Photos
Background
I had been to Japan twice before, back in 2017 and 2018. Both of these were primarily for work but I took advantage of already being there to tour around both times. (My Mom also came along in 2018.) I absolutely loved Japan and had wanted to return for a while. As Kyle graduated high school this year, we wanted to give him the opportunity to select where we might go four our annual trip. He has been into Japanese culture for a while so we all decided that Japan it was. The only downside was that due to school schedules, etc., we had to go in the summer. We ended up going in mid-August which meant it was past the rainy season but well into the hottest part of the summer. More on that later.
For planning, we pretty much used my past experience, Youtube and an older edition of the Lonely Planet Japan guide (leftover from my first trip). I also reread Richard Mason and J. G. Caiger’s A History of Japan, John Hersey’s Hiroshima and the very good detective Kyoichiro Kaga series by Keigo Higashino. (We actually stayed in the area the last takes place which was kind of cool.)
Itinerary
- Day 1 – Sat Aug 10 – Fly from Newark
- Day 2 – Sun Aug 11 – Arrive Tokyo and settle in
- Day 3 – Mon Aug 12 – Tokyo – Meiji Shrine, Shibuya
- Day 4 – Tue Aug 13 – Tokyo – Asakusa, Akihabara
- Day 5 – Wed Aug 14 – Yokohama
- Day 6 – Thur Aug 15 – Train to Fukuoka (early due to typhoon)
- Day 7 – Fri Aug 16 – Fukuoka – Nanzoin Temple, Fukuoka shrines/temples
- Day 8 – Sat 17 Aug – Fukuoka – Maizura castle, city museum
- Day 9 – Sun 18 Aug – Train to Hiroshima, Peace Park and Museum, castle
- Day 10 – Mon 19 Aug – Hiroshima – Shukkeien Gardens, shrines and temples
- Day 11 – Tue 20 Aug – Train to Kyoto – explore Kyoto
- Day 12 – Wed 21 Aug – Kyoto – Temples, Nijo Castle
- Day 13 – Thu 22 Aug – Kyoto & Nara
- Day 14 – Fri 23 Aug – Kyoto – Temples and shrines
- Day 15 – Sat 24 Aug – Train to Kansai (Osaka) airport, fly home
Sat Aug 10 & Sun Aug 11 – Flying to Tokyo
Given we had a 10:30am flight and it was international, we hopped in our pre-scheduled Uber at 7am to get to the airport the, very safe, three hours ahead of time. We had opted to purchase Premium Plus tickets, basically equivalent to domestic first class, given the 14 hour flight time. However, I was able to get upgrades for a few hundred dollars plus some miles, putting us in United’s Polaris business class. This gave us access to the special Polaris lounge, a step up from their standard lounges, before our flight which was nice. Of course, the seats on the plane itself were great, being full lie down and tons of space. It was almost our own little pods. The flight itself was as fine as a 14 hour flight can be. We each got a little sleep, taking advantage of the lie-flat seats.
Our arrival in Tokyo was on time, right around 1:30pm on Sunday. Immigration was a bit confusing and took about 30 mins. I’m not sure doing the preregistration that I had done helped at all. We then grabbed some cash, picked up our wi-fi hotspot, and one more IC card before grabbing the Keikyu train to the stop for our apartment, arriving there right around 4pm. This being a direct shot was nice. Our AirBnB apartment was in the Nihonbashi (can also be written as Nihombashi) district. The apartment itself was fine with two separate bedrooms, a large dining room/living room/kitchen and a washer and dryer. (We made use of the last.) The location was so-so. It was close to a Metro stop but in a quiet area. I would have preferred to be somewhere a bit more lively.
After settling in, we walked down to the Imperial Palace, down one edge of the park there, and then over to Tokyo Station. This was longer than I expected and it was very hot and humid. I was doing okay but Kyle especially was dragging quite a bit. We walked around the station for a while before settling on Udon for dinner. We then hopped the Metro back to the apartment and called it an early night after a long trip.
