In short: carry yen from day one, pick your bullet train on purpose, use 7-Eleven for tickets and cash, start before 9am, ask about empty rows at check-in, and leave some dinners unplanned.
From my two weeks in Kyoto, Nara and Tokyo. The full trip is here.
The route
Land at Haneda at 4:30am, Shinkansen south to Kyoto, Nara as a day trip, a few more days in Kyoto, then the bullet train back up to Tokyo for a week.
1. Carry yen from day one
Temples are often cash only. Not day three, like we did. Our first try at Kiyomizu-dera ended at the gate. We came back the next day with cash, and the viewpoint over the city is the one to see.
2. Pick your Shinkansen on purpose
The train that stops near Mt. Fuji stops everywhere. It added about 1.5 hours to the ride from Tokyo to Kyoto. The fastest Nozomi is not the one that stops near Fuji. If you want the Fuji view, book it knowing it's the slow train. If you want to get there, take the Nozomi.
3. 7-Eleven is infrastructure
Tokyo Dome
Ballgame tickets, cash, snacks, everything. You print Tokyo Giants tickets at a 7-Eleven before the game. That game, Giants against Osaka, was the best baseball game I have ever been to: down 0 to 5 in the 6th, five runs in the 7th, a walk-off in the 9th with the bases loaded.
4. Start early
Nara
Early starts beat the heat and the crowds. Most of the best moments of the trip happened before 9am:
- Nara at 7:45am. Salarymen, school kids riding trains on their own, and deer wandering the streets. Todai-ji and the Great Buddha before the tour groups.
- Arashiyama at 7:10am. The bamboo grove is more grove than forest, but go early anyway. Tenryu-ji's zen garden dates to the 1300s, and we were in the first ten people through the gate.
- Fushimi Inari by 8:30am. It was hot already, but the higher you climb the fewer people there are.
5. Ask about empty rows
Ask at check-in. Seat 41F, right behind business class with no one next to me, was an economy win.
6. Leave dinner unplanned sometimes
Sake Panda and Daidai were both accidents, found because the place we wanted was closed. Sake Panda had no English menu, cash only, full of young locals. Daidai was across the street from a closed spot in Tokyo: fried chicken and everything fresh. Both were excellent.
What I'd put on the must do list
- Nara at sunrise. Todai-ji, the Great Buddha and the deer.
- Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto. Bring cash.
- Fushimi Inari early. Climb past the first viewpoint and the crowds thin out.
- teamLab Borderless in Tokyo. Book ahead and plan on 4 hours, including the tea house.
- A Giants game at Tokyo Dome. Tickets from 7-Eleven.
- A tea ceremony. One of the best experiences of the trip.
- Bar Kohaku at Park Hyatt Kyoto at sunset. About 15 seats, so book it.
- The Sip Bar in Shibuya. The best drink I've ever had tasted like tomato, and I don't even like Bloody Marys.
- Bee's Knees in Kyoto. A speakeasy that's hard to find.
Where we ate and drank
Kyoto: Tokoton Tori Kotokoto (ramen), Kuishimbo (family run), Sasaki Shuzo (sake tasting), Sake Panda, Bee's Knees, Loose Kyoto (matcha lattes and donuts). Tokyo: Daidai, The SG Bar and The Sip Bar, Get Better Coffee.