6 weeks. Countless train rides. Thousands of kilometers. One unforgettable journey across Japan. It has been hubby's bucket list to slow-travel all around Japan, and we are glad to finally make this a reality. From vibrant cities to quiet countryside, snow-covered mountains to coastal towns, ancient temples to modern skylines — we are grateful for the opportunity to experience and see so many different parts of this country. We were also fortunate to experience the cherry blossom season this time around. Arigato gozaimasu, Japan, for the wonderful experiences and memories, and for showing us again what a unique country you are, with amazing culture and people.
6-Weeks Around Japan
24 Feb - 2 Mar 2026: Tokyo
2-3 Mar 2026: Hakone
3-5 Mar 2026: Nagoya, Nakasendo Trail
5-8 Mar 2026: Kyoto, Uji
8-12 Mar 2026: Osaka
12-17 Mar 2026: Sapporo, Niseko, Hakodate
17-18 Mar 2026: Akita
18-22 Mar 2026: Sendai, Ginzan Onsen
22-25 Mar 2026: Kanazawa, Shirakawago
25- 29 Mar 2026: Hiroshima
29 Mar - 4 Apr 2026: Kokura, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Nagasaki
4-6 Apr 2026: Beppu
6-7 Apr 2026: Fukuoka
5 Mar 2026 (Thurs): Nagoya - Kyoto
Back to Nagoya station to catch the 3.49pm Shinkansen to Kyoto. Since this is a frequent route, we bought our tickets for this bullet train only about an hour before departure. The non-reserved seat ticket for this 35 minute ride costs 5,170 yen/pax ($33).
Arrived Kyoto station at 4.24pm. I stopped by the JR West office to pick up our Sanyo-San'in Northern Kyushu Pass (which we will be using later on our trip).
Took the 205 City Bus from Kyoto Station to Kawaramachi Gojo, the bus stop next to our hotel.
Made it to our hotel, Hotel Tavinos Kyoto at 5.15pm.
Booked this 3-night stay with 8,778 Chase Ultimate Rewards points + $76 CapitalOne travel credit. This hotel's design is pretty funky with lots of dark colors. The room was comfortable and had everything we needed, including a mini-fridge.
The lounge area at the 3rd floor of the hotel is a nice place to hangout. Free coffee and tea, and miso soup were available all day. There was also microwave, water dispenser, and washing machines, which was useful.
It was conveniently located close to Kiyomizu-Gojo station and within 15 min walk to Teramachi Shopping Street. Hubby discovered a Surugaya on our way to dinner so we made a stop for video game hunting.
Decided to try Kura Sushi for dinner. Unlike Sushiro that has a big screen, Kura uses a tablet for ordering.
Another fun part is that for every 5 plates of sushi that you 'deposit' into the slot on the table, you get to play a game on the tablet (by luck) and stand a chance to win a gachapon. We played 3 times and won 1...not bad!
Wrapped up our first night in Kyoto with a stroll along the Kamo river back to our hotel.
This was my 3rd visit to Kyoto but the first time staying in Kyoto for the night. For my last 2 trips to Kyoto, we stayed in Osaka and took day trips to Kyoto.
Stopped by the 7-11 next to our hotel and unexpectedly managed to get tickets for the Hiroshima baseball game that we thought was already sold. Had to use Google Translate to navigate the entire ticket purchase process but we successfully completed the purchase using the kiosk, and got a receipt which we gave to the 7-11 staff who then printed the tickets for us.
6 Mar 2026 (Fri): Kyoto • Uji • Nintendo Museum
Early start for our first full day in Kyoto. Enjoyed free pastries and coffee at the hotel.
Took the 7.20am train to our first stop for the day.
Arrived Fushimi Inari shrine at 7.30am after a short 10 min train ride from the hotel. That's the benefit of staying in Kyoto.
This was my 3rd visit to Fushimi Inari but it was Brantyn and Anna's first visit. Of course we had to be kiasu and arrived early to avoid the crowds.
Having been here before, I know the trick for getting photos of the Tori gates without people.
Of course, being early helps but another trick is to quickly walk through the gates, don't linger or take photos yet, but turnaround quickly when you see the first opening and walk back on the return path before everyone gets on it.
