Japan

May 25 - June 4, 2023

It’s hard to believe we haven’t left the North America continent for three years! After traveling domestically and to Mexico during this time, it was great to fly across the pond again!

Since this is the first trip to Japan for Megan and the girls, we went with a fairly typical 10-day itinerary, covering Kyoto, Hakone and Tokyo. Kyoto, being the former capital of Japan, has a much more traditional Japanese flare. Hakone is where we splurged for a stay at a ryokan with private hot springs. Tokyo is massive and we only had enough time for selective highlights, but we’re sure we will be back soon!

Day 0 - Fly into Osaka, arrive in Kyoto

Day 1 - East & Central Kyoto - Kiyomizu-Dera, Maruyama Park, Nishiki Market, Nijo Castle

Day 2 - Arashiyama & North Kyoto - Bamboo Forest, Ryoanji Temple, Kinkakuji Temple

Day 3 - South - Fushimi Inari (and Toji Temple)

Day 4 - Train to Hakone

Day 5 - Hakone

Day 6 - Train to Tokyo

Day 7 - Tsukiji Market & Asakusa

Day 8 - Shinjuku & Shibuya

Day 9 - Odaiba

Day 10 - Fly home

Voyagers tips:

Itinerary: Covering three cities in 10 days is fairly ambitious but it allows just enough time to hit the highlights. There are plenty of day-trip options from Kyoto and Tokyo that we didn’t get to do, however. You could easily skip Hakone and allow time to take day trips from Kyoto and Tokyo as an option. It’s a good idea to fly into one city and out of another to save time and money.

Transportation: It’s worth considering to fly into one city and fly out of another. This saves a day of traveling back to the originating city, both in terms of time as well as train fare. If you do fly into and out of Tokyo and want to take a trip to Kyoto, JR Pass is currently a great deal as a 7-day pass is cheaper than a round trip ticket between Tokyo and Kyoto. I heard they’re raising the price by 70% later in 2023, so this may no longer be true. Since we’re flying into Osaka/Kyoto and out of Tokyo, it was more economical to skip the JR pass and purchase individual train tickets instead.

IC cards are very handy, pick one up when you arrive and you can use it throughout your Japan trip. You can use it for all subways, most buses, and even for buying things at 7-Eleven!

Subway coverage in Kyoto is not as good as that of Tokyo. Consider using subway to travel around city center, and use taxis for the outskirts such as the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest and the Kinkakuji Temple. You can often get to these places in less than half the time with taxi, especially in the early mornings where you want to hit the popular spots.

Navigation is quite easy with Google Maps, just type in the destination and it tells you exactly how to get there, including the specific entrance number, the platform number, number of stops, and the specific exit number. It works amazingly well!

“Japan Travel” is another popular navigation app, it’s more useful for planning long-distance transportation methods and gives you options of trains and costs from city to city.

Day 0 - Arrive in Osaka / Kyoto

Our plane landed in Kansai airport at around 7pm. We picked up our wifi router from the Ninja Wifi counter which is just to the right of the customs exit, and followed the sign to the JR train station. There are machines at the train station where you can buy the ICOCA cards, which is the most popular IC card around Osaka & Kyoto, and use ICOCA to purchase a train ticket to Kyoto station. We walked into the ticket counter instead to make sure we learn of the options and get the right tickets. We opted for seats with no reserved seats, which worked out well as it was quite empty.

Once arriving at Kyoto station, you can hop on to the subway to get to your hotel. We stayed at the R&Run Service Apartments and really liked it here. The location is great, close to Nishiki Market, although it was about a 8-10min walk from the nearest subway station.

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Day 1 - East & Central Kyoto

Kiyomizu-dera

Maruyama Park

Nishiki Market

Nijo Castle

Kiyomizu-dera

This is a popular spot. The Starbucks nearby with tatami seating is a YouTube sensation in and of itself. Start the day early and start your day at Starbucks, as seating is limited and this is a popular stop. After Starbucks, walk by the countless shops on your way up to the temple entrance. Try out some street food along the way. The cucumber and tempura were good, the grilled rice cake was not.

The temple has itself is quite nice. Get a shot of the temple on a cliff, and try to use the ladle to catch some water. See pictures. It’s easy to see why this is one of the top attractions in Kyoto.

