[Trip Report] 18 Days Solo (Tokyo, Takayama, Kanazawa, Kansai). Tips, my regrets, what I got right, and favorite things.

First, thanks to everyone in this community that helped me with my initial post looking for feedback. Your help was a big upgrade on my trip. Here is my trip report in case it can be useful for someone else in the sub.

Trip Overview: Solo travel from Mexico, 18 days from late Feb to mid-March, my first trip to Japan.

Route: Tokyo East (Nippori base) -> Takayama -> Shirakawa Go -> Kanazawa -> Kyoto -> Osaka -> Tokyo West (Shinjuku) with day trips to Hakone and Nara.

Top tips:

• Take the weather into account. In my country it never rains in February, so I didn't plan for it, big mistake. For my next trip I will have two categories: outdoors and indoors activities. Rather than fixed days per activity in the same region, I will prioritize the outdoor ones as soon as the weather is good and leave the indoors as backup.
• Separate the non-negotiables from the optionals. This brings a lot of peace of mind. I started with my absolute must-see places, then filled the gaps with spots I found on Google or social media, labeling them as "optional." If I ran out of time, it wasn't a tragedy to skip them. Hell, I could easily swap them out if something else caught my eye while walking around.
• Schedule dedicated rest days. Depending on your stamina, add a rest day for every few days of heavy travel where you stick to stationary activities. For me, day 10 was the sweet spot to recover. I was averaging between 20K to 30K steps daily, so taking a day to drop down to 7K steps allowed me to physically recover and just enjoy the restaurants and cafes.
• Konbinis are great, but restaurants are better. In many places, you can buy a vastly superior meal at a restaurant for a minimal price jump (e.g. a konbini meal might be 600 yen, and an amazing bowl of ramen is 800 yen). Don't get me wrong, I love the egg sandwiches as much as anyone, but my advice is to treat Konbinis as a last resort if you can't find anything else open. They are still awesome tho.
• The JR Pass is mostly an outdated tip. With its current pricing it is hard to recommend. It can be confusing what lines are or are not included (there are many train companies outside JR), and chances are you will not break even without a lot of planning compared to just buying single tickets. But regional passes like the Hakone pass can be 100% worth it. The good thing about them is that you can buy them in Japan, without the bureaucratic requirements of the JR Pass.

Some heads up:

• Be careful buying Shinkansen tickets online and arriving too close to departure. It is very easy to get lost in Shinjuku and Tokyo stations, and trains don't wait for anyone. I would advise buying the ticket in the station with at least a 15 minute buffer to find the right terminal.
• Be careful with customs in your country. Before going on a crazy shopping spree, check what the limits are for importing goods, otherwise you might end up paying more in taxes than the price of your souvenirs.
• Long queues for food are usually not worth it. A queue of 3 or 4 people is probably ok, but avoid the massive queues for influencer boosted places. It is rare to find a place with bad food even if it is not flooded with people.
• Be careful at night in Shinjuku and Roppongi. Japan is mostly safe, but there are some dudes in those places that can follow you for a couple of blocks trying to convince you to go to their bars. It can be scary when a tall guy follows you at night when traveling alone. As far as I know they won't physically assault you if you ignore them, but there are scams related to them. Just ignore them and never go with them to bars. I've heard about them before, and sadly it is not a sensationalist myth.
• Prepare for different rules. Things that in my country are usually not a problem, such as jaywalking in empty streets, could be an expensive fine in Japan.
• Trash management. In my country it's normal to buy things and eat them while walking and find public trash bins in the street to dispose of the packing or bottles. Not in Japan. This habit made me walk miles for the first few days with a trash bag and I wasn't able to dispose of it until the end of the day in the hotel. Another reason to prefer restaurants over konbinis. Besides, eating while walking can be seen as rude in some zones despite not being illegal.

Time vs. Money Calculation

There are a lot of tips on "how to save money in Japan" but a lot of them come at the cost of your time. So here is a calculation to check if those savings are worth it:

Value per hour = (Trip cost / (Days x 16)) + Personal hourly value

Where:

• Trip cost = flights + other expenses you wouldn't incur at home (hotels, airport transfers, etc.)
• 16 = waking hours per day
• Personal hourly value = how much your time is worth (could be your wage or a subjective number)

For example, suppose your trip cost is $2,500 and you are in Japan for 7 days. That means every waking hour of your trip is worth about $22 plus whatever your time is worth to you. Then, saving $20 by taking a longer train route that costs you 3 extra hours becomes a bad deal. The same logic applies to things like choosing a farther hotel, skipping transport, going out of your way to save a few dollars on food, or over-optimizing small expenses or souvenirs.

