This will be quite a long post so I’ll put the short summary here at the top before jumping into the detailed report. I’ve also highlighted specific places we visited to make skimming the post easier. We got many ideas for our trip from r/JapanTravel and I wanted to pay it forward by calling out many of those experiences here.
My wife [36F] and I [37M] went to Japan for the third time this October. We spent 16 days split up between 8 days in Tokyo, 4 days in Yakushima, 2 days in Takachiho, and 2 days in Fukuoka. I speak some Japanese as I studied it in school, but that was over 15 years ago and it’s been 7 years since we’ve last been to Japan. Since we’ve been to Japan a few times before, the goal of this trip was just to take it easy and not overstuff or overplan our days. As it turned out, the theme of this trip was food, drinks, and vibes. We aren’t big coffee drinkers but discovered amazing hand poured coffee cafes and several great places to just relax and pass the time. I think our favorite place overall was Yakushima and our favorite lodging was in Takachiho. Fukuoka is under-rated and we could spend months in Tokyo.
Tokyo – Day 1 (Landing)
We landed in the evening at Narita and took the bus to The MiraCosta at DisneySea. My wife is a big Disney fan and absolutely loved DisneySea the last time we were in Japan so she wanted to spend our wedding anniversary there for this trip. We splurged for a couple of nights there.
Tokyo – Day 2 (DisneySea)
I’ll keep the Disney section of the report brief, but we had a great time. For anyone who has never been, the food and upkeep at DisneySea/Tokyo Disneyland is very good compared to other parks and big Disney fans should 100% go to DisneySea.
Tokyo – Day 3 (Disneyland)
We spent the next day at Tokyo Disneyland and moved over to the Toy Story hotel for the night. The nice thing is the Disney hotels will move your bags for you so it makes it simple to change rooms/hotels. My wife wanted to see the Beauty and the Beast ride since it’s unique to Japan and we both loved it.
Tokyo – Day 4 (Shimo-Kitazawa)
We checked out of our hotel and dropped off our bags at the Tokyu Stay in Shinjuku sanchome before heading over to Shirohige's Cream Puff Factory to try their Totoro cream puffs. We didn’t get lucky for the Ghibli Museum lottery so this was our consolation. We grabbed a handful of cream puffs and ate them upstairs at TOLO Coffee & Bakery to enjoy the puffs with coffee (note: there is a small charge to consume the puffs upstairs in TOLO if you buy them downstairs at Shirohige’s. However, it’s the same price if you buy the puffs directly in TOLO itself). A great combination and the true start of the vibes portion of the trip. The cafe is cozy and a nice place to relax in Kitazawa.
The Shimo-Kitazawa neighborhood was very quiet and it was nice to walk around. We hit up another cafe for some savory french toast (Cafe Latte) and headed over to Nakano Broadway to knock out some of the shopping we wanted to do. I enjoyed Nakano Broadway a lot and, in retrospect, it was one of the best places to look around for anime/video game souvenirs that turned out to be much harder to find in other places.
We headed back to Shimo-Kitazawa for dinner but got confused and ended up in the wrong restaurant for dinner. We went to Toku Toku by mistake and I couldn’t read the stylized, handwritten Japanese menu. It was nice having some background in Japanese for this since I could pull the ripcord on ordering and just politely asked for the waitress’ recommendation for both of us. Japanese is required for this restaurant, in my opinion, since there was no English menu and the wait staff we spoke with only spoke Japanese.
We got very good grilled mackerel as a result and then headed over to Little Soul Cafe, a vinyl listening bar to just vibe out some more. I absolutely loved this place. The place is small, but lined almost completely with vinyl records. The owner knows exactly where every record is and keeps the music going so smoothly while serving some of the best rum you can get. I had never had cuban rum before and having a couple of cuban rum old fashioneds while vibing out to soul and funk music was a highlight of the trip for us.
Tokyo – Day 5 (Shibuya, Asakusa)
After sleeping in a little bit we were craving our favorite Japanese food: Tonkatsu. We headed over from the hotel to Katsukura Tonkatsu. Unsurprisingly the tonkatsu was excellent, but I also discovered hojicha genmai. I’m a sucker for hojicha and didn’t even know this existed. It’s hojicha blended with toasted brown rice, so there’s a nuttiness and savory notes that are really pleasant.
