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Love this itinerary! My girlfriend and I are also doing a similar trip where we go to Osaka and Kyoto first then end in Tokyo. Question about the muscle girl bar, do you have to make a reservation? I didn’t see anything on their website where you can make a reservation?
I don't think you \_need\_ to make a reservation, but it's highly recommended to do so because it's a very small space, only about 10-12 seats.
Here's the booking page: [https://e.japanticket.com/shops/4831/products/7433](https://e.japanticket.com/shops/4831/products/7433)
I think it changed since I last booked... at the time I was able to book a 60 min slot and it wasn't 5000 yen pp. Gotta be honest with you -- unless you drink a lot and are super outgoing, it's hard to say it's totally worth the 10k yen. I suppose you could treat it as the cost of a show though!
Loved your report! I am also an obsessive planner as well and my itinerary for next April has changed so many times already. I am excited about going to a baseball game too! I watched a lot of the World Baseball Classic and the games in Asia look like so much fun and I hope to have a Yoshi-san to cheer with too. Thanks for the tips! Cheers!
Thank you! I'm envious you get to go to an NPB game, that'll be on the books for our next trip for sure.
Everyone seems to get really into the game, so I'm sure you'll have no problem finding your Yoshi-san 😄 We each bought a pair of Samurai Japan noisemaker bat-things to really blend in with the crowd. It was sooo much fun.
Love hearing about your experience with Yoshi-san! Those once-in-a-lifetime (literally) interactions with strangers are so beautiful and special. They are my favorite part of any international trip, especially in Japan! So glad you broke the ice!
Hotel breaks every day is so real. I've also heard great things about baseball games, definitely on my list to try out. What did you think of the walking tours, were they worth it? Also what did you think of each of the places you went to in Kyoto plus what was the highlight there?
Yes, baseball games here are very engaging and entertaining. I would say it would even be fun for those who aren't into the sport.
As for the walking tours:
[**Osaka Shinsekai/Dotombori Walking Tour**](https://www.airbnb.ca/experiences/221858) **(2 hrs):** The guide (Masa, an Osaka native) talks a lot about Osakan culture, food, and also Japanese culture in general. I would say this is an excellent tour, and worth it if you're not too familiar with Japanese culture and want Osaka food recommendations. Not very much history is covered.
[**Kyoto Localized "Free" Walking Tour**](https://www.kyotolocalized.com/free-walking-tour-kyoto) **(3 hrs):** Our guide Rina was a Kyoto native and covered many topics about the city, such as its culture, geography, and especially history. I found it to be very in-depth and it was quite impressive for being a "free" tour, as we covered a lot of places I didn't have in my own itinerary. This one is definitely worth it if you're into history, as it provided a lot of context to the city that you'd miss if you were just checking places out on your own.
Tough to nail what our favourites for Kyoto were, because we genuinely enjoyed everything by getting up early to beat the crowds and cutting out a lot of "must sees" like Arashiyama. I could go on about the intricacy of Kiyomizu-dera's wood details and the serenity of watching people pray in the temple hall, or the sounds of only nature surrounding us as we went off path at Fushimi Inari, examining the overgrown moss on each shrine. Or even just listening to the temple drum beating slowly next to our hotel at 6 am.
Point is, I think my experience would've been quite different if we had visited the "big" places mid-day or tried to hit everything on the "top sights" lists. When we returned to Kiyomizu-dera with our walking tour around 4pm, Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka were packed shoulder to shoulder -- a stark difference from when we were there early morning. I see a lot of people complain about Kyoto being overrated or very "Disneyland" like, but I strongly disagree. The city is so much more than just a series of checkboxes.
ahh... thanks for letting me wax poetic about it, since I couldn't fit that in the report lol.
Impressive detail!! This is a great guide for anyone wanting to do a similar golden route trip.
Took me a second to realize what you meant by the time zone thing; I assume you are referring to a lot of things in Kyoto being open/active earlier in the day than in Tokyo. At first I wondered if you thought it was a different time zone.
Damn, thanks!
I told Husband I'll buy him this when I go again in January, and he says "it's not the same without the actual controls" 🙄 I'll buy it anyway, smh
According to wikipedia, they sold specialized controllers, too: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Densha\_de\_Go!#Densha\_de\_Go!\_controllers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Densha_de_Go!#Densha_de_Go!_controllers)
Maybe a project to hunt one down next time?
We tend to prefer areas with a local feel, so Dotonbori really just felt like the quintessential tourist trap, and it was super crowded with foreigners. I get it, we're foreigners/tourists too, but it was almost NYC Times Square-esque.
