Japan Trip Update/Report

I wonder if Haley had an "I'm mad as hell and can't take it anymore" moment on the train?? Do we need to send bail money? :scratchin
You should’ve seen me. I was struggling so bad keeping my mouth shut. My fists were clenched lol
 
Haley, you already knew my struggles with the tourists at TDR but compared to what you are describing, it's not nearly as bad. Don't worry girl, once you get to Disney and checked into the awesome HTB then it's going to be great.
Thank you that’s very reassuring. Honestly I’m more worried about the rain than crowds for Disney. Today is our first day of rain and it’s POURING. We’re supposed to go to the train station at 3 but I don’t even want to go anywhere now.
 
It's a shame that mass tourism has ruined Kyoto and Nara. I think theyre fine outside the summer and christmas time. There are probably other ancient cities in Japan that are not heavily promoted and just as beautiful. I want to visit those cities.
A lot of areas are fine once you get to a side street or a trail off the normal path. You really get to enjoy the peaceful environment and nature like it’s meant to be enjoyed.
 
Thank you that’s very reassuring. Honestly I’m more worried about the rain than crowds for Disney. Today is our first day of rain and it’s POURING. We’re supposed to go to the train station at 3 but I don’t even want to go anywhere now.

Rain can be a blessing at Tokyo Disney. All of the locals stay home because they can easily come back on another day, which means less crowds and much shorter wait times. And they do their best to still put on some form of a parade, despite the rain.

7-11 / Lawsons / Family Mart normally sell full body wet weather gear (i.e. pants AND a long poncho), so you may want to think about grabbing one of those. We normally make do with umbrellas and wet weather jackets (although that means wet pants / legs and shoes).
 


Rain can be a blessing at Tokyo Disney. All of the locals stay home because they can easily come back on another day, which means less crowds and much shorter wait times. And they do their best to still put on some form of a parade, despite the rain.

7-11 / Lawsons / Family Mart normally sell full body wet weather gear (i.e. pants AND a long poncho), so you may want to think about grabbing one of those. We normally make do with umbrellas and wet weather jackets (although that means wet pants / legs and shoes).
I just want some moments without rain to take pictures and I don’t want to lug merch around in the rain. I guess once it gets closer I’ll see how it’s looking for the forecast.

I don’t think I’ll buy a full body one lol. I have a rain jacket, sandals, and an umbrella so I should be okay. I’m sure I’m gonna love it anyway
 
For anyone going to golden pavilion I would strongly recommend going in the evening. Went tonight about 45 mins before closing and it was very peaceful and low crowds. Nothing like the chaos I read about.
 
For anyone going to golden pavilion I would strongly recommend going in the evening. Went tonight about 45 mins before closing and it was very peaceful and low crowds. Nothing like the chaos I read about.


Thanks for the great tip... once again going in the book...
 


For anyone going to golden pavilion I would strongly recommend going in the evening. Went tonight about 45 mins before closing and it was very peaceful and low crowds. Nothing like the chaos I read about.
I’m thinking that has to do with the lack of school crowds. The schools seem to go right when it opens which is when we went. Today we went to the aquarium and didn’t make the same mistake. There were still crowds but none were large groups
 
Trip Report-Day 10
We woke up at 6 am this morning to get to fushimi inari. It was a struggle getting up but SO worth it!! We got to the shrine around 7 am and walked a side path that has bamboo. We had absolutely no one around us and I got some great pictures. We saw 4 cats along the way which made me miss our cats. One of them actually let me pet him for awhile. He was purring and everything.

After the shrine we went back to the hotel for a bit so I could do my laundry. At 10:30 am we walked to a cat cafe nearby which was super cute. We paid 700 yen per person and got a free drink or ice cream for 20 minutes. The cats were really sleepy but we loved petting them. We’re having serious cat withdrawal being away from our kitties. We were gonna explore Kyoto station but decided we might as well go to the Kyoto railway museum today instead of tomorrow. Tomorrow we’re just gonna do Osaka all day.

The railway museum was great if you like trains (I don’t). Syth loved it though. We went back to Kyoto station after and had lunch at Pasta More. It was pretty good and very reasonably priced. We then got mini cheese tarts at Pablo’s. Syth saw it mentioned on a vlog so we wanted to try them. They were so good!!!

After hanging at our hotel for awhile syth decided he wanted to go to Osaka tonight since it’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow and we want to walk around Dotonbori. We got on the limited express (JR train) at Kyoto station and left at 6 pm. We were worried because it said you had to have a reservation but a JR pass covers the limited express train.

