10 Days in Central Japan

i spent lots of time planning this trip, as it was something i had been wanting to do for the past twenty years. hopefully some of this will lend insight if you're planning the same.

pro tips:

• bring lots of cash - i exchanged with my bank for no fees before the trip. 80% of the places we visited did not take plastic. 
• carry a hand towel - some bathrooms did not have a place to dry your hands after washing. some actually did not have soap. i carried a towel and soap in my bag, as well as wet wipes, in case this was the situation.
• carry a tiny bag for trash - japan is very clean, despite how hard it is to find trash receptacles. collect it while you explore, and unload when you see a place for trash. 
• don't eat while walking - you can get fined for this, apparently. and, no one else is doing it. 
• use a co-op credit union - if you have an account with a credit union, there are 7-11s all over the place, and you should be able to get cash from their atms.

Days 1-4: Tokyo, stay in Shinjuku

coming from austin, texas, this was difficult to get into the swing. we arrived on 8/29 at 1:30 pm, and were in bed at the hotel by 4:00 pm, and didn't wake up until the next day. here's what we managed to accomplish after the initial shock of being many hours ahead. this leg, we stayed at the granbell hotel, and the room was small, but the service was great, and they have a rooftop bar that overlooks shinjuku. we had a refrigerator in the room - big plus.

• a walk through harajuku: we spent a couple hours walking through harajuku's amazing stores - most of the time being spent in the laforet. if you're not into kitschy stuff, there are more crepes and bubble teas on every corner than you can possibly imagine. i'm not even shitting you - if you like sugary confections, this is the place. i mean, there is a wendy's, and they SERVE BUBBLE TEA. as an american, i thought this was a really great perk. at any rate, take the subway to the harajuku station, and walk down takeshita street, but make sure to take the side streets to lead you to the more upscale shopping, if that's what you're looking for. i will say that once we were looking for food, as a vegetarian, this is the one place i ate the entire trip that satiated me, and was also an awesome experience. sakura tei. it's one of those places that has okonomiyaki, which is basically a hashbrown pancake without the potato. at lunch time, they have an all you can eat deal. 

• harry's hedgehog cafe. what a totally ridiculous concept that i loved to pieces. you pay an entrance fee for a period of time, we did 30 minutes, and feed snacks to hedgehogs sitting in wooden cribs. yes, you can hold them, but you have to wear gloves - they're spiky. there are plenty of other animal cafes throughout harajuku if you'd rather hold owls, or kittens, or puppies, or otters, or a number of other animals. part of your entry fee includes a drink from their vending machines.

• mariCar shibuya. an hour-long night-time go kart drive through tokyo's liveliest neighborhoods - in costume. you should do this. but, you'll need an international driver's license to do so. it's not difficult to get, and highly worth the preparation to have this experience. we did the h-s course, and i was able to book through facebook pretty easily. our tour guide was awesome, and made sure we went by all the cool sights, as well as provided us with pictures afterward - and that was free. 

• tsukiji fish market. i hate fish. it was really hard for me to find food as a veggie because it's in pretty much every dish everywhere. however, this is a cool spot to visit if you're into sushi and really weird ocean animals to snack on. we went a little too late in the day and missed most of the vendors, as they were closing up for the afternoon, so i recommend visiting around lunch time. 

• tokyo tower. as the sun went down, we headed to the eiffel tower-like structure of tokyo tower. we didn't pay for the all the way to the top experience. we had a fine one just heading to the middle. there are two floors there where you can see all of tokyo. what an amazing view. there are shops (a huge sanrio one) and eateries inside. 

• tokyo dome. this place is basically a city within itself. you can ride rollercoasters, bowl, eat, drink, play table tennis, indoor golf...you get the drift. we didn't spend too much time here. i only wanted to mention it because we found a photo booth that took about half an hour to navigate, start to finish. partially because we don't know japanese, but mostly because it's an experience. if you come across these, do yourself a favor and get one for a very japanese souvenir. 

• omoide yokocho. probably the most awesome spot in all of tokyo as far as food and drink go. there is tiny, narrow stall after stall after stall of yakitori and sushi spots, and everything is being fired over a charcoal grill while beers flow freely, and friends talk about their day. speaking of friends, this is the one excursion we took where we interacted with a local who knew very little english, and it was highly amusing. a highlight of the trip, to say the least. we ended up going back here on our last night to check out this place, bar albatross, where we crammed into a rooftop space and had sake (masu-style, of course) and kirin. i'd list this as a must-do. 

new japanese friends.

