15-Day Itinerary for Exploring Japan

Here is my 15-day itinerary for exploring Japan! This was our first trip and will definitely not be our last. Japan was never high on my list, but it was my husband's top bucket list destination. So to celebrate a special birthday for him, we decided to make it happen and we both fell immediately in love with this beautiful, kind, smart, respectful, and efficient country.

When I started planning Japan, it seemed overwhelming: this was our first destination in Asia, Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world, I did not know a lick of Japanese, so many people have different recommendations, etc. Ultimately, we did not pre-plan a lot. Instead we booked our plane tickets there and, after researching our must-see locations, we booked hotels. Aside from that, we pre-booked two tours and two restaurants. Otherwise, we left our schedule generally open and just laid out a general vibe/neighborhood to hit each day and had a blast exploring! Everyone was kind, most signs were in English, and Google Maps made it so easy to get around. I will quickly highlight my top tips or notes before diving into what our actual itinerary looked like:

• Translation apps are helpful; we primarily used Google Translate for speaking and Apple's Translate app for its photo-to-translation feature (for food labels, museum signs, etc)

• If you have an iPhone, download the Suica card. My husband the Android user had to get a physical card. You have to use cash to purchase and reload the physical card at the machines; for Apple, you can just reload from your Apple Wallet

  • Suica is a kind of IC Card; there are several different kinds which I think is largely based on what city you live in, but whichever you choose works across Japan. I used it on metros, buses, 7/11's, and vending machines

  • I pre-loaded 5000yen on mine and maybe re-filled it once or twice with 2000yen

• Uber worked just fine all over; we were impressed how spacious most of our Ubers were

• Not a lot of breakfast options as most restaurants open late (1100)

• Pack extra bags; we are not big souvenir people, but you would not believe that with all the stuff we brought home. We packed an empty duffel and it was filled for our return

• Vending machines are everywhere; the ones that take Suica are the best

• You will probably get blisters from all the walking; I managed to get them while wearing my Hoka shoes that I have worn virtually everyday for over a year. Try to have a backup pair of good walking shoes

• Some people worry about luggage size when booking trains and we did not find it to be an issue. On certain Shinkansen (bullet train) lines (Tokaido, Sanyo, Kyushu, and Nishi-Kyushu), you have to pre-book the oversized luggage storage rack at the back of each car; this includes the popular Osaka-Tokyo line, which we rode. It did not include the Tokyo-Kanazawa-Kyoto line we rode. When a reservation for the luggage rack was required that we did not have, my medium size checked luggage fit fine in the overhead space above the seats (I specifically had this medium checked-luggage); otherwise, I stored it in the rack.

  • We used JR-West to pre-book our trains. You can book up to 30 days in advance, but we only ever did a day or two before. The reservations are also changeable up until you print out the tickets at the station. We did not get a rail pass and would not consider it cost-effective unless we were doing almost daily train trips

• Certain trains (inter-city, reserved seating) are called Limited-Express and are the fastest trains after the Shinkansen. These require a base fare and a supplement. You could use your loaded Suica for the base fair and just purchase a supplement ticket. We found it easier to just buy physical tickets at the station for Limited Express trains that covered both fares.

• Conbini's are really the best (7/11, Lawson's, FamilyMart) -- we loved trying all the snacks

• We left off Osaka to explore more nature and smaller cities, but would love to explore it next time

• Carry your passport with you at all times! It is the law in Japan. It is also needed when shopping tax-free, which is available at many stores when you spend above 5000 yen (about $30 in 2026)

• Carry socks with you if you wear sandals: many temples, ryokans (traditional Japanese inns), and all tatami spaces require you to remove your shoes and either walk around without shoes or use shared slides.

• Learning a few phrases in Japanese goes a long way. The ones I used the most were:

  • Hello: Konnichiwa (kohn-nee-chee-wah)

  • Thank you: Arigatou gozaimasu: (ah-ree-gah-toh goh-zye-mahss)

  • Good morning: Ohayō Gozaimasu (oh-hah-yoh go-zah-ee-moss)

  • Please: Kudasai (koo-dah-sigh)

  • Yes: Hai (high)

  • Water: Mizu (mee-zoo)

  • Overall, the "u" in words is silent or whispered (for instance, the popular Tokyo neighborhood Asakusa is pronounced ah-sahk-sah)

Day 1: Depart

A long travel day! We departed DC at 7am with a 2-hour layover in Dallas. We then boarded our plane to Narita Airport (NRT), which was about a 13-hour flight.

Day 2: Arrive to Tokyo

We arrived to NRT at 3pm local time, a 13-hour time difference for us. The entire entry process did not take long. Several people had pre-completed their forms online and had a printed out QR code; we did not have time to do this beforehand so we just filled out the forms in person. In addition to personal details, you need the address and phone number for your first hotel. You walk through quarantine first, which wiped your shoes; then immigration where there is the first form; then you pick up your luggage and fill out a second form; then finally proceed through customs.

To get to the city, and all around Japan, Google Maps is your best friend. We opted to take the Skyliner, which is a reserved seat train who's tickets were about $15/person. We just followed signs for the Skyliner and bought tickets to Nippori Station (because Google Maps said so) at the ticket counter. For physical paper tickets like this one, you put it into the machine upon entering the train's boarding area and it becomes validated; when you leave at your destination station, you put the ticket into the machine again and it keeps the stub for you. Once at Nippori Station, my husband bought his Suica card which we used to hop on the metro to Shimbashi Station (there are several lines that work). Our hotel, Hotel 1899, was about a 12-minute walk away.

