at a point in time, it seemed like the entire singapore population was in japan. it was all over instagram and tiktok - bowing to deers, sipping matcha, feasting on sushi and gyukatsu. naturally, the wanderlust in me wanted to travel to japan, even though i always thought that korea had my heart (and also, people compared travelling to japan vs to korea, if you know what i mean). 

so i grasped the chance during a traveloka deal in late 2024 to book a trip to japan in the spring of 2025 - peak cherry blossom season, supposedly. but as the weather changes, we were a tad bit too early but still got to catch a glimpse of the blossoms. no, i didnt know japanese even though i watched haikyuu!! and yes, japlanning is an actual term - you actually get adrenaline from this, figuring out the activities to book, trying to make sense of the train system, going on tiktok for recs, before i know it, i'm back in singapore and looking forward to my next trip. 

as it was my first trip to japan (with my mum and twin), we went to the big three - tokyo, kyoto and osaka and conquered these three cities in eight days. technically six, because we spent an entire day at tokyo disneysea and another day at universal studios japan. people say it's too rushed, and i agree. but i've got limited days of leave so we did whatever we could and i would like to say that i'll be back in japan hopefully within the next five years. 

bustling city: tokyo

as expected, tokyo was pretty crowded with both tourists and locals. the city lights from the top of shibuya sky was absolutely amazing - 360 degrees of city lights. due to lack of planning, we had to take a train during the peak hour and we did not experience the crazy pushing and squeezing into the train cabins as seen on tiktok but instead, commuters lined up neatly to board the trains and take the escalators, though they do brisk walk which made me lowkey stressed as i was lugging the luggage. always always plan ahead when taking the trains because some of them have fixed schedules and not very frequent intervals like what we have in singapore. nonetheless, its still an efficient system and the city is definitely very accessible via public transport. 

core memory would be tokyo disneysea where we got to take rides on a different tier than those in uss! but why am i even comparing. waiting times were insane and the park was sooo big we spent more time walking than taking the rides, but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. we were so tired we left the park before 6pm. also? can i just say? rapunzel's lantern festival was such a vibe - it really is just a ride but it felt so magical. 

during our one free day in tokyo, we did a little bit more of the touristy stuff - like ueno park and visiting imperial palace as well as senso-ji temple. we also ate ichiran ramen for the experience. 

city of shrines: kyoto 

sitting on the right side of the train from tokyo to kyoto was a win! we saw mt fuji!! so grand, so majestic, so beautiful i was simply in awe! while kyoto has only two main train lines, the city is pretty accessible by bus. pro tip: book accomms near the train stations, because buses don't allow large luggages. also i think people in kyoto and tokyo stand at different sides of the escalator... it can be confusing but i'd say... follow the majority. you board the public bus from the back and alight from the front, only tapping your card (i use suica) when you alight. 

kyoto was still crowded with tourists but a lot less crowded as compared to tokyo. we walked all the way from yasaka shrine to kiyomizu dera but i think everyone does the same as well. we had booked the hozugawa boat river - saw so many positive reviews on tiktok and klook but unfortunately, our boat trip was cancelled on the day of due to high water levels. 

from kyoto, we also visited nara deer park - this was quite an experience cos we had planned to take the limited express train but we didn't know that we needed to get separate tickets for this - we missed the train in the end. so a very kind train commander somehow managed to lead us to another platform and thanks to google translate, he very kindly told us that we can take the express train to a certain station, and change train to get to nara deer park. all with a language barrier in between us. nara deer park was expectedly crowded with tourists and we didn't stay for long - we stayed just for the experience. 

a fair amount of time was spent in kyoto city area where there are a number of department stores like takashimaya and daimaru so we really just walked around and on some days, decided to rest early because we were simply too tired from clocking steps. 

of lights and sounds: osaka

we took a public train (i think) from kyoto to osaka which took around 1 hour. most of the time was spent at touristy areas such as hep five ferris wheel where we got to see a birds eye view of the city, shinsekai and dotonburi. we spent a solid hour outside osaka castle because the park was blooming with cherry blossoms too. as a recent matcha enthusiast, i also went to a matcha workshop and i left japan with matcha that can last me till the next three to four months. 

i lived for the rides at usj (but not the queues). harry potter and super nintendo world were so on theme, very instagrammable. the rides? thrilling. i'd 10/10 go and take the rides again. but i do know which rides i'd want to take the express passes for. 

navigating from our osaka airbnb to kansai international airport was a little bit confusing - but we relied on google maps. there was a certain train we needed to catch at a fixed timing but at the same time osaka station was so huge we wanted to be sure that we boarded the correct train (thankfully we did). we witnessed the iconiq ground crew waving us off as we left for the runway and maybe i teared up. 

it was a short but good eight days and i'll definitely want to go back to japan again. 

till next time x