Most people will continue to climb higher on the route so being early and turning around quickly helps.
We finished our sightseeing at Fushimi Inari 1.5 hours earlier than planned. We can see more tourists arriving when we left at 8.15am.
Since our entry ticket for Nintendo museum wasn't till 11am, we decided to make a detour to Uji first as it was on-the-way to Nintendo Museum. Uji is widely celebrated as the "Matcha Capital of the World". Uji matcha is world-famous because it is the historic birthplace of Japanese tea culture.
We arrived Uji at 9am and our goal was to buy some matcha. I had shortlisted a few matcha shops in Uji based on my research, but a lot of them don't open till later so we headed straight to（資）松阪屋嘉八本店 (MATSUSAKAYA KAHATI) which opens at 9am.
So glad we went to this shop first and skipped the other popular ones. This is a family run tea shop owned by very friendly elderly owners. The shop is not fancy but gives a cozy vibe of a classic mom and pop shop. They even grind the green tea fresh in the shop.
We ordered 3 cans of matcha, and while we waited for the husband and wife to package our matcha nicely, the grandpa kindly made fresh matcha for us. He was so friendly and we certainly appreciated his effort to communicate with us in English. It was such a great, thoughtful touch. A total 10/10 experience! We were so glad to find local shop and experiences like this because it's getting rarer with overtourism in Japan. Strongly recommend this shop if anyone wants to buy matcha in Uji.
After a successful matcha detour in Uji, we arrived Nintendo Museum at 10.40am.
Had to go through security screening to enter the building, no food/drinks allowed but they had paid lockers to store our stuffs. To mark the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., visitors can choose the special limited 40th anniversary design play-ticket. How cute is the Pokemon manhole cover.
Tickets for Nintendo Museum are sold via a randomly selected drawing and must be purchased before your visit. We both entered for the drawing as soon as the drawing was open in January, and was lucky that both of us were selected to purchase the tickets in March. The tickets cost 3,300 yen /pax ($21). Nowadays you really have to plan ahead and buy tickets in advance to visit a lot of places in Japan. That's the unfortunate outcome of overtourism.
There are 2 levels in Nintendo Museum. Level 1 is the interactive arcade floor. Each of us are given 10 digital coins on our entry play ticket to play various retro-inspired and virtual games.
I'm not a gamer so I let hubby use most of my coins. The 3 gamers enjoyed their time here. Level 2 of the building had more exhibits but not photos allowed so I found a quiet spot to sit and took a nap while they browsed around. Btw, entrance into the museum are limited to our selected time slots for crowd control. But once we were in, we could stay as long as we wanted.
Hubby bought some souvenirs from the gift shop.
After spending about 3 hours in Nintendo museum, it was time to head back to Kyoto. Trains in Japan are always quiet, except when you have a group of kids who just finished school and are riding on the same train back home. Guess they were all excited for the weekend.
Rested a bit in the hotel before heading out for shopping and stumbled upon this 'interesting' store...lol!
Had Okonomiyaki for early dinner at this little mom and pop restaurant called Mr. Young Men.
The menu was all hand-drawn and hand-written...so cute.
7 Mar 2026 (Sat): Kyoto
Our last full day in Kyoto was a free and easy day. Did laundry in the morning, and had to figure out how to use the laundry machine at the hotel.
Walked to the supermarket across the street to buy lunch, and chilled for the rest of the afternoon.
Since I've never explored Kyoto at night during my last 2 trips, we decided to meet up with Brantyn and Anna at 7.30pm for an evening walk of Kyoto.
Gion
Yasaka Shrine
Ninenzaka. It was so nice to walk around these quiet streets, which are always filled with tourists during the day.
Yasaka Pagoda
Stopped by the supermarket on our way back to pick up some discounted bentos after 8pm. Had to use Google Translate to figure out what some items were.
8 Mar 2026 (Sun): Kyoto - Osaka
After 3 nights in Kyoto, it was time to continue our journey. Checked out at 10.45am, had our supermarket bento for lunch, before taking the train to our next stop...Osaka.
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