Japan is an archipelago in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, east of China, in Asia.
Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The main islands, Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku and Kyushu, make up 97% of Japan’s land area.
Most of the main cities and hubs are on the largest island, Honshu.
On this Japan itinerary I focused on Honshu.
Japan was a closed country for a very long time and was hardly visited by tourists until it began opening up to the outside world a few decades ago, which led to a steady rise in the number of tourists visiting each year. People who visited in the past can compare and say that places that were barely touristy 20 years ago are bustling with visitors today.
Its isolation led it to develop an extraordinary culture, very different from what Westerners are used to: the strictness of its workers, the rules of behavior, the order, the cleanliness and the Japanese “crazy” leisure culture. All this and more makes for an extraordinary experience for the casual tourist.
The posts in this series on a trip to Japan were written by Eyal Elron.
Eyal is an architect interested in special cultures, museums, cartoons and cherry blossoms.
Feel free to follow his Instagram page And ladies, he’s single.
General Information
Everything you need to know before a trip to Japan.
Local currency in Japan
The local currency in Japan is the yen (JPY).
Cards are accepted in many places, but cash is still widely used, so it’s worth carrying some. ATMs are easy to find, for example at 7-Eleven stores and post offices.
Local time in Japan
Local time in Japan is GMT+9.
Japan doesn’t use daylight saving time.
When to visit Japan
Japan has two popular tourist seasons.
Autumn, September to November: characterized by pleasant weather.
In this season the humidity, typhoons and rain decrease and the leaves change color. Japan’s autumn foliage is among the most beautiful in the world, especially in its gardens.
Spring, March to May: This period has various blooms, the main one being the cherry blossom, which paints the landscape in shades of pink and white. The bloom across the country lasts about six weeks, but in each area it lasts only a few days.
Every January the Japan Meteorological Agency issues an update with estimated blooming dates.
For the forecast click here.
A Japan Itinerary
The trip to Japan was planned carefully a few months before the flight.
The island I traveled on is Honshu. The trip started in southwestern Japan and ended in northeastern Japan.
In this post I’ll share the itinerary in general, and in the following posts in the series I’ll go into more detail about each area I visited.
Day 1
Flights and arrival in Japan.
The first day of the trip was devoted entirely to the flight to Japan. Since there were no direct flights from Israel to Japan at the time, I had to take a connecting flight.
I landed in Osaka and set off from there on my trip in Japan.
Day 2: Arriving in Osaka
Arriving inOsaka Chuo Ward: the Namba district
Nakanoshima island: the city hall
Bank of Japan, Dotonbori: a shopping and food hub
Day 3: Osaka
Osaka Castle
Osaka Business Park
Joto Ward: residential
Kita Ward: the north of the city, malls and offices
Day 4: Kobe
Kobe: Kobe Port, the waterfront, promenade, Kobe Tower, the Maritime Museum, the children’s museum, boat trips
East Kobe park
Memorials to the Great Hanshin Earthquake
The city center: Flower Road, malls, the Sannomiya pedestrian street
Sorakuen Japanese garden
Mount Suwayama: a walking trail, a Shinto shrine, the Venus Bridge and a view over the city
(Places I didn’t see but are worth it: the earthquake museum, the Kobe City Museum, the Rokko housing complex.)
For the post on our Kobe itinerary: click here.
Day 5: Himeji
Himeji Castle, the White Heron
Senhime botanical garden
Koko-en Japanese garden
The park around the castle grounds
Himeji Piole mall
(Places I didn’t visit: the Himeji City Museum of Art and the Hyogo Prefectural Museum.)
For the post on our Himeji itinerary: click here.
Day 6: Nara
Deer Park: including lots of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, gardens and small ponds
Kofuku-ji Buddhist temple and pagoda
(Places I didn’t go into: the Nara National Museum (in the park grounds), the Buddhism museum, the toy museum, and Mount Wakakusa with its view over the city.)
For the post on our Nara itinerary: click here.
Day 7: Osaka and Arrival in Kyoto
Umeda Sky Building viewpoint
Shin-Osaka station complex
Namba Yasaka Shrine
Den Den Nipponbashi
Tsutenkaku observation tower
A Japanese garden in the area of the zoo and the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts
(Worth seeing, but I didn’t go in or didn’t get there: Abeno Harukas, at the time the tallest building in Japan; the National Museum of Art (a strange, cool building); the science museum; the Port of Osaka and Japan’s largest aquarium.)
