Mid-late March this year I travelled to Japan with my family. It was my first international trip since covid and also my first time visiting Japan.

I know a few folks travelling there soon who may want ideas for things to do. I also had some photos I wanted to share and nowhere to put them. So I’ve made this post to address both of those things.

General notes

• I used Japan Guide, /r/JapanTravel and /r/JapanTravelTips to find things to do. Japan.travel also looks like it may be useful
• The main thing we were hoping to see were the cherry blossoms. We managed to snag a few photos, but colder than average temperatures pushed the peak of the season past our departure date
• We didn’t have a particularly detailed itinerary before we arrived. We had a spreadsheet and Google doc with a list of things we wanted to check out, but for the most part we were planning things day by day
• I signed up for Ubigi’s 10 GB for 30 days plan as it was recommended by a few folks on /r/JapanTravel. I finished the trip with 2.4 GB to spare
• We used Japan Travel by Navitime and Google Maps to find our way around
• We bought a JR Pass ahead of time. We didn’t get much use out of it as we didn’t make as many day trips as we thought we would. It did at least get us a discount on the Shinkansen
• We were travelling with someone who couldn’t consume too much red meat, too much fried food, or any raw seafood. This narrowed our food options somewhat
• A few days before our flight we enabled international payments on our regular cards so that we could use them to pay or withdraw cash while we were travelling. This was probably costly given all the transaction fees

Day by day summary

Day 1 (Melbourne -> Osaka)

• Woke up at 3am to catch our flight
• Flight to Cairns Airport
• Flight to Kansai International Airport. Took about an hour to get through immigration
• Train to Momodani Station
• Checked in to Hotel Trad about 5 minutes before check ins closed
• Snagged a hot drink from a vending machine across the road from our hotel
• Dinner: Instant noodles that we brought from home

Day 2 (Osaka)

• Breakfast: Yayoiken Tsuruhashi
• Wandered through Tsurushin Square. Also got lost for about an hour trying to find the entrance to Tsuruhashi Station
• Shitennoji Koshindo
• Shitennoji Temple
• Shinsekai
  • Had some takoyaki from Takoten
  • Wandered through Shinsekai Market
  • Yakisoba from Horumon-udonmeshi Gombe
  • Went up to the observation deck in Tsūtenkaku
• Dinner: Ramen Sanpei
• Bought snacks from Châteraisé Tennoji Tojocho which was downstairs from our hotel

Day 3 (Osaka)

• Breakfast: Yayoiken Tsuruhashi
• Osaka Castle. Didn’t go inside as the queue was long
• Lunch: Suwaki Kourakku
• Dotonbori
• Dinner: Okonokmiyaki and takoyaki from Takohachi
• Bought melon pan from Melon Bread

Day 4 (Osaka -> Kobe -> Osaka)

• Breakfast: Yayoiken Tsuruhashi again
• Stopped by Sannomiya Station to buy some snacks from Manneken
• Kobe Animal Kingdom
  • They had sections to pet rabbits, cats and dogs. These areas required a booking and bookings only opened 30 minutes ahead of time iirc. We ended up skipping these
  • Came here for the capybaras but we managed to explore the rest of the place before closing time
• Lunch: One of the cafes at Kobe Animal Kingdom (might have been Yamaneko Kitchen?)

• Dinner: Kanazawa Maimonzushi Lucia Osaka
• Bought more snacks from Châteraisé Tennoji Tojocho

Day 5 (Osaka -> Tokyo)

• Checked out of Hotel Trad
• Breakfast: Matsuya Tsuruhashi
• Lunch: Bento box from one of the stores in Eki Marche Osaka
• Shinkansen to Tokyo Station
• Checked in to Rembrandt style Tokyo Nishikasai
• Spent the rest of the day resting at the hotel as I felt unwell
• Dinner: Takeaway katsudon from somewhere near Nishi-kasai Station (might have been Katsuya Tokyo Nishikasai?)

Day 6 (Tokyo)

• Managed to recover enough to travel
• Breakfast at hotel
• Got an earthquake alert on my phone. Didn’t notice anything at the time, but others at the hotel reported feeling a tremor
• Dropped by Uniqlo Ginza Flagshipstore to buy some heat tech
• Lunch: Ginza Kagari
  • Store had two queues: The first queue lead to a vending machine where you can place an order and get a ticket. The second was for a seat inside
  • Had a 55 minute wait. But this was the best tori paitan ramen I’ve ever had
• Wandered around GINZA SIX to check out their stores and rooftop garden
• Dinner: Bento boxes from FamilyMart

Day 7 (Tokyo)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Shibuya Scramble Crossing. Snapped some photos from a walkway somewhere between Shibuya Station and Shibuya Mark City
• Hachiko Statue
• Meiji Jingu

• Lunch: IKEA Harajuku
• Dropped by UNIQLO Harajuku and UNIQLO Shibuya to buy more thermals
• Shibuya Parco to check out Nintendo Tokyo and Pokemon Center
• Dinner: IKEA Shibuya. Didn’t mean to dine at IKEA twice but it was getting late and we figured there’d be lines everywhere else