• akihabara neighborhood. it's worth a mention, as if you're into video games OR, ESPECIALLY, claw machines, you could spend maybe your entire life, and then some, in this area. sensory overload is an understatement. i don't think i took any pictures because it was so overwhelming. but, you can enjoy this excerpt of dude playing a, what i believe to be, child's drum game. 

Days 5-7: Kyoto

we took the shinkansen nozomi to kyoto from the shinjuku station, and damn, it was fast. well, a couple hours, but no stops! beautiful scenery! drinks on the train! snacks! we used the tourist office in the train station to purchase the tickets, and they were very helpful. 

we arrived with plenty of time to explore the neighborhood we stayed in, which was next to the toji subway station, and about a 20 minute walk from the kyoto train station. our lodging was comfortable, with a very large room and bathroom with all the amenities, even a kitchen and wares. the pagoda experience was a lovely place to stay, and even had laundry so that we could clean what we already wore. i planned that...since we were backpacking, less is certainly more. kyoto is like a slower, more serene tokyo, with much less neon. there are plenty of shrines in the area if you're looking to do that type of exploration. here is what we managed to knock out in two full days. 

• nishiki market. go hungry! there are many food stalls and shops to explore here where you can try a variety of pretty much anything. if you like snoopy, and the japanese do (like, a lot), then you'll love the store that only carries snoopy confections. part of my brain exploded while i was in there. you can also visit a shinto shrine at the end of the shopping market street - nishiki-tenmangu. like at many shrines, you can pop a couple hundred yen into a machine and receive an oracle. hey, it's cheaper than palm readers....

 

• pontocho alley. just at the end of the market, there's a cute street with lots of eateries and bars, especially tucked away in dimly lit alleys. we planned our walk so that we got here right around dark, so everything was beginning to get busy. many restaurants overlook the kama river, but you'll have to pay a price for dining with that view. we opted to eat on the other side of the alley, then grabbed beers from the liquor store and drank them on the river bank while we snacked on rice crackers. that's the cheap way to do it, folks. 

 

• iwatayama monkey park. this place is ridiculous, because you have to climb pretty far, so you're super tired at the top, but...at the top, there are monkeys! lots of them! and, we got to see monkey babies riding around with their moms because of the recent mating season. it's pretty hilarious to watch them run around, and somehow, our timing was perfect, because we got to witness the staff feeding the monkeys (you can purchase food for them and feed them through a fence, too, though). totally worth the 500 yen it cost to see it. it's like 6th street at last call on a thursday night when no one has class on friday. they have really red butts. the bonus of this place is the view of kyoto from the park. it's breathtaking. 

• arashiyama bamboo forest. this is an easy transition to or from the monkey park. they're right next to each other. we didn't do this, but i wish we had - across from the train station when you exit, there are bike rentals. we walked everywhere, but a bike would've been awesome to have. if you're into nature and cool ass trees, this might be a good stop. there is a trail that leads through the grove, full of exceptionally tall bamboo trees, and many great photo spots along the way. you can see a large pond near one of the shrines within the grove that has koi and giant lilypads throughout. 

 

• fushimi inari-taisha. talk about not realizing what you're getting yourself into until it's too late...not in a bad way, though. this is a very impressive shrine that dates back to 711. what i didn't know before we began our exploration was that the main shrine is at the top of a mountain. which is about a 2 hour walk. probably should not have ventured on this path at 9pm before dinner...but, i digress (also, this is why i always have snacks in my bag). you'll see many fox statues, and even some wild kitties. the further up the mountain we went, there were more frequent signs that aggressive monkeys and boars may pop out and try to eat you. so, that was fun. 

