Kyoto - main tip is get a bike. It’s massive, way bigger than I expected and the public transport is pretty shite for a city of its size. It’s flat and loads of side streets, so even if you’re not a confident cyclist you’ll be fine.
Tokyo - I’ve got a very long email I sent to a colleague who was going:
Summary
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The only absolutely must-do, cannot miss thing that I’d recommend doing is the TeamLabs museum/exhibition thing. I don’t want to say too much about it as I didn’t know much about it before and I think it enhanced the experience massively, but it’s basically an immersive, interactive modern art exhibition. Genuinely blew me away, feels like a very Tokyo thing to do. If you do go, there’s a separate thing called The Nest that you might have to queue for, but definitely do it. It was one of the more expensive things we did, probably about £20 each. It’s a little way out of the centre, and there’ll be queues but I think we only queued for about 20 minutes or so to get in – if you get there for opening time it’ll probably be alright. Cannot recommend it enough!
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For views, the Tokyo Metropolitan Building is free for some reason so I’d probably recommend that over Tokyo Tower which is fairly pricey. Find out what time sunset is, and aim to get there half an hour-hour before so that you beat the queues and get a window spot before it gets rammed for people wanting to watch the sunset – it’s pretty spectacular. Alternatively, the Mori Art Museum is supposed to be cool, think it’s done by the same people as TeamLabs, and it’s high up so you’ve also got views from there. We never actually made it as it was closed the day we went unfortunately.
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Tokyo National Museum – pretty standard, but a good introduction to Japan and all things Japanese. Fairly good value for the size of it too.
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Harajuku is worth a visit for a browse of all the quirky anime types, although it’s basically a trashier version of Camden!
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Tsukiji Market is a pretty interesting place to walk around, with some good food options available. Turret Coffee café very nearby isn’t exactly authentic Japanese, but it’s one of the friendliest places we went in our whole time there and the coffee was incredible. About a 10 minute walk from both of those you’ve got Hamarikyu Gardens, the old imperial palace gardens, which are very pretty to walk around if it’s a nice day, and it’s quite a funny mix of old and new with the high rise buildings around it. There’s a teahouse in the middle of the gardens/lake which is well worth a visit too.
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We were shrined out by the time we got to Tokyo, but there’s plenty there. Yasukini Shrine is meant to be good.
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Can’t remember where else you said you were going, but for a day trip out of Tokyo we went to Hakone which was really fun. We went to the Onsen (public baths) near the station which were very scenic – read up on what it consists of though……We also went on the Hakone Ropeway, which was a bit of a pain to get to (although quite quaint) and wasn’t cheap (again, around £20) but was pretty breath-taking. You go over an active volcano, which kind of takes your breath away and there’s also really clear views of Mount Fuji on a clear day. We sadly couldn’t see the whole thing. There’s also the Mishima Skywalk nearby, which is meant to be great. All those things are fairly spread out, so leave a day and make an early start if you’re going.
Food
It’s incredible, basically. And there’s plenty of stuff you can buy which won’t set you back much, it’s largely very reasonable which surprised me. For the mornings/snacks throughout the day and sometimes lunch we looked out for supermarkets or 7-11s/Family Marts/another chain that I can’t remember the name of which are everywhere. They sell really good food that’s ready to eat, and have microwaves and kettles for stuff that’s meant to be eaten warm. Top tip – try the egg sandwich. Looks absolutely grim, but is absolutely delicious. But generally, a really good way of eating for cheap and fairly well.
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Harajuku Gyozaro is largely a dumpling restaurant, but is absolutely incredible/really cheap. Near Harajuku/Ginza. Cat Street round the corner is a fairly cool street for a mosey too.
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There’s a restaurant attached to the Wise Owl Hostel where we stayed in Hatchobori which was really good.
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The food in Izakaya’s is almost like Japanese finger food, and is definitely worth doing a night or two of. Does add up though (more on that in a mo).
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Their equivalent of trashy late-night fast food places are Ramen resturants, which you’ll see about a lot. They’re really good, and great value. And will probably fill you up for hours.
Drink
The one downside is that beer isn’t cheap – Between 600 and 1000 yen a beer and it’s nowhere near a pint. You’ll be sick of Asahi by the time you leave!
The Izakaya culture is really cool, and it’s great fun sitting up at a bar and ordering drinks and food. A lot of places in Tokyo have cover charges of around the cost of a drink per person though to try and prevent bar-hopping from tourists, so sometimes it’s worth just settling on one for the night as otherwise it’ll end up costing you. Also, it’s sometimes hard to find them, so worth doing a bit of research when you’re on wifi.
Go to Memory Lane (Piss Alley) in Shinjuki at least one night – it’s pretty much a postcard image of a Tokyo night out, it’s great fun. Golden Gai area is similar and walking distance, also worth a look. Couple of bars there we went to:
- Albatross (quirky, over lots of levels, great balcony view of the alley if you can get there)
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Aces – I’d genuinely be over the moon if you end up here. There’s no cover charge and he markets himself as tourist-friendly, which spoiler alert means it’s quite touristy. But we had such a fun night there, the guy who runs it is called Tsuyoshi and I think is a bit of a local legend – one of the nicest people ever, with an incredible selection of music playing. Think we stayed there until about 2 in the morning.
Shibuya is supposed to be lively too.
Sake’s nice, try that!
Travel
Metro isn’t that complicated, although I did live in London. But it’s basically the same as there – the trains are spacious and not that rammed as a result though. The difficulty is working out which exit to take – the stations are massive so if you take the wrong one you’re costing yourself massively. Shinjuku station in particular is a nightmare for this!
I think you can get a three day metro pass for the same cost as two one day ones (800 yen a day I think?) so probably worth getting that. Once your JR Pass comes into effect you can use that on any lines that are JR-run, so might not be such good value then.
Some of the lines are run by different operators, which is complicated, but it generally is workable. Make sure you don’t get on a women-only carriage, which are in effect as a result of a groping epidemic!
Osaka is great. Ajinoya (https://insideosaka.com/ajinoya/) for okonomiyaki and is possibly the best thing I had all trip foodwise. You’ll probably have to queue for a bit unless you get there early or late, but it’s well worth it and you get in fairly quickly. They have a big flat cooker at the bar you can sit at and watch the chef cook, quite an experience
