Japan Travel Guide 2026 🇯🇵 | Must-Know Tips Before You Go

Japan Travel Guide 2026 🇯🇵 | Must-Know Tips Before You Go

Welcome to the ultimate Japan travel guide. In this video, we’re going to break down our twoe adventure from Tokyo through Nagano, Kyoto, and Hiroshima all the way to Osaka. We’ll talk about how we got between each stop using trains, planes, and camper vans. Where we stayed in each place, and whether we recommend it or not, the best things you should do in each stop, what you should eat, and a few budget tips thrown in. But first, we’ll start this video with our top 11. It’s normally 10. You’ve snuck an extra one in there. Japan travel questions and tips that you should know before you book your flights. Let’s get into it. When’s the best time to visit? Depending on what you’re after in Japan, you can pretty much go at any time of year, but they are distinctly different. If you’re wanting the cherry blossoms, you really want to aim for springtime between March and May, but they normally start to bloom properly at late March, early April. My main note on that would be if you’re going for cherry blossom season, be prepared for it to be so so busy. Like that is the peak time to travel to Japan. It is just quintessential to be there during that season. Yeah, that’s why we said it first. Another hot time to visit, no pun intended, is summer. Interestingly enough, Japan’s summer actually overlaps with their rainy season, though. So, summer is from June to August. However, the rainy season is also between like early June to mid July. So, you’re getting the rain and the sun at the same time. Confusing, which can mean typhoons. Oh, autumn, which is when we were there. It’s just our favorite time of year. Favorite time to travel. That’s between September and November. We recommend that like it’s not as busy as a cherry blossom season. You’re not going to get the crowds of winter or summer, but it’s perfect weather. Winter between December and February is very popular, too, because the ski seasons in Japan are crazy. People go there specifically for long ski snowboard trips. All these dates and times are rough as per the main places like Tokyo and Kyoto. If you are going down to Okinawa, it might vary by a month or two. Just look into it before you go. SIM cards and Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is available most places throughout Japan that we went to anyway. Even including like roadside stations where you wouldn’t necessarily think there would be. It’s a great connection. Yeah. You can’t see a tower at all, but you got you got full bars. Freaking Japan. But we always recommend getting some sort of eSIM or SIM plan for your phone just for those rare occasions where you’re out of connection or not able to find Wi-Fi. We have tried basically every plan under the sun. I actually have a page on our website that has all of our current like deals from different companies that they email to us. So if you’re in the market for a eim plan, head to that page and try one of the codes out. Just find which one’s going to work best for you. And all of them, they are affiliate links, so we get a little bit of kickback, but it means there’s discounts for you guys, so you can figure out what’s going to be best for your trip. Something for you, the discount, something for us, the kickback. How much does it cost to travel Japan? We’re typically traveling in the budget range, which means we’re staying in hotels that are comfortable, not flashy, located in a district that’s going to allow us to walk or catch public transport to most places. So, keep that in mind while we go through this. A budget budget would be between $8,000 and $15,000 yen. So that’s like $80 to $150 per day. Honestly, if you were budget budget person, I feel like you could do it cheaper than that. Yeah, we’re just like we’re budget conscious but not budget restrictive travelers. The mid-range tier is going to be your more comfortable stuff, more local, pretty much just an upgrade, but still nothing crazy flashy. You’re looking at about 16,000 to 30 35,000 yen per day. In Japan, there is upscale. And Jordan’s written a top limit for this, but I feel like there isn’t a limit. Like, you could just spend so much money if you want to on everything. So, I would say the upscale or luxury budget is like 40,000 yen. That wouldn’t have a limit because the shopping in Japan, you can go crazy. The food in Japan, you can go crazy. Travel, like, you could pay for luxury travel to and from places. Like, there is just a luxury upscale option for everything. And it’s all amazing. So, you want to do it all. Is Japan safe? Yes. End of chapter. Yeah. Japan ranks 12th on the safety scale for 2025 global peace index. Wow. We are together all of the time when we travel, which is lovely. But Japan is one of the places where I would have felt safe going out by myself. And like I wouldn’t have had a second thought about it, which I feel like does speak volumes to how safe it is. That being said, we’re not out until 2:00 a.m. partying drunk, not making wise decisions. Like as with everywhere, there is going to be pickpockets. There is going to be crime. And there’s going to be things that happen, of course, but just continue acting the way you do in any city. It’s true. Your only real risk in Japan is natural disasters because it is a bit of a hot bed for your typhoons and volcanoes and tsunamis and and all of that. But there are apps you can get that will forewarn you. And I’m pretty sure they’ve got a really good public system now that just texts any number that’s in Yeah, we got text. We got text messages. So, do I need to speak Japanese to travel in Japan? It’s good to know a few phrases as is key to literally anywhere you travel, but Japan is very English friendly. Any major city is going to have most things written in Japanese, but then also in English. Most people speak a little bit of English. And like we said, they’re the nicest people in the world. So even if you don’t speak the same language at all, you can usually get somewhere just by pointing and shrugging. And just enjoy it. It’s part of the experience. Enjoy it. Be respectful. Don’t assume everyone’s going to speak English. Yeah. Don’t be that person. If you do want to learn a few phrases before you go, we use Rosetta Stone as an app. It’s a language learning tool that’s really helpful and you really don’t need too long on there to pick up the phrases you need. Hello. Thank you. Anyway, also just download Google Translate. You should already have that on your phone. I assume it comes preloaded, but go in and download for offline use your local language and Japan because then even if you don’t have data, if you don’t have Wi-Fi, it will be able to convert and you’ll be able to have conversations. What are the must-sea places in Japan? We are going to talk about a lot of places that we went that absolutely must sees and a few hidden gems. But there are some places we didn’t get to that we want to go back to. We already mentioned Okinawa. Okinawa. If you were to look at photos of it, I personally would never guess it’s Japan. It looks like Hawaii and the water is crystal clear. There’s sea turtles. It’s beaches. It’s like boho vibes. It looks amazing. Looks awesome. There are a few more. Hokkaido is meant to be beautiful. There’s a whole route of alpine villages that you can visit. So, Hkaido is like in the north part of Japan, so they get really cold, really snowy, really great ski season. I also feel like up there is where you can have that it’s like the most snow in the world or something like that or like it’s a snow festival or something. One of those things might be true. Penazawa is sort of the old vint vintage is the wrong word but like old school samurai tea houses villages. Yeah, that’s the vibe. Matsumoto that’s near the Nagago prefecture where we did go but that again is very samurai and old school cool region. And we didn’t get down to the Fukoka Nagasaki area which is where a lot of people start their journey. We almost caught a ferry into Fukoka to get there for the first like to start our trip but those plans fell through. So we want to visit that at some point. So you can catch a ferry from from South Korea