We LOVED this hotel. We were in the Deluxe Corner Room with two twin beds. It was so spacious, luxurious, and had amazing attention to detail. The beds were quite hard (probably the hardest I have ever slept on!) but we found that it did not bother us much. The area around the hotel is quiet, but there is still a Lawson's and a 7/11 nearby as well as being close to all the restaurants and liveliness of Shimbashi. The hotel is tea-themed and offers special complimentary tea services throughout the day.

After a quick dinner in Shimbashi, we crashed around 9pm.

Day 3: Tokyo--Asakusa, Ginza, TeamLabs, and Shimo-Kitazawa

And we woke up around 5am! We decided to use the jet lag to our benefit to explore Asakusa and Senso-ji Temple before the crowds. We arrived to the temple around 7:45am and enjoyed meandering around and receiving our fortunes. We loved Asakusa (and neighboring Ueno) so much and would definitely considering staying here in the future. The temple definitely started to get very busy around 9am. Definitely recommend going here early!

Some of the shops in this area start to open around 8 and 9am so we set out for breakfast. Our first stop was Matchamon, which became our obsession for the entire trip. The matcha here was so good! I never really enjoyed matcha but decided to try their strawberry matcha latte and it was the best I ever had! My husband also loved the matcha Einspänner. They have a few locations throughout Japan and I think we went at least 4 times. Afterwards, we stopped by Asakusa Kagetsudō, a popular melon bread food stall served fresh and warm. I had a plain and my husband got one with cream, which was definitely our favorite. These are huge and we easily could have shared one! Our last food stop in this area was Onigiri Enmusubi, where my husband got a delicious wagyu onigiri. We spent the rest of the morning wandering around, trying some gacha capsule coin machines (our favorites were the pins), and buying a cool woodblock print from Mokuhankan Woodblock Print Shop. There is also a Don Quijote nearby that we popped in to browse before making the ultimate decision to wait to buy things until the end of the trip. Don Quijote is a huge store that has every snack item you can think of, makeup, skincare, clothes, bags, watches, etc. It's a great place to buy gifts at the risk of getting the theme song stuck in your head and being overwhelmed by all the options!

After Asakusa, we definitely could have gone down to Kappabashi Street to do some shopping for knives and ceramics, but that was not our focus this trip. Instead, we decided to go to the TeamLabs: Borderless Museum that afternoon, the tickets for which we purchased online that morning. Since it was somewhat near our hotel, we headed back in that general direction with a stop at Ginza. Uniqlo's flagship store is here, as well as a giant Muji, and we stopped at both. Uniqlo was honestly too overwhelming for us: 11 stories of clothes only navigable by escalator. We did not buy anything at this one and preferred some of the smaller ones we popped into during our trip. The Muji was great and less overwhelming. We ended our time in Ginza with a bowl of delicious chicken ramen at Ginza Kagari; we lucked out getting in relatively quick and when we left, there was quite a line!

After a quick relaxation break at our hotel, we walked over to the TeamLabs: Borderless Museum. I mostly chose this one because the idea of walking around barefoot in water with a bunch of people at TeamLabs: Planets was not very appealing to me! Plus, Borderless was closer to our hotel. We were not expecting to love this as much as we did! We were initially not very impressed with the first room, or any of the projection-based rooms, but discovering the cool side rooms with crystal and bubble-like displays was awesome. We went around 3pm and it was not too crowded. The museum is in a fancy mall, so there are a lot of cafes nearby where we enjoyed some coffee afterwards. To finish the day, we explored the very cool Shimo-Kitazawa neighborhood. We were here on a Monday night, so it seemed a bit more chill, but we enjoyed exploring all the streets near the station and popping into really cool vintage and thrift shops. We grabbed a small bite here before heading back to our hotel for the night.

Day 4: Tokyo--Harujuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku

The night before, we decided to spend the day in the greater Shibuya and Shinjuku area so we booked afternoon tickets for Shibuya Sky; I am sure it would be amazing to be up there around sunset, but those tickets book out in advance. We had an early-ish start leaving our hotel around 8:45am and struggled with the lack of open cafes for breakfast. Eventually, we wandered down the very famous Takeshita Street, which is not really our style, but we were able to grab some good onigiris and tempura from Kitchaan Harajuku and then we wandered over to Christie teahouse for drinks. This was possibly my husband's favorite place of the trip! It has a very old school, relaxed vibe and has a ton of delicious desserts. My husband had the mille feuille, now declared his favorite dessert ever. This was also where he tried a hojicha latte for the first time, which has now become his favorite beverage; it was a real win. Hojicha is a roasted green tea and has a very earthy flavor, somewhat similar to matcha's more grassy flavor. He sought our everything hojicha from this point onward.

We wanted to explore the park and shrine Meiji Jingu, but were running short on time before our reservation. So we just walked the front of the park a bit before hopping on the Harujuku metro one stop down to Shibuya Sky, which is connected to the Shibuya station. The station is quite large and kind of confusing, but the signage is good. Shibuya Sky was very organized, had plenty of space to spread out, and offered gorgeous views of the city. It was definitely worth the less than $20/person to see! Afterwards, we made sure to see the Hachiko statue, honoring the very loyal Akita pup who waited for his deceased owner to return everyday for ten years at the station. ☹️ This is also right in front of the famous Shibuya Crossing, the world's busiest pedestrian intersection. We then hopped back on the metro to Harajuku to explore Meiji Jingu.

Meiji Jingu was probably our favorite part of Tokyo! It's incredibly peaceful, has huge wooden Torii gates, and the trees were gorgeous. There is a small cafeteria and gift shop on the grounds where we enjoyed some ice cream. The Shinto shrine itself is dedicated to Emperor Meiji and his wife, and there are two very cool Camphor trees here that represent the couple.