Day 8 (Tokyo)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Wandered around Takashimaya and Lumine near Shinjuku Station
• Lunch: うどん茶房 KAKAYA ルミネ新宿店 (Kakaya Udon Sabo)
• Dinner: こめらく 贅沢な、お茶漬け日和。 ルミネエスト新宿店 (Komeraku)
• Dessert: Original Pancake House Shinjuku
• Picked up some mochi donuts from Mister Donut near Nishi-Kasai Station
• Booked tickets for Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Day 9 (Tokyo)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Arranged for some our luggage to be sent to our next hotel in Kyoto
• Lunch: Kayu-San-Chin (Shinjuku Keio Mall)
• Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.
  • Most of the cherry blossoms were still budding but they had some variants that bloomed early
  • We skipped the greenhouse, kids area, museum and formal gardens due to time
• UNIQLO Takashimaya Shinjuku to buy even more thermals
• Dinner: Katsukura Shinjuku Takashimaya

Day 10 (Tokyo -> Kyoto)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Checked out of Rembrandt style Tokyo Nishikasai
• Shinkansen to Kyoto Station
• Lunch: Self-heating ekiben from Ekibenya Matsuri Gransta Tokyo
• Checked in to Irori Kyoto Station Higashi-Honganji
• Dinner: Seppourai - Kyoto Tower
• Bought more food from McDonald’s - Kyoto Station to see what it was like

Day 11 (Kyoto)

• Arranged for some our luggage to be sent to our next hotel in Osaka
• Breakfast: Some snacks that we bought from somewhere near Kyoto Station the previous night
• Lunch: Kyo Suishin
• Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine. We had more walking planned later so we only made it partway through Sembon Torii (Thousand Torii Gates) before turning back

• Returned to Kyoto Station
• Bought some pork buns from 551 Horai - Kyoto Porta to snack on
• Took a taxi to Japanese Noodle ISSUN BOUSHI as we knew we wanted to explore Higashiyama District but we weren’t sure where to start
• Dinner: Japanese Noodle ISSUN BOUSHI
• Stopped by loose kyoto for hot chocolate
• Wandered around Higashiyama District
  • There used to be a spot on Google Maps labelled “Yasaka Pagoda Photograph Shot”. I haven’t been able to find it again, but we took some photos of Yasaka Pagoda from somewhere around here

• Kiyomizu-dera for the night illuminations. It was cold and rainy that night so we only explored part of the grounds up until Okuno-in Hall before turning back

Day 12 (Kyoto -> Osaka)

• Check out of Irori Kyoto Station Higashi-Honganji
• Spent about an hour in Kyoto Station looking for a locker for our remaining bags
• Lunch: Masakiya - Kyoto Porta
• Kyoto Gyoen National Garden. Saw more cherry blossoms
• Kyoto Imperial Palace
• Train to Osaka Station, then another train to Rinku-Town Station
• Checked in to Washington Hotel Kansai Airport
• Dinner: Bento boxes from Lawson Rinku Papillio

Day 13 (Osaka)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Osaka Station
• Window shopping and souvenir hunting at a few stores:
  • Daimaru Umeda Store
  • Tokyu Hands Umeda
  • Nintendo Osaka
  • Pokemon Center Osaka
  • Capcom Store
• Lunch: Kumeya
• Dropped by Don Quijote Umeda Honten for Kit Kats and more souvenirs
• Dessert: A Happy Pancake
• Dinner: Kanazawa Maimonzushi Lucia Osaka again

Day 14 (Osaka -> Melbourne)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Checked out of Washington Hotel Kansai Airport. We still had 12 hours until our flight so the staff allowed us to leave our luggage at the hotel
• Osaka Station. Dropped by Daimaru Umeda Store for some last minute shopping Tokyu Hands Umeda
• Lunch: Ginza Kagari Lucua Osaka
• Tried to drop by A Happy Pancake one last time but there was a queue and we had a bus to catch so we skipped it T_T
• Returned to hotel to collect our luggage, redistribute some things to meet the weight limit, then took the shuttle bus to Kansai International Airport
• Flight to Cairns Airport
• Flight to Melbourne Airport

Things I would like to revisit or try next time

Not a comprehensive list, but here’s a few things on my wishlist:

• Try more food. We didn’t get a chance to try Ichiran Ramen or Gyukatsu Motomura. There’s also heaps of Michelin star restaurants in Tokyo
• Nara Park for the deer
• Dotonbori, Osaka. We only strolled through two streets during our time here. There’s heaps of shops and restaurants to check out
• Shibuya Sky, Tokyo
• Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo on a sunny day
• Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto during sunset or during autumn for a different view
• Higashiyama District, Kyoto. We made a bee-line for Kiyomizu-dera so we skipped most of it, including streets like Ninenzaka, Sannenzaka and Hanamikoji Street
• Philosopher’s Path, Kyoto
• Visit a ryokan
• See a floating torii gate
• Take part in a tea ceremony - probably somewhere in Kyoto?

Thanks for reading this post! Catch you next time 👋