishes, which were also usually fairly cheap. The weirdest thing I’ve tried was horse meat in the Hoto restaurant in Fujikawaguchiko though it didn’t taste too different from other meat. After coming back to Germany I have to say that I really miss the Japanese food. I also liked that tipping was not a thing in Japan and we didn’t need to think about how much we have to give a waiter. And despite having no tipping culture we only had kind and professional waiters.
I enjoyed the Geisha tour in Kyoto and would love to see a Geisha performance someday in the future. However Kabuki fascinated me even more. I really enjoyed the Kabuki for Beginners show. It made me want to see a full Kabuki show in the future. Also here it would help if I have a better understanding of the Japanese language to fully enjoy it.
What felt different to other countries that I’ve visited is that Japanese people really like to stand in queues. Be it a restaurant, some popular show, a train or even a smoking area, people were always standing in lines. In Germany people would most likely leave when they see that a restaurant is full, or at least only wait there for a short while. In Germany it’s common to make reservations over the phone. I guess that might also be possible in some Japanese restaurants, but at least from my experience during the trip it seems that waiting in line is the default.
It was odd to see few to none waste bins for anything else than cans and bottles. Though we quickly got used to bring all the trash back to our hotel and just throw it away there. In contrast to the few waste bins there were so many vending machines for drinks. We were wondering how so many vending machines can be supplied by drinks every day, it must be a big logistical undertaking. However we were quite grateful to have access to drinks almost everywhere, especially when it was hot.
As Germans we are used to pay with cash. However during my trip I always had to carry lots of coins with me. Only around the half way mark of my trip I realized that I could just throw all my coins in the coin counter machines at the Conbini. They would count the provided money and give the proper amount of money back. It didn’t matter whether or not I threw in too much money. I wish I had done that from the beginning of my trip.
I was happy that me and my brother had traveled to Japan together. 20 days sound long but it’s not nearly enough to properly experience Japan. We’ve only spend time in central Japan and didn’t even see everything in the cities that we had visited. We even decided against going to Hiroshima as this would have been a stressful short trip from Osaka. I definitely need to come back sooner or later. Next time I would like to explore the north and south of Japan. I would also probably spend more days in one city such that I don’t get too exhausted from too many activities in one day. I also want to try real Onsen as I’ve only visited Onsen that were in our hotels. And lastly I also wanna try more food but of course I won’t say no to some Tonkatsu.
Have you been to Japan or do you want to go to Japan? Where would you like to go to and what do you want to do there? Did we miss any areas or activities in the cities that we had visited? Please let me know in the comments.