For some reason, I had always wanted to go to Japan. I had looked up plane tickets years ago and the flights and prices seemed reasonable. Fast forward a few years, COVID happened, climate initiatives and prices to fly from Canada to Asia had skyrocketed. I didn’t know if I’d ever go. But we were going to the Philippines to visit our family and realized it was easy to pair with a trip to Japan. Just a tip, if you’re from Canada and are going to Asia, the flights will be long and expensive so it’s best to pair a few countries you’d like to see like we did with Philippines and Japan. We flew to Manila from Canada, then after our three-and-a-half-week stint in Philippines, we flew from Manila to Tokyo then home from Tokyo. We paired these flights together using flight hub and got a relatively good deal considering the prices today. The flight from Manila to Tokyo cost us an additional $350, so all in all flying within Asia isn’t bad, it’s getting there that’s pricey.
We spent a week in Japan but we crammed two weeks’ worth of vacation into the week. There is so much to do, so either plan a longer vacation, or get ready to be all over the place with very little rest… we chose the latter. We did three nights in Tokyo, followed by one night in Osaka, two nights in Kyoto then one final night back in Tokyo. We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Osaka, then the same train to Kyoto and the same train again back to Tokyo. We purchased the JR Pass, the information is included in my tips for travelling to Japan article here, and it was worth it. We took some taxis but we took a lot of trains for our numerous adventures. After a few days we were pros at navigating the subway/trains and definitely made good use of our JR passes.
All 3 places we went to were amazing. Japan is relatively cheap; it isn’t as cheap as South America or the Philippines but it was still cheaper than Canada. The food was amazing and cheap too. I always liked Ramen, but it wasn’t my favorite food or anything. In Japan though, and especially Tokyo, I couldn’t get enough of it. Of course the steak (Wagyu and Kobe) was amazing and probably the best I’ve ever had. There are tons of street food options too, all being equally tasty. And what’s cool is you can get hot coffee and other refreshing treats/drinks from vending machines found throughout the country. You will also rely on convenience stores to get cheap and good breakfasts and lunches. And while touring around from station to station, embrace the Ekiben (“eki” meaning train station and “ben” being short for bento which means lunch box). Ekiben are convenient, moderately priced and the meals were delicious, the best boxed food you will ever find.
In addition to cheap and convenient food, the Japanese are extremely friendly. Most don’t know English and many Japanese people lack confidence to make a conversation to a Gaijin, so you won’t do a lot of socialization and conversing, but anytime a Japanese person notices that you need help they will rush to your aid. They will use their phone to translate, hand gestures and whatever broken English they know to help guide you to where you need to go or help with whatever you need.
The people were super nice, food was amazing and there was tons to see and do in each place. I will talk in more detail about each city in separate blogs, but in Tokyo we stayed in Shinjuku which was amazing. The streets were fresh out of a videogame, flashing lights, massive billboards and high rises. We took a day trip to see Mount Fuji, went to the Senso-Ji Temple, crossed the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing, Shibuya Crossing, and had dinner overlooking the intersection, I went Go Karting in the streets with Street Kart Tokyo Bay, strolled through Harajuku, did some shopping, played and lost in the crane games and ate well. I loved the busyness and organized chaos of Tokyo and the fact that there was something to do for everyone.
In Osaka, our time was too short, we had one night or about a day and a half. Osaka was amazing; it’s much smaller than Tokyo, but the buildings and lights are all the same, just condensed into smaller neighborhoods. It is lit up and again looks like a video game with Buddha faces, dragons, crabs and many more things protruding from the side of buildings. Just like the rest of our trip, we packed a lot in during our short stay in Osaka. We went to the Sensekai district, played some carnival games in the street and checked out the Tsutenkaku Tower. We also spent a lot of time in Dotonbori where we stayed. We shopped around, ate a lot of street food and took a short night cruise through Dotonbori Canal and listened to our guides jokes in Nihongo and marveled at the billboard including the famous Glico Running Man. Before heading off to Kyoto the next day, we went to Osaka Castle which was cool too.
Then in Kyoto we embraced more of a relaxing time, and it showed by where we stayed. We stayed in a traditional Japanese Ryokan in the Gion neighborhood. Kyoto has less lights and more of a traditional Japanese feel. Japan has a ton of temples, but there are a higher concentration in Kyoto. We saw the top two temples in the Fushimi Inari Shrine and the Kiomizu-Dera. We also explored a few different neighborhood and even underwent the Samurai Experience at the Samurai Museum. Kyoto was nice, but in my opinion, there are only so many temples you can see. I loved it but probably won’t need to go back.
After Kyoto we were back in Tokyo for our final day. We ate a fancy, but traditional Japanese meal overlooking Shibuya Crossing, enjoyed Shinjuku one last time and got ready for our surprisingly anticipated flight home. After travelling for 5 weeks with a baby, 15 times where we had to pack up and change locations, it was time to go home. But Japan was a perfect cap to the trip and somewhere we will definitely be back to in the future.
Note: There will be more information about the experiences in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto such as where to eat, where we stayed and the attractions in my upcoming blogs focused on each city. This was just an overview of Japan and what to expect when travelling to the amazing country which is in my top 5 favorite countries in the world.
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