The first time there we stayed walking distance from Shinjuku Station. There are all kinds of things to do around there, including the craziest grocery stores you’ll ever see, a wonderful urban park and the famous Pi** Alley.
This last time we actually stayed right at Haneda until we jumped in the ski van. We didn’t want to schlep four sets of skis around the trains. It’s about a 45 min train ride to anywhere you’d want to go. The KK and monorail connect to the airport. Narita is a different story. It’s far from central Tokyo.
Interesting factoid…there are more people in Tokyo that there are in Texas!
If she’s fine with soy, she can enjoy food everywhere in Japan and it will be far from "just eating plain rice and bananas”! The Japanese are quite creative in coming up with tasty soy-based dishes - for example, inari sushi, aburaage, agedashi tofu and yuba tofu (especially fresh) are all quite good and I love tofu siu mai (traditionally made with pork) from roaming food trucks. The only thing I can’t handle is natto (by contrast, my D22 loves it) but you guys should try it if you’re not already familiar - it’s quite an experience!
My son was stationed in Yokosuka for three years, but we didn’t get to visit him most of that time because of Covid. Finally got there for Christmas break 2022/2023.
Agree that Haneda is the easier airport for Tokyo. And the last night we stayed at the airport hotel and woke up to a fabulous view of Mount Fuji from our window!
Agree that Nara is a bit overrated.
In Kyoto we stayed at the Izuysy Ryokan Kyoto style restaurant and inn Izuyasu – Long-established inn near JR Kyoto Station We were only able to eat dinner one night because you have to reserve in advance, but it was fabulous. You sit at the counter and watch it being prepared. The Japanese breakfast was also wonderful. Amusingly one morning we shared the breakfast counter with a Korean family who all preferred coffee to green tea.
If you possibly can, try to visit the Moss Garden. It’s a magical experience. They don’t make it easy, we ended up getting my daughter in law to order tickets. Hotel concierges apparently can also help. Kokedera (Moss Temple) - Kyoto Travel
We also very much enjoyed strolling the length of the Philosopher’s Walk in Tokyo and visiting various temples along the route.
I actually like the taste of natto even though it smells rotten and looks disgusting. Didn’t have it this time, but it was a specialty of the ryokan we stayed at on our first Japan trip with our boys 20 years ago.
We didn’t speak any Japanese beyond please and thank you and where’s the toilet. Google translate app was a huge help and got us out of a couple of sticky situations where we got confused at train stations and did bad things to our tickets.
I lived in Japan for 30 years as the same kind of vegetarian. It is do-able if not easy. There are not many vegetarians in Japan, so the concept is not widely understood or naturally accommodated. If she can tolerate fish broth, it will be easier, as all noodle soups are based on bonito. Otherwise, it requires advance planning by the restaurant to prepare a soup (dashi) based on kombu seaweed. Some will do it. Tempura restaurants will almost always have vegetable tempura. The dipping sauce is also bonito-based, but she can ask for salt and lemon instead. Yakitori places also usually have various vegetable skewers. Oddly, hibachi steak places (teppanyaki) are also a good choice, as they usually have garlic rice and sauted vegetables. On the same line, sushi restaurants where you order from the counter often work, as they can make cucumber and other vegetable sushi. My personal favorite for special occasions was a “robata” grilled food restaurant. The focus is on fish and meat, but the vegetables and tofu are fabulous: Roppongi Robataya There are also some specialized vegatarian restaurants that can be great - “shojin ryori” is a strict vegetarian concept associated with Buddhism. A wonderful choice in Kyoto is Ikkyu, located just outside the Daitokuji zen complex (Daitokuji is also great to visit): Daitokuji Ikkyu - Inside Kyoto In Tokyo, even non-vegetarians love Bon: http://www.fuchabon.co.jp/ Hotels should be able to help with suggestions. People on this thread have been mentioning ryokans. Ryokans can be particularly tricky and will often refuse vegetarians, but here is one that will serve a full multi-course shojin meal (although you would need to arrange in advance): ASABA | Asaba ryokan official site Asaba is in Shuzenji, a hot-spring resort about an hour and a half outside Tokyo. It’s a beautiful little town. Another idea about an hour and a half out of Tokyo is the Fuyiya Hotel, which claims to be the oldest Western hotel in Asia. Japanese people will never recommend it because it is old, but it is fabulous in its own way and gives easy access to all the fun things to do in Hakone. Among other things, there’s a ropeway that goes out over a sulfurous canyon and then up to provide a glorious view of Mt. Fuji on a clear day. The Fujiya was always happy to prepare a vegetable cutlet or pasta for me (the main restaurant, which is gorgeous, serves only Western food). https://fujiyahotel.net/
Editing to add: when all else fails, there are lots of Italian restaurants in Japan that (usually) serve vegetarian pastas.