Mon Aug 12 – Tokyo Day 1
First thing in the morning, I started the day with a run through the very nice park along the Sumida River. While it was hot even around 6am, I love running a new place. I also saw quite a few others. We then all headed out for the Metro, stopping for breakfast at a Veloce cafe, and over to Meiji Shrine. It was nice to walk around and Suzanne and Kyle got to see their first real shrine. We thought about the garden, which is quite nice, but it was already very warm. We next wandered around Shibuya a bit before grabbing lunch at the Blast! food hall (veggie curry). Up next was a wander though the giant, multi-building Yodobashi Camera, probably the largest camera/electronics store in the world, before hitting up the packed Animate Anime/Manga store in Ikebukuro. After popping back to the apartment, Suzanne and I hit up Yoshinoya for some very cheap, but pretty good Gyudon (shaved beef with onions).
Tue Aug 13 – Tokyo Day 2
Today, it was just Suzanne and I for the morning. We started with breakfast at a Detour cafe by the apartment and then headed to Asakusa. Here we visited possibly the most touristed spot in Tokyo, Senso-ji Temple and its adjacent Nakamise shopping street and Kaminarimon gate. It really is an incredible place but it was incredibly busy. (When I was in Japan before, there were fewer tourists and I was here earlier in the morning.) After visiting the temple and its small garden we also walked through the Nishi-sando covered shopping arcade, got some yummy Melon Pan (bread that looks like a melon but doesn’t have any actual melon in it) and other side streets in the area.
Following Asakusa, we hopped a train to Tokyo Sky Tree, a large shopping mall and tourist site. We spent a couple of hours there before heading back toward the apartment. Suzanne wasn’t feeling great so I had lunch near the apartment at Monkey Tree Burgers (decent enough). We then all headed out to wander around Akihabara which is the center of tech and techie culture in Tokyo (probably the world). On the way back we walked a bit through Nihonbashi, stopping for a beer at Nihonbashi Brewery before Suzanne and went to dinner at Torikizuko (chain yakitori).
Wed Aug 14 – Yokohama
Kyle wanted to visit Yokohama so we headed the Metro, grabbed breakfast at a bakery in the station and made the roughly hour trip. We were going to hit the Cup Noodle museum, even waiting a bit, but the line was long and we decided it wasn’t worth it. (I went in 2017.) We walked down the harbor a bit and visited the small but interesting North Korea Spy Ship Exhibit of the Japanese Coast Guard. This has the remains of a North Korean spy boat sunk but the Japanese Coast Guard in 2001. While it was small, it was free and cool to see. Kyle really wanted to head further south to see Japanese battleship Mikasa so he and I headed that way while Suzanne stayed near Yokohama station for some fabric shopping. After lunch at McDonald’s, we headed over. The ship was really interesting and cool to see. I’m glad Kyle pushed to visit. After meeting on the train on the way back (as it was going through Yokohama station, we headed back to the apartment.
For dinner, I had booked Suzanne and me at Sosaku Teppan Konamono Ushishi. This was a multicourse, small plate, very high end meal and was absolutely amazing. The restaurant was small and we were two of a total of six people. It was interesting as the server/hostess spoke no English so it was a lot of Google translate which worked well. It was also fairly reasonable for what we got at only $80/person (including unlimited drinks and there’s not tip). I felt it was an amazing value.
After dinner, the night got a bit interesting. We had tickets to head to Fukuoka on Friday but there was a typhoon coming into Tokyo. Japan Rail was going to shut down all the trains on Fri so we either had to leave Thursday or wait until Saturday. After debating a bit, we decided to leave early. We had to rebook our tickets but got most of the original money back. (We booked through a third party so lost their fee, around $50.) We got a great deal on a room at the same hotel as we had booked for Friday and Saturday. While we did eat the cost of a night at the apartment, overall it was only an extra $150 or so including the train fee. Unfortunately, it also meant we missed a visit to the Tokyo National Museum, which Kyle was really looking forward to, and I missed meeting some colleagues from my company’s Tokyo office. Given Friday would have been a complete washout (Tokyo got something like 10 inches of rain) and how much more rescheduling it would have been to leave Saturday, leaving early was the best choice.
