Japan 2025 - Perfect 9 day trip - Part 2

 

This is Part 2 of Kanishka and my Japan trip 2025. The first part covered what we liked and didn''t like about Japan.  In this blog, we will share our itinerary. 

Our itineraries are crafted to perfection. They have mix of things that we like - some museums, some local / cultural bits,  some outdoorsy, some touristy, some rustic - a unique blend of experiences that are chosen carefully.  

Day 1 - Our flight landed in Tokyo in the afternoon. Our first thing was to go from airport to Tokyo station, via the Narita express, and then take the train to Kanazawa. It was a daring plan, new country, different train systems and no idea how to switch trains etc. All in a short window to reach hotel by reasonable time. Our hotel in Kanazawa was carefully booked to be about 700m from the train station. 

Why go via all the hurry? Our visit coincided with the annual festival of Kanazawa . The next day, there was going to be an awesome parade as part of the festival itinerary. We wanted to attend it. 

Onboarding to Narita was simple but at the Tokyo station, it was a world of its own. Underground stations have markets, shops, a whole city in itself. At the ticket line to buy ticket to Kanazawa, the guy asked for our tickets that we had used to reach the Tokyo station, thankfully, we had not thrown them away. Still not sure why he asked for it. The train journey to Kanazawa was good. By the time we reached the hotel, it was 8ish pm. 

Our dinner was at Izakaya Musashi, a quaint Gastropub which had good veg options. Our first introduction to Izakaya was delicious, a little pricey though. At night, we strolled on the quite streets of Kanazawa - nicely lit by street lights.

Day 2 - Out hotel in Kanazawa was Hotel Forza Kanazawa. It had complimentary breakfast which we enjoyed each day. Forza kanawa was next to the local Omichi market. After breakfast, we did a quick stroll through the market. I had never seen a cleaner sabji-mandi/fish-market ever. Not even in US. Japan is another level in its cleanliness

Day 2 was busy. We walked to the local Kanazawa castle where they had all these stalls owing to their festival. It was a mela. The stalls were of nearby prefectures who were asking residents of Kanazawa and tourists like us to travel to their towns, selling their town tourism. To get traction, some of them had folks dressed as samurai, some had freebies. 

At Kanazawa castle information centre, we learnt that there is a volunteer led group which gives free english tours of their garden - Kenroku-en. We took their offer and a nice lady gave us a free 90 mins tour. Kenroku-en garden is amazing. It has a waterfall (manmade), a lake, beautiful trails and trees. It is not huge either.  There is also a residence home inside the garden. Each garden is like a king's summer retreat and has a place to stay/relax. The residence was now hosting a dolls exhibition which was good to explore. Post the garden, we also visited the Kanazawa shrine

After Kenroku-en, we walked our way down to the parade route. Along the way, we had cabbage hotdog kind of item on a stick with some very long french fries. The ice cream above  has god leaf covering - something which is unique to Kanazawa

The parade was grand, festive and full of local spirit. It had giesha, bands, boy scouts, ninja, dragon, fights and what not. Very local and cultural. Very Japanese - highly organized, clean and simple. 

After the parade, we rested for sometime at the hotel. Our day was far from being over. In the evening, there was a flute performance - a Geisha would play flute on a boat at the Kenroku-en lake, under the moonlight. It was too good to miss. so we went and saw that. The performance was good but only for 15 mins long. There was also the threatre performance of Noh at the castle. We attended the performance but found it to be too slow for our taste. hat 

After the performance, we went to have dinner. Most places were closed and we wanted to try local. We found one places and were lucky since another family had just got in, perhaps after closing hrs. Our local restaurant did not speak English. But our other family were kind enough to translate for us. We bonded over Google-translate :) 

Here is where we had the template for our Izakaya - soya sauce, sticky rice and vegetable tempura. Here they also gave us edmame

The day was not yet over. On the walk back to hotel, we saw a long night food market and when there is night market, we have to go check it out. We were full in stomach, tired, but we walked the length of market

Day 3 

Day 3 was meant to be light - we woke up cozily and had a sumptuous breakfast. We walked to see local houses os Samurai or other foot soldiers. Kanazawa is a castle town, so there were kings, samurais and soldiers in the old days. The Samurai house are a treat to visit - they have lovely architecture, simple interior decor and an amazing personal garden :) . Inside one of the Samurai houses, we had our first and only tea-tasting ceremony. A matcha tea which is okayish to drink but almost like a habit for locals. 