We wanted to stay near Shibuya because I had a 7pm dinner reservation, so we had a few hours to fill. We metro'ed back to Shibuya and ended up walking to the Daikanyama neighborhood, specifically the Tsutaya bookstore there. This was such a cool area and store, split across multiple buildings. It had a huge Starbucks with lots of seating and outlets where we were able to grab a coffee and charge our phones. In addition to books, the store had a ton of cool local items like art, t-shirts, bags, and other fun souvenirs. My feet were pretty dead at this point, so we ordered an Uber to take us back to Shibuya to go to the Nintendo Store before dinner. Every Uber we took was so nice and spacious! The Nintendo Store was a bit of a letdown. We were not very impressed with the options, for instance all the stickers were huge? I just wanted one for my water bottle! I was very disappointed in the Zelda items, and my husband was similarly disappointed with the Capcom items so we didn't buy anything.

For dinner, we went to my favorite spot of the whole trip: Hikiniku to Come. I was able to easily secure one of the limited advanced reservations that open up a month in advance; otherwise, reservations open up 7 days before. You definitely need one to eat here. There is also one in Kyoto if you miss out on a reservation here! It was indeed a bit tricky to find--it's on the third floor of a building down a small alley--but there are little meatball signs you can follow. They make the juiciest wagyu hamburgers made to order right in front of you and served only as they become ready. They are served simply with rice and some pickled radish, sauces, and optional egg. It was unfathomably good.

After dinner, we experienced the craziness of rush hour by hopping on the Yamanote line to head up towards Golden Gai. We were crammed in like sardines for three stops! This was the only time we experienced this, though I was told it is more common particularly on this line in the Shibuya area. We walked around the tightly-packed historic Golden Gai and Omoide Yokocho tavern alleys but since we had just ate and my husband and I are not big drinkers, we opted instead to stop by a bar nearby called STAR CLUB. It was a very cool video game-themed bar and from 8-9pm on a Tuesday, it was not crowded at all. We had a drink while my husband got to play Street Fighter on the TV the whole time. The bartender was very nice and spoke great English! Since my now-blistered feet couldn't take much more, we Ubered back to our hotel.

Day 5: Tokyo--Tsukiji, Ueno, Ikebukuro

After sleeping in a bit, we started our day by going to the Tsukiji Outer Market, which was walking distance from our hotel. While this area is very touristy now, it was still fun. There used to be an inner fish market where locals would buy their fish, but that moved locations during Covid. Now, only the outer market is left which has a bunch of outdoor food stalls, still including a lot of fish vendors. Before even considering food, I was craving another strawberry matcha and we found a place that was open right in the middle of the market: FRUITS MATCHA Mt.FUJI Tsukiji. I ordered a matcha to-go, but my husband was eyeing the fluffy pancakes on the menu so we grabbed a table with no wait. These pancakes are more akin to a soufflé and take a while to cook; we waited maybe 20 minutes. They were so good--not too sweet and very eggy in flavor. I know everyone wants to go to the TikTok-famous Benizuru for this style of pancake, but these were definitely amazing and we did not have to wake up at 5am to then wait in line for an hour to get a late morning reservation.... Plus both of our matchas were very good!

After my husband filled up on pancakes, I was still wanting to try some street food so we wandered around the market to make a plan of attack. First, we got some delicious fresh salmon nigiri. While we are not huge sushi people usually, we were amazed at the quality of the fish and how there was no distinct "fishy" flavor. This bite of sushi inspired us to eat way more sushi on our trip then we originally would have thought! Afterwards, I went to one of the stalls that were broiling fresh scallops in butter; it was so good. I then tried one of the hyped-up strawberry daifuku mochi desserts and was honestly extremely underwhelmed. Our final bite was a stick of wagyu steak, which was divine. My favorite part of the market was definitely seeing an adorable Shiba Inu named Wako-Chan hanging out in a box while his humans sold fish.

Afterwards, we headed over to explore Ueno Park. It was quite hot this day, so we spontaneously decided to do a speed run of the Tokyo National Museum. This was a very cool museum spread across several buildings, though the biggest one was the coolest. They had a great collection of samurai armor and swords, to include one called the Demon Cutter which legends say was used to slay a drunken demon that terrorized Kyoto. We also saw some cool art and sculptures, to include these funny little terracotta dancing figures. Afterwards, I was hungry so we went and picked up a light meal at The Juicy Gyoza Dandadan Uguisudani.

Our next stop was the Ikebukuro neighborhood to check out some of the cool arcades. When we arrived to the train station here, it had begun pouring rain. Thankfully, it only lasted an hour or two and the train station had very cheap umbrellas for sale. We went to Ikebukuro Mikado Game Center for the retro vibe and had a lot of fun. My husband grew up on Ninja Turtles and Street Fighter and I loved racing games and we got to play them all. We both loved people watching here, too; it was fun for us to see businessmen in suits stopping by the arcade to beat a high score on their way home from work. It was a great way to spend a rainy hour! We then headed back to the hotel for the night; I was pretty tired because I had picked up a light cold. I was thankful for Google Translate and the nice pharmacist at one of the train station shops who helped me find a good cold medication that saved me!

Day 6: Tokyo to Kanazawa

After one last walk around the Shimbashi and Ginza area in the morning to grab matcha, we opted to Uber with all of our bags to Tokyo station for our Shinkansen train to one of our favorite stops in Japan: Kanazawa. Because we pre-reserved our train ticket through JR-West, we followed signs at the station for the Shinkansen area (not to be confused with the metro or other JR train gates) where there was a green JR-West kiosk. Here we entered in a code and the credit card we used to reserve our tickets and it printed them out for us. For the Shinkansen (and other trains) there could be multiple paper tickets per person (like a Base Fare, a Limited Express Fare, or any transfers); you always stack them in a neat pile and put them all in the ticket slot at once when entering the gate. The machine will sort it and validate only the ones needed. The ride to Kanazawa is about 2.5 hours and was quite lovely!

