In the summer of 2018, my parents, my wife Sunshine, and I spent a week in Japan. It was an incredible trip full of temples, great food, and even a robot light show.
I purposefully named this post “A Week in Japan: My First Visit” to imply my intentions to go back.
A week in Japan is not even close to enough time to satisfy a traveler. You could spend months, or even years here and still just scratch the surface.
In this post, I’ll share how we spent a week in Japan by hitting two of the country’s major tourist cities, Tokyo and Kyoto. I’ll plan to keep it fairly high-level, since we saw a lot and I don’t want to make this post too long. Perhaps later I’ll dive deeper into individual stops.
FIRST, WHY JUST A WEEK?
I’d just finished up my B-school internship in the summer of 2018. I was lucky enough to spend the summer between my two years at the University of Wisconsin’s MBA program back home in St. Paul, Minnesota.
To save money, my wife and I stayed with my parents for the duration of the ten-week internship. To celebrate the successful completion, we decided to take a family trip before my second year of grad school started.
We didn’t have a ton of flexibility in terms of timing. There were only a couple weeks between the end of my internship and the beginning of school. Besides travel, Sunshine and I also needed to pack up and move back to Madison, Wisconsin prior to the start of classes.
SO, A GROUPON! (AGAIN)
If you’ve been following this blog from the beginning, you know of my fondness for Groupon Getaways. Even as a self-declared experienced traveler, I’m a huge proponent of online vacation packages.
They’re cheap, they can include transportation that is a time suck to plan and execute, and you have a single point of contact for customer service for the whole trip.
With our time constraint, it would have been difficult to thread the needle of planning everything on my own. A tour company’s package would take a huge burden off of my mind. This was a really important consideration to make sure we spent a short amount of time in Japan intelligently to maximize the experience.
Additionally, for the ten weeks prior to the trip my sole focus was the internship and getting a full-time offer. I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to plan a trip the way I would’ve liked.
Given that we had to take off basically the day after the internship ended, we need our travel ducks in a row ahead of time.
SO, WHY JAPAN?
If you’ve read a little about my background, you know that I’m half Japanese on my mother’s side. No one in my immediate family (or most of my extended family, for that matter) had been to the motherland (pun intended).
Now before you get ahead of yourself with the judgment, I am a fourth-generation Japanese American. If you go by Japanese diaspora generational terms, I would be Yonsei.
Not to be confused with Beyonce… easy mistake.
My Japanese grandparents were born in the USA. They were part of the Nisei generation, the first to be raised here. My mom is a Sansei, or third generation. Not a sensei… although she’d like to think she’s that wise.
All that to say, we had familial history reasons to want to visit Japan. We talked about this trip for a long time, so we thought we would jump on the opportunity to finally make it happen!
As an aside, our dog is a Shiba Inu, which is a Japanese breed. But our boy Hiro didn’t really play a role in our decision.
METICULOUS THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT JAPAN
Before we jump into the itinerary I think there’s a few planning tips that need to be covered first. Japan isn’t a place that you just go to and figure things out.
THE MONEY
The currency in Japan is the yen. When we visited, one US dollar was 110 yen. So for simplicity and to be conservative, we pictured everything we bought on the trip divided by 100 to get at comparable pricing.
THE WEATHER
I’m not going to lie, the weather was a major downer for me on this trip. I’ve been to Morocco in summer, Ecuador in the spring, and Australia during its summer. However, I can honestly say Japan had the hottest weather I’ve ever experienced.
It was high 80s or low 90s and muggy every day we were in Tokyo and Kyoto.
When we stopped in Hakone on the way to Kyoto the weather was milder due to the elevation and mountain climate.
I don’t share (read: whine) about this to deter you from visiting Japan. Maybe just don’t visit in August. Or if you do, bring an umbrella. I got pretty good at finding pieces of shade when I should’ve been enjoying temples and listening to our guide.
THE LANGUAGE
In Japan they speak… Japanese!
Not many Japanese speak English. It is worth learning some of the standard greetings and bowing norms before going.
You’re obviously not going to learn full-on Japanese, but it’s a nice gesture to say good morning and bow to hotel staff.
We were lucky enough to have an English-speaking guide as a part of the package which obviously helped a ton. To this day, Joji-san was one of my favorite and most memorable guides.
