Japan help requested

Kyoto is chock full of temples and shrines, can’t go a few feet without seeing one. April will be cherry blossom season, it will be packed and expensive. Better get hotels and things booked far ahead of time

We went 12 years or so ago and had a similar trip.
- Stayed in Ginza
- Tsukiji fish market was pretty awesome, great food
- Found a Shabu shabu beef restaurant
- Saw Akihabara
- Bullet train to Kyoto
- stayed in a traditional ryokan
- visited the UNESCO temple and the palace

Awesome trip. Great food. Very welcoming people. Super easy to get around

You will have a blast.

I am lucky enough to work for a company with a presence in Japan and am actually flying over again next week. Will be in Tokyo, Osaka, and few days in the Japanese Alps to ski after work is over(yes, very lucky i know)

Short version is Tokyo and Kyoto are like Paris or any other great city; you really can't go wrong.

Just get a Marriott property as close to the temples in Tokyo and ditto for Kyoto.

the public transpiration is exceptional and google maps works flawless. You will get anywhere for the day in < 30 minutes. Add Pasmo or Suica to your iPhone as transportation card.

As for what to do, wonder. Like Paris both cities are amazing just to wonder, eat, explore, etc...

Do have a general idea of the area to hit; Temples and shopping areas and yes, even for non-shopping folks like me; shopping is a blast.

Make sure to hit in Don Quijote store (pretty common) as it is a mix of dollar store, walmart, and "other" all with Japanese twist. great place to pick up random stuff for folks back home

Don't worry about food, just hit up Google and ensure > 4 stars and it will be one of the best meals you have had.

One thing i would recommend, you can get around using only English but do use your language app of choice to pickup a few common phases. Like anywhere, this goes a long way.

Also, politics aside they are still mask heavy...even pre-covid, so just lean into the culture and smile.

Ganbatte tanoshinde ne

Kyoto has all sorts of temples and gardens. Kinkaku-Ji is always a neat one, but you can find so many there. Also, you aren't far from Osaka via JR line, so there may be some stuff there for properties as well.

As for Tokyo - to keep on theme of Gardens I always love Hamarikyu-Garden, in Minato-Ku. Being a tech nerd, Akhibara and Yodobashi Dept store was cool. Shinjuku and Shibuya are fun at night just to see things lit up. Same for Odaiba Island.

I love Japan and can't wait to go back

Went back 4 yrs ago. Between Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto we was able to score 4 Habiki 21 and a 30 to bring back to the States. Did Taste testing at the Suntory distillery but none available to purchase there. It was just a personal scavenger hunt lol.

Tokyo’s new fish market is super lame compared to the old one. Kobe beef in Kobe was a bucket list novelty, Bamboo forest is overrated, Fushimi shrine was cool, Nara deer park was just ok for a one time experience.

The main thing about Japan is the awesome food and culture of great people and cleanliness. You’ll have a blast!

I honeymooned in Japan and it is my favorite country I’ve ever visited. The floor in Japan is just so high in terms of food, cleanliness, and service. A basic holiday inn, and standard cab, and a grab and go meal from a convenience store in Japan are all outstanding.

A few specific thoughts:

1. Stay at a Ryokan at least once, ideally one attached to a true hot spring rather than just municipal water. These are traditional bed and breakfasts. They are a bit confusing, you’ll sleep on the floor in your room, have a meal that goes on way to long, but it’s a real experience.

2. Kyoto is maybe the best walking city in the world. I was a little nervous about planning to just visit shrines, thinking it might be like a tour of cathedrals in Europe that all look the same and are an exercise in waiting in lines. But I thoroughly enjoyed 4 full days in Kyoto. Yes the temples get crowded, but they are all open air and bright and it’s just like one long walk through a park going from one to another. You can’t do them all so just plan to spend the day in a quadrant of the city and walk to the sites in that quadrant. A few highlight for us:

The Fushimi Inari shrine is really cool and spooky to visit at night. Bring a headlamp and just start hiking up. Be mindful of wild pigs.

The moss garden was great but requires reservations. Stay in a nice hotel when you arrive in Tokyo and use its concierge to make the arrangements. In general, use the concierge to help with restaurants and travel tips.

The Bambo forest was underwhelming, I would pass unless you just have lots of time.

3. You can cheaply ship luggage around Japan. So if you want to do an outdoor excursion like a bike trip and hike mt fuji just bring an overnight bag and ship everything else to your next hotel.

4. Hiking mt fuji was well worth it to me. You can reserve an overnight spot in a hut and finish the hike for sunrise.

5. It’s further afield, but we biked the shimanami kaido bike trail across the seto insland sea and it’s maybe my favorite travel experience. Would recommend. And if you do that stay in matsuyama and see the castle and go to the dogo onsen. You can take a speed boat ferry back from matsuyama to Hiroshima, or explore Shikoku island which is awesome.

5. Himeji Castle is a quick train ride from Kyoto and well worth a day trip from Kyoto.

Looking at a similar trip. Curious if you had any specific restaurants picked out already or playing it on the fly

Hard to say. I would do a little research on the temples and see which one you want to see the most, and there will almost certainly be a half dozen other unesco sites in walking distance.

My recollection is I really liked the ninna-ji and ryoan-ji temples in the northwest side. The golden shrine is near there as well, although to be honest that was one I would skip with only one day. It’s the most famous Kyoto post card, but the least enjoyable visit of the main temple sites.

The east and south east and including the philosophers path has a never of temples as well. I also really liked the sanjusangendo shrine which has thousands of statues in a great hall.

Kyoto is just wonderful. And is definitely a place where a fodor’s or other good travel book is worth it to make the most of your time and plan out your day.

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Looking at a similar trip. Curious if you had any specific restaurants picked out already or playing it on the fly

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I’ll have to check with my wife. She is planning most of the dinners other than the ones with clients in which they will reserve. My wife is Asian and this trip was built around her stomach.

The luggage shipping was awesome for our trip. We left our hotel in Tokyo with our cold weather gear and over night back to hike mt fuji and shipped everything else to our hotel on Kyoto. Our bags were in our room when we checked in.

We then continued south to do the shimanami kaido bike trail and put all our cold weather gear into a suitcase and shipped it back to our last hotel. They kept it for us for 10 days and had it in our hotel room when we checked in. Just an awesome service and all done through the hotel front desk.

Early April must be cherry blossom season and I think most crowded time in Kyoto. We did our trip first two weeks of September so avoided some of the real cherry blossom tourism madness.

Knowing what I know now I really wouldn’t get caught up in huge tourist lines. The country is so beautiful go off the beaten path. We didn’t go to Nara but from what I recall it likely offers a lot of what Kyoto does but perhaps with less crowds?

The other tip is there is a pocket wifi you can order, pick up in the airport and drop back off in the airport. With that plus google maps on the phone we were never lost. It was really helpful to just be able to plug something in on google maps and be told really clearly which subway train to take, which platforms to change on, etc.