to Japan and that’s where it would touch down in Japan or leave Japan. So a lot of people travel there. It’s super popular. It looks amazing. I mean everywhere in Japan looks amazing. You honestly can’t go wrong. Yeah. And all connected through trains as well. We’ll get to that too. getting ahead of ourselves. How do I get around Japan? Japan is incredibly well connected, one of the best connected countries I’ve seen. You’ve obviously got all your flights criss-crossing around the country, but you do have a thick vein of train tracks that go everywhere. And they’re not just regular trains. Most of them are incredibly fast bullet trains. Some of them are like the fastest in the world bullet trains. To get on those trains, you can get a JR pass, which can be worth it. There’s actually I can’t remember if it I’ll find the website and I’ll put it on screen now, but there’s a website that you can put in all of the routes that you’re expecting to do and it will tell you whether or not the JR pass is worth it and by how much. We’ll link it in the description so you can do that as well. I would say if it’s close on the JR pass, even if it’s like $100 under, I would get the pass because you could also use it for littleer trips that happen to come up during your journey. But if it’s like cheaper, just buy the individual tickets. Yeah. Yeah. We had to buy the individual tickets and it’s expensive but it was cheaper than getting a pass for us cuz we just wanted to experience a bullet train which you kind of have to do when you’re there. There is also different region JR passes so you can get one for like the whole country or just the Tokyo area just sort of the Kyoto Osaka area. So maybe one area is going to be worth it for you but not the whole trip. So use this website and figure it out. When you’re getting around inside individual cities, mainly Tokyo, it’s massive and you need to catch multiple trains to get places. That’s where the card comes in. That is the Metro card for Tokyo. I was for some reason so nervous about how to get this on my phone and it is the easiest thing. I don’t know how to do it for loser Android people, but for us cool iPhone peeps, literally go into your wallet, click plus, click transit card, and scroll down to so and that is it. You have to upload like I think at least a minimum of a hundred yen onto it to get it activated. But you can also no responsibility and she would just tap me through every time. I think you can get up to 30. Yeah, they your Ubers and DDs in Japan aren’t really much of a thing. Like they do exist. You can get them. As a blanket rule, if you need to use it, great. If you don’t need to use it, I would try and avoid it just because you’re paying too much for one of the best public transport cities in the entire world. Like just use the public transport. Yeah. Do I need travel insurance to travel to Japan? The short answer is yes. The long answer is we’ve been traveling for 4 years and the most consistent part about our travels when we change all the time is that we have our safe insurance. It’s followed us everywhere. How that you say it that way, there is literally nothing else that has stayed the same. We’ve changed everything. Our camera is different. The suitcases we have are different. Like the cards we travel with with are different. The one thing that stayed the same is Safety Wing. Literally, in those four years that we’ve not changed with Safe Wing, Safe Doing themselves have grown. They are now even more customizable where you can pick and choose whether you want to get a barebone nomad insurance that just covers your medical emergencies or if you want to have a more full package that covers you pretty much as if you’re at home. And when you do go home, arguably what we like most about safe doing is that it’s literally built for travelers. We can buy or renew our policy while we’re on the road. It covers over 180 countries, including Japan. And the support online, the chat function is 24/7 and so good. I’ve literally used it to be like, “Hey, if I go diving with sharks, am I cover?” I honestly feel sorry for those people. The amount of times Jordan has like asked them a question he could definitely look up elsewhere, and they’re always so nice and so quick. And instead of like a one-time lump sum, if you don’t really know how long you’re going for, you can set it up as a monthly subscription. So, you can put it on and forget about it and you only really need to change it if you’re going to certain countries like traveling to America, you need to upgrade for that package. If you are not already and you want to get involved with Safety Wing, I suggest that you do. You can scan this QR code I’ll put on Emily’s face or jump in the description below to get started. Thanks again to Safety Wing for partnering with us and making sure we’re all safe in Japan. What are the cultural etiquette dos and don’ts in Japan? There are lots. Mhm. We’re going to fire through this really quickly. Always remove your shoes in homes. There’s normally house shoes that you can switch into. Ask someone if you don’t know. Uh be quiet on public transport because everyone else is and it’s just rude. If you like people here play music on their phones on buses and stuff, I think you would be suplexed if you did that in Japan. I mean, they’d probably be really nice about it though. They would be really nice about it, too. But it’s just so rude. Don’t do it. And even when you’re talking, just talk whisper quietly. Yeah. Respectful. I feel like this is also just a list of why we love Japan. Yeah, true. Cuz polite and uniform queuing is a must. No cutting lines, no sneaking in. Yeah. None of that. No like mob queuing that happens in some countries where it’s just like if I’m stronger, I’ll be served first. Like it’s very ordered. I think some places even have like queue monitors. Yeah. That will watch out for people trying to sneak in. Like they take it seriously. Yeah. Good. Stand on the correct side of the escalator. A small one, but very annoying for everyone. And note that it’s not the same in every city, isn’t it? Nope. I feel like there’s always a sign or like something on the escalator to tell you where to stand. Yeah. Or if you see everyone standing to the right hand side, stand at the right hand side. Bowing is a big sign of respect in Japan. Even like a little head nod can go a long way. So, look out for it. And if you get bowed, bow back. I think it’s one of those natural things that as you’re saying thank you, you’ll pick up a little bow that goes with it. Totally. Yeah. Oh, don’t stick your chopsticks upright in rice. Yeah, it’s like I would never know this. It’s like a sign for like funerals or something like that. So, yeah, just don’t don’t do that. Don’t do it. Interesting one. What kind of accommodations are available in Japan? There are so many different accommodations available. And like we said at the beginning, we opted for the budget friendly but good value comfort range, but yeah, you can go to all sorts. Plus then to like special kind of like home stays and temple stays and things like that. There’s also unique things. So sleeping pods or like they called capsule hotels are very very common and like there’s some that are super unique. There’s book and bed in Tokyo which like I was so tempted to stay at. There’s 9 hours I think in Tokyo and like elsewhere throughout the country as well where they like as you’re sleeping they tell you how you’ve slept. Isn’t that cool? That is cool. We should have done that. I know. Oh, we have to go back. In a more traditional sense, there is Rio cans that are very popular in Japan, ranging from the super traditional up to modern. Very traditional like you sleep on a pull out mattress on the floor. M another place we really wanted to stay that I would highly recommend is the oldest Rokan in the country. It looks amazing, but you have to book in advance. We’ll have that basically. We’ll have everything linked below, but that will also be linked below. You have to book so far in advance. Yeah. Um the other option that we considered but didn’t get a chance to do, it’s called a shakubo and it is essentially just staying in a temple. Again, similar to the Rioan in that is