ITINERARY
Tokyo
August 2016 - 2 days @ Tokyo, with my high school friend Kousuke
January 2020 - 5 days @ Citadines Central Shinjuku Tokyo / Airbnb / Dai-Chi Hotel Ryokoku with Vishnu and SF friends
Highly recommend staying at a hotel near Shinjuku or Shinjuku-Sansome Station.
Airbnb you’ll always end up tight on space, especially in Japan. Don’t think it’s worth it. I stayed in Ryokoku and while it was nice to “get away” from the busy-ness of the city, I found myself consistently still going back to Shinjuku area and then having to train 30+ minutes home. #life
February 2020 - 5 days @ Airbnb with my college boiz (DK, Elliott, Ed, Kevin, Branden as a detour from them visiting me in China bc of #COVID) and then two days with Tram and Frances
Kyoto
August 2016 - 2 days @ 9 Hours, Kyoto with my #soulsista Janet
It's expensive, but a must try! The sleep I had at 9 Hours is one of the best I’ve had-- something very tranquil about sleeping in your own pod.
January 2020 - 2 days @ Apartment Hotel Mimaru Kyoto with Brian and Jason
Really loved this apartment hotel! Huge space, with living room that can be closed off.
Osaka
February 2020 - 4 days @ Airbnb with my college boiz (DK, Elliott, Ed, Kevin, Branden as a detour from them visiting me in China bc of #COVID)
Used Osaka as a base and took day trips to Kyoto (above) and Nara
Hiking Mt. Fuji
August 2016 - 2 days @ Mt Fuji with Willer Express with my #soulsista Janet
VERY recommend for those hiking Mt. Fuji! They provide transportation, overnight housing in a hut, lunch and dinner, and hot springs experience after.
Snowboarding in Hokkaido
January 2020 - 3 days @ Sapporo / Hokkaido snowboarding with Vishnu, Sonia, Matt, Aravind, Amit, Ankit and Krish
THIS !! Airbnb was bomb, snow was like powder, and the company was unbeatable
BlackPink Concert in Fukuoka
February 2020 - 3 days @ Hilton Seahawk (great area) with Ed for BlackPink
TOKYO
TOKYO HIGHLIGHTS
My opinion of Tokyo totally changed the second time around. The first time I was here, I equivalated it to another “big city”: just another place to eat, drink, and shop. I think Tokyo is a place you can enjoy the major sights in ~2/3 days, but extend your stay to a week+ just enjoying the different neighborhoods.
Seeing my friend Kousuke, and all of his friends that I had just met the month prior when they visited San Francisco!
Drinking 50+ shots of vodka/coke and playing the Spinach Game! In Japan, it is popular to pregame clubs at local bars/restaurants instead of at home so you’ll always be able to find fun bars with lots of good cocktails to pregame with.
Going out clubbing only to fall asleep in the bathroom and have to chug a can of Red Bull to stay awake... S/O to Yusuke for letting us all sleepover at his place. (Another customary tradition is to have air mattress/pads for your friends from different parts of the city to sleepover depending on where you end up for the night because cabs are too expensive and subways close).
Watching Kimi No Wa with the boys. Felt just like college when I used to watch Friends at their place and we’d have guac night. Good to know lots of things can change, but glad to know they will always be in my life. <3
Higher~ end cocktail bars galore! IMO, not a must but if you are into craft cocktails, here are a few fun bars to check out.
Mixology: Tea infused cocktails. I think the three set drink is worth it even if I don’t LOVE the mandatory drink. I really enjoyed the Matcha Godfather. Recommend going to their rooftop Ginza Garden beforehand!
Ben Fiddich: A bespoke bar so many fo my friends swear by. I find it cool~ but almost 80%+ of the bar were foreigners though… Don’t know how “local” of a scene this is.
Small bar hopping through Golden Gai. Golden Gai is three streets of some of the coziest bars (all sub 10~ people). I loved this experience and had a good time hopping around with Branden, Elliott, Kevin, DK, Ed trying out different bars. Good place for chill~ vibes and good convo. Recommend going to the bars without the cover fee. Favorite bars was 5 Galloons (get the Gracehopper Drink, taste of mint x chocolate ice cream).
