Japan 2025 Trip Log

I started travelling in 2021 and quickly fell in love with it. Although I've been to many places since then and considered writing dedicated posts to some trips, none of them were as compelling or big enough to write about like my recent Japan trip. Writing a short segment on it in one of my wrap-ups won't cut it; there's too much to talk about.

This trip to Japan was my first international trip and my longest trip (yet 🤞). We did so much that I want to document it in detail to look back on in the future. I have a lot of anecdotes to talk about as well. Expect this to be a log of everything I did + tangents about some things.

Warning: This is a HUGE post. I took a day to write about each day of the trip so you may want to read it slowly over multiple days too 😂

preface

Before getting into the actual details, let me talk about how the trip came to be and give some context that might be relevant.

Some of my college friends had a dream of "Japan 2025" when we graduated in 2020. I think their idea was that 5 years would be a good enough amount of time to work and save enough to spend on the trip because we knew that it would be expensive. They are huge anime fans, and Japan was THE dream for them. I am not a huge anime fan—I've seen some of them—but I am a fan of travelling, stationery, and (for the last couple of years) matcha. So when a few of them decided to make the trip happen, I said okay.

Our group was super mixed in terms of preferences and interests. The final group had 5 people—4 of us from India and one who moved to Australia. I'm a vegetarian and can eat egg only as a properly cooked omelette, and 2 of my friends are devout Muslims who are vegetarian if they don't get halal meat. One person is a huge anime fan and another is a huge fan of some anime (specifically Kimi no na wa). I am a huge fan of matcha and was the one who introduced it to the others and they quite like it too. I love stationery and have been eyeing Japanese stationery for a while; the others don't care about it. Some of us were interested in visiting the shrines and others weren't. All of us were interested in visiting the most popular places and good viewpoints—that's our only common ground 😂

We booked the tickets several months in advance. We booked in May for October 🤪 As soon as everyone was in, we looked at dates and quickly booked flight tickets in excitement without creating an itinerary. We didn't do any research before booking the tickets either. We initially booked an 11-day trip but we quickly changed our minds—we wanted more time in Japan. Everyone's vacation time and other things didn't fully match, so we rescheduled our return to be one day later.

About a week after booking flight tickets, we created a rough itinerary and started looking at Airbnbs. We decided to book Airbnbs instead of hotels because of our experience in other vacations and did not do much research on hotels vs Airbnbs. At some point, I remember us considering hotels but there was some reasoning due to which we chose Airbnbs. I don't remember it now.

It took us a good month to look at Airbnbs for every location and book them. All of us were busy with different things so it took time. We were done with booking the stays in June, leaving us enough time to make a detailed itinerary. We were in it now. I think we rushed booking because we were afraid that something else would come up or we'd get time to reconsider the trip.

We spent many weekends making our itinerary and pretty soon we realised that 12 days wasn't enough for everything we wanted to do but we were going to try anyway. We packed our itinerary to the brim. It was so bad. The weekend before the trip, I spent many hours trying to optimise the itinerary wherever possible and ironed out the travel details which we did not even think about.

Applying for the visa was a whole project on its own which took me many days of effort. It's not easy to get visas as an Indian. I found out very late that there was a different checklist for me because I am in a different place and had to do different things compared to my friends. I spent a lot of time scrolling on r/visas and triple checked my documents. The visa process was smooth because I was so prepared and I got my visa in one week.

The couple of weeks leading up to the trip, my friends and I lived in Reddit posts and reels about Japan. When we were booking, 12 days seemed a lot but when the trip approached, it felt less. We realised that we should have booked things after planning too because we learnt so much while detailing the itinerary.

As we took off, we decided that we'd do our best to do everything we want to, would split if it made sense, and to be flexible if there was a better way.

day -1: take off

Took a tip from the internet and packed only a carry-on suitcase and put it inside a slightly larger suitcase. Also had a backpack with essentials. I knew I'd shop but didn't know how much. I had to think of domestic flight limits too, which are much lower than the international limits. The final bag was less than the carry-on limit of the international flight and larger than the size limits by a couple of inches. I had to carry the suitcases up the stairs, etc., too, so I packed quite light.

** Timings are in IST (for now) **

~8 pm. Landed in Bangalore Terminal 1. Took my suitcase from baggage claim. Took a bus to Terminal 2 and was very early for our 2 am flight. Tried to make progress on Slow Productivity by Cal Newport on my Kindle while waiting for my friends.

~11:15 pm. After hours of waiting and discussing what we wanted to do and how we wished we were going for longer, everyone was together and we finally queued up to go in. Did check-in and customs.

day 0: arrive, shinjuku

~12:30 pm. Headed to the lounge. I was super hungry by this time because my last meal was the previous day's lunch at 1:30 pm. The lounge had a good food selection, ate well.

2:09 am. Took the famous clichéd snap with our passports and visas before getting on the flight.

2:55 am. The flight took off on time with no empty seats. The Japan Airlines economy legroom was much more than I expected. The temperature was a bit too high, otherwise zero complaints. We tried sleeping through the entire flight and somewhat managed it. Did not eat the snacks handed out an hour after takeoff, had breakfast at 9 am.

** Timings switched to JST **

3:02 pm. 9 hours later, landed at Narita airport. We were supposed to land at 2:15 pm but circled the air for an extra 45 minutes. Hoped to see Mt. Fuji while on the flight but the direction went far away, probably to circle around. It was weird to turn on the Ubigi e-SIM I got and watch the time on my phone and watch it jump 3.5 hours ahead.

3:45 pm. Cleared all formalities, picked up our luggage, and reunited with the friend who flew in from Australia. Used the washroom and was immediately impressed by all the buttons and features. Felt like we came to a city that's 10 years ahead. Proceeded to do the important things like getting a physical SIM (for one person), getting our Welcome Suica cards, and buying the Narita Express ticket to Shinjuku. Apparently, we can buy the (expensive) ticket only with cash so I paid for everyone. Coupled with the amount I loaded on Suica, I had already spent most of the cash I came with. We were also late and losing time according to our plans.

4:20 pm. Got into the Narita Express and settled down for an hour's journey. We were so excited that we were in Japan! It felt surreal. Watched the world outside and got excited at every anime-like scenery we passed. Finally entered the city during sunset.

~5:45 pm. Got off at Shinjuku Station. We had to take another train but the train station was so confusing that we took about 20 minutes to get to the right platform. I had read online that the first train journey into Tokyo is the most confusing and takes a lot of time—they weren't kidding. Our main problem was that we were only looking at the direction but we also had to look at the level.

~6:10 pm. Got off at Sasazuka station and walked about 20 minutes to our first stay. Already, we were charmed by Tokyo because of the silence and the clean streets and trains. Rolling our suitcases on the street created a lot of noise, enough that I was embarrassed and carried mine some of the way.

6:45 pm. Checked into the stay. We knew it was small but it was much smaller than we expected. It's a big stretch for 5 adults. Did not worry about it too much because we'd be out most of the time anyway. Decided to freshen up and leave at 8 pm.

8:10 pm. Who cares about exhaustion from the long flights? We wanted to explore! Walked to Sasazuka station and took a train to Shinjuku. We planned to grab dinner first and walk around. We wanted to check out the famous 3D cat billboard and Don Quijote.

In the weeks leading to the trip, I was very concerned about finding vegetarian food so I went on a huge research spree for places with proper vegetarian food in every location we'd be visiting. I made a list on Google Maps and tagged each restaurant with the city so that it would be easy to filter. I had saved about 50 places.

8:45 pm. Took a while to find a place that would be open until late to have dinner. Chose Afuri in Lumine, Shinjuku. It had only one veg option but we didn't have many options due to the time. Took a good while to figure out the way to the place (it was in the Lumine wall which has the station too, but the way up to the higher levels was confusing) and found a waiting line. We were too tired to find other options so we got into the line. We were the last people allowed in, they put a closed sign behind us 🙃

9:39 pm. After a LONG wait, we finally got our ramen. I got the Vegan Rainbow Ramen. It smelled great. Unsure if our exhaustion highly swayed our opinion but the ramen lowkey brought us back to life. It was what we needed at the time. A huge bowl of ramen with amazing soup. We left the restaurant energised.

Despite it being late at night with most restaurants closing, the streets were buzzing with people. There was a huge crowd and every crosswalk looked like a mini Shibuya scramble. We just walked around and decided to go to Don Quijote because everyone says to go there. Next to Don Quijote we found a taiyaki stall so we decided to try it. We had both the red bean and custard cream. I liked the former; my friends liked the latter. It was tasty.

After that, we headed into Don Quijote. I initially wasn't planning to go there but a colleague insisted that it's great so we went. I bought a few necessary things like an umbrella (I lost 2 on previous trips, will buying on a trip be more lucky?), a foldable bag, and a couple of matcha kitkats. Everything looked expensive but I thought that was the norm since our dinner was also expensive. There was a huge queue for the tax-free counter but it went by pretty quickly and we were done in about 15 minutes. I've seen much worse in India.

I had seen online that trains stop running at midnight so we made sure to take one before that. It seemed like everyone had the same idea because the entire street crowd was heading to the train station. We paused to look at the famous 3D cat billboard. I guess we weren't at the right spot because it did not look as good as the videos of it online. The trains were packed.

Verdict: Shinjuku was okay. Not great but not bad. The vibe was nice, I guess. A little too crowded.

day 1: harajuku, ginza, ikebukuro

Around midnight. Took a break after exiting Sasazuka station at the Lawson store there. I wanted to drink a coffee all day so I got a packed cafe latte. Walking at night didn't feel unsafe at all. Sure, we were 5 people with 3 guys but I didn't feel any bad vibes either. I'd definitely be on high alert in India. We paused at a 7-Eleven on the way to pick up a Fibe-mini because I had already figured out that it's a must for gut health from my research.

8 am. We had decided to head out by 8 so I was up and ready. My friends needed a bit longer so I went out for a walk. It was nice to walk the streets in the silence of an early weekend morning. I walked all the way to Sasazuka station and instead of heading back, because I knew that my friends would need more time, went further ahead. I kept walking random streets and found a lovely small coffee shop which looked like it had just opened. I ordered a Spanish latte and decided to have it at the café while I caught up on messages. The latte was really good! Creamy and tasty and a lot of coffee. The barista knew at least basic English so I had no hiccups. I didn't have many things to catch up on so I looked out the street and journaled a bit on my phone while sipping it.

9:30 am. Arrived at Takeshita Street, Harajuku with my friends. Apparently, it's the street of Harajuku and it gets super crowded later in the day. We arrived early so there weren't many people. We decided to just walk down the street and pick whatever place looked good for breakfast. Went into a gachapon place on our way to try it out. I was the only one with coins so I handed mine out and then we converted cash to more coins. I'm actually not into gachapon or mystery boxes/vending machines so I browsed for a super long time before trying one only because I knew my friend would like it.

We went into a café that looked good and then walked out because it was too expensive for small portions and basic dishes like toast. I browsed on maps and found a better place so we walked till there. It was bills Omotesando in the Tokyu Plaza and we were super confused about how to get in. The main entrance seemed blocked but there was a board saying that cafés opened at 8:30 am. There was a growing crowd outside the blocked entrance which had a banner, was an event going to happen? We finally went into a nearby store and asked them how to get in. They pointed us to the side of the building. The elevator entrance was so unassuming, we had totally missed it.

When we went up to the café's floor, we found a line that wound down the staircase 🫠 After waiting for 10 minutes, I suggested going somewhere else but my friends pointed out that other places may have a line too. We were all hungry by this point, so we stayed. About 30 minutes of life updates chatter later, we were finally seated. It's an Aussie place famous for its fluffy pancakes and had a lot of tourists. We ordered only breakfast dishes because we planned to get drinks elsewhere. It took another 30 minutes for the dishes to be served and we started wondering if it was normal for meals to take 1.5 hours total. (Spoiler: yeah, pretty much.) The pancakes were great and the portion sizes were huge. We were full enough to last until the evening.

We walked back to Takeshita Street to see if we wanted to buy anything but nothing seemed nice. The street was packed with people by this time too. I saw a pretty pair of embroidered socks so I got them and then we left.

1:15 pm. Arrived in Ginza. I was excited about Ginza because it had all the stores that I wanted to visit and I had a big shopping list. We went to BIC Camera first because my friends wanted to find a couple of things there. Then we split because we had a few different interests. One friend and I headed to Uniqlo. We thought it was the Flagship store but it was not. I didn't know that there were two Uniqlos close by. This one was crowded enough that we didn't think too much. My friend and I checked out a bunch of clothes, and everything looked great. I expected the sizes to run small based on what I saw online but the store carried US sizes which I'm used to. Uniqlo items were cheaper than in India and it helped that I could try on the clothes as I don't have a store in my city.

