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Our next stop in Japan was Kanazawa. It's known for well-preserved Edo-era districts, Samurai and the fish market - Omicho Market. It's gaining more popularity amongst tourists but a lot of people pass it by for the major spots. We decided to spend 2 nights here in a traditional machiya house so we had time to take in the sights leisurely.

There was a nice mix of sightseeing and shopping during our 2 days of exploring, but we did way more walking than we planned, read on to find out why, ha ha. On our last night I did a face mask that we got from another hotel we stayed at and turned in early at 8:30pm. We were out of the house by 6:30 the next morning to take the train to Kyoto!

In Kanazawa, we broke our rule of staying near the train station to spend a couple of nights in a traditional Machiya House. The house was located in the central Hikoso-machi area, a former samurai neighborhood. It was a 17-minute walk by the most direct route, but Google Maps kept rerouting us through side streets, making it take longer. While we loved the house (and would still go back,) the walk with all our luggage was a bit of a pain, especially since we were starting to feel the effects of all the walking we’d been doing.

Let's begin the recap!

Something I was most excited to do in Japan was stay at a traditional ryokan. We decided the time to stay at one was in Nagano, more specifically Shibu Onsen. Shibu Onsen is a traditional hot spring town in the mountains. We chose this spot because of the beauty and it's proximity to Jigokudani Monkey Park. That was one of the first things Christian had on his must-do list. It was a bit of a trek coming out here from Tokyo but in the end it was worth it because we stopped in Kanazawa on our way to Kyoto. Plus we got to see what a smaller more rural area was like. It was fun seeing the scenery change while we were on the train.

This was another planned "break" in the middle of our trip. We knew our evening at the onsen would be relaxing and spent in a hot spring, relaxing in our room and eating a delicious Japanese meal. Two out of 3 were great, ha ha! The following day we would be hiking up to visit the bathing snow monkeys but the rest of the day would be traveling to our next location.

As mentioned in my Tokyo recap, I will be going through each day of the trip sharing where we went, what we ate and where we stayed! Our third location was Lake Kawaguchiko and Fujikawaguchiko. We wanted to see Mt. Fuji but didn't feel the need to get super close or climb any portion of it this trip. You can only hike when the trails are open in the Summer anyway. After some research we decided that viewing from Kawaguchiko was our best option.

Day 6 (Friday) & Day 7 (Saturday)

Where We Stayed

Originally we were going to do a day trip from Tokyo and one day Christian randomly suggested glamping instead. You don't have to tell me twice, so I started googling options. I settled on Retreat Camp Mahoroba, a campground with multiple tent and car camping sites. They also had a couple tiny houses and domes. We chose to stay in one of the two dome tents for $300.

Retreat Camp provided a shuttle to and from Kawaguchiko station which was very helpful. We let them know what time we'd arrive by train and they were there to escort us in a cute little van. If Christian hadn't hurt his foot at Disney we may have decided to walk back to the train, but it was down hill and a little over 3 miles away so we opted for the shuttle back in the morning too.

Since it was Winter we were happy to know there would be a heater in the dome. When we walked in it was SO HOT, we actually had to turn the heat off! The dome was equipped with a couple beds and a nice big couch looking straight out of the front of the dome. We also had an outside patio/deck with a couple swings, picnic table, sink and cooking supplies. We brought convenience store food so we didn't have to worry about cooking. But if we wanted we could have paid for dinner items to be brought to us. We had to book through airbnb because we're from the US and that came with breakfast items. I forgot to take a photo but they provided yogurt, bread, cheese and a couple eggs for us to make sandwiches.

A short walk from our dome was the bathroom building which had 2 stalls with toilets and 2 stalls with showers. Each bathroom had it's own pair of slippers for you to change into from the outdoor slippers. We also had to be sure to take off our shoes before entering our tent. Everything was spotless, pure glamping bliss.

During the day we kept the shades of the dome open but for the evening we closed it most of the way to keep the heat in and prying eyes out even though you wouldn't really be able to see in from anywhere on the campground. It was fairly quiet when we were there with only a few other campers but I imagine in prime seasons every site is taken. Further up the hill from where we were there were spots for cars and small tents to be set up. I believe there are 29 total sites,

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Where We Went

Getting to Kawaguchiko Station

It was quite the adventure getting from Tokyo to Kawaguchiko station. We did all the research beforehand but still managed to get nervous along the way. We had lunch in Tokyo, stopped at a 7Eleven for supplies for breakfast and dinner and then we were off! Our journey started at 11:29am at Omote-sando Station. We then headed to Shibuya Station where we took Chuo Line to Otsuki Station (with a connection through Takao station where we stayed on the train.) After we arrived there at 1:39 came the confusing part, we had to find the non-local train on the Fuji-Kyuko line to Kawaguchiko.