We walked from the train station to our hotel, the Mitsui Garden Hotel Kanazawa. The rooms here were more basic and a bit smaller, which was fine for our short stay. The location was great! We were hungry for a late lunch on arrival so we immediately walked over to Omicho Market to eat at Ohkura. This was easily the best sushi of our trip. Everything was so fresh! We especially loved the fatty tuna (really any of the tuna), salmon, and cucumber rolls. We appreciated that the order sheet let you choose if you wanted wasabi or not since we don't love it and some other places we stopped at automatically put it in rolls.

I had basically done no research on Kanazawa before coming as it had kind of been a last-minute addition my husband chose. But, we knew there were beautifully preserved histroric geisha and samurai districts so after lunch, we wandered over to one that used to be a geisha area: the Higashi Chaya District. Before we explored this area too much, I stopped by aisorashi to get a custom silver ring made. The one I chose cost about $60, but they allow you to choose the material, thickness of the band, hammered details, and type of finish. They offer an option where you can actually help make the ring, but I opted to leave it to the professionals. We wandered around the district and the ring was done in about 45 minutes. I love it!

While wandering this district, we noticed a sign for a path up into the hills that included more shrines, so off we went. We walked past Utasu Shrine up to Hosenji Temple. At this temple, we were the only ones there and it had beautiful views of the city, especially at golden hour when we were there. We kept walking further up the hill and ended up at Overlook Hill Chobo-no-oka. We wanted to go down to Utatsuyama Park Hanashoubuen, but the staircase next to the overlook was closed. Thankfully, we decided to go further down the road and walked down a path to the park via Toyokuni Shrine. This was absolutely amazing. We had the shrine path all to ourselves, there was a beautiful bamboo forest, the woods and Torii gates were stunning, and we had beautiful views at Sunset Hill. To top it off, on the way back down the road to town, we saw an elusive tanuki!!! This is an adorable racoon dog and I was too in shock to take a picture. Tanuki statues are all over Japan (some have comically large genitals because they are a symbol of prosperity, lol).

As we were following the river back towards our hotel, we got to watch a gorgeous geisha performance on the Ume-no Hashi Bridge as the sun was setting. It felt very magical.

Day 7: Kanazawa

The star of the show at the Mitsui Garden Hotel is definitely the breakfast! They have a good mix of both traditional Japanese and Western items. We had some laundry going at the hotel so we did not want to wander too far away until it was finished, which is how we ended up at the Samurai Residence Kurando Terashima's House. The lady running the place was so nice and made sure English audio recordings were played so we could understand the importance of the site. The gardens here were pretty!

After handling our laundry, we visited the beautiful Oyama Shrine near our hotel. From here, you are easily able to get to the Kanazawa Castle grounds. When we were there, a lot of it was under construction so we just walked past it on our way to the famous Kenroku-en Gardens, one of Japan's 3 "perfect" gardens. It was indeed quite beautiful to wander around, but we were getting a bit hot and wanted some refreshments. The tea houses inside the gardens are usually pre-booked. Instead, we walked out the exit by the adorable Edomachidori Avenue and stopped at Kenjotei Tea House to get matcha parfaits and drinks. Everything was delicious here and the staff were so kind! We wandered down the rest of the avenue stopping at Ishiura Shrine, one of my favorites and the oldest Shinto shrine in Kanazawa. Sometimes shrines have mascots, and this one had a cute little white dog named Kima-chan and I definitely bought a little statue of him... There were also a lot of red torii gates here that made for great picture opportunities.

We made a stop at the very cool 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art to use the bathroom, but stayed for a lot longer resting our legs a bit in the Turrell Room. My husband and I were pretty captivated by it! For anyone familiar with Chicago's famous Bean statue, there is a similar statue on the grounds here as well. Afterwards we headed in the general direction of the Nagamachi Samurai District and stopped at Big Time vintage store on the way. This was one of my husband's favorite stops: he bought quite a few things! It is a huge secondhand clothing store--surprisingly mostly Western items--that had a ton of vintage tees. I picked up a cool denim jacket myself. We did wander the Samurai District after and it was a very pretty and cool area, but we ultimately had to head back to the hotel to drop off all of our bags. After taking a quick break, we ventured back down to the same area for dinner, opting for Ramen Uguisu. There was a line here due to the small amount of seating, but it moves pretty quick. It was tasty!

Day 8: Kanazawa to Kyoto

From Kanazawa station, the trip to Kyoto is just under 2 hours with a transfer at Tsuruga. We again pre-booked our tickets through JR West and when we printed out the tickets from the kiosk at Kanazawa, it printed both our Shinkansen and Thunderbird tickets. It's super easy! When booking tickets online, you might be scared by the short transfer time at Tsuruga (I think it is about 12 minutes?) but it was definitely doable. Everyone is doing the same thing you are, and like everything else in Japan, it is efficient and people are orderly about it. We left around 11am to get to Kyoto around 1pm. For our hotel, we chose the Kyoto Shijo Takakura hotel grandereverie because of its proximity to the Karasuma Line and activities. We had a Deluxe Twin room and it had the most comfortable beds and a ton of space. The hotel staff were so kind and its near a lot of great restaurants. We would definitely recommend!