4:15 pm. We wanted to drink something after that so we walked to a matcha place I had saved. Unfortunately, we arrived there riiight after it stopped taking orders for the day. It apparently closes at 4:30 pm. On the way, we saw a long line for a place which only serves banana juice?!

Tired, we headed into a nearby Starbucks. We didn't have high expectations because Starbucks India sucks but we were surprised. I loved the iced matcha latte and my friends loved their matcha frappuccinos (this marked the start of their Starbucks matcha frappuccino addiction). One of my friends wanted a herbal tea so she and I left the boys and went in search of that.

We were very surprised when we passed huge streets filled with people taking photos and standing everywhere. I found out later that the streets are closed to vehicles on weekends. The vibe was nice during sunset. There was a buzzing energy in the air.

It turned out that the café had turned into a store a while ago so the 15-minute walk was a waste. We started walking back to the station and saw the actual Uniqlo flagship on the way and wondered if we lost our sense of direction until we realised it was a different outlet. We came across Muji on the way too and went in since it was on my list. We bought small notebooks to use as stamp books and I got all the pens that my friend wanted from there, along with a few for myself.

I wanted to go to Loft next because it was one of the big stores on my list. My friends wanted to go to Ikebukuro for dinner, though. So we decided to split—I'd finish up whatever I wanted to do and meet them at Ikebukuro. I had zero hesitations about being alone and travelling alone despite everything. I was fairly confident since I was the one figuring out transport and everything until then. Tokyo also had too many people for me to be concerned about being alone.

5:30 pm. I was running on breakfast pancakes so I decided to grab dinner at a restaurant inside Loft (very convenient). I had saved 2foods Vegan restaurant but couldn't find it and my energy was running out so I went into the pasta place which was at the entrance. Thankfully, I was seated immediately. There were only a few no-meat options so I got the tomato pasta. It took a few minutes for me and the server to communicate properly due to the language barrier but we managed. I actually don't like tomato but it looked like I couldn't be picky as a vegetarian in Japan. At least with tomato pasta, I could trust that it would have only tomato. It was nice enough. I ate while looking at the rain since I was near the windows.

After the meal, I head first to the stationery floor because that was my main target. I was in stationery heaven there. All the pens that I'd been eyeing for years, pretty notebooks unlike the sad Indian stationery market, and more. Once my basket was heavy and I had crossed off a bunch on my shopping list, I headed down to the matcha section. I picked up a couple of cheap matchas because I planned to buy more in Kyoto. Passed by 2foods which I had meant to go to and marvelled at how it was hidden in a corner. The checkout line was long but it moved fast. The total came up to 40k yen 🤪 (including stuff I bought for friends). I knew that I'd spend the most on stationery and 95% of what I got was on my list but I was still shocked by the amount. I suddenly felt like I was bad at managing money.

I didn't want to spend any more, so I headed to Ikebukuro. Although I was alone and it was only day 2, I had gotten used to the train system and travelled pretty smoothly to Ikebukuro. Honestly, it was much smoother and stress-free than every time I travelled with friends until then. It took about 40 minutes and I had no hiccups.

The timing worked out because my friends were finishing up with dinner when I arrived. They split up too—2 friends came to meet me and took me for anime merch shopping. Since I am not a huge anime fan anyway, I decided to only buy gifts for friends if anything looked nice. And honestly? Nothing was nice. I don't know if it was an issue with the shop we went to, because the selection sucked. I didn't buy anything.

9:30 pm. Reunited with the other 2 friends at the station and headed back to Sasazuka. Took a break at the Lawson store in front of Sasazuka station for a drink, again, before walking to our stay. We wanted to sleep early since we had a long day planned the next day but we stayed up to iron out logistics. A friend and I put our clothes in the washing machine too, wanting to stay ahead on laundry. Fell asleep around midnight.

Verdict: Harajuku was nothing special. We could have skipped it. I'm glad we went early and didn't spend long there. Ginza was exactly what I expected. The stores, the shopping, and the vibe. Although it was a weekend and it was crowded, I didn't mind it because I am used to that much crowd in India. I had fun alone too.

day 2: enoshima island, kamakura, shinjuku (again)

6:45 am. I woke up a bit early to hang my clothes to dry in the bathroom with the steam setting. We left 15 minutes late, at 7:15, but that's okay. Any tiredness from lack of sleep floated away as we walked to the station and looked forward to the day. Took the Keisei Line from Sasazuka to Shinjuku (we became well acquainted with Keisei because it's the train from our station to Shinjuku and back), then took a JR train to Ofuna station.

There's a more direct way to go to Enoshima but we wanted to go via the Shonan monorail. I had seen a YouTube vlog on it and it looked cool. The route is longer but more fun. The Shonan monorail route has not gotten much traction, I guess, because there weren't many tourists on the train. It could also be because we were early, though. There were only a few people who treated the journey from Ofuna to Enoshima as a special thing and took videos. I've not been on a hanging monorail before so it was cool. This leg of the journey was short.

Enoshima in the morning had few people and everything was scenic, including the roads and the signals. It felt like I walked into an anime. We took a few pictures and decided to have breakfast at Tully's which was right in front of us. We didn't feel like searching for a place and going out of our way. There weren't many options for breakfast, though. We got light breakfasts and matcha lattes (which were kinda disappointing).

By the time we finished breakfast and got back on the road to the island, the crowd had increased. I started herding my friends to Enoshima Island. It became super hot and I didn't get my umbrella. I still wanted to walk to Enoshima Island on the bridge, though. My friends were being wishy washy (one said he'll stay back and chill?! said Sea Candle will take too long?!) but I didn't want to hold back so I just started walking. If they come, they come.

The bridge was lovely. The ocean is on both sides and you basically walk 15 minutes to get to the island. I kept pausing and admiring the place. I was smiling really wide because it was so beautiful. My friends eventually caught up (all of them). At the entrance of Enoshima Island, there's a street that takes you up and you can take another elevator up (or climb) to go up to Sea Candle—a tower with a great view on the top.

While walking, we saw a place that custom engraved chopsticks. Getting these was on my list, so I went in and my friends followed me. We ended up spending about an hour in the store, choosing chopsticks and engravings. My friends bought way more than me, getting a ton as gifts. The store was fairly empty when we went but it was crowded by the time we left. I suggested that we check out Sea Candle and if there's not much queue, we can go in. My friends said it's fine now, we have to wait for an hour or so anyway for the chopsticks to be ready to pick up. So, off we went.

We paid for and took the escalator since we didn't want to climb up. There were multiple escalators to take, with a view or things to do at every stop in between. We focused on getting to the top first. Thankfully, there was a short queue. The view was awesome at the top of the Enoshima Sea Candle. It's open so we could see everything and feel the wind (and the heat). On a good day, you'd be able to see Mt. Fuji from here too. We enjoyed the view from all sides because it's a circular deck and even sat on the benches for a while to rest. Considering that it was the weekend, there wasn't much crowd. I wondered if Enoshima was a slightly off-beat destination.

2 pm. Went back down and picked up our beautiful chopstick sets. Walked back through the bridge faster since now we were tired and dehydrated despite going through multiple water bottles from vending machines. It was hot. On the way back to the station, we noticed a store selling mitarashi. It looked like mochi and we were a bit hungry so we decided to try it. After confirming that it's vegetarian twice, we bought 2 boxes and ate them on the benches outside the store. It was tasty! I liked it. Apparently, we were setting a trend because the store was empty when we noticed it and it was full as we were leaving. Looks like people wanted to try after seeing us enjoy it, haha.

The crowds had really picked up by this time—the street was packed with people. I was glad that we arrived and finished up things early.

2:45 pm. I had seen the pretty Enoden line train on a YouTube vlog so obviously we took that. It's a pretty green train. The train we got had 2 purple coaches—a limited cartoon-themed thing, I think. I almost suggested waiting for the next train because I wanted the green one I liked but figured we'd be inside anyway, that's a foolish reason. The station we wanted to get off at was only a couple of stops away from Enoshima. It's a place that inspired a scene in a popular anime which I've not seen but we wanted to go there anyway for the scenic vibes. I suggested that we go to a place there that was recommended on the vlog I watched.

I took a really nice video of the ride and was a bit startled when our stop arrived, so I rushed to get off. In my hurry, I forgot to take the bag of chopsticks purchases from the overhead rack. While keeping it there, I hesitated. I was worried that I'd forget it—I sometimes have the memory of a goldfish when there are too many things on my mind. I figured that I'd remember since I thought so much about it. Well, nope. I forgot. I realised it after we got off and were marvelling at the ocean. Cue panic 🙃

My friends suggested speaking to the station staff so I ran back and found someone. He didn't know English, so I tried to use gestures and basic words. After a few minutes, my brain started working and I remembered that Google Translate exists so I whipped out my phone and used it to communicate about my lost bag. It was a good thing that we came in the purple train because I could specifically identify the train. He called up a central operator about it and said they'll look for it and to wait. So I waited. My friends waited with me for about 20 minutes and then I told them to go have food without me because everyone was hungry and tired. 2 decided to stay with me anyway and the other 2 went ahead. Another 20 minutes later, the staff member tells me that they didn't find it. I was disappointed because I'd see many stories that people get back what they lost in Japan. I had spent quite a bit of money on the purchase and they were gifts that I was excited to give people so I really wanted them back.

I decided to wait for the train to return just in case. It's a fairly short train track so I found the info online and calculated that the train ideally should come back to our station in 50 minutes. Maybe a bit extra if there's a break/stop somewhere. I really hoped that it wasn't taking a proper break. When it was around 55 minutes since we got off, the 2 friends who went to eat called up saying that they saw our purple train coming back (the restaurant overlooks the train track). So I swiped my Suica card to get in and waited. About 10 minutes later, the train returned! Even before the doors opened, I spotted my bag in the rack. It looked like it hadn't even been touched because it was in the same position. I quickly got in, grabbed my bag, and got out. My heart was thumping with relief. My friends were relieved too and I thanked them profusely for waiting with me. They joked that I also had a story to share about losing and finding my stuff in Japan now 😮‍💨

4:15 pm. We reached the restaurant to find our other friends sitting outside, still waiting for a table. Apparently, the restaurant was full. They had been waiting for 30+ minutes already. They were too tired to find another place so they just waited, since we were also waiting for my lost bag. Another 15 or so minutes later, we finally got seated. It felt so good to sit down on a couch; we all slouched. It had been a long day already and we were running on small breakfasts. There weren't a lot of veg options so I ordered a fluffy pancake. We sat overlooking the ocean and ate happily. The food was good—I really liked my pancake. We ate fairly quickly because a friend wanted to check out the spot that inspired the anime movie scene and the rest of us just wanted to actually see Kamakura in daylight. The sun was about to set soon.

2 friends headed to the movie spot. I finished eating before the other 2 so I paid and headed out to walk around and soak in the place. I caught the sunset and it was beautiful. I loved the view, I loved the streets, and I loved watching the Enoden line trains pass by. I loved how the unrestricted ocean view, the roads, the wide footpaths, and the train track were all parallel. I saw people running here and was super jealous—Japan has amazing roads and I want to run there.

6 pm. After sunset, we regrouped at the station and took the next Enoden train to Kamakura station. I was a bit disappointed that we couldn't experience this part of the train ride, which is longer, with daylight because it would have been so pretty. Oh well. At least I got my bag back. At Kamakura, we switched to a train bound for Shinjuku. The direct train takes 1 hour. By this time, we were all super exhausted. It had been a long day with a bunch of travel and walking and being under the sun. We were texting to discuss logistics for the next day while on the train to Shinjuku and one of my friends said he's so tired that his phone was about to fall off. I took a low-key nap too.

~7:30 pm. We were still tired when we got off at Shinjuku and craved a drink and some rest. I suggested getting a drink from The Matcha Tokyo, which was on my list and is supposed to have amazing matcha drinks. Thankfully, it was very close to the station's exit, in the Lumine mall itself. We got iced matcha lattes and sipped them while sitting on the benches outside the mall. I was lowkey blown away—the drink was so good! My friends loved it too. We gathered some energy and discussed the next day's plan again. We looked at the coin lockers 200 m away from us and made a tentative plan. This was going to be our last night in Shinjuku so we decided to spend an hour there before going to the stay.

The guys went to have dinner at a place that serves halal meat. Me and the other girl went to Don Quijote because she wanted to buy a couple of things for someone. We weren't too hungry so we decided to grab taiyakis from the stall we tried the other day. It wasn't as good this day because it wasn't made fresh in front of us 😕 It still filled our stomachs, though, and we didn't need anything else for dinner. We just walked around and killed time after that until the guys were ready to head back.