very traditional, lots of rules to follow. You usually get fed as well. And other than our normal budget stays, there’s obviously host everywhere in Japan. So basically, there’s no shortage of accommodation styles in Japan. We booked a lot of ours through Booking.com and a couple through Airbnb. Do I need a visa to visit Japan? Most visitors to Japan are visa exempt. Australia, New Zealand, the States, Canada, UK, and most of Europe, you don’t need a visa. Things like this are subject to change on a dime, though. So definitely look it up as you’re planning a trip and before you leave. We always use Sherper Travel to check our visa requirements. Basically, you just put in your passport country, your travel dates, how you’re getting there, like whether there’s a stopover along the way, and it spits out, it tells you what visas you need, and then it will link to apply for the visa as well. We’ll link Sherpa below. All right. Now that we’ve gone over all the stuff that you need to know, we’re going to go through everything that we did. See if there’s anything that you might want to pick up for your Japan travel itinerary. But first, this needs a roof. Now they know I’m wearing shorts. Okay. Okay. Refreshed. Tokyo. Tokyo. We spent three nights in, and it’s such a hard city because three nights we got a lot done, but there’s so much more you could do. We missed so many things, but also I feel like happy with what we did. How to get to Tokyo? We flew into Tokyo Narita. The easiest way into the city is the Narita Express. It’s a train system that takes you directly to the city, but it is a bit more expensive. They’re more frequent and faster slightly. And just with anything going to the airport, there seems to be like an airport tax that gets added on. Always going to be airport tax, but the cheaper option that we took was called the Skyliner. It’s essentially the same thing, but it looks like it runs on the public tracks. It’s just a public train that has a billion other stops, a billion other people. We were standing up very crowded, which is fine. And this is kind of where the JR pass comes into play as well cuz if you know you’re going to be catching trains everywhere, the Narita Express is actually included in the JR pass. So then it’s it’s a no-brainer you’d be doing that. So options, you know, you still need to reserve tickets for the Skylliner and you need a speaker card to get onto the platform. So you can reserve tickets when you get to the platform. You just go to the desk and reserve them or you can reserve them online. I think we did it in person. We did it in person. It was arguably easier. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Just have your speaker card as you get there. Yeah. and some patience cuz the lines can get long. It’s busy but it moves quick. Where we stayed, we based ourselves in the we were calling it the Asakusa region when we were there, but it’s the Asaka region. Asaka region, which I think was perfect. It was amazing. There is hundreds of options in Tokyo. And I truly don’t think you could go wrong. Yeah, I was very happy with our choice cuz we got to go to Seno G really early in the morning without really anyone there. Like there was a lot of benefits. It is relatively like on the outskirts, which is another reason we chose it because the hotels were a bit cheaper, but there were still things and attractions around. Totally. There was a main street that had the sumo show that we’re going to talk about that we loved. And yeah, Senso G was right there. We got to sit without anyone. Sky Tree wasn’t that far away, but we figure like when we’re going out in Tokyo, we’re kind of catching a train to the other side and then we’re out there all day anyway and then we catch a train back. So, yeah, it worked out well for us. We we recommend it. We’ll link the hotels that we stayed at for everywhere down below as well. The other regions that are very popular is like the Shibuya region, the Shinjiku region. I would assume that they’re a bit busier cuz there’s a lot more things to do in those areas. So, just based off of us being there during the day, I would think they’re a bit busier. Regions a bit maybe more expensive. Another thing, I will link a travel guide down below and I’ll have like all hotels linked for everywhere we went and everywhere we’re talking about, which is free. Like Emily said, we’ll have that link somewhere so you can see. Best things to do in Tokyo. I feel like we’ve had to limit this list cuz honestly this list is endless. Yeah. If you want an indepth what we did and what to do in Tokyo, we made a whole video about us ticking things off that list. We’ll put it in this corner. Add it to watch later. Add it to watch later. Number one I’ve already touched on a little bit is in the Asaka region, the Senoji Temple. It’s a temple from the Edo period and it is beautiful. It’s actually like a couple of different structures within a temple complex and like gardens and stuff like that. I would recommend getting there. Let me preface this by saying we love people. We just don’t love being around them. That’s a good way to say it. We can appreciate somewhere so much more when it’s not crowded. So, we went because we were staying around the corner, we went like super early in the morning and we were basically the only ones there. There was a couple of people walking their dogs, like locals, and we also went there really late at night one time, and again, we were the only ones there. So, I really enjoyed those two experiences. We also went at like 10:00 a.m. one morning, and it was quite busy. It was still a great experience, but it was very busy. Yeah, it was. And that’s us. That’s our preference. Like, we when we’re in a place with a lot of people, my brain is like, how do I get out of this place? So, I don’t take in anything. When we’re there by ourselves, we can take our time. They’ve also got one of the fortune teller stick things that you pull out and you get your fortune read to you, which is kind of cool. There is instructions, but if you like, you should definitely do this. It’s one of the rare reasons you’re going to need cash. Yes. So, it’s good to have some cash on you while you’re traveling Japan for things like this that you can partake in. But, you basically provide your donation. I think it’s 100 yen from memory. Anyway, you shake this canister and a stick will fall out and then you match up that sticks number with what you can see on the massive board. And then you’ll pull out a little fortune and that’s your fortune for the day. If it’s a bad one, make sure to read it and you have to tie it up onto a little string because that means you’re casting away the bad fortune. Don’t keep it with you. It’s pretty elaborate. It’s so fun though. It’s fun. Yeah. Um, also in Asuka, the suma show. This was the first thing we did. We literally flew into Tokyo, caught the train into where our accommodation was, and then went straight to this Tokyo show. And it’s one of my favorite things we did. So much fun. You like go in, sit down. It’s an all you can eat dinner show essentially. You get a drink included and then you have to buy drinks after that. But it’s it’s less of just a fight and more of a show. And they take you through the history and they they explain like the rankings and things. Why they do the stomping, why they do the throwing of the is like I going to an actual tournament would be amazing. It’s very limited time of year that they actual tournaments are on. This was better. Like I know I haven’t done that but just like you wouldn’t learn any of that stuff. You wouldn’t understand what’s going on if you went to a tournament without even if you want to go to a tournament, go to something like this first. Yeah, it was expensive. I’ll preface that. But I do think it was worth it. Totally. I agree. I think we just had so much fun. I’ve not laughed. Like it was comedy. It was skit show. It was proper sumo traditional. Like it just blended everything enjoyable into one night. Audience participation at the end too if you’re lucky. Yeah. Yeah. As normally when things are too expensive, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. But this is one of the things where I’m like it’s worth