11 Day Trip to Tokyo, Fujikawaguchiko, Hakone, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, Miyajima, Hiroshima, and Osaka

Thanks to everyone who helped me with my itinerary when I asked back in July. I got back home from a combined Japan and South Korea trip a week ago and wanted to write up a report about the Japan leg of my trip. Our itinerary was packed with little room for resting, but that's exactly what we wanted since we wanted to do as much as we could in the short time we had in Japan. We also wanted to try as many different types of Japanese food as possible at the places that are best known for them, even if it meant waits of over 30 minutes.

I have made an imgur album here to accompany the trip report: https://imgur.com/a/Qt3ROO9

General Tips/Advice

• For internet, I was using Ubigi with the eSim which I had pre-purchased in Australia before I got to Japan. This meant that as soon as I touched down on the tarmac at Narita Airport I could start getting internet service. Would definitely recommend checking them out as I had great service and speeds throughout the whole trip and I only used 19GB which cost $32USD.
  • I brought a 2nd phone to install the eSim on because I didn't want to drain my primary phone's battery running a hotspot for me and my partner. I'd recommend this approach if you have an old phone lying around that supports eSim.
• For getting between places I used the app "Japan Travel" by NAVITIME. I found that it often offered slightly better suggestions than Google Maps, and when I was using the JR Pass it was able to show me routes that made as much use of it as possible.
  • There was a handful of times that it would either not know about a business and so I had to manually enter the address or something else nearby. A good example is that if you try look for the Hachiko statue in Shibuya, the only option that shows up in the app is the statue at Hachiko's birthplace in Akita.
• Because we were taking a bus from Tokyo to Fujikawaguchiko, we decided on getting a JR West Kansai-Hiroshima pass rather than the full JR Pass. It ended out being a hundred or so dollars cheaper for us for the routes we were doing, so I'd make sure to explore those options.
• We decided not to get a phone number for the trip, and this turned out fine. The only downside to this was that we couldn't install the Japan Taxi app because it needed a mobile phone number. However, Uber still worked in the major cities so if we couldn't find a taxi on the street, we were able to use that.
• If you had a large suitcase like we did, definitely make use of luggage delivery services. It's very easy to use, you just go to your hotel's reception when you are checking out and tell them you need to use Takkyubin. The hotel receptionist filled out the form for me, they called the hotel that I was sending my luggage to and made sure that they were able to receive it, they sized up my luggage, then I paid, and it was as simple as that.

Day 1 (Sunday Nov 20): Arriving at Tokyo

• We caught an early morning flight with Jetstar leaving at 6:25AM from Brisbane to Narita Airport with a short layover at Cairns. The flight landed at around 6PM, so only 20 minutes late, however it took over 2 hours to get past immigration and customs.
• We went to go get our Suica cards only to find out that foreign credit cards would not work with the machines, and I had to use cash which I didn't have yet. We had to wait 20 minutes in line at the currency exchange to convert some AUD to yen (with a terrible exchange rate).
  • I should have just withdrawn cash from an ATM instead since the exchange rate with my credit card was better than what I got at the airport.
• We just barely missed the Narita Express so waited 30 minutes to get the next one leaving at 9:48PM. We took it to Tokyo Station and checked into Hotel Ryumeikan at around 11PM.
• Since it was late and a lot of places were shut, we caught a taxi to a Coco Curry Ichibanya to get some Japanese curry just before they closed at midnight.

