Japan - day 1

Every time I travel, I always write a travel journal and share it with interested friends to read so that they can also experience my trip vicariously. However, this time, on my trip to Japan, I thought that it would be cool to open it up to a wider audience and post my travel journal here on my website. So here it is! Feel free to read and take what you want for your future travel plans to Japan!

My flight left from LAX on a Wednesday at 10:40am with an arrival in Haneda airport in Tokyo on Thursday at around 1:30pm.

I bought an esim card beforehand using Klook, activating the esim on my phone a few days before my departure (but not using the data on the esim). Upon arriving into Japan, I turned off my primary sim and switched my cellular data to my esim which I labelled as “Travel.”

I also made an account at Visit Japan Web beforehand and uploaded/inputted all my pertinent travel details. This way, I was able to take the shorter line through immigration. Though I heard that this only applies to the Haneda airport and not the Narita airport, since they don’t have a separate line for those using QR codes through the Visit Japan web. Tip: take a screenshot of your immigration QR code so that you don’t need to rely on your unsure data plan to find it when your land.

If you’re not planning on filling out Visit Japan Web beforehand, then a separate tip I’d recommend is screenshotting or having written down your hotel info (name, address, phone number…). Part of the immigration process requires you to have that info and if you don’t have data at the time, it will be tedious to obtain a wifi connection and find the information needed. With how congestion and packed Japan is lately, anything to help streamline your arrival is a much needed comfort! :)

My first week in Japan is going to be spent as a solo trip centering mainly on Kyoto and the Kansai region. So, upon arriving in Japan, my first objective was to ride the Shinkansen to Kyoto. I didn’t reserve a ticket online because I didn’t want to risk any timing conflicts unsure if my flight would get delayed or not. So instead I bought my ticket on the spot.

Unfortunately, there is no Shinkansen line at the Haneda airport. Fortunately though, it’s quite easy to get to places in Japan! At the Haneda airport, take the Keikyu Line to Shinagawa station (which is the nearest station that has a Shinkansen line). Once at Shinagawa station, just follow the signs to the Shinkansen.

If all else fails, ask an attendant who will help you. I found them all to be so kind and helpful!

Once at the Shinkansen, I bought a ticket headed to Kyoto (towards Shin-Osaka) scheduled to depart at 3:01. I did find it a bit difficult to read the ticket at first so here’s a little tutorial:

I forgot to take a picture of my ticket so this one is a random one I found on the internet. While at the station, you want to focus on the name of the train as seen under the date (NOZOMI 230). Use this train name to look at the screen to find which platform/track you need to wait at. Also, to the right of the train name, you have your assigned seat (Car 4 Seat 7-D). At the track, it will clearly tell you which car will be stopping at which section. So in this case, you will wait at the area marked for car 4.

My train was NOZOMI 405 leaving at 3:01 to Shin-Osaka. So in this case, I made sure to head to track 23 (making sure not to ride on NOZOMI 75 which arrives on the same track just 6 minutes before mine).

Hopefully, this is understandable and helps you if you ever ride the Shinkansen yourself!

My ticket that I bought at the station cost around 14500 yen which is around 98 dollars.

Inside the Shinkansen station, there are some shops that sell bentos! So I randomly chose one and ate it on the bullet train as I travelled to Kyoto.

Upon arriving into Kyoto (at the Kyoto station), I immediately went to my hotel (which was conveniently right next to the Kyoto station!) to check in and drop off my luggage. I arrived into my hotel room at around 5:30pm so the Shinkansen took around 2 hours and 10-15 minutes.

I then immediately decided to lightly explore the city. All I did was fly in a plane and ride the train but that in itself was pretty tiring.

My favorite fragrance brand is Le Labo and so I went to the nearest one to smell their city exclusive scent, Osmanthus 19. It smelled nice but wasn’t my preference so I kept walking around. The store area had all these lush plants that lent such a beautiful green aesthetic.

I forgot to take a photo inside this store, but next to the Le Labo there was this cute store called Traveler’s Factory. They sold mainly interesting things but I was mainly interested in their travel notebooks! One thing I was eager to do on this trip was to collect Eki stamps at all the train stations I would pass by. And so I got this notebook to start my journey to collecting stamps. I wish the inside paper was thicker though, since the stamps would sometimes bleed through showing color on the back of the paper.

I walked around the area some more. I went into the Daimaru Kyoto department store to look around. I then went to Hands to buys some smiskis that some of my friends requested. They’re so much cheaper in Japan!

After looking at a few store, I then went to Wagyu Hokusai to get a Wagyu beef set, which cost 1780 yen (~12 dollars). Being a solo traveler, I was able to get in pretty quickly. The beef was very lightly seasoned which lent to highlight the natural taste of meatiness. It was good but didn’t blow me away. It definitely was pretty though!

I then explored the Teramachi area some more, window shopping and taking in such a new place.

I don’t drink much but I saw this interesting bar online and was immediately interested in visiting it and tasting some of their drinks. It’s called Rocking Chair and the owner was the champion of the International Bartenders Association’s World Cocktail Championships 2016. They’re open from 5pm-1am and closed on Tuesdays.

The inside of the bar is very classy and refined and actually has a few rocking chairs you can sit on! Smoking is allowed in this bar though which was unfortunate for me since I do not smoke. Luckily though, it was quite sparse while I was there and no one was smoking.

I got two drinks: Kyoto Martini (KINOBI Kyoto Gin, Sen-cha Green Tea, Dry Vermouth, Orange Peel, Refined Japanese Sugar) and Yukari-Sour (Mezcal, Dried Shiso, Shiso Liqueur, Maraschino Liqueur, Dried Orange peel).

I was warned that the Kyoto Martini would be very dry. It was. haha. I was hoping to get a strong taste of the green tea but I was mainly just tasting a full punch of gin. I chalked it up to thinking that my taste isn’t sophisticated enough to truly enjoy this drink?

If you’ve been following me for a bit, you’d know that I love shiso. So I had to try the Yukari-Sour. From first sip, I loved it. It was a full highlight of shiso being the star. However, I would say that if you don’t like shiso or even if you’re partial to it, it won’t be enjoyable. Even for me who loves shiso found it to be a bit too much shiso by the end. However, it was delicious to me nonetheless!

Afterwards, I took the train back to my hotel to shower and rest for a full day of exploring Japan the next day!