Stepping into a Remarkable, Different World – 5 days in Japan

As an anime fan growing up, I have high expectations of Japan. For a long time, I imagined walking the streets of Kyoto, praying at one of their temples (like Sailor Mars!), going to their convenience stores, and eating those delicious bento boxes like my favorite anime characters. When I started compiling my bucket list, “JAPAN” was the first country I listed. This is why even after all those connecting flights to Narita or Haneda airport, I’ve never thought about staying for a night or two during my layover – this country deserves my full, undivided attention. I cannot just ‘taste’ it because I know It’s not gonna be enough.

In fact, after spending 5 days there I am 100% sure it is not enough  – I WILL be back. I promised all my nieces and nephews ONE travel with me at any country of their choice when they turn 21 and my eldest niece chose Japan.  I cannot say no even though I would like to ‘reserve’ this trip for a longer one. I don’t regret it of course but think of finally having that perfect slice of cake that you want to eat in a booth beside the window of your favorite store with a strong, earthy, coffee and being forced to take it out and eat it while walking. That’s how it felt to me.

Jed (my niece) arrived a day later than me after a lot of stressful mishaps for what is supposedly a short 5-hour flight from Manila (Cathay pacific sucks). While waiting for her, I decided to explore the area around our  base in Tokyo, the Millenials Shibuya. It’s quite pricey and I am sure there are cheaper Airbnb’s in the area but I wanted to experience staying in a capsule hotel. For what we planned to do (basically walk everywhere during the day and just sleep at the hotel), this was enough. It does takes a while to get used to such a small space.

That night, we went walking around Shibuya and met our childhood friend and neighbor for dinner and drinks. Shibuya crossing is always busy but there is beauty in its chaos especially at night when the buildings and billboard signs around it are lit.

The metro station in Shibuya is also where the famed Hachiko dog statue is at. There is always a long line to take pictures with this statue and the only time we got lucky was on our last day, the morning after the new year, at 7am. Even then, there was about 4-6 tourists taking pics. (Tip: Buy a day pass if you are just staying in Tokyo! very worth it since everything is a metro away!)

We stopped by Ippudo Shiromaru base for a quick dinner, a ramen place that opens late and serves Ippudo’s famous Tokkou Tonkotsu Ramen. Afterwards, we took the train to Shinjuku to check out ‘Memory lane’ also called Piss lane (lol).  If you want the authentic yakitori experience (japanese grilled chicken skewers), a stop at this place is a must!

Tokyo is alive and thriving at night so I can’t resist checking out all the gaming places, shops, malls and bright-lit alleys! We wanted to go to Robot restaurant but didn’t realize we had to book reservations ahead of time (Tip: Book ahead of time, duh). I was told the food is so-so but I wanted to go for the experience. I knew if I want great food, all I need to do is walk across the street at the nearest 7-11!

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The next day, we left the hotel early to take the Shinkansen bus to Osaka for the next leg of our trip (Osaka and Kyoto). I originally planned to buy the Japan Rail (JR) pass in advance and was glad I didn’t. Instead, we went to the JR pass office in Shibuya to buy them in person. The agents in the office helped us and offered a cheaper alternative – buy the regular Shinkansen rail since we weren’t planning to go further than Kyoto. Our ticket was not reserve seating (you can get one for higher fees) but I figured it can’t be worse than the metro stations we have in Manila and Washington DC (I was right).

Jed was running with high fever and really wasn’t in any condition to walk around so we rested for a bit before starting our day. Thankfully, there are several drugstores near our place and there’s only two places we wanted to go (Osaka castle and Dotonburi) which left us plenty of time to get a much-needed nap.

Our first stop, Osaka castle, was unexpectedly a long walk from the metro. Or maybe it felt long because we walked to the opposite side of the compound entrance and then went pass the entrance to the actual castle (ugh).  There is an entrance fee to go inside the castle (600 yen) but you are free to wander the grounds and I highly recommend it! There are so many nooks and areas to get a good view of the castle,  check out the time capsule in the ground, maybe take some instagram worthy pics and just generally have fun.