Maruyama Park

This is one of the most scenic parks in Kyoto, with well manicured plants and river streams throughout. There are many tourists who rent kimonos and have professional photographers take glamour shots of them here. Definitely a nice stroll, worth visiting.

Nijo Castle

First off, our Day-1 itinerary is very ambitious, and Nijo Castle is such a grand, beautiful place that you want to take your time for this visit. We were glad we hit it on Day 1, but feel free to move this to Day 3 if the day feels too jam packed. Keep in mind that Nijo Castle closes at around 5pm and Nishiki Market at 6pm.

The castle itself and the surrounding areas are both spectacular, definitely worth spending a few hours here. No pictures allowed inside the castle, so we only have pictures of the grounds around it.

Voyagers Tips: Unlike some other landmarks, this one is very easy to get to via subway, it is right by the Nijojo-mae station.

Nishiki Market

Lots of people, lots of shops and food stalls! We love street food and this was an exciting spot for us. Recommended food to try: Crab stick, mochi with strawberry, sushi, grilled tempura. Thumbs down on the beef skewer. In general, wagyu beef on a stick as street food is nowhere near as good as the authentic wagyu beef in restaurants.

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Day 2 - N & NW Kyoto

arashiyama bamboo forest

rionji temple

kinkakuji (golden) temple

beef katsu

arashiyama bamboo forest

The bamboo forest feels surreal and is a great spot for cool pictures! Get ready to snap lots of pictures! The forest is not massive, and given the high popularity and the narrow path, it does get crowded, so get here early!

The Togetsu-Kyo bridge nearby is a decent spot for a picture but not quite a landmark by itself.

Voyagers Tips: Beware - It’s one of the top three attractions in Kyoto and there’s only one path through the forest, so get there by 7am if you want nice pictures without people in the background. Taxi is the best way to get there as it is in the outskirts of town.

We opted to skip the scenic Romance Train but that’s a popular activity for those who like scenic train rides.

rionji temple

Since we got to the bamboo forest early and Kinkakuji Temple isn’t open until 9am, we decideed to visit Rionji Temple first (opens at 8am). The temple is known for the nice rock garden, where there’s seating along one side for people to sit and enjoy the view. The surrounding ground makes for a nice relaxing stroll.

kinkakuji temple

The golden temple is quite impressive and the water around it makes for a scenic view. This is one of the top three attractions in Kyoto and the crowd size around the temple is pretty crazy! We got here at around 9:30am and it was already super crowded. Try your luck with tossing coins into the rock or metal bowls along the way, make a wish if your coins land inside!

Carousel Sushi - Kura

Carousel Sushi is quite an experience in Japan. Unlike in the U.S. where the quality of sushi at a carousel is usually sub-par, sushi quality at Kura was actually quite good! The ordering touch screen, the plate gobbler & counter, the self-service hot green tea at the table, and the toy from the machine once you reach 20 plates, all combine for a fun and tasty experience!

Beef Katsu

We love Japanese food and eat it often, yet we have never tried beef katsu (only chicken and pork). This is a Kyoto specialty. We didn’t have high expectations but the food turned out to be amazing! Splurge for the wagyu sirloin, as the quality difference is clear as day. You also get small fire-heated metal plates to quickly sear the beef pieces if you’d like. The wagyu beef quality did not disappoint! The place we visited was in Nakagyo, Kyoto, but there are several “gyukatsu” places around Kyoto.

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Day 3 - South Kyoto

Fushimi Inari

Gion

Shabu shabu

omurice & curry

stroll along kamo river

fushimi inari

The endless red gates is quite an unique experience! This is another one of the top 3 destinations in Kyoto. The entire hike up is 2.5mi (4km) long, and the altitude is 764ft (233m). It felt good to work up a sweat and enjoy the hike!

Voyagers Tips: This is a repeating theme now… Get here EARLY! We got here at 7am and there were already a decent number of people here. The red gates are open 24hrs/day so get here even earlier if you can.

Gion & Toji Temple

We visited Gion on a Sunday morning at 10am and found it to be surprisingly empty with all the shops closed. This is the challenge with visiting the landmarks really early in the morning… there’s a gap between when you leave the landmarks and when the city wakes up. Oh well, maybe next time.