Day 8: Kyoto
The Shimogyo lower ward area
Shosei-en Japanese garden
Higashi Hongan-ji temple complex
The area around Kyoto’s main train station
Kyoto Tower viewpoint and Umekoji Park (near the Kyoto Aquarium)
To-ji pagoda complex
Wandering the streets of the central Nakagyo ward
Day 9: Kyoto
The central Nakagyo ward area
Nijo Castle complex and the upper Kamigyo ward
The Kyoto Imperial Palace gardens complex
A visit to the State Guest House in the gardens
Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion
Hirano Shrine complex (a cherry blossom event)
The Pokémon Center Kyoto
Day 10: Kyoto
Kyoto
Arashiyama bamboo forest
Temples and Japanese gardens (there’s also a monkey park, but I didn’t go in)
The Kyoto International Manga Museum
The Museum of Kyoto
Day 11: Kyoto
Fushimi Inari complex
Tofuku-ji temple complex
Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion
Honen-in temple
The mausoleum of Emperor Reizei
The Philosopher’s Path
Yoshidayama hill
Kyoto University
Kimeiji temple
The Jingu torii gate
The complex of the municipal art museum and the National Museum of Modern Art (I didn’t go into the museums)
Minami-za kabuki theater
Day 12: Kyoto and Arrival in Nagoya
Maruyama Park: a large complex of temples
The Gion district; Nagoya: a research center
Prostho Museum
The southern part of Naka, the central ward
For the full Nagoya itinerary: click here.
Day 13: Nagoya and Arrival in Kanazawa
The Hisaya Odori Park central area
Oasis 21, a shopping center with a glass roof and a pool
Nagoya TV Tower viewpoint
Nagoya government offices
Nagoya Castle complex; Kanazawa
A short wander through the streets near the Asano River
Day 14: Kanazawa
Omicho, the main market
Kanazawa Castle complex
Kenroku-en Japanese garden
The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art
The samurai districts
The teahouse and geisha district (a geisha performance in the evening).
For the full Kanazawa itinerary: click here.
Day 15: Takayama
The old government complex, Takayama Jinya
The Nakabashi park area: the middle bridge
Shoren-ji temple on a hill with a view over the city
The Sakurayama shrine complex, where the high point of the spring festival takes place
For the full Takayama itinerary: click here.
Day 16: Tokyo
Shinjuku Ward
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
The area around the main train station
The government buildings area
Tokyo City Hall: north and south observatories
Central Park: a picnic in the evening
Day 17: Tokyo
Shinjuku Ward
The ward center
The city hall area and Central Park by day
Shibuya Ward
Shibafu Park and Meiji Shrine
Part of Harajuku Street
Aoyama Avenue
Jingu Gaien avenue and the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery
The Imperial Palace complex
Chiyoda Ward
The Tokyo Imperial Palace gardens complex (I didn’t have time to go in)
The Ginza district
A kabuki play at the Kabuki-za theater
Day 18: Hakone
The Yumoto area (a central area with cafés and hot springs, or onsen)
The Gora area (a little less central)
Gora Park: including a teahouse and a botanical garden
The Hakone Open-Air Museum and the Picasso Pavilion
Tenyu Onsen bathhouse
A cable car climbs up the ridge to a viewpoint
You can go down to the foot of the ridge and take a boat on Lake Ashi
For the full Hakone itinerary: click here.
Day 19: Tokyo
Shibuya Ward, the ward center.
The main crossing, malls and shops
Day 20: Tokyo
Shibuya Ward
Yoyogi Park
The rest of Harajuku Street and the nearby streets
Between Mitaka and Musashino
Inokashira Park
The Ghibli Museum (I didn’t go in).
Nakano Ward
The Nakano Broadway area: lots of anime shops
The center area
Day 21: Tokyo
Sumida Ward
Tokyo Skytree viewpoint (it was foggy, so I didn’t go up)
Sumida Park
Koto Ward
Kiba Park
Chuo Ward
The capsule tower
Hamarikyu Gardens
Minato Ward
Shiba Park and Zojo-ji temple
Tokyo Tower viewpoint
Roppongi: the Tokyo Midtown area
The National Art Center, Tokyo
Koto Ward
The artificial island of Odaiba
The teamLab Borderless digital art exhibition
Shibuya Ward
Wandering the southern districts
Day 22
Flights back to Israel.
Japan Itinerary: Where I Stayed
To keep the trip’s costs down, I chose to stay in hostels for most of the trip.
A little in general: At many hostels in Japan you’ll be asked to take off your shoes at the entrance and put them in a nearby locker, then walk around in slippers provided by the hostel. The hostel has a common area with a seating corner and a dining corner with a kitchenette, then the men’s and women’s restrooms and then the bedrooms. The men’s restroom has several urinals and several toilet stalls (I’ll write about the Japanese toilet another time), two long stations for brushing teeth and shaving, and several shower stalls.
Note that in the tourist seasons in Japan most hotels and hostels are fully booked, so it’s best to book accommodation as far in advance as possible.
