If you want to experience the hustle and bustle of a city or walk through the quaint streets of a small town. Japan has all the landscapes for all types of travelers. From solo traveling to large families, Japan has experiences for all ages and interests.
Japan was never on my radar, but my husband had always wanted to go. He has always loved anime shows, video games, the latest in technology but also the rich culture Japan has, with samurai and sumos. He really wanted to watch a Sumo tournament and taste Japanese wagyu. We decided to book our annual anniversary trip to the destination of his choice, and it was Japan.
Getting there
Japan is a country that has recently become of interest to many; especially cherry blossom and fall season for the lush landscapes. We booked our flight one year prior. We knew the flight was going to be long, so we wanted to travel in a business class seat to have a bed in the sky to travel comfortably. We had to accumulate 274,500 points on our travel credit cards to be redeemed for our flights. We booked through British Airways website our flight on Japan airlines from San Francisco airport to Haneda, Japan airport. Then our return flight was booked on Air Canada website flying on Asiana Airlines from Narita, Japan airport to Los Angeles, California. This may seem confusing, why would we book a flight on an airline website but travel on another? This is possible due to airline alliances.
We don’t live in California, so we had to book a flight from Orlando, FL to San Francisco, CA and from Los Angeles, CA back to Orlano, FL. These are called “positioning flights” in the points and miles world. Even with the added cost of these positioning flights plus the taxes and fees for our round-trip flights to Japan on points, the total out of pocket cost was $1,344. This was less than two economy flights to Japan which would have been on average $4,400. If you want to know more about which credit cards I opened for these flights, send me a message on the comment box with your email.
After a pleasant 12-hour flight on Japan Airlines lay-flat-seat, we arrived Haneda Airport. Once you get off the plane and pass through Border control you can catch a train from the airport to the city center.
Accommodation
We chose to stay at the Andaz Tokyo Toranomon Hills. The train station runs under the hotel making it very accessible to the airport and many attractions. It would cost around $4.20 per person for the train from the airport to the hotel.
We used 90,000 points to stay at this hotel for three nights. The hotel was beautiful, with breathtaking views of the city. We enjoyed having snacks in the lobby during the day and happy hour at night all included in our booking.
The rooftop bar at the hotel had amazing views of the Tokyo tower pictured below.
Day 1
Our flight arrived at 5 pm. We decided to eat dinner near the hotel and rest for the rest of the evening. It made our transition to the change of time a lot easier.
Day 2
Woke up bright and early to be at the Tsukiji outer market at opening time. From the hotel we walked to Toranomon Hills station. Then we took the Hibiya Line directly to Tsukiji station. From there it’s a short 5-min walk to the market. Make sure you allocate plenty of time to be at the market, exploring and tasting the local cuisines. I would suggest allocating a minimum of 2 hours for this activity. Our favorite eats were the Japanese wagyu and candied strawberries.
Our next stop was the Asakusa Senso-ji Temple. As you walk towards the temple there are many shops where you can buy a small snack or souvenirs. If you’re like us that gets easily distracted with any store, then would recommend allocating 1.5-2 hours for this activity. If you have more self-control than us, then 30-60 minutes should be more than enough.
Remember I told you earlier that my husband really wanted to watch a Sumo tournament? Well, at the time of our trip there were no tournaments. Instead, we booked a Sumo wrestling show. It was very informative and fun. We learned a lot about the rules and history of sumo wrestling. The show included all you can eat food, which was a menu that Sumos themselves eat in large amounts when they are training for a tournament. We were pleasantly surprised by the show opening with a Geisha performance which was beautiful to watch.
We ended the day exploring Akihabara which is the district for electronics and anime.
Day 3
The day started at the Imperial Palace. You can’t enter the palace since it is used as the residence for the Emperor of Japan. Due to this, it is a short activity that can be completed in 30 minutes or so.
Then we went to Meiji Shrine. I personally enjoy immerging in the culture of the place that I am visiting so seeing the different temples and shrines was an amazing cultural experience.
From the shrine we did a short walk to Takeshita Street. On our way there we found a Hedgehog café and we couldn’t resist the urge to play with hedgehogs. We paid to feed and pet the hedgehogs for 30 minutes which was the minimum time that can be purchased. It costs $10 USD per person for 30 minutes. The “café” part of the experience was not what we expected. It was not a barista type of experience it was a drink at the vending machine kind of thing. I guess that is more sanitary considering they have many animals inside the store.
There was no doubt we had arrived at Takeshita Street; this area was BUSY and packed with tourists. We tried a few snacks. We really enjoyed these long potato fries.