Afterwards, we headed to Dotonburi for a night of food-tripping! No trip to Osaka is complete without visiting this famed street which runs parallel to the canal bearing the same name. If you have time, you can take a boat ride at the canal but if you’re like us who much rather ‘food-hop’, I suggest skipping it, the lines to the boat rides are usually long! With its gaudy neon lights, extravagant signage, and variety of street foods, Dotonburi is an experience you would likely not forget!

It was late when we got back and with our full bellies and tired feet, we went straight to bed.  Dotonburi is open ALL DAY AND NIGHT but we have an early train to catch to Kyoto the next day so early night it is! I recommend spending about 2 nights in Osaka if you can so you don’t feel as rushed as we did but no more. Unless you plan to go to Universal Studios, there isn’t much to see in Osaka beyond the castle and Dotonburi.

Our next stop is my favorite of the 3 cities we visited – Kyoto.

For our first night, I booked us a stay at the Kyoto Nanzenji Garden Ryokan  to experience a traditional japanese inn. This is on the higher side of the price scale but don’t worry, there’s a lot of budget ryokans in Kyoto to choose from.  After checking in and dropping our bags, we went straight to the Yasaka Pagoda and its surrounding town and the Nanzenji-temple via bus (tip: buy a day pass for the bus; you will be taking the bus more than the metro when exploring various temples in Kyoto).

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Our last stop for the day was the Arashiyama bamboo forest. It took us about 30 -40 minutes to reach it and by the time we arrived, it was almost dark. Thank goodness for iPhone 11’s night mode!

Arashiyama can be really crowded during the day so plan to go there very early or very late. The ‘bamboo forest’ looks vast in the pictures I’ve seen before but in reality, it’s only a short trail and there are several restricted areas as well. This makes it hard to find places to take good photos because more often than not, another tourist (or a group of them if you’re unlucky!) will be in your camera frame. By the way, if you’re feeling hungry,  the walk from the metro station to the bamboo forest is lined with good, authentic, japanese street food –  pricey because its a tourist area but really delicious!

After all that snacking though,  I was still craving for a true, filling dinner so we ordered a shabu-shabu meal at our Ryokan. This meal is good for 4 and not realizing how little Jed likes beef, I ended up eating 90% of it (whoops!). Jed was feeling much better this time but for good measure, I invited her to join me for a hot bath at our Ryokan’s bamboo tub. It always feels good to soak in hot water after a long day! She refused to go to the public one after seeing the rest of the lady guests in our Ryokan naked haha! Oh to be that innocent again lol!

It was our last full day in Kyoto and we still have a few things in our to-do list.

We started our morning with a traditional japanese tea ceremony at Maikoya wearing a kimono. I’ve seen pictures of tourists walking around Kyoto in kimonos and while I loved wearing a kimono, personally, I feel like it is best suited indoors. It’s soo hard to walk in a kimono and I would be so conscious of my hair!

Japan’s tea ceremony is very delicate, intricate and formal – from the tatami mats,  the doorway entrance to the tea room, to the required utensils and the decorum of the tea master.  We were served matcha (my favorite!) tea and shown how to properly mix and drink our tea. Quite an experience! You can book this as a private event or in small groups like what we did. The whole ceremony, including getting dressed and choosing your own kimono, took less than 2 hours.

On our way to our Ryokan, we spent about 30 minutes drinking coffee and playing with cute puppies at the Shiba-Inu cafe (there’s a lot of cafes like this here! A cat, pug, hedgehog, and of course shiba-inus!) and stopped by a temple at the Kyoto Nikishi market to pray.

After a nice, heavy, sushi lunch (I ate 16 sushi plates hah!), we took the bus to the Sanjusangen temple, home of the 1,001 buddhas. I wish we were allowed to take photos because this temple is AMAZING. The golden buddhas are life-size in addition to 28 guardian deities. The picture below is not mine obviously but I posted it so you can see just how unreal this temple is.