  

Day 7: Nara Park Side Trip

before heading to the next stop in the itinerary, there is one thing i had to make sure i did. probably the one thing i planned this trip around, actually. nara park. here, there are wild deer EVERYWHERE. imagine visiting an off-leash dog park because you love dogs and want to pet them and give them treats, but you're not allowed to have a dog, so that's why you go to the park. this is exactly the same thing, except deer. and much, much larger with way more deer. in fact, there are so many, that they are often found hanging out in the subway entrances/exits. we saw one chillin' in one of the shops by the park. you can pet them. there are nice ladies around the perimeter of the park (which is a really nice park with greenery, and water) selling stacks of deer crackers for 150 yen. i bought three stacks. you have to trick the deer so that they don't know you have them. they aren't stupid. they hang out by the cracker ladies and wait for unsuspecting patrons, then unleash their cuteness on you before nippin' at your bits for one of those delicious crackers they KNOW you have. while there are many attractions in and around the park area, we were on a schedule, so only did the deer thing for a couple of hours. highly, highly recommend this activity if you're obsessed with animals, like myself.

from nara, we took the shinkansen to hakone. it was about two hours (that's minus the mishap of us switching trains and going past hakone and then back because the ONE time the japan transportation system experiences a delay, it's when we needed it not to...).

Days 8-9: Hakone

surely, you're aware of the huge mountain not too far from tokyo - mt. fuji. while climbing it would've been a great experience, i opted to plan for the other thing i wanted to accomplish while in japan: using an onsen while sporting many tattoos. this is generally a no-no, for many archaic reasons that you can google, but, it is possible to do.

hakone is a little resort town near mt. fuji, and only about an hour from tokyo by train. i cannot tell you the relief i felt getting into the mountains (we took a bus for 90 minutes from the train station to get to our ryokan) after the humidity and heat of our previous days. outside of that whole deer situation, this was probably my favorite part of the trip. i wish we had planned more time in hakone. the scenery is unreal, and it's just peaceful. be aware that pretty much everything, with the exception of a lawson's, closes at about 8pm, so again, have snacks. we got snacks and sake and beers from the lawson's both nights we stayed, and i was more than happy with that. i also ate pizza from the "italian" place next to the little prince museum, but i was hungry for the entire trip, so i am not ashamed to admit this. also, dude got the lasagna, and it had beans in it. another entertaining piece of the trip.

one of the items on the to-do list, visiting owakudani, ended getting the kibosh because of volcanic activity. this sucks, because even though i loathe boiled eggs, i had planned to eat one that had been boiled in the hot springs and turned black by the sulphur due to the supposed benefit of adding 7 years to your life. trust me, i need it just to cover a portion of my 20s. but, it didn't happen. in fact, the ropeway over the springs was also closed. disappointing, to say the least, but we made the best of it by riding a pirate ship around lake ashi, where we, like many others, did not get to see mt. fuji in the distance because of the low cloud coverage. womp womp. the bright side is that i will just have to go back to experience these things. we opted to get the hakone free pass for transportation, and it was well worth it. you get transfer from the train to your lodging, and all of the cool trams, trains, cable cars, and ships that hakone has to offer for something like 4600 yen, and you can use it for two days. we saved a lot that way.

and, for those wondering about onsen with a tattoo? well, i highly recommend the place we stayed, fuji-hakone guest house, which had three hot springs on the property, one outdoors, and two inside. because we were guests, the owners reserved us a nightly half hour spot for free inside. it was nice to come home after walking all day and soak. i couldn't last longer than ten minutes, though, because that volcanic water is hot AF. only pluses about this joint - friendly owner, clean, PERFECT instructions on how to get there, a good chance to meet other travelers from around the world, breakfast (for a fee, if you want it), free private hot spring, super close to a bus station...i could go on. it is a shared bathroom situation, but that's a typical guest house situation, and wasn't an issue for us.

sake in a glass on the romance train.

so, this is where mt. fuji is, but instead, you only see clouds. :(

Days 9-10: Back to Tokyo

we took the romance train back to tokyo from hakone for one last night before heading back to the states on, ahem, my favorite airline, delta. i thought staying on the east side of tokyo would be a nice change from where we started, so we took in one night at mustard asakusa 2. it was convenient to the subway, and for the last night, we were able to visit one more temple, where i paid again for a fortune, which turned out to be not great (but you can tie them to a wire and leave them there in that instance, so voila!), and we also had a chance to visit another bookmarked place of mine, cuznhomeground. whatever, i heard they had dogs there, so i wanted to go. and, we did. dude jammed out on the guitar with one of the regulars, while i got to watch ROCKY IV on the big screen! and pet dogs! there is really no better way to end a bucket list trip than that. oh, speaking of dogs, we found it very bizarre that the japanese seem to love dogs, but we saw practically zero the whole time we were there. except in asakusa, for some reason.

i hope this info was helpful if you're planning a trip to japan. i didn't get to do nearly the amount i wanted, but again, just an excuse to go back. arigato, and sayonara!