At the stay, we packed our stuff since we were checking out the next day and discussed the next day's plan even more. We were quite exhausted so we went to bed a bit early, around 11 pm, if I remember right. 11 was early considering the streak we had so far lol.

Verdict: Enoshima Island and Kamakura were beautiful. 10/10. Shinjuku was meh again. We were there mainly to grab something to eat and drink.

day 3: fujikawaguchiko, kouan campground

8:30 am. We needed to figure out our luggage situation. We wanted to use Yamato transport to forward our luggage to our last stay but they don't pick up and drop off at Airbnbs, which complicated things. This is when we realised that maybe we should have stayed in hotels. We didn't know this before booking our stays.

2 of my friends headed out to pick up the car we rented for a day. I headed out to the FamilyMart nearby to ask them if they do luggage forwarding and to check logistics. It was so nice to be walking alone in the quiet morning that I missed 2 turns and ended up walking much longer than necessary before reaching the store. An old man was manning the counter so I whipped out Google Translate and struggled with that for a while. He did say that it can be done but he didn't seem to understand our specifics so my confidence was low. I told the friends who picked up the car to check at the Yamato centre in Nakano Broadway nearby and went back to the stay to wait.

9:45 am. Checked out and waited at the curb with all the luggage. The number of bags seemed to have multiplied in only a couple of days. It was taking a long time for the other friends to check at Yamato and return—communication takes longer due to the language barrier. Meanwhile, we didn't have anything to eat or drink. We snacked on a pea snack that I had bought the previous day at 7-Eleven.

Maybe we could have stayed inside until someone arrived to clean the place but I didn't want to inconvenience them and make a bad impression so I pushed for checking out early. It was a good thing too because the cleaners arrived around 10:10 am. It looked like they were new to this place because they were super confused. After a while of struggling, they seemed to have video called the owner and figured out how to get into the building but were still struggling with the house's lock system. I tried helping them but even I didn't know it well so I pulled in another friend to help and he opened it. It was a funny minute.

11:10 am. The guys finally arrived with the car. We loaded all the luggage in it, including what we had to carry with us. They went back to Yamato to drop off the large luggage and the rest 3 of us decided to travel there via bus. Apparently, it takes the same amount of time. So we took our first bus in Japan. I was impressed by how smooth it was. Google Maps shows the exact location of the next bus with real-time updates of ETA. A kind local guessed that we were new and told us to enter from the back. It was interesting to find out that we pay only while getting on. I spent the bus ride looking out and ruminating about the impacts of the flat bus ride fee.

11:45 am. We ended up reaching before the guys in the car. It took quite a while to set up our luggage for forwarding but the team was super helpful and efficient. There were just a lot of forms to fill. We were already quite late in our plans but we had to eat something before heading out, it was a long drive to Fujikawaguchiko. I wanted something proper to eat instead of convenience store food so me and the the other girl walked around in Nakano Broadway to find food. We found a bakery with fresh bread which smelled amazing and got a few. We guessed that the guys would eat a bit too, even though they said they don't want anything so we got extra and met the guys at the convenience store near the car park. They had smoothies, coffee, and sandwiches from 7-Eleven. Then, we were off!

I ate the melon bread (sweeter than I was expecting) and croissant (was nice but I've had better), put in my earbuds, and passed out. I didn't get good sleep at night because of an eczema flare-up. I woke up at night to a burning hand and saw huge scratches on my arm the next morning. It was clear that I had drawn blood in my unconscious itching. My friend was driving well which made me sleepy. I'm sure the views would have been nice but I needed the nap. It took about 2 hours to get there and I slept most of the drive. I had woken up a couple of times in the middle but had a deep nap otherwise. It turns out that the AirPods Pro noise cancelling is amazing enough for me to easily sleep in a car with music playing and the person next to me singing.

2:30 pm. Parked near the famous Fujikawaguchiko Lawsons and got out. The guys snacked on one of the breads we had bought while we stretched our legs and walked around. The place was so cool, I loved it. The temperature was significantly lower than in Tokyo. There were huge clouds in the sky too so we couldn't see Mt. Fuji. It was clear that the place was surrounded by mountains, though. I couldn't stop admiring the place. I loved the roads, the buildings, the sky—everything. There weren't a lot of people either.

After a bit of walking around and a few pictures, we decided to head to one of the places we wanted to see. After a bit of arguing and voting, we set off to Chureito Pagoda. The other option was Lake Kawaguchiko which is very pretty but we didn't have time to do both before the sunset, hence the tension. We passed by the lake on the way to Chureito, though, and it looked great. Not special enough considering the weather, though. We have pretty lakes in India too.

Chureito Pagoda is a famous place where you can climb up and have a view of the pagoda, the city, and Mt. Fuji in the background. There was basically zero visibility for Fuji, though, so we enjoyed what we could see. Took several pictures and sat there for a bit before leaving. Although the weather was cold, it wasn't too cold to require a jacket and our climb up and down warmed us up enough.

One of my friends wanted to visit the Fujisan Yume No Ohashi bridge which has been trending online lately because it has a cool staircase. People said it was close to Fujikawaguchiko but when we checked on maps it was a whole hour away, on the other side of the mountain, and we did not have 2 hours to spare. So that quickly got dropped.

5 pm. Arrived at Lake Kawaguchiko. It was getting colder now. It was the perfect weather for a coffee. We found out that boating on the lake was closed and it looked like the cable car was closed as well, so I set off to find a coffee shop. Midway, my friend called me back because another set of boaters was still doing rides. I fetched my jacket and we set off on the boat. We took the longest path which covers the entire lake. The cold and the wind was no joke, especially when the driver sped up. I didn't have a scarf and my jacket didn't had a hood so I started keeping my right ear, which was facing the brunt of the wind, closed with my hand. The ride was super fun, especially since we were the only people on the lake at the time. The only problem was the wind. We had earaches for a while after the ride.

The sun had pretty much set when we got off the boat and since Fujikawaguchiko is a small town, it looked like most things closed up early. My friends had a specific restaurant in mind for halal food (it had a veg option for me) so we headed there. Unfortunately, after going in we found out that they were completely booked out with reservations. My friends were quite bummed about it because they were looking forward to food from this place. Turns out, Fujikawaguchiko has enough people looking for halal food, who knew.

We were all hungry and tired at this point. I looked for places on Google Maps and found a ramen place which had "vegetable ramen". I hoped it would be vegetarian so we all headed there. I won't lie, the place looked a bit sus when we walked in. It was a small place run by an old couple and had only locals inside. We were doubtful of getting veg food because traditional Japanese places usually don't have no-meat dishes. It took quite a while for us to get the menus since they were busy cooking for other customers. I asked whether the vegetable ramen had meat or fish using Google Translate and said we don't want it. She said daijobu ok which I took to mean that it's fine. They didn't have any chicken options though so even my friends who have non-veg took vegetable ramen. 4 of us ordered—the 5th friend had spotted another halal place on the way which didn't have veg food and wanted to go there when we were done.

6:30 pm. The ramen bowls that arrived were huge. The portion size was crazy. It can easily count for two meals which was good since we needed that. The soup was awesome and much needed on that cold evening. The ramen was so good that the 5th friend also ordered it, deciding it's better to have it and leave instead of spending more time at another place. It took us a good while to finish eating. A local came in after us and finished his ramen and left before we were even halfway through 😂 The ramen was so good that it put one of my friends to sleep on the table and it took quite a bit of prodding to wake her up.

It was fairly late already so we wanted to reach our stay for the night as soon as possible. We stopped at a 7-Eleven on the way for drinks. I wanted to try the latte from 7-Eleven because I saw a comment online that it is the best coffee. The weather was perfect for it too. I asked for coffee at the counter and went to the machine which had the cup that I got and got... black coffee. I realised my error. The default coffee for them is black. I do not have black coffee and was quite embarrassed with the mistake. I put on my brave face and went to the counter to ask for a latte instead. I managed to convey what I wanted with gestures, although it took a bit more time because she apparently forgot that I bought the coffee 2 minutes ago—she asked me did I buy it now there itself and that she wanted to see the receipt. I said yes and pointed to the receipts basket because I did not pick it up. She found the receipt and gave me a refund and rang up a latte. I asked her if I can put the coffee somewhere because I didn't want it and she took it from me. At least she got a coffee, I guess?

I stepped out of the store and sipped the latte and fell in love. The latte from 7-Eleven is actually amazing. It was better than some of the lattes I've had from cafés, no joke. It was so good. If we had more time, I'd have gotten another. Our stay for the night was another hour away and we had no idea about any check-in time limits.

9:30 pm. Arrived at Kouan Campground! One of my friends really wanted to stay at a campsite close to Mt. Fuji for the views. I vehemently opposed doing actual camping when my friend proposed it (looked like he was not thinking about logistics then) so we took a small 1-bedroom house on the lake. Unfortunately, our timing was very bad because the visibility was zero. Still, we could enjoy the cloudy lake and campsite vibes.

Since we arrived very late, we focused on putting our stuff away and freshening up. I took a shower first and then went to the shore of Lake Motosu with the guys. It was cold and windy and we couldn't see anything but we still stayed there for a while chatting. I went back in first because the cold was too much for me lol. The place had 2 bunk beds so the guys had to sleep on the floor. While the others freshened up, I focused on putting out the bedding for everyone which took longer than I expected. Although we should have slept quickly, we stayed up chatting for a good while. The sleepover vibes took over. The chat was mainly to figure out the next day's plan but we kept getting sidetracked with other topics 😂 2 people decided to wake up for sunrise at 5 am (it was already close to midnight) and we all decided that we'd check out at 8 am. 2 of us wanted a proper breakfast and 2 others wanted to do the cable car at the lake. With that plan, we fell asleep.

Verdict: Fujikawaguchiko is a lovely place to visit even if Fuji isn't visible. Would suggest the campground only if one's staying for longer.

day 4: fujikawaguchiko and shibuya

7 am. I didn't promise to wake up for the sunrise so I leisurely woke up when my alarm rang at 7. One of my friends was already up and ready to leave so I got up and started freshening up too. Slowly, the rest woke up due to the sounds. After a few of us got dressed (I wore the sweatshirt and pants that I got in Uniqlo!), we headed out to the lakeshore while the rest got ready.

It was cold and super windy. It was drizzling a bit, too. The skies were completely cloudy and we glimpsed only a part of Mt. Fuji. We planned to leave at 8 am but spent a while on the lakeshore and left late. After checking out, we perused the offerings in the souvenir store for a bit and finally headed off to Fujikawaguchiko past 9 am.

One of my friends wanted to check out a specific park because it has a Naruto section but the rest of us didn't, so he got off on the way at the park and said that he'll meet us back in Tokyo. The 4 of us headed to find breakfast first because we needed a proper warm meal. A friend had seen a café while we were passing by the previous day so we went there.

10:20 am. It felt like we were being cocooned in warmth as soon as we stepped in. I got a waffle and a coffee. The coffee quantity was a lot and the warmth was amazing, so we spent a while chatting and eating. We meant to do the cable car at Lake Kawaguchiko but while talking we realised how late it was and that it would take 2+ hours to get back to Tokyo. Our car drop-off was at 1 pm, so we had to hustle out. We lost a good 20 minutes struggling with the payment machine at the car parking lot because it only accepted the old notes and not the new notes. We finally went into the nearby bank to ask for help.

Finally, we were off. I stayed awake this time to check out the views as we drove by. It wasn't that cool, actually. The drive went smoothly until we had to exit the highway to enter Tokyo. There was a huge line of cars slowly inching out. From then until we reached our next stay, the driving was slow. It was a breeze compared to the traffic I see regularly in India but we didn't account for it there, so we were delayed. We were super surprised on the way to the stay because it was in the next neighbourhood of our previous stay. We passed by Sasazuka 😂 Sure, it was closer to Shibuya but it was quite close to our previous Tokyo stay too.

1:15 pm. At the stay, we dropped off all the luggage, and quickly freshened up since we really needed to. We quickly topped up the fuel and went to the drop-off site but by the time we reached, we were an hour late. We had to pay an extra 7k yen 🫠 Overall, after splitting everything by 5, the cost was still worth it considering the trouble we would have had without the car.

Since it was lunch time, we found a vegan place called Alaska nearby to have a bite. This was the first time we encountered the rule that we have to order a drink so we were baffled. I got a bagel sandwich and it was nice enough. Then, we headed to Shibuya. The friend who split was also on the way to Shibuya and would reach around the same time as us. Because he skipped meals and took the train from the outskirts of Tokyo (avoiding traffic issues), his timing matched ours.

4 pm. Crossed the famous Shibuya crossing. It actually did not look as crowded as I was expecting. Maybe it would look like it from a view? We met the other friend in the middle of the crossing 😆 We decided to just walk around and shop. 3 friends wanted to check out shoes in ABC mart on the way so they went there while I went to PARCO with another friend. I wasn't looking for any anime stuff for myself but thought I'd get some for my friends if anything caught my eye. Went into PARCO, saw nothing nice, so I left after 5 minutes.

