Random collection of recommendations, after a month-long trip we took in 2020

Danjiri Festival

Takes place in the town of Kishiwada every year for two days in mid-September, usually the weekend before “Respect for the Elderly”. In the festival each neighborhood drags a wooden portable shrine and makes rounds in the city. Each shrine is pulled by 300-400 people!

There’s a detailed schedule online each time, recommended to arrive on the first day in the morning (supposed to be the time they travel fastest) or on the second day only at noon, because in the morning it’s very sleepy. In the evening it’s supposed to be illuminated and beautiful, we were already exhausted from a hot day in the sun. If you want to see that too, recommended to arrive at noon/afternoon - it’s a nice event but not for more than half a day.

We saw very few foreign tourists, and at the information desk (small community center with lots of energetic grandparents) they were very excited about us, filmed us for TV and even gave us gifts. Recommended to stop by there, they provided us with a map and lots of information. When you exit at Kishiwada station turn left and it’s after a few hundred meters. Easy to reach from Osaka, and everything is also full of food and drink stalls.

Osaka

Accommodation

Zen Labo Osaka - in an amazing location in the middle of Namba, a minute from Dotonbori, walking distance from the train and all restaurants and bars. [2 nights in good dorms for 8,050 ¥]

What we did

• Walking around the market - much more touristy than I remembered, and wasn’t really interesting
• Food - there’s everything in the area. We mainly ate street food, ranging from tasty to weird

Recommended food

• Sushi restaurant with excellent unagi - Washo Uoshin
• Good ramen chain - Ichiran Ramen

Kyoto

Accommodation

Khaosan Kyoto Guesthouse - chain of good quality hostels. Pretty good location near Kawaramachi street full of restaurants and shops. Not close to Gion. [3 nights in a small double room with shared bathroom and shower for 13,000 ¥]

What we did

• Walking around the fun Nishiki market. Don’t forget the famous honey shop Sugi Bee Garden. There we also found yuzu chili :)
• Golden Temple and Silver Temple, Fushimi Inari etc.
• 1000 Buddhas Temple - Rengeoin Sanjusangendo. Less known and highly recommended. You can’t photograph inside, but it’s truly spectacular - reminds of the terracotta warriors, but Buddhist and very Japanese

Food

• Excellent sushi restaurant - Musashi Sushi. Excellent sushi and good prices
• Amazing Italian restaurant - Pizzeria Bar Le Napoli. On the second floor of the building (there’s signage). The most delicious pizza we ate on the entire trip, and for only 500 ¥!
• The most delicious coffee we drank - Arabica%

Bars

• We walked around Pontocho Alley - a long alley with tons of bars, but almost everyone walking in it are tourists. Less recommended unless going to a specific place
• Recommended gin bar - Nokishita711 - tiny bar that’s almost all standing, but excellent cocktails and you pay what you want
• Recommended cocktail bar (we didn’t go) - L’Escamoteur. Cocktails that look expensive but considering the cover charge collected at most places, prices aren’t different from other bars

Koyasan

Getting there took a day and was complex but not complicated. Worth preparing in advance.

Accommodation

Koyasan Saizenin - lovely monastery, cheapest in the area. The room was spacious, showers were Japanese baths. In the morning there was a performance of a monk praying… Overall it was great, but there were many restrictions - you could only shower from 17:00 to 20:00, there was curfew from 21:00 so we had to hurry. Not all monasteries are like this. [Night in a large double room with shared bathroom and shower and breakfast for 20,000 ¥]

What we did

• Walking around temples in the town
• Walking afternoon and morning in the cemetery
• Night tour guided by monk in the cemetery - organized by Ekoin, was quite expensive (I think 2,500 ¥ per person, not sure) but very worth it

Food

Don’t let them scare you, there are quite a few restaurants and options on the main street in town, and even a convenience store.

• Nice restaurant - Maruman
• Very nice cafe owned by Westerners - Marutaka

Tokyo - First Round

Instead of returning to Osaka, we decided to advance straight to 3 nights in Tokyo.

