My expectations weren’t high and unfortunately they weren’t exceeded either.
I’m still in Japan, day 10 of 14 (not including arrival and departure date) spent the first 6 days in Tokyo and have done day trips in Uji, Nara and currently a couple days in Kyoto (will likely skip Osaka) and truthfully I’m not having an outstanding time. I’m mainly making this post to be the voice of reasoning for anyone who is having doubts, so I’m really not looking for judgement or criticism from people who think I planned horribly, from the very start I already thought it wasn’t going to be super awesome we came because it was my fiance’s celebration trip and she really wanted to come here. With all that being said, growing up I was a huge anime, Pokémon and Nintendo fan which has offset most of the negative aspects of this trip (Nintendo Museum was surprisingly very fun despite many reviews saying it was boring or worth skipping, I personally enjoyed it a ton) as for the food I already knew I wasn’t going to love the food here, nothing has WOWED and changed my life, the food is just okay, the most memorable meals were at spots that aren’t viral so believe me when I say those viral spots are worth skipping the 1hr wait. I’m a huge fan of spicy (heat) and it’s just so hard to come by, of the 10 days here I’ve had 3 meals that did hit the spot so if you’re curious what they were DM me and I think they were all in Kyoto. On the topic of food, I must’ve misinformed myself but I was under the impression food in Japan was great because it was also very affordable, but it is really REALLY pricey to eat here, nothing was cheap, thankfully I planned with a large budget but I’m yet to spend money and think to myself “thats it?” Besides the food not meeting my expectations, the next frustrating thing is how crammed and crowded the places are, there are SO MANY people everywhere and all the businesses cannot fit everyone in together unless we’re all packed like sardines, so if you run hot like me and are claustrophobic, you’re in for a bad time. And most places lack AC or don’t run it on a high enough setting, so businesses, public transportation are all extremely hot inside and like I said, it feels even worse because everyone is shoulder to shoulder so I’m constantly sweating and the humid weather doesn’t help (even though it’s been below 23 degrees almost every day I’ve been here so maybe just because I’m used to dry weather I feel extremely hot) Lastly I want to get to the good parts, the people here are lovely, every store and restaurant has been nothing but excellent service and friendliness. Public transportation, extremely easy to use, I hate how hot and crammed they get but I can’t lie and say they’re difficult, they’re honestly super easy to navigate and super efficient. And lastly this place is incredibly clean and safe.
TLDR;
Complaints:
food not very good
everything is hot and tiny
not as cheap as people say
Likes:
people are super nice
transportation easy peasy
clean and safe