Japan for
a Wedding

A dawn landing, the first train west, and kaiseki for lunch

• The overnight flight from Los Angeles landed at Haneda before 5 AM. Fill in Visit Japan Web before you fly: it gives you QR codes for immigration and customs and makes a dawn arrival quick.
• From Haneda it's about 20 minutes on the Keikyu line to Shinagawa, then the Tokaido Shinkansen to Kyoto. We bought tickets in the smartEX app, which lets you pick seats and change trains on your phone.
• A taxi from Kyoto Station to Higashiyama takes about 15 minutes. Our driver used a translation app to give us a running tour of the neighbourhoods on the way.
• One night at Park Hyatt Kyoto, on the slope below Kodaiji. We walked in at 9:30 AM to a bowl of matcha in the lounge, and the room was ready by late morning.
• Lunch at Sanso Kyoyamato, the historic ryotei next to the hotel, now with two Michelin stars. We booked the lunch kaiseki through the hotel a few days ahead.
• At dusk, a walk along Nene-no-Michi, the stone lane below Kodaiji, and up to the lit-up Yasaka Pagoda once the day trippers have gone.
• Dinner at Yasaka, the hotel's counter restaurant: seven courses cooked in front of you, from Omi beef tenderloin to Kyotango rice with hairy crab, corn and chorizo. A splurge, but a memorable first night.

Kiyomizu-dera before breakfast, then Gion and the slopes

• Up the hill to Kiyomizu-dera just before 7 AM. It opens at 6 (¥500), and early is the only time the wooden stage isn't packed. The shops on the approach are still shuttered, which is part of the charm.
• Back for the Japanese breakfast, made by the Kyoyamato kitchen. It's limited each morning, so the hotel sells it ahead as an add-on; ask when you book.
• Late morning in Gion: the canal and willows of Shirakawa, then Hanamikoji. The side lanes off Hanamikoji are private, and there are fines for photos there, so stay on the main street.
• On the way, the Miffy shop in Gion, which is all plush bunnies and Miffy-shaped sweets.
• Afternoon on Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka, the stepped lanes below Kiyomizu: the Ghibli shop Donguri Republic, a crepe-fabric crafts store, Kyoto pickles from Nishiri, and tea at GOKAGO. Earlier, on the way down from Kiyomizu, a warm slice from Apple Pie Lab on the Sannenzaka steps.
• Then a short taxi to Hyatt Regency Kyoto for three nights, across from Sanjusangendo. For dinner, tsukemen at Tsurukame off Shijo, then a matcha drink and a walk along the river end of Pontocho.

Fushimi Inari at dawn, Ippodo tea, and Hikiniku to Come

• Up early for Fushimi Inari. The shrine is open around the clock and free, and the Keihan line from Shichijo, near our hotel, gets there in a few minutes. Early, the lower tunnels of torii gates are quiet enough for photos with nobody in them, and it stays cool for the climb.
• On the way back, a stop at Hikiniku to Come in Gion to register for a dinner slot. It's the hamburger steak counter where the patties are grilled over charcoal right in front of you, one at a time, with freshly cooked rice. Seats also open online a week ahead and go fast; if you miss those, register at the shop early in the day.
• Then tea at Ippodo's main store on Teramachi. The Kaboku tearoom opens at 10 and is first come, first served, so be there before it opens.
• Lunch was two kinds of cold soba at a counter near Nishiki, then Nishiki Market, including the Snoopy tea house. It's narrow and gets very busy by noon. Eating while walking is frowned on, so stop at the stall to finish your snack.
• The afternoon brought the only real rain of the Kyoto days, so we rested, then went back to Gion for our 7 PM hamburger steak. Worth the effort: the first patty arrives straight off the grill, and you get three over the meal.
• A late bite at the restaurant floor of Yodobashi Camera by Kyoto Station, open later than most of the city. Its Yebisu Bar does crispy chicken skin we still remember from an earlier trip.