Eating delicious food everywhere I went. Sushi, ramen, okonomiyaki, takoyaki are all things worth to try! You honestly can’t go wrong with anywhere you go.
Gyukatsu Motomura: They have a few locations, and there are only 8 seats available in the Shibuya house but SO FREAKING BOMB. Cook your own beef katsu! Beef was hella tender. By far one of my favorite meals I had in Japan.
Kurand Sake Market: 30 / 90 / unlimited min for all you can drink for $21 (for 90 min). All are great but sometimes it can be packed and hard to find a seat. There’s a few around the city, the one I linked is the largest one (three stories!!)
Sushi: It is my personal opinion that you don’t need to break the bank with omakase because all the sushi in Japan is relatively pretty high quality already!
Sushizanmai is by far my favorite sushi place and is open 24/7. #valueonvalue $12 for a 5 piece otoro set, $7 for 8 piece roll topped with toro.
Sushi No Midori: Never been but on my list!
Kansai sushi! Revolving sushi is the best. Uobei is decent sushi ordering on ipad, I think their uni is the best here, but okay toro.
Ichiran Ramen: The infamous Ichiran. Nothing says drunk food better than 5am Ichiran Ramen. Never made it to the Tokyo one, but have been to the one in Taipei. Their egg is perfection, as is their matcha beer, but honestly can’t tell the difference between broth and noodles.
Udon Shin: Best Udon I have ever had. Recommend the dry noodles (pepper + butter, and add in beef and egg). Also bomb vegetable tempura (eat with soy sauce and salt). Highly recommend add in Kirin Brau Meister heh.
Jyoutou (Joto) Curry: A chain so find the one nearest you! Freaking crispy af katsu. I love adding extra cheese to it. Hehe
Jambo Shirakane: For delicious wagyu beef! Paid $140 and left stuffed with alcohol and beef. Don’t forget to order the wagyu rice!
Cremia Ice Cream: You won’t regret it. Find this soft serve at random cafes~
Best convenience store culture ever! Love how convenience it is to step into a convenience store, grab a bottle of water… or fried chicken. My opinion: 711 > Family Mart > Lawson: I think it’s totally worth it to have a night in, grab some drinks and snacks (or bring the snacks to Kurand) and enjoy!
Fried chicken- Get this. Seriously. How do they make a piece of chicken so good and tender and for only $2
Egg sandwich- from 711. B.O.M.B. Thought Jenny was crazy when she was telling me about it, but ya… it’s better than JJ Bakery Sandwiches.
Tapioca Chocolate Milk Balls
Asahi Mints- LOL Art loved this so much he asked me to bring him back 5 packs
Nakiryu Michelin Instant Ramen (only found at 711)- Had hand-pulled ramen right before I had the instant ramen, and I SWEAR this instant ramen was 10x better. *This is a definite try and I IMPLORE you to do so as it will change your view on instant ramen.
STRONG ZEROS $2 for a drink stronger than Truly x White Claw and cheaper! Get a tall boy, and go with the Grapefruit or Grape flavor. Don’t wuss out, get the 9% and skip the 6%. Heh
Vintage shopping in Tokyo! Japan has really great vintage shopping. On top of high quality fashion, they also have really clean process so I know the clothes I buy are A1!
Shopping in Shimokitzawa— Love GrapefruitMoon and Treasure Factory Style Shimokitazawa. One of my favorite winter jackets is from here!
Shopping in Harajuku - Kinji, Brand Collective (higher end), Florida (IG: Florida_Harajuku) have some great pieces. I ended up getting some fun workout clothes and cardigans.
Shopping in Harajuku. Besides the super cute culture and Instagrammable foods (think rainbow cotton candy), Harajuku has some really fun unique clothes and cafes. Head to Takeshita street.