Dotonbori was really fun! We really liked the night life scene and I love that you can have a place like that and still see kids walking around at night. I don’t feel like you would ever see that in the states. A lot of people said they like Kyoto better than Osaka but I think I might have to disagree. There were a lot less tourists and more locals which we loved. There’s a ton of food to try and the hotels are really cool. We wasted a lot of money in a UFO claw store but it was fun lol. We also tried some street food. We’re going back tomorrow for the aquarium and might go back to Dotonbori after.

Now we’re on the train back to Kyoto and omg I’m gonna flip out. There are tons of people from that same nationality with their ringtones as loud as possible getting a million texts, talking on the phone, listening to videos really loud. I just can’t lol.

So sorry Haley about your train ride... This reminds me of when your standing in line at WDW, and the folks from Brazil want to entertain themselves....by chanting and singing at the top of their lungs... we even had a group once that turned up the music from their I-pad and started booty dancing, and dancing all up on each other ... I was like there are kids here, and the line to Haunted Mansion is not a nightclub ......people were complaining like crazy... Thankfully a CM... told them to cut it out....and/or get out of line... As far as the pushing, when we were at the Louve in the gift shop, there was one group that was pushing through everyone, and its the women that do the pushing, bumping and shoving... and this woman pushed me with her shoulder in the back, and I thought nope not today, so on her way back by, she started to push by me again, and I was ready for her, when she pushed into me I pushed back and she was shocked that I stood my ground with her you could see it in her face ... she looked at me and smiled... and like nodded with approval and the rest of the group steered clear of me and DH while we were in there shopping... DH was like WOW, I did not know you could body check like that... That was kinda hot...LOL Men....

So glad that you enjoyed Dotonbori - this is one of the spots on DH and I list for Osaka.... I can't wait to hear more... What is a UFO claw store?
 
So sorry Haley about your train ride... This reminds me of when your standing in line at WDW, and the folks from Brazil want to entertain themselves....by chanting and singing at the top of their lungs... we even had a group once that turned up the music from their I-pad and started booty dancing, and dancing all up on each other ... I was like there are kids here, and the line to Haunted Mansion is not a nightclub ......people were complaining like crazy... Thankfully a CM... told them to cut it out....and/or get out of line... As far as the pushing, when we were at the Louve in the gift shop, there was one group that was pushing through everyone, and its the women that do the pushing, bumping and shoving... and this woman pushed me with her shoulder in the back, and I thought nope not today, so on her way back by, she started to push by me again, and I was ready for her, when she pushed into me I pushed back and she was shocked that I stood my ground with her you could see it in her face ... she looked at me and smiled... and like nodded with approval and the rest of the group steered clear of me and DH while we were in there shopping... DH was like WOW, I did not know you could body check like that... That was kinda hot...LOL Men....

So glad that you enjoyed Dotonbori - this is one of the spots on DH and I list for Osaka.... I can't wait to hear more... What is a UFO claw store?
Lol about your Dh. Mine probably would’ve gotten embarrassed and walked away from me. If someone tries pushing passed me it won’t happen. I’ll stick my elbows out.

Dotonbori was really cool. We would’ve liked to have spent more time there and the hotels were all really cool. They all had themes. A UFO claw store is just a store with a bunch of claw machines. We went to another one today. Some are better than others. The one we went to yesterday was the best one yet. The staff there helped us sometimes to win and even opened the machines to move things around so it was easier to win.
 
Trip Report-Day 11
We slept in until 11 this morning! It felt so good to sleep in. We laid around and took our time getting ready. We then headed to Kyoto station and boarded the limited express at 2:30 pm headed towards Osaka.

We went to Osaka for the aquarium. We purchased the tickets on the Klook app. Syth found a coupon code for 500 yen off total from retail me not. The aquarium was pretty good but we like the Georgia aquarium more. Our favorite things were the seals and sea lions. Most of the aquarium is one tank and the path just winds around it going down. So you see the same fish for most of the visit.

After the aquarium we walked right next door to the marketplace with shops and restaurants. I ate a footlong sub at subway (the first subway we’ve seen) and it was a bit pricey: 1080 yen for a sub and medium drink. Syth wanted okonomiyaki so we went to a sit down place where they cook right at your booth. I didn’t eat but he said it was really good. It took awhile but he said it was worth it. When we finished eating we walked around the marketplace and played some more claw machines. We actually won quite a bit and most of them were snacks which was fun. We aren’t really shoppers so the claw machines is where we’ve been spending money.

We had a very peaceful train ride home on the limited express. It was so quiet and I got to hear the rain on the train. I loved it and almost fell asleep. We should be asleep right now but I can’t sleep. We’re waking up at 5:15 am to go to Hiroshima and miyajima tomorrow.
 