We had watched a YouTube video of the process but in practice it was a little more confusing as some of the signs said the same thing. A conductor told us to buy tickets for the next train that was leaving so we got in line behind a bunch of other people trying to do the same thing. However the line was moving slowly so he ushered us on to the train instead where we stood for the whole hour long ride. The section we were in between cars was filled with other tourists with all their bags, I was standing on the steps leading to a door. It was quite the adventure. Luckily we just had backpacks and a shopping bag vs suitcases like some other people. Along the way the conductor came through and we paid for our tickets in cash. We arrived at Kawaguchiko Station at 2:41, so a little over 3 hours from Tokyo.

Another option would have been a bus from Shinjuku station which would have been cheaper but then we'd have to worry about traffic and buying the tickets early enough to get a seat. We decided train was less stressful.

Retreat Camp

The bulk of our time was spent at our dome tent, we didn't spend $300 to not take full advantage! We arrived at 3pm (check-in time) and left at 10am (check-out time.) We spent about an hour venturing to the a photo spot but the rest was spent enjoying our porch swings and dome. The view of Mt. Fuji was gorgeous and we loved being able to watch the sunset as well as sunrise! It was the perfect way to relax after our first 4 crazy days exploring Tokyo and Tokyo Disney.

Sunset

Some photos of our beautiful sunset.

Sunrise

And now for the sunrise! Gorgeous!

Tenku no Torii

We woke up early on Saturday morning and walked up the road to Tenku no Torii! This is also accessible through a hike from another shrine but from the campground we had a quicker route. Christian was moving a little slower than usual because of the pain in his foot but we made it! We paid 100 yen to enter the area and took photos in front of both torii gates. We arrived at 7:40am and there were only a couple other groups of people. It gets a LOT more crowded throughout the day and depending on the season. We headed back down to the campground at 7:55.

Tenku no Torii, meaning Torii in the sky, was built in 2019 and has perfect views of Mt Fuji framed by the gates. There are normally time limits for groups to take photos but since there were so few of us we all took turns and shared the space. We could have walked a further 10 minutes up for another torii gate and waterfall, but Christian's feet had enough.

Lake Kawaguchiko

Unfortunately because Christian's foot was hurting we decided to cut our stay short and did not explore the area surrounding the lake. We thought it best to let his feet rest since we were still near the beginning of the trip. A little disappointing, but we can always go back! Luckily our shuttle driver took the long way from Retreat Camp to the station so we got to ride a little bit around the Lake.

Where We Will Go Next time

Since we didn't spend as long as we wanted there were a lot of places we didn't get to see. Here's what I had on my list:

Chureito Pagoda: beautiful views of Mt Fuji with the pagoda in foreground, supposed to be very pretty with cherry blossoms.
Kawaguchi Asama Shrine: The entrance is only a 10 minute walk from the camp. There is a large torii gate at the entrance as well as "Shichi-hon Sugi" the sacred tree of seven cedars (over 1200 years old!) You can walk from here to Tenku no Torii.
Oishi Park: Pretty views of Mt Fuji with Lake Kawaguchiko in the foreground
Kubota Itchiku Art Museum
Haha-no-Shirataki Waterfall
Mt. Fuji Panoramic Ropeway: Take a cable-car ride to the top for views and a swing photo op.
Kawaguchiko Music Forest Museum: From the Kawaguchiko website: "Why not take a small trip to Europe, surrounded by beautiful gardens, rich nature, and soothing music?"
Houtou Fudou Kawaguchiko North Main Shop: Eat "Hōtō noodles" a local specialty dish!

Heading back to Tokyo

Our way back to Tokyo was less stressful since we mostly knew how it worked. We started the journey at 10am taking the shuttle from Retreat Camp to Kawaguchiko Station. From there we made our way to Shinjuku Station via Otsuki Station and back to our hotel in the area before exploring more of Tokyo. We arrived at the station at 1:15pm, plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the day.

What We Ate

7Eleven

Before heading to Kawaguchiko Station we grabbed some groceries from 7Eleven. We got a couple bags of chips, some onigiri, two types of ramen noodles (we used the in-room water kettle to get our boiling water!) a couple pastries and orange juice. We spent $13.33!