it and just linked below. Elevates your trip. Link below. Exploring Harajuku’s neon streets. Now admittedly, we didn’t do this much. I think we walked down once. Walked through Take a Shitta Street. Great. That’s the main street of the area. That’s what we did. To be fair, we were there in peak time and it was too much for us. As you already know, we don’t love crowds. This was like shoulderto-shoulder the entire time. We also like I love looking at that sort of stuff and I find it unique and interesting but we weren’t popping into any shops. There wasn’t anything we wanted to pick up like it’s not our style. It’s not our vibe. From memory though it’s located in walking distance to other stuff. So you may as well whip down there. You have to go like just for the experience of Mei Jingju. I think it’s Maji Jingu. Hard to pronounce. Yeah. Fun to be at. This is a Shinto shrine. A Shinto shrine. quite close to the city, like walking distance when we walked there. Doesn’t feel like it when you’re in there. No, it is mammoth. It’s home, unless I’m mistaken and I’m thinking of somewhere else. It’s home to the rice wine barrels. Yeah. The s So, there’s a couple of like within this massive massive parklands, there’s a few different shrines that you can visit. There was one that was like really beautiful and there was like guards telling everyone to be really quiet. Do you remember that? That was so cute. Yeah. And you can write down you do a donation and you can write down your wish for the year or your wish and you provide you give that to the tree and then that comes true and you have to purify it. You have to wash yourself and you spit water or something. Yeah, there is instructions from memory. You wash your hands, you rinse your mouth to purify and then you wash your hands again. Something like that. But read the instructions. You’ll see people doing that before you enter the temple. Yeah, you should do it too because that’s another kind of etiquette thing. Like people don’t like it. fun to like get involved. Um the other really popular thing there is the old Saki rice wine barrels. They are huge. There are so many of them. It just looks so cool. It does. It’s just a nice park to escape from the city. If you’re not like a massive city person, I do think Tokyo is one of the rare exemptions to that. Tokyo, London, New York are probably my exemptions to the city rule. Yeah, cuz you just love being there. But going somewhere like there, it really gets you grounded and back in touch with nature a little bit. Breath of fresh air. Yeah. Shabuya Crossing or Shabuya Scramble. Obvious one. It’s the one that’s all over Instagram and the internet. It’s It’s the busiest pedestrian crossing in the entire world. 3,000 people per day or something. Per crossing. I think that’s a lot. You think 3,000 per day? That’s not very many people. Actually, 2.5 million people cross per day. Just a bit different than 3,000. It’s busy is what we’re trying to say. I would recommend doing this a couple of times. I think we walked back and forth maybe five times. like once just walking back and forth, taking it in, taking like quick videos and photos of each other. Then we genuinely had to cross and cross back as well. Yeah. And there’s there’s like a Starbucks that overlooks it, which is insanely popular, but has very good seats, so I understand why. And there’s also like a shopping complex that you can go up and kind of look through the glass in a bit of a walkway to get like a bird’s eye view of it, which we did. That is actually I don’t think that’s a shopping center. I think that was access to trains. Was it? That was public transport. Yeah. So, I think we have a video of pointing where to go cuz there’s it’s like opposite Starbucks and if you have your back to Starbucks, it’s sort of on the right and you’ll see some escalators going up, but it’s a free sort of bird’s eye view of um Shabuya Scramble. There is also an epic bird’s eye view from Shabuya tree. Like there’s a viewing platform that overlooks it. That sells out though, so if you want to do that particular like viewpoint tower, book it in advance. Yeah. with everything book in advance with Japan to be fair. Yeah. This is why we miss out on doing a few things cuz we didn’t we’re not those people. Yep. One of those things was team labs which is another thing that lots of people do. It’s an interactive immersive experience installation. Think like crazy mazes with mirrors and stuff like walking through water with digital koiish or Yeah, I’m sure you’ve seen it on Instagram and stuff like that. It is one of my regrets that we didn’t go cuz so many people told us to go there. Yeah. But it’s a reason to go back. It’s a reason to go back, not just a hat rack, my friend. Yeah. Always leave a reason to go back. Sky Tree. One we did do is the observation deck that you can look over all of Tokyo and if the weather is right, you can see Mount Fuji from there, too, which is we got so lucky. This one is specifically like it’s timed. So, your entries are timed. You want to be there for sunset again pending weather. However, our friends Jack and Megan, thanks guys, told us you can just book in earlier if the sunset slots’s not available and just loiter and just hang around. So, you get a time, but that’s your entry time. There’s no exit requirement time or like no time limits for you being there. So, we I think we ended up getting like a 4 or 3:00 entry and we just stayed until sunset because there truly is something about seeing it during the daytime. Watching the sunset with that view is insane. Totally. But then Tokyo at night is like a whole another thing. It’s so worth it to be able to see both. Fully comes alive. I agree. Even if you can’t, if you want to do two viewpoints, I would suggest doing one during the day and one at night. Like try and mix them up. If not doing them both at sunset, you so you have that experience. Makes sense. But just 450 m high, so you get a really good view. The Imperial Palace. If you look at a map of Tokyo, you will see a big green area kind of in the middle and a giant palace there. That is the Imperial Palace. We didn’t get to do this one. It looks cool. We decided that we wouldn’t go purely because the time it would take to see it properly would be a full day and we just didn’t have that time. Even if it wasn’t a full day, it was like a massive chunk of the day. And with only being there for three days, and one of them we got in that day at like 5:00 p.m. Like we genuinely just didn’t have the time. We were literally running around like crazy, if we tried to fit that in, we would have had to sacrifice multiple other things. Yeah. If slash when we go back, we will be going there because it does look pretty cool. Unino Park or Unino Park, not sure how to pronounce it. Uo Park. Uh who knows? This is Cherry Blossom Central. Looks incredible. It is a big park with like there’s always bus and like I wouldn’t say it’s Central Park of Tokyo, but it’s like it’s got a lot of Central Parkesque things in it. There was when we were there, there was like stalls getting set up for some sort of food market, festival. There’s a zoo. There’s cafes, restaurants. There was someone by the accordion, a really nice man that we took a photo with. Remember him? And because we were there in autumn, the trees were beautiful. We got the golden colors. Yeah. Yeah. But they were all like, do you remember those yellow ones? And they were all falling. And bless this one worker trying to rake them all up more and then just every second there’s more and more falling down. It was like snow. Like it was so pretty. But that’s the like cherry blossoms there would be mad. Oh my gosh. Cuz the autumn there is crazy. Yeah, it would be wild. It also It also is it’s like a main train station there as well, so it’s connected, but worth a stop. Worth a stop for sure. Tokyo Tower is another viewpoint. We didn’t end up doing more than one, but it’s also like the iconic Eiffel Towery looking thing in Japan. Yeah. Which my argument is it’s cool to look at from the outside and be in it. The classic like in New York, do you want to be on the Empire State Building? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. The final biggie is Tokyo Disneyland. We didn’t do it. Money is an issue. Time was an issue. But obviously, if you like Disneyland, like, who doesn’t? And you have the money of time. Yeah. A big one is in Tokyo. If you want to watch anything about that, I’m sure our friends Alicia and Nate have a video about Tokyo. The Passport couple. Check them out. I’m pretty sure they’ve been to Disneyland and Disney Sea, which I think is a different thing in Tokyo, so they could be a good comparison to check out as well. What to eat in Tokyo? This list could be as long as what to do in Tokyo, but we have limited ourselves. Yes, everything. My first go-to and my biggest recommendation is the same as everyone else’s, and I’m sorry for being so cliche about it, but you have to try Ichan. Oh my god. But you know what it is. I think I had my expectations tampered by people online being like, “Oh, it’s only mid ramen. It’s not even that good.” We went there, I would say over I would say 15 to 20 times. It is so much fun. Like it is the ramen shop where you sit in your own individual booth next to everyone and you get served and like the curtain goes up and down so you never actually have to interact with everyone and it just tastes so good. It tastes so good and it was only like $10 a bowl and they were huge bowls. Like I struggled to finish them. When you first go and just do all the recommended ones and then you learn what you like. I ended up going quite spicy but I would finish my noodles and there’d be heaps of broth left and I was drinking the broth and then I realized you can just pay for more noodles. So, you just push a little button, slide something under this curtain, and they top up your noodles for you. Yeah. Another reason to have some cash on you, though, cuz I think that was an extra 150 yen, say, then you have to pay cash. Amazing. Itchy, right? And they’re everywhere, too. Like, you you will see them. Yeah. They do get busy though, so if you can try and time your hunger to be like early afternoon, so like for lunchtime, try and go at 11:30 or for dinner, try and go at like 5. We never waited in a line, but when we would leave, there would always be a huge line. Yeah. So that’s my tip. Popular for a reason. For dessert, age three. Yeah. This is in the Ginsa Prefecture. Is that what they’re called? I think so. It is toasted bread filled with whipped cream. Cream. Yeah. Or like chocolate mousse. There is savory flavors as well. So like um curries or Is there a curry one? No, I just made that up. But there’s definitely savory ones. I just can’t remember what was in them. Maybe like a egg salad. A classic thing. It’s definitely worth it. When now that we’re talking about Japan so much, I want to go back. I want to go back and I want to try a savory one because you like Italian sandwiches so much. Yeah. But I do think the standard just plain cream is like their most viral, most common, most popular option. That’s what I got. It’s really weird, but really good. Koi’s Espresso Club. This is a specific thing for people that love creme brulee flavored things. They have a creme brulee cheesecake there that is like viral and it’s viral for a reason. Like it’s the richest thing I’ve ever had. It’s also a cute cafe that served actually good coffee. It was good. It was expensive. It was I mean Yeah, it was expensive, but it’s cute. You like kind of sit outside on these little like platforms. Yeah. And they also have fun coffee flavors. So, we got like just a regular ice latte, but we also got a Ferrero latte, which was weird and lovely. Yeah. It’s a lot very sugary and expensive, but for the grand cheesecake alone, God, add it to the list. Yeah. grandfather’s. This is my favorite place. It is a nice place to eat. Not a place to eat. No. But I think it’s my favorite bar of all time. It’s right up there for me. So, it’s this tiny little pole in the wall of a bar and basically there’s just a grandfather there that plays vinyl records all night long. He has like two turntables going and one will be playing and he’ll be getting the other one prepped. He always puts the little vinyl up on the shelf so you can see what you’re listening to in case you want to listen to it later. But he like it’s one song from each thing he pulls and it always starts exactly where it should start and ends exactly where it should end. Like it’s crazy. I don’t know how he does it. He’s very good at it. And he just sits there chain smoking a cigar the whole time. No, I think it’s just cigarettes. Okay. Yeah, the whole time. But it was so much fun. I think we were there for like a couple of hours drinks. Yeah. Again. Yeah. We stayed and spent more money on more drinks cuz we were like this is just a vibe. It’s cool. It’s so unique. One thing we didn’t get to that we regretted, and this is again because of lines and timing, is the carbonara udon. It’s like mega viral yet again. We actually have friends that went and had it and they said it was amazing. When we got to Menurasi, I think that’s how you it’s probably not how you pronounce it. Um, there was a huge line and I think it was going to take 45 minutes to get in, which isn’t crazy by Tokyo standards to wait that long, but we had entry for Star Tree, so that wasn’t going to work. We needed to like eat quite quickly and then head. So, we ended up going somewhere else. We just went down the road. Yeah. Which was okay. Tokyo isn’t the cheapest. Like we’ve said a couple of times that drinks are expensive and like creme brulee is expensive, but you don’t have to eat that stuff. If you want to save money, the Family Marts and the 7-Elevens have really high quality chicken available all the time. They also will heat up food for you. So, like if you buy a little microwave meal, they’ll heat it up for like a 7-Eleven. Like a normal 7-Eleven would Well, like they don’t do that in Australia, but not Australia. Yeah. So, I wouldn’t say that’s normal. Feel like they do it in Australia. It’s just rare. You could eat fulltime at these and save a lot of money. And honestly, enjoy yourself a lot. Yeah, it’s really good. I don’t think anyone can ever say that they’ve seen all of Tokyo because I think even if you did, something new would pop up straight away. But this was a good start and I think for 3 days, if you can do as much as we did, you will be fulfilled. Yes, no pressure cuz it is a lot. Mount Fuji, how we got there. Soon as we finished in Tokyo, we took the train out to Samurai Campers, these guys. I think the biggest camper van company or at least the most recognizable camper van company in Japan. And we picked up a camper van from them. Yeah, it is 3 hours to get there if you are driving direct and you’re happy to pay for toll roads. If you’re not paying for toll roads, it’s pretty much four. Google says four. I think it’s five hours. The difference was enough for us to pay the toll and the toll was expensive. The toll was $55 Australian. And if you accidentally leave the toll road and then have to get back on it, you may pay that toll twice. We didn’t pay it twice. We just paid extra. Yeah. So, we paid 55 to get pretty much all the way there and then I miss a turn and we had to go off and come back on. I think we paid another five or something to do that last little bit. I feel like this is a surprisingly common thing to do in Japan is to hire a camper van and go on a trip around and I would highly highly recommend it. It was one of my favorite things we did. The cost worked out to be about $100 a day, but that’s for like a midlevel. You can get cheaper. You can get much more expensive too. We actually got upgraded as well to a bigger one. We got a free upgrade. So, it’s as affordable as it is to get hotel obviously then just have to pay for petrol, but you’re not paying for like trains and stuff to get around. and we got to drive to Fuji and drive to Nago and stuff like that. So, yeah. And the campsites you’re staying at are free as well. So, there’s not that cost too. So, I recommend it. I think it’s such a fun way to see a country. Where we stayed, our camper van journey lasted four nights and we never paid for accommodation. Reason being is that Japan has these truck stops or these roadside stations that they call Mitchi No Ekis, but they’re so much better than what you would imagine a truck stop to be. It’s like massive toilet blocks with heated toilet seats and showers and every vending machine you can think of with hot drinks and hot food. Wi-Fi, like we said before, like curfew hours where it’s like you have to be quiet and people are really respectful for it. Yeah. There’s sometimes like a little cafe or a restaurant nearby. 