A day trip: the aquarium and a ball game, while the bags travel on their own

• Before leaving, we booked TEBURA-KUN on our phones to take the big suitcases from the Kyoto hotel to our Osaka hotel. Bags handed to the front desk in the morning, delivered by mid afternoon.
• The JR Special Rapid gets from Kyoto to Osaka in under 30 minutes. A tap of an iPhone Suica covers it, and every subway in between.
• Afternoon at Kaiyukan, one of the world's great aquariums. You spiral down around a huge central tank with a whale shark in it. Lunch and souvenirs are in the Tempozan Marketplace next door.
• Then the Orix Buffaloes against the Rakuten Golden Eagles at Kyocera Dome. Orix won 4 to 0. Bring an appetite: the concourses are lined with food stands, and the beer comes to your seat.
• Back to Kyoto for one last night.

Japanese baseball crowds cheer in turns. The visiting team's fans fill one outfield section and sing while their side bats, then go quiet for the home team. Stand when the people around you stand.

Matcha in Kyoto, then on to Osaka

• One last matcha stop in Kyoto at Marukyu Koyamaen's Nishinotoin shop, then the train to Osaka.
• Three nights at Canopy by Hilton Osaka Umeda, in the new Grand Green development next to Osaka Station. It sits on a big new park, and the station's underground malls take you almost anywhere in Umeda without going outside.
• The evening was the first of the wedding events, which belong to the couple and their families, so we'll leave them there.

A family day in Umeda

• Mostly family and wedding plans. In between, Umeda is easy to wander: the Don Quijote megastore, the department stores around Osaka Station, and the underground malls when it's hot.

The wedding

• The reason for the whole trip. It's the couple's day, so it stays off this page.

Bento, the bullet train, and Fuji out the window

• Get to Shin-Osaka early enough to shop for an ekiben, a station bento, for the ride. We picked ours at Tabibento, a big ekiben shop inside the station, plus a box of Rikuro's jiggly cheesecake, baked in batches right behind the counter.
• The Nozomi takes about two and a half hours to Tokyo. We had seats D and E and saw Fuji clearly just after 2:30 PM, near Shin-Fuji.
• From Tokyo Station we headed out to Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay in Urayasu for five nights. It runs a free shuttle to Shin-Urayasu Station and to the Disney parks.

A slow Saturday in Ueno

• Ueno Park is free and open all day, with the big national museums, a lotus pond and a shrine all inside it. Ameyoko market street is just outside the south gate for snacks.
• Ueno Zoo, Japan's oldest, is closed on Mondays. When we went it still had its twin giant pandas. They went back to China in January 2026, and for now there are no pandas anywhere in Japan.
• A cloudy, mild day with a little drizzle, which kept the park comfortable.

teamLab Planets and yakitori in Toyosu

• A 4 PM slot at teamLab Planets in Toyosu. You go barefoot the whole way, and two rooms have water up to your knees, so wear shorts or trousers that roll up. Lockers are free. Allow about two hours.
• Dinner around the corner at Yakitori Miyagawa's Toyosu branch, two minutes from Toyosu Station: skewers, a full izakaya menu, and a bowl of rice under a glossy cured egg yolk.

Tokyo Disneyland in Halloween season

• A full day at Tokyo Disneyland. In October both parks go all in on Halloween, starting with giant Mickey pumpkins under the World Bazaar roof.
• Tickets are dated, priced by day, and sell out on busy dates, so buy them ahead on the official site.
• Everything happens in the Tokyo Disney Resort app. Premier Access, the paid skip-the-line pass, costs ¥1,500 to ¥2,500 per ride and is bought in the app once you're inside. We used it on the rides with the longest waits.
• Mobile Order in the same app saves a long queue at lunch. Order before you're hungry and pick a pickup window.

DisneySea, the one to pick

• DisneySea. If you only do one Tokyo park, make it this one: there's nothing like it at any other Disney park.
• Our favourites: Toy Story Mania, and lunch at the Snuggly Duckling, the Tangled tavern in Fantasy Springs. Fantasy Springs now has regular standby lines, so check the app for waits before paying for Premier Access.

Moving into