Hey 2p2 Travel,

My Fiance and I are doing 8 days of our Honeymoon in Japan this summer. Neither of us have ever been. I've never been to Asia before, she's been to SE Asia and China for 2 long trips and lived in relatively rural Vietnam for a year after college.

Logistics stuff:

Arrive in Tokyo at 3:45 PM Saturday Sep 1, Leave at 1PM Sunday Sep 9. Flying in direct from Honolulu and there aren't any other flight options to cities that work for us.

What we'd like to do:

Spend time in Kyoto, Hakone, and Tokyo. If Kyoto isn't doable I think I'd be fine with cutting that part of the trip the most, but we'd be fine with some more train travel to make all 3 happen.

I'd assume current plan is to spend 2 nights in Kyoto, 2 at an Onsen in Hakone, and the rest in Tokyo.

Things we like to do:

Hike/Nature: We'd love to spend most of our Hakone time outdoors as well as a lot of the rest of our trip exploring nature, gardens, parks, etc.

Eat: Anything and everything from sushi to ramen to soba noodles to fine dining, any and all recommendations are welcome. We're planning on booking our Tokyo hotel soon so that we can book some nicer meals through the hotel concierge.

Baseball: I'd like to go to a Japanese baseball game. It looks like the only Tokyo team playing at home while we are there is the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Any tips about attending sporting events that make them different in Japan is appreciated.

Bars: We aren't planning on going to clubs until 4AM most likely, but any recommendations of fun or different bar scenes are appreciated.


Anything else would be appreciated.

Hi Zimmer,

I will be going to Japan at end of May with my wife for 8 days.

Similar route except Osaka 2, Kyoto 2, Atami 1, Tokyo 3.

If you can fly in to one city and fly out of another, that saves time on the road/train and also cuts down on train travel enough that you might end up better off buying individual tickets instead of JR pass.

Personally, I would probably do Kyoto 3, Hakone 1, Tokyo 4 or Kyoto 3, Hakone 2, Tokyo 3.

Hakone is 1 hour from Tokyo and 2.5 to 3 hours from Kyoto, so you could arrive at morning to noon, drop off luggage, site see, checkin at 3 to 4, onsen until dinner time, eat at the ryokan. Can also leave luggage at the ryokan or train station and site see some more the next day.

Most high end Ryokans will change up their menu for guests staying multiple days but you might find a single day enough. You can also stay at an onsen ryokan in Kyoto.

In Kyoto, i think you need to spend at least a half day in Arashiyama. You are going in the fall so fall foliage should be coming out.

I regret having only 2 days in Kyoto as there are a few things we would have liked to fit in.

I would likely recommend 3 days in Kyoto.

With regards to Hakone, have you booked your ryokan yet?

The top one is Gora Kadan, which was the former vacation spot for the Imperial family. Gora Hanagui and Ginyu seem to be also high up on the list.

With regards to restaurants, contact your Tokyo Concierge early. There are also places in Kyoto that are tough to get in to so consider a reputable hotel with a concierge there as well.

Tabelog is your friend. Its the Japanese yelp but more honest and uncurved. Anything above a 3 is good. Above 3.5 is great. Above 4 is world class. Above 4.5 is pinnacle of the world.

Just google English name of restaurant and tabelog.

I like Kaiseki but it is highly seasonal so when you go in the fall, most Kaiseki restaurants will use similar ingredients, so be aware of that.

Don't skip Kyoto, it's beautiful. Admittedly many tourists, the majority being Japanese domestic tourists, but they are there for a reason. Also very different feel to Tokyo

Let me know if there are more indepth restaurant questions.

Its difficult to give suggestions when you can eat anything and there are so many great versions of any one type of food in Japan.

Even a question like "i want classical French fine dining cuisine" will yield many results.

Also keep in mind that Tokyo is big, so dont be crisscrossing around especially during rushhour.

Thanks guys.

Definitely more excited about Kyoto the more I look into it. I love the idea of being able to go to a unique nature park for the afternoon, then hop on a quick train ride to a world class meal.

The restaurant scene in both Tokyo and Kyoto is definitely overwhelming. I feel like the people who come to Chicago and ask "Well, what should I eat?" And I say it's a stupid question because you have so many options and you have every type of food available. Well, Kyoto has 3x the amount of Michelin starred places as Chicago, so everything is magnified over there.

Gora Kadan looks amazing, but is probably out of our price range. I'd rather stay at slightly less nice hotels and splurge on food rather than the other way around.

Currently we don't have a Kyoto hotel in mind (still researching that)

Current Ryokan I'm looking at: https://gorahanaougi.com/en/sounkaku/

Suites there with private bath run around $300/night including breakfast and dinner which is fine for us.

