I posted in this sub last year getting some advice on my itinerary and finally decided to do a writeup of my trip report in hopes maybe it will help others! For context: I am 28NB (very visibly queer & GNC) and I travelled with my sister who is 30F. I am gluten free (intolerant, not celiac) and tried to also eat vegan for as much of the trip as possible. I travelled from UK to Japan from 23/03-10/04 and spent time in the big 3 (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto) but did lots of day trips and had a ryokan experience in Nagano. My favourite things/places I've marked in the trip with a ⭐

Tokyo Food:

• Gluten Free T's (vegan & gf)
• T's Tantan (vegan)
• Jasmine Thai Express (gf)
• Gonpachi Asakusa Azumabashi (gf)
• Shinbu Sakiya Ramen (vegan & gf) ⭐
• AIN SOPH. (vegan & gf)
• おむすび権米衛 西武新宿ペペ店 (gf) ⭐
• Teppan Baby (vegan & gf) ⭐
• Where is a dog (vegan & gf) ⭐
• Ginza Tsuboyaki-imo (vegan & gf) ⭐

Osaka/Nara/Himeji/Kobe Food:

• Naramachi Vegan Nabi (vegan & gf) ⭐
• Vegan & Gluten Free Osaka (vegan & gf)
• Osaka Engine Ramen (vegan & gf) ⭐
• Rice Flour Taiyaki Stand (gf) ⭐
• MOON and BACK Ramen Bar KOBE (vegan & gf)

Kyoto Food:

• み mitarashi-dango (gf)
• Gion Soy Milk Ramen (vegan & gf)
• Waco Crepes (vegan & gf) ⭐
• Kyoto Engine Ramen (vegan & gf)

Nagano:

• Yudanaka Onsen Seifuso (gf) ⭐

Day 1 – 24/3 TOKYO 6737 STEPS

• Arrived to Narita at approx 6pm
• Super exhausted, checked into airbnb (Hotel Little Bird Oku-Asasuka) and ran to local 711 to get snacks before passing out

Day 2 – 25/3 19,108 STEPS

• Woke up early and realised most places in Japan open late
• Travelled to Gluten Free T's in Ueno to grab breakfast
• Did first round of shopping at Uniqlo and Ueno Marui and then went and got new prescription glasses from Zoff ⭐ (highly recommend, very reasonable price and super quick turnaround)
• Walked around Ueno Park and admired the cherry blossoms
• Went back to hotel to drop shopping and change as it was a lot warmer than I expected
• Travelled to Akihabara and shopped at Mandarake, Animate, Lashinbang, Super Potato and visited the Gachapon Hall ⭐
• Grabbed dinner at T's Tantan (not 100% gluten free but they have gluten free noodles)
• Another walk through Ueno Park in the evening to view cherry blossoms before heading back for the night

Day 3 – 26/3 20,953 STEPS

• Travelled to Odaiba to visit teamLab Planets ⭐ in the morning (really enjoyed this one)
• Walked around Odaiba and seen the mini statue of liberty
• Sister arrived to hotel at around 1:30pm so headed back to Asakusa
• Went out to Ueno Park (a really nice park to be somewhat local to)
• Visited shrines (Ueno Toshogu, Gojo Ten-jinja) and got a lovely goshuincho
• Travelled to Tokyo Skytree to get dinner from the mall (Jasmine Thai Express) and shop (Donguri Republic, Hello Kitty, Pokemon Centre, Jump Shop)

Day 4 – 27/3 27,171 STEPS

• Woke up early and walked around Asakusa visiting Shrines (Takagi Shrine ⭐, Tobikiinari Shrine, Kameido Tenjin Shrine)
• Sister woke up so headed to Sumida Park to view cherry blossoms and get a coffee from Tully's (we thought this was a local, independent and then saw them everywhere 😅)
• Visited Senso-ji and walked around more of Asakusa and Kaminarimon. Got lunch at Gonpachi Asakusa Azumabashi
• Headed to Shibuya to sightsee and shop at Shibuya Parco (Pokemon Store, Nintendo, Animate, Jump Shop)
• Had a lovely little walk around Yoyogi Park
• Headed into sensory hell of Mega Don and did some more shopping
• Got ramen from Shinbu Sakiya Ramen ⭐ (really tasty and they had gluten free gyoza!)