I exited PARCO from the other side and found Hands right next to it. I had heard a lot about Hands being a good alternative to Itoya and Loft. Although I was done with my stationery shopping, I thought I'd check it out since I had the time. It was so empty! And it had the same stationery as Loft. Some of it looked cheaper too. I simply walked around and tried out the samples. I loved one of the ink stamps for stamping dates with an icon, so I got that. It was the first stationery item that I bought which was not on my list.

After that small purchase, I simply walked around in Shibuya. I didn't have any aim so I wandered. After a while, I felt like having something so I searched for matcha latte on Google Maps and found SACYA which was rated almost 5 stars with a ton of reviews. It was in the basement on Shibuya Scramble. I actually had a hard time finding it because I was confused with the two different escalators and since it's on the same floor as the train station. Turns out it was like a food court with many food and drink stalls. SACYA was in a corner. It had only 2 customers when I arrived. I was surprised, since it was rated so well. I got a lavender matcha since I haven't tried that before. The baristas were super friendly and conversational. The drink was amazing too.

I walked around a bunch again. The guys called and told me to meet them in a specific café that has a good view of the crossing. I checked Google Maps for directions and found a review from a local asking tourists not to go there since it's an office floor. I sent it to the group and the guys suggested a different place. On the way, I took a quick photo with the Hachiko statue with a stranger's help.

I arrived at the same time as the other girl in the group. Turns out she split to check out a shrine but it was closed. We checked out the view of the crossing (the crowd still looked less for me) and chatted while we waited for the guys. They were late and didn't respond so we decided to head out again, since the view wasn't great either. I thought about checking out ABC Mart for shoes since she said she got a pair she's been eyeing for 2 years for a great deal. She wanted to try the matcha at SACYA so she headed there. On my way to ABC Mart, it started drizzling so I doubled back to Shibuya Scramble and joined her. I didn't want to get stuck in the rain and miss our Shibuya Sky timeslot.

In the food court, we saw a stall selling mochi so we got a couple of them and coconut matcha from SACYA. The red bean paste mochi was so good. We loved it. The drinks were awesome too. The two were filling enough for us not to want a proper dinner 😆 We checked out stores in Shibuya Scramble until 8:30, then headed up to the 14th floor. We thought we were late and that the guys had arrived but actually they arrived 15 minutes late. Turns out they went somewhere else and didn't even go to the place they asked us to meet at 🙃

9 pm. Went up to Shibuya Sky at the terrace of Shibuya Scramble. It was so cool! I loved that it was an open terrace so we could feel the wind and see the view of Tokyo in all directions. We took several photos with multiple phones but they didn't capture the view accurately, of course. I appreciated that the Shibuya Sky staff don't oversell tickets and fill up the place to capacity. The place was maybe 40% filled, so we had enough space to take photos without others in the background. Although the sunset view is apparently the best, the night view was pretty dang great.

10 pm. Left Shibuya Sky. Although the view was great, there wasn't much to do there. The guys wanted to grab dinner so we split again. The other girl and I caught a bus to our stay. By this time, we were tired of the food issue (having only one or two meals a day and the guys apparently being ok with that). We had an early start the next day so we knew that we wouldn't have time for breakfast. We went to a Lawsons (from my prior research, I learnt that Lawsons has more vegetarian options) nearby and grabbed salads and a couple of breads to have in the morning. I took a corn salad.

I became hungry after arriving at the stay, though, so I had the salad at night. It was actually really good. The Caesar dressing packet I took was great. We chatted about random things until the guys arrived and then all of us chatted some more. This stay was much better than our previous stay (5 double beds in 2 rooms, 2 toilets, 2 washrooms, lots of toiletries equipped), we should've booked it for those days too. It had a big sectional sofa too so while we took turns showering, we hung out in the living room, packed, and chatted about what we did and the plan for tomorrow. One of our friends in India video called us to hear about what we'd been doing.

We slept at 2 am with alarms set to 5:30 am 🙂

Verdict: Shibuya was less crowded than I expected. Shibuya Sky was awesome.

day 5: shinkansen to kyoto, nijo-jo castle, fushimi inari

5:40 am. Woke up after snoozing the alarm once. The guys were up already. Felt sluggish so I freshened up and got ready slowly. We meant to leave at 6:30 am, I think. The host's instructions said to separate the trash and put it in a garbage locker (what is that?) but the host wasn't responding with the pin or location so we left a message apologising and checked out since we were already late. Managed to leave by 6:40 am. The host later responded that we didn't need to do it lol.

Took a train to Shinjuku Station. We expected that we'd be confused about the right platform so we gave ourselves enough buffer time. We found our way to the right gates and then ended up on the wrong platform. Realised 10 minutes later and went to the right platform. Thankfully, we still had 15 minutes left. It is better to be early.

7:36 am. Got into the Shinkansen and found our seats. The legroom was plentiful. Most of us were still sleepy so we planned to nap. I ate the two small breads I bought yesterday. I wasn't sleepy, so I watched stuff on my phone. The popular D & E seats (which have the view of Mt. Fuji) were filled with a travelling group from Spain and I idly watched the host telling them things. I didn't understand most of it but it was fun to guess. I did catch the note that she will let them know when Mt. Fuji can be seen.

On the Shinkansen ride from Tokyo to Kyoto, Mt. Fuji can be seen for about 5 minutes. After a while, I noticed the host telling everyone to look out the windows so I kept glancing at them too. After a few minutes, I saw a huge mountain but I thought it was a different one because the view was too clear. Then the train conductor announced that Mt. Fuji is currently visible out the window. I was so surprised. The view was sucked the past few days from Tokyo but it was completely clear from this side!

The guys were asleep, so we girls went to the common compartment at the end of the coach to get a better view. We were marvelling at how clear the view was and got a good photo and video too. We finally saw Fujisan! After it passed, we settled down for naps too, with alarms for an hour later. I didn't get good sleep though so I didn't need the alarm. I woke my friends up when we were about to arrive at Kyoto and we got off.

10:15 am. The Kyoto Airbnb host suggested taking a specific bus to the stay. It was a bit confusing to figure out the right bus stop and we first ended up at the wrong bus stop on the other side of the station. Eventually, we figured out the way and got into our bus. Kyoto looked very charming through the bus windows. I was excited to explore.

Although our check-in time was much later in the afternoon, the host said that we could keep our luggage early. So we dropped off our tiny mountain of luggage at the entryway and headed off to explore. But first, breakfast.

The primary mode of transportation in Kyoto was the bus. We got so used to catching trains in Tokyo that we were surprised by everything being more accessible by bus. The buses were different from the ones in Tokyo too—we had to swipe our cards while getting off. The bus stops were really cool too. There were schedules of the buses on that route posted on a board and there was live bus tracking for those numbers! Something on the board flipped based on whether the bus is 2 stops behind, 1 stop behind, or about to arrive. We don't need to rely on Google Maps.

12:30 pm. We went to Ain Soph. Journey in Kawaramachi (the main shopping street, it looks like). It was still early so there wasn't any crowd and we got seated right away. I had a seasonal pancake special and a nut salad. It felt so nice to have nuts after many days. The walnuts were so tasty too, not like the bland ones in India.

1:30 pm. By the time we finished brunch and got out, the streets had become crowded. I split from my friends to visit The Traveler's Factory store and they went to a museum. We decided to meet at Nijo Castle in about an hour. I walked since it wasn't too far and took in the residential streets. The crowd was only in Kawaramachi; other streets were quiet and empty. It took me 10 minutes to find the store in the mall because the location on Google Maps was incorrect and it was hidden behind plants. It was a charming store and I wasted no time in picking up the things I wanted.

I reached Nijo-jo Castle at the time we agreed upon but they were quite late. I went inside instead of waiting outside in the harsh sun. Due to the time difference, I saw all of the main Castle myself. It was interesting to see the rooms and patterns. The cards were informative. I was surprised by how much thought went into the patterns painted on the walls. I waited for my friends at a bridge. We decided to skip the other Castle because it seemed like too much effort (requires a separate ticket that we should buy online) and would probably contain similar things. After walking around and checking out the setting sun from a viewpoint, we left.

We wanted to do different things next. One friend wanted the matcha frappuccino from Starbucks which ignited the craving in another friend. One friend wanted to go to Fushimi Inari immediately to catch the sunset there. The last friend planned to skip Fushimi Inari and go to Nannenzaka since he's not interested in shrines (or any religious places outside of his religion...). I just wanted a drink first before going to Fushimi Inari. So we split. One friend and I headed to the nearest Starbucks (which was in the next train station stop 10 mins away) with plans of meeting the other 2 at Fushimi Inari. The matcha latte did not disappoint. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of Starbucks locations in Japan—they're everywhere and the quality is amazing.

5:30 pm. One train ride later, we arrived at Fushimi Inari right as the sun was setting. The other 2 had already started climbing up because one of them wanted a specific sunset view that she saw online. Fushimi Inari is open 24/7 and many people online said that it has a specific charm at night and fewer people so we weren't worried about time. About 15 minutes later, we caught up to the others. Apparently, not many people make it to the top because it's quite a long climb so one of my friends was determined to go to the top. I am also competitive and I didn't like the insinuation that it'll take us 2 hours so I was determined to go up fast. Although I was carrying a bag full of stuff, I climbed pretty swiftly and often waited for my friends to catch up. We stopped for pretty views on the way.

6:28 pm. We made it in less than an hour! The climb wasn't that hard, actually, even though we were carrying bags and were running on low food and sleep. The path was filled with tori gates. There wasn't any view when we made it to the top. It wasn't a huge disappointment since we were warned by a man on the way that there was nothing to see there. There's a shrine but since we're not Buddhists, we just took a photo to document that we made it and came back down. We took a different route and exited an hour later. We were sweaty and tired.

7:50 pm. We considered going to Nineizaka because the other friend said it was cool. Then the friend said that everything closed by 6 pm so there's no point. The guys with us split at Kyoto City Subway station to meet up with the other friend for a halal dinner. Me and the other girl got some boba at Gong Cha first (I got the autumn Hojicha latte, it was nice but not my fav) and then headed to MERCY Vegan Factory which I had saved during pre-trip research. Although the name of the restaurant includes "Kyoto station", it was a 14-minute walk away 🙃 We picked up a small cake on the way because it was one of the guys' birthdays.

8:20 pm. The restaurant was on the basement floor of a hotel and was filled with tourists. I wasn't surprised since the only people who eat vegan in Japan are tourists; it's not a thing for locals. The service was a bit slow because only one person was handling the tables but we didn't mind. We were just glad that there wasn't a queue to be seated. We got a fake egg sandwich which is made with paneer (reviews said it tasted exactly like the real thing and we wanted to check), a salad, and bibimbap. The food was great. I loved it. The salad, especially. We ate well and got in much-needed nutrients.

~10:15 pm. We grabbed salads in a supermarket for the next morning before heading to the stay. We reached before the guys, stashed the cake in the fridge, and explored the place. It was a traditional Japanese home with a few modern appliances. We were to sleep on tatami mats. It was pretty big too, with the bedrooms on the second floor. It was great. I quickly put in a load of my clothes in the washing machine and opened my Traveler's Factory haul because I was so excited about it. We cut the cake, sang happy birthday, and set off to freshen up and rest. The guys wanted to put their clothes in the washing machine so I got my clothes out as soon as it was done and hung them up to dry in the bedroom's closet. There was no other place to dry clothes. Fell asleep around midnight.

Verdict: Kyoto is charming. Nijo-jo Castle and Fushimi Inari were great.

day 6: amanohashidate, ine funaya

7:10 am. Woke up with a bit of difficulty and opened the curtains. Realised that our room has a tiny balcony which is perfect for hanging clothes so I moved my clothes (which had barely dried in the closet) to there. I finished getting ready and eating my salad before some of the others were ready to leave. I wanted breakfast pretty badly but two friends wanted to get going ASAP with the idea of having a meal a few hours later. We argued and I refused to budge... until I checked for breakfast places and didn't find any open nearby 🙃 So I agreed to grab something from 7-Eleven before heading off. I quickly had a green smoothie for fibre and took a cafe latte for the road.

8:30 am. Picked up the car (30 min late but it's okay) and left the city! I was really happy with my outfit on this day and was ready to have the best day. I sat shotgun and navigated. I often navigate so I'm pretty good at it, if I can say so myself. Since it was still early in the day, we had energy, so we played good pumped-up Hindi road trip songs. This drive's views were really good—I was glad to be sitting in the front. I took a lot of videos and soaked in the countryside bathed in sunshine.

