Japan - Tokyo & Kyoto
5 days in Japan
From April 18 to April 23, 2017, we traveled to Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan.
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Day 1: On our day one, we kind of lost a day because Japan is 19 hours ahead of Hawai‘i. We landed at night, went to our AirBnB, found a place to eat nearby called Yonpachi Gyojo where we at some sashimi, takoyaki, and other things and then called it a night.
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Day 2: On our first full day in Tokyo, we rode the subway, Japan Rail, monorail, AND the metro. Before arriving in Japan, we made sure to get a Japan Rail Pass. By doing so, we were able to ride any of the Japan Rail transportations without any hassle. We had a fun filled day and were able to visit the National Museum of Nature and Science, see some pandas at Ueno Zoo, and visit our first shrine, Senso-ji. There sooo much to do in Tokyo and not much time so we also did some shopping at Asakusa, went to Tokyo Skytree, and ate some ramen in Shinjuku. If you plan to visit Japan, make sure you have your walking shoes on! We ended up walking 11.5 miles on our first day!
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Day 3: On day 2 in Tokyo, we started with breakfast in Shibuya at Ichiran and then headed to Tsukiji Market. We ate some octopus, grilled scallops with uni on it, and some dumplings. We walked around Tsukiji Market more, found a knife for cutting fish and ate some sushi for lunch. After leaving the market, we visited a walkway with rows of sake barrels, Meiji Shrine, walked thru Harajuku, and then went back to Shibuya for a fishing store. We started heading back to our AirBnB a little late and ended up eating udon for dinner in Shinagawa station.
Friday, April 21, 2017
Day 4: On our last semi day in Tokyo we visited Akihabara, also known as electric town, where we ate honey toast for the first time. We did a little shopping at Yodobashi-Akiba, an 8 story electronic store and even bought some takoyaki right outside of it. We ate some ramen at the train station and took a shinkansen, or bullet train, to Kyoto, one of Japan's oldest cities. Once we arrived in Kyoto, we settled into our next AirBnB. For dinner, we ate sushi at the train station and then we set out to see some shrines at night. The shrines in Kyoto stay open late so we went to see Yasaka and Kodai-ji. There’s just something different about seeing these beauties at night.
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Day 5: On our first full day in Kyoto, we had so much we wanted to see and do and decided to get a one day buss pass. For breakfast, we ate at Shijo-Nishinotoin where it was like cafeteria style dining. You could grab whatever you wanted and put it on your tray. Then we headed to Nishiki Market. We loved it! So much to see and so many different things to try like sparrow. Walking through the busier part of Kyoto, we came upon some sakura, or cherry blossoms. If you want to visit when it is sakura time, I would suggest visiting Japan in late March or early April. We were lucky enough to catch the later part of it. For lunch we ate at Wakuwaku and then visited Toji Shrine, one of the oldest shrines in Kyoto. After that, we went to buy me an old style Japanese umbrella at Tsujikura, ate more ramen, and ended up at one of the biggest fishing stores I’ve been to named Fishing Eight.
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Day 6: This was our last full day in Japan. We spent most of it in Kyoto. We checked out of our AirBnB and then ate a buffet breakfast. Instead of lugging our luggage around the city, the train stations have lockers that are all different sizes and we just pay some coins and we can leave our luggage in them. It makes it so convenient for tourists who have to check out of their hotels or AirBnBs and who have to wait for their flights home but still want to roam around the city. After finding a couple lockers, we visited Kinkaku-ji Temple, tried some different treats on the way to the Philosopher’s Path, and ate lunch at a tempura place in the Teramachi shopping district. Once it started getting closer to our departure time, we finally headed back into the city on the shinkansen to catch our flight back home.