Sandwiches

We were also provided with some breakfast items from Retreat Camp but we didn't eat much of it because we didn't want to do dishes. Christian had a cheese sandwich and some salad greens. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo, ha ha.

Time for destination two on our Japan trip, Tokyo Disney Resort! Tokyo Disney is known by many as one of the best Disney parks in the world and after having finally been there myself, I agree! (I have been to 4 of the 6 parks around the world.) We spent 3 days (plus an evening) and 3 nights at the resort so we could pack as much in as possible. It still wasn't enough to see and do everything but we got to experience all of our must-dos. Be sure to check out my Tokyo Disney Resort trip planning guide if you haven't already!

As mentioned in my Tokyo recap, I will be going through each day of the trip sharing where we went, what we ate and where we stayed! This post will be slightly different because technically we were at Disney the whole time, ha ha. This is going to be a long post, so buckle up! Or just scroll down and look at the photos, ha ha.

Time to deep dive into the cities we explored while in Japan! Tokyo was our home base on the first half of the trip so instead of having full days there we ended up with half and three quarter days to explore. In total we had a little over 3 days.

I think for these posts I'm going to go day by day and recap where we went, where we ate and where we stayed. The numbers will look a little funny because I'm going based on the whole trip itinerary dates. Probably a weird way to do it, but that's what I'm going with!

Before diving into the details of our Japan trip I wanted to share a quicker rundown—what we did, where we stayed, and how it all came together. I'll post recaps for each city soon and update this with links when they’re live. This isn’t a "how-to" guide—just a look at how we planned and experienced everything with a few tips thrown in. Let me know if you have any questions on how to plan your own trip to Japan!

Posts for each city:

Planning & Timing

Christian only gets 10 vacation days a year, so that was our limit for weekday travel. We flew out on the morning of Saturday, January 11th, and landed in Japan the afternoon of January 12th. Our return flight left Tokyo in the evening on Saturday, January 25th, and we got back to New York the same day—time zones are wild! Altogether, we were gone for 15 days, but only about 12.5 were actual exploring days.

We’d been saving up for this trip for years and had a dedicated "Japan" travel fund ready to pull from as we booked everything. Originally, we planned for October or November 2024, but when my brother and sister-in-law wanted to join, we shifted to January 2025. They had to back out later, but we stuck with the dates since Christian’s 2024 vacation days were already spoken for by then. Luckily, we’d budgeted as if it were just us, so not splitting hotel costs wasn’t a big deal.

Travel is important to us so we save for a bunch of different trips at once and always have a Miscellaneous, Disney and Missouri fund (to visit Christian's family)

Booking Flights

We decided to fly in and out of Tokyo instead of booking separate arrival and departure cities. We booked a nonstop flight with American Airlines (operated by JAL) from JFK to Haneda Airport. I’d been keeping an eye on prices for over a year with Google Flight alerts and manual checks, but booking always feels like a gamble no matter how much research you do. I kept seeing advice like "book your flights 6 months out!" or "50–100 days before departure," so it was tough to know what to trust. In the end, I just went with my gut.

We bought our tickets on November 4th, 2024—68 days before departure—for $926 each. Not bad for a 7,000-mile (almost) journey, but I’m still kicking myself because I could’ve saved $300 by booking a week earlier. Unfortunately, I was on a memorial trip for my best friend and wanted to wait until I was home to book. Luckily we did buy before the huge increase a couple days later so our timing was still okay.

Our flight left New York at 10:00 AM and landed in Tokyo at 2:35 PM. I originally wanted a 12:45 AM departure with a 5:00 AM arrival to maximize our time, but that flight was more expensive. The later flight was a blessing—all we wanted to do was eat and crash when we arrived. For the return, we picked a 5:10 PM flight so we’d have one last morning in Tokyo for shopping and one last bowl of ramen. We landed back in New York at 4:30 PM the same day we left.

Itinerary Overview

We’d been collecting Japan travel tips and locations for years, and both had lists of must-see spots. With only 12.5 days, we had to cut a few things—Hokkaido was the biggest one since it’s so far out. We’ll save that for next time. 😉

There are a couple of main routes tourists usually follow for visiting the most popular spots. The classic "Golden Route" takes you from Tokyo to Mt. Fuji, then to Kyoto, and finally Osaka. The "New Golden Route" also starts in Tokyo but heads north to Nagano, Takayama, and Kanazawa before following the coast down to Kyoto.