We also had Toji Temple on the itinerary, as it is known for the tallest pagoda in Japan. By this point, however, our family was all “templed out” and we decided to head back to our hotel for a cat nap. Maybe next time.

Shabu Shabu at Kawaramachi garden mall

The 7th & 8th floor of the mall are food halls, and we found this restaurant gem here on the 7th floor! The price was very reasonable thanks to the exchange rate at our time of visit, the wagyu beef was to die for! Unlimited veggie sides, rice and ice cream was really good too. The fixed portion was more than enough meat for us, no need for the AYCE beef. This was Megan’s favorite meal in Kyoto!

omurice & curry at hohoho-za

The food was great at this little gem! Truth be told, we wanted to go to the famous omurice place - Kichi Kichi Omurice, which is a youtube sensation. We tried making reservation a month in advance and could not find any opening, so maybe you’ll have better luck. Hohoho-Za was a great find though, and we went there at 5pm to get a spot in this tiny restaurant. Delicious omurice and curry!

stroll along the kamo river

The path along the river is a nice stroll in the evenings and you see people taking walks here. The girls were bothered by the tiny bugs flying around though.

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Day 4 - Head to Hakone

Shinkansen (bullet train)

Yama no Chaya (ryokan)

Shinkansen

Time to say goodbye to Kyoto and head to Hakone! We took the subway to Kyoto Station, and took shinkansen to Odawara station, where we bought the Hakone Free Pass (a must-have in Hakone!), and took a bus to our ryokan. The bus system can be confusing but there are plenty of people at the station and at the bus stop to help tourists.

Voyagers Tips: For busy seasons, it is advised to purchase shinkansen tickets in advance to reserve seats. Mount Fuji is supposedly visible on the left side of the train on clear days, but we booked our tickets too late and all the window seats were taken, so we upgraded to the “Green Cars” to get the window seats. Green Cars was roughly $30 more per seat and the seats are bigger, although regular cars are supposedly quite comfortable already. It turned out to be a gloomy day so no sighting of Mt. Fuji for us.

For those traveling from Tokyo to Hakone, you can purchase Hakone Free Passes that include a train ride to/from Hakone. If you want to take the RomanceCar which is a faster Express train, you can then purchase an additional ticket for this “upgrade” and use the two tickets together. Since we came from Kyoto through Odawara, we just bought the Hakone Free Passes at the Odawara station without the train ride, and purchase the train ticket separately online. You can buy the Hakone Free Pass at the ticket counter and the people there are very nice and helpful. They will also give you a Hakone map and directions on taking the bus. Use Google Maps to figure out which bus stop to get off at. Google Maps really does make things much easier.

Yama no Chaya (our ryokan)

Imagine waking up, jumping in an in-room hot spring spa to relax and clear your mind. Then get dressed and be served a multi-course breakfast in your room. Afterwards, relax and read a book (or browse through your phone) on the balcony while enjoying the scenic view, then take a stroll on the serene property along the river, before taking another dip at the multiple onsens on site. Ahh… I can get used to this.

We loved our time at Yama No Chaya. From the moment you cross the bridge to their property, they treated us like royalty. They greeted us on the bridge and took our luggage, welcomed us at the lobby, explained the ryokan to us, took us to our lobby, and provided us with tea and dessert. We were assigned one person to service us for our entire stay and he (Takeshi) was awesome.

Our room has an in-room spa. There are also four onsens on their property - One private one that you can book for 45min, and three shared ones that are either mens or womens depending on time slot. Book the private one early for a slot that works for you.

The private spa was great for us to spend time in the spa together as a family. They’re not as strict on the “no swimsuit” rule in the private onsen.

Dinner is scheduled for either 6pm or 6:30pm, and they serve you in your room. Our dinner the first night was a 10-course meal and it was such a treat. Takeshi set up dinnerware and patiently kneeling down to serve each dish one at a time, explained each dish to us, and take the previous dishes to us while we enjoy the next dish. I had been looking forward to this ryokan meal since we booked the stay, and it really was a treat, but I didn’t realize how much extra work it was for them to serve us in the room until we experienced dinner. Takeshi was extremely nice and pleasant, but you can see the sweat beading down his face from moving all the heavy dishes from the kitchen downstairs to our room, and from kneeling and serving throughout the entire meal.