THE PLANNED ITINERARY
The Groupon we purchased was advertised as an 8-day trip, but that included travel days on each end.
Keep that in mind when you’re purchasing travel packages; day 1 usually starts when you depart your home airport.
Our itinerary included three nights in Tokyo, one night in Hakone near Mount Fuji, and two nights in Kyoto. Lots to see and discuss, so let’s jump right in!
LEG 1 – TOKYO
We arrived at Tokyo Narita airport on day 2, after an overnight flight from our home MSP airport.
For those unfamiliar with Narita airport, it’s a good hour by car from Tokyo’s city center. If you ever have a long layover in Narita and want to see Tokyo, keep that piece of knowledge in your mind.
A coach bus (included in the Groupon) took us to our hotel, the Okura Hotel East 21 Tokyo.
Our hotel was east of the city center but situated just a few blocks from the Toyocho subway station which is on the Tozai (light blue) subway line.
THE SUBWAY
We LOVED the Tokyo subway. It’s clean, organized, and Japanese commuters are very polite.
The system is color-coded and easy to navigate, and the signs all had English on them, as well. How kind.
Tokyo is a major sprawl, but the subway layout was logical and sophisticated. We never spent more than an hour commuting to an attraction, despite the city’s massive size.
Other than the trains and buses we took between cities, the subway was how we got around throughout our time in Tokyo. It sounds weird, but the subway system is one of the things I miss the most about the city.
WHAT WE ATE – ALSO, STORY TIME
I bit off a bit more than I could chew (pun smirk) on our first night in Tokyo.
Trying to get an authentic experience, I led us to a hole-in-the-wall sushi restaurant. None of the staff spoke English, but who needs English speakers when you have Google Translate, right?
WRONG, actually.
A perfect storm of “this isn’t going well” ensued at this restaurant. I learned that they only served raw sushi at this place. My mom and wife aren’t super into that. We quickly realized we would need to eat somewhere else.
In an effort to not be rude, my dad and I wanted to split one order of a raw tuna chirashi bowl. I tried to order one of these, but after some back-and-forth with the waiter, he thought I wanted four.
Understandable miscommunication, since he assumed all four of us were there to eat.
So my man brings out four chirashi bowls and I rewrite my communique a few times into Google Translate on my phone.
Exasperated, he shakes his head and mutters something probably like “this dingus.” Feeling bad, we agree to pay for two of the four dishes, then walk out of the restaurant with our heads hung in shame.
WHAT WE ACTUALLY ATE
There were two meals, which we all got to eat, that stuck out for us in Tokyo.
The first was Yakiniku, a BBQ dinner style we had in the Shinjuku District. This is the grill-at-your-table BBQ that you may have seen.
You order raw meat and vegetables and cook it yourself at the table. It’s a fun family experience and you always leave full and satisfied.
The second was a Kushikatsu lunch that we had in Tokyo’s swanky Ginza district. Kushikatsu is deep-fried meat and veggies on little sticks that you dip into various sauces. Another more activity-based meal that was fun but also delicious.
WHAT WE DID
Our first activity was the Tokyo Trick Art Museum in the Tokyo Joypolis Mall. It was definitely a tourist gimmick but it was still incredibly fun to take pictures with the artwork.
A few highlights:
SENSO-JI TEMPLE
The main temple we visited in Tokyo was the famous Senso-ji Temple. We learned about Buddhism and Shinto spirituality as we walked through the (hot) plaza. This was the first of many temples to come!
ROBOT RESTAURANT
However, by far the BEST thing we did was watch the show at the Robot Restaurant in the Shinjuku District.
Even as a self-declared decent writer, no words can do this experience justice. Outside of any natural landscape, this was the most incredible thing I’d ever seen. The show is an hour of ridiculous lasers, costumes and parade floats. It’s like a techno rave and Brazil’s Carnaval had a baby.
I’ve included some videos below to give a snapshot of what it was like. I’m still looking for the words to describe it. The Robot Restaurant is also a clear tourist trap, but it doesn’t matter. I would go back to Tokyo just to see this show again.
LEG 2 – HAKONE
Our small Groupon tour group took a coach bus from Tokyo towards Kyoto. We broke up the 5+ hour drive by spending a night in Hakone.
Hakone is situated at the foot of Mount Fuji, the famous mountain that you see in a lot of Japan’s tourism pictures. It’s usually shown with a white snow cap from the vantage point of a red pagoda-looking building.