Thur Aug 15 – Train to Fukuoka
I was up early and went for a walk around Nihonbashi. I especially wanted to see Nihonbashi Bridge as it was a key spot in one of the Kyoichiro Kaga books. After grabbing some wonderful pastries at Beaver Bread bakery near the apartment, we did our final packing and hung out until heading to Tokyo Station around noon. (BTW, using the Go! taxi app worked amazingly well. It’s kind of like Uber but for legit taxis. Uber is very limited in Japan.) After a quick lunch and beer at Hitachino Brewing Lab, we hopped the bullet train for the five hour ride down to the south island of Kyushu and Fukuoka.
In Fukuoka, we grabbed a taxi to our hotel, the DEL style Fukuoka-Nishinakasu, and dropped our bags. Kyle loved this hotel as there was a 7-11 on the ground floor. Suzanne and I popped out for ramen at Haruyoshi Ramen which was a quite the dive, basically a shack on the street, but had amazing ramen. We then walked along the river, past the famous yatai food stalls before calling it a night.
Fri Aug 16 – Fukuoka Day 1
As we had to change rooms, we did a quick packing and left our luggage at the front desk. Following breakfast at the train station, we hopped a train for the 30 minute ride out to Nanzoin Temple. It was cool to see a bit of the countryside and the temple itself is home to the world’s largest reclining Buddha. It was a little bit of a hike up to the top but not too bad. Back in Fukuoka, we visited the small but interesting Folk Museum and Kushida Shrine before grabbing ice cream at Baskin-Robbins.
After checking back in and a quick lunch from 7-11, Suzanne and I wandered back out to visit Shofukiji shrine and Tochiji temple. At the latter, we were impressed by the “giant” Buddha (and it was only ~$1 admission). After our visits, Suzanne rested back to the hotel to cool off while I headed out to the great Beerkichi beer bar. Dinner was some decent pork tonkatsu at Tonkatsu Hamakatsu, followed by a quick stop at Uniqlo before heading back for the night.
Sat Aug 17 – Fukuoka Day 2
I started the morning with a nice run out to the waterfront/ferry terminal and then Suzanne and I enjoyed the decent breakfast buffet at the hotel. We then all headed out to visit the castle ruins in Maizura Park. This was a bit of a walk and it was quite warm. After spending a bit over an hour, we walked (a long walk) over to the very nice Fukuoka City Museum. This was very well done and well signed in English, tracing the history of Fukuoka/Hakata. We taxied back to the hotel (yay for the Go! app), dropped off Kyle and Suzanne and I did some wandering, grabbed a beer at Fukuoka Craft Brewing at Hakata station, and shopping around the Canal City mall. We walked back to the hotel, rested a bit, and then headed back to Canal City’s Ramen Stadium for dinner of ramen noodles at Hide Chan. (Some people consider Fukuoka to be the birthplace of Ramen so we had to have it on our final night there.)
Sun Aug 18 – Train to Hiroshima
After breakfast at the hotel again, we checked out, grabbed a taxi to Hakata Station and hopped the bullet train for the one hour trip up to Hiroshima. After dropping our bags at the hotel, the perfectly fine Daiwa Roynet Hotel Hiroshima business hotel, we headed over to Peace Park. I had bought evening tickets to the Peace Memorial Museum but it didn’t look too busy so we paid again. (It wasn’t expensive.) However, the outside was deceiving as it was packed inside. We ended up leaving halfway through with plans to go back later. We next walked around the park, including a visit to the very moving Peace Memorial Hall and a walk by the Atomic Bomb Building. It’s incredibly moving to be at the very site of where the first atomic bomb was dropped. (Interestingly, we have also seen the plane that dropped the bomb, the Enola Gay, at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center outside Washington, DC.) We continued our walk, which turned out to be long and hot, to Hiroshima Castle. This was kind of a cool place to visit. The castle keep is especially impressive though it was rebuilt after the bombing. Following a quick ice cream right by the castle, we taxied back to the hotel for checkin.