I believe they offer kids meals; we had young teens that I thought would appreciate the authentic Japanese dishes, but it turned out the raw fish and other dishes were a bit too authentic for them. I personally loved the food.

The room itself was very nice, exactly what I expected of the onsen. Downstairs is the dining area, in-room spa, bathroom and the balcony. Upstairs is the bedroom. The room is quite nice, not over-the-top nice but very clean and comfortable. What truly sets apart this experience is the royalty service you get. The price is steep ($1,450 per night for the four of us) but it’s definitely a worthwhile experience for at least once in your life.

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Day 5 - Explore Hakone

Morning at Yama No Chaya

Train, Cable Car & Ropeway

Lake Ashi & Pirate Ship Cruise

Open Air Museum

Evening at Yama No Chaya

Hakone is a beautiful vacation spot full of onsens / hot springs, and is a popular getaway from Tokyo. We didn’t visit any public onsens because we enjoyed the ones at our ryokan, but that’s certainly a popular activity here. There’s also a popular one-day itinerary that includes cable car and ropeways as well as a the pirate ship cruise and a stroll along the lake. Open Air Museum was unique and was one of our favoriate spots in Hakone.

This itinerary was jam-packed for one day and required us to move at a brisk pace. If we could do it again, we would probably slow down a bit and move the open air museum to the next day before heading to Tokyo, and just take a later train to Tokyo.

The most popular one-day itinerary is to take the train from the Hakone Yumoto station to Gora station, then take the cable car to Souzan station, then take the ropeway to Togendai station via a transfer at Owakudani station. You can take the stop at the Open Air Museum but we only decided to visit it at the end of the day so we took a bus there after the pirate ship.

Voyagers Tip: Ask for a Hakone map and the travel directions from the ryokan. The map and directions we got was super helpful and helped guide our day.

Unlike Tokyo subways which run like clockwork, the bus schedules here are not reliable. Be prepared for long waits for buses and account for this in your schedule.

Morning at Yama no Chaya

Starting the day with a soak in the in-room spa was a nice treat. After the relaxing dip, we got dressed for our in-room breakfast at 8am. Megan and I really enjoyed the Japanese breakfast, whereas for the girls it was more of a mixed review.

Train, Cable Car & Ropeway

The main starting point for the day-long itinerary is the Hakone Yumoto station, which is also the station for the RomanceCar to/from Tokyo. We took a bus to get here. From Hakone Yumoto station, we took the train to Gora Station, then transferred onto the Hakone Tozan Cable Car to the Souzan station, where we jumped onto the Ropeways.

Once you get on the ropeway, enjoy the view! There is a transfer at the Owakudani station where you can take a nice stroll outside the station, try their hot springs black eggs, before jumping onto the transfer ropeway to the Togendai station.

The Togendai station is where you can buy the tickets to the pirate ship cruise, which takes you to Hakone Machi-Ko pier. There are beautiful walking paths from the Togendai station and we wished we had more time to explore these paths but only had a short stroll before getting on the pirate ship cruise.

Pirate Ship Cruise

For the cruise, you can buy the regular class or the “first class” in the front of the ship where there are less people. The upgrade is less than $4 USD per person and totally worth it. I would highly recommend getting this upgrade. You can then get good seatings downstairs or go upstairs for some “Titanic” pictures at the front of the ship while enjoying the fresh breeze. Round trip tickets are available, but we took the one-way cruise and got off at Hakone Mochi-Ko to continue our journey to the Open Air Museum.

Open Air Museum

The open air museum was on our “optional” list and we’re so glad we decided to go! It’s a very unique outdoor museum with interesting artwork in a beautiful outdoor setting to stroll around. There was also an outdoor maze, a “net forest” for kids to climb through, a Piccaso museum, a hot springs foot spa, and a tall watch tower with beautiful stained glasses and spiral stairs. We really enjoyed this place and wished we had more time to spend here.

evening at yama no chaya

Back at our ryokan, we enjoyed another private bath and a multi-course dinner served in our room. I also took a nice dip in the shared onsen, which was a great way to relax before bed!

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Day 6 - Hakone & Tokyo

yunessun spas & baths

romancecar

Shinjuku station & Hyatt hotel

Shinjuku At Night - Kabukicho, Omoide Yokocho & Golden Gai

yunessun spas & baths

This isn’t your father’s spa. It is an entirely different experience than your typical onsen. Yunessun is known for offering different “flavors” of spas: red wine, sake, coffee, green tea, just to name a few. There is also a big hot springs spa pool equipped with massaging jets on the edges that was quite a treat. The outdoor water slide was a real treat too!