Kyoto was a lot busier than I imagined, particularly Nishki Market (which is huge!) and the entire surrounding shopping area. It was very easy to get away from the crowds by popping down side streets, though. Kyoto is also very spread out and the public transportation here is not as good as other places; there are some trains/metros, but it is mostly buses. While we were there, we did take a bus or two and it was very easy; you enter the bus from the back door and tap your Suica card while exiting via the front door (it is usually a flat fare). We also took the most Ubers here for comfort and did not regret it at all. Of the three cities we visited, this was at the bottom, but we still ranked it 8.6/10! (very specific ranking system, lol) It is super beautiful and there is a lot of nature nearby, which we appreciated.

After dropping our bags, we started walking towards the Kamo River and grabbed some sushi for a late lunch on the way. We also decided we needed dessert and grabbed our first, and possibly best, taiyaki of our trip. Taiyaki are warm, fish-shaped cakes with various fillings though here we had traditional custard. The shop we went to was right over the Shijo bridge and it did not have an English-equivalent name but is listed on Google Maps as 鳴門鯛燒總舖. Having had the ice cream ones from HMart back home that come with more of a cake cone outer layer, having these served warm with a crispy outer layer and soft inside was divine.

From there, we walked up to Maruyama Park which was gorgeous but we were honestly feeling pretty tired. We walked Nine-no-Michi street and explored some temples off of it before wandering through the famous (infamous?) Ninenzaka area. While beautiful, with its views of the famous 5-story pagoda, it was insanely crowded. We didn't linger long here and just wandered back to our hotel for a nap.

After resting, it was about 8pm and we were a bit hungry so to end our night, we went to Motoi Gyoza. This is owned by the same people who run the 3 Michelin Star restaurant Motoi and these gyoza were very good. We got there pretty close to closing (we ate quick!) so we only had to wait just a few minutes to secure a spot. Their waygu gyoza were one of our favorite bites of the trip. They have unique and delicious dipping recommendations, to include olive oil. We also loved their herb salad, which was quite large and easy to share with my husband. Salad and gyoza make a perfect meal! After this, we went back to the hotel and crashed in their extremely comfortable beds where I think we slept 11 hours--we needed it. I will note that while this was definitely fine for us, Kyoto is not a nightlife city like Tokyo. There are less bars, most restaurants close by 10pm, and there are not many open-late activities you might find elsewhere such as karaoke or arcades.

Day 9: Kyoto--Bike tour, Arashiyama

One of the few things I had pre-booked before traveling to Japan was a 9am e-bike tour of Kyoto and it was easily one of our favorite things. So much so that my husband is now demanding a bike tour on every trip! I am definitely glad we did this early before it got too hot, but the e-bikes make it super easy. The tour emphasized seeing "hidden" Kyoto and it honestly felt like that; we were outside of the main areas and did not see a ton of non-Japanese tourists. Our group was small and our guide (Sean) was so great. The tour takes you to various temples and shrines that the guide will change and alter depending on the day, time, wishes of the group, etc. No one in our group had a must-see, so we just let our guide decide. Our first stop was Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, which was quiet and peaceful. This was our first time seeing a shrine with a guide, so it was very interesting to hear different history and traditions. Japan's primary religion is Shintoism, which worships spirits (kami) at shrines; the second largest religion is Buddhism and their worship is done at temples. When Buddhism came over from India and China to Japan, Shintoism formed from a lot of disparate village-based religious worship of spirits into a larger religion to stand up to Buddhism, but they ultimately became complementary religions. A lot of people believe in both at the same time, or takes pieces from each. For instance, in Shintoism, death would make a place impure: when someone died, such as an emperor, you had to abandon the place of death. This is why the capital of Japan changed so many times (Nara to Kyoto to Tokyo). Buddhism offered a peaceful outlook on death that many were seeking. It's quite beautiful how they can coexist and complement each other!

Our next stop on the tour was the Genko-an Temple, our favorite. The space is super peaceful, famous for its windows out into the garden, but the ceiling here is made from reclaimed wood floor from a Kyoto castle. On this wood, you can still see bloody handprints, footprints, and body prints from when a defending army was overwhelmed and, instead of losing and becoming prisoners, they committed seppuku. They honor their lives by preserving the floor as a reminder of their sacrifice. Afterwards, our guide took us to the oldest sweets shop in the world (Ichimonjiya Wasuke). It has been operating since the year 1000 and still sells the same sweet: grilled mochi. It was unique and tasty! We ended our tour with a beautiful, longer spurt on our bikes to Toujiin Temple which had lovely gardens and was the resting place of several important Shogun (military Japanese leaders).

After ending our bike tour, our guide suggested a wagyu donburi spot nearby that was absolutely delicious (北野天満宮 肉と庭 まつを -MATS U O-). Since we were on the outskirts of Kyoto already, we decided to spend the rest of our afternoon somewhat nearby so we hopped in an Uber over to Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple. This temple was small but very cool to wander through and had its own private little bamboo forest that was not crowded at all. We wanted to go to nearby temple Otagi Nenbutsuji, but since a lot of things close at 4 or 5pm, we had to cut something and it was sadly the one to go. From Adashino, we walked to the cool pottery shop Kotouen. This was such a lovely walk! There are several cute shops, including one next to Kotouen that had the cutest little dog wearing a sweater that said "Security," lol. From here, we kept walking to our ultimate destination of Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama. Unknowingly, we walked through the famous Arashiyama bamboo forest on the way; it was pretty crowded but for just passing through it was fine. For photos, I would definitely go to Adashino instead. From the bamboo forest, through the Arashiyama town center and over the Togetsukyō Bridge, it was all very crowded. The area was stunning though, being right on the rushing river.