I headed back out for some good beer at Hiroshima Neighborly Brewing before meeting with Suzanne in the Hondori shopping arcade, grabbing some yummy fresh red bean paste taiyaki. After a rest at the hotel, we headed back to the museum for our evening visit. It was still busy but far less so than earlier. This is an incredibly powerful and moving museum. For dinner, we tried to go to a soba place (as Kyle likes plain soba) but it was closing time. Kyle grabbed some McDonald’s and headed back to the hotel while Suzanne and I grabbed some wonderful okonomiyaki at Hirochan in the multi-storied with many okonomiyaki restaurants Okonomiyaki Street building.
Mon 19-Aug – Hiroshima Day
After a morning run and not very good breakfast at the hotel, Suzanne and I headed out for the day. We had planned to head Miyajima Island but got a late start so stayed in town. We spent quite some time visiting the excellent Shukkeien Garden before visiting Nigitsu, Tsuruhane and Toshogu Shrines. These were kind of cool to see as there were very few other people there. Lunch was at Bakudanya noodle restaurant in the train station. We walked back to the hotel with a quick stop at The Smith for some craft beer and a wander down the shopping arcade again. We were hoping for dinner at the soba place from Sunday night but they were closed on Mondays. Instead it was decent enough pizza at Kembys. (I actually had a burger there in 2017.) Back at the hotel, we packed up for the morning
Tue 20-Aug – Train to Kyoto
Breakfast was some excellent pastries at the Little Mermaid bakery/cafe (right near the hotel) before taxiing to the station and hopping the bullet train once again, this time for not quite two hour trip up to Kyoto.
After dropping luggage at our hotel, the very nice MIMARU Kyoto Shinmachi Sanjo where we had a family room including a kitchen and washer and dryer. (We had two regular rooms at our other hotels.) We walked up to the castle but hadn’t realized/forgot it was closed on Tuesday. (The garden was open but it’s worth seeing the interior.) Instead we walked down to and through Nishiki market before stopping at a small grocery store and heading back to the hotel for checkin. After some unpacking, Suzanne and I headed back out to visit Yasaka Shrine before dinner at Kura Sushi, a revolving sushi restaurant. I really wanted to try one of these as I hadn’t on previous trips. It was cool but I think I managed to break several of the domed dishes on the belt trying to get out sushi. (We pretty much stuck to custom ordering after that. )
Wed 21-Aug – Kyoto Day 1
After a quick breakfast in our room, Suzanne and I grabbed a taxi to up near the famous Kiyomizu Dera temple. We finished the hike up to the temple and visited. It was busy but not super packed. It was cool to see this as it was under renovation and partially covered in scaffolding last time I was there. After a good visit to the temple, we walked around the small streets in the area, down the hill and made our way to Kodaiji temple. This was also a nice visit though I managed to scrape my head on a nail in a door frame and was bleeding quite a bit. I didn’t realize this until I bent down over a concrete step and saw blood drip onto it. Luckily Suzanne had a towel to wipe the blood away. It was bit sore for a few days but wasn’t a big deal. Next up were Choin-in and Shorenin temples. There are a lot of temples and shrines in Kyoto as it was the center of religious (and political) life in Japan for 1000+ years. We hopped a taxi back into town and stopped at Tempura Tentora – ShinPuKan for lunch before heading back to the hotel.
After a bit, all three of us walked up to Nijo Castle, about 20 minutes, as it was open today. We wandered through the interior and around the gardens for a while. After dropping Kyle at the hotel, Suzanne and I stopped at Spring Valley Brewery (owned by Kirin) for a flight. Afterward Suzanne did some fabric shopping while I hit up the great Stand Umineko Koto Craft Beer Stand for a couple of excellent pints. I was even able to buy some beer from Black Tide Brewery which was started in Kesennuma, a few hours north of Tokyo, by a former Schrodinger colleague who moved from Oregon back in 2019. Dinner was more gyudon, this time at Matsuya. (I think I like Yoshinoya better.)
Thur 22-Aug – Nara
After a morning run for me and a quick breakfast in our room, Suzanne and I hopped the subway and train to visit the famous Fushimi-Inari shrine. This is site of the famous tori gate “tunnels” up the mountain. I did the whole hike in 2017 but we had other stuff to do today, and it was hot, so we spent 30 or so minutes going up to the first viewpoint. (This was also the place where my mom and I experienced a magnitude 6 earthquake in 2018.) After our visit, we hopped back on the train for the 45 minutes or so down to Nara.
