• On my first trip to Japan, I visited Tokyo, Kyoto, and Shima Onsen.
• I made some mistakes while planning my trip, like stressing about dinner reservations.
• I also wish I had spent far more time in Kyoto, which I fell in love with.

Japan has always been at the top of my bucket list.

So, my fiancé and I took a last-minute trip at the end of March 2025, hoping to catch the start of cherry blossom season as we explored Tokyo, Kyoto, and the hot-spring town of Shima Onsen.

The trip was full of incredible food, the kindest people, and sights I'll never forget. It was nearly perfect, but I made a few mistakes while planning.

Stressing about dinner reservations

As a food writer, I love researching restaurants when planning a trip. I dive into reviews, food blogs, and the occasional TikTok.

It wasn't long before the algorithm caught on, suddenly inundating my FYP with videos full of suggestions. As I attempted to navigate all the different reservation systems — Tabelog! TableCheck! Omakase! — I found myself getting more and more stressed. In the end, I only made a single reservation for an omakase experience — the very good Sushi Yuu.

And you know what? Almost every meal we ate was still fantastic.

With so much great food around every corner of Tokyo and Kyoto, it was easy to embrace spontaneous travel. When we got hungry, my fiancé and I would just pull up Google Maps and see what looked promising around us, often finding spots beloved by locals rather than packed because of a popular TikTok.

This led to our favorite meals of the trip, including a delicious lunch set at Isshin Daikanyama and an incredible shabu shabu experience at Wagyu Sukiyaki Kyoto Chikarayama Pontocho — the best dinner of our 10-day trip.

Packing revealing outfits

I flew to Tokyo after a weeklong trip in Sydney for a friend's wedding, so I had packed plenty of summer dresses for Australia's hot weather and daily beach visits.

I knew I wouldn't wear them often in Japan, where winter was only coming to an end. But when a tour guide told me that locals tend to dress more conservatively and rarely wear outfits that expose their shoulders or décolletage, I felt even more out of place in my wardrobe.

I left my strapless tops in my luggage and covered up spaghetti-strap dresses with a jacket throughout the trip. If I had done more research beforehand, I would've brought more options with sleeves to ensure I was considerate of the culture and its customs.

Only spending two full days in Kyoto

As we walked through Kyoto's Gion district at sunset, I knew immediately that I would fall in love with the city.

All my favorite meals from our Japan trip were in Kyoto. I still dream about the perfectly crispy pork and shrimp tonkatsu I had at Katsukura Tonkatsu Sanjo and the tender wagyu cooked in sugar and soy sauce at that shabu shabu dinner.

There were also so many stunning sights I'll never forget, like walking under thousands of orange torii gates at Fushimi Inari (go at 7 a.m. to beat the crowds) and relaxing in the gardens at Nijō Castle.

We had a packed itinerary, but I would've loved an extra day to appreciate Kyoto like a local. The city seemed to hum with a laid-back vibe. I wanted to walk around and check out some of the city's many listening bars. We visited one where the owner was also the bartender and DJ, swapping out vinyls as he set the mood and asked everyone about their lives while feeding us chips.

Buying a physical PASMO card instead of adding it to Apple Wallet

We frequently rode on Tokyo and Kyoto's subway systems while exploring different neighborhoods during our trip, so we used PASMO cards to pay for our fares. While my fiancé had added PASMO to his Apple Wallet prior to arriving in Tokyo, I bought a physical card before our first subway trip.

Taking out the card to pay for each trip wasn't a big deal, but I ran out of money en route to the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest in Kyoto. Instead of being able to add money to my PASMO via Apple Wallet, I had to join a long line of people who were trying to top up their cards at the only machine in the station and almost missed our train.

Booking a ryokan too far from one of our main hubs

I knew I wanted to spend at least one night of our trip in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese-style inn that typically features rooms with tatami floor mats, futon beds, and hot-spring baths known as onsens.

We had a great experience at Kashiwaya Ryokan, which I booked due to a friend's recommendation. But in my excitement (and jet lag after flying to Australia), I didn't do enough research on how we'd get to Shima Onsen from Kyoto. Since there were no direct trains between the two cities, we had to take the two-hour bullet train back to Tokyo before getting on a four-hour bus. Major oops!