Accommodation

Book and Bed Asakusa - excellent location in Asakusa neighborhood, close to train and restaurants. Interesting concept, in retrospect a night or two there is quite enough. Very fun to sleep inside the library and the whole atmosphere there is of reading and everyone reads (despite most of the books there being in Japanese). At night light remains and everything is in the same space so there’s noise from reception when sleeping. For those who can’t sleep with noise/with earplugs, not sure it’s recommended. For those who don’t mind - nice place. [3 nights in dorms, according to Shay spacious and comfortable but Amit hit his head on the shelf several times. 35,600 ¥]

What we did

Asakusa

• Observation on the top floor of the neighborhood tourist office
• Free guided tour at Senso-ji by the neighborhood tourist office - very nice, and we learned a lot
• Trip on Kappabashi street

Shibuya

• Guided tour by Localize Tokyo on Sunday (free tours, actually pay between 1000-5000 ¥ per person) in Harajuku and Meiji Park. Was very nice and interesting, important to note that Takeshita street that once bustled with girls in Japanese dress, now contains only (and lots of) tourists, and not even one local for medicine. The girls moved to other places claiming they’re “tired of being a panda bear”. They’re right.
• Weekend festival in the park - this time it was a Chinese food festival (no) with funny performances. The week after there was a Hokkaido food festival, so worth checking what’s there this time.
• In retrospect, the park is nice on Sunday because of the people and food festival but the Elvises weren’t there, and besides that it’s better to walk in the area not on weekends.
• Walk on the lovely Cat Street and from there a trip in Shibuya
• Met my brother near Shibuya Crossing, for dinner and ice cream at the food complex

Food

• Excellent ramen at Jangara in Harajuku
• Amazing tonkatsu!!!! on the top floor of Takashimaya department store - Tonkatsu Maisen. The pork fillet won the title of best schnitzel we ate in our lives.
• Delicious ice cream at Pariya on the bottom floor of Tokyu department store

Tokyo - Second Round

Accommodation

Sakura Hotel Hatagaya - great hotel, clean and organized. Reasonable location (2 minutes walk from metro, 2 stations by train from Shinjuku station - but on a private train company, so not relevant for day passes and also less convenient for arrival) and there aren’t really things around except convenience stores. The hotel has a cafe/bar with food and drinks open 24 hours a day, and very basic breakfast. [5 nights in a small double room with attached bathroom, including breakfast for 45,500 ¥]

What we did

Shinjuku

• Evening walk

Roppongi

• Mori Museum - stunning exhibition, worth coming not too late so the open terrace will be open
• Dog spa - Green Dog at Tokyo Midtown

Shibuya

• Farmers market on weekends located right under the United Nations University building in Harajuku. Super fun and nice with few stalls, but carefully selected. There are also food trucks. On the first Saturday and Sunday of each month Raw Market is added - a beautiful (expensive!) second-hand market with lots of people dressed cool, DJ and food
• Galaxy complex - building with several floors dedicated entirely to showing off Galaxy’s new technologies. Free entry, you get a smartphone to walk around with and collect points at each station you participate in, and you can also win prizes. Most worthwhile - the VR complex Samsung built together with NASA, simulating walking on the moon! Need to register in advance for a specific time through the smartphone you received (best to get help at the entrance desk) they dress you in a space suit and harnesses, and it really simulates exiting the spacecraft, space walking and view of Earth. Highly recommended! Worth arriving when they open to book a spot for this because there aren’t many at all, but don’t expect lots of people or queues
• Walking in the cute Harajuku neighborhood, mainly in the area north of Omotesando street. Right next to the Sugi Bee Garden store (mandatory stop of course) there’s a very very nice area with restaurants and cute shops

Shimokitazawa

Chosen as one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world. Recommended to arrive after noon, because they’re just starting to wake up at 12. Relatively small and easy to walk around from one second-hand clothing store to another.

