After months of planning and waiting excitedly, it was finally time to go to Japan! We went for 3 weeks from the 31st of October to the 20th of November. This was our first big overseas holiday, which was super exciting but also a bit scary. Because we did so much, I’m going to split up these blog posts by each city. First up, Tokyo!
We technically had 7 days in each city, Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka although we didn’t end up having much time to explore Tokyo. We spent a few of the days in Disneyland. Tokyo was everything I’d hoped for, and left me wanting more. As soon as we left, we knew we hadn’t had enough time exploring this amazing city (which I guess is a good excuse to come back, right!?)
We arrived at Tokyo Narita airport at 7pm on a Wednesday night. As soon as we got off the plane, we went to pick up the portable wifi that I’d pre-booked before we left. This wifi was an absolute god send. It made our lives 100 times easier. We also had to go swap our Japan Rail Exchanges for the JR Passes. (You can read more about these here). These were also amazing and reduced the stress of having to book train tickets for every journey, and saved us a few dollars on the Shinkansen.
We’d booked accomodation near the airport to make that first night less stressful. It turned out that we were meant to pre-book our hotel shuttle, which we hadn’t done. It was going to be an hour walk to the hotel and we were tired and overwhelmed so we just got in a taxi.
While this was the best option at the time, taxi’s are not worth it! Total tourist trap. After we got over these initial hurdles, it was finally time to head in to Tokyo city. I also didn’t realise how far away the city was from the airport, it took us about an hour on the trains to get to Tokyo Station. But we made it and finally it was time to start exploring Japan!
Must Do
Shinjuku – this was our first day in Tokyo and we were honestly just in awe of everything. Shinjuku was the bustling city of Tokyo that I was expecting. I’d wanted to go to the station so we could buy passes for a Mount Fuji / Hakone day trip later in the week. I think this would’ve been a better area to stay in as a Tokyo base, as there was a lot more going on. We used the Google Trips app to see what there was in the area, and it suggested visiting Shinjuku Gyoen National Park. The park had a Chrysanthemum exhibition on, which are the strangest looking flowers, like little bulbs on sticks. The most distinctive thing about Japan I noticed is that the crazy city and peaceful parks and shrines coexist so harmoniously. You can walk 500 metres up the street and find yourself in a oasis when you were just in the middle of the city. After this, we headed back to the city and loved wandering through the streets, where we found our first 100 Yen store (which very quickly became our favourite type of store in Japan). We liked Shinjuku so much that we came back again a few days later to explore more (but mostly just to buy more things from the 100 Yen store).
Harajuku – was a dream come true. First up we visited the Meiji Jingu Shrine which is right next to Harajuku Station. It’s a bit of a trek and you need to keep walking further than you think you do to get to the main shrine. We saw heaps of people give up halfway and just walk back, missing out on the main sight. Similarly to the garden in Shinjuku, it was strange being in such a quiet oasis right next to the craziness of Harajuku city. After admiring this for a while, we headed into Takeshita St, which is like the hub of Harajuku. There was so much pink everywhere and I felt 100% in my element. On my bucket list was to get a crepe from Santa Monica crepes, and I was not disappointed! BUT, as soon as we walked down Takeshita St, we saw a crepe store every 5 metres, so I didn’t really need to spend half an hour fan-girling over the first one we saw. Also something we noticed here was that most stores don’t open until 11am, because they stay open so late. This was a bit annoying because we got up early to see the sights before the crowds but then there was nothing to eat or do for a while. We finished off our Harajuku exploration with a trip to Harry’s Hedgehog cafe! They were the cutest things ever and now I definitely need a pet hedgehog. I thought it would be like an actual cafe but its just a room full of big fish tank-like boxes that the Hedgehogs were in. The hedgehogs we got were sleepy and anti-social but still so cute.
Shibuya – like Shinjuku, Shibuya was the hustle bustle of city that I was looking forward to. It’s a short walk from Harajuku, so we headed over around midday. The highlight of Shibuya is the Shibuya Crossing. We spent ages walking back and forth across the road taking pics and having a great time. I spotted a building next to the crossing promoting crossing photos from the rooftop, we went up and got some good pics and awesome views of the city. As a ‘must see’ place in Tokyo, it felt a bit overrated, but we still had fun trying to get the perfect photo. Also in Shibuya is the ‘Hachiko’ dog statue, which again is very overrated but has a sweet story behind it. When we saw it, there was a cat and her baby kitten having a nap on the statue – cutest thing ever. Another good find in Shibuya was this amazing 5 level store called ‘Loft’, where we bought way too much washi tape and stickers.
Disneyland and DisneySea – we’d planned this to go over Jade’s birthday and to finish up the week in Tokyo. Both parks were absolutely amazing, and we had a blast. Check out my full Disney post here.
Day Trip
Hakone / Mount Fuji – this was one of my favourite days in Japan. We bought the Hakone Freepass which basically gave us free access on the modes of transport through Hakone. When we bought the tickets, we were given an itinerary which we followed throughout the day. The whole area is set up so well and definitely makes it easy for tourists. From Shinjuku station we got on a train to Hakone-Yumoto and then a bus to the Lake Ashi where we got on a sightseeing cruise. This was where you were meant to see Mount Fuji, but it was too cloudy to see anything. You then get a ropeway up to Owakudani, which was the highlight of the day. It was honestly the most amazing landscape I’ve ever witnessed. I literally couldn’t keep my jaw closed, I was in awe. The ropeway then took us back down the mountain to a cable car which took us back to the beginning of the loop. While we sadly didn’t see Mount Fuji (which was the main motive of the day) as it was too cloudy, we were pleasantly surprised by everything and had the most amazing day anyway.
Accommodation
Our hotel was nice but wasn’t in the best location. I would definitely recommend researching the area and booking as close as possible to a JR line if you’re using the JR pass. It wasn’t terrible but a 2k walk back to the hotel at the end of a busy day wasn’t the most fun thing. I would also recommend staying in a city like Shinjuku for a more immersive experience. We stayed near Tokyo Station which sounded like the best option but was actually out of the way with not a lot to see and do within walking distance.
Food
We’re not the most experimental when it comes to food and being in a foreign country alone for the first time, where most people can’t speak English, we decided to stick to what we knew. And we were not disappointed. Our go to food place was 7/11. We literally went there every single day, often more than once. I loved the pork buns, and quickly became obsessed with Pocky (if you don’t know what this is, you need it in your life). Also, the ice-cream everywhere was absolutely amazing. You can get pre-packaged soft serves from 7/11 and they are so good! We ate more ice-cream on this trip than we had in our whole lives.
Tokyo completely exceeded expectations. I’d really like to go back during cherry blossom season and try to see Mount Fuji again. The one thing we learnt from this trip – in particular from Tokyo – is not to over pack the itinerary and to allow for changes. Some of our best days were the unplanned unexpected ones. I would also have liked a few more days to see the city more slowly and try to see some more of the culture. We still had to most amazing time and every second was so worthwhile.
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