10:30 am. 2 hours later, made it to Amanohashidate! My hunger was starting to make itself known. My friend (who planned this day) wanted to eat in the cafe at Amanohashidate but we found out that it was closed after arriving. So we postponed food (again). I went to the washroom before going up and found that I got my period 😭 Thankfully, I had panty liners but I needed to buy pads soon. It had to come on the one day I didn't carry a pad with me. It had to come when I wore light pants and was far from our stay. No wonder I was surprised by the "hunger" that hit me when I got out of the car—it was the period.

Amanohashidate was really pretty. We took the cable chair ride up which is just chairs hanging from a cable that go up and down. There's no seatbelt which I was initially concerned but then realised that the chair doesn't go that high away from the ground so it's okay. It was a fun ride. The view from the top was so cool. It's the ocean with a strip of land connecting 2 land masses. We took a TON of photos. There was a cycling activity on top which had a great view but was quite scary considering I'm afraid of heights. I could feel my energy starting to drain due to my period at this time.

There was another path kind of thing where you climb up and can take cool photos with the view. We took a bunch. I considered eating something here but the food stall only had small snacks so I skipped. We took the cable cars back down and this ride was 10 times better than the one going up. The view was amazing. I wanted to stay hanging in the chair to have more time with it.

My friends suggested eating at our next stop since they saw a really nice café there and because we were running late. I forced in a stop at a nearby Lawsons to buy pads and use the restroom. I couldn't wait to rest and eat some food.

2:20 pm. Arrived at our next stop and was blinded by beauty. Ine Funaya was beautiful. It's a tiny fishing village and isn't much connected with nearby cities so it doesn't get a lot of traffic. When we arrived, there were very few people there. My friends were occupied with taking pictures but I was too hungry and lowkey felt like I'd fall down, so I went and stood in line outside the café. I was the first in line so I hoped we'd get seated soon. I was ready to sit down on the floor, even though I wore cream pants, I was that tired and achy. After 10 minutes, I checked the place on Google Maps so that I'd be ready with my food order. Guess what? They didn't have any vegetarian food options in the menu photos 🙂 The only veg options were desserts. I told a friend who had finally made his way over to the café. He went inside to check with the staff. Another 5 minutes later (it felt longer), it was confirmed.

I.. kind of broke down at this point. It was as if I was running on fumes just to get here and it wasn't worth it so my body and mind shut down. My friends looked at other options to no avail. We ended up having a dessert and an iced matcha latte at the café itself. My sweet tolerance is low in general so the dessert was only for some sustenance. And the drink sucked.

We went to the dock after that. I took off first and had around 15 minutes of solo time before they arrived, perfect to have a quick cry. My mood was down in the dumps, so I didn't want to converse at all. While my friends took pictures, I sat and stared at the view. It was the most beautiful place we'd been to in Japan and all I wanted to do was cry. My mind spiralled, thinking about all the decisions I made that day—the number of times I agreed to skip food—which led to this. Lots of self-flagellation in the mind and undue hate towards Ine. I had enough sense of mind to avoid talking to my friends completely so that I didn't say something I'd regret.

4:15 pm. We finally left Ine and began heading back to Tokyo. We were conscious about the time too because we had to return the car by 8 pm and didn't want to pay late fees a second time. I was navigating again, with as few words as possible. I found the nearest Lawsons on the way, about 35 minutes from Ine.

I swear, I couldn't be more grateful for Lawson's vegetarian options. I grabbed two onigiris (after thoroughly checking the ingredients), a corn salad, and a Starbucks Kyoto matcha latte. I was surprised by how Starbucks keeps great options in convenience stores. This matcha latte was much better than the one we had at Ine Café. 3 of my friends grabbed some quick food and drinks too. One dude chose not to get anything which was baffling.

About 10 minutes after I started eating, it was as if life was coming back to me. I felt my mood lift. I could bear to talk to my friends. Hunger and period hormones are no joke. I resolved to keep eating snacks, at least, from then onwards. Deprioritising food is not a good idea.

7 pm. Dropped off the car in Kyoto, a whole hour early. We didn't want to take any chances. My friends planned to go to the Arashiyama Bamboo forest next. During October, there was a special night illumination thing, probably to help reduce the crowd during the day. Initially, my friends planned to have dinner and go but they realised after dropping off the car that the entry closes by 8:30 pm and the train ride takes an hour. So they decided to deprioritise food, again.

I had decided in Ine itself that I wouldn't go with them to Arashiyama. I saw pictures online and it didn't seem that special (to me). I happily split from them. First stop, a drug store. I had to buy Allegra because mine ran out. I was definitely allergic to something because my eczema flared up on the 2nd night and I had boils on my hands by this point. It might have been due to the tap water. I noticed that my skin became better very slowly after I switched to drinking only bottled water.

Then, I headed to Kawaramachi. All the vegan restaurants in Kyoto are clustered in and around Kawaramachi. It is also the only part of the city which stays active beyond sunset. I planned to just walk around for a bit but then I remembered that every place will have a wait so it's best to stay ahead.

I went to the only place in my list which would stay open beyond 8 pm. There was a huge queue of tourists—everyone came to the only vegan place still open. I was optimistic until I asked to be added in the waitlist and was told that I'd have to wait 90 minutes. 90! I still gave my name and decided to try to find another place.

After trying a bunch of different food keywords, I found Pelgag, a tiny restaurant nearby. When I arrived, there were only 2 people who were leaving and they praised the food to the owner. I had hopes (and no other options) so I went in. It was an interesting place—artsy. There were scribbles and newspaper clippings on the walls (including one supporting Palestine 🙂 ), a bunch of comic books and Japanese novels, scribbles on the tables, and pens and notebooks on the bench seating. A sign said to draw on the books. Customers can go there to eat and be artsy. There were notebooks filled with drawings of various art levels and signatures by people across the world. I ordered the vegetable curry and a tea since there was the mandatory drink rule here too.

I drew a very very basic sketch of Ine Funaya because that was on my mind. I stared from the spot at the dock for so long that the image was prominent in my mind. The vegetable curry plate that arrived was huge and smelled amazing. I devoured it, it was so good. I don't think I thought about anything other than the food until I finished everything on the plate. It was as filling as 2 meals—exactly what I needed. I complimented the dish to the owner while leaving and we got talking. Turns out that he's visited North India before so I told him to visit the south too 😆

I didn't want to go back to the stay just yet—I had energy after eating a good meal—so I wandered around. I tried a kinoko dango from a stall on the way. I liked the mitarashi we had in Enoshima Island, hence, I wanted to try it. It was not bad, I prefer mitarashi though. I also tried one maiko ningyo-yaki (sponge cake in the shape of a woman's face) and it was mid. The next bus was in 15 mins so I decided to grab a couple of things from a convenience store. I looked up the nearest one and headed there.

Taking a turn from the main street, I found myself in a shady street. The vibes were off but I couldn't tell why immediately. A bit of walking later, I came across bodyguards guarding building entrances and people arriving in cabs. Then, I came across a board which had photos of people and prices 😶 I quickly went into the 7-Eleven, grabbed what I needed, and hurried back.

The bus stopped and took off while I was waiting to cross the street. The next bus arrives after 20 minutes. Right as I was accepting the fact that I'll need to wait, I noticed that the bus stopped at a signal right after the stop. I hurried over and knocked on the door, gesturing to ask to come in. I could see the bus driver was annoyed but he left me in. I thanked him and sat down, phew!

I had freshened up and rested at the stay for a while by the time my friends arrived. We packed our suitcases and discussed the next day's plan before going to bed which took a long time. We went in circles at one point. We finally decided to take the next day easy. We had a long day ahead again.

Verdict: Amanohashidate and Ine Funaya were pretty. If the food situation was fine, I would have loved Ine. I learnt a hard lesson—not to expect vegetarian food in off-beat places.

day 7: rent kimonos, train to osaka, dotonbori

8 am. Since we decided to take it easy, we woke up later than usual. I made sure to eat my corn salad peacefully while my friends got ready. We checked out by 9:45 am which was about 1.5 hours late according to our itinerary but it's fine.

10 am. We arrived at the train station near Kawaramachi and stowed our luggage in coin lockers. Many were available, surprisingly. There was a Starbucks store in the station near the coin lockers so we headed there to have something. My friends probably could have gone without breakfast but I wasn't going to. After my breakdown the previous day, I think they were more acquiescent to stop for food too. I got an iced matcha latte and a waffle because there weren't many vegetarian options. It wasn't a "good" breakfast but it was something.

11 am. I had made a reservation at Okamoto's Yasaka Shrine store for kimono rentals at 9 am. I had sent an email late the previous night to inform them that we'd be late. They responded saying that we'd incur charges and walk-in wait time but when we arrived, they said nothing. We quickly chose the kimono options we wanted to go with. The guys went up immediately because the staff was ready for them. We girls had to wait 15 minutes but that didn't even feel like a wait because we had to choose our kimonos from the hundreds of options.

I kept hunting for a good kimono in a colour that I like. I tried for pinks but all the pinks were too light and I wasn't a fan of them. I also don't like flower designs on clothes so it was extra hard. My friend commented that flower designs are the traditional kimono design, which is true, so I decided to reduce my expectations a bit. Eventually, I chose a maroon-ish colour which is darker than most kimonos, but I had a feeling it would look great. Then, I spent another 10 minutes choosing the accessories. I'm usually pretty decisive but this time, my friend finished faster and waited for me. After we chose hairstyles, I paid for everyone. The total came up to much more than we expected. I had to move money into my zero forex account and then pay. (It was actually fine, the price for 5 people together was a little eye-opening.)

The staff dressed us in the kimonos. The person who worked with me tied everything so tight, it felt like I couldn't breathe. I asked her if she could make it loose and she said that's how it's done. I was sceptical but went with it. When I was done, the outfit looked so good! Another staff member did my hair very nicely too. I was super happy with my kimono outfit. My friend and I rented the traditional umbrellas too because it was very sunny outside. Before leaving, I switched the handbag I chose because the first one was coming apart in one place. (This is relevant, hold on.)

The guys were mid-way into their photoshoot by the time we went out. We spent a good amount of time taking photos and videos. We decided to go to the famous Japanese-style Starbucks in Nineizaka. Although the kimono felt too tight while wearing, it was perfect while walking once I got used to it. I was able to walk much faster than I expected, actually. It wasn't uncomfortable. I felt good. We all looked great. I took a video on Snapchat to show my other friends and so many responded that we looked amazing.

We chose this branch of Okamoto because it is close to the Yasaka Shrine. There were many other tourists wearing kimonos and we saw many kimono rental shops in that area. We thought it would be cool to take photos at a shrine wearing kimonos. And yes, we took a ton. I clearly looked tired in the photos, especially since I don't wear makeup and I wasn't wearing my glasses, but I still looked pretty.

2:15 pm. We headed to Nineizaka next which was quite crowded. Kyoto felt the most crowded out of all the places we visited. Even though Tokyo had more people, it is a huge city and the infrastructure is built to handle that crowd. Kyoto isn't. It's a smaller city with smaller roads and places. With the same number of tourists as in Tokyo, it felt extra crowded.

After quite a long line, we ordered drinks and a couple of vegetarian wraps at Starbucks. My determination to keep eating held up. We didn't get seats for a long time. We wanted to sit on the tatami mats but the people there just didn't leave. The place was too crowded. We finally got seats after I finished scarfing down my wrap. I offered it to my friend initially and she said she'd have a bit later. I was so food-motivated that I ended up finishing the whole thing and did not remember that I had to give her some 🤪

At this point, while removing my phone from the purse, I realised that my cards and cash were missing. I forgot to shift them to the new purse and kept the other one back on the shelf, ready for anyone to take it 😥 The minimal international pack I had bought just in case came in clutch (pun intended). I called up the store and tried to explain it in as simple English as possible. After 10 minutes of confused back and forth, I said it's fine and hung up. I decided to go back early. The guys found seats for all of us in another spot (not the tatami mats) so we went there. I stayed until I finished my drink.

Since I was alone on the way back to Okamoto, I could go in the pace I wanted, which was much faster than that of my friends. It was somehow more enjoyable too, to go at my own pace, even though I was rushing to rescue my stuff. I went to the display section to look for the purse as soon as I entered and the staff member at the desk found me with the one in her hand. Turns out, she somehow understood whatever I said and found the purse and kept it aside 🥹 After thanking her profusely, I quickly changed back into my clothes. They said I could keep the hairstyle. They didn't want the several pins they stuck in my hair. I was done and out by the time my friends arrived. They apparently stopped in the middle to shop a bit. After they were done, we left for the station.