We got to the Monkey Park right before their final admission tickets were sold for the day (they close at 4pm). It does require you to hike basically straight up for twenty minutes. While it starts with stairs that can look daunting, it does turn into more of a gradual path and was fine. My husband and I did it in 20 minutes, though we were going pretty fast since it was close to closing time. As you approach the top, you start to see wild macaque monkeys as they jump around the trees and play with each other. Once at the top, there is a hut where you can go in, buy food, and feed the monkeys through barred windows like a reverse zoo. It was very fun! The top also offered a nice expansive view of the city.

We were pretty tired after all of this, so we picked up taiyaki near the station and took the train back to Kyoto to rest up. We got Motoi Gyoza for dinner again and stopped by Kyoto's Nintendo Store before calling it a night.

Day 10: Kyoto--Nijo Castle, Philosopher's Path

To be completely honest, I forgot we had this extra full day in Kyoto until the night before--I thought we were jumping right into the stuff on Day 11! So this "surprise" day ended up being very relaxing. Retrospectively, I would have used this extra day to extend our time at our ryokan (Day 12) because we loved it so much. But, this ended up being a much needed respite.

After sleeping in pretty late, we decided to make our pilgrimage to Kyoto's Matchamon location. This one was unique because it had tatami mat seating! On the walk there, we were drawn into a bakery called fiveran and we got way too many things but they were all so delicious. Japan's bakery scene is amazing! Matchamon is located right next to Nijo Castle, so we went there afterwards to quickly wander through. This castle was home to the Shogun, who was often worried about assassination attempts from the emperor or other rivals, making it one of the best examples of the famous nightingale floors. This type of floor started as an accident but turned into a desired commodity in Shogun homes: the wood shrunk and made chirping noises when people walked on it, making it an intruder detection system! Kyoto was pretty hot this day, and since there is not a lot of shade on the grounds of the castle, we did not stay too long. Instead, we hopped in an Uber to Ginkaku-ji Temple (known as the Silver Temple).

We spent a lot of time in this area exploring the temple, but also the adorable shopping street. We saw the beautiful moss gardens and views at the temple, had delicious onigiri and cucumbers on a stick, and shopped at a Sumikko Gurashi novelty store (a Japanese franchise that became my new obsession because they are adorable). We also spent a lot of time at the Arukayakutsuten Kyotoginkakuji shoe store, which sold Spingle shoes. These shoes are all high-quality leather and hand-made in Japan. After trying on many pairs, my husband bought two that have quickly become his favorite shoes. They did have women's shoes, but I think they only went up to a US size 9 here in women's and I am a 9.5 (this is more common in smaller stores). We had room for more food and were drawn in by the cute café Kindankajitsu Ginkakuji that had old-school diner vibes and was advertising a wagyu burger that looked like a McDonald's burger, but nicer. It was delicious. We also got mango shaved ice and a mango cream sandwich here that were also excellent. They also had unlimited fountain soda!

Next up was walking the Philosopher's Path, a gorgeous little path along river that is shaded and offers great views of the city. We saw a lot of cool birds, a deer, huge fish, and cats! There are a lot of little shops and restaurants off the path that were fun to peruse. We would have stopped at Hōnenin Temple, but it closed at 4pm. But on our walk, we did see signs for the cutest shrine dedicated to animals: Ōtoyo Shrine. I loved it so much! We did walk the entire path, which is a very relaxing trip, but needed to head back to the hotel to drop off our large bag of shoes my husband was carrying. We took our first bus of the trip, which was super easy. Since we got on at the end of the line, it was not crowded yet. It did get crowded on the shopping streets closer to the center.

After dropping off the bags, we hopped back on the metro to go to the famous Fushimi Inari shrine. By the time we stopped for my husband to get his second hojicha latte of the day and made our way to it, it was getting close to 7:30pm and the sun had fully set. It was very cool to see lit up and while there were still a lot of people, it wasn't too crowded. We walked some of the famed path with the hundreds of torii gates, but did not want to walk the full path in the dark (there are boar). We had enough pictures with torii gates from Kanazawa already, so it wasn't a big loss for us. If this was a top priority, I would recommend getting here early instead (7am). We ended our night with some onigiri and snacks from 7/11 (we are obsessed with the Choco Monaka Jumbo ice cream).

Day 11: Kyoto--Day Trip to Nara

Our only other pre-booked tour was a morning trip to Nara, which was a lot of fun. We did the 7:05am departure and were glad we did because it started to get quite crowded around the time we were leaving. Nara is very easily done on your own without a guide, but it was nice to have someone leading the way who knew a lot about the area! We met at Kyoto station and definitely underestimated how long we needed to find the the meeting spot. This station is huge! We got very lost and our guide had to come find us, which delayed our group a bit. The tour paid for tickets to Nara (not back) so he had them all ready for us for the approximate 40 minute ride there. Once at Kintetsu-Nara Station, our guide took us around some of the shrines (a lot were closed for construction) on the walk over to the main part of Nara Park where the deer are. Multiple people set up out front of the Nara National Museum to sell biscuits, the only food permitted to be given to the deer. A bundle of 9 biscuits is 100yen, cash only. Our guide told us to take the biscuits and quickly hide them in a bag, which I did. Otherwise you will get swarmed by the aggressive deer who hang out near the tables, which happened to the other family in our group. Some of the deer did come up and head butt me a little and try to nibble my clothing (particularly around the butt, lol) so make sure to wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty. Myself or our guide would just gently shove them away and they largely left us alone. This is the only area to buy the biscuits!