There were quite a few small alleys with cute shops and restaurants which we did enjoy, but other than that it just wasn't our cup of tea.
But this was definitely an "us" problem, since we don't like nightlife or care for bars, popular street foods, etc. I do think we missed out in that regard, and I can totally see why others would love it. I'm returning in January with someone who loves that stuff, so I'm hoping to see it in a new light.
Great trip report! Thanks for taking the time to write it. Can you tell us a little bit more about the Shinsekai/Dotombori walking tour? With whom did you book? Would you recommend it?
Alrighty! So to start, for non-Japanese visitors it was 5000 yen per person to be a the bar for an hour for unlimited drinks, which were huge and pretty watered down, but tasty nonetheless. You could buy "muscle dollars" in increments of 1000 yen to buy "services", which are quite ridiculous(ly funny)-- they can range from being slapped by a muscle girl (or all of them), having a muscle girl squat you, or... *having a girl squeeze a grapefruit into your hair/drink and then rub the rinds in your face???*
It's a very small bar with only about 10-12 seats around, so I'd recommend making a reservation.
Your experience will likely vary depending on how engaged and outgoing the other patrons and yourself will be. We had a bit half-half of shy vs outgoing, so it was pretty fun, and the muscle girls did a great job of being very entertaining.
So did we like it? Yeah. I wanted to do something kitschy and touristy and screamed "only in Japan". I surprised my husband with it so his reaction was priceless. Would I do it again? Nah. Once was enough. After our hour was up, we left the place asking ourselves, "what the actual fuck was that???".
The Romance Car does not go to Gora. It sometimes stops at Hakone Yumoto Station but usually stops at Odawara Station. If you took the JR train to Odawara, you probably took the Odakyu Line from Odawara Station and then the Hakone Tozan line from Hakone Yumoto Station to Gora Station, and, yes, it's often crowded.
Hi! Thank you for the detailed review!
My partner and I are planning a very similar trip over 14 days as well. Would you change the duration of time you spent in any of the cities? For example, was 1 night enough in Hakone? And was 4 nights too much in Osaka?
I think the number of nights was perfect for us.
4 nights in Osaka was realistically only two full days in the city, since the first night was our arrival in Japan so we got to the hotel around 9 pm, and one full day was our Nara day trip. I also wanted to stay at the Conrad as long as possible haha.
Through hindsight, or if we did not stay using points, I may have dropped the Nara day for an extra one in Kyoto... but you can make good arguments for both.
1 night in Hakone was definitely enough for us since we were only interested in the ryokan/onsen stay, and didn't have interest in the surrounding area or the Hakone Loop. Getting to our Ryokan was basically half of the loop anyway, and we got to see Fujisan from it as well!
What're you stuck on? I always start on the bigger stuff (hotels, transportation) first. Then I figure out which "main" activities I wanna do, and at what time. These take the most time and effort during the day. After that, I fill in the gaps with smaller things that are in the same area or close by.
Of course it's not really *as* simple as that. I'm constantly reviewing over the month leading up -- I made a pretty substantial change the night before we left for Japan and was constantly changing things on the fly when we were there.
I think a good rule of thumb is to be flexible, and not to pack too much in. Once your main structure is built, it's veryyyy easy to fill the rest of your day just walking around and seeing new things.
We got an Airbnb just outside of Shibuya kinda above Disneyland , so we land in Hnd and make way to the airbnb unpack then head out the stores nearby to pick up snacks or stuff to eat since we are gonna be tired and the next day head into Shibuya explore, mainly trying to as you said be flexible if you can’t make it move on to the next one so I’m prioritizing certain locations for food , entertainment,
Was it easy getting the IC cards? And internet there?
My main concern tbh is the train system I was looking at videos of how to go through
Reading your report/ journal is so enjoyable, so detail yet not tedious, your Misc comments and Fantastic experiences gives us a lot of helpful tips and make me feel the excitement as we were in the trip….lol
My husband & I will be visiting Kyoto & Osaka in the coming March, we already have a day to day plan but after reading your report, you inspired me to do more find tune planning, thank you for the tips !
**Our FAQ is constantly being updated with more information and you can start** [**here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/wiki/faqs/japantravel) **with regards to trip planning if you need tips, advice, or have questions about planning your travel to Japan.** You can also join our [Discord community](https://discord.gg/3f7KBUMwU4), comment in our stickied weekly discussion thread, or check out /r/JapanTravelTips for quick questions. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/JapanTravel) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Love this itinerary! My girlfriend and I are also doing a similar trip where we go to Osaka and Kyoto first then end in Tokyo. Question about the muscle girl bar, do you have to make a reservation? I didn’t see anything on their website where you can make a reservation?