After lunch we spent a bunch of time at the MEGA Donki in Shibuya to buy candy, cosmetics, and souvenirs for people back home. Don Quijote is crowded, hard to move around in, and the theme song will absolutely drive you into an unshakeable madness but we love Don Don Don, Donnnki, Don Qi….JOOOTEEE.
To soothe our minds and get back on track with vibes, we walked from Don Quijote over to the kissaten Chatei Hatou. After waiting a bit we were directed to sit at the counter where we got to watch the staff making hand-dripped coffee to serve with chiffon cake. It was a perfect way to reset after Don Quijote and the light rain that had started.
We dropped our haul off at the hotel and jumped over to Asakusa to see Senso-ji at night and walk around. We grabbed some quick unagi and beef at Asakusa Yadoki Gyu Una and some tayaki at Taiyaki Sawata before heading back to Shinjuku. My wife was tired and I wanted to explore more so I walked through Golden Gai to scout it out. It’s a really cool area but, honestly, I didn’t think it was our kind of scene so I headed back to the room and we decided not to give it a go. Maybe if I was 15 years younger and with a larger group of friends I’d have given it a shot.
Tokyo – Day 6 (Yokohama Oktoberfest)
We woke up a bit earlier today to wait in line for Cafe Aaliya. We had tried to go the previous day but decided not to wait in the long line and headed to tonkatsu instead. Seven/eight years ago we went to Cafe Aaliya and loved the french toast so we knew we were going to go probably more than once during this trip. Today worked out as we only had to wait about 35 minutes to get seated. It was a weekend so I thought that was actually pretty good. If you like fluffy french toast and good coffee this place is wonderful.
After breakfast we caught the train down to the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse area to experience Oktoberfest. And, you guys, I’m telling you it was a surreal experience. We walk in about 45ish minutes after the gates opened and there are hundreds of people in the tent surrounding the oompah band with over a dozen different breweries lining the perimeter offering fest beers, pretzels, Japanese food and desserts. No joke the minute we walk into the tent there’s an enormous conga line dancing around inside the tent and everyone is joining in with the music. I’m so happy I dragged my wife down there because it was such a unique experience.
At the same time as the Oktoberfest there was a huge dog meetup happening in the Red Brick Warehouse area. So we’re walking around with giant steins of beer and pretzels just watching all of the dogs in costumes, dog strollers, and dog vendors lining the area. We found a Leonard’s Bakery that stopped us in our tracks. We had no idea there was a Leonard’s in Japan and we love the malasadas they make in Hawaii so we dutifully stood in line for half-a-dozen deep-fried donuts.
Heading back to Shinjuku we hit up a favorite gyoza place of ours that we had gone to on a previous trip Gyoza no Fukuho. We ate 46 gyoza between the two of us then walked over to the east exit of Shinjuku Station to watch the curved LED screen with a giant 3D cat.
Tokyo – Day 7 (Shinjuku Gyoen and even more Vibes)
We started the day by going over to All Seasons Coffee and having oreo cheesecake with our lattes. Did I mention food and drinks played a major role in our trip?
From there we walked around Shinjuku Gyoen for a couple of hours. We always enjoy seeing people picnicking on the grass and the lush green gardens in the center of an enormous city like Tokyo. From there we hopped over to Yanaka Ginza to indulge in cat-themed shopping. We got some hilariously funny shirts, nice figurines, and baked goods.
For dinner we jumped down to Meguro for more tonkatsu over at Tonki. We have a soft spot for Tonki and really enjoy watching the assembly line production that is going on at the first floor while enjoying great food. That area of Meguro is known for great tonkatsu restaurants so I’d recommend looking around there if you’re interested. Opinions vary on which is truly the best of the tonkatsu in that area but they’re all great in their own way.
After dinner we journeyed over to the Hotel New Otani Tokyo near the center of the city. It’s surprisingly hard to reach, but we found our way to Trader Vic’s to indulge in our love of Tiki. The Halloween theming was on point and the tiki drinks were unbelievably good. We even grabbed a few tiki mugs on our way out. The fugu mug was too clever to ignore. The one thing I will say though, is that I was sad how empty the place was. While we were there on a weekday night, it definitely shows that Tiki isn’t really a thing in Japan. The place was nearly empty. But, on the bright side, the service was quick and the drinks were as good as people in the know told us they would be. Highly recommended for anybody into Tiki.
Having just had a few tiki drinks probably influenced this, but after we paid our bill we stumbled into CREMAHOP Ice Cream about 3 minutes before they closed and very quickly got some chocolate ice cream to round out a pretty indulgent day. In our defense, we were out of there right before closing but I do feel bad potentially Gaijin-smashing that. But I really wanted ice cream!