Current Tokyo Hotel we're looking at: http://www.newotani.co.jp/en/tokyo/i...cD9g&gclsrc=ds

Doesn't seem like the ideal location necessarily, but it's within our price range and seems to have gotten good reviews. We don't mind walking 10-15 minutes to a train station to get somewhere.

Keep in mind that the 300/night at gora hanaougi is per person. I had mispelled it earlier as hanagui.

Food is part of the experience at Ryokans so your top of the line Ryokans will have very nice Kaiseki meals that rival all but the best standalone restaurants.

In small onsen towns, Ryokans will likely have the best food.

My wife booked our hotels with points prior to talking to me so we ended up with no concierge and we ended up having to book meals through paid 3rd party services. This becomes very expensive as most of these services charge around $40 per diner per successful reservation.

Make sure you purchase some portable wifi and have one phone that it working. Places in Tokyo are often well hidden and public wifi fairly sparse.

For casual meals at restaurants with plastic meal models outside, take a picture of what you like to eat and show it to the chef inside.

Lunch is often much less expensive at high end spots. Same quality, just less food. Usually 1/2 the food for 1/3 to 1/4 the price.

Be prepared to line up at all the good casual restaurants that dont require a reservation.

Use Google My maps to add places of interest.

Good call on the per person callout at Gora Hanaougi. Will still probably end up booking there because it looks awesome and it's just 2 nights, plus we're keeping Kyoto and Tokyo hotels relatively affordable.

Looking at this hotel for Kyoto for 3 nights

https://www.the-royalpark.jp/the/kyotosanjo/en/

The meals alone will run $150 pp to $200 pp if you were to eat equivalent quality in Tokyo or Kyoto, so in that sense its not too bad.

love Japan as a honeymoon idea!

you're current day breakdown looks pretty solid. with an eight day trip I'd absolutely make sure I spent 4 days in Tokyo (keep in mind you could be jetlagged for one of them). and Kyoto is great - the temples are beautiful, tons and tons of great food to eat, and like everywhere I visited in japan the streets are supremely wanderable. one thing that surprised me was that kyoto ended up having the three coolest coffee shops I've ever been to (and I'm not a coffee connoisseur, but their design/vibes were just so cool). Kyoto is the place to get a Kaiseki dinner, but so is your Ryokan.

If I were budgeting and planning, I would spend extra focus on picking a special Ryokan as I think that experience has a ridiculously high ceiling. personally I stayed at a Ryokan between Gifu and Nagano in the Japanese alps and the while the onsen/nature/authenticity was magnificent and authentic it was definitely a 'two-star' place. a really nice one could hit it out of the park. Also, I can't recommend that region enough but I won't go into detail since dedicating a portion of your trip could put you in a time crunch.

I'll leave the eating recs for Tokyo to others. basically everywhere I went was fantastic. you can basically pull up any blog/reddit thread/etc and go to the recommendations for your area. As far as bars and nightlife, I've posted about this before but my number one recommendation by far is to go to Golden Gai in Shinjuku. It's like 300 bars stacked on top of each other in a tiny five alley area (possible because the bars fit like 10 ppl max). there's literally a bar for everything (french new wave bar? 80s punk bar? very old japanese men getting absurdly drunk bar? yes, yes, yes).

GBP04 gives some good advice. When he says Golden Gai, he is referring to the concept of Yokochos, or alleyways.

https://www.picrumb.com/sightseeing/yokocho-alleys/


Golden Gai is a bit more drink centric while omoide yokocho say is more food centric.

There is also the standalone izakaya (gastropub) which will have a wide variety of foods (yakitori, tempura, stews, sashimi, etc....) that will be 8/10 as good as a specialty restaurant that just focuses on one of these styles.

You also have some artisan bartending bars that are pretty much cocktails only but the bartender will be world class. Places like Bar Benfidditch, etc.....

These are all separate from clubs which start later.

On the food side, types of food not mentioned in your OP that you can consider are

Tempura
Gyu Katsu/Tonkatsu - panko breaded cutlet
Shabushabu/Sukiyaki - steamboat/hotpot
Yakitori - charcoal grilled chicken skewers
Yakiniku - korean style grilled meat, beef centric
Teppanyaki - flat top cooking, beef centric

For western foods

French pastries/desserts/chocolates/hot chocolates
Coffee
Neopolitan Pizza
Basically any French or Italian food, you can find a world class version of. The Japanese have also expanded their Spanish cooking game.