Our guide was super excited as we approached the mountain because it was visible. The reason people take pictures of snow-capped Mount Fuji is that it is usually only seen through clear, cold winter air.
We jumped at the opportunity to get some beautiful pictures taken of the non-snowy Mount Fuji from our hotel in Hakone. Once we put on our hotel-provided kimonos, of course.
WHAT WE DID IN HAKONE
We spent less than 24 hours in the town since this was more of a stopover on the way to Kyoto. The night in Hakone was solely to get a glimpse of Mount Fuji.
Our first activity was a ferry ride on Lake Ashi. A boat carried us to the Hakone Ropeway, a gondola that took us up to a vantage point to see Mount Fuji and the rest of the mountain range.
I’m skipping the food section for Hakone since we had dinner included with our hotel stay. Not the best thing I ever ate, but if I ever turn down a free meal you all have permission to slap me.
LEG 3 – KYOTO (+ DAY TRIPS)
We then headed to Kyoto, which was my favorite portion of the trip.
Kyoto in Japanese means “capital”, as the city was once Japan’s. Tokyo translated directly is “the capital in the East”.
I don’t know why I never knew it before, but it blew my mind to realize that To-kyo and Kyo-to were that similar in wording. My Japanese ancestors would be ashamed of me.
WHAT WE DID IN KYOTO
Temples and castles.
Kyoto is filled to the brim with them and they’re all gorgeous. We visited four in a day and a half in Kyoto, so it’s worthy of a list:
NIJO CASTLE
Nijo Castle was an imperial Japanese castle and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. We took a walking tour around the grounds and through the structure.
The highlight was experiencing the nightingale floors. These are floors that are designed to “chirp” when you step on the planks. This was a great way to not get assassinated by night creepers in Imperial Japan.
KINKAKU-JI a.k.a. GOLDEN PAVILION
This is a Zen Buddhist temple but was originally a villa. The gold on the outside was really beautiful to see in the backdrop of the larger pond and gardens around it.
KIYOMIZU TEMPLE
This translates to the “clean water temple.” The grounds of this temple were huge. There were trails in multiple directions. The highlight was the wind chime hallway that you walk through to enter the largest building.
FUSHIMI-INARI SHRINE
This place is famous for its countless orange archways. The setting made for great pictures.
Word to the wise: the full Fushimi-Inari trail is LONG. We only made it about halfway up the pathway.
It was hot and entirely uphill, so we decided to turn back rather than finish without appreciating it. Still captured some great pictures, though.
DAY TRIP TO NARA & OSAKA
Our Groupon had an optional half-day tour to nearby Nara (yet another former capital) and Osaka.
Nara is famous for its deer park, which is the entrance plaza to the Todai-ji Temple. Let me tell you, these deer are NOT shy.
You can buy a stack of flat biscuits for cheap to feed the deer. If you hold it above your head, they will politely bow. What they DON’T tell you is that after that, they chase you and nip at you until the biscuits are gone. It seemed rather impolite to me, I don’t know.
The actual Todai-ji Temple was one of my favorites that we saw. It has a grand entrance walkway that provides a regal atmosphere. Inside, the temple protects the largest bronze Buddha statue in the world.
Afterward, we visited Osaka’s most famous street, Dotonbori. This is the classic Japanese commerce street that you picture in your mind.
There were lots of neon signs, animatronic mascots, and Glico Man (our guide got excited about him and his history, but honestly I didn’t get it). We capped off the visit with a classic bento box lunch in a tucked-away restaurant.
GION DISTRICT
When we got back from Nara and Osaka, we spent the evening in Kyoto’s Gion district.
This area is famous for its geishas and old-school theater shows.
Fun fact about geishas we learned from our guide: if they smile and offer to take pictures with you, they’re not real. They’re tourist trappers. Real geishas are shy, have white foundation all the way down their neck, and are told to not smile.
We did see a group of actual geishas scuttling off somewhere in our hotel. Our guide got excited (just like when she saw Fuji) and pointed out that these women were the real deal. Likely on their way to serve some rich guys tea.
PUPPET SHOW
A cultural treat in Gion was a variety show at Gion Corner. In just about an hour, we saw singers, dancers, and a puppet master in the Bunraku style. Bunraku puppeteers wear black and physically walk around the stage controlling the puppet. You can identify the master from the non-masters by the fact that they don’t wear the black mask.