7-Elevens are nearby. Petrol stations nearby. Like we didn’t have an uncomfortable night at any of them. There’s also ones that you can like our last night there was a onen on site like you had to pay for it, but there was one right there. That’s crazy. It is crazy. And of course, because it’s Japan, everything is spotless. Everything is super clean. The toilets are lovely. Like, it’s amazing. And I know we weren’t in peak season, but there was spaces in all of them. Like, we were by ourselves almost with all these facilities. Yeah. Like maybe a truck or two over in the corner. That’s it. Loved it. If you are thinking of doing this, there is an app, a Mishino noki app that you can get and you’ll be able to filter like if you really need onsen for whatever reason, you’ll be able to filter to just find ones with onsens. It’s quite convenient and easy to use. When you make it to Mount Fuji, there is a lot to do that’s not just look at the mountain or climb the mountain. So, you kind of have to budget your time and figure out what’s going to be important to you. It is important to note as well that Fuji is quite fickle. Yes, it is hidden more days of the year than it is visible. Way more days. So, just be prepared for that. Don’t want anyone being disappointed. Yeah. That being said, we got incredibly lucky. Yeah. We couldn’t we couldn’t get it away from our eyes. We saw it on the plane into Tokyo. We saw it from Sky Tree. We saw it every single day when we were driving around Mount Fuji. And we saw it when we flew out of Tokyo. Yeah. We literally couldn’t escape. It was amazing. Literally, our goal was to try and find the best view of it. So, we ended up stopping at four different stops to like assess whether it was the the best view. Our first one was Lake Kagucho. That wasn’t our first one. That wasn’t our first one. Our first one was Hart. Oh, I can’t fully remember the name of the beach. It’s something like Tatego Hama. So, again, sorry for the butchering Australian pronunciation, but it’s Tatego Hama Beach. I believe you can only get there if you have a car, but this beach was recommended again by Jack and Megan. It is amazing. It was such a like private view of Fuji. It was this beautiful lake and then just Fuji was right there. There is like a sectioned off bit that you can camp if you wanted to, but you need to pay for that. That’s not a free campsite there. It would be an epic campsite. It would be epic. One of my favorites. Yeah, I say not my favorite, but one of my favorites for sure. So, that was our first stop. Then we actually drove to or I guess before that we drove to a Lawson’s. There’s a very iconic, very popular Lawson’s that has the view of Fuji in the background. I’m still not 100% sure. I don’t think we were at the Lawson’s, but we were at a Lawson’s that had a view of Fuji. There’s got to be more than one. We pulled into like a family or a 7-Eleven later in the day that also had an epic view. So, like you’ll find that if you want to. Yeah. One of the most famous views is the Chorito Pagod. You hike up a little bit of a mountain to get there, but it’s got the view of the pagod in bright red and then the mountain in the background. And it’s very popular. Almost. If you’ve seen a photo of Fujia, I feel like it would be from this place. It’s so popular for photography. It’s so beautiful. The main viewing platform where you can see the pagod can get very busy. You can also walk up an extra what, 5 minutes to a second platform. You can’t actually see or like you can’t see the pagod and Fuji at the same time from that top one, but we were there by ourselves for like 10 minutes. No one seems to go up there for some reason. And there’s like tables up there too, so you can picnic. The next stop was Lake Kawagucho. Yep. Which was beautiful. I think this is like the area you would stay in if you were just coming to like you caught the train in and you were staying. That’s the area I would recommend. You can hire bikes and ride around the lake. Other friends did that, Ash and Kels and they said it was amazing. It is very cool and you can if you wanted to and have the money. There’s cruises that go on the lake itself just to get you a slightly better view. I don’t think it would be worth it, but the options there. Yeah, we basically drove past quickly pulled up for a look and then kept going cuz like it was we’d seen Fuji a lot by then. If you’re in the area and you have a van or a car, like you may as well do them all. They’re all quite close by. We did them all in a day and then still had enough time to drive a few hours to our next spot. You can climb Mount Fuji. one of the few places in the world where the main monument or the main mountain you can you can scale it yourself. Pretty cool. There are tours as well that go from Tokyo that do it or you can DIY it. However, you do need to pay the trail fee. It is 4,000 yen per person for all trails. The gates to the trails are closed late at night. So, between well, between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. you can’t start the journey up. So, if you’re going for the afternoon, it needs to be before 2:00 p.m. Otherwise, you might not get down in time. So, they they block that out. When climb, you’re going to want to be going in July to midseptember. Again, summer, but trying to avoid that June rain. How long does it take? Uh, depending on the trail that you take, it can be between 4 to like 10 hours. Yeah. Wow. Depending on what you wanted to do. Neano snow monkey day trip. How we got there? From Kaguchiko, we drove to the This is the hard one to pronounce, Jigokuani Monkey Park. The drive would have been three and a half hours. We opted to not pay for a toll road on this one, so it was 5 and 1/2 hours for us. Best things to do in Nagana. The main reason you’re going there is to see the snow monkeys. Yeah, that was the best. It’s so much fun. It’s so worth it. It’s basically this park with an onsent in it. So, it’s an onset attached to a hotel. And back in the day, all the people used to go to this onsen and then the monkeys in the area just tried it out and they were like, “Wo, we like this.” And then they took over the onsen so much that the people couldn’t use it anymore. And the hotel was like, “Well, we can’t have that.” So, they built a secondary onen just for monkeys further up the hill to get theirs back for their guests and then made it an attraction. And it tracks there. It does get very, very busy. If you’re there early, you might get it by yourself. We got it kind of by ourselves. It was quite quiet, but even when it got busy, you’re so focused and fixated on the monkeys that you don’t even notice. It is crazy. Like just for reference, monkeys are like cats. Like they hate water normally. And then these guys are full on swimming. But we also just got so lucky cuz it had snowed a little bit. So like the steam and them being in the warm onen like with the snow in the background. I don’t know. It was really cool with this really cute seat and they do not care about humans. Like they w one of them walked right between us. It was crazy. It’s worth it. I think it’s worth the drive out there to Yeah, it was worth the effort. Yeah. One of the other super popular things to do in the region is hot springs. It’s very dense area for hot springs and onsense. You could stay at that one. Do the old Japanese like monkey one. That would be really cool. I would look into that cuz I didn’t know that existed until we got there, but it looks very very cool. Yeah, we saw people doing it. We were a little bit jealous. We Yeah, we’ll link that one too even though we’ve not been there. But it’s cool enough. Yeah, it’s cool enough for the ones. Yeah, but there’s another free wild one that we almost drove to and did that we didn’t, but I’ll link that somehow below as well. Hiroshima. We drove back