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Trip Report-Day 12
We got to Kyoto station at 6:15 am planning to get on the 7:20 Shinkansen. We showed up to make seat reservations and the reserved cars were sold out so we had to wait for a non reserved car and see if there were any seats together. We split up, each of us waiting for different cars and I was able to get us two seats by a window. I was the first person in my line so I got pretty lucky. Lesson learned: if you’re going on the Shinkansen it’s essential to book ahead of time. We ended up switching days going to Hiroshima but could’ve still booked earlier than this morning. With the rail pass you have to book in person, not at a kiosk, so that makes it a little more difficult. We did get our seats reserved on the way back but it isn’t a direct train ride so we have to switch to a special rapid train.

When we got to Hiroshima we took the JR ferry to Miyajima. The main thing we went for was the floating Torii gate. We paid 600 yen together to see the Itsukushima shrine and got a good picture of us in front of the gate. After the shrine we walked to the Daishoin Temple which was hard to find on google maps. It kept sending us to a different temple with the same name. This temple is free and there were hardly any people there. They had a lot of statues with knitted hats which was fun to see. They also have a lot of cute little Buddha statues that I fell in love with. We then walked along Omote-Sando to eat from food stalls. We ate fried chicken (so good), deep fried fish cake with asparagus and bacon, and oyster curry bread. We finished by doing a dog cafe which was not at all worth the money. The dogs were too scared to come near anyone so we sat there watching the dogs cower. Miyajima was okay to see once but I probably wouldn’t go back.

Our next stop was Hiroshima so we took the ferry back to the mainland and took some trains to the Peace Park. We saw the A-bomb dome building and there were a lot of teens on the grass painting it. Their paintings were awesome. We then walked to the Peace Museum which was hard to walk through. I really enjoyed it, though. We sat outside on a bench after in the sun which was relaxing. The rest house was under refurbishment which stunk because we really wanted to go in it.

We wasted some more money on claw machines...we didn’t win much lol. We really need to stop going in those darn stores. I did win a pair of Bluetooth headphones on the first try for 100 yen though!! I tried them and they’re actually pretty good quality. We chose to eat dinner at Kemby’s Brew Pub (planned ahead of time). Everyone in the restaurant spoke English, including customers, which was kind of nice. It actually was one of the best meals we ate. I had a burger with fries and the fries were delicious! They told Dh all beer was 500 yen and they ended up charging us 1,000 yen for each beer so basically $10....we were not happy about that.

We boarded the Shinkansen at 9:19 pm so it’ll be a late night but all we’re doing tomorrow is heading to Disney!!!
 

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Trip Report-Day 12
We got to Kyoto station at 6:15 am planning to get on the 7:20 Shinkansen. We showed up to make seat reservations and the reserved cars were sold out so we had to wait for a non reserved car and see if there were any seats together. We split up, each of us waiting for different cars and I was able to get us two seats by a window. I was the first person in my line so I got pretty lucky. Lesson learned: if you’re going on the Shinkansen it’s essential to book ahead of time. We ended up switching days going to Hiroshima but could’ve still booked earlier than this morning. With the rail pass you have to book in person, not at a kiosk, so that makes it a little more difficult. We did get our seats reserved on the way back but it isn’t a direct train ride so we have to switch to a special rapid train.

When we got to Hiroshima we took the JR ferry to Miyajima. The main thing we went for was the floating Torii gate. We paid 600 yen together to see the Itsukushima shrine and got a good picture of us in front of the gate. After the shrine we walked to the Daishoin Temple which was hard to find on google maps. It kept sending us to a different temple with the same name. This temple is free and there were hardly any people there. They had a lot of statues with knitted hats which was fun to see. They also have a lot of cute little Buddha statues that I fell in love with. We then walked along Omote-Sando to eat from food stalls. We ate fried chicken (so good), deep fried fish cake with asparagus and bacon, and oyster curry bread. We finished by doing a dog cafe which was not at all worth the money. The dogs were too scared to come near anyone so we sat there watching the dogs cower. Miyajima was okay to see once but I probably wouldn’t go back.

Our next stop was Hiroshima so we took the ferry back to the mainland and took some trains to the Peace Park. We saw the A-bomb dome building and there were a lot of teens on the grass painting it. Their paintings were awesome. We then walked to the Peace Museum which was hard to walk through. I really enjoyed it, though. We sat outside on a bench after in the sun which was relaxing. The rest house was under refurbishment which stunk because we really wanted to go in it.

We wasted some more money on claw machines...we didn’t win much lol. We really need to stop going in those darn stores. I did win a pair of Bluetooth headphones on the first try for 100 yen though!! I tried them and they’re actually pretty good quality. We chose to eat dinner at Kemby’s Brew Pub (planned ahead of time). Everyone in the restaurant spoke English, including customers, which was kind of nice. It actually was one of the best meals we ate. I had a burger with fries and the fries were delicious! They told Dh all beer was 500 yen and they ended up charging us 1,000 yen for each beer so basically $10....we were not happy about that.