The part that makes Yunessun famous is the part mentioned above. There is also a separate floor that’s the more traditional spa, with separate male and female sections and no swimsuits allowed. You can buy tickets for just one section or a combo tickets for both.

The building is set up with enough things for you to spend an entire day. In addition to the simple food court inside the spa area with things like ramen and curry, there are also proper restaurants inside the tall building. Reservation required though. There are also massages available in the building for an extra charge. We only spent about two hours here, which was barely enough for the "swimsuit required” spa sections, would’ve loved to spend more time here if time allowed.

Romancecar from Hakone to Tokyo

The Romancecar express train that goes between Tokyo’s Shinjuku station and the Hakone Yumoto station in the heart of Hakone. This is the preferred transportation between the two destinations. If you haven’t tried the hot springs black eggs, grab some at the shop here. The train ride is comfortable and scenic, although it would need to be a very clear day in order to get a peek of Mount Fuji. We didn’t have such luck.

Voyagers tips: The ticket system here is quite confusing, but there is a very helpful information center with friendly staff happy to help confused travelers. There are two types of Hakone Free Passes, one that includes a round trip basic train rides from Shinjuku to Hakone Yumoto, and one without the train rides; both types can be purchased as a 2-day or 3-day pass. Regardless of whether you purchase the train-included free pass or buy a separate train ticket, Romancecar is a separate “upgrade ticket” to be used in conjunction with the basic train ticket. We purchased the Romancecar ticket online to reserve spots, but still had to buy the regular base tickets at the station and used both tickets in conjunction for our train ride. Again, the information center staff can demystify all this for travelers.

Another option is to go from Hakone to Tokyo (and vice versa) is to take a bus from Hakone to the Odawara station (or the Hakone-Tozan train from Hakone Yumoto station to Odawara station), then take the regular Odakyu train from Odawara station to Shinjuku station. The Odakyu trains are no-reservations and no assigned seats.

Shinjuku station & hyatt regency hotel

Shinjuku station is massive and is a destination in and of itself. It is massive and busy! The station actually holds the official Guinnes Book of World Records for being the busiest train station in the world, with 3.5 million passengers per DAY utilizing six different train companies operating across 12 different lines, and has over 200 exits!

There are loads of shops and restaurants at the station, with several connections to nearby malls. It could feel like walking in a maze but the signs are fairly clear if you know where you’re going. The sheer number of people walking briskly by can feel hectic and intimidating though, and we felt it was too warm to eat at the underground restaurants, so we opted to eat at either mall restaurant floors or walk to the nearby kabukicho instead.

We chose to stay at Hyatt Regency hotel in Shinjuku right by the Metropolitan Government Building, primarily because I had enough Hyatt points for this stay, and also because it is quite convenient. There is a 7-Eleven right outside the building basement, and the same exit connects to a subway station just one stop away from Shinjuku station, which is quite convenient. As a last bonus, there is an airport bus that picks up right at the hotel and drops us off at the Narita (also available for Haneda) terminal, which is much more convenient than lugging our luggage through subways and connecting to the airport express trains. One down side is that there aren’t many restaurants right outside, most restaurant hubs are 8+ minutes away.

Voyagers tips: For hotels, there are lots of options around Tokyo and it can be confusing to decide where to stay. Most travel sites recommend either Shinjuku or Shibuya for the convenience as a transportation hub, and I agree. At the end of the day, since you’re likely to want to explore various parts of Tokyo, it really doesn’t matter which area you stay in as long as you’re close to a subway station. We chose to stay in Shinjuku and felt we made the right decision. Even Shinjuku is quite large though, so look for an area that has nearby restaurants and shops if that’s important to you.

Shinjuku At Night - Kabukicho, Omoide Yokocho & Golden Gai

The Shinjuku area is lively at night and it’s certainly worth exploring. We picked three representative spots to explore on foot, although the overall stroll through Shinjuku’s neon lights was an unique experience. While these are areas and streets, google maps does a really good job of leading you to the beginning or the heart of each destination.