We then walked up towards Tsubogami Shrine through a lovely wooded area and path. The deer were much calmer here and in smaller groups so this is where my husband and I used up our biscuits. Yes, the deer did bow to us and we bowed back! The one downside to the tour was we did not get the chance to explore any of the shrines in this beautiful, wooded part. What it did include though was a visit to Tōdai-ji temple with one of Japan's largest bronze Buddha statues. It was pretty crazy to see in person! Afterwards, our guide told us which bus to take to get back to the station and from there, we bought our return tickets to Kyoto. One funny fact our guide did share was that all the deer live in the mountains outside of town and form a line to come down into the town center in the morning, then line right back up at night to go back. The deer all over Nara were very cute and such a unique experience; I would definitely recommend it as a day trip!

We ended our day with some shopping and dinner at an izakaya next to our hotel. We loved the chain store Hands, which is kind of similar to Target, but it has an amazing selection of stationary and cool stickers!

Day 12: Ryokan

After checking out from our hotel in Kyoto, the front desk helped us ship two of our larger bags back to Tokyo, where we would spend one last night before our flight home. The front desk handled it all and it cost about $30. It was super convenient! This left us with a carry-on and two small backpacks for the next two nights. Before saying goodbye to Kyoto though, we wanted to grab some lunch and finally decided to stop by a burrito spot that many people had told us was amazing: Que Pasa. Mexican food in Japan? We were skeptical but it really lived up to the hype. My husband got a burrito and I got a quesadilla and it was some of the best we've ever had.

Our next destination was a lovely ryokan (Japanese Inn) in Minoh Park outside of Osaka. We both wish we would have spent more than one night here as it was so magical. The journey took us about an hour and half to the Minoh Park station. Minoh is known for their yuzu and they have a little mascot named Yuzuru you will see at the station. They are also know for their fried maple leaves! From the station, we walked 20 minutes along the most adorable paved walkway through a small part of town and then along the river in the park to our ryokan: Meitokuan. We cannot recommend this place enough. The staff were the nicest we encountered and the facilities were gorgeous. I believe there are only three rooms (we stayed in the Twin Room, River View) and ours was huge: it had a small living area with two couches, a bed area, an eating area, and a private bathroom. All with the most gorgeous views of the forest and sounds of the running river from your windows. There was also AC. It had an onsen that was only allowed to be used by one person/couple at a time, which was nice for privacy. After checking in, we knew it was supposed to rain that evening so we wanted to get out and hike before it started. We actually first walked back towards the station to grab a matcha and hojicha latte from the adorable Franc et élégant YUZUYA CAFE. Our drinks were very good and my husband spotted another table having this rice au gratin dish that he had to have. It was amazing. The food menu here was small, but they also had ice cream and a lot of delicious looking desserts and everything we had was fantastic!

We then started hiking towards the famous Minoh Falls. On the way, my husband was trying to burn energy and did a quick trek up to the Observation Deck while I explored the nearby temples. The hike to Minoh Falls was lovely and there is an ice cream shop (closes at 4pm) and bathrooms at the end! The falls were beautiful and not crowded late in the day. We mostly had the hike to ourselves. We also saw four macaque monkeys on our hike; our ryokan warned that we had to keep our windows shut at night because they will break in! The hike is easy with some elevation gain. It took us one hour from the cafe to the waterfall, including our middle stops. We were going quick because of our plans!

We made it back in time for our pre-booked 6pm kaiseki reservation at nearby ryokan Otowa sansou. When booking our ryokan, since they do not serve dinner, they recommended eating here as there were not many options around. I figured this would be our chance to do a fancy kaiseki meal (Japan's haute cuisine) and while the experience was fun, it was definitely not our vibe. It usually consists of 9 or so small plates served over an hour or two. While we liked some of the dishes, we did not like a majority of them. There were a surprising amount of clams and really strong, fishy soups that we did not enjoy. We called it our trauma bonding experience, lol. There are definitely other options around for dinner that retrospectively I would have chosen, like the cafe we had matcha at (open until 6pm) and some other izakaya and yakitori restaurants right around the station.

After that experience, we just enjoyed relaxing at our ryokan, listening to the water, and using the onsen. The ryokan is only about 30 to 40 minutes from downtown Osaka and we wished we could have spent more time here and taken some day trips into the city!

Day 13: Koyasan

We woke up to a rainy day, our first full one on our trip. The sound of the rain from our room was magical though, and we spent a lot of time relaxing and listening. Our breakfast at the hotel was very good.

After checking out, we began our very long travel day to Koyasan. Koyasan is a major spiritual destination in Japan, full of Buddhist temples (home to Shingon Buddhism), and one of the best places to do a temple stay, which we did. The journey from Minoh station to our temple was close to 3.5 hours. There were a lot of transfers, but honestly it was all a lot easier than expected. The night before, I purchased us each a Koyasan World Heritage ticket. This covered all trains, buses, and trams on the way to and around Koya. So on Google Maps, this covered everything that was green (Nankai-Koya Line from Namba Station) and after. This was about $25/person and definitely worth it. We paid for the base price, but for $6 or so more you can get the ticket that includes the Limited Express train (blue) that is a little bit faster. At Namba station, we picked up an embarrassing amount of bakery items from Namba Gute. Everything was amazing, but I will be dreaming of my cinnamon raisin donut-shaped item from here for a very long time; it was so buttery and melt in your mouth.

The journey from Namba Station was all very smooth. While there are transfers, us and everyone else were going to the same spot and there were plenty of people helping direct us. The area we traveled through was more rural and mountainous and even though it was raining, it was still beautiful. One transfer included a cool cable car up a mountain! At the top, we got on a bus into the town center. I was a bit surprised how large and full of tourists the town was. We stayed at Ren'gejo-in Temple, which was fairly pricey for one night but I heard it was one of the best. The place is quite large and a well-oiled machine in terms of handling tourists. Most spoke English quite well and our rooms were quite lovely. They were bigger than I was expecting and this was the first time we slept on a futon on the floor. It was actually very comfortable! The room had an attached sink and toilet, which were extremely nice, and AC. To shower, there are communal wash rooms and onsens that we did not use. Our main reason for coming here was the meditation sessions with the monks as my husband is very into meditation. This begins promptly at 5pm. We made sure to arrive a few hours before this so we could explore the town's temples a bit. We also had delicious drinks and a hojicha ice cream parfait at the tatami mat restaurant Terakafe Seikeiin.