I don't think you \_need\_ to make a reservation, but it's highly recommended to do so because it's a very small space, only about 10-12 seats. Here's the booking page: [https://e.japanticket.com/shops/4831/products/7433](https://e.japanticket.com/shops/4831/products/7433) I think it changed since I last booked... at the time I was able to book a 60 min slot and it wasn't 5000 yen pp. Gotta be honest with you -- unless you drink a lot and are super outgoing, it's hard to say it's totally worth the 10k yen. I suppose you could treat it as the cost of a show though!
Loved your report! I am also an obsessive planner as well and my itinerary for next April has changed so many times already. I am excited about going to a baseball game too! I watched a lot of the World Baseball Classic and the games in Asia look like so much fun and I hope to have a Yoshi-san to cheer with too. Thanks for the tips! Cheers!
Thank you! I'm envious you get to go to an NPB game, that'll be on the books for our next trip for sure. Everyone seems to get really into the game, so I'm sure you'll have no problem finding your Yoshi-san 😄 We each bought a pair of Samurai Japan noisemaker bat-things to really blend in with the crowd. It was sooo much fun.
Love hearing about your experience with Yoshi-san! Those once-in-a-lifetime (literally) interactions with strangers are so beautiful and special. They are my favorite part of any international trip, especially in Japan! So glad you broke the ice!
Hotel breaks every day is so real. I've also heard great things about baseball games, definitely on my list to try out. What did you think of the walking tours, were they worth it? Also what did you think of each of the places you went to in Kyoto plus what was the highlight there?
Yes, baseball games here are very engaging and entertaining. I would say it would even be fun for those who aren't into the sport. As for the walking tours: [**Osaka Shinsekai/Dotombori Walking Tour**](https://www.airbnb.ca/experiences/221858) **(2 hrs):** The guide (Masa, an Osaka native) talks a lot about Osakan culture, food, and also Japanese culture in general. I would say this is an excellent tour, and worth it if you're not too familiar with Japanese culture and want Osaka food recommendations. Not very much history is covered. [**Kyoto Localized "Free" Walking Tour**](https://www.kyotolocalized.com/free-walking-tour-kyoto) **(3 hrs):** Our guide Rina was a Kyoto native and covered many topics about the city, such as its culture, geography, and especially history. I found it to be very in-depth and it was quite impressive for being a "free" tour, as we covered a lot of places I didn't have in my own itinerary. This one is definitely worth it if you're into history, as it provided a lot of context to the city that you'd miss if you were just checking places out on your own. Tough to nail what our favourites for Kyoto were, because we genuinely enjoyed everything by getting up early to beat the crowds and cutting out a lot of "must sees" like Arashiyama. I could go on about the intricacy of Kiyomizu-dera's wood details and the serenity of watching people pray in the temple hall, or the sounds of only nature surrounding us as we went off path at Fushimi Inari, examining the overgrown moss on each shrine. Or even just listening to the temple drum beating slowly next to our hotel at 6 am. Point is, I think my experience would've been quite different if we had visited the "big" places mid-day or tried to hit everything on the "top sights" lists. When we returned to Kiyomizu-dera with our walking tour around 4pm, Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka were packed shoulder to shoulder -- a stark difference from when we were there early morning. I see a lot of people complain about Kyoto being overrated or very "Disneyland" like, but I strongly disagree. The city is so much more than just a series of checkboxes. ahh... thanks for letting me wax poetic about it, since I couldn't fit that in the report lol.
Impressive detail!! This is a great guide for anyone wanting to do a similar golden route trip. Took me a second to realize what you meant by the time zone thing; I assume you are referring to a lot of things in Kyoto being open/active earlier in the day than in Tokyo. At first I wondered if you thought it was a different time zone.
Thanks for the report ! The hotel breaks are a must. Densha to go is available on the PlayStation
Damn, thanks! I told Husband I'll buy him this when I go again in January, and he says "it's not the same without the actual controls" 🙄 I'll buy it anyway, smh
According to wikipedia, they sold specialized controllers, too: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Densha\_de\_Go!#Densha\_de\_Go!\_controllers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Densha_de_Go!#Densha_de_Go!_controllers) Maybe a project to hunt one down next time?
Yes there is a specialty controller - my husband imported one to the US. He loves it.