Day 2 (Monday Nov 21): Shibuya, Harajuku, and Ginza

• We caught a train from Tokyo Station to Harajuku Station to get to Meiji Jingu at around 8AM.
  • We chose this as our first stop because everything opens at 10-11AM in Shibuya and didn't want to waste a morning. Meiji Jingu was very quiet, we only saw a few dozen people the whole time which was quite nice so were able to get some good photos. The walk up to the shrine and back, stopping for some photos was about 35 minutes.
• After Meiji Jingu we caught a train to Shibuya and saw the Hachiko dog statue before going to SHIBUYA SKY at 10AM when they opened. The views from up there were incredible and we got lots of good photos. We spent about an hour here.
• Next we got breakfast from 7-11 and took it to the Starbucks that overlooks the Shibuya Scramble.
• After that we went to the Don Quijote store to get some tax-free goods to take back home, there were lots of cool Kit-Kat flavours to buy.
• Then we went to the Nintendo store only to find out that there was a 2 hour wait just to get in which we didn't want to wait for, so we skipped it. The process for waiting is that you need to get a ticket from someone just around the corner which designates what time you can enter the store, so you can continue to do other things while you wait.
• After that we took a taxi to Gyukatsu Motomura Harajuku for some beef katsu. The wait was maybe 20 minutes to get in, but it was well worth it.
• We then went to Takeshita St, and it was underwhelming. There wasn't any shops that interested us. We did get a crepe from Marion crepes which was nice though.
• For dinner we wanted to try the best sushi restaurant we could find so we landed on Sushi no Midori Ginza. When we got there, there was a huge line of people waiting around to get in. You had to grab a ticket from the machine which gives you a number and you go in when your number was called out. We figured it was going to be a 1h30m wait so we tried to find an Izakaya to wait at. The first one we went to wouldn't let us in telling us it was for Japanese only, the second one we went to, Marugin, was much better and we had some drinks and Yakitori.
• We got back in time for our number to be called out at Sushi No Midori and had a great meal trying all sorts of things we'd never had before. Their fatty tuna sushi is especially good.

Day 3 (Tuesday Nov 22): DisneySea

• As the two of us live in Australia, neither of us had been to a Disney theme park before so we wanted to do one while we were here. DisneySea was supposedly pretty unique as there were no others in the world, so we chose to do that one.
• While the park technically opens at 9AM, it usually opens up to an hour earlier. We got to the gates at around 8:30AM and they were already open, but it took about 20 minutes to get in.
• The first thing we did was rush to the lines for Soaring: Fantastic Flight, which we ended up waiting in line for maybe 2h30m. We realised an hour in that we could have just spent $20 each to reserve a time and skip the queue and we should have done that since it was not worth waiting that long in the sun without anywhere to sit. We made use of the queue skipping for Toy Story Mania though, which was a great ride.
• By the time it was coming close to the end of the day we came to the main area where you could watch the fireworks only to find out that you have to reserve a seat using the app in the morning for you to be able to watch. If you didn't reserve a seat you were forced to keep walking around the park, following the staff who were telling everyone which way to walk (probably for crowd control reasons). It was pretty much impossible to watch the fireworks while walking since it would often take you to places where you couldn't see them so we decided to just leave early.

Day 4 (Wednesday Nov 23): Asakusa, Akihabara, and Shibuya (again)

• This day it rained pretty much the whole day, but not too heavy, so it wasn't too bad.
• We started off at Kaminarimon Gate, there were lots of tour guides waiting out the front of it who were offering to take pictures for people which was nice. After that, we kept going through to Nakamise St and Sensoji.
• Next, we got some matcha ice cream from Suzukien Asakusa and Melonpan from Kagetsudo which we had seen recommended. They were both pretty good.
• Next, we took the train to Akihabara where we got lunch at Roast Beef Ono to get their wagyu rice bowl. This was very good, would definitely recommend.
• We stopped by a GiGO arcade where our goal was to just win something and leave as a souvenir, after spending about $20 on the claw machine with no luck we asked one of the employees there for some help and he opened it up and moved one of the plush toys so it was resting on the very edge of the glass and all we had to do was bump it in. Not sure if the toy was worth $20, but our goal was achieved nonetheless.
• Then we went back to Shibuya to do some more shopping, the first thing we did was stop by the Nintendo store at Parco to grab an entrance ticket to come back later. We did some shopping at MUJI and Shibuya109 before returning to the Nintendo store.
• For dinner we went to Nabezo (which we had reserved earlier in the day) which is an all-you-can-eat Sukiyaki restaurant. This was also very good and it felt like it was good value too.