Tokyo – Day 8 (Kawasaki and Shinjuku)
Our last day in Tokyo started by taking the train down to Kawasaki to visit Ikumimama Animal Doughnuts. To round out the sweets we also stopped by Little Mermaid Bakery that was on the same street to pick up some savory pastries. We then took the food to the Motosumiyoshi station and sat up by the windows overlooking the tracks. We munched on our food while watching the trains going in and out of the station. It’s a surprisingly great place to sit for 10-15 minutes and just relax.
We headed back to Shinjuku to check off another coffee place. Coffee Fragile is in a basement very close to our hotel. At night it’s a listening bar with livelier music (the name of the place even changes to BAR SHIGET’S) but in the morning/early afternoon it’s a cozy vinyl cafe with a more laid back vibe. The pour over coffee here was excellent and this is when I think my wife and I upgraded from being casual latte drinkers to “oh, pour over is amazing, we have to find more of these”. The vibes were exactly what we were looking for and we had a few cups over a couple of hours just taking it all in.
Sadly, we had to move on eventually and headed up to Sunshine City for final shopping before we left Tokyo the next day. For our last dinner in Tokyo we went to Ramen Hayashida Shinjuku for a bowl of shoyu ramen. Holy $&!%, what an unbelievably good ramen we had there. I was sad we went there the last night in Tokyo because we would have definitely gone back again. After dinner we wandered the Shinjuku area a bit more and grabbed the special Black Thunder Halloween donuts at Mister Donut. We love Black Thunder candy and basically had to try all the varietals they made at Mister Donut. The highlight here was sitting up on the second floor just people watching one of the larger intersections in Shinjuku while having even more donuts.
Yakushima – Day 1 (Arrival)
A quick tangent on trip preparation. To book our rental cars, hiking gear, and ferry trips we used YES Yakushima. It’s a free booking service that massively simplifies preparing for a trip to Yakushima, which is more difficult to access as it requires either a domestic flight or ferry trip and essentially requires a rental car as the bus schedule is not as robust as other areas. It was extremely useful to us. Also, remember all the shopping we did in Tokyo? We left an entire suitcase with Yamato Transport to have them deliver it directly to Narita airport for our flight home a week later. The less we brought to Yakushima the better. It only cost ~3000 yen.
Our flight down to Yakushima wasn’t too early in the morning so we went to Cafe Aaliya again before heading to Haneda airport. We flew down to Kagoshima then took the hopper plane down to Yakushima. We grabbed our rental car and drove about 45 minutes down one of only three roads on the island to TIDA Resort Yakushima. We were extremely happy with this hotel. We got an entire cabin to ourselves that had clearly been recently built/renovated. The owners were extremely nice and served an amazing seven-course dinner for us when we arrived. We met their orange cat named Nene and while eating our dinner we watched Yakul the pet goat lounging on the lawn out back. Possibly because Yakushima isn’t Tokyo and we come from a high cost-of-living city in the US, but the cost for this was much less than I expected it would be given the amenities and services included. TIDA is probably one of the biggest reasons Yakushima was our favorite part of the trip.
Having a background in Japanese was very helpful in Yakushima, but I wouldn’t say it’s required. The owners of TIDA and the rental car place spoke good English and there’s enough English on the island to make a visit worthwhile for people who don’t know any Japanese. Knowing some basic/conversational Japanese was helpful for us at certain small souvenir shops and restaurants that had much more limited English. Yakushima was probably the place where I got to practice my Japanese the most but it didn’t make or break anything for us on our trip.
Yakushima – Day 2 (Shiratani Unsuikyo)
We had a nice morning of breakfast at TIDA while hanging out again with Yakul before we headed out for the day. Shiratani Unsuikyo is the forest that is marked as the inspiration for Princess Mononoke and is one of the most popular spots to hike on Yakushima. We weren’t going to do the 9-hour Jomon-suge hike, but had pencilled in about 4 hours to do the moss-covered forest. On the way we stopped at Hiro Bakery which specializes in loaves of delicious rice flour bread and started our way driving up the mountain to the hiking spot.