from Nagano to Tokyo. We dropped the car off. We had one night in a hotel by the airport and then we flew with Spring Airlines down to Hiroshima. This is where I got sick. Oh yeah. If you book your flights early enough, you can get super budget good ones that’ll get you most places in Japan in like an hour. I think it was like I want to say 50 bucks each. Yeah, it’s like it was so cheap. Worth worth looking at, especially when the trains can be crazy. Where we stayed in Hiroshima, again, we went for the comfortable kind of budget kind of central place. It was called the Nest Hotel. I liked this hotel. Yeah, it actually only cost us 70 bucks a night. Yeah, it was cozy. It was well located. Yeah, it was clean. It was modern. Super small room. I like that. But it was just like a comfy bed. Yeah. And breakfast was included as well, which was nice. It was just pastries, but it was good. Yeah. and it was well located so you can walk everywhere. Things to do in Hashima. Hiroshima is a beautiful city. It’s made famous by the devastation that happened there and a big attraction is going to see the museum. We did do that. Emily was sick so we didn’t film much of it. Yeah. Um but the museum was really well done. It was amazing. So I like learned Japanese or did Japanese lessons like all through primary school and into high school. And this was just something that we learned about time and time again. like it was so front of mind when we were going to Japan that I wanted to go there because I just had learned so much about it and going to the museum was amazing. It cost like not much to get in but it is so worth it. Like the way they go through everything, it’s so emotional. It’s so well thought out. People’s stories on the wall. Yeah. It’s just so well done. You know, there’s some museums that you walk through and you’re like this is one you walk through and you’re like, “Wa!” Yeah. You take your time with it. And it sits like in the memorial park there as well, which is just like another beautiful park. And there’s also the dome. Yeah. Ground grounds where the bomb hit and there’s like a dome that’s still standing. And yeah. Yeah. It’s eerie, but it’s very Yeah, it’s important to see. Something we didn’t do in Hiroshima and we should have done is try the okonamyaki. Hashima style. They have a specific style there that you can’t get anywhere else. Okonamiyaki is delicious. So, I could only imagine that this would have been delicious. Again, I’m sick. So, we unfortunately had to like forego a few things in the name of rest. Yeah. One of those other things was going to Myima Island to see the famous Tory gates. I think there’s deer on the island as well. Well, this is the one where the Tory gate looks like it’s floating like it’s in the ocean or it’s in the lake. Our friend did do this and they loved it. Well, there you go. If you’re not sick. Hashima is also a really cool place just to walk around. Yeah. So, there’s a Hashima Castle. We were just going for a wander and we ended up walking past it and it was beautiful. Heaps of ducks around the castle. Very square boat. Yeah. Kyoto. Kyoto was the previous capital of Japan and is massive. It’s the same letters as Tokyo. It is. They just rearranged them because it’s got such history there. It’s one of those places where you can walk down any street, any side street, and come across something like we came across a temple built in the year 800. Oh my goodness. That was next to a car park down a random alley that we just happened to be walking down. That was wild. That’s insane. That sort of history. Yeah. It’s also a big enough of a city that like there’s so much to do and see. There is heaps. There is heaps. Like it’s it was a capital for a long time. So there’s a lot to do. How we got there? This was our bullet train experience. We took the bullet train, the Shinkansen bullet train from Harro to Kyoto. I feel like it’s almost a right of passage that when you’re going to Japan, this is something that you really want to do is to go on a bullet train because it’s so Japanese. It’s so quintessential. We had a great time. It’s just a train. Yeah. I don’t want to talk you out of it because it would be hard to be like, I didn’t go on a bullet train in Japan, but it was tunnels most of the time. Like, yeah, you were going really fast, but you didn’t see much. I think it’s hard because we have been fortunate enough to go on bullet trains before. Mhm. And there was nothing different. Apart from it being Japan, so everything was very clean, very neat, very organized. There was nothing different. Like it’s amazing how fast you’re going and how quiet it is and how smooth it is. But maybe it was just the route we were on or because we just opted for the cheapest seats available. Like maybe if you got the fancy fancy seats, it could be a different experience. But yeah, at the end of the day, it’s a fast train. I think if I had my time again, like if I was to go there now, I wouldn’t do it. I would just book cheap flights. and then booking flights. Yeah. If the JR pass is worth it, why not? Exactly. When we were in Kyoto, we stayed in a place called the Zezy Hotel. Felt a lot more like an Airbnb than something we booked on booking. Um, but it did tick a lot of boxes. It’s a nice size, has all the amenities, and I don’t remember it. So, we It’s down an alleyway. We scanned and we went up an elevator. Oh, that one was quite nice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It felt like an Airbnb, but it was a hotel. It felt like a nice apartment down a cool little alleyway with like vending machines around so you can get easy access to stuff and then also shops. Quite modern. Best things to do in Kyoto. Wandering through the Fushimi Inari Shrine. This has to be one of the top top things to do in the area. It is the thousands of Tori gate. The orangey gates. Like no doubt you would have seen this everywhere. It’s iconic. Yeah. Yeah. I would recommend getting there earlier in the morning, but not early early. I think we arrived at like 8:00 a.m. and it was like there were people there, but I wouldn’t call it busy. We had whole sections to ourselves. So, like that’s the experience that we wanted to have some time to ourselves in the toy. It’s not be like shoulderto-shoulder. But if you had to be there later in the day, I would recommend trying to be there for a longer time and just hike all the way to the top because no doubt in my mind the majority of people would drop off as you’re walking up. They’d be like, “Okay, we only had 10 minutes. We’re done.” So, they’re actually like $10,000ish dollars per gate to buy. And I think families do it, right? Families, businesses, individuals, whoever can afford it. And it’s like well wishes or good luck kind of thing. It’s crazy to see. That’s what’s inscribed on the back of them as well is who’s donated this game. It’s interesting. Pretty cool. Another super popular thing to do is the bamboo forest in the area. It looks wild. It looks so like uniform and beautiful. It looks amazing. We didn’t get to it. No. Again, time constraints. Yeah. We If this video is teaching you anything, it’s budget more time. Yeah. You need longer in Japan. Yeah. There is another place we didn’t get to, too. It’s called the Golden Pavilion. It looks really cool. Honestly, I don’t know too much about it, but it’s another option if you’re looking for things to do. Mhm. They also have a region that’s super famous for geishes, just like walking around getting photo ops and things like that. That’s called the Gillion district. Worth a walk through. Um, again, we didn’t get to it from Kyoto as well is where we got the Aanoshi train. Yes. So, a very, very popular thing to do in this area of Japan is to go to the Nar Deer Park. People basically either go from Kyoto or Osaka. Yeah. And from either place that you’re going there from, you can get the Aoshi train. And I would recommend it. Yes. You use your speaker card to get to the platform and then it’s a $10 ticket like a $10 search charge on top of your regular $5 per person. Oh, $5. It cost basically nothing but it’s a tourism design specific train that has like really big windows and chairs facing out and bar cart and things like that. Like it’s a quick