I wanted to have mitarashi on the way and sold the kinoko one to my friends so that they'd stop too. I was mainly concerned about eating something, though. I was very food-motivated. I proposed having a boba tea from Gong Cha after this but the mitarashi was so filling that we skipped it. We saw a matcha shop on the way but it looked way too expensive and specifically for tourists so we decided not to buy from there. I wanted to buy from Ippodo Tea but it was already so late that I said, it's okay, let's go. (Reader, I shouldn't have done this. Despite everything that happened the previous day, I was still being too considerate of my friends and put what I wanted to do on the back burner. I regret this decision now.)

We picked up our stuff, recharged our Suica cards, and headed off to catch a train to Osaka. We expected that it would be a half-hour ride but the train that we got into took way longer. I took over 1 hour. Well, at least we got to sit and rest for an hour, I guess.

6:15 pm. Arrived at Osaka. The street that we took to go to our stay from the station was shady. It did not give good vibes, although I couldn't pinpoint why. Later, the other girl with me also said the same. Our first impression of Osaka wasn't great. Our stay was good, though. A big living room where we kept all our suitcases and small rooms on top that can only fit the floor beds. We were particular about booking places with two shower rooms and two toilets but this place had only one shower, which was weird. I guess we didn't find a better option while booking? I don't remember.

After dropping our stuff and resting a bit, I was ready to head out for dinner. The guys decided to stay at the Airbnb and order in and suggested that I do the same. I said that I'll go out to eat even if I have to go alone. (I wanted proper food and I had a feeling I wouldn't have that if I stayed in the Airbnb). The other girl decided to go with me because she also wanted good food.

The route to the station entrance was, thankfully, a different way. We decided to exit this way the next time because this didn't feel off. Most of the vegetarian places I had saved were in and around Dotonbori so we headed there. As we walked to the place, it was pretty evident that Osaka was food-driven. There were posters of food everywhere, tons of food stalls (especially seafood), and imagery or graffiti about food. Dotonbori was filled with seafood places—especially Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki. The place I had saved served vegetarian versions of these so we went there.

7 pm. Dotonbori's felt a bit off too. We were walking fast and were on hyper alert. It was weirdly crowded but also not. The main street reminded us of Commercial Street in Bangalore (the layout and crowd, not the weird vibes). It is the most popular place in Osaka and we did not like it. Surprisingly, the super famous bridge spot overlooking a river next to the big Don Quixote was not very crowded. It also wasn't appealing—maybe it was better during the day?

We arrived at a vegan takoyaki place. It looked similar to the artsy place I went to alone in Kyoto. This was also run by only one person but had about 3 floors?! She took orders, cooked, and served. Although I found out only while watching her cook that takoyaki is fried food and not the healthy food I felt like eating, I wanted to try it too. We decided what we wanted and waited.... and waited.

There were a few people behind us so I asked the 2 women behind me whether they wanted to see the menu and stepped aside. They looked Indian and it was confirmed when they spoke Hindi. A few minutes later one of them turned back and asked if we were waiting to order. I said yes. Then she said we've met. I was taken aback and said I don't think so. She said, "I saw you, in Ine". After flipping through the fog of memories from that day, I remembered her. She stood behind me in the line to get into Ine Café before I found out that they didn't have veg food. I said yeah I remembered her and before any other conversation could happen, the restaurant person came up to take the order. These two women gave their order and went inside! My friend and I were like ??! But okay, it's fine. Then we stepped up to the counter and the person WENT BACK TO COOK. After waiting another 5 minutes, we decided to go somewhere else. We were pissed.

Since this didn't work out, I wanted to eat healthy food so I searched "salad" on Google Maps and chose one that looked good nearby. We headed there, talking about the chances of them crossing our paths again and how rude they were. Of course, the only people who were rude during our trip were Indians 🙄

7:20 pm. A few minutes later, we arrived at Restaurant Bar Garden. It's an Italian place that we honestly didn't notice easily. The name is innocuous and the storefront isn't attention-grabbing. There were no customers inside, which made me a little wary, but they looked friendly so we sat down. The menu just said "ceasar salad". In India, the default would be vegetarian but it's the opposite in Japan. When we ordered, I specifically asked "vegetarian, for no meat, no fish" and she said okay. My friend got a chicken ceasar salad and we got a plate of garlic bread to share.

The salads and bread arrived in 10 minutes and they looked amazing. The first bite was so tasty—I was in love. My friend and I commented once that the salads were good and were silent until we finished devouring them. I kid you not, I don't think I looked up until I was picking the last morsel left. We used chopsticks to eat and they were actually really comfortable to eat with, more than the regular fork-and-spoon pair. My friend and I were really happy with the salads and decided to order something more to eat.

There was omelette rice on the menu and the waitress said okay when we asked for no meat in it. I was glad because I didn't get the chance to try omurice anywhere until then, since the dish traditionally contains meat. While we waited for it to arrive, my friend said that it was a good thing that those 2 people ordered before us and pissed us off enough to leave. We wouldn't have gone to this place otherwise and its food was definitely better than fried food.

We had gotten one plate of omelette to share and dived in quickly after it was served. Neither of us likes ketchup so after trying it, we removed it as much as possible. The dish was too good. It was hot, the omelette was fluffy and creamy, and the rice went perfectly with it. We ate this with chopsticks too and, again, we did not speak until we were almost done clearing off the plate. We demolished it. If I wasn't full, I would have ordered more food.

This dinner was my best meal of the trip. We were running on multiple days of insufficient meals; we hadn't had a proper meal all day that day and were running on bits here and there. We needed this meal. We loved it so much that we decided to return the next day. My friend was so enthusiastic that she asked the waitress about their lunch hours and told her that we'll come then 😂 And clearly, I love it so much that I wrote multiple paragraphs about the meal.

On the way back, we discussed the next day's plans, starting with the meals. Our priorities were the same—proper food. We didn't grab salads on the way because we planned to have a proper breakfast the next day. Unfortunately, we exited on the same shady side. Instead of taking the same route, we took a much longer roundabout way.

All of us chatted while we took turns showering (no wonder the kimono place said we could keep the hair, it was tougher to undo it than make it!) and I finally took photos until that day from my friends' phones. We mostly took photos with a friend 17 Pro Max so I had a lot to transfer. I ended up being the last to shower. By the time I was done, the rest were asleep, lol. I stayed awake a bit longer to charge my phone downstairs (my friend put hers in the only charging port in the room) and went to bed a little past midnight.

Verdict: Renting a kimono was worth it. I loved how we looked in them.

day 8: katsuoji temple, minoh park, osaka castle

7:20 am. The guys woke me up so that I could lock the door. We had planned to split to this day because the guys wanted to go to Universal Studios and the other girl and I weren't interested.

I was still super sleepy but I made myself stay awake because I wanted to run the washing machine with my clothes. I quickly changed clothes so that I could put my night clothes for washing too. The time was 45 minutes so I had enough time to properly get ready. My friend and I planned to leave by 8 but left 15 minutes later since I wanted to hang my clothes to dry. Unfortunately, this Airbnb did not have any place to hang clothes. The guys washed theirs the previous night and hung them on the coat rack. The AC wasn't on hot drying mode so theirs had to stay up longer. I put mine on the staircase bannister, chairs, and table. The living room was fairly hot by the time we left due to the AC setting but it was required for our clothes to dry.

8:15 am. We headed to Melbourne Coffee Senba in Chuo ward, near Dotonbori. When we got out of the train station there, we were surprised by the area. It looked like a European place, not Japanese. Very wide streets (6 lanes!), huge footpaths, tall buildings, and it looked like Europe. The streets were still pretty empty because it was early on a weekend. Melbourne Coffee Senba was one of the few places open at this time.

There was a small queue when we arrived. It is a fairly small place. Still, we got seated in 15 minutes since people didn't linger for long. We were on the same page—Muesli bowls and Blood Orange juices. The muesli bowls had fruits and seeds which I really missed. It was quite expensive but this café was the best option. The muesli bowl filled me up so much that I decided not to have the latte I wanted at 7-Eleven.

While eating, we discussed the day's plan. My friend had brought up Minoh Park a couple of weeks before the trip but the rest of us shot it down because the travel didn't make sense. This day, she noticed that Katsuoji Temple (our first stop) is in "Minoh" so it should be close. Google Maps showed a long travel time, though. So I went on Reddit (the site has been so helpful for my trip research and prep) and searched a bunch. Figured out that we can do it without having to compromise other plans. With the new plan in mind, we headed off to the train station.

10:40 am. Arrived at Minoh-Kayano station. On our way out, we saw Gong Cha and decided to have a drink. My friend finished hers quickly and went to hunt for the station stamp (we collected stamps wherever we found them). Turns out that it was right at the exit but we somehow did not notice it. We took the stamp and were figuring out how to leave when a woman approached us. She asked what we're supposed to do with the stamp 😂 Apparently, she saw us and others getting it, so she got it on a piece of paper too but didn't know what it was for.

After we explained, she asked us directions to Katsuoji. Since we were heading there too, we decided to go together. A couple of wrong turns later, we found the bus stop with a guard's help and boarded the bus to Katsuoji. It was packed. The quick 15-minute ride felt much longer because of the crowd and the twists and turns up the hill.

11 am. After a small confusion about where to buy tickets, we figured it out and went inside. Katsuoji Temple is beautiful from first sight. The rising hill at the back, multiple structures dotted around the place, tons of greenery, and water running through the entrance bridge—I was charmed by it immediately. We quickly started taking photos and looked for the stamps.

There are 2 special things about Katsuoji Temple: 1) It has a stamp quest. You get a blank postcard with each ticket and you have to collect all 6 stamps spread across the place on that postcard. All 6 together make up an image. 2) There are daruma dolls everywhere—on poles, branches, footpath edges, handrails, under trees, in the grass, wherever one can keep them. The dolls make it a unique shrine.

We were going pretty slow in the beginning, mainly to take pictures everywhere. Everything looked pretty. After getting the 4th stamp, we realised that we were moving too slow and decided to go quicker. We wanted to cover 2 more places that day. Going faster did not reduce the enjoyment, though. Everything we saw was pretty and I tried to commit it all in my brain. Pictures weren't doing the vibe justice. Although there were a lot of tourists, it felt crowded only in the famous wall-of-huge-darumas photo spot.

We bought tiny darumas too. The shopkeeper told us to "think about what you want answers about and pick a daruma". I don't believe in it so I picked a random one. It comes with a tiny slip of paper with your "fortune". It's just a bunch of pre-determined sets that are so vague that they have no answer. I didn't care, I just wanted the doll. The person who joined us left her doll in a random spot in the temple while my friend and I brought it home.

At the exit, there was a stand selling sponge cakes. We decided to get some since it had a long line (so it must be good?) and we weren't going to eat lunch for another hour or so. The line went quickly because they sold a set amount of 30 fresh sponge cakes in paper bags. They were shaped like tiny darumas. We had a couple quickly and it was SO GOOD. So much better than the one I had in Kyoto. It had the right amount of sweetness and was soft since it was just made. We snacked on the sponge cakes on the way to Minoh Park.

There's no public transportation to Minoh Park (the bus was discontinued a while ago) and, from what I gathered on Reddit, most people like to walk/hike between the two places. We didn't have time for that so we took a cab from the long line of cabs waiting outside. This was the first time we travelled in a cab in Japan and it was a lowkey luxury experience lol. The fare was exactly the amount mentioned on Reddit. Expensive but worth it since there's no other option.

The cab dropped us off at the parking but Minoh Park is much further. Everyone has to walk till there. We walked holding umbrellas because it was hot and snacked on the sponge cakes. Another 15 minutes later, we arrived. Honestly, the waterfall (the main attraction there) was meh. I've seen much better ones in India. I'm sure it would be spectacular in peak autumn with red-orange leaves but it was pretty normal when we went. We took a few photos and left soon. There isn't much to do there.

While walking back to the exit, we spotted the Indian woman whom I saw at Ine and Dotonbori. How were we on the exact same circuit?! We didn't cross paths with her, though. My friend and I again spoke about how it was a good thing she turned us away from the takoyaki place. We wouldn't be able to make it to the Italian place for lunch but we were definitely going there for dinner.

2 pm. I had read on Reddit that travel to and from Minoh Park is only by cab or on foot. Since we got a cab to Minoh Park, we expected cabs to be lined up to go from there as well. They weren't. We asked a couple of guards standing further away and they told us to call the numbers put up on a board. My minimal international phone plan came in clutch again (the others did not have it). However, the calls didn't go through or kept ringing. We approached guards again, hoping we could use their phone or if they could place a call for us but they seemed reluctant to help further, so we went back to the board.

While I kept trying to call, a cab came and I quickly went to it. The driver asked, "Uber?" and a couple walked up behind me to get into the cab. With that information, I booked a cab on Uber. Phew. The cab came all the way from Minoh-Kayano station only to drop us back there. We had a female driver this time! That's so rare in India. The charge was 400 yen higher because of Uber but again, worth it since there weren't other options.