Driving around the mountains of Yakushima, praying for mirrors to help us around hair-pin switchbacks and watching out for Yakushima macaques lounging on the road all while listening to the Celeste soundtrack is one of my fondest memories of the entire trip. Shiratani Unsuikyo was a great hike and we took a lot of pictures. The level of light, the sounds of everything being dampened by the moss surroundings, and the 2nd generation trees growing in gnarled shapes out of dead tree-trunks gave an ethereal vibe that seemed very appropriate for Halloween-season. We made our way back down the mountain and grabbed dinner at SamPotei which made surprisingly good pasta to go along with the daily special sashimi plate they were offering. We were able to chat with locals and other tourists for a nice way to relax after the long hike. We got back to TIDA and called it a night.
Yakushima – Day 3 (Waterfalls and Yakusugi Land)
Another great breakfast at TIDA started our day before we took the short drive over to Ohka waterfall. We headed back counter-clockwise towards Yakusugi Land but we stopped first at アセンス工房 for yakusugi cedar souvenirs. I was able to get a beautiful yakusugi cedar/kodama carving to bring home as a nod to both Yakushima and as a very loose link to Princess Mononoke, which is my favorite Ghibli film.
After grabbing souvenirs we continued on our way towards Yakusugi Land, but not before stopping at ALASKA DONUTS for what my wife has labelled the best doughnuts she’s ever had in her life. It’s definitely top 2 or 3 for me! These yeast donuts have a light and fluffy texture that I find has a satisfying chew and a surprising amount of flavor. The mango donut and chocolate coconut donut were the standouts for us.
The drive up to Yakusugi Land was similar to that of Shiratani Unsuikyo but we were used to mountain driving by now. Yakusugi Land is a bit gentler of an area to hike. There are different courses you can take and we chose the 80-minute course. It was another beautiful hike. Personally, I preferred Yakusugi Land over Shiratani Unsuikyo. There were barely any people there when we visited. It felt like we were alone in the mountains in the best kind of way. Numerous suspension bridges and turn-offs provided amazing views and I thought it was the more interesting area.
On the way back to TIDA we stopped by Toroki waterfall. The waterfall itself was underwhelming but the view of it was breathtaking with the mountains and bay being lit perfectly by the setting sun. Another seven-course dinner awaited us at TIDA where a group of locals were celebrating their 90 year-old grandmother’s birthday. We joined in the toast and it was a wonderful way to end our last day in Yakushima.
Yakushima – Day 4 (Ferry trip to Kagoshima -> rental car to Takachiho)
After our last breakfast at TIDA we said good-bye to our hosts, Nene, and Yakul and took the Toppy jet foil up to Kagoshima. The ride wasn’t too bad, just two hours to get up to Kagoshima where we grabbed our next rental car and hit the expressway. The biggest thing I’ll mention here is how amazing the rest stops are on the expressway. The bathrooms were immaculate, traffic information was updated in real time on boards outside, and an entire shopping center was there with a huge food court and souvenirs. Yes, there were souvenirs available for purchase celebrating 40 years of the E3 expressway.
After driving a few hours up to Takachiho, we checked into our ryokan Takachiho Kamikakure. Since we were able to save a significant amount on our lodgings in Tokyo and Yakushima, we splurged for two nights here and, wow, were we happy we did that. This ryokan was the best accommodations on our trip; A large living space area with tatami mats and two beds, cream cheese pastries every night in the room, a huge shower room with hot water bath included with an exit out to our deck, and the deck had a sauna, cold bath, and hot bath. We grabbed ramen at a local place, Asuka Ramen, where we ate a quick meal while watching Japanese TV.
Takachiho – Day 1
The kaiseki breakfast at the ryokan started us off before we headed down to Takachiho Gorge for our rowboat rental (tip: be sure to book ahead). It was a lot of fun trying to dodge the waterfalls while different groups of tourists were trying to control their boats in the narrow gorge. After the boat rental and walking around the gorge we ducked into Nagashi Somen Chiho-no-ie to escape the busy crowd and heat. The fun part of this restaurant is somen noodles are launched down a bamboo waterslide and you have to catch the noodles while they flow past. It’s a fun gimmick!
Once we were done with the gorge we headed up to grab our tickets for the Amaterasu Railway, which is a little tourist train that is run on cooking oil. We had time before our time slot so we hung out at Takachiho-base cafe for all you can drink coffee. Our time slot came and we boarded the little train. It goes out to an out of commission railway bridge 105 meters high so the views are unbelievable. We got some amazing pictures before the sky opened up and it started pouring, at the exact most exposed moment in our entire trip.