Kabukicho is an entertainment district, a location of many host and hostess clubs, love hotels, shops, restaurants and nightclubs. As it’s also known as the red light district, we had some reservations of walking through this area with our girls, but it turned out to be not bad at all. With plenty of restaurants and tourists walking around, while some billboards and shop signs are “suggestive”, it felt quite safe walking through the area for us.

Shabushabu Nanadaime Matsugoro Restaurant - We stumbled across this great shabu shabu restaurant near the Toho Cinema building - Hitori . The staff was friendly, meat quality was fantastic, and price was reasonable.

Omoide Yokocho - A maze of narrow alleys stands in stark contrast to the bright and clean modern environment of the busy streets around Shinjuku station. The food stalls are very traditional and typically offer yakitori and beer, and they are small! No more than 10 customers for most restaurants! Not a great dinner place for families with younger kids, but a great spot for adults wanting to grab a drink and rub shoulders with fellow travelers in a traditional setting. While it has a traditional setting, this is one of the top tourist attractions so most visitors seem to be tourists. Certainly worth a quick walk through to see for yourself even if you don’t want to go into the stalls.

Golden Gai - Very similar to Omoide Yokocho with its narrow alleys and even smaller stalls. This area is almost strictly bars and some bars fit no more than 5 customers in a tight space. A great experience for some, but not recommended for families with kids. Definitely worth walking through to get the experience though!

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Day 7 - Tsukiji Market & Asakusa

Tsukiji Market

Nakamise Shopping Street

Senso-Ji Temple

Tokyo Skytree

Tsukiji Fish Market

A top attraction in Tokyo! The Tsukiji Fish Market got its start with the famous 5am fish auction, and many shops and food stands were set up around it. While the fish auction has moved to another location, this area remains a top attraction with numerous food stand stalls that are as lively as ever.

There are tamago (Japanese egg omelet), meat skewers, giant shumai, strawberry mochi, wagyu beef skewer, sashimi, raw oysters, ice cream and many more choices. This is street food heaven! The catch — It’s super crowded here, and some lines get really long.

Voyagers Tips: As is with most areas in Tokyo, there are no trash cans. Some shops have limited trash cans for their own customers and their own trash only. Here’s a tip - You can usually give trash back to a shop owner after you buy and eat their food, just ask them nicely. They’ll even take back a bit more of your other trash after you’ve bought food from them. Or bring a few trash bags with you and wait until you see a real trash bag, which is a general good practice in Tokyo.

Another tip: In general, it is considered rude to eat while walking in Japan. You can stand in one spot and eat, just don’t eat while walking. This is one of the exception areas — Given that the whole area is about street food, it is acceptable to eat and walk if you choose, just be cognizant of the people around you.

Nakamise Shopping Street

Nakamise street is the path leading to Sensoji-Temple so it’s two stops for the price of one! This is another busy street with lots of shops and some food stalls. A popular place to buy souvenirs for sure, although you may pay a bit of price premium given the popularity of this location.

Sensoji Temple

Sensjoi Temple is Tokyo’s oldest temple. Drawing a fortune is a fun activity for tourists here — Donate a coin, shake the metal box, pull out a stick with a number on it, and pull the fortune out from the drawer corresponding to the number. Here’s the interesting part — If you get a bad fortune you don’t like, fold it up and tie it to the nearby rack to have the gods get rid of the bad luck for you. Pretty neat!

Tourists can also do their prayers here. Drop some coins, make a wish, clap twice, make a bow, and your wish is complete!

The grounds around the temple are quite picturesque for a nice stroll. Afterwards, turn left (when coming from Nakamise) to exit the temple ground and you’ll see some interesting shopping streets that are less crowded and probably better places than Nakamise to buy souvenirs.

Tokyo Skytreee

The Skytree is part of a mall with a nice outdoor walking area around it as well as shopping floors, a food cour floor, and a floor with a supermarket. You can actually buy food to go from the supermarket and enjoy them on the food court dining area on the floor above it. When you’re done, enjoy the outdoor walking area. The walking path connects you to Tokyo Solamachi, which is another high-rise mall.