Day 5 – 28/3 17,142 STEPS

• Headed to Ikebukuro and Sunshine City to shop (animate, Hello Kitty, Gashapon, Donguri) and sightsee (Sunshine 60 – very nice views but a bit overstimulating with all the children)
• Grabbed lunch from AIN SOPH. (nice but nothing to write home about)
• Visited the shrines and temples around the area (Houmyouji, Shinjo-in, Genjoi-n, Kanjo-in, Renko-in)
• Travelled to Shinjuku for the evening for more sightseeing and dinner (おむすび権米衛 西武新宿ペペ店 ⭐ really good onigiri shop in SEIBU Shinjuku)

Day 6 – 29/03 26,551 STEPS

• Headed to our nearest Yamato to forward our bigger luggage over to Kyoto
• Rainy day but visited the Imperial Palace which was still lovely
• Grabbed a coffee from Tully's to warm up before heading out to Harajuku
• Struggled to find anywhere without big queues to each so had a convenience store lunch 🙁
• Visited Meiji Jingu and then shopped a bit at Kiddy Land
• Managed to book a table for dinner at Teppan Baby ⭐ so headed over to Shinjuku for dinner (one of my favourite meals, was so excited to have gluten free teppanyaki)
• Went to Don Quijote (again) and then back to the hotel

Day 7 – 30/03 19,248 STEPS

• Headed over to Azabudai to visit teamLab Borderless (personally preferred Planets to Borderless but it was still fun)
• Dashed off to Inokashira and grabbed a quick bite to eat from Where is a dog ⭐ (Really lovely cafe, the owners were super friendly and the gluten free breads were very good)
• Ghibli Museum ⭐ It was a pain getting the tickets as the website kept crashing but so incredibly worth it, I still feel super lucky and fortunate that we got to go and I would love to go again
• Wandered around Inokashira Park ⭐ enjoying the blossoms
• Went back to Where is a dog to grab dinner (very yummy thai curry) and grab some bagels to go
• Had tickets to view Tokyo Skytree, it was very fun seeing the BNHA collaboration but it was incredibly busy and massively overstimulating for me! It took about 20 minutes to get into the lift to just be able to start leaving

Day 8 – OSAKA/NARA 31/03 21,612 STEPS

• Got the shinkansen over to Osaka
• Stored our luggage at one of the luggage storage sites in Osaka station
• Got the train over to Nara
• Grabbed a yummy bento from Naramachi Vegan Nabi ならまちヴィーガン菜美 ⭐ and walked over to a spot in the park recommended by the owner to eat it
• Walked through Nara Park visiting Kofuku-ji temple, Himuro shrine, Kasugataisha Shrine ⭐
• Got the train back to Osaka and collected luggage from luggage storage and dropped it to airbnb
• Headed back into the main Osaka area to grab dinner from Vegan & Gluten Free Osaka (it was decent, service was a bit slow)

Day 9 – OSAKA 01/04 31,206 STEPS

• Got the train over to Minoh and visited Katsuoji ⭐
• From Katsuoji walked to Minoh Falls (lovely walk, but I think it would be better in the Autumn)
• From Minoh Falls, walked back to the station visiting Ryuan-ji and Saiko-ji. Grabbed 711 lunch before heading back to Osaka
• Shopped around Shinsaibashi and did some sightseeing (Dotonbori, Glico man)
• Visited Hozen-ji and Namba Yasaka ⭐
• Had dinner at Engine Ramen Osaka ⭐ (Easily one of the best meals I had)
• Wandered around Shinsekai and then headed home

Day 10 – OSAKA 02/04 19,388 STEPS

• Got the train to Himeji
• Stopped in at Rice Flour Taiyaki Stand ⭐ for some yummy gluten free taiyaki
• Toured around Himeji Castle ⭐
• Visited So-sha shrine and Gokoku Shrine
• Went back to the Taiyaki Stand on my way to Himeji station
• Got the train over to Kobe and had dinner at MOON and BACK Ramen Bar KOBE (one of my least favourite meals)
• Wandered around Kobe and went up to Kobe Port Tower ⭐ to view the sunset
• Walked around Chinatown before heading back to the airbnb in Osaka

Day 11 – KYOTO 03/04 32,036 STEPS

• Got shinkansen to Kyoto and dropped luggage off at hotel (Hearton Hotel Kyoto ⭐)
• Walked over to Nijo Castle, stopping in at Mikane Shrine
• Enjoyed the tour of Nijo and then headed to み mitarashi-dango (strange location, but yummy desserts)
• Wandered around Kyoto stopping in to pay my respects to shrines (Yobo-ji, Jakko-ji, Myoden-ji, Heian-jingu ⭐)
• Spent some time at Shorenin Temple and Garden ⭐ (highly recommend, it was one of my favourite experiences)
• Walked down through the festival markets by Chionin and visited Yasaka Shrine
• Walked all the way down to Kiyomizu-dera ⭐ to catch the lovely views before they closed
• Walked back through Kyoto to Gion Soy Milk Ramen for dinner and grabbed one of their lovely vending machine desserts (it was really good)

