Trip Report – The Usual Suspects

Just finishing up a 2 week trip here – Tokyo – Kinsoaki Onsen – Kyoto – Osaka – Tokyo.

Wow what a place, had such an amazing time. Japanese people are so unbelievably kind. Did not see even an ounce of resentment against foreigners (we're British), and every single person we encountered was lovely and welcoming. Was very refreshing coming from the UK where everyone is miserable these days.

This was our first time in Japan so by default we kind of had to do all the super well known touristy things by default.

That said things we did that I thought were great (I know most of these have been mentioned numerous times on here but just to reinforce:-

-Luggage forwarding – absolute game changer, spent about £70 throughout the 2 weeks here sending direct from one hotel to the next. Having now experienced the trains in person I can't believe we even considered risking not doing it. Don't be that dickhead on the train with 2 huge suitcases annoying everyone at peak times. Just use the luggage forwarding, it was the best money we spent the whole holiday, genuinely.

Tokyo – Did Sky tree during day and Shibuya Sky during the night. Both amazing but preferred Shibuya at night with the lights. Better than both though was the Sky bar place in the Asahi building…amazing view and can get properly pissed at same time!

Sensoji – our hotel overlooked it so we could literally go whenever we liked. Went at 5/6am each day (jet lag) and it was so much better than later on. It's like Disneyland after 10am and really takes away from the experience tbh, so hit it up early, most of the shops will be closed but they basically all sell the same tourist tat anyway, you're not missing out.

-Trip to Kamakura – Hokokuji Bamboo forest over Arashiyama all day long (get there first thing), get the green tea ticket as it's so nice having matcha looking out over the forest. Side quest – the cutest little cafe, run by the sweetest lady we've ever met in the middle of nowhere on the walk from Kamakura station to the bamboo forest – Nishimikado have cafe, food was top tier and so was the coffee.

-Kotoku-in – Deffo worth seeing, was very busy by the time we got there from Hokokuji though so a bit manic.

-Enoshina Island – also totally worth it. Went up the sea candle and the views were elite. Took the escalators though as we were absolutely knackered by this point in the day, no regrets.

Kinosaki Onsen – Quality little place highly recommend going. Was a bit of a trek from Tokyo but well worth it. Stayed in Nishimuraya Honken, expensive, but the Ryoken and the Kaiseki was about as good as you'll get anywhere in Japan.

Kyoto -The usual places were super busy at peak times – Arashiyama, Kinkaku-ji, Fushimi Inari, Kiyomizu- Dera. So we made sure we got to all of them for 6am (bar Kinkaku-ji which opens at 9), just as the sun was coming up. These places were dead at 6am and we had the whole place to ourselves pretty much for about 45mins – 1 hour. We were at the top of Fushimi-Inari by about 7.30am and the walk back down was just a constant stream of people on the way up, utterly horrific. Just get to all these places early and you won't experience any of the horror stories.

-With the above said about arriving early, we used taxis in Kyoto to get all of them except Kiyomizu-Dera (which was 5 mins from our hotel). Yes it was obviously more expensive than the bus, but at that time in the morning there was no traffic and the journeys were fast and reasonably priced. This was 100% worth it in our opinion. I would however never get a taxi after 7am though, the traffic in Kyoto is abysmal and the journey would cost 10 x more. The buses in Kyoto at peak times aren't a nice experience at all. Kyoto was probably my favourite place we went to all trip but the city isn't equipped for the ridiculous number of people who go there now, I can see why locals get fed up (not that we saw anything suggesting this).

-Wagyu Steak Hafuu Honten – highly recommend restaurant in Kyoto, the beef was outstanding.

Genko-An – Best temple we visited the entire trip. A bit of an uphill walk from Kinkaku-Ji, the history of it is badass and it's not overly visited.

Osaka -loved it here, but didn't love love it like everywhere else. The place gave me seedy Amsterdam vibes the whole time. Glad I've seen it, but wouldn't go back there when we eventually revisit Japan. Might be my age (late 30s), so if we were looking to be out till early hours clubbing then maybe I'd feel different.

Maze Cafe Namba – Class breakfast/Brunch place.

-On the whole don't stress looking for places to eat, I've never seen so many restaurants in my life and honestly believe you won't be disappointed in 95% of them. Didn't even bother with tabelog by the end, we just picked whatever we liked the look of and they were all amazing.

-Green car on Shinkansen all day long.

-Obvious advice but avoid travelling rush hour if you can, we had to get to Osaka from Kyoto early and the local trains at 8am were an experience I wouldn't want to repeat.

Things I won't miss (a very short list)-

• Complete lack of bins, I know it's all people mention on here but it does boggle me the almost total absence of them, to the point you buy street food, eat it next to the stall or vendor you just bought it from and even they don't provide a bin, doesn't make sense to me at all.

-Spending what felt like half of my time in Japan waiting at road crossings, even when there were absolutely no cars on the road.

• Don Quiote – didn't think the prices were actually that good, even with the tax rebate, they just seen to charge more in the first place so you don't actually save anything compared to other shops. Plus I felt like I was going to have a stroke every time I went in one, too busy, too much stimulation.

-Other tourists – I concede as a tourist myself I contribute to the overall problem of too many people, but the amount of entitled, total lack of self awareness and obnoxious behaviour we saw, particularly from Americans of a certain age 45+ (soz guys but it's true) was embarrassing. This culminated in our journey back from Kinosaki to Kyoto when "Martha and Barry" were having a full blown argument on the quiet carriage of the train annoying everyone. Fortunately (in this instance) as a westerner myself, I lack the grace and politeness of the Japanese and was able to tell them to pipe the fuck down. When you're there, just be quiet and act properly in public, don't be Martha and Barry.

Anyway, enough of my babbling – can't wait to go back again and see the lesser known, less touristy parts of Japan! What a place!

Hotels –

We stayed in these and highly recommend each of them:-

Tokyo – Omo3 Asakusa

Kinosaki Onsen – Nishimuraya Honkan

Kyoto – Gion Elite Terrace

Osaka – Centara Grand Hotel Osaka

Tokyo – Hotel Groove