journey. It’s a quick train trip. But we caught the Aoshi to Nara Park and the regular train back. And I wish we got the Aonoshi twice. Totally. Why not? I will link that website below. It wasn’t the smoothest booking process. I’ll try and write a blog post about how to book it. Like, it’s not that confusing, but it’s not simple. Yeah, it could have been easier. Yeah. Yeah, definitely worth it. But that so worth it. Train took us to N. We already talked about how we got there. We took that ornate fancy train, the Aoshi Express. It was awesome. Mhm. There’s basically one and only thing that you’re coming to Nara for, and that’s the deer park. Yeah. We spent a lot of time in the deer park. all our time in the deer park and we could have spent longer. I could have stayed in N overnight. I agree. A lot of people like when I was asking Instagram and stuff when we were planning the trip, they said like a day trip’s enough and I do agree that that is enough. We just enjoyed it so much that like I wouldn’t have been upset if we had a night there cuz it would have been a very quiet Japan experience. Like it’s not a big city. It’s not a massive town or anything like that. So it would have been very simple and quiet little experience but it would have been fun. Plus, you would have been able to get up early and been the first to the park and then all the deer would have loved you. Yeah, we did get there at like 400 p.m. and there were still heaps. Yeah, but they they as the sun starts to go down, they start to retreat deeper into the forest cuz they’re all wild deer. It’s not controlled by anyone. All they have is people selling little crackers that you can feed the deer and that’s all that’s bringing them in. And in case you didn’t know, they are the bowing deer from Japan. So, basically, you have a cracker. I was breaking it into like quarters because I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to be able to give them so many. And she took like 3/4ers of mine. Yes. And you bow to the deer and the deer boughs with you and then you give him a little cracker. It’s really nice. I think I would probably recommend spending a night just to do it. Yeah. I do think if you press for time, we were like a half day trip is more than enough time cuz really you’re going there to experience it and like how long do you think you would find that enjoyable? For me, 2 hours I still wasn’t done. But some people repeat hammering the mochi is there and a massive temple like giant temple. I think it was the largest wooden structure in the world or something that’s like a Buddhist temple. Yeah. Which would have been cool to see. We basically had one full day to exper explore Kyoto and Nara in one. So like you can catch the regular public transport to and from Ni whether you’re going to tap on with the SA cars. Osaka. Our last city in Japan was Osaka. Another giant city. There’s a theme here. They’re all giant. Um and it was really cool. I think by this time we were under a time crunch. We were kind of coming to the end of it. So we didn’t do too much. But we literally had one day. We had one day. Yeah. But there’s a lot of attractions to see in Osaka. And we did have a great day. It was very much a day of just doing whatever we wanted to, spending all the money. Doesn’t matter. The Osaka Castle’s one of the main draw cards. Again, big square moat in the middle of the city. Awesome. They have some of the largest stones that have been used in construction that are just giant. It’s wild. And you can go up the Osaka Castle itself. Again, that is paid. It’s not much. I remember distinctly it being quite cheap. We were going to do it, but then but we just didn’t do it. I think we got hungry. Yeah, there is also like a peach grove at the back which if you were there during the right season would be beautiful. We were there when they were all like I don’t want to say dead cuz they’re not dead but like they weren’t flowering, weren’t blooming. And you can take a boat on the moon. Yeah, true. Lots to do just in that little square in that. When you’ve left there, Don Buri Street is very very popular. I think like classic neon Japan food streets. I would recommend going around sunset time cuz I think it’s fun to get there when it’s still light and you can sort of get your bearings, but like being there as the lights go down and they all turn like bright bright neon. That’s pretty cool. It is awesome. And there’s like a big giant ferris wheel which we didn’t go on because there was no ATM there. No reason. The only oval ferris wheel in the world. They have a lot of coobe beef and wagoo beef there, which is super famous for being obviously Japanese beef from the Coobe region. Apparently, it is the most faked meat in the world. Yeah. So, chances are if you have eaten coobe or wagu beef in Japan, it’s not. It’s fake. It’s fake in some way, shape, or form. But, we had to try it. We got a $10 stick. It had three chunks on it and it was worth the money. I know that that’s wild to say that like three tiny slivers of steak could be worth $10, but I wanted like five more. Even if it was fake, it was really good. It was very rich. Even if it was fake, it was like one of the best steaks we’ve ever had. Yeah. Osaka is kind of known as the kitchen of Japan, so the quality of food kind of elevates a little bit in my opinion. We did finish our time, our culinary time in Osaka with a viral cheesecake. It’s like the jiggly ones you’ve probably seen. You may have seen. Yeah, it’s viral. It looks like it’s going to taste really good. I didn’t like it even a little bit. It was fine. It’s not like a sweet cake or anything like that. We didn’t have much of it, but we got it. We We bought it. Yeah. And you can’t get slices. You have to get a whole cake. Yeah. I honestly wouldn’t bother. I think save your money and go get some sake. Go get some wagu coo beef. Exactly. Yeah. The same. The other thing popular to do in Osaka is Universal Studios. Our friends did this. They spent a lot of money. They they ended up getting the fast pass and apparently that is very very worth it. I assume it would also be very very worth it at the Tokyo Disneylands because the lines are crazy. All of that stuff. Yeah. If you had a blast Universal Studios, I I feel like no one’s going to do it better than Japan. We were this close to doing it, but because it was our last day in Japan, we were like, is that how we want to spend our last day in Japan? Oh, the other thing we almost did was a day trip out to Katsoji Temple. This was so high up on my list until I realized like how much of a mission it was so far away. It was like an hour and a half I think on public transport to get out there. And again, because we only had one day and it was our final day in Japan, we just like opted to not do it. If slash when we go back, I would love to go because it’s essentially a temple and you walk through and they have all of these little dolls or like characters throughout and they just look it looks so unique and so different. It’s like a temple that you I’ve never seen before kind of thing. It’s interesting. Yeah. I don’t know. It just looks really cool. And that’s where we finished our time in Japan. From there, we flew home. But Japan is amazing. I feel like you can’t go wrong. There’s so much to see and so many different things to see. Look, if you’ve used this to plan your trip to Japan, I really hope that you’ve got something out of it. If you’ve got to this point, I’m not going to ask you to subscribe, but at least give the video a like. At least. Don’t forget to check the links in the description below. I’ve put together a free mini PDF guide for Japan with basically all of the places we’ve talked about linked within that guide for free. Everything you need, all resources linked below. Perfect. Nice and simple. All right, I guess the last thing we need to say is have fun in Japan. I’m jealous. Let’s go to Japan. Yeah. Good day.

🇯🇵 JAPAN TRAVEL GUIDE (everything to know before you go!)

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👋 Hi, we’re Jordan and Emily an Australian couple who decided to risk it all, quit our jobs and travel the world for a year in 2022!
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