We got absolutely soaked trundling back to the station. So we decided to spend the next few hours enjoying the sauna and baths at our room in the ryokan. There’s something really relaxing about taking a hot bath outside while listening to the rain. This was peak vibes for our trip so I’m counting the whole encounter with the rain as a win for us.
After dinner we walked down to Takachiho Shrine to watch the Kagura performance. The performance showcases 4 of the 33 total dances that reenact the legend of the sun goddess Amaterasu. The performance was about an hour long, was very interesting to watch, and it has a lot of cultural significance. Once the performance was over we went back to our ryokan, ate more baked goods, and flicked through Japanese Hulu before falling asleep.
Takachiho – Day 2 (More driving through Kyushu)
We had another kaiseki breakfast at the ryokan, grabbed a handful of brown sugar and cream cheese pastries from Sorairo Bakery, and hit the road again. We drove north through the Mount Aso region. We stopped near the crater, but literally as we were looking around and deciding to drive up to the crater itself the announcement hit that toxic gas was detected near the crater and one of the workers popped out to close the gate. So we drove down and stopped briefly at Kusasenrigahama and watched the horses that live on the grasslands up in the mountains.
We stopped by Kurume, specifically Seikyo Kurume Ramen, to try a bowl of Kurume ramen, which is a rich and pungent tonkotsu broth with pieces of bacon-y pork. During the drive we saw the huge 62-meter-tall Kannon of Kurume that neither of us even knew existed until it was standing right there in the center of the city.
We finally made it to Fukuoka, returned our rental car, and checked into the Tokyu Stay Fukuoka Tenjin. We walked around Canal City, watched the water show, and grabbed really tasty Mentaiko bread from The Full Full Hakata for dinner. Mentaiko bread is a warm baguette filled with mentaiko (cod roe paste), garlic, and butter.
Fukuoka – Day 1
Our last full day in Japan started at A Happy Pancake with souffle pancakes and a walk over to Hikaru Coffee for more pour-over coffee. The owner of the shop was very nice but did not speak much of any English. We were there late morning on a weekday so everyone there was a foreign tourist (Chinese, Korean, and Americans) but he made it work! This was another spot where having some Japanese language background was helpful for us. And it was worth it. He made amazing guatemalan and ethiopian coffees and hojicha lattes for us.
We swung by Don Quijote one more time to pick up a duffle bag for our massive pile of souvenirs then my wife headed over to a head spa called Mori No Amayadori. It was calming, relaxing, and English friendly. You can really customize the experience and she said she felt lighter afterwards. She loved it. While she was doing that I hit up Shin Shin Ramen located in the basement of the PARCO nearby. Definitely a great tonkotsu ramen! There was a line but I only needed to wait about 35-45 minutes before I got a seat and ordered up my bowl.
While exploring PARCO I found the Rilakkuma store my wife was looking for all trip and I finally found some Sonic the Hedgehog merch that I had a real hard time finding in Tokyo (surprisingly). So I took her back there after her spa appointment then we headed over for some dinner at Gyukatsu Motomura Fukuoka. We both love tonkatsu but we’d never had gyukatsu before (same concept, except it’s deep-fried beef instead of pork). It was fun being able to use the small personal stone grills on the table to cook the rare cuts to our preferred level of doneness. The food was super flavorful and juicy.
After dinner we spent our last night in Japan hanging out at CITADEL to round out the Vibes Vacation. They do some wild infusions and we tried cacao rum with truffle, maple walnut brandy, and chorizo vodka. There was an entire book covering the infusions they offered which included stuff like bolognese vodka, beef jerky bourbon, asparagus gin, and many many more. The infusions were all decorating the bar and the music fit the mood perfectly. The owner and bartenders were very friendly and have good English. I was even able to have a decent conversation with him in Japanese which means he’s very understanding and patient because my Japanese is not good enough for that level of casual conversation.
Fukuoka – Day 2 (Travel home)
Before checking out of our hotel we waited in line at Coffee County Stock to grab amazing baked goods and more pour-over coffee. We had tried to go the day before and saw the line, but it was similar today as well so I guess that place is just always mobbed with people. This might have been our longest wait of the whole trip (~50-60 minutes) but it was worth it for the variety and quality of baked goods you could get there.
We flew back to Narita, dropped off our pocket wifi, picked up our bags from Yamato transport, and headed home with full stomachs (and luggage), a new appreciation for good coffee, and chill vibes in our hearts.
by Ophidion