We boarded the Shinkansen at 9:19 pm so it’ll be a late night but all we’re doing tomorrow is heading to Disney!!!
You are right. That statue is super cute! Hope your journey to TDR is smooth and can’t wait to read about your experiences at the parks! Have a magical time!!
 
You are right. That statue is super cute! Hope your journey to TDR is smooth and can’t wait to read about your experiences at the parks! Have a magical time!!
I absolutely love those little statues. They’re so cute and chubby. I’ll post more pictures of them.

I hope TDR goes okay. It looks like it’s gonna rain pretty much every day we’re there but it won’t be hot. I don’t really want to walk around wet all day but that’s what we get for coming in June
 

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With the train seat issue, should you just reserve all your seats for the whole trip, when you pick up your JR pass at the airport? Did you notice if the green cars are really that much better than the regular cars... Both couples that I know that went last year insist that you "Just have to go the green car route"... any thoughts...

We are just wanting to go straight to Hiroshima, or possibly a small group tour or private tour.... Did you see anything that says when the Rest house would be open again... Did you guys go over the bridge into the Hondori Shopping district? and is there a train station with in a short walk to the site?

I can't believe you are heading to Disney tomorrow... How much fun is that... lots and lots of pixie dust coming your way... :tink: :tink:
 
With the train seat issue, should you just reserve all your seats for the whole trip, when you pick up your JR pass at the airport? Did you notice if the green cars are really that much better than the regular cars... Both couples that I know that went last year insist that you "Just have to go the green car route"... any thoughts...

We are just wanting to go straight to Hiroshima, or possibly a small group tour or private tour.... Did you see anything that says when the Rest house would be open again... Did you guys go over the bridge into the Hondori Shopping district? and is there a train station with in a short walk to the site?

I can't believe you are heading to Disney tomorrow... How much fun is that... lots and lots of pixie dust coming your way... :tink: :tink:
Yeah if I knew ahead of time my schedule and there was little chance of it changing I would reserve my seats at the airport when I land. The only ones you’ll need is tokyo-Kyoto, Kyoto-Tokyo, and Kyoto-hiroshima. All of the other ones you don’t need a seat reservation. We have the ordinary pass and the seats are great. I’m really not sure what the benefit of the green car would be. I guess it’s more comfortable but we were very comfortable in the ordinary cars.

No I couldn’t find any information about the closing of the rest house. I wasn’t even sure for a long time that the building was the rest house because it’s behind fences and has no signs on it, but it showed that it was on google maps.

We did go to the Hondori shopping district and it’s literally like every other shopping place in this area. They all get really repetitive. We did our shopping in Tokyo and aren’t big shoppers in the first place though. I’m saving all of my money for Disney. I’m not really buying souvenirs outside of Disney except I got some postcards for my relatives. Dh and I have been buying a lot of snacks to try too. We took the streetcar after leaving the Hondori street and they come pretty frequently. You just have to get on the right one because they don’t all go to the same place.
 
Yeah if I knew ahead of time my schedule and there was little chance of it changing I would reserve my seats at the airport when I land.

I think that’s not possible. At least not at the Haneda JR office. When we exchanged our vouchers for the rail passes we tried to get our reservations, but they didn’t do it. They have a policy to only get you a reservation for trains within the next 3 days or so. I think they try to minimize wait times by not doing everyone’s whole trip worth of reservations.

We were at TDR first and just went to the Maihama station one day and took care of it there. We had a sheet of paper with all the trains with time and train number and from where to where written down and gave this to them. Was quick and easy.
 
I think that’s not possible. At least not at the Haneda JR office. When we exchanged our vouchers for the rail passes we tried to get our reservations, but they didn’t do it. They have a policy to only get you a reservation for trains within the next 3 days or so. I think they try to minimize wait times by not doing everyone’s whole trip worth of reservations.

We were at TDR first and just went to the Maihama station one day and took care of it there. We had a sheet of paper with all the trains with time and train number and from where to where written down and gave this to them. Was quick and easy.
We reserved both of our long Shinkansen rides from Kyoto-Tokyo and Tokyo-Kyoto at the airport when we landed so it is possible. We were at the narita airport so I don’t know if that makes a difference but I don’t see why they couldn’t do it at Haneda too. I do think you have to be at a certain ticket office to do it.
 
We reserved both of our long Shinkansen rides from Kyoto-Tokyo and Tokyo-Kyoto at the airport when we landed so it is possible. We were at the narita airport so I don’t know if that makes a difference but I don’t see why they couldn’t do it at Haneda too. I do think you have to be at a certain ticket office to do it.

Does Narita have a JR station? Haneda doesn’t have one, it’s just a tiny tourist office found the exchanges. That might be the difference.
 

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