We made it back in time for the 5pm meditation with the monks. The ceremony room was small but they got all of the guests in there. Most of us sat on little benches while some chose to sit on the floor cross-legged, like my husband. The meditation was 40 minutes, and while I find meditation very challenging, this went by a lot more quickly than I was expecting. But, we were in a room with a bunch of other people and it was a bit hot, so people were fidgeting. We had seen reviews that it was hard to understand the head monk but we thought people were being dramatic. They weren't. He does a little sermon at the end and my husband and I picked up a good portion of it, but I think we were the only ones as the sole native English speakers in the room (most everyone else was European). When he dismissed us for dinner, no one understood except my husband and I so we stood up first and everyone followed our lead. Dinner was vegan, since Buddhist monks are vegan, and my husband and I actually liked it quite a lot. Compared to our fishy kaiseki meal the previous night, it was nice to have tempura vegetables and good soups. It was surprising to me, but you can drink alcohol here! They offer it at dinner, but I chose to have one from the vending machine in my room after dinner. It felt like too much of a unique experience to miss out on, lol.

After dinner, we were really hoping to explore the Okuno-in Cemetery. It is a huge, sprawling cemetery in the woods. It has the mausoleum for the found of Koya and Shingon Buddhism who was said to be interred while he entered a deep state of meditation. Some say he is still alive in there! There is only one guided tour through the cemetery, and that is through Awesome Tours. We did not know this and it was already booked for the night we were there. We figured we could do it on our own with the bus system (last bus leaves the cemetery around 8:30pm) and while we made a valiant effort to do so, it was absolutely pouring. We turned around pretty quickly and just enjoyed the rest of the night inside.

Day 14: Travel back to Tokyo

My husband woke up for the 6am morning meditation session. For this experience, the monks were chanting the entire 40 minutes which he said was cool. Breakfast is served immediately afterwards at 7am. It was still raining, which put a damper on our desire to do any any more exploring. So we checked out right after breakfast and started our long travel day back to Tokyo, which in total was about 6 hours. Once back to Namba Station, we used our Suica cards to get us to Shin-Osaka and used our pre-booked shinkansen tickets. Since we pre-booked these with JR-West, we were able to change these to an earlier time since we left Koyasan earlier than expected. You can make as many changes as you want before printing the tickets at the station. Sitting on the left side of the train from Osaka to Tokyo gives you have a chance to see Mt. Fuji, so these tickets are usually booked a few days in advance. It was too rainy and cloudy to see for us, unfortunately.

Once at Tokyo station, we made a quick stop at the Dragon Ball Z store (a favorite of my husband) before taking an Uber to our hotel in Akihabara: Nohga Hotel. This hotel was so nice and the finishes were quite luxurious. We stayed in a Superior Double Room which was super comfortable but would have been too small for a longer stay with all of our bags. I was looking for a hotel somewhere around Akihabara or Ueno for ease of getting to NRT the next day. Our shipped bags were already in our room when we got there!

The rain had finally stopped so we set out to finally buy all of our souvenirs. First, to experience the computer and anime culture Akihabara is known for, we went to Super Potato. While the games and systems here are expensive, it was fun to walk around. Afterwards we went up to the Onitsuka Tiger store in the Ueno Parco Mall. While busy, it wasn't bad and I bought a pair of the popular shoes--I love them! We grabbed delicious wagyu steaks from Beef Republic for dinner before heading back to Akihabara to go to Don Quijote. We spent way too much here and became extremely overstimulated by the lights, decor, tight-packed aisles, and of course Don Quijote's infamous jingle. But we got to bring home a lot of great snacks for our offices and beauty items for me. For tax-free shopping, they put all of your items in big, clear bags that are sealed and cannot be opened while in the country. We were easily able to put our two or three bags in one of our carry-ons.

Also worth mentioning that at the Akihabara station, there is a pastry shop called Cow Cow that had the best cream puff my husband had on his entire trip. Japan loves cream and custard (their dairy is unmatched) and he tried a lot of cream puffs during our trip, to include 4 on this day alone. While he loved the 7/11 ones, these were the star. They also let us try these cheese biscuits that were so good; I regret not getting a box or two to bring back!

Day 15: Depart

We did not want to leave Japan, but alas the day had come. Our flight left at 6:30pm, which gave us plenty of time to make one last pilgrimage to our favorite spot: Asakusa. We checked out, left our bags with the front desk, and immediately went over to Matchamon to start our day. We also went back to onigiri enmusubi to get wagyu onigiri again. This time around, we got to try the delicious Taiyaki Sawada shop. These were so tasty and a good, small size! We spent the rest of our morning wandering around, shopping, and being sad that we had to leave. After we picked up our bags, we opted to take an Uber to Ueno station to get back on the Skyliner to NRT. After going through security, there is a spot for you to register your tax-free purchases. This is a super simple passport swipe since your passport is used to log all of your tax-free purchases. Make sure you do this!

NRT had a nice food court and shopping area that we explored before our flight. Our flight back was shorter, around 11 hours to Dallas. After a four hour layover here, we got on our flight back to DC and landed around midnight local. We had two full days off before going back to work that we thought would help us adjust. It did not. The jet lag coming back was much worse than going there. Maybe there was a bit of post-Japan depression that did not help either. It took us over a week to feel normal!