2:40 pm. Arrived at Minoh-Kayano station. We had seen a cute bakery in the morning, so we decided to have lunch there. I got a couple of breads and a juice. We were on the move until no,w so we chatted while eating and got to know each other more (the stranger and us).

4:30 pm. A couple of trains and some walking later, we arrived at Osaka Castle, our last tour for the day. It closes at 5 pm so we kinda hustled to make it before then. It looked cool from the outside and is a museum inside. I am not knowledgeable about Japanese history (other than what I saw in Nijo-jo Castle) so I didn't enjoy it that much. I'm a bit of a history nerd but not when I am clueless and need to learn about everything on the spot. We visited every floor and did quick rounds to get the gist, though. The floor with the whole history of Toyotomi Hideyoshi was interesting, though. I was a bit horrified reading about how he killed his adopted son after he got a biological son. I guess all the people who did great things were (or became) quite mad.

The view from the top of Osaka Castle was lovely. This was the first time we saw a view of the sunset. The sky wasn't the best but it was nice. After exiting the castle, we walked around for a bit. I saw people running around the castle and became envious—even I want to run in such a place. The road was closed to vehicles and runners had a lot of space. Although it was getting dark and the streets were becoming more deserted by the minute, I didn't want the day to end.

At the station, my friend and I split from the person we met earlier that day. She thanked us for taking her around, especially since it was her first day going around in Japan and she probably would've gotten lost without us. In fact, she said that we looked like seasoned tourists because we easily navigated the train travel and switched on the way to Osaka Castle. Considering how we got lost in the first few days too, we were really happy to hear that 😂

It was still early for dinner, so we walked around Dotonbori. My friend saw a viral spongy cheesecake online that she wanted to try so we headed there. After standing in line for 15 minutes, we finally saw the cheesecake and it looked HUGE. No way we'd be able to finish all that. I can tolerate one bite and she can have maybe a few. We decided not to get it.

7:15 pm. We arrived at Restaurant Bar Garden. The place was almost full this time, and filled with locals. We were the only tourists. Looks like it was empty the previous day only because it's frequented by locals who mostly visit on weekends. The staff recognised us as soon as we walked in. The woman who took our order had assisted the chef in making our dishes the previous day (I guess they rotate responsibilities?) so when we started ordering the same thing, she finished our sentences 😂 She said "vegetarian, no meat, no fish" before I could say it! Since we loved the dishes so much, we got the same things. Our only branching out was getting a different starter—Camembert cheese fries.

The fries didn't look like regular fries and they literally melted in the mouth. The salad and omelette rice were just as good as the previous day. We didn't eat it as fast or in a trance like the first time because we weren't as hungry or tired this day but it was still amazing. We thanked the chef and staff as we left.

While we were having dinner, the guys responded on the group chat asking us to get the cheesecake because they were super hungry and would finish it. Unfortunately, the place was closed by the time we finished dinner and went there. It closed at 8:15 pm, wow.

We stopped at a convenience store on our way back and bought a few things for the guys. I got a matcha mousse and the Starbucks Kyoto matcha latte. I wanted to have as much of it as possible before leaving Japan. We had a long and complicated travel the next day so we paused to ask a station master if there's an easier route—there isn't 🙁

9:30. Arrived at our Airbnb. We still had over an hour until the guys arrived so we rested for a bit. I ate the matcha mousse (not bad) and had the drink (consistently amazing). Right as we finished showering and started packing, my friend heard someone trying to open the door. We got startled. There wasn't any further attempt but we kept a wary eye. Maybe people staying in the next-door Airbnb tried our door by mistake (we did that too). We were wary because we weren't fond of the area's vibes.

11 pm. The guys arrived, fully tired from making the best of their Universal Studios tickets. We spent about 30 minutes chatting about our respective days. There were a few sponge cakes left, so we told them to try some. The cakes were cold, so they weren't as good, but not bad either. A dude had one and then kept it aside. I, super food-motivated since the last couple of days, snacked on the rest by the time he reached for it again 😆

Finally, we discussed the next day's plan because it's the most complicated and annoying. The place we planned to go to is only for one of my friends—the rest of us don't care about it—and is super out of the way. We were all tired so we went in circles, argued a bit, and 2 people exchanged heated words too. Eventually, we decided to go back to Tokyo and try that place the next day. None of us were happy with the plan but it is what it is.

Verdict: Katsuoji is awesome. Minoh Park can be skipped. Osaka Castle is great for history nerds.

day 9: 600 km road trip, lake suwa

10:40 am. Checked out of the stay. We planned to take the Shinkansen to Tokyo and play it by ear so we decided to rest longer in the morning. We girls ate our salads too. On the way to the train station, the guys came up with another plan (😂). The one friend who can drive said that he rested well so we can drive and do the initial plan anyway. We discarded that option the previous night because of how tired he was from USJ but now, since he was rested and said he's okay to drive, it's a good option. We stood outside the station discussing pros and cons and decided to go with it. We immediately booked a car on Toyota Rent a Car for a 12 pm pickup at a nearby station and headed there.

11:30 am. Reached Tamatsukuri Station. We still had some time. We could go early but we spotted a 7-Eleven at the exit and decided to grab breakfast from there. I got a smoothie, a café latte (it's still amazing), and a croissant. I took another croissant and a set of danishes for the road. The driving friend wondered why I loved the café latte so much so he tried it and went to get one for himself 😂

12 pm. I went with him to pick up the car at 12 while the rest waited in the station with the luggage. It was raining so walking in with all our stuff wasn't a great idea. We got a bigger car this time with a good amount of legroom in the back too. After we loaded everything back in the station, we took off.

We had around 400 km to cover to reach Lake Suwa and we wanted to reach by sunset. That didn't give us a lot of time, actually. Sunset was around 5:30 pm. We decided to head straight to Lake Suwa with minimal stops. The friend for whom Lake Suwa is on the itinerary was super happy that it was happening, despite the rest of us not really wanting to go and said she'd navigate.

I sat in the back, and was wondering whether it would be rude to the friend sitting in the middle if I put my headphones and nap because the friend on the other side was already doing the same, when we missed a couple of important turns. Japan's roads are complicated and Google Maps isn't that simple to understand if one's new to it so it's not surprising that the friend got confused and missed the turn.

Unfortunately, getting back on track meant doing a loop for an hour which caused some annoyance in the car. We were already tight on the schedule and now Google Maps showed that we'd arrive after sunset. We stopped at a Lawsons and switched places—I was back to the shotgun seat to navigate with a good amount of pressure to get it right 👍

The drive was good with a lot of scenic roads. We didn't go on the roads between the 3 main cities of Japan, so we got to see a lot of the countryside and mountains. It felt like we passed through seasons too, because the weather varied. There were more cars on the road than I expected, considering the route. Maybe most people drove from Osaka to the Nagano prefecture? The public transport commute would certainly push a lot of people to drive.

Everything about Japan is orderly and disciplined except driving, apparently. Don't get me wrong, they drive well and not like people in India, but they don't care about the speed limit. The speed limit was 80 on highways and cars went on 120. We had to keep up; otherwise, we'd be too slow. At one point, we were going at 120, and another car overtook us in seconds!

After covering 300 km, we stopped at a random rest stop on the highway and I was promptly impressed by the washrooms. It's in the middle of nowhere with barely any footfall. Yet, there were several stalls and had automatic doors. The washroom was just as high-tech as any other place. Suddenly, I started feeling sad about leaving Japan in a few days.

5:10 pm. Arrived at Suwa just in time. We didn't stop at Lake Suwa (no time) and headed directly to a viewpoint. Most people go to Tateishi Park but there was no parking space for us. We went quite a ways up to find a parking spot at the recycling plant. Then we rushed back down on foot to a random outcropping in the middle which has the view just like the scene in Kimi no na wa. The whole reason we went there was for the one friend who's a huge fan of the movie.

We stayed there watching the sunset. The colours were beautiful and radiant during sunset. It was pretty... but it meant nothing to 4/5 of us. I was meh about it. The friend who drove was probably the most disappointed.

This was when I realised that I was too aware of the impact of me and my choices on the people around me. I shouldn't be so accommodating. I should've gone to Ippodo Tea for the matcha I wanted, even if it made all of us late. I should've forced us to stop for meals on the Ine day. Suwa was the only thing we did that day and we were there for only 20 minutes. I wish I were at least halfway to being that selfish.

7:00 pm. I found an Italian place with vegetarian options about half an hour away but the staff said that they're at capacity and aren't accepting any more customers. The only other option near there was an Indian restaurant. It's funny to be having Indian when in a different country for vacation but we were hungry and needed food by that point.

The restaurant, SpiceCafe Ananda, was in a home in a quiet place. It looked a bit sus but we had a great experience at the previous home-style restaurant we went to, so we didn't worry. It was decorated really well inside! I had the dal bhati set meal and a mango lassi. My friends got other stuff. The food was great and I was happy. The driving friend got a coffee to help with the drive. It arrived as a huge cup of dalgona which tasted amazing. If I weren't so full, I'd have got one too.

10 pm. We wanted to stop midway on the way to Tokyo but I quickly realised that we could either stop in 30 minutes or directly in Tokyo. My friends requested a stop sooner. We stopped at a Lawsons. I got a corn salad for the next morning and a Starbucks Kyoto matcha latte to sip on the way to Tokyo. It was a good thing we stopped because we got stuck in nearly-paused traffic for 30 minutes. It magically cleared after one point with no indication about why it happened.

11:45 pm. Parked the car at a coin parking near our stay. We struggled to find the Airbnb for 15 minutes—the GPS did not lead us to the right building and we resorted to the old-fashioned method of reading house numbers and finding a pattern. Our stay's door was hidden in a small alley. This place had only one shower, again. I think we slept around 1 am.

Verdict: Driving across Japan is nice. Suwa is skippable unless you're a hardcore fan of Kimi no na wa. To me, it's still skippable since it's so out of the way for less payoff but to each their own.

day 10: sumida-ku, tokyo skytree, asakusa, jimbocho book town, teamlabs planets

8 am. I think I woke around 8 am. I'm not sure. Somewhere around that time. I was the second to wake up. It was our last full day in Japan and I didn't want to sleep in longer. I freshened up and got ready quietly. There was a smell in the Airbnb since last night (probably due to all the wood and being closed) so I opened the windows. The others started waking up when I was having my salad.

10 am. My friends were still getting ready but I was restless. I really wanted a café latte from 7-Eleven and to walk around the area too. While I was putting on my shoes, a friend said he would come with me and quickly got ready. After grabbing what we wanted from a nearby 7-Eleven, I suggested that we walk around.

Our last stay in Tokyo was in Sumida-ku (i.e. Sumida City) and I was beyond excited to explore the place. The name is so similar to mine! I wanted to get to know the place. It was a public holiday (National Sports Day) this day so the area was still quiet and sleepy except for the pockets of people who were exercising.

We went to the Sumida River and found so many people running, cycling, playing baseball, etc.! The river was bracketed by baseball fields on both sides! It was so cool. I was so so so envious of people exercising there, especially the runners. Imagine having such a cool place to run in the city. I thought there'd be a bench or some place to sit where we could eat or drink but there wasn't so after walking around a bit, we returned to the stay. I was also carrying a 2L bottle and my arms were becoming tired.

My friend had requested me to get a water bottle. But after we reached the stay and I gave it to her, she pointed out that it was a sports drink 🙃 I did not see it properly before buying. Was too occupied by the latte and wanting to explore, lol. In my defence, it looks very similar to water bottles.

We had to pick up our big suitcases which we had forwarded to a nearby Yamato warehouse. 2 guys took the car and went to get them. They arrived about 15 minutes after we returned, so we all brought the suitcases in. One of the guys who went apparently still had to shower so he stayed back and the rest of us went in the car to return it. We returned it at 11:30, about half an hour early.

The other 2 friends with us wanted something to drink and eat so we walked to a nearby convenience store. We also marvelled at how close we were to Tokyo Skytree, it was huge. Skytree wasn't on our itinerary but since it is in Sumida-ku and so close to our stay, I planned to visit it this day and my friends decided to join me. It looks like Skytree isn't that popular, or can hold more people, because I was able to book tickets the previous night.

12:30 pm. The 4 of us made it to the entrance but had to wait for the 5th friend who was coming from the stay. There was a beer festival going on there so we killed time looking around and taking a few photos. After he finally arrived (20ish minutes late), we went in. Thankfully, we didn't have issues getting in. Apparently, the ticket is just a "starting time" and we can enter anytime later in the day. That was a baffling rule.