MarioKart Racing through the streets of Tokyo. International Drivers License costs $20 (note its cash only and need to get in your home country), but only took 20 minutes at AAA. It was so fun and great way to see the city. The Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo is what inspired Rainbow Road in MarioKart. Because of some legal repercussions, you can no longer wear MarioKart Characters but instead other character onesies are offered. Recommend booking the 2 hour tour (we did three and it felt overkill).
Crossing... Shibuya Crossing. Shibuya-shibuya-ya-ya. Truly an amazing site of the human scramble. Climb up to the Starbucks across the street for a birds eye view.
Shopping through Ginza station. Lots of great bars and shopping in this area if you’re looking for any high end goods!
Buying favorite discounted items or “rare” because #Japan. Things to buy in Japan bc it is cheaper than in the states. I am also going to run this list of good presents to bring back for friends
Dr. Grips- Can find this at any 711, $5 vs $15
SKII- Essence Mask- Recommend at duty free airport, $9 vs $15/$20
Stationery- From planners to fine end pens, Ginza Itoya is huge and has everything you’re looking for.
Gu x Uniqlo x BIC— (Gu is another version of Uniqlo but so much cheaper). Highly recommend you stop by. Came back with some favorite basics from Gu and Tram bought like 5 pants haha
Snacks to bring back for friends. I have literally bought back duffles to pack fun snacks for my friends (and really myself)
Kit Kats- Here is my order of the flavors (Melon & Hokkaido, Peach, Ube, Raspberry, Sakura, Apple, Matcha, Custard, Strawberry Mochi, Ice Cream, Sweet Potato). They have a Kit Kat store near Tokyo Station. Don Quixote is a good place to get KitKats for a cost effective price.
Tokyo Banana- Banana creamed pastries. Only last for one week but they are so delicious! Think like banana cream pie
Nakiryu Ramen - Michelin Star Ramen from 711
Ichiran Ramen - DK swears it tastes better than Nakiryu, but keep in mind there’s an Ichiran in NYC
Pocky - I’m a huge fan of the fruits flavored ones
Relaxing in an onsen. Remember, if you have a tattoo, you should double check to make sure you can go inside. Also read up on the rules before entering (no phones, rinse off before you go into the onsen, type your hair back, etc). Would recommend Odaiba Onsen (located across from Borderless) and Therayue (Shinjuku).
Highly recommend Therayue, it’s HUGE (three stories), $24, ($20 for ladies on Monday and Wednesday), skip the rock bath upgrade ($8).
So many special cafes! My favorite was Owl Village Harajuku Cafe. These owls were so beautiful, and never in my life have I ever gotten to be so close to this beautiful creatures. They were really well taken care of, and you could tell the owners really loved them. You can hold the owls and feed them.
Going to TeamLabs Exhibit, Planets x Borderless. Went to both and found them incredible! Thought it was going to be gimmicky~ (like Color Factory) but all of them are so well made. If you only have time for one, I would suggest Planets. Here’s my breakdown…
Planets is shorter (takes 1.5~ hours) and I liked it so much I went the exhibit twice! Way more interactive (room filled with hot water and projects of Koi fish~) and huge balls that we ended up throwing at each other and playing hide and go seek. Combination of both projection art, interactive design (playing with water x balls), and everything is so pretty it is easy to stay in a room for 20+ minutes each. It was a straight walk through exhibition so easy to follow. Tech is also better at Planets. In Borderless, a lot of the projections are on loop, while at Planets the projections are reactive (IE, you touch a koi fish, and it will change into a flower.) **Recommend if you are going to planets to not wear a skirt (the entire floor is mirrors) and pants that you can roll up.
Borderless had so many rooms, all scattered about it was kind of confusing to get around. The projections were still super cool (the famous crystal projection one is actually also in Planets). My favorite exhibit here was the Lanterns one, which probably had a 15~ minute wait when I went.
Exploring DisneySea with Ankit! I had debated back and forth on whether I wanted to use a day of Tokyo to DisneySea, and I am really happy I did. While some of the rides are lacking (and really long in wait), DisneySea is so beautifully well made and it honestly is a blast seeing how into the “Disney” culture Japanese people are. Everyone is dressed up and matching haha Some recommendations below:
Get the discounted tickets! I went from 11am to 5pm due to time constraints, but I think DisneySea can be accomplished in 6~ hours. They have discounts for twilight (entrance after 3pm) and late night (entrance after 6pm).