Since the cities on our wish list aligned more with the New Golden Route, we decided to keep Tokyo as our home base for the first half of the trip. After that, we followed the New Golden Route to Kyoto before looping back to Tokyo for our flight home. Here’s a quick overview of our itinerary:

Day 1: Land in Tokyo at 3pm
Day 2: Tokyo morning, Tokyo Disneyland afternoon
Days 3-5: Tokyo Disneyland (my trip planning guide)
Day 6: Tokyo morning, Mt. Fuji afternoon
Day 7: Mt. Fuji morning, back to Tokyo afternoon
Day 8: Tokyo morning, travel to Nagano afternoon
Day 9: Snow Monkey Park morning, travel to Kanazawa
Day 10: Kanazawa
Day 11: Travel to Kyoto, visit the Nintendo Museum
Day 12: Kyoto morning, Osaka afternoon/evening, back to Kyoto
Day 13: Nara Deer Park morning, Kyoto afternoon, back to Tokyo early evening
Day 14: Tokyo morning, flight home at 5pm

We spent a lot of time at Tokyo Disney—more than most people would—but it was a huge priority for me. Next time, we will scale that back (even if I won’t want to!) We also ended up skipping Shirakawa-go while in Kanazawa because we were just too exhausted to deal with tight train and bus schedules.

My crazy itinerary spreadsheet

Once we had our locations down I started saving locations of interest on a Google Map. This included things like shrines, stores to shop at, restaurants, basically anything we might want to do. The plan was to see the big stuff and as we had time for more activities we could look on the map to see what was nearby. Sadly we only got to go to a couple of the restaurants on my list because almost every time we walked up to a place there was a line. We even tried to beat everyone by going to get ramen at 9:30-ish AM and still had to wait 45 minutes to sit down! (But it was the best ramen we had on the trip.) That and Happy Pancake were the only real lines we waited in for food. Otherwise we tried to find places that we could just walk in, so that meant most of the places I had saved were out.

Accommodations

We stayed in a lot of different hotels with all the city-hopping. We wanted to stay at at least one traditional hotel (ryokan) and the rest could be whatever fit into the budget. Our goal was to stay under $200 per night on average for the "normal" hotels, and we landed around $165. I picked places close to the major train stations we'd be using to make things easier with luggage.

Left: Dome with view of Mt. Fuji; Right: Traditional Ryokan at Shibu Onsen

Tokyo Hotels: We bounced between a few spots and Tokyo the first half of the trip but I'll list all the hotels together.

Night 1: Keio Presso Inn Tokyo Station Yaesu (5 minutes from Tokyo Station)
Nights 5-7: Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku (5 minutes from Shinjuku Station)
Night 13: Hotel Monte Hermana Tokyo (5 minutes from Tokyo Station)

Now for the fun accommodations! I couldn't go to Tokyo Disney and NOT stay at one of their gorgeous hotels. Our first night was spent just outside Tokyo Disneyland park, then we moved next to Tokyo DisneySea.

Night 2: Tokyo Disneyland Hotel - Beauty & the Beast Room (5 minute walk from Maihama Station, or take Monorail)
Night 3 & 4: Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Hotel - Fantasy Chateau (Monorail to Maihama Station)

We originally planned a day trip to Mt. Fuji from Tokyo, but then Christian suggested, "Why not find a glamping spot with views?" and I was all in! We booked a 3-night hotel in Tokyo for the surrounding nights, so we only needed backpacks for our glamping adventure. It was totally worth not lugging our bags for just one night, since we’d be spending most of the time staring at the mountain and exploring the area. (Though, we didn’t do much exploring, but I’ll share more on that in my Mt. Fuji post.) We paid $300 for the stay, and it was absolutely worth it—we’d do it again in a heartbeat!

Night 6: Retreat Camp Mahoroba Dome Tent (they offered a free shuttle to and from Kawaguchiko station)

Next, we headed to Shibu Onsen to stay in a traditional Ryokan. We booked a room with a private open-air bath outside to enjoy the hot springs without strangers. Our stay included train station pickup, drop-off at the Snow Monkey Park the next morning, and both a traditional Japanese (or Western) dinner and breakfast, all for $465. It was our most expensive accommodation, but worth it for everything we got.

Night 8: Shibu Onsen Kokuya - Sakura Room with onsen (hotel offered free shuttle from Yudanaka Station and we took a cab back, but there are also buses)

In Kanazawa, we broke our rule of staying near the train station to spend a couple of nights in a traditional Machiya House. It was a 17-minute walk by the most direct route, but Google Maps kept rerouting us through side streets, making it take longer. While we loved the house (and would still go back,) the walk with all our luggage was a bit of a pain, especially since we were starting to feel the effects of all the walking we’d been doing.