After the Samurai houses, it was time for some introspection and zen, So we went to D.T. Suzuki museum. Mr. D.T. Suzuki was a zen practitioner and a philosopher who had significant influence on Japanese culture. His museum was serene, and relaxing. we stopped there for a bit. On the way to museum, Kanishka briefly went to McDonalds and I clicked a picture. Right outside, the D.T. Suzuki museum was another Samurai garden, albeit a public one. It was amazingly beautiful. 

We walked down to checkout a museum of bowls. Similar to Berlin's museum island, Kanazawa has a section where there are 4-5 museums. We checked out one and then decided to walk back to hotel.  Our lunch was at this curry place which had chole with tofu curry. What more can we want

Our dinner was hotel-made, bought from local shops. Kanishka got soya sauce and some other items from nearby grocery store. 

Day 3 - Day 3 was departure from Kanazawa. But before I check out, I wanted to share this pic of their breakfast tray - a nice 6 bowl tray that we had used daily. 

Day 3 itinerary was to move from Kanazawa to Kaga - an onsen town. We had to take a train for this. 

Kaga for me was the best part of the trip. It is a village with a main downtown street, some temples etc. We ended up just strolling the entire village. Stopped at small restaurants and had local delicacies, one of them being Kuzu bar. Kaza also had a old traditional bathhouses and this was our first experience with a Japanese bathhouse. 

Japanese bathhouse, separate sections for men and women. You go in full naked into a hot water pool and relax there. After that, there are taps along-side the pool for you to apply soap/shampoo and have a bath. It is incredibly relaxing. In the old days, when soldiers would travel, then these bathhouses (onsen) were build for them for communal baths. Makes sense to conserve water. Also, there was procedures which makes sure that the hot water is clean. It is a unique and refreshing experience. It is a concept that we saw in Germany also. 

We had booked our stay at Rurikoh which is an onsen hotel. We ended up doing onsen hopping, first at the old and moden public bathouses and then later in the night at a private onsen.  The hot water is really hot. Rurikoh also gave us Yukata for free which we gladly wore and roamed around the streets there. 

This was also Kanishka's 40th birthday. We had a noodle dessert, known as Mont Blanc for cake cutting. Dinner was at a local Izakaya. There was a drum show at the hotel and in the night, we dipped our feet in hot water. 

Day 4

Day 4 morning - the Kaga experience continued. In the morning, we went to the public bath of Rurikoh and it was open air hot-spring. It was just surreal, pure natural hot water under an overcast sky. We were debating if we had enough of Onsens but this was a right decision. Onsens also freshens you up like anything. This was followed by a authentic Japanese breakfast buffet, served on the table. It was awesome. 

Rurikoh remains the best stay place and Kaga was the best destination for me. It was away from crowds, no itinerary, no frills. Perhaps, the closest glimpse of authentic Japanese culture. Our next stops were Kyoto and then Tokyo, and now we were getting into the touristy territory :) 

It is the small acts that make you remember the travel. One such act has been imprinted on me. We were at the Kaga station and had to take a train to Kyoto. There were no direct trains. We had to go to a station (forgot the name, lets say X) and change train. I was not sure if I should buy both Kaga to X and then go to X and then buy ticket to Kyoto or can I buy both here. It is a small village railway station with only one employee at the counter and she was dealing with a customer ahead of us and that took 5 mins. We were patiently waiting behind. She seemed very diligent about our job. When our turn came, we asked tickets to go to X,  then I paid for them and she printed those. Later, I asked her if I can buy tickets from X to Kyoto here as well, or should I buy this at X.  She realized that I can save money if I buy a direct ticket to Kyoto via X. She explained the math and it was pretty substantial saving(~30%).  She didn't had to do this since she had already printed one and the easiest would have been to print another one. She also didn't berate us by saying that yo should have told this earlier. She cancelled our current ticket, refunded the amount and then issued a new ticket. During all of this, we were communicating in broken English, with some google-translate thrown in.  The sense of duty and helping others is so much ingrained to them and it is just amazing. The pride-in-the-job concept is so powerful. I feel that if you have to build stronger nations, this is the key. When everyone does their job well, strong nations are built. 