You brought back my memory of an afternoon my daughter and I spent watching my son’s team play soccer in Tokyo. It was unexpectedly cold, and also drizzling, and we weren’t well prepared. The only way we got through the day was to clear the vending machines of every can of hot corn soup, which made for a great hand warmer!
I can tolerate natto, but one of my nutritional goals is to eat it regularly for the health benefits. Fresh tofu is so delicious in Japan, quite a different experience from packaged tofu here.
Take things slowly in Japan, and savor details. Especially in Kyoto. So many things are done with great care and beauty, the simplest neighborhood park in Tokyo made me despair ever gardening to that standard.
My favorite thing are onsen towns. Men and women are separated, but the baths are outside and lovely. Some comfort with public nudity is needed. Not sure if they still have public bathhouses as they did decades ago, but that was amazing. Last fall my brother was in some remote town in the Japanese Alps and remarked on how peaceful it was compared to Kyoto. Beauty is in many places.
Wow, thanks for all the feedback. Studying it now… I’ve been busy getting flights. We have to go mid-March for college spring break. We will miss the cherry blossoms – too soon, leaving in less than 3 weeks.
The trip is over 10 days but once you exclude travel days to/from we will have 7 full days (8 nights), since we lose a day getting there. Seems like we’ll like spend time in the Tokyo area and Kyoto/Osaka area and definitely visit Hiroshima.
Next step is to figure out enough of the itinerary to determine how many nights in each location and what can be done as day trips.
One trip I flew into Tokyo, had a couple of meetings there, then took the bullet train to Osaka for another meeting and then flew home from Osaka. This worked well.
However, I think that you could find a lot to do for 7 full days just in Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima. You could do Tokyo some other time.
And plan to be jet lagged for your first day or two in Japan. The least jet lagged that I ever was in Asia was a trip where I took a very early flight from Boston to Chicago. I was dead tired from getting up at 5am to get to Logan airport. I managed to stay awake until I got on the airplane in Chicago. At that point I was so tired that I fell asleep (at noon Chicago time) and slept for probably 10 hours on the plane. I basically got onto Japan time zone before even arriving in Japan. I do not know whether this experience is repeatable (in the sense that if I tried it again I do not know whether I would manage to sleep at the right time).
Speaking of Hiroshima, a couple people we know who have done Japan with their families did day trups there to/from Kyoto using the fast train, including visiting Itsukshima. Sounds like a long day. Have others done this or is it better to stay at a hotel there?
We did a daytrip from Kyoto (fast train) to Hiroshima… .and Miyajima too. Yes indeed it was a long day. But it is a cherished memory. Our trip was in combo with my husband’s business trip, so this was the only way to make it work. I suppose an added bonus was keeping our “home base” in Kyoto, near the train station. I did some bus tours on my own around town while he was working. My husband had been to Kyoto and was familiar, so we did some self touring via city bus the first day.
Himeji Castle can be done as a day trip from Kyoto (2 hours by train). It was absolutely stunning when we were there during cherry blossom season. You can also do it on your way to Hiroshima, which is what we did.
Question for the veterans of Japan trips. Trying to finalize our Tokyo hotel. We’ve settled our itinerary. We’re only in Tokyo 3 nights and we’ll likely be pretty tired the first night at least. So I suspect being within walking distance to things at night will be a plus.
The vast majority of the recommendation sites I have looked at agree that the best place for first timers to stay is in the Shinjuku area. We’re going to be in Kyoto next so we can get the old Japan charm there. But when I map out all the possible activities, restaurants and shops we have targeted in Wanderlist, almost none are in Shinjuku and the greatest concentration is further east, between the Imperial Palace Grounds and the river. This also seems to be where the most luxury hotels are and the main train station.
So what am I missing? Why is Shinjuku a better place to stay if we want to be walking distance to a lot of places to eat or wander than closer to Tokyo Station?
I’m sitting in the Marriott Waterfront right now. At noon we’ll Uber to Palo Alto for brunch with S and his GF. After that it’s off to the Polaris lounge in SFO to start our trip. Singapore first, then Vietnam (Da Nang) , then Tokyo and Kyoto.
We’re staying in central Tokyo to be near Ginza where we want focus on.
