Japan is one of those places that is in most people’s travel wish list and it is obvious why, the land where the modern and the old meet, where you can go find all the latest technology, walk around geishas, and enjoy one of the best gastronomies in the world! A country with unbeatable landscapes, Japan doesn’t leave anyone indifferent.
General advice: this time there are so many tips I could give you that I decided to create a separate post with very useful information for your trip to Japan. You can find the post here: https://www.travelwithasuitcase.com/post/japan-useful-tips However, just to add, as you would have probably read in many other blogs before planning your trip you need 2 fundamental things: 1) data for your phone and 2) cash!
Best time to go: April, May and October are the best month to visit Japan. It is important to note that from June to September they have 2 rainy season periods and the humidity is very high, so better avoid these months. The winter on the other hand can get quite cold so unless you are combining this trip with a skiing trip, it might be better to avoid as well. Also (unpopular opinion) I would try to avoid cherry blossom. We went right after it and even though there was people it wasn’t horrible. However 2 weeks before we went , some friends went to Japan during cherry blossom and it was insanely crowded everywhere with horrible queues. It is important to mention that Japan is experiencing a boom of tourism and in 2024 breaking many records in terms of tourists visiting the country so don’t expect to be alone.
How many days do I need in Japan? If you want to visit only Kyoto and Tokyo, probably 10 full days / 9 nights. We did it in 8 days/ 7 nights and it was quite exhausting so if you can add a couple more days would be perfect. Then if you want to visit other places like Hiroshima or Osaka I will add 2 more days (12 full days).
However! if you are a brave avid traveller not scared of walking 25,000 steps a day and waking up a bit early, keep reading for a guide on how to visit Kyoto and Tokyo in 8 days/ 7 nights.
Day 1: Arrival - Kyoto
You will most probably arrive early morning so do not waste any time and as soon as you arrive make your way to Kyoto. After picking up your IC card and most probably your JR pass at Haneda, you will have to take the tube (Keikyū Airport Line) to Shinagawa Station where you can take the bullet train.
In Kyoto, I would recommend to stay near the following tube stops: Gion-Shijo Station or Kyoto-Kawaramachi Station. We stayed at “Good Nature hotel” and it was fantastic. Highly recommended location, staff, décor…. we had a great experience. One thing that is worth mentioning is that coffee shops in Kyoto do not open until 11 am! So either you book a room with breakfast or make sure you buy some food at the supermarket that you can have in the room in the mornings.
Once you have checked in at the hotel, you can have a walk around Nishiki Market. You can either have lunch here or go to “Ramen Sen-no-Kaze Kyoto” for your first proper ramen. We felt Nishiki Market was quite touristy and crowded so nice to take a look at but not very attractive for us in terms of eating. Note that the market is open from 9 a.m. to 5p.m.
After this you are probably going to be in need of a nap after all the travelling! But try to make your way towards Gion for dinner, you can try “Izuu”, a small sushi place focused on mackerel. Gion is the area of the geishas and a beautiful typical Japanese neighbourhood, you can try to explore the streets of Hanamiko-ji, Gionmachi Minamigawa and Miyakawa-cho Dori. The reason why I say “try” is because since April 2024 many streets of the neighbourhood have been closed to tourists given the harassment the Geishas were receiving from tourists. If you see them, please be respectful and do not take pictures or approach them. Despite this, for us it was relatively simple, we saw Geishas on 2 separate occasions, once walking in one of the commercial streets and another one in a restaurant having dinner, without the need of going looking for them.
Day 2: Classic Kyoto
I have called this day classic Kyoto because on this day you are going to visit everything that comes to your mind when you think of Kyoto.
Start the day by going to the Kiyomizu-dera temple open from 6 am to 6 pm. Entrance fees for adults is 500 yen. Before buying your ticket to enter the main compound go to the “Tainai Meguri.” This is a pitch-black subterranean grotto which contains a stone that has the power to grant any wish. We did this (which not many foreigners were doing) and actually the experience was super cool!