Of course, this changes if you are staying for a longer period like a few months for work or study, where time is less of a worry and those savings can start to make sense.

Main regrets:

• Buying a camera to "take photos in Japan" back in my home country. In Japan the prices for brands like Canon, Nikon, and Lumix can go from 10% to 50% cheaper depending on the model, especially if you don't mind second hand. Just be careful with some brands like Sony that are locked to the Japanese language.
• Not dieting before the trip. Not to body shame anyone, but Japanese clothing can be a challenge to fit if you are over 6 feet and not slim. Places like GU or Uniqlo can be out of the question (there are specialty stores for big people tho, but not as cheap and diverse). I learned after the trip, that apparently they have bigger sizes online to pick up.

Things I Don't Regret:

• Training before the trip if you are a couch potato. I have a regular desk job. So three months before the trip, I started walking in my city, going from 2K steps per day, to 8K, and then some days 15K eventually, adding some hills to the mix. Without this, I would have suffered in Japan. Progressive overload is key. If you can only do 1K per day, it is ok, eventually you will be able to walk 2K with no problems, then 3K and so on (If you have some joint pains, check with a health professional first tho).
• Not following my itinerary 100%. The first day I was just so awed by the place that I just walked around with little plan. It was one of my favorite days. What is a life-changing experience for one person might be an overhyped tourist trap for you.
• Early booking is key. There is a big difference between paying for hotels and planes 3 to 4 months in advance versus just one month. Not only in pricing, but in diversity, as some places may get fully booked. My hotel almost tripled in price the week I arrived.
• Buy a health insurance policy. I didn't use it, but it was a peace of mind that if an accident happened (e.g. I ate something new that I happened to be allergic to but didn't know) it wouldn't be an issue.
• Leaving a final day for shopping. I almost didn't shop on the trip, outside of small souvenirs from places I wasn't planning to go back to. Thanks to this I was able to travel light, and on the final day I bought a suitcase and bought all the things I wanted.

What I loved the most (no particular order):

• Hakone: I didn't realize how big Fuji was until being on Owakudani. It's so different in person vs pictures. I'll go again, another time, and stay a night at least in Hakone.
• Nara: I only went there just because I wanted to see the temple from Gantz, but didn't realize how fun it was going to be surrounded by butt-biting deer.
• Takayama: Man, it's a shame my stomach had a physical limit the beef was so good. And the onsen was incredible, all the DOMS pain I had for walking so much was gone after a bath on them.
• Kanazawa: Loved the park, the old samurai buildings and the businesses in seseragi-dori where you need to cross a mini bridge over a small river to enter.
• Shirakawa Go: It was my first time seeing snow in my life, and the place didn't disappoint. Magical.
• Osaka: I lost count of how many Takoyaki I ate. I know a lot of people think it’s a skip, but man I loved Osaka. It's easy to get invited by strangers to have conversations, the vibe is less formal than Tokyo, but there is charm in that.
• Kyoto: Even with the overcrowded tourism, it's a must, the places are incredible.
• Tokyo: Don't know where I could even begin. I loved the architecture and the stores where I felt like a kid in a toy store (especially in 2nd hand ones like in Nakano, Akihabara or Shinjuku). It’s hard to pick a favorite, from the futuristic Odaiba, the overstimulating Akihabara, walking from Shinjuku to Shibuya exploring Cat Street, to relaxing in Nippori and exploring Nezu Shrine and cafes in Yanaka Ginza.
• Public Transport: This is probably my favorite part. I only got a cab 2 times, and that was because my legs were at their limit, but I was surprised how much you can move without a car. It's so empowering how far you can move just with a Suica card. Ochanomizu will always have a special place in my heart.

Thank you so much to the people in this sub, your posts were really helpful and I can't wait for my next trip in a year or two. Especially to the people in the comments of my first post that told me to add Takayama, I'm so grateful. I had an amazing time there, and Hida Beef became one of my favorite meals on this planet and my favorite from Japan.