It’s an interesting show to say the least. There’s emotion, a lot of goofy humor, but a ton of talent from all of the performers.
LAST DAY IN KYOTO
The next day was to be our last in Kyoto before we headed back to Tokyo for a night and then home to the US. We still had one temple and one place we wanted to see to get great photos.
This was the day for Fushimi-Inari shrine, which I described above.
BAMBOO FOREST
Sunshine and I had seen a lot of beautiful pictures on Instagram of Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. It’s a park of huge, slim bamboo plants that provide a backdrop for really good photography.
Given how hot it was, the shade was also welcome.
I will say that the part is surprisingly small. We walked the entirety of the grove’s trails in probably 45 minutes. Getting there and back took more time than we spent.
I’m not saying I don’t recommend going, but plan out the time wisely. Especially if you have limited time in Kyoto.
BACK TO TOKYO
That same day we headed back to Tokyo. All the walking and heat from visiting Fushimi-Inari Shrine and Arashiyama totally drained us. I would probably not recommend walking both places and then immediately jumping on a two-hour train. Apologies to all of the other passengers around us for the smell.
We opted to splurge a bit on our return trip to Tokyo and pay to ride the Shinkansen bullet train. This was partly because we were tired of the coach bus, but also that we wanted to experience Japan’s famous high-speed rail.
For about $120 USD per person, we sped from Kyoto to Tokyo in about two hours. The scenery was beautiful although pictures were obviously difficult to take when you’re traveling 200 miles per hour.
Given my love for train travel (remember we also spent two weeks traveling through Europe by train), I really liked this experience.
Later that year I would go to Shanghai who boasted to have a faster bullet train. Meaning, the Shinkansen can no longer claim to be the fastest in the world. But for me, two bullet trains in one year makes for a happy train nerd.
A WEEK IN JAPAN: REGRETS
I’ll share a couple of notes on what I think could’ve made the trip even better, in case any of you are considering going.
THE WEATHER
Since I’m such a weather snob, I have to admit that the heat did take away from some of the magic of this vacation for me. The middle of August is not a time I’d recommend visiting.
Japan is famous for its cherry blossom season in April, which would have milder weather. This also draws huge crowds, so pick your poison there. Since I hate the heat but equally hate large groups of touring strangers, this would be a tough call for me.
THE LENGTH OF TIME
Eight days was a disrespectful amount of time to visit Japan. You could spend eight days in Kyoto alone and just scratch the surface of experiences there. I left Japan glad for the experience but very unfulfilled; this trip made me want to go there even more than before.
It’s probably not feasible to recommend that people spend MONTHS in Japan, but that would be ideal. There’s so much complexity in the culture, dichotomies in lifestyle to observe, and food to eat to last a lifetime!
TSUKIJI FISH MARKET
On our last day in Tokyo, we could have opted for an early morning tour of the famous Tsukiji fish market.
With a guided tour, you could walk up and down the stalls where Tokyo restaurants get their fresh seafood.
This would’ve been an awesome experience, but we decided that it wasn’t worth cramming something into our last half day. In hindsight, I wish we would’ve.
This market is shown in one of Sunshine and my favorite documentaries, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. You can stream it on Netflix, I’d highly recommend.
We’ll be back to visit the market for sure.
WRAPPING UP & LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT TIME
A week in Japan was too short, yes, but an amazing experience overall. Our family saw a TON in a short period of time and made the most of it. Even with the flop sweating and lack of any Japanese skills, we got by and enjoyed ourselves.
Next time we go I would still like to go to Tokyo again but might explore another secondary area other than Kyoto/Osaka. I’ve heard a lot about the different landscapes and photo opportunities in winter, so that might be an interesting change of pace. We’d also then get a chance to see snow-capped Mount Fuji.
Regardless of when we go back, we will be going back.
From a personal perspective, this trip was an interesting exercise in identity for me. I always tell people back home that I’m Japanese, but I sure as hell didn’t feel that way in Japan. I was a full-blooded American stumbling through a kanji-laced menu and using my phone as a crutch.
Even though I felt like a foreigner, there was something comforting about spending a week in Japan. There were some things that were familiar to me, even in a sea of unfamiliarity.
I suppose that is the main reason I travel: find similarities between how people live their lives, even when our cultures appear so different on the surface.