Try to get here as early as possible as this was one of the busiest places that we visited. This temple was originally built in 798, but the present buildings are reconstructions from 1633. As an affiliate of the Hossō school of Buddhism, which originated in Nara, it has survived the many intrigues of local Kyoto schools of Buddhism through the centuries and is now one of the most famous landmarks of the city.
After you can go to Yasaka Pagoda. The Yasaka Pagoda is a Buddhist 5-story tall pagoda and the last remaining structure of a 6th-century temple complex known as Hōkan Temple.
When you finish, make sure you take a walk around the beautiful streets of Sannenzaka & Ninenzaka.
The last stop before lunch will be Kōdaiji Temple which was my favourite. It was not very touristy, peaceful, beautiful and surrounded by an amazing garden. Also you can find here a bamboo forest where you can take the typical picture without anyone around you!
This temple was built in 1606 in memory of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of Japan's greatest historical figures, by Hideyoshi's wife Nene who is also enshrined at the temple. Entrance fees for adults is 600 yen.
Time for lunch at “Mouriya Gion – Kobe”. This is probably one of the best meals we had in Japan and it was a great experience. It is important that you book in advance between 1 to 2 months before. In our opinion, or maybe given how low the yen was when we went there, food in Japan was cheap, but this restaurant is more on the expensive side but so worth it. It is important to note that they have the same menu for lunch and dinner but if you go at lunch it will be cheaper! Basically here you are going to have teppanyaki with a chef per group cooking for you. Here we tried the Kobe rump steak and the Finest rib eye steak (A5) which was incredible… probably the best meat I have ever had.
After lunch you can go to Fushimi Inari-taisha temple which takes around 1.30 min to visit and entrance is free. This is probably the 2nd most famous place in Kyoto because of the thousand red gates. Note: do not stop at the beginning to take pictures, just skip everyone and keep walking as there are literally thousands of gates later on where you can take pictures in much quieter areas.
Fushimi Inari is a shrine dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. Foxes are thought to be Inari's messengers, resulting in many fox statues across the shrine grounds. Fushimi Inari Shrine has ancient origins, predating the capital's move to Kyoto in 794. The gates are donations by individuals and companies, and you can find the donator's name and the date of the donation inscribed on the back of each gate.
The hike to the summit of the mountain and back takes about 2 hours, however, you are free to walk just as far as you want and turn back at any point.
For dinner, I would highly recommend to go to Pontocho street. A very charming narrow street full of all the restaurants you can imagine. My recommendation is to go to “Kappa sushi” for dinner, a lovely place and lovely sushi!
Day 3: Nara
On your 3rd day you have 2 options. The first one is to stay in Kyoto and explore more temples, I can ensure you that even if you try you will not be able to visit them all. The second option is you can take the train to the nearby city Nara.
To get to Nara you have 2 options: 1) if you have bought the JR pass then you have to go to Kyto station to take the Nara line to Nara station and then there get a bus to go to the park, this will take around 1 hour. 2) if you do not have the JR pass you can take the Kintetsu line (this line is not covered by the JR pass) and this line will take you directly to the park in around 45 min.
We absolutely loved spending the day in Nara, walking around the park that at times looks like a forest was super relaxing and also we had the chance of seeing the deer (of course this is not difficult at all as they are everywhere) and visit the temples around the park.
We started by going to the main temple Tōdai-ji. Todaiji temple was constructed in 752 as the head temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan and grew so powerful that the capital was moved away from Nara in 784 in order to lower the temple's influence on government affairs. Until recently, the main hall, (Big Buddha Hall), held the record as the world's largest wooden building, despite the fact that the present reconstruction of 1692 is only two thirds of the original temple hall's size. The massive building houses one of Japan's largest bronze statues of Buddha, a 15 meters tall seated Buddha representing Vairocana and is flanked by two Bodhisattvas.
After this we went to Kasuga Taisha and the area around which is beautiful. Kasuga Taisha is famous for its many bronze lanterns, as well as the many stone lanterns that lead up the shrine.
We finished this circular walk around the park at Kofuku-ji which is a Buddhist temple that was once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples in the city of Nara and it is the national headquarters of the Hossō school. It took us around 3 hours to do this circular walk.