Our Kyoto stay was at Hotel Tomiya with Ms, a Scandinavian decor hotel, close to station with no lobby. a machine an entrance but thankfully, they had help staff to guide us.  Our first stop in Kyoto sightseeing was Ninja museum and it was a very touristy experience. Meant to be insta-grammable. But still fun. We had dinner at a local vegan Ramen place  (Moon and back ramen bar).  Kanishka had booked a walking tour in the night but it was raining heavily. Like heavy heavy downpour. I was thinking that they would cancel the tour but that was not the case. There were 6 of us plus the tour guide and he conducted the entire tour in this heavy dowpour with umbrellas. The good thing was that streets were empty, so we had the place to ourselves. But, we were wet, our shoes, socks, feet were wet. But, it was an amazing experience. Kyoto still has an active Geisha culture and we learnt a lot about their world. 

Day 5

It was still raining on Day 5 morning. So, we decided to go to a museum, thinking it will be indoors and less crowded. But, boy was I wrong. I had never seen a more crowded museum before. Seemed like entire Kyoto was there. We spent couple of hrs learnings about the Japanese history. Even though the museum was crowded, the people were super chill about it. They would take their time to wait in lines to see the exhibits in order. Move slowly, take their time and were extremely patient about it. Again, a part of culture that shocked me.  We had lunch at a local vegan shop and it had a nice poster below

We walked a lot and then visited the handicraft museum. This is actually a local handicraft store, two buildings of local craft that they were selling. Like Delhi-haat or dastkar but in a fancy shop-like setting. Good experience. Mostly expensive items

From here, we walked to a cat-cafe. Japan has this culture of cat cafes where you can spend time with cats. You pay for time and drinks there. Buying drinks is mandatory. This cafe had healthy well-fed cats and it was fun to play with them for sometime. 

Post cat cafe, we were looking for dinner options and stumbled into Nijiya Kyoto - a hole in the wall joint which serves the best Vegana Izakaya. The place is so small that it can only seat 6 people at a time, at a bar-counter kind of setting. This food was perhaps the best food of the trip. There were two people serving the food and it was just amazing how much can be packed in such a small place.  

After food, we were full but craving for some nice ice creams. 

Day 6 

Today was checkout and take the train to Tokyo. Kyoto to Tokyo trains run as if they are local, every 5-6 mins. These two stations are 250+kms apart. We had no prior reservation, so we just walked and booked and had trouble finding seats - many trains were full. Trains in Japan are extremely comfortable. 

We had to change trains, walk a lot dragging our suitcase, but finally we were at our hotel. At Tokyo, we were staying at Ryokan asakusa Shigetsu . Ryokan means traditional Japanese inn. We picked this hotel because it had an onsen on top. You sleep on the ground, on  a mattress on top of bamboo chatai . It is an authentic experience. This place was also next to Tokyo's oldest temple and walkable to a train station. 

Near the oldest temple was a huge market, including a market which sells all the plastic food items. Plastic food items are also such a brilliant Japanese idea - instead of putting real food items on display where food will go waste, there are these plastic replicas which look exactly as the food. And then there is a market dedicated to it.  We just strolled in the market. 

In the evening, we went to the Museum of roadside art and I have never seen anything as bizarre as this one. It is so bizarre that it is cool. Walking with no expectations, it takes sometime to understand WTF is this. But, then the writings on the wall say - what is art - isn't it meant to challenge you . And this museum challenges in you in many many ways. The best part is that we had no idea before we walked in. Tokyo is known for its quirky museums but this one is a topper. I will highly recommend this, but it is not for faint hearted folks. 