Get there by JR through Tokyo Station. Our hotel had a free shuttle, but we took the JR back and it was super easy!
Embrace the popcorn culture! Everybody buys the cutest popcorn boxes and fills them up with different flavored popcorn. I loved the curry one, and thought the matcha white was just meh.
Understand that Disneyland rides are superior. Seriously, and there’s so much more of them! I think Journey to the Center of the Earth is a great ride (get FP for it!) and do Single-Rider for Indiana Jones. Besides that, some of the more popular rides are 60+ minutes and I don’t think it’s worth that wait. Try to do FP as much as you can, and ride shorter rides / enjoy the attractions!
Finally… short flights to Hawaii! If you’re flying back to California highly highly recommend the long layover through to Hawaii. Airport to Waikiki Beach is sub 30 minutes, and it was so so relaxing getting to take an overnight flight to Hawaii, wake up and spend the day on the beach before taking a shorter 6 hour flight back to California.
TOKYO LOWLIGHTS
By far one of the most expensive Asian countries I have visited to date. Be ready to drop a good amount while visiting. While prices are comparable to US (and definitely cheaper than SF~) I still get sticker shock when I come back to Japan after traveling through cheaper countries such as Taiwan and China.
UberX doesn’t exist! It can be quite difficult to get around. Public transit will be your best friend. I would also download Didi as it can help you move around the city by calling cabs.
Kyoto
KYOTO HIGHLIGHTS
My first time here I spent time contemplating if it was worth it to pay so much money to take the train all the way to Kyoto to only stay for less than two days, in the end I think it was definitely worth the trek because there are so many beautiful parts of Japan (including rare nature spots) that you can only experience in Kyoto. I would recommend allocating 2~ days here to be able to see the sights (it’s all pretty close to each other!!) and nothing longer because things close early!
Staying at 9 Hours capsule hotel. 9 Hours is more than just a place to stay overnight, it’s an experience. Each pod has ambient lightening. It’s clean, comfortable, and the sleep I had in that capsule was one of the most comfortable nights sleep I’ve ever gotten.
Walking through the Bamboo Grove. It is so breathtaking. It can get crowded at times, but it really is so fun walking around and exploring the grove. From there, you can rent a boat to paddle along the river, to then climb up to Arashiyama Park to see and feed the monkeys.
Rowing a boat with Janet across the river to Arashiyama Park in the summertime. Also came back with the boys and we took the same boat but this time had someone row for us. It’s a really pretty way to pass by time, not a must though.
Climbing Fushimi Inari, the head shrine of Inari at sunset. Less captivating than the Bamboo Grove, but definitely worth seeing.
Drinking a matcha beer float! Also, recommend trying matcha ice cream. Kyoto is known for their matcha
Getting extremely lucky to see the limited Tunnel of Lights art exhibit. A bit underwhelming in person, but still worth the visit.
Best tempura you’ll ever have at Tempura Endo. (thanks for the rec Sophia!) Prix fixe menu for $55~ but some of the best tempura I’ve ever had. Eel, shrimp toast, broccoli, mushroom with shrimp paste were all highlights for me. My friend splurged for the $85 menu but I don’t know if it is worth it. While view and tempura was some by the best I’ve seen in Kyoto, I don’t know if I would come back because at the end of the day I still view tempura as a casual bar snacks and not something to splurge on… (When I left the restaurant I equated this as like going to a french fry omakase course heh)
Kyoto Lowlights
Everything closes so damn early! Kyoto really is such a tourist driven town, that the minute the sun sets everything closes. When you’re here, you’re really racing against daylight. We didn’t end up getting to eat out anywhere great because it was so late, but we spent a night in trying all the 711 snacks (and eating Michelin ramen!) and it was bomb.