For lunch we decided to go for Udon to a very authentic place called “Udon & café”. Other places in the area that we had on the list are: “Susuruka, Susuruka” and “Somen dokoro surusuru”.
After lunch we walked to Naramachi Koshi-no-le, which is a traditional Japanese house that you can visit for free where the personnel is incredibly friendly, it will only take you around 15 min to visit. From here we took the bus back to Nara Station and made our way back to Kyoto.
For dinner you can go to “Sakedokoro Terayama” a very nice izakaya where you can try different small dishes.
Day 4: North and West Kyoto
One thing that you can do on this day is to hire a private cycle tour to the west area of Kyoto that will take you around the sightseeing points. They offer the option also of hiring electric bikes so this is something everyone can do. However, it is important that you book this at least 2 months in advance. We really wanted to do this but when we looked into it a month before all the tours were fully booked so we decided to do this by public transport and walking.
Start your day at Tenryu-ji temple. This is the head temple of the Tenryū-ji branch of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism, it was founded by Ashikaga Takauji in 1339, primarily to venerate Gautama Buddha. You are going to spend at least one hour here just exploring the garden for sure.
Note: while the garden is simply incredible and beautiful, the inside of the temple doesn’t have much so I would recommend to only get the tickets for the garden.
From here, we walked through the Arashiyama Bamboo forest towards Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple. Given that we had been alone in a bamboo forest 2 days before, we just walked quickly through this bamboo forest given how crowded and unpleasant it was. The walk from this point onwards towards the next temple was just great, it is a super quiet area, very easy to walk around and literally surrounded by temples, you are going to see temples every few minutes!
Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple – this Buddhist temple sits in an area where people used to abandon the bodies of the dead, exposing them to the wind and rain. Now, some eight thousand Buddhist statuettes, which had been scattered around Adashino and then collected in 1903, honour the souls of the dead. I found this place quite impressive and different to everything that we saw in Kyoto so my recommendation is to add it to your list. Also surprise surprise there was another bamboo forest here. Here there were some people (maybe like 8) but it was still easy to take the typical picture.
Another temple I had on my list in this area was Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple but we were a bit tired at this point and decided to skip this one.
At this point, we decided to take an uber to go to the north area that we wanted to see next and have lunch there at “Hanamakiya”, a soba noodle shop.
p.s.: We took an uber simply because by public transport from Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple to the Golden Pavilion it was going to take one hour and by uber was just 20 min.
After lunch we went to Kinkaku-ji (or Golden Pavilion), I have to say here it was quite busy but the place is quite incredible. The top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf, the temple was the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and according to his will it became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect after his death in 1408.
Note that as this area is a bit far from the city centre, you will have to take a bus to get back to your hotel and there is usually a long queue to take the bus but thankfully there are few lines serving the area.
For dinner we went to another izakaya “Ushinohone Anaza” which had lovely food and atmosphere.
Day 5: Kyoto to Tokyo
On this day I would recommend that you wake up early and try to leave Kyoto around 9 am so you can enjoy the afternoon in Tokyo. Depending on where your hotel is located you will have to get off the bullet train either at Shinagawa Station or at Tokyo Station.
Now, where to stay in Tokyo is a very tricky question… I would say that the majority of tourists choose Shibuya or Shinjuku but we chose Roppongi. Shibuya and Shinjuku are very well located and connected but the problem for me is that those areas are crazy busy… walking on the street can be overwhelming. Roppongi they say is more famous for the nightlife and has a very international vibe. To be honest from our hotel we couldn’t hear any noise or anything like that but what I liked the most about Roppongi was the restaurants, we had incredible food here every night and that is why I would recommend staying here. We stayed at “Mitsui Garden Hotel Roppongi Tokyo Premier”, the hotel was good but the rooms very small.
If I have managed to convince you and you are staying at Roppongi, after check in you can go for lunch to “Tsuru Ton Tan”, a great udon restaurant.
In the afternoon, you can go to Ginza which is basically the posh shopping area of Tokyo. If the yen is low (as was the case when I was there) it is a great opportunity to go shopping at very good price, especially international brands.