Day 5 (Thursday Nov 24): Tokyo to Fujikawaguchiko

• In the early morning I took a walk to the Imperial Gardens although I didn't have time to go in all the way. The autumn/fall leaves were very beautiful.
• We checked out of our hotel and sent off our suitcase to arrive at our hotel in Kyoto in 2 days time.
• We caught the train to Shinjuku to get lunch at Shin Udon. This was our favourite meal of the trip, which was surprising since I don't usually eat Udon. The place opens at 11AM and we arrived at 10:30AM to get in line, but we only got in by around 11:45AM because they only have enough room for 12 people inside and the line was huge.
• We made a quick dash to the Shinjuku Bus Terminal and just made it in time to catch the bus to Fujikawaguchiko which is a town near the base of Mt Fuji.
• After arriving we bought a Fuji Hakone pass which covered all our public transit for the next two days. We then caught a taxi to Mt Fuji Ropeway to get some good photos of Mt Fuji.
• After that we checked in to our hotel, Hotel Konansou, which is a traditional ryokan that came with a kaiseki ryori dinner in our room, and a buffet breakfast. Our room had view of Lake Kawaguchi as the rooms with the Mt Fuji view were too expensive, but it was still very beautiful. The reservation also included 50 minutes in a private onsen which had a Mt Fuji view which we took advantage of straight away before the sun set.

Day 6 (Friday Nov 25): Fujikawaguchiko to Hakone

• We started the day off with the buffet breakfast at Konansou before catching a taxi to Chureito Pagoda. After 10 minutes of stair climbing we got to the top and got some incredible photos with the pagoda and Mt Fuji behind it. The weather was great, and not a cloud in sight.
• We got to the bottom of the hill and realised that Uber didn't work in the area, so we asked one of the workers to call us a taxi which they were happy to do so. We took a taxi to Mt Fuji Station where we caught a bus to Gotemba (about 1h15m duration), and then another bus to Togendai station in Hakone (about 40m duration) arriving at 1:20PM.
• We then went on the Hakone ropeway (covered by our Fuji Hakone Pass) to head up to Owakudani. Owakudani is an active volcano and you can see plumes of steam coming from the ground everywhere. Owakudani is known for their black eggs which are black due to being boiled in sulfurous waters. We bought a bag of 5 black eggs and it tasted just like a regular hard-boiled egg which was a bit disappointing but I don't know what I expected.
• After Owakudani we hopped back on the ropeway to head to Sounzan where there is a little cafe, cu-mo, where you can have a bite to eat while using a footbath and overlooking some mountains.
• We then caught the Hakone cable car to go to our accommodation for the night, Yutorelo-an Annex. This place had a great view and it was a Japanese style room as well.
• What I didn't know until we arrived there was that the town of Gora is just one huge, steep hill and our accommodation was at the very top. The cable car is the way you are meant to get up and down the hill but it stops running quite early. I also didn't realise just how small of a town Gora was, pretty much everything was closed after 6PM and very few restaurants were open.
• We walked down the hill to get dinner at the Gora Brewery & Grill only to realise that they were fully booked and you need a reservation. So instead we got dinner at the only convenience store in town, a Daily Yamazaki, then walked all the way back to the top of the hill to eat it.