There is an entrance fee to view the temple (600 yen) but access to the courtyard and the garden is free of charge. I was debating whether to go here or the “golden temple” and I’m so glad I chose this. In addition to its magnificent buddhas, the perimeter of the temple are also surrounded by willow trees with their long, green branches hanging low to the ground. The compound also includes this picturesque hallway leading towards the back of the temple and the garden which serves as a perfect background for pictures!

From here, we took the metro to the Fushimi Inari-Taisha, where every single travel ‘influencer’ in instagram took staged professional photos in their kimonos. Naturally, I have to go there (lol). Famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates-covered hiking trail, the fushimi inari is in every list of “must-see” in Japan. The hike itself is said to take 2-3 hours round trip but you can always turn back at any point on the trail.

Now if you think the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest is crowded, brace yourselves for this one. There’s plenty of places to take pictures but only if you are patient enough to wait until everyone has passed (my pics below took at least 10 minutes each just to make sure no one else is in the shot!).

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There’s a long walk from the metro station to the entrance of this shrine and a lot of stairs to head to the top. The higher you go, the lesser the crowd (there’s your tip!). Mid-way, there is a small, active, temple so please do mind your noise and camera when you pass it.

Our last night in Kyoto was also New Year’s Eve and while we thought of going out and visiting the temples for blessings and prayer (and maybe go to some parties along the way!), the wind was howling all night and it was pretty cold. I also worry that Jed’s fever may come back if we stayed too late outside. Instead, we went to the convenience store and bought instant noodles and other matcha snacks and settled into our very cozy, warm, airbnb where we chatted over coffee, called my boyfriend and our families and generally had a chill time.

Finally, its time to head back to Tokyo. Both our flights leave on January 2nd so we had a choice to stay one more day in Kyoto or spend it in Tokyo. Fearing another flight mishap, we chose the latter.

Hatsumode is the first Shinto shrine visit of the Japanese New Year. Since we were in Tokyo for New Year’s Day, we joined thousands of Japanese locals and tourists visiting the Meiji Shrine to pray.  We also offered gifts, wrote our wishes and prayers, got charms and just immersed ourselves to the experience.

Meiji shrine is conveniently located near another cafe in my list – the hedgehog cafe. We stayed here a bit, grabbed lunch at the food stalls outside the cafe and walked back to our hotel. In hindsight, we could’ve taken the metro to see the Tokyo tower but after 3 hours of travel that morning and a long walk at the temple, we just wanted to rest our feet for a bit before shopping for pasalubong for our loved ones.

The BEST shopping place for me in Tokyo is definitely Don Quixote! There is one located in downtown Shibuya with 4 floors of awesome Japanese souvenirs. I ended up buying an extra luggage to stash all the costumes, accessories and give aways I got from that store! If you don’t fancy that, you can also check out Shibuya 109, Mark City, Disney store, Parco and other small shops to choose from.

Finally, our trip has come to an end.  I will spare you the details of how I missed my return flight and had to pay $$$$$ to get to the next US-bound flight from Tokyo because it’s still painful to me (and my wallet). It was a bitter ending to an otherwise very enjoyable trip. I will just offer you my last tip – Narita is farther away from Tokyo so plan to leave an extra hour ‘allowance’ on top of your planned commute. In other words, if you have to be in Narita at 6pm for a 9pm flight, leave Tokyo at 4pm, instead of 5pm. Also, know that January 2-3 is basically Japan’s equivalent of Black Friday so brace yourself with A LOT OF FOOT TRAFFIC.

As I am typing this entry and adding pictures to this blog post, I am reminded of how fun that trip was and how magical everything felt like. I don’t know how else to describe it.  Tokyo is a feast to the eyes, its food (OMG the food) is a welcome treat to my taste buds and the city is very vibrant and exciting. Kyoto is timeless – its kimonos, bonsai trees, ryokans, pagodas and temples remind me of feudal Japan, a time of samurais and geisha. It’s such a stark contrast to Tokyo but somehow also feels very complimentary.

I’ve been to 32 countries and counting at this point but if you ask me to recommend to you ONE country to travel to, (so far) it is definitely JAPAN.