Day 12 – KYOTO 04/04 29,867 STEPS

• Woke up and travelled to Fushimi Inari (thank you to whoever suggested walking the back way up because the crowds were significantly easier to manage)
• Walked all the way to the very top and headed down the way people were walking up (again, crowds absolutely rammed)
• Travelled back into Kyoto and grabbed brunch from Waco Crepes ⭐ (super yummy!)
• Walked back to visit Chionin Temple as it was closed the day before
• Walked over to Nanzen-ji and then walked across to Manzoku Inari-jinja shrine, heading all the way down to To-ji Temple
• Finally walked over to Kyoto Engine Ramen for dinner (It was still delicious but Osaka was yummier imo)

Day 13 – KYOTO 05/04 24,513 STEPS

• Travelled across to Seiryoji Temple and then walked over to Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple ⭐ to pay respects and view the less busy bamboo forest
• From there walked down visiting the shrines and temples (Shoan-in, Enrian, Kannon-in, Nisonin, Jojakkoji)
• Very briefly walked through Arashiyama Bamboo Forest to get to Okochi Sanso Garden ⭐ (very tranquil and a nice way to get away from the crowds)
• From there travelled to visit Kinkaku-ji
• Travelled back to Kyoto and did a tiny bit more shopping (tried to grab a vending machine dessert from Gion Soy Milk but they were sold out 😔)
• Grabbed a cheap dinner from a nearby Coco Ichibanya (allergen free curry is a very helpful and safe bet and it's a decent enough chain) and sorted out Yamato luggage delivery when got back to hotel

Day 14 – NAGANO 06/04 6,843 STEPS

• Got the shinkansen to Nagano. Took about 4 hours with some changes as we just missed the local train to take us to Yudanaka
• Arrived at our ryokan Yudanaka Onsen Seifuso ⭐ and thankfully managed to get some time in their private onsen
• Had a really delicious gluten free traditional meal and then got back into the onsen
• Did a little late night Lawsons run to get some snacks and walk off the meal

Day 15 – TOKYO 07/04 12,980 STEPS

• Got the bus up to Yamanochi Snow Monkey Park ⭐ & dropped luggage at the gift shop
• Enjoyed the delights of seeing the snow monkeys in the hot springs
• Headed back to Yudanaka and started our journey back to Tokyo
• Checked into our hotel in Shinjuku (Art Hotels Shibuya ⭐) and dropped bags off
• Was exhausted so grabbed dinner from Coco Ichibanya and some snacks from 711 and had an early night

Day 16 – TOKYO 08/04 22,010 STEPS

• Got coffee at the cafe below the hotel
• Wandered around Shinjuku Gyoen
• Travelled to Ginza to do some shopping (Sanrio Gate) and got delicious sweet potato (Ginza Tsuboyaki-imo ⭐)
• Travelled over to Tsukiji Hongan-ji Temple and then over to Akihabara to do more last minute shopping (Yodobashi Camera) and visit Kanda Myoujin ⭐
• Walked over to Gluten Free T's for dinner before heading back

Day 17 – TOKYO/NARITA 09/04 22,260 STEPS

• Stored luggage at hotel's cafe
• Got the train over to Ikebukuro
• Visited Gokoku-ji Temple
• Headed to Sunshine 60 to visit DanDaDan anime cafe (as expected, food not great but it was fun!)
• Walked to Ikebukuro Parco for some more last minute shopping and stamp collecting
• Walked to Ikebukuro Mitake Shrine and then further on to Ana-hachimangu Shrine ⭐
• Got the train back over to Tsujiki to visit Hamarikyu Gardens to enjoy the last bits of Tokyo
• Train back to hotel in Shibuya to grab a quick bite from Coco's before getting the train to our hotel by Narita for our 8am flight the next day.

Overall, a truly unforgettable trip! When I posted my itinerary last year a lot of people said I wouldn't be able to do it all and whilst there were a couple of things that got taken out of the itinerary I am super happy with just how much I was able to do especially as an autistic, disabled person 😊 It was a great time of year to visit and it felt very magical being surrounded by cherry blossoms everywhere. It was, of course, incredibly busy as a result but I am glad I have gotten to experience cherry blossom season. I was a bit nervous as I am very visibly queer, gender non-conforming and covered in tattoos but, as far as I could tell, I received nothing but friendliness from locals everywhere I visited. The only non-friendly things were some rude comments from American tourists 😅

I hope this write up is useful for some people, I know I looked at a lot of trip reports specifically to find restaurants that could cater towards my dietary requirements and to see how other queer people found travelling around Japan 😊