Day 7 (Saturday Nov 26): Hakone to Kyoto

• We got up at 7AM and walked down the hill to catch the Hakone scenic train to Odawara.
  • What the website doesn't tell you is that this is just a local commuter train and so most of the people on the train were either going to work or school. It also was not that scenic and it was foggy. The train was one of the things I was looking forward to, but it definitely was not worth it.
• Next, we caught a Shinkansen from Odawara to Kyoto, arriving at 12:30PM. We paid for this ticket outright as we did not have a pass for it.
• We caught a taxi to Nishiki Market where we got some lunch at the food stalls.
• Then we caught a bus to Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavillion) arriving at 3PM.
  • All the comments I saw over reddit and the internet made it sound like going here at midday on a Saturday was a recipe for disaster and instead you should try get there at 7AM to beat the crowds but it really wasn't that bad, we had no issues with the crowds and there were lots of room for us to take photos.
• Next we took the bus to our hotel, Hotel Gran Ms, where we checked in.
  • The hotel was pretty good, but we tried to do our laundry here and there were only two washing machines and two driers that weren't very good. We ended up having to hang our clothes up in the bathroom because some people had put their clothes in the drier for a really long time.
• After resting a bit, we went up to Kiyomizudera temple to see the special evening illuminations. What we didn't know was that this is a very, very popular event, probably the largest crowds we saw on our whole trip. Taxis couldn't even get that close and it was a long walk to get there. We should have arrived a lot earlier as we had a dinner reservation at Kichi Kichi Omurice to make which meant we only had time to see a tiny bit of the temple rather than going all the way to the end.
• After walking down the hill from Kiyomizudera we were struggling to find a taxi, luckily we found one which was able to get us to Kichi Kichi Omurice just in time for our reservation.
• For those who are not familiar with Kichi Kichi Omurice, it's a restaurant where you have to book 4 weeks in advance (bookings sell out in under 10 minutes), and the chef is super high energy and puts on a performance as he cooks. The food itself is alright, but it's not really the reason people go there, it was definitely worth it as he was very entertaining.

Day 8 (Sunday Nov 27): Fushimi Inari, Bamboo Forest, and Nara Park

• The first thing we did was head for Fushimi Inari in the morning. We only took photos at the front of it as we were not as interested in heading all the way up, or even to the half-way mark.
• Next, we went to Kyoto station where we bought our JR West Kansai-Hiroshima Pass which lasted all the way until the end of our trip and covered the majority of our transit.
• We then went to Arashiyama to see the bamboo forest. The crowds here were huge and it was a long walk to get from Arashiyama station to the bamboo forest. We didn't go all the way through the bamboo forest though as we were running short on time.
• After, we went to Nara Park, where we saw lots of deer and fed them before heading back to Kyoto.
• For dinner we went to Ichiran Ramen near our hotel, and it was the best ramen I've ever eaten.

Day 9 (Monday Nov 28): Kyoto to Kobe, Miyajima, and Hiroshima

• In the morning I took a walk from my hotel over to Kennin-ji Temple, through Gion, then Yakasa Shrine before walking back along the Kamo River.
• We checked out of our hotel, asking them to send our luggage to arrive in Osaka the next day.
• We went to Kyoto Station where we took a train to Sannomiya Station in Kobe. In Kobe, we ate at the restaurant Kobe Beef Ishida, where we had a Kobe Beef lunch special.
  • Maybe I'm spoiled with the quality of beef we have here in Australia, but I don't know if the beef is worth the price, although it was still very good.
• Next we went to Shin-Kobe station where we caught the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Or at least, that is what I thought I did, but I realised shortly after leaving that I accidentally got on the wrong train, and instead of getting on a Nozomi to Hiroshima I got on a Hikari to Okayama. We hopped off at Himeji Station and then waited for the next Nozomi which got us to Hiroshima.
• As soon as we got to Hiroshima we took a train and a ferry to Miyajima, arriving at Miyajima at around 3:30PM. On Miyajima we got some more deer photos, as well as saw Itsukushima Shrine and the floating Torii gate. The scaffolding has mostly come down now, but there was still a bit left around the base. But enough of it was removed to get a great photo.
• We watched the sun set and took the ferry and train back to Hiroshima where we checked into our hotel, The Knot.
• We then went to Okonomimura to try some Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. We eventually settled on going to Ron once we were inside, and it was delicious.