Kyoto FOR NEXT TIME
Philosophers Path
Kinkaku- Ji Golden Temple
HIKING MT FUJI
MT. FUJI HIGHLIGHTS
Wow, I’m so glad I did this. After chatting with a few of my friends who hiked it without a tour- I’m really glad I hiked with Willer Express. It was definitely more expensive, but I didn’t have to worry about hiking overnight; plus they provide headlamps, food, lodging, and it was fun getting to meet everyone in the group.
Getting support from a hiking stick. Willer provided hiking sticks at the start of our tour, which turned out to be amazing and my knees were definitely thankful for it.
Waking up at 3am to finish the last part of the climb-- an unforgettable experience. It was a beautiful to see shining headlamps light up the side of the mountain. During part of the hike we laid down on the side of the mountain, stared up at the clear sky and saw shooting stars. It was one of the best moments of the trip, and while Mt. Fuji isn’t known for having clear skies, I was blessed to see the most beautiful night sky followed by a gorgeous sunrise.
Staying overnight in one of the mountain stations!
PM me if you ever want to chat about this! This + snowboarding in Hokkaido tops the list of my favorite things to do in Japan.
SNOWBOARDING IN HOKKAIDO
This trip was purely dedicated to going snowboarding in Hokkaido. We flew into Sapporo, and drove ~1 hour into the city centers and then drove around ~1.5 hours into Hokkaido. We stayed near Rusutu which I would totally recommend (center of town with lots of good food and easy for rentals).
Sapporo highlights
Warm tummies filled with Soup Curry Suage. You haven’t lived until you’ve had Soup Curry! Pairs great with cold weather and a nice Sapporo draft
Drinking Hokkaido only edition: Sapporo Black. Mix between a malt and hop. You gotta try it. They legit just have dedicated vending machines to it.
Sapporo Beer Garden: Option for AYCD!
Speakeasy at Bar Nano Gould, slow service but really great drinks.
Hokkaido highlights
Snowboarding in Hokkaido. Nothing is like it, the snow is so soft and powdering, and the scenery is beautiful. It was so fun weaving in and out of the trees, eating the snow every time I ate shit (LMFAO) no seriously the snow tastes so fresh, and just being so high up the mountains. We went to two resorts and here’s my breakdown of each:
Grand Hirafu Base: Located in the center of Niseko. I liked this resort so much better. The runs were a lot more creative (think weaves, more off trails, better combination of different levels of runs). It was easier to go to from the main city, and at the bottom of the bottom is an hotel onsen that is super easily accessible.
Rusutu: Located ~1.5 hours away from Niseko, Rusutu’s views were UNREAL. You are literally right next to the snowcapped mountains and because of its location was a lot less crowded as well. Navigating the resort is kind of difficult (they have one parking area which you have to take a few lifts to get to the snowboarding area).
Eating potato foam ramen! Niseko Ramen has the best ramen, broth made with potato foam. Wait was 2+ hours (LOL) but we passed the time with Strong Zeros and grocery store shopping.
Having the best ice cream at Milk Kobo Dairy Takahashi! They won’t let you try the flavors but I loved the combination I got (milk + green tea). Milk actually tastes like milk flavor and not a poor man’s version of vanilla. Heh
And next door is Madriano’s pizza. Some of the best pizza I’ve had! Either that or I’ve been deprived of western food for too long…
HOKKAIDO LOWLIGHTS
No all-inclusive rentals. In China, you can legit show up in thermal underwear and go snowboarding (be able to rent jacket, gloves, goggles, board, etc). In Hokkaido, you can rent most things except goggles and gloves. If you’re planning on going boarding, I recommend you bring your jacket and pants (you have to rent these separately so it can get quite pricey) and definitely bring your goggles and gloves otherwise you’ll have to buy.
Eating at Niseko Pizza. This place was not good! They charged $3.50 for ONE mozzarella stick. Granted I’m the sucker who bought it, LOL but if you’re going to charge this much of a premium for something it should taste good!
Kyoto Photos
Mt. Fuji Photos
Tokyo Photos
Hokkaido Photos