Near Asakusa, there is a space needle which gives you a high-rise view of the city but it is expensive. The internet hack is that, nearby, there is a Asahi HQ building who have a beer joint on their top floor and you get equally good view of it. You get good beer and it is cheaper. We went to the Asahi place and enjoyed the lighted Tokyo city. 

Day 7

Day 7 started with a walking tour starting from Akihabara. The walking tour was okay-ish. Since, between Shogun and the Kyoto walking tour, and the Ninja museum, we knew the history. But Akihabara was awesome! 

Akihabara is an experience that again is quintessential Japanese. It is a world of its own. First, there are these massive figurines/manga shops. We decided to check one building which had 9 floors, each with a different aspect of this, full of people. Then there are these arcade game centers where you can just spend the whole day playing arcade games, claw machines etc. And then it has these maid-cafes; we went to maidcafe-athome which is the birthplace of moe moe kyun . Each experience in Akihabara was like something that one will never get outside. 

Day 7 was also the day we had Sushi. We went to a Sushi-bar . At a Sushi bar, you sit on a bar counter and on the other side, there is a chef making live-Sushi for you. It was like an everyday QSR restaurant, nothing fancy, but it had good Sushi. Day 7 dinner was at home (hotel). Japan sells curd, soya sauce satchets, cut cabbage etc and you can make salads at home. We also got Theplas from IN and it made a quirky dinner but delicious. 

Day 8 

Today was 14 June and it was my birthday. We had a great day planned ahead of us. But our first stop was visiting toilets. Tokyo hosted olympics and as part of that they had an art project to have designer toilets installed at various places. It was called the Toilet Project. Each one designed by a different art designer. One of them is designed that the toilet is transparent when not in use and then as soon as you lock in from inside, it changes color and becomes opaque. Just fascinating. We ended up visiting two of such installations

We were now just walking and our next stop was to see the Shibuya crossing. Known as the busiest crossing, we had time to just check it out. 15 year old me would have never gone there, saying that it is just an intersection where people cross roads,  but I am mellow-er now. Anyways, we want and it was okayish. Along the way, Kanishka clicked whole bunch of flower photos. 

Next two events were planned by Kanishka for my 40th. First one was lunch at a Michelin star restaurant - Daigo. This was going to be our first Michelin star restaurant. Food was good, small portions, multipe courses. Each item explained to us by the staff, setup in a cozy setting where we were only ones in the room and the room had a private garden. The food was good. I do not have the palette to understand what makes a Michelin star and what does not. So, I can not comment on that, but it was good. But, what we also remember, and probably will never forget, is that their dessert menu was a slice of watermelon. Japan, a place known for its desserts, a michelin-star restaurant known for its creativity, and we got watermelon slice for a dessert. We cannot forget this. 

We went home, slept for a while and our late-evening program was to visit TeamLabs Planets. Before TeamLabs, we were hungry and next to the planets venue, there is a open barbeque place and we had fries and sprouts there. A very Americanish experience in Japan :)  Team Labs was awesome. So much creativity, experiences packed in one place. we loved all the art installations. In another world, I would just go and spend a day here. The experiences are amazing and I think it is the feeling that  we carry more than anything else. 

Day 9 

This was the journey back day. But, we had a morning to ourselves. In a city with so many things to do, what do you pick up if you have 3 hrs. We decided to keep it simple and go back to basics - visit a garden. We visited the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden - it is one of those decisions which makes this itinerary a perfect one. It was raining mildly and the garden was in its prime green beauty. Plus, understanding the design of Japanese garden, it is simple but an awe-inspiring experience. Garden is paid entry, small-ish one but had all hallmarks - stone bridge, flower garden, ponds, waterfall - you name it.  This was a perfect way to end the trip! 

I do not think that I have experienced so many new things in one country as much as we experienced in Japan. From gardens, to onsen, to concept cafes - cats, maids, to teamLabs, to roadside art museum, to Izakayas, to Michelin-star restaurants, to samurais and parades. Japan has been a perfect way to spend our 40th birthdays. 

Thank you for reading.