What dates specifically @DaveedNoo ? Golden week is in the beginning of may and you will want to plan accordingly.
The week after golden week the 7th -17th. I had a sixth sense from reading manga to push our dates back a week.
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Noted and under advisement, thank you. My brother was saying Takayama ruled so I think that’ll be one either way, but I may do the five lakes instead of Hakone on the way back to Tokyo now.
I would very much like to go back to Kyoto and vibe, but sadly I don’t think I’m going to have time. I expect to go back every 8-10 years at worst so I’m sure I’ll find my way back eventually though.
Also, as for avoiding the touristy stuff…a tourist is what I am baby
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The reason to do Hakone would be to go to a Ryokan, which I’m sure would be amazing, but I have tattoos and will be banned from the onsens anyway I know so that complicates that idea to a degree
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If either of you are the kind of person who needs to plan everything and fill your days with specific sites, then yeah, maybe get a travel guidebook. if you want to go with the flow, my general approach is to find something I’m interested in, way off somewhere, and then see what else is there when I arrive. Most of the Tokyo area is designed so that there are other points of interest around or near train stations, and most of my best experiences have been things I discovered while walking a mile from a station to get to a mall that had a suruga-ya or a big 2nd street or whatever.
Other than that, choose a couple big destinations, like ONE shrine, ONE castle, ONE mountain, ONE festival, and check those out, and then also see what’s going on in that area, just walking around.
I feel like trying to overplan can suck the fun out of it, and remember that Tokyo is a city of 14 million people. You’ll never see everything, and you can’t really “miss out” on things because there’s millions of things going on. It’s like going to NYC and being like “I gotta see everything there is to see.” You can’t do it! So just pick a few things that look fun, and then wander around.
And also unless you’re really into the specifics of Japanese history and when things were built and for whom - no offense to shrines, but if you’ve seen one you’ve kind of seen them all, in the vague sense.
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right–it’s not so much “touristy” stuff that’s a problem for me (tho it is a spectrum), but rather super large crowds just kinda kill my vibe, especially when you’re trying to be serene or whatever.
also i’m sure you know this but there are plenty of onsens that cater to foreigners and the like where tattoos are no problem. i’ve never been since i have no interest in being publicly nude but i’ve heard good things. i’ve always wanted to stay in a ryokan but i think a lot of the class and tradition will be lost on me. if you want to scratch that same itch i recommend trying to stay at a machiya.
if you go to five lakes, kawaguchi is definitely the spot to be, but i spent most of the day at yamanaka (full disclosure: i went to the yukio mishima museum). it was a lot sleepier than kawaguchi and almost kind of backwater BUT i did like it for those exact reasons. plus there’s so much more to do in that region, i can imagine you’d see some fall foliage.
on that note, i know this is the opposite direction of where you’re headed but if you feel like going north of tokyo, nikko is a top recommendation for me, especially in september.
i’ll also cosign @exodus advice that a light sampler platter is best…tho i do enjoy shrines and mountains
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Yeah, mountains tend to have more stuff surrounding them (soba restaurants, local crafts, and almost always a shrine somewhere), big mountain fan. but they tend to be way out there in the zone so you can’t go to too many unless you’re doing a mountain tour.
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i’ll also plug little islands. those things are cool. miyajima, naoshima, awajishima.
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Man I really want to go to Hokkaido lol so Nikko would be great if that’s the way I was going. I don’t really have anything set in stone yet so I could technically go that way still and just abandon Osaka, but I think maybe instead I’ll just have to plan for north of Tokyo to be for my trip #3. One of these days I want to go to a cold place when its actually going to be snowing for a vacation too. Nevertheless you’ve given me a great deal to consider and I will be returning to these posts over the next 7 months.
Also, onsens are like a bucket list thing for me kind of, except I don’t even know if I’d have the nerve if I was allowed anyway. As you said it’s a naked activity and maybe I don’t want to do that while I’m just chilling.
Also I do agree with you about the touristy stuff in general, I’m typically a solo traveler and I always have full days with nothing planned. Like @exodus said with the walking places and enjoying that as part of the trip, that’s something I specifically remember doing in Tokyo and thinking it was great. I walked from Kabukicho to Ikebukuro to go to the big Pokemon store and probably stopped 10 times on the way because something interesting caught my eye
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You’ve inspired me to go to Hokkaido on this go around.
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That’s awesome. Gotta be tough to hear for our haters though
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If anyone’s looking for a bath that allows tattoos, I went to this one in Shinsekai/Osaka and it was super cheap and low key. Some friendly high schoolers even chatted us up with the little english they knew about Shohei Ohtani
The electric bath was something else too, physically painful for a split second, but in a funny bone kind of way
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There are tattoo friendly onsens out there.
It’s a pretty google-able thing.
I went to a ryokan in Kyoto once and I loved the room, but i could honestly do without the whole Ryokan experience.
But anyone should try it if they want to!
I know some people love it.
I’m going to Japan for the gotdang 4th time this year and I’ll be staying in the Kansai region, mostly, but would also like some suggestions for Chugoku and Kyushu if anyone has them.
Number one on my list right now is the Tottori sand dunes/sand museum.
actually it seems like hokkaido kinda sucks to only see for a few days so that might be a next time thing.
haters - 1
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Garrett.exe and MoH Japan 2025 was the warm up…
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When I went last year the touristy thing that I ended up not liking was the Fushimi Inari shrine. It’s a cool spot but the amount of tourists there was absurd and you could barely take a step without feeling suffocated by all the activity. Made the whole shrine vibe really suck imo.
On the other hand I did the philosopher’s walk in Kyoto which is touristy but wasn’t nearly as crowded. Incredibly lovely and I highly recommend everyone do that.
When I was there last November, it was super crowded until you got about half way up, where it thinned out considerably, and at the top there were even less people, but I could’ve gotten lucky with the timing (it was near sunset, which is arguably the best time to be there because the view was great).
Arashiyama was definitely ruined for me by the tourists, because there was no escape (which is to say, I was part of the problem). Also the monkey park was pretty depressing as one might expect.
you can go up the back side if you don’t need to walk through all the tori gates. it’s empty every time i go.
update: we decided to go down to kyushu and use kumamoto as a home base to explore a bit. i got my international drivers permit (shockingly easy), so we’ll be renting a car. a little nervous about this because of the perspective change.
happy to hear from anyone who’s had experience down there, otherwise i’ll let you all know how it is!
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