Japan: Some Notes

Fourteen days in Japan is a lot of Japan: temples, trains, more walking than planned, and more rice than I thought possible. Here's what held up.

You can land in Tokyo, get on a train, and be a five-minute walk from your hotel for about $3. The city is dense, orderly, and quietly in motion. I loved it immediately.

Two quick realities: bring cash, and don't assume English will carry you. More places than expected are cash-only, and without Japanese—or at minimum, Google Translate—you will hit friction.

Traveling with a twelve-year-old means you keep moving. The alternative is TikTok.

Our hits: the Railway Museum, Shinjuku Gyoen, and the Tsukiji Outer Market.

The Railway Museum is a gift if you love transportation. Real cars you can walk through, a timeline that runs from 19th-century locomotives to modern rail, and enough interactive exhibits to keep a twelve-year-old occupied for hours. My nephew could have stayed all day. I would have let him.

Shinjuku Gyoen at peak cherry blossom season is exactly what you want it to be. Wide lawns, crowds that never quite overwhelm, and trees that justify the hype. We spent three unhurried hours there and left before it became a chore.

Tsukiji Outer Market is the easiest way to eat your way through a Japanese afternoon. My nephew found a TikTok-famous tuna spot; I found excellent king crab and a piece of grilled wagyu I'm still thinking about.

We went to a lot of museums. Most were good. The SHOWA-KAN and the Yūshūkan were the most interesting—both offer a distinctly Japanese perspective on World War II, and neither looks like any war museum I've been to in the U.S.

The Shinkansen is so efficient that I forgot my phone, retrieved it from Tokyo, and got back to the Toyota Museum before my nephew got bored. If you're going to lose something, lose it in Japan.¹

Kyoto is temples—beautiful, repetitive, and eventually a bit numbing.

We started at Fushimi Inari Taisha, a hillside threaded with red torii gates. Crowded and still worth it. The bamboo grove, the monkey park, and Kiyomizu-dera made for a full, memorable day. We didn't plan on Yasaka Shrine; we ended up there before dinner and were glad we did.

TeamLab: Biovortex was fun, especially the athletic park. Buy the raincoats. This is not optional.²

Another Shinkansen. Fast, clean, uneventful in the best way.

Hiroshima is anchored by two experiences: the Peace Park and Miyajima Island.

The Peace Park is sobering. The museum is quietly devastating. Hard to leave without thinking: never again.

Miyajima is the counterpoint—open, scenic, and a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure. You can take the ropeway up, hike Mt. Misen, stop at temples along the way, then come back down and eat oysters prepared every possible way. The grilled and tempura versions were the standouts. The coffee and soft serve were some of the best of the trip.

Okinawa feels like a different country—warmer, slower, more casual, and oriented entirely toward the water.

You fly in, take a monorail to the hotel area, and walk a few minutes to wherever you're staying. We were near International Street: restaurants, souvenir shops, and more soft serve than necessary.

We came for the aquarium. It delivered. The whale shark feeding is the thing to see. Get there in time for it. Worth the three-hour bus. Easily.

The other standout was the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters. You watch a short film upstairs, then descend into hand-dug tunnels where thousands of soldiers sheltered during the Battle of Okinawa. The pickaxe marks are still visible in the walls. It's hard to reconcile the scale of it.

Celestine Tokyo — Nearly perfect. Two subway lines nearby, walkable to Tokyo Tower, a large room, and a lounge with coffee, tea, and a simple happy hour. The breakfast buffet was extensive and unmemorable, which is fine.

The Blossom Kyoto — Our favorite. Calm, well-designed, comfortable beds, good amenities, easy transit access. Nothing to complain about.

Mitsui Garden (Hiroshima & Tokyo) — Great locations, small rooms, uneven service. The Hiroshima location had a lounge with weekend soft serve, which counts for something.

Hyatt Okinawa — The largest room of the trip and a solid base for exploring Naha. Breakfast was extensive and underwhelming, which seems to be a pattern.

I don't like sushi. Texture. Japan still worked out very well.

Tsukiji Outer Market (Tokyo) — The most fun meal of the trip. Tuna for him, king crab and wagyu for me.

Gyukatsu Motomura & Tonkatsu Wako (Tokyo) — Reliable, excellent katsu. Hard to go wrong with either.

Shipachi Shokudo Tamachi (Tokyo) — The best value. Grilled fish, rice, miso, radish, tea—about $10 for both of us. We were the only tourists. The staff skipped the niceties and let the food speak. It did.

Katsuda Shijo Karasuma (Kyoto) — Great katsu, better atmosphere. The staff greeted every guest like a small event and treated each step of the meal like it deserved acknowledgment. Good food, good theater.

Miyajima oysters (Hiroshima) — We ate oysters at five different spots along the island. All excellent. Grilled, fried, and tempura were the standouts.

Makishi Market (Okinawa) — You pick the fish downstairs; they cook it upstairs. I was initially unsettled—these were yesterday's aquarium neighbors—but we committed. The shrimp, scallops, and half a grouper came out beautifully prepared.

Misses: the Shinkansen bentos from Tokyo Station, which we were excited about and shouldn't have been. The aquarium café in Okinawa, which is about the view of the tank and not about the food.³

General note: the soft serve in Japan is exceptional. We averaged two servings a day. It is better than anything I've had in the U.S., and I've had a lot.

Japan rewards curiosity and stamina. Bring both. I'd go back.

¹ I'm always absurdly early for trains and planes, which helped. When my nephew left his phone in a Hiroshima taxi, the hotel called the driver and had it back to us in 15 minutes. Always get a receipt.

² One TeamLab is enough. We also went in Osaka; it was the same idea, just less. The best is reportedly TeamLab Planets in Tokyo, but we couldn't get tickets.

³ In our defense, we had been up since 6:45 a.m. to catch the first bus and make the 9:30 whale shark feeding. The feeding is worth it. The café is not.