If you're both the adventurous type I'd recommend staying in a 'love hotel' in Shibuya, Tokyo. Should be a heap of fun and a great cultural experience. Also has the advantage of being cheaper than a legit hotel, or you can just go for a few hours.

https://tokyocheapo.com/accommodationcat/love-hotels/

The Ginza district of Tokyo has loads of awesome restaurants. We went to Mexican place called Toro which was the best Mexican I'd ever had (http://torogastrobar.jp/) but all around that vicinity were loads of cool looking restaurants and bars with all sorts of styles.

The Hakone gates are incredible, make sure you watch the video while you're there of the place being reconstructed. Just astounding the level of detail in the craftsmanship, which you wouldn't understand from just walking around the place.

I lived in Tokyo for 3 years, so I think I can help out.

I'm glad to see you're planning to spend 2 days at an onsen. Spending a night at an onsen was the best thing about my trip when I first visited. I've never been to hakone myself (I usually went to Gunma prefecture for onsens), but it seems like you and some other posters are on top of this.

I went to a Japanese baseball game one time with a couple of friends, but they're the ones who planned everything so I can't give you too many details. It was fun though, and I think there were even fireworks.

You say you think that the location of the Newotani hotel in Tokyo isn't great, but that location is fantastic! City center of Tokyo and close to a few train stations. You can reach anywhere in Tokyo's center within 30 minutes from there. Most places will only take you ~15 min to reach.

I'm not an expert on nightlife, so I can't help you all that much in that regard. (unless you like karaoke, then definitely check out rainbow karaoke in Shibuya. That place is the nuts in terms of karaoke).

I am however an expert on food in Tokyo. First of all let me say that there's no way you can go to Tokyo for 4 days and eat everything, so you're going to have to make choices on what you want to eat the most. Here's a few of my recommendations:

Tonkatsu
https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1305/A130503/13114695/
Hands down #1 in the world. They don't take reservations, so you'll have to wait in line for what used to be about 20-30 minutes if you showed up early. The best Tonkatsu in the world will cost you about 20-30$.

Unagi
https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1305/A130503/13029734/
In my opinion the best Unagi in Tokyo and probably the world. You have to make a reservation, but the shop owner does not speak English. Even if your hotel makes a reservation, it may be hard to eat here, because the old man who runs the place speaks no English. ~20-40$ depending on how much you eat.

https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1324/A132401/13003509/
If somebody argued this is their favorite Unagi in the world, I couldn't blame them. It's also top notch. I had to wait in line for 30 minutes, but according to the tabelog link you can make reservations. They get quite a few tourist visitors I think, so eating here should not be a problem. ~25-50$ depending on size.

Sushi
https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1301/A130101/13156961/
Best Sushi I've had outside of Sukiyabashi Jiro. It will set you back about 100-200$. There's a ton of other michelin star sushi to choose from, but this is my recommendation. This one has 2 michelin stars.

https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1305/A130501/13077980/
It's kinda hard to find in the basement among shops and metros. However, I'm convinced this is the best value lunch in the world. I lived nearby and must've been here ~200 times in 3 years. 5$ for a lunch set. I'd be impressed if you can spend more than 20$ and finish your food. Despite being dirt cheap this is top 3 most delicious sushi I've had under 50$.

Oyakodon
https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1309/A130905/13034307/
I took my siblings here, and it ended up being the best meal they had in Japan. They still talk to me about this place constantly. I recommend you go for lunch. It will cost ~10$.

Yakiniku
https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1321/A132102/13008910/
Top 3 Yakiniku I've had. We couldn't even finish our food and it ended up only costing ~30$ per person. It's a little bit away from the city center but worth the trip.

Fine Dining
https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1321/A132102/13008910/
http://www.ukai.co.jp/english/yokohama/
3rd best meal of my life, and best piece of food I've ever had. It's Teppan Yaki, in a gorgeous mansion. Highly recommend. Costs ~150-200$.

https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1306/A130603/13046855/
Kaiseki with 2 michelin stars. Really fun and delicious meal. Best kaiseki I've personally been to. I believe it cost ~150$.

Izakaya
https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1303/A130303/13163239/
For me possibly the best decorated restaurant I've ever been. Lunch is great and cheap for ~10$. I've had both my best Sashimi and best rice ever here for lunch. Didn't think I'd ever say I love rice, but the rice I ate here I loved. Dinner will be a bit more expensive starting at about 30$.

I could write much more about food in Tokyo, but it may be better to ask further questions if you have any.

Great post Ecart. You should give an indication as to which spots require a reservation.

Den has received a lot of press recently so i would call 2 months ahead of your planned date on the dot.

Well I think an extended stay for a honeymoon is a great idea, you don't want hotels for that. I used serviced apartments for my honeymoon in Japan, you can try this one I highly recommend it.

Thanks for all the recommendations ecart, definitely helps a ton!