Day 10 (Tuesday Nov 29): Hiroshima to Osaka

• In the morning we walked around the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, we made sure to be there at 8:15AM so we could hear the Peace Clock make its daily chime when the bomb was dropped.
• We then went to the museum next, which was very sobering, something I think everyone should do in their lifetime.
• We then got back to Hiroshima where we took the train all the way to Shin-Osaka station. After getting to Shin-Osaka we took a bus to Osaka Castle and walked around inside.
• After that we went to Kuromon Market, but it was a bit dead when we arrived (around 2:30PM) so we didn't get anything.
• We then checked into our hotel, Dotonbori Hotel, which we chose because they were very close to Dotonbori.
• We walked to Pablo Cheese Tart to get some mini cheese tarts, then to Daruma to get some kushikatsu, walked back to Dotonbori to get some photos with the Glico Man sign, then got some Takoyaki at Creole Junk (much shorter lines than the tourist favourite, Kukuru).

Day 11 (Wednesday Nov 30): Universal Studios Osaka

• I'm personally a huge Nintendo fan, so I'd been looking forward to this a lot. We bought our tickets off Klook and we only got the 1 Day Studio pass without getting an express pass.
• We got there just before 8AM so we didn't repeat the mistake we made at DisneySea, they opened the gates at 8:15AM and we immediately made our way to Super Nintendo World. Since the park had just opened, we were able to walk straight in without needing to have a timed entry ticket, we each bought an armband, and then hopped in the line for the Mario Kart AR ride.
• We waited in the line for about 40 minutes for the Mario Kart ride, but if we went back in it would have been a 2 hour wait. The Mario Kart ride was incredible, I've never experienced anything like it, I didn't know augmented reality could be so immersive.
• After that, we went to Kinopio's Cafe to get various Mario-themed food, then explored the rest of Super Nintendo World while completing all the mini-games, unlocking the keys so you can play the Bowser Jr game. In total we were there for over 5 hours, and we could have easily spent more. It was one of the most fun things on the whole trip.
• After Super Nintendo World, we went to the Harry Potter area which we could walk in without a timed entry ticket and walked through Hogsmeade, got some butterbeer, and went on the ride inside Hogwarts which was really fun. We weren't interested in any other areas inside Universal Studios so we went back to our hotel to make sure we were ready for our flights the next day.
• For dinner, we wanted to try Osaka-style okonomiyaki and ended up at a place called Sakaba O. I would say that this was our second favourite meal of the whole trip after the Udon, the okonomiyaki was really good, as well as their dumplings and yakisoba.

Day 12 (Thursday Dec 1): Flight to Seoul

• We had a flight with Peach from Kansai to Incheon at 12:55, so we didn't have time in the morning to do anything. We had breakfast at a convenience store, then went to the airport.

What I would do differently if I planned it again

I'm pretty happy with how our trip went, the only things I would change if I were to do it again are:

• Skip the Nintendo store in Tokyo, the range of things to get there was quite small and I didn't even get much, the souvenir stores in Super Nintendo World at Osaka are much better.
• Skip Takeshita St, it was pretty boring and felt like a tourist trap.
• Skip Hakone/Gora, instead I would have gone straight from Fujikawaguchiko to Kyoto. The Hakone ropeway is quite short, and Owakudani was cool but nothing spectacular, there isn't really a good view here, it's just lots of plumes of steam. And the Hakone scenic train wasn't that scenic, even if we ignore that it was foggy (maybe it's better in the spring?).
• I'd add in teamLab planets, I thought it was just some other art experience so didn't look into it enough, but it seems like it's quite unique and worth going.
• I'd add in the Arashiyama Monkey Park. We initially had this in our itinerary but didn't realise the distances between everything in Arashiyama would have meant we wouldn't get to Nara Park in time. If we had started our day earlier, we'd have been able to fit it in.
• I'd add in Himeji castle, I tried to fit it into my itinerary but couldn't, but if I had skipped Hakone, I would have had time.