I still loved experiencing such a beautiful ryokan and will cherish my memories of relaxing in the private outdoor onsens surrounded by mountains. But if you plan to spend less than two weeks in Japan, I'd recommend selecting a ryokan near or between the main cities you want to explore.

• I took a group tour of Japan with my kids, and Hakone turned out to be my favorite stop.
• The beautiful town had amazing hot springs, and the Hakone Open-Air Museum was incredible.
• If I return to Japan, I'd go to Hakone again and I'd love to visit other small towns in the country.

Visiting Japan has been on my bucket list for a long time, and I finally booked a trip after relentless pleas from my children — and reading about how the US dollar is strong against the Japanese yen.

To simplify planning, I booked a family tour through Intrepid Travel. Unsurprisingly, the tour went to Tokyo and Kyoto, popular tourist destinations that draw many visitors (including my family) to Japan.

However, the tour also brought us to some places I may not have found on my own, including the quaint, quirky mountain town of Hakone.

Visiting the town, which is southwest of central Tokyo and about a 90-minute railway ride away, turned out to be my favorite part of the trip.

We loved the town's famous hot springs

Hakone is full of onsens, or natural hot springs, heated by geothermal activity happening beneath Japan. During my visit, I got to experience several types of onsens — and I still dream of sitting in their soothing waters.

First, I tried a bucolic onsen overlooking the mountains, which were lush and green when I visited during the summer. Lounging in a naturally fed hot spring from the top of a mountain allowed me to slow down, relax, and appreciate the beauty of Japan outside of its big cities.

I also tried a traditional onsen, which was segregated by gender and required visitors to disrobe completely. As an American, I'm not used to bathing naked with strangers, but I didn't want to miss this quintessential Japanese experience.

Although I didn't stay long, it was eye-opening to see how this tradition, so different than my own, quickly helped me feel more comfortable in my own skin. This is something I would not have experienced if I had not gone to Hakone.

Finally, my kids and I tried a series of themed onsens at Yunessun, a hot-spring theme park, which was one of the quirkier experiences I have had while traveling.

There, I hopped into an onsen shaped like a ramen bowl, complete with blow-up toppings. My kids joked that we were experiencing what it felt like to be cooked on a stovetop.

I also got to try unique baths, including one filled with coffee and another containing wine. My skin felt smooth and soft when I left.

Our trip featured some unique activities, including a visit to a mind-blowing sculpture garden

Although my children don't always share my affinity for looking at paintings and sculptures, they agreed to accompany me to the Hakone Open-Air Museum.

Beyond its gates, we found larger-than-life interactive sculptures unlike anything we've seen at traditional art museums.

As we walked through the museum's gardens, we hopped through rainbows, climbed to the top of a stained-glass tower, and walked underground to peek up at the sky from below.

My children even swung on colorfully knitted balls hanging from an elaborate net, seemingly suspended from the sky.

Near the exit of the gardens, I sat and soaked my feet in a hot-spring footbath while gazing out at the surrounding forest. I wish that every large attraction had something similar at the end.

Fortunately, there were many other unique and fun things for us to do in Hakone.

While there, I ate one of the town's famous black eggs, which had been transformed from their original white after boiling in a sulfur-rich hot spring. Legend has it that eating one of these adds seven years to your life — I devoured every morsel.

We also got a glimpse of Mt. Fuji from the Hakone Tozan Railway and rode on a pirate ship to get a fantastic view of Hakone's bright-red Torii Gate standing in a lake.

Hakone was a wonderful stop on our trip, and I'd happily return

During our time in Hakone, we stayed in a ryokan, a type of traditional Japanese inn, and were able to explore a lot of the relatively small town on foot.

Along the way, we wound through mountain roads dotted with small restaurants and shops, a welcome reprieve from the heat of the bigger cities we had visited earlier in our trip. We even took some time to hike along Hakone's lush forest paths.

Although it's easy to see the appeal of Japan's bigger cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, if I ever return to the country, I would spend more time in Hakone and seek out other small towns.