Before dinner, you can go to Mori Tower to see the 360 views of the city at sunset. You can book the tickets online. You will see that people tend to gather around the entrance bit but the space is quite big so make sure you keep going around to enjoy the full 360 view.
For dinner we went “KINKA sushi bar” and it was amazing, everything we ate was super nice. Highly recommended.
Day 6: Fish Market, Asakusa and Akihabara
We started the day by waking up at 4.30am as they were picking us up at our hotel at 4.45am to go to Toyosu fish market and see the tuna auction which starts at 5.30am. A family friend who is Japanese took us to the market and the auction so not sure how easy this is to organise or if this is open to all tourists.
However, what I can highly recommend is the sushi place in the market where we had breakfast at 6.30am and was probably the best sushi I have ever eaten in my entire life. The place is “Sushi-dokoro Okame”. After this very early morning, we went back to bed for a quick nap and got back up at 10am ready to explore Tokyo.
We started by going to Sensoji temple in Asakusa. Ideally you want to arrive here as early as possible as it is a very famous spot in Tokyo. As we went to the fish market before, we arrived later on the day when it was quite crowded but still nice to see. The legend says that in the year 628, two brothers fished a statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, out of the Sumida River, and even though they put the statue back into the river, it always returned to them. Consequently, Sensoji was built nearby for the goddess of Kannon. The temple was completed in 645, making it Tokyo's oldest temple.
From here you can walk to park Ueno and have a walk around. The park is super big and you can find museums, the zoo and plenty of things to do and see, but as we did’nt have all the time in the world we couldn’t spend as much time here as we would have liked to.
Then go to Akihabara to have tonkatsu at “Tonkatsu Marugo”
After lunch, enjoy having a walk around Akihabara the electronic town. Here you can go to GiGO Akihabara 5 which is a video arcade, mandrake complex which is a collectibles shop, and basically walk around the side streets which are absolutely crazy with technology and all the games you can think of!
For dinner we went to “Kintsuta” to try shabu shabu, which is basically a Japanese hot pot. It was absolutely delicious, highly recommend the food, the atmosphere, the service… everything was fantastic!
Day 7: Harajuku, Shibuya + Shinjuku
Start the day at Yoyogi park and after visit the Meiji Jungu shrine. Meiji Shrine is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. The shrine was completed and dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and the Empress Shoken in 1920, eight years after the passing of the emperor and six years after the passing of the empress. The shrine was destroyed during the war but was rebuilt shortly thereafter. We found this area very nice to walk around and you can spend at least an hour walking around.
After, we went to Harajuku. This is an area famous for the Kawaii culture but unfortunately we couldn’t see any Kawaii girls! However, regardless of that it is a very nice area full of nice cafes and vintage clothing shops along Takeshita Street and fancy boutiques on leafy Omotesando Avenue.
From Harajuku you can walk to Shibuya where most probably you would like to see the Shibuya crossing. The best way to see it is from above, there is of course a rooftop right on the crossing with a viewing area (Shibuya Skyover) where you will have the best views but you obviously have to pay for this and it will be quiet busy. Another option is, you can go Shibuya Hikarie which is for free, take the lift to floor 11 and from there you will be able to see the same views from slightly further away.
Now time for lunch and you have 2 options: you can go to “Hikiniku to Come” in Shibuya to have a kind of Japanese “burger” over rice; or you can go to Omoide Yokocho in Shinjuku, a street full of small restaurants where you can have yakitori.
In the afternoon we explored Shinjuku. Unfortunately one of the most famous places there, the Metropolitan Government Building, was closed at the time and we couldn’t go there to see the views that everyone talks about! Other interesting things to do in Shinjuku: Tokyu Kabukicho Tower which, on the ground floor, has a lively scene of Tokyo bars and restaurants at night and is quite impressive. Walk towards the Hotel Gracery to see if you can find Godzilla on the roof and walk around the Golden-Gai area if you are there at night time to see the narrow streets full of bars and small restaurants.
For the last night we ended up having dinner at another incredible restaurant -玄風館 龍 - where we had akiniku, which is basically Japanese bbq that we absolutely loved. Perfect end to a great week exploring Japan.
Comments