Nights 9 & 10: Kurohoro Machiya Holiday House (20 minutes from Kanazawa Station)

Our last major stop was in Kyoto. We used that as our base to also visit Nara and Osaka (as well as the newly opened Nintendo Museum!) This hotel had indoor hot springs but we didn't use them. We did take advantage of the buffet breakfast though!

Nights 11 & 12: Onyado Nono Kyotoshichijo Natural Hot Springs (6 mins from Kyoto Station)

Train Travel

The train was empty so we staged a silly photo

Getting around by train is the way to go in Japan. Their JR Rail Pass used to be a great option for tourists, but they have since changed the pricing and it is no longer a guaranteed best option for train travel. After using this calculator, I found the 14-day pass (¥80,000) cost way more than our estimated ¥51,000 for major trips. Even considering shorter trips on the subway we knew we would not reach ¥80,000 in value.

We used Suica cards set up in our Apple Wallets for local travel and loaded about ¥13,000 ($96) overall. For Shinkansen (bullet train) rides, we bought tickets directly at the station machines—it was easier than using booking apps for us. There are employees there to help if you get confused.

The Suica cards came in handy right at the airport because you can take a monorail and train directly into Tokyo. No rideshare or shuttle bus needed and way cheaper!

One tip: If your luggage is oversized, you’ll need special tickets or could face limited storage. These tickets also need to be booked a little further in advance because there are not many (which you can still do at the station.) We kept our luggage light until the end when we bought a bigger suitcase for all our souvenirs.

Japan also has many specially themed trains. For our trip back to Kyoto from Nara we booked ourselves on the Aoniyoshi sightseeing limited express. It goes from Kyoto to Osaka but we only went half the route. It is a small low-capacity train that makes you feel like you're in an old movie. They even had purple themed snacks available to match the train. I recommend seeing if there are any special trains on the routes you will be traveling.

Stay tuned for recaps for each city we visited!

I have a lot of posts planned to recap our two-week trip to Japan, but let’s start with an easy one—what I wore to stay warm and comfortable in the cold weather! After calculating our mileage when we got home, I realized we walked a total of 96 miles over the two weeks. By the end, our feet were definitely feeling it, but thanks to my comfortable supination insoles from PowerStep, I avoided serious pain. I've had these insoles in my boots for over a year now, and while the boots have always been comfortable, the insoles took them to the next level. To stay extra cozy, I also used a pair of Flat Socks fuzzy liner socks on top!

I tried to pack as light as possible since I knew we’d be bringing home a lot of souvenirs. The plan was for me to use my Day Owl backpack and a small carry-on, while Christian carried his brand-new Tortuga backpack (which he got specifically for this trip). We entered Japan with just these bags, determined to see how far we could get before needing extra luggage. We made it all the way back to our last night in Tokyo before buying a medium-sized suitcase from Don Quijote to check on the flight home. Before that, we had been using a giant Disney shopping bag for our purchases, which obviously wasn’t going to work for air travel. It was great for train travel because we didn't need to buy "oversized baggage" train tickets that are required if your bags do not fit in the overhead bins or by your feet.

Packing light meant re-wearing a lot of the same clothes, but honestly, it didn’t matter since I had my coat on almost the entire time. No one would have noticed if I repeated outfits every day (not that anyone would care!)

For clothing, I brought two pairs of jeans, comfortable pants that don't look like sweatpants I bought 2 days before we left (mainly for the flights, since hotels in Japan provide pajamas), and a handful of sweaters and layering shirts. For extra warmth I had a Disney hat, big Madewell scarf and gloves. I only packed one pair of boots, knowing they’d work in rain, snow, and cold. Looking back, I probably could have packed even less, but hey—a girl likes to have options! I also brought a simple sling bag that would fit my essentials on sightseeing days.

Here’s what you can look forward to in my upcoming Japan posts—assuming I can get myself in gear and actually tackle them! 😉

Our Full Trip Itinerary
A Deep Dive into Our Tokyo Disney Experience
A Tokyo Disney Planning & Information Guide
Our Stay in Shibu Onsen & Visiting the Snow Monkeys

Is there anything specific you’d like to hear more about? Let me know! In the meantime, you can check out my daily Instagram recap carousels for a peek at what we did.

*This post was made in partnership with Responsival.*