• Cute Australian cafe - Frankie
• Really successful second-hand store complex - Shimokita Garage
• Worthwhile second-hand store, everything for 700 ¥ - Stick Out
• Really cute antique store - Antique Life Jin

Odaiba

• Borderless exhibition by TeamLab - recommended to arrive when they open (at 10:00) and check online first what parts have queues at noon, and go to them first. On the other hand, very hard to navigate there alone so good luck with that :)
• Toyota center - nice to walk around there easily
• Small Statue of Liberty - cute, nothing to go especially for

Ginza

• Sony Park underground park interesting, has nice exhibitions there
• Nissan building together with Sony very fun
• Not far there’s the ramen street of Tokyo Station
• Excellent alcohol store, including tastings for modest payment from endless bottles - Liquors Hasegawa

Ueno

• We were on the market street, quite boring. No reason to go there
• The park is cute

Food

• Excellent tonkatsu at good prices at Tonkatsu Hamakatsu, with sesame sauce you make yourself. Was our go-to every time we couldn’t find something good to eat
• The izakaya parents love - Kurumaya Bekkan - expensive. Most skewers quite routine, worth ordering their excellent chicken meatballs
• For those missing vegetables - SaladStop! salad bar with self-assembly (or according to their recommendations) with fresh vegetables, wonderful Japanese additions and excellent sauces. Don’t miss the honey-wasabi sauce
• Highly recommended curry according to Yarden (when we were there they were under renovation) - Rojiura Curry Samurai

Drinks

• We tried to get to the famous Bar Ben Fiddich, but the bartender was in Paris. On the second floor of the building was their sister bar, which was very nice and reasonably priced for the level (about 1,400 ¥ for cocktails)
• Nice bars in Golden Gai. We just found one with people around, another recommended one is The Open Book (we didn’t go). In afternoon/early evening hours there are only tourists, because locals are still working

Hokkaido

Getting from Tokyo

Despite the concern, it was very simple with JR Pass. A day in advance we booked train tickets at Tokyo station, and traveled in the morning shinkansen from Tokyo to Hakodate (3.5-4 hours), and from there a transfer to a train straight to Sapporo station (3.5 hours). Very convenient, and we even arrived in time for dinner at the autumn festival.

Car

We rented from Times Car Rental, it was great. We did unlimited toll roads and it wasn’t worth it, if you do part of the trip as driving on side roads - maybe worth buying only an ETC accumulating ticket. Recommend checking what your planned driving routes are, toll roads aren’t everywhere.

You can also get around the island by public transport, but the car helped a lot with flexibility in plans (especially for a short trip like ours) and getting to places that don’t have public transport (and there were quite a few). Driving on the left side, but you get used to it quickly. Much harder was keeping to their speed limit (50 km/h on most roads!)

Sapporo - two nights, at the beginning and end

Accommodation

Ten to Ten Sapporo Station the excellent (near the train station, excellent staff, lots of free things, including Welcome drink at their bar!) [Double room for 6,299 ¥ per night]

What we did

• Tanukikoji shopping street (including KitKat store and ice cream at Gellateria Sorrino)
• Beer museum (premium and tastings were closed when we arrived)
• Sapporo Fall Festival with lots of delicious food
• Beautiful Red Brick House building

Food

• Conveyor sushi Hanamaru at the central station
• Ramen Fugiya recommended

Generally Sapporo excels in the number of pizzerias and ice cream shops that wouldn’t shame an Italian town

Sounkyo Onsen town - one night

Drive

Through Furano, the famous Tomita farm and Shikisai no Oka farm. We also drove to Cheese Factory with excellent pizza and ice cream. The blue lake at Shirogane Blue Pond - charming! Next to it there’s a beautiful waterfall called Shirahiga Waterfall.

Accommodation

Sounkyo Hostel which was very very basic. It had decent dinner. [Twin room for 7,200 ¥ per night]

What we did

• In the morning cable car ride (2,900 ¥), t