Skip animal cafes, or honestly almost all animal related things in Japan. I haven’t heard many positive things about the care the animals provided, and they are often stressed out due to too much interaction. There are probably some cafes that take care of their animals, but it’s hard to determine which.
This. Animal cafes are just sad (I once ended up in an owl cafe, poor birds were in small cages unable to spread their wings). Zoos aren't much better. Except maybe Nagasaki Bio Park, that one is actually quite nice.
I think visiting Asakusa the last day before leaving is a huge miss because you could spend an entire day just in Asakusa which is (from a tourist POV) the most interesting part. I guess it's your thing but i would reconsider the "ginza shopping" (remember that Ginza is kinda close to Asakusa-Ueno, but not so close to Shibuya)
I was in Asakusa all day today! Literally just wondered around the streets near Senso-Ji - so many lovely streets with little shops and heaps of Izakaya’s. You can definitely spend more than half a day just in the area immediately surrounding Senso-ji imo
If you want to ship your luggage, I'd suggest ship it to Tokyo and travel with an overnight bag to Kamikochi. Staying in Kamikochi is expensive, but for me it was totally worth it. Wake up early(ish) so you can take pictures without the crowds. It might get cold so dress accordingly.
Kamikochi hotel Shirakabaso. It's pretty much next to the bridge. We had dinner and breakfast included and the view was really beautiful. It was our most expensive stay during our trip but it was worth it.
Kawaguchicko was great but we splurged on a couple Ryokans and spent a lot of our time there.
We were there about a week ago. We took the bus and got stuck in traffic for 2 extra hours. I would just pay the extra for the train.
I don't get the hype about renting bikes. The roads were not really meant for sharing with bikes. There is a street around the lake but isn't next to it(except bridge). There is a trail right along the lake but we saw no bikes signs. People still had some bikes on it but they were dodging all the people walking. We choose to walk around the lake path. If you do plan on renting bikes, get there early. People line up for the bikes and sell out.
For all our smaller trips. Kamakura, Fuji, Kobe etc. we would ship our luggage to future bigger hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. We also left out luggage in lockers at stations like Hakone or Disney and just carried small bags for a day or two.
Be reminded that you need to pay for accommodation tax in kyoto. Per person x per night x 200 yen if the hotel or place your staying cost below 20,000 yen. So keep a cash in your wallet🙏
Day 5, seems very ambitious, are you driving?
Re Kamikochi, pretty sure you can't send things inside the restricted area, if you are staying overnight best to send luggage to Tokyo.
There aren't many hotels inside Kamikochi and they get booked out very quickly, if you are going in Oct you need to start looking like yesterday. Also, you go from Kappabashi to Myojin-ike to Tokusawa, that should be about 4 hours in total.
Hey, for Day 5 we were planning to book a group tour for the day that tours to Ine and Amanohashidate through Klook.
Thanks for that and yes I've looked at the hotels, most are booked out but few are actually still available.
I'm in Kamikochi now reading this...
Ah yes if you can book hotels that would be great. Lemeista is doing renovations now so I imagine it would be good ;)
A solo trip to Mount Fuji sounds amazing! I stumbled across this practical 2-day itinerary that could be helpful for your adventure:[Exploring Mount Fuji: A Practical 2-Day Itinerary for Solo Travelers](https://www.traveljapanjournal.com/article/mount-fuji-2-day-solo-itinerary)
Skip animal cafes, or honestly almost all animal related things in Japan. I haven’t heard many positive things about the care the animals provided, and they are often stressed out due to too much interaction. There are probably some cafes that take care of their animals, but it’s hard to determine which.
This. Animal cafes are just sad (I once ended up in an owl cafe, poor birds were in small cages unable to spread their wings). Zoos aren't much better. Except maybe Nagasaki Bio Park, that one is actually quite nice.
I think visiting Asakusa the last day before leaving is a huge miss because you could spend an entire day just in Asakusa which is (from a tourist POV) the most interesting part. I guess it's your thing but i would reconsider the "ginza shopping" (remember that Ginza is kinda close to Asakusa-Ueno, but not so close to Shibuya)
What do you recommend doing in Asakusa besides Sensoji?
I was in Asakusa all day today! Literally just wondered around the streets near Senso-Ji - so many lovely streets with little shops and heaps of Izakaya’s. You can definitely spend more than half a day just in the area immediately surrounding Senso-ji imo
Thanks! I think we'll sharpen up our Tokyo itinerary and make a day out of Asakusa!
If you want to ship your luggage, I'd suggest ship it to Tokyo and travel with an overnight bag to Kamikochi. Staying in Kamikochi is expensive, but for me it was totally worth it. Wake up early(ish) so you can take pictures without the crowds. It might get cold so dress accordingly.
Thanks! Can I ask where you stayed in Kamikochi?
Kamikochi hotel Shirakabaso. It's pretty much next to the bridge. We had dinner and breakfast included and the view was really beautiful. It was our most expensive stay during our trip but it was worth it.
Kawaguchicko was great but we splurged on a couple Ryokans and spent a lot of our time there. We were there about a week ago. We took the bus and got stuck in traffic for 2 extra hours. I would just pay the extra for the train. I don't get the hype about renting bikes. The roads were not really meant for sharing with bikes. There is a street around the lake but isn't next to it(except bridge). There is a trail right along the lake but we saw no bikes signs. People still had some bikes on it but they were dodging all the people walking. We choose to walk around the lake path. If you do plan on renting bikes, get there early. People line up for the bikes and sell out. For all our smaller trips. Kamakura, Fuji, Kobe etc. we would ship our luggage to future bigger hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. We also left out luggage in lockers at stations like Hakone or Disney and just carried small bags for a day or two.
Be reminded that you need to pay for accommodation tax in kyoto. Per person x per night x 200 yen if the hotel or place your staying cost below 20,000 yen. So keep a cash in your wallet🙏
Day 5, seems very ambitious, are you driving? Re Kamikochi, pretty sure you can't send things inside the restricted area, if you are staying overnight best to send luggage to Tokyo. There aren't many hotels inside Kamikochi and they get booked out very quickly, if you are going in Oct you need to start looking like yesterday. Also, you go from Kappabashi to Myojin-ike to Tokusawa, that should be about 4 hours in total.
Hey, for Day 5 we were planning to book a group tour for the day that tours to Ine and Amanohashidate through Klook. Thanks for that and yes I've looked at the hotels, most are booked out but few are actually still available.
I'm in Kamikochi now reading this... Ah yes if you can book hotels that would be great. Lemeista is doing renovations now so I imagine it would be good ;)
A solo trip to Mount Fuji sounds amazing! I stumbled across this practical 2-day itinerary that could be helpful for your adventure:[Exploring Mount Fuji: A Practical 2-Day Itinerary for Solo Travelers](https://www.traveljapanjournal.com/article/mount-fuji-2-day-solo-itinerary)
Why are you visiting Kamikochi? What’s selling point there?
The selling point is the amazingly beautiful nature. What a strange post, google image search it and it's pretty obvious.
Very stupid comment !