In Nara, we walked up to Todai-ji temple, home of the largest bronze Buddha statue in the world. It is quite impressive to see. Next we wandered a bit and stopped at the Kofuku-ji temple. We then took the time to walk down to Harushika sake brewery for their tasting. My mom and I had done this in 2018 and really enjoyed it as Suzanne and I did this time. Lunch, and some beer, was at Nara Michi craft beer (near Harushika). We wandered back into town, through some of the shopping streets before another beer at Yamato Craft Beer. Heading back to Kyoto, we go lucky as the train was through running and got us all the way back to the station by our hotel so we didn’t even have to transfer at Kyoto station. Dinner was tonkatsu at Kimukatsu follewed by some pastries from the Daimaru department store food hall.
Fri 23-Aug – Last full day in Japan
This morning, Suzanne and I had a breakfast at Sizuya bakery in the subway station before grabbing the subway out to near Nanzen-ji temple. After visiting here, we walked north to visit Eikando Temple, the Philosopher’s Path, Honenin Temple and Ginkakuji Temple before grabbing a bus and the subway back into the city. After some great okonomiyaki and yakisoba at Kinoya (near the market), we did a bit more shopping. As a last stop, we hit up Bighand Bros. Beer for a couple of great beers and a great conversation with their new British brewing assistant. After stopping by the hotel, we all went for a final dinner at Hanamaru Udon before packing up for the trip home the next day.
Sat 24-Aug – Flying Home
Suzanne and I had a nice final breakfast at the nearby Madea Coffee cafe before doing our final packing. We grabbed a taxi to Kyoto station around 10:45 and then had to wait until 12:00 for the Haruka Express train down to Kansai Airport, a bit south of Osaka. This is about a 90 minute trip. After dropping our luggage at checkin, we grabbed lunch, McDonald’s for Kyle, Sukiya gyudon for Suzanne and me, and headed to the gate. We did a bit of final shopping at Family Mart to spend our last yen. Unfortunately, there isn’t a direct flight from Kansai back to Newark so we ended up having to go to San Francisco first. Our flight, only Premium Plus this time which was still nice though, left and arrived on time. After a quick trip through immigration and customs and hanging out in the United Lounge (I have a membership), we boarded our flight back to Newark. We arrived just a few minutes late, around 10pm, grabbed our luggage and Ubered home, arriving around 11:15. It made for a very long, almost 23 hour, day.
Summary
Overall, the trip was very nice. I love Japan and had been longing to go back since 2018. Most of our plans worked out well, even with the hiccup of the typhoon in Tokyo. In terms of the time of year, it was okay. We wanted to avoid rainy season but August is very hot and humid. Our last day in Kyoto was 98°F and very humid. I was pretty much okay with it but it hit Suzanne and, especially, Kyle hard. Ideally we would have gone later in the Fall but that would have conflicted with Kyle’s school plans.
Our itinerary was pretty good. I had been to Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima before but, at least the first two, are kind of must-dos for a first trip. I only did a day trip to Hiroshima before so did get to see some more things there. I really enjoyed Fukuoka as it seemed a little more “real”. It was also nice to get to go to another of the home islands. Our flights were fine, though long of course. (It’s 14 hours from Newark to Tokyo.) We did pay quite a bit for our tickets to be in Premium Plus and then paid a bit more the one way upgrade to business class. We found Japan itself very reasonable, especially given the extremely weak yen, but any savings to make it “cheap” was wiped out by our airfare. The only thing that can be a bit expensive is the long distance train travel. Our tickets from Tokyo to Fukuoka, around 5 hours, were ~$165 each. However, that’s comparable to Acela tickets from NJ to Boston which is about the same travel time though not as far distance wise, and the Shinkansen bullet train is a much nicer experience.
Food was fine for the most part. I’m pretty easy going so had no issues. Suzanne did okay as well. We did struggle with Kyle as he’s very picky but he got his own things, generally from McDonald’s, several nights while Suzanne and I did our thing.