Tokyo Skytree is the tallest tower in the world and has 2 observation decks. We bought tickets to see everything so we went up to the lower observation first, did a round, took a few pictures, and then went up. This is the first time we're seeing a view of Tokyo during the day and it was baffling to see all the buildings, lol. Surprising how it's a concrete jungle but feels well-made with parks and gardens on the ground. There was a really nice view of the Sumida river too.

We thought that Skytree only had 2 observation decks and should take an hour. Turns out it has a bunch of other floors to see while going down so we spent more time. The rest wasn't that interesting, though.

2:10 pm. The bottom few floors of the Skytree is like a mall with many shops and stalls. After exiting, I immediately split from my friends. We had planned for this day to be a "free day" anyway and I had planned to explore on my own. A friend suggested riding around the area in cycles and I was initially interested in that. However, they wanted to shop a bit before doing that and I didn't want to shop. Something I wanted to go apparently doesn't allow cycles too. So, I split from them.

At this point of the trip, I was tired and burnt out. We're very different people, so coming together to do the same thing is actually more tiring than doing things alone. Everyone had different priorities, eating schedules, and interests. I had just come off a whole month of my worst social burnout ever before the trip and this was not recharging.

I told my friends that I was splitting from them after I left Skytree. Was it rude? Maybe. But I needed to do that because otherwise I probably wouldn't have any time to myself. Also, no shade to my friends, but the only peaceful and stress-free times I had were when I was alone.

The bottom few floors of Skytree were like a mall with several stores and stalls. I noticed a Greek yoghurt stall so I stopped there for lunch. It was a fruit + muesli bowl with yoghurt. Small but filling. After eating that quickly, I headed out.

At the entrance/exit of Skytree, there's a sign towards the river walk, so I headed there first. On the way, I came across the Sumida Park Cinema Festival. The place was crowded with a lot of stalls and people sitting in the park with a band playing live music. The band had several members and played such catchy music with only instruments (various kinds of drums, even barrels). It was very cool. A lot of people were dancing all out too. It was a fun vibe.

3 pm. Sumida River Walk is a small-ish walk alongside the river with a lovely view of the huge river. I took a bunch of selfies of myself with the river, haha. I stayed there for a while, soaking in the view and grounding myself to find peace and calm. The pathway is much smaller than I expected—no wonder they don't allow cycles there.

Near the other end of the walk was Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. The river walk is kind of like a shortcut between Skytree and Asakusa. It is surrounded by the vibrant streets of Asakusa. No cycles or vehicles were allowed here and people were everywhere. The air was filled with sounds of chatter and laughter without being too loud or intrusive. I checked out a few stalls and just walked towards the temple with no specific goal in mind. I checked out the Asakusa Uniqlo for a specific bag that a friend wanted which wasn't available in the other stores. Found it here with a discount and it was effectively half the price of the same thing in India (including Japan's tax) so I got one for myself too. I was starting to feel hungry and grabbed a melon bun with matcha ice cream from a stall as a snack. It was more filling than I expected.

4 pm. The Sensoji temple was much bigger than I expected. It had multiple structures and was spread out over an area with a garden and food stalls. I took a bunch of photos and went into the temple. I got a goshuin at the temple and searched for the stamp. A guard kindly told me where to find the stamp (the cultural centre) so I started walking there.

On the way, there were several shopping stalls. It was basically a huge shopping street. I looked for gifts for people I hadn't yet bought stuff for. I came across a stall selling katanas for 25k to 50k yen. The street was super crowded too so I didn't linger for long.

5:15 pm. Arrived at Jimbocho Book Town! I didn't have anything to buy in mind and didn't feel like stopping anywhere either so I just walked around. There were so many bookstores in buildings, bookstores that were just racks against the alley walls, and carts filled with books. The literary vibe was lovely. They were mostly Japanese books so I didn't browse through, content to see the sights and others browsing books. I went into a cosy Book Cafe but walked out soon after because there was no free space to sit.

I decided to go for dinner since it was getting late and I had to be somewhere later. I walked 15 minutes to a place I had saved, only to find that it was closed due to the public holiday. I searched for salad and found a place 20 minutes away. Took a bus and walked... to find out that it's closed too. I gave up and went to Ginza since 2foods in Loft should be open.

6:30 pm. Loft was surprisingly not crowded, looks like everyone went to Asakusa 😆 They just ran out of salads so I got an omelette rice dish with some sauce and a nuts salad. I didn't like the sauce but the rest of it was okay. I considered shopping, even browsed through the matcha kept near the entrance, but I didn't buy anything. I was kinda burnt out and I didn't have the energy to check which was good matcha and there was no expiry date on them. I didn't feel like spending money too. (I regret this, I should've bought the matcha.)

7:15 pm. I had time to kill before I had to meet up with friends so I walked around and went to a Starbucks on my way. Got an iced matcha latte (I will miss this drink) and an Earl Grey Scone. The scone was much sweeter than I expected and it was a struggle to eat it. I stayed there sitting and eating tiny bites while I people-watched or just browsed on my phone.

8 pm. Arrived at TeamLabs Planets via a direct bus from Ginza. I was way too early, as usual. Our tickets were for 8:30 pm and the rest would probably arrive closer to that time. Around 20 minutes later 2 of them arrived. The other 2 were 10 minutes late. We finally went in and we were a part of the last group of people for that day.

While we entered, we saw a few people exit who had entered half an hour ago so we were sceptical—would we not like it and breeze through too? Well, we didn't have to worry. We had loads of fun and spent so much time that the staff had to push us along at one point. The water sections were fewer than I expected because that's the most hyped aspect of the place. The light and flower rooms were my favourite. The room with interactive flower walls was amazing too. We were one of the last 2 groups in the last few rooms, lol.

10 pm. Exited TeamLabs. There were no people outside. Unfortunately, our commute was also super bad because half the routes were closed by this time. 1 hour with multiple trains or trains + bus. We booked a cab via Uber instead. It was worth it and the cab was super fancy. It was a luxury experience. We were in it for only 20 minutes but I got a quick nap.

10:30 pm. Arrived at our stay. We freshened up and started packing. We had to check out the next day. Wow, the trip is coming to an end.

Verdict: Skytree was nice. Spending the day alone was great. TeamLabs Planets was fun.

day 11: google shibuya stream, depart

1 am. It wasn't just the last day of the trip; it was also the last day we'd be together for a good while. One of them will be getting married so we'd meet at the wedding. So we stayed up late talking. We exchanged photos from each other's phone (I took another 300). We spoke about the trip as a whole and the things we did separately.

I had an early plan the next day but everyone was sceptical (including me) about me waking up. I decided that I'll try my best and take a friend if he was awake too. 2 others had plans to visit another place which they couldn't visit before. The friend staying in Australia had an earlier flight nearer to the stay and far from where the rest of us were going, so we'd split at the stay itself. With all of that in mind, we finally slept around 2 am.

7:30 am. I managed to wake up early! Tiptoed around the place to get ready and finish my last bits of packing. The friend who was going with me woke up too. Right as we were leaving, the friend who's leaving for Australia woke up. We said goodbye and headed out.

We unfortunately created a lot of noise dragging our suitcases in the early morning. Mostly me, because I had 2 and he had 1. We took a short train to Oshiage station. I had seen online that there were coin lockers there but we could not find them. After searching for a good 15 minutes, I asked a staff member. He pointed us in the right direction. Turns out it was hidden behind a turn and wasn't in the main area. There were big lockers available, thankfully. After stowing our stuff, we rushed to catch a train to Shibuya.

9:45 am. An hour in the train later, we arrived at Shibuya station! Why did we travel so far into the city and away from the airport? To check out the Google Shibuya office! This was one thing that I really really wanted to do. It was almost not possible because of other things in the itinerary but I decided to do it on the last day even though the travel isn't great.

The office's location is awesome because it's on top of the Shibuya station in the heart of Tokyo. We took a few escalators up from the station and the office is on the 5th floor. After getting my friend a visitor's card, we rushed to grab breakfast. Breakfast ends at 10 am, so I didn't expect that we'd make it in time. We managed it, though. We got the last bit of food before they closed up.

We had a great breakfast with a great view (I think from the 15th floor). I was having a proper breakfast after many days. Then, we went to a café for drinks. Because my name was similar to a name they knew (Sumida), they got my name easily, which was nice. We got iced matcha lattes. They weren't strong and had too much ice 🙁

I wanted to check out the areas that are closed to visitors. My friend offered to chill outside in Shibuya for a while I did that. We split and I started just walking around. The office was so cool, with amazing views of the city from the heart of it. I checked out several floors. I specifically went to a few places, like the library.

The top floor (35th) was my favourite. The view rivalled that of Skytree, actually. I know that Skytree is much taller but this was just as amazing. There was a café there, so I got a flat white (it was so good) and just hung around. I could see basically everything from there. Tokyo Tower and Skytree too.

I wasn't hungry yet and we had time before lunch closed at 2 pm so I went out to find my friend. He went much farther than I expected, lol. In the short time I left him alone, he went to a huge BIC Camera store and bought an Apple Watch because it was much cheaper. Hearing the price difference, I went inside to see if they had the iPhone 17 because I planned to buy one.

Something that's surprising about Japan is that they don't have the MRP (maximum retail price) system so the same thing could be priced differently in different places and at different times. For example, the price of the same water bottle was 80 yen when we arrived in Japan and increased during our trip the closer it got to the peak Autumn tourist season. It was 120 yen at the end. It can be the same with devices as well.

I checked the price for the iPhone 17 is another BIC Camera store early in the trip and it was more expensive than in India. I didn't check after that. In this store, it was MUCH cheaper. 17 Pro was equivalent to 94k rupees! It's 1.08L in the US! And 1.38L in India. I was ready to buy it on the spot (I had already decided that I'd buy an iPhone in Japan if it was cheaper). Unfortunately, the whole 17 line was out of stock 😭 I was so disappointed. I didn't want any other device so we walked out of the store.

We went back to the Google office for lunch. There was a ramen bar on the 35th floor so we both had half-sized bowls of ramen first. It was amazing. I devoured it so quickly that my friend still had half of his left. I was hungry and wanted to check out the other food options so I left him to get more. The other options were Greek-themed, so I grabbed a few bites of multiple things and sat down at a place with a good view.

1:30 pm. We still had some time, so we got drinks, again. I got a hot matcha latte this time and it was AMAZING. Best hot matcha latte I've ever had. I usually don't even like the hot versions of matcha, in any place I've been to or even at home. This one was too good. I would marry the drink if I could. Honestly, if we had more time and I wasn't so full from having 2 consecutive proper meals for the first time in 12 days, I would have had another.

2 pm. I wished we could stay longer and enjoy the office's offerings more but we had to leave. Took an hour-long train back to Oshiage station. Picked up our suitcases and took the Keisei Sky Access to Narita Airport. The train was crowded and we had to stand throughout the 45-minute ride, sadly. It was not like the Narita Express.

3:50 pm. Arrived at Narita. I saw a small store with the most popular touristy things. Got a small version of the viral Japanese sunscreen (it was cheaper here than at Don Quijote). Stamp questing till the end, we got the Narita Airport stamp.

After doing the formalities and checking in our luggage, we walked towards our gate and stopped at shops along the way. People on Reddit were highly praising the Royce chocolates from the airport so I was glad to pass by the shop. Unfortunately, I did not get the chocolates because they wouldn't last without refrigeration for 2 days. I got a couple of other things, though. One of the staff members handed us samples of a chocolate cracker-type thing and we loved it. I got two boxes of it 😂

The other 2 friends travelling with us arrived at the airport and called us to the lounge. After losing our way a little, we found it. The lounge was pretty good. It didn't have sufficient vegetarian food options but the desserts and drinks were great. The matcha danish was my favourite, I had 2. The matcha coffee was also great.

6:50 pm. Boarded the flight. Goodbye Japan! I got a couple of responses on Snapchat from friends saying they're sad that my trip is ending because they lived it vicariously through me 😂 I send a lot of snaps, as you can see from the photos in this post. I totally spammed my friends list.

This flight was not as comfortable as the last one. I read A Deal With The Bossy Devil by Kyra Parsi from start to finish on the flight.

Verdict: Google Shibuya office is awesome. I should've visited it on the other Shibuya day too.

did you read it all? 😂

I initially planned to add an "endnotes" section with related things on my mind but looking at the length of the post (23.9k words!), I'll skip it. Maybe I should have split this post into multiple parts? It didn't occur to me until now. I'm not splitting it now. I've spent two weeks on this post. no more.

There will be a Japan haul post coming up soon, so keep an eye out for that! After a while, though. I need a break 😂

I hope you enjoyed reading this! How long did it take? What part did you like the best? Have you been to Japan or do you want to go in the future? Do you want to go to any of the places I mentioned?