Hostel in Osaka: Iloha Hostel Namba Shinsaibashi
The hostel I stayed at had only two bedrooms: one with two bunk beds (four people) and another with what looked like (!) 40 bunk beds. In fact, the room looked as if it were split in two, because in the middle there was a wall with ten bunk beds on each side, and along each of the two long walls of the room there were another ten bunk beds, with a narrow corridor between the row along the outer wall and the row along the inner wall.
The beds aren’t really bunk beds but single beds arranged in a zigzag: one bed up, then the one opposite and the one next to it down, and vice versa, so a person sitting on a lower bed won’t see another person opposite, because the person in the bed opposite will be on an upper bed. Beyond that you have a small curtain you can draw for complete privacy.
On the day you have to leave the hostel, you can ask them to store your luggage if you want to keep exploring the city and come back to pick it up later, when you want to move on to your next destination.
Hostel in Kyoto: Centurion Cabin & Spa Kyoto
This hostel, like the previous one, also has several very large rooms with many bunk beds. The rooms are on the upper floors, while on the ground floor, besides reception, there’s a counter selling various food and drinks that you can eat and drink in the nearby seating area. There’s also a basement floor with the showers and the shared hot bath.
Hotel in Nagoya: Hotel Silk Tree Nagoya
The first time on the trip that I stayed in my own hotel room rather than a shared room.
The hotel is on Nishiki right in the city center, a 5-minute walk from the train station.
Guesthouse in Kanazawa: Ryokan Yamamuro
A kind of guesthouse whose rooms are designed to resemble a Ryokan,a traditional Japanese inn.
Inns like these were very common in Japan in the past; today there are far fewer, mostly in more rural areas. There are some in the cities too, but few, and the alternative is hostels or hotels whose rooms are designed like these guesthouses .
The inn where I stayed was in a very central area, so I could reach different places in the city within 10-20minutes.
Hotel in Takayama: Hodakaso Yamano Iori
The hotel I stayed at is less than a ten-minute walk from the train station and close to the various tourist sites.
This hotel also resembles a traditional inn to some extent, but only a little: the wooden floor and the yellow-green paper covering the walls in the entrance hall and corridors. There are two floors with corridors of guest rooms, and the room is a kind of hybrid between a hotel room and a ryokan, in that it has various elements reminiscent of a ryokan, such as the tatami, the futon and the wall coverings, but beyond that it’s a hotel room in every way. So if you want to experience staying in a traditional inn, this isn’t the right place, since it only resembles one to some extent.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find a suitable place when I was looking for accommodation, because I booked about a month before the flight. Ideally, in a popular period like spring, it’s best to book several months ahead.
Capsule hotel in Tokyo: Capsule Hotel Transit Shinjuku
In Tokyo I decided to stay in a capsule hotel, a very common type of hotel in Japan designed to provide minimalist accommodation for a large number of people in one place, who usually come to the city for work and stay a night or two before finishing their business and returning home. The hotel is a building of several floors. The first floor has the reception and the hotel’s various facilities: showers, toilets, washing machines and computer stations for personal use, as well as small lockers where you can store your gear (if it’s a small bag and limited gear, enough for someone coming for a day or two). The upper floors have the sleeping rooms, with one large room on each floor containing many capsules used by the hotel’s guests, and a few restrooms. The particular hotel where I stayed also had lots of shelves of manga that guests can take to read and of course return afterwards.
Hotel in Hakone: Hotel Hakone Terrace Annex
The hotel is some way from Gora train station. Because the area is hilly, walking there from the station is difficult and strenuous, but you can take the cable car one stop up to the park area, from where the walk is a bit shorter. But if you’re staying in Gora anyway, it’s better to be as close as possible to the train station.
Hotel in Tokyo: APA Hotel Shibuya Dogenzakaue
Pleasant, nothing special. I was in a single room that was small (as befits Japan) but pleasant. A large, roomy bed on which a folded yukata (the traditional robe) was waiting for me, and on top of it a small origami crane that put a smile on my face. There was also a TV where I could channel-surf and enjoy the crazy Japanese shows.
The hotel is in the southern part of Shibuya, about a 7-minute walk from the train station.
It’s on a street packed with shops, cafés and other attractions.
Map of the Japan itinerary
The Costs of a Trip to Japan
Japan is known as a very expensive destination.
On the other hand, don’t let that put you off: it’s not as expensive as you might think.
With the right planning you can save on costs and visit the country without breaking the bank.
Here Eyal shares the costs of his trip to Japan, including flights, accommodation, attractions and living costs (prices from 2019, paid in Israeli shekels, ILS).
Costs paid in advance:
Flights: 800 dollars each way, 1,600 dollars
Total about 5,760 ILS.
Total 281 dollars, about 1,011 ILS.
Costs during the trip:
For more posts from Eyal’s trip to Japan: click here.
Have you done a really cool trip and want to write a post about it?
Get in touch and we’ll look into publishing it on the blog.
Happy travels,
Shir-Yam