But you didn’t come here for the malls, you came here for the view! Follow signs to the observation deck ticketing area. You can buy tickets to the 350m deck, or the 450m galleria, or a combo ticket for both. We opted for both and were glad we did. The 350m viewing deck is more spacious and has more people. You can spot all the major Tokyo landmarks from here, including the nearby Sensoji temple. Find your way down to the lower level to check out the glass floor section if you don’t have fear of height.

Once you’re done checking out the 350m level, take the next elevator up to 450m. The view isn’t substantially different but it’s less crowded and a bit more relaxing.

If you have time, check out the malls, enjoy the food courts, and have a nice stroll on the outdoor walking deck. It’s a great way to spend a few hours.

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Day 8 - Shinjuku & Shibuya

Shinjuku Cross Vision

Takeshita Street

meiji shrine

Shibuya Scramble Crossing, Hachiko

Shibuya Crossing Square & Shibuya Sky

Zauo Fishing Restaurant

We mapped out an itinerary that’s suitable for departing from Shinjuku, but it can be easily modified if you’re starting from Shibuya or elsewhere. Just let Google Map help you figure out the order.

Takeshita Street and Meiji Shrine are at the same subway station (Harajuku station), they’re just on opposite sides of the station.

Shibuya Scramble Cross, Hachiko statue and Shibuya Sky (part of Shibuya Scramble Square) are all within a short walk of each other.

Cross Shinjuku Vision

A 3-d digital billboard! There is a cat that lives in this space and is ready to jump out! The billboard shows commercial videos with those of the cat intermittently, though only the cat videos seem to be 3d. It looks like the cat is jumping out or floating up!

Voyagers Tips: Google maps will lead you right to the building, where you cannot see the billboard. The best viewing angle is from diagonally across the intersection.

Takeshita Street

Takeshita Street is usually a busy and crowded pedestrian-only street lined with shops, restaurants and food stalls. It’s also known for younger crowds with more fashionable wear, so also a good spot for people watching. We visited on a rainy, stormy day with less-than-usual amount of people.

MEIJI SHRINE

Meiji Shrine is a peaceful getaway in the center of Tokyo, a stroll inside it makes you forget you’re in the center of the most populous city in the world. It reminds me of Central Park, but in a very uniquely Japanese way. The walk is scenic and peaceful and we found it to be more enjoyable than the shrine itself. Overall a must-visit in Tokyo!

Shibuya Scramble Crossing & Hachiko Statue

Shibuya Crossing is the world’s busiest crossing, with over 2.4 million people crossing it every day! You have likely seen videos of this crossing, and it’s fun to see and walk through it yourself. We visited on a rainy, stormy day, so the crowd size was somewhat reduced, but it was still interesting to see.

One great spot to take a higher aerial view of the crossing is the Starbucks on the 2nd floor of the mall by the crossing corner. It’s a crowded Starbucks but the view is worth a quick visit.

Hachico is a popular statue of a dog. There is an interesting story where the dog used to wait at the Shibuya Station every day for to greet his owner on his commute home. Even after the owner’s death, the dog still loyally showed up everyday for his owner to return home. The statue is just by the crossing and makes a nice quick stop. We didn’t feel the need to wait in line for the photo op, just snapped a quick picture for memory in between other people’s turns.

Shibuya Crossing Square & Shibuya Sky

This is one of the newer malls in Tokyo and is a short walk from Shibuya Crossing. The mall itself is nice, the food court in the basement has lots of great choices. Its main attraction is the high observation deck, which, unlike Skytree, is open air. We sampled some interesting food in the food court, but skipped out on the observation deck due to the inclement weather. Hopefully you will have better luck. Reviews say it gets crowded here though, so either look into reservations or get here early.

Zauo Fishing Restaurant

What an interesting concept! Grab a fishing stick, catch your own fish, and have the restaurant prepare it for you! Definitely a fun and unique restaurant experience, and the kids loved it. Catching the fish turned out to be quite easy, just be prepared to pay for whatever fish you catch. There are also items straight off the menu, so you can just catch one or two large fish, a few shrimps, have them prepare them for you, and add a few dishes from the menu to complete the meal.

Voyagers tips: Make reservations early, ideally a month early! This place gets booked up fast! Zauo is a chain with a few other locations as well.

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Day 9 - Odaiba

Lunch in Shinjuku

Odaiba - Shopping Malls Experience

Teamlab Planets

The lunch in Shinjuku was our opportunity to meet with an old friend. Feel free to skip this part and head straight to Odaiba.

