4 Days in Japan 🗼
Things you might want to know before you go
You want to learn
arigato, means thank you;
sumimasen, means sorry, excuse me.
With these two words, you should be able to handle most cases 😎
Transportation
The cities I went to are big ones so they have decent public transportation infrastructures. Subways can take you to almost everywhere. In worst case, you can still find taxi easily.
Japanese Yen
The currency 1 Japanese Yen = 0.0089 US Dollar. You can get a general idea of the price in USD by dividing the Japanese price by 100. I personally feel that the commodity price here are higher than that in US. But, you get whole a lot more choices for basically everything here. So, get ready for shopping.
Shopping
Speaks of shopping, there are several things made in Japan you could give it a try: cosmetics, face masks, bath salts, eye drops, nail clippers and etc. These are all small things that won’t cost you much money, but I assure you will impressed by the quality. Most big stores accept credit card, but still prepare some cash makes the whole journey more enjoyable, in terms of you can buy or eat whatever you want. You can find Travelex in most places. The rate was not good, but it’s handy for people without preparation.
Food
To try the most traditional Japanese food, you want to go to those small local restaurants, and most likely, they only accept cash. On the other hand, I found that if a restaurant takes credit card, to some extend, it means this is not local enough.
Anime
If you don’t watch any anime, you can stop reading now. No, wait. You might want to understand more as it’s such an important part of Japanese culture. In Japan, anime is not only for kids, it’s for everyone. It’s influencing people in one way or another. Not only people in Japan, I guess you have at least hear one of those famous mangas, like One Piece, Dragon Ball, Pocket Monsters, Naruto, Sailor Moon, and etc.
My Travel Schedule
Day1 | ✈️arrive @ Kyoto京都
Our flight landed in Osaka at 9:00 pm. We were very lucky to catch the direct shuttle to Kyoto. As we didn’t really make any plan ahead (alright, we just forget), we didn’t have any Japanese Yen at that moment. Again, we were lucky enough that the place selling the tickets is credit-card friendly. The shuttle took about 1.5h and about 20$/person.
Day2 | KYOTO | Fushimi Inari-taisha伏見稲荷大社⛩ > Kiyomizu-dera 清水寺 > Ninenzaka 二年坂 and Sannenzaka 三年坂
Kyoto is known as the thousand-year capital. It has many ancient Japanese architectures which all worth to see. Fushimi Inari-taisha is the place has whole bunch of red gates (a.k.a torii), where you can take iconic Japanese photos. I think half of my friends updated their FB profile pictures with a background of this place after going to JP. Anyway, it’s a nice 2h walk up and down.
Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka are ancient streets surrounded by Japanese restaurant and shops. I can even imagine how Kyoto was look like before while walking two lanes. Well, the only caution is this: there was an old rumors saying that if you fail on the ground, you will die in 3 years. Rumors are rumors, but the steps are pretty steep, so you know what to do. lol.
Day3 | KYOTO | Nijō Castle元離宮二条城🏯 > Kinkaku-ji金閣寺 > Nishiki Market 錦市場 > Shinkansen to Tokyo🚄 > Tokyo Tower🗼
Nijō Castle is a very nice historical places which gives you an overview of Japan history. Make sure to rent a video guide. We spent about 2.5h here. The inner wall of the palace is fully decorated with traditional japanese painting, which are very attractive to me. No doubt that these all look very similar to chinese paintings, but I feel the differences here makes it very interesting. Ancient chinese normally hung paintings on the wall instead of drawing it directly on the wall. I can see that direct painting on the wall gives more room for the artists.
We spent 30 min in Kinkaku-ji. It’s almost like you see everything right after stepping into the park. The temple is right over there, and that’s all, nothing more. Consider it’s far from the city, feel free to skip this if you have a tight schedule.
We took the Shinkansen to Tokyo after the visit. It’s pretty fast and stable. I was so tired so I slept all the way to Tokyo. If the weather is good, you should be able to see Fuji Mt if you sit on the left side of the train.
The whole trip was about 2h, and we arrived Tokyo at about 7:00 pm. After dinner, we decided to go to Tokyo Tower in case we don’t have chance to see it tomorrow in the evening. The night view is pretty awesome.
Day4 | TOKYO | Sensō-ji浅草寺 > Ueno Park上野恩賜公園 > Tokyo National Museum 🏛> Akihabara > Tokyo Tower🗼
One of our friend living near Tokyo volunteered to be our guide for the next two days, so the schedule becomes more compact. The Tokyo National Museum is quite big, and contains several buildings.
Day 5 | TOKYO | Shinjuku 新宿 > Shibuya渋谷 > Ginza銀座 > flight back to SF
This is our last day in JP. Our flight is 5pm so we really didn’t plan much for the day. However, due to the hospitality and excellent skill of arrangement of our friend, we are able to go to Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ginza. All I remember was the crowds. There are endless waves of people. If you have longer time, you might find these are all perfect places for shopping. Unfortunately, I only have one morning, so I basically just went to the place, took pictures and run to the next places.
The moment I got to the airport, I was already so tired. I think I will come back and visit Japan again some day. Afterall, I have so many planned things I haven’t done yet, like having hot spring with the monkeys, watch a Sumo …