We went to Café Reissure next. There was a 40 min wait to be seated. We decided to go to the Galaxy Store that was across the street. It had a TeamLab collaboration exhibition that you can do at no cost. We immersed ourselves in this experience so much that time went by too quickly and we showed up back at the Café past the time they said and had to wait another 15 minutes to be seated. To us the wait was worth it, and we got to try the cutest drinks in town.
Our last stop of the day was at Shibuya crossing. This was way more fun than I expected. Crossing the street with thousands of people going in different directions was fun to do. I’ll confess I made my husband cross the street multiple times just because I found it amazing and fun to do. I guess you must experience it to understand what exactly I’m talking about. It’s a type of adrenaline rush I can’t explain with words.
Day 4
We woke up early and went to the train station to head over to our next stop: Kyoto. I had booked our train tickets in advance but unfortunately, we did not arrive at the train station on time to catch the train. We were able to hop on the next train to Kyoto but since we did not have reserved seats on this train, we had to sit on any available seat on cars 1-4 which are the cars for unreserved seats (first comes first served).
Once we arrived at the main station in Kyoto, we took the Marutamachi line to arrive at our next hotel. We booked three nights at the Hyatt Place Kyoto for a total of 28,500 points. After check-in at our hotel we went to Gion district for a Tea ceremony experience. We learned about the history and etiquette of a tea ceremony. We practiced how to make our own matcha tea. We enjoyed this experience very much.
After the tea ceremony we went to Miyako Ramen for dinner. The food there was so delicious we went twice during our time in Kyoto.
We finished the evening walking through the Nishiki market. We browsed stores and tried more of the local cuisine.
Day 5
The day started off at Fushimi Inari Taisha. We did an audio tour using voice map app to learn about the history of this place. Loved learning that each Tori gate is wish that came true. There are more than 10,000 gates. That’s a lot of wishes! To explore this place thoroughly and with no rush, would recommend allocation 3-4 hours. You can allocate less time if you don’t plan to go to the very top of the mountain.
We then visited the Kinkaku-ji Golden temple. This temple is so beautiful. The contrast of the gold on the temples, with the fall colors during sunset made it breathtaking. Pictures do not make justice to the beauty. If your like me that needs time to take the perfect picture, then allocating one hour for this placed should be enough. Otherwise, this place can be seen in no more than 30 minutes.
Lastly, we went to Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. We were able to make it to the forest just in time to see the green colors of the bamboo right before sunset. I would recommend not making this mistake we did and arriving too late to the forest. Our trip was in November and sunset time was around 5:00 pm making your days short to explore places that need daylight to be appreciated better like this bamboo forest. If I could change anything about this day would be starting our day at the bamboo forest.
We ended our evening with a great wagyu meal near our hotel. It was so good. The meat melted in your mouth and tasted so buttery.
Day 6
We started our day early and headed over to Nara. Few steps out of the train station and there were deers everywhere. We noticed that the deer were not really engaging with tourists and did not want to eat the deer snacks they were offering. But the more you keep walking towards the Todai-ji temple, the more deers were seeking snacks from tourists. We think that by the time people get to the temple they run out of snacks so deers were hungrier. Once we got to the temple, it was mind blowing to see how large the statue of the Great Buddha of Nara is.
Nara was a great half day trip from Kyoto. We returned to Kyoto at 1:00 pm and continued exploring Gion district. We ended our day with dinner at Ramen Miyako, so good my mouth waters just writing about it.
Day 7
We started our day with our annual wedding anniversary photoshoot dressed in traditional Japanese attire. Once we finished, we headed over to the train station to return to Tokyo.
On our way back to Tokyo, we were blessed with a clear sky and views of Mount Fuji. The size of the mountain is just impressive.
Once we arrived at the Tokyo station, we took the Ginza line straight to our last hotel.
We booked one night at the Hyatt Centric Ginza for 25,000 points. We chose this hotel due to its easy access to the metro and train station.
Our hotel had happy hour with snacks and drinks every night included in our stay. We relaxed in the hotel lobby for a few hours and then went to Team Lab Planets which was highly recommended from everyone that had previously been to Japan.
Team lab Planets was a very cool experience. It could take about 1-2 hours to complete.
Day 8
We checked out of our hotel early to catch our flight back home. Once you take the Ginza line to the Tokyo station you can buy a ticket for the Narita express which takes you straight to the terminal of departure. I did not buy these train tickets in advance because we had a lot of coins and some extra Japanese yen that we wanted to use before coming back home. I inserted A LOT of coins into the machine to pay for those train tickets. It was a great way to use our change and not lose money with the currency exchange.
And that concludes our AMAZING trip to Japan. I hope you find this post useful to plan your trip to Japan.