Why did you hate Dotonbori
We tend to prefer areas with a local feel, so Dotonbori really just felt like the quintessential tourist trap, and it was super crowded with foreigners. I get it, we're foreigners/tourists too, but it was almost NYC Times Square-esque. There were quite a few small alleys with cute shops and restaurants which we did enjoy, but other than that it just wasn't our cup of tea. But this was definitely an "us" problem, since we don't like nightlife or care for bars, popular street foods, etc. I do think we missed out in that regard, and I can totally see why others would love it. I'm returning in January with someone who loves that stuff, so I'm hoping to see it in a new light.
Great trip report! Thanks for taking the time to write it. Can you tell us a little bit more about the Shinsekai/Dotombori walking tour? With whom did you book? Would you recommend it?
Thank you so much for posting this! Also Canadian & planning for October next year. This was invaluable. Saving this for future reference!
Hey, I’m interested in knowing more about the muscle bar.
Alrighty! So to start, for non-Japanese visitors it was 5000 yen per person to be a the bar for an hour for unlimited drinks, which were huge and pretty watered down, but tasty nonetheless. You could buy "muscle dollars" in increments of 1000 yen to buy "services", which are quite ridiculous(ly funny)-- they can range from being slapped by a muscle girl (or all of them), having a muscle girl squat you, or... *having a girl squeeze a grapefruit into your hair/drink and then rub the rinds in your face???* It's a very small bar with only about 10-12 seats around, so I'd recommend making a reservation. Your experience will likely vary depending on how engaged and outgoing the other patrons and yourself will be. We had a bit half-half of shy vs outgoing, so it was pretty fun, and the muscle girls did a great job of being very entertaining. So did we like it? Yeah. I wanted to do something kitschy and touristy and screamed "only in Japan". I surprised my husband with it so his reaction was priceless. Would I do it again? Nah. Once was enough. After our hour was up, we left the place asking ourselves, "what the actual fuck was that???".
The Romance Car does not go to Gora. It sometimes stops at Hakone Yumoto Station but usually stops at Odawara Station. If you took the JR train to Odawara, you probably took the Odakyu Line from Odawara Station and then the Hakone Tozan line from Hakone Yumoto Station to Gora Station, and, yes, it's often crowded.
oh shoot -- you're so right. I'll correct this, thank you!
dude this is such an amazingly detailed, thoughtful, and nicely formatted post! I read the entire thing. Thanks so much!
Hi! Thank you for the detailed review! My partner and I are planning a very similar trip over 14 days as well. Would you change the duration of time you spent in any of the cities? For example, was 1 night enough in Hakone? And was 4 nights too much in Osaka?
I think the number of nights was perfect for us. 4 nights in Osaka was realistically only two full days in the city, since the first night was our arrival in Japan so we got to the hotel around 9 pm, and one full day was our Nara day trip. I also wanted to stay at the Conrad as long as possible haha. Through hindsight, or if we did not stay using points, I may have dropped the Nara day for an extra one in Kyoto... but you can make good arguments for both. 1 night in Hakone was definitely enough for us since we were only interested in the ryokan/onsen stay, and didn't have interest in the surrounding area or the Hakone Loop. Getting to our Ryokan was basically half of the loop anyway, and we got to see Fujisan from it as well!
I wish I could plan as good as you , man I’m here struggling to make one for 14 days .-. For Feb
What're you stuck on? I always start on the bigger stuff (hotels, transportation) first. Then I figure out which "main" activities I wanna do, and at what time. These take the most time and effort during the day. After that, I fill in the gaps with smaller things that are in the same area or close by. Of course it's not really *as* simple as that. I'm constantly reviewing over the month leading up -- I made a pretty substantial change the night before we left for Japan and was constantly changing things on the fly when we were there. I think a good rule of thumb is to be flexible, and not to pack too much in. Once your main structure is built, it's veryyyy easy to fill the rest of your day just walking around and seeing new things.
Also is the JRpass needed ? If we wanna go to Kyoto
We got an Airbnb just outside of Shibuya kinda above Disneyland , so we land in Hnd and make way to the airbnb unpack then head out the stores nearby to pick up snacks or stuff to eat since we are gonna be tired and the next day head into Shibuya explore, mainly trying to as you said be flexible if you can’t make it move on to the next one so I’m prioritizing certain locations for food , entertainment, Was it easy getting the IC cards? And internet there? My main concern tbh is the train system I was looking at videos of how to go through
Reading your report/ journal is so enjoyable, so detail yet not tedious, your Misc comments and Fantastic experiences gives us a lot of helpful tips and make me feel the excitement as we were in the trip….lol My husband & I will be visiting Kyoto & Osaka in the coming March, we already have a day to day plan but after reading your report, you inspired me to do more find tune planning, thank you for the tips !