Odaiba is an entertainment district on the southeast edge of Tokyo by the water, filled with a chill vibe and numerous malls, each with its unique flavor. There is a nice scenic walk along the river bank, you can even find a Statue of Liberty and a small sandy beach there. It’s a great place for a chill day away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo city center. For us, however, the highlight of the day was definitely the incredible TeamLab experience.

Voyagers tips: Instead of taking the subway straight to Odaiba, consider heading to other ports such as Asakusa and taking a one-way cruise to Odaiba. This will allow you to add an enjoyable cruise to your itinerary. We didn’t plan ahead to do this but wish we did.

Lunch in Shinjuku

We met up with our old MBA friend Daniel at Yona Yona Beer Works. A great casual place to meet up during the day and enjoy some beer, chicken wings and sausages, although I’m sure it gets busy later in the day. It was great catching up!

After lunch, Daniel pointed us to the building with the big Godzilla on top of the building. There’s a little light-and-smoke Godzilla show periodically too. You can even go up to that floor to see Godzilla up close, but we opted to just enjoy from the street.

Odaiba

After getting out of the Daiba station, we took a relaxing stroll to the Unicorn Gundam statue in front of Diver City mall. It’s a massive Gundam statue and a fun photo op. Diver City has a great food court on the bottom floor and is a nice mall for some shopping.

From there, we continued to scenic walking path to Aqua City Odaiba right by the water. Aqua City is another huge mall, where the main attraction for us is the RAMEN KOKUGIKAN MAI. This is the mini “street” on the food floor where six popular ramen restaurants from across Japan all get together in one area. You can walk down, see which restaurant you want to try out, order the ramens on the vending machine, and go inside to be seated. We chose the Kanazawa Rich Pork Bone Ramen Shinsen, which had great flavor but was a bit too salty for our taste buds.

Next to Aqua City is Decks, another huge mall by the water. There are two unique attractions to call out here: Joypolis and Takoyaki Museum. Joypolis is an indoor amusement park with a video-game theme. There is an entrance ticket fee, you can buy the ticket just to enter or a combo ticket that includes the attractions. We were short on time and decided not to go in this time, but it sure looked fun.

There is a “Takoyaki Museum” which is a section of the food court where all the stalls specializes in takoyaki (Japanese squid balls). The word “museum” is used loosely here. It’s a worthwhile experience if you’re still not full from the prior food courts.

We really enjoyed the walk along the river, chilling by the sandy beach, taking scenic pictures of the Statue of Liberty and Rainbow Bridge in the background, and just enjoying the sunshine and breeze. It was a great stop to wind down on our last day in Japan.

TeamLab Planets

We concluded our Tokyo visit with a bang - TeamLab Planets was amazing and was unlike anything we’ve ever seen or experienced. It’s a fully immersive experience, you go from room to room with completely different experiences in each room. You go in barefoot and some rooms involve walking in water up to half-calf, so dress accordingly.

Voyagers tips: Make reservations early! We almost missed it because the tickets were sold out, had to re-arrange our itinerary to visit TeamLab in the evening when the tickets were available.

If you stay in Shinjuku or Shibuya, be prepared for a lengthy trip home. It takes about an hour to get back to your hotel in these areas.

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Day 10 - Going Home

Head to Narita & Fly Home

This is it! All great things must come to an end, including our awesome Japan trip!
One of the benefits of the Hyatt Regency Shinjuku hotel is that the airport transit bus stops right in front of the lobby. The door-to-door bus service is much more convenient than lugging baggages through the streets and subway and train stations. The bus ride took about 2hr 25min, not too bad, and there is wifi onboard. You can ask your hotel about the availability of airport buses and book tickets online. There are also airport buses for Haneda airports as well.

Voyagers tips: If your hotel isn’t a convenient airport bus stop, a popular option is to take the express airport train from Shinjuku station.

We flew Japan Airlines and the service was impeccable. You can also pay for lounge access, but it must be reserved and paid for either at the time of booking tickets or prior to check-in. We had a late afternoon flight and paid for lounge service to chill for a few hours, money well spent!

We created this travel blog mainly as a way to capture memories and share them with friends and family, but also as a source of ideas for others wanting to plan a similar trip. Hope you find this blog helpful. Until next time!

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