Trip report Oct 2025

Thank you to many who posted here and helped me with our trip plan. My summary here is only our favorite highlights, things I’d do differently next time, and general tips we learned for getting around.

Getting around Japan
– We purchased a JR Pass with green level access and thought it was worth the extra cost, because this allowed us to reserve larger seats where the seats had a space behind the seats for large luggage (most passenger seats require putting bags on overhead racks. JR Pass also can be used for some local trains and subways.
– Use Google Maps for getting around, and not Apple Maps (for iPhone). The latter sent us to the wrong place sometimes, and we learned that the underlying mapping data for Japan is superior in Google Maps.
– Japanese addresses work differently than US addresses. Sometimes you need to enter map coordinates, or else a building name in Google maps, because the street address cannot be found.
– SUICA IC card was very useful. In some rural areas, it’s cash only.
– Tried a new app called Timeshifter, which helps you manage jet lag (we had 16 jours of travel time) and after we (mostly) followed the app’s instructions, it (mostly) eliminated our jet lag.

Tokyo: 2 days – things we loved
– Fukagawa-Edo Museum – Life-sized reproduction of Edo-era street scenes.
– Sumo wrestling practice
– Team Lab Digital Art Museum – immersive digital art
Regrets –
Wished I would have made advanced reservations for the Ghibli Museum. Ticket purchases are quite competitive and you have to book way in advanced, else entry is not allowed.

Kyoto: 2.5 days – things we loved
– Kyoto Museum of Crafts and Design
– Dinner at Giro Giro Hitoshina restaurant. They do a modern take on traditional kaiseki (multiple course) set dinner. The food was delicious, the ambiance is unique, and it was a lot of fun to sit and eat at the counter and watch the chefs make each of the successive dishes that they place in front of you. Advanced reservation is required. This was a a fraction of what you would pay for such a dinner in the US.
​​- Saihoji Temple (the “moss temple”) monastery and moss gardens. Take off shoes, and you are given a calligraphy pen for hand copying a Buddhist sutra or prayer, before entering the garden. Lovely.
– Sanjuusangendou temple – 1,000 statues of Kannon, goddess of compassion. There are many wonderful temples in Kyoto. Our friend who lives in Kyoto says this is his favorite and we were also deeply impressed.
Taiko drumming workshop – We all had a blast – one hour just for the four of us, for $44 pp.
Might have done differently –
– Otagi Nenbutsu-ji temple – 1200 stone sculptures of rakan (Buddha’s disciples), all with different facial expressions and poses, many are charming and humorous. It was closed on the day we went there. Wished we had done better planning and gone when it was open, that was a miss.
– Arashiyama Bamboo Grove – Striking to see bamboo towering this tall, but I think it’s also possible to see lovely bamboo groves elsewhere.
– Iwatayama Monkey Park, Arashiyama – Could have missed this easily; these monkeys are not in cages and roam freely but it still feels somewhat zoo-like because there are mobs of tourists.
– Gion cultural walk and (apprentice) Geisha show – My husband and I would have passed on this because we suspected it might be a bit of a tourist gimmick, but one of our group wanted this so we all went. It was somewhat enjoyable but it seemed a bit long for what it offered and too overpriced.
– Tenryuji temple restaurant – We were all sort of unenthused about the meal. I had hoped that it would feel like a shared Buddhist meal, but that’s not really the goal, it’s simply a vegetarian meal in a building on the temple grounds.

Kobe: 1 day – This museum is the one reason we went to Kobe and it was completely worth the effort.
– The Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum is a 6 min walk from the Shin-Kobe station. Wood working techniques and tools used throughout Japan for many centuries. It was fascinating to learn how people managed forests, felled lumber, planned geometry for multi-story buildings, milled and shaped boards and joinery, planned geometry for multi-story buildings, and carved The clarity and beauty of the explanations and demonstrations is also impressive.

Hiroshima: 1 day including travel to Kumamoto
– Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, plus a walk through Memorial Park to the Atomic Dome. This is deeply sobering and memorable, important to see and relevant to our world now.

Central Kyushu Island: 4 days – This area was a highlight of our trip, and we loved it.
– Takachiho Gorge – We followed walking trails around this beautiful, deep gorge with waterfalls.
– Stayed for two nights in a traditional onsen ryokan in Minamioguni town, which is a small town in the mountains, full of natural hot springs. You are treated to kaiseki dinners and breakfasts and rooms are traditional style with tatami mats. Life slows down.
– Hiked on a mountain trial in Aso-Kuzu National Park
– Visited beautiful Nabegataki Falls near Minamioguni.
– Kumamoto Castle – If you want to see castles, this is an impressive and beautiful one, and is one of three premier castles in Japan, along with Himeji and Matsumoto castles. Badly damaged in the 2016 earthquake, mostly repaired. I felt the interior displays became somewhat repetitive.
Regrets –
We had reserved a short helicopter ride with AriAir over Nakadake volcano caldera, which is one of the largest caldera in the world, and which is part of the Aso mountain range in central Kyushu Island. Flying over is the easiest way to see the caldera; sometimes people are not allowed to hike all the way up to the viewing platform because of the live volcanic conditions there, and cautions are given to people with asthma because of the gasses released. The flight was cancelled because of overcast conditions, and we were unable to reschedule for another day.

Fukuoka in northern Kyushu Island: 3 days (one of those days was spent taking trains and changing plans when our original trip to Yakushima Island was cancelled (see ‘Regrets’, below).
– Takumi Arts & Crafts Gallery
Really fun (and delicious, and inexpensive) eating at a yatai food stall on the street. This is a local tradition in Fukuoka, where you pull up a chair and sit around the cooks under a small open canopy; strangers chat with each other and it’s lively.
– Guided tour of a historical museum and shrines. Learned how to pray and show respect when coming before a shinto shrine or passing under inari gates.
– Day trip to the village of Daifazu, where there is one of Japan’s most important Shinto shrines, a beautiful old park area and an interesting history.
Regrets
– Our trip to Yakushima Island (a rare type of temperate rainforest environment, very beautiful and known for its unique and ancient Yakusugi cedar tree forests) — was cancelled! When we got to the southern port of Kagoshima, we were notified that the jetfoil ferry to Yakushima was cancelled due to gale winds, and we were unable to reschedule for a later date. We returned north and spent that time in Fukuoka, instead.

Shikoku Island: 1 day (including overnight)
– Ritsurin Garden: A large, very beautiful strolling garden built by Edo lords, with ponds, orchards and forested areas.
– Shikoku Mura is an open-air museum that exhibits traditional buildings from the Edo and Meiji Periods: farmhouses, workshops, storehouses, a kabuki theater, a vine bridge and a beautiful modern museum, all set along a mountainside slope flowing with waterfalls and streams.

Teshima Island: 1 day (including overnight)
– Rented (reserved in advance) e-bikes from Teshima Bicycle Rental, rode around the 11-mile circumference of this hilly island, with views of the mountains, sea, rice fields, and through a few small villages, and one beach. Weather was beautiful. The villages have lots of small art galleries and we stopped into some of those.
– Lunch at Shima Kitchen, reservation required
– Dinner at Aruei restaurant (seats around 12 people, maximum) was perfection. Advance reservation is required, and can only be done via Facebook Messenger (note: most restaurants on this small island require advance reservations).
Regrets
– Teshima Art Museum – I did not make an advance reservation to go into this very unique museum, and so we were not allowed to enter. Bummer.

Tokyo: 3 days (plus another day to get there from Teshima)
– The Japan Folk Crafts Museum – This is a small, quiet, dignified museum with beautiful work, located in a peaceful neighborhood just outside of the city center. We loved it.
– Sumida Hokusai Museum – Hokusai is most famous for The Wave, but there is so much more worth seeing, and it was a real pleasure to discover the range and depth of his work. Some of it is also quite humorous.
– Kappabachi “Kitchen Street” is fun to walk around. There is everything imaginable plus more, to shop for in the kitchen or restaurant category, including those plastic displays of restaurant meals that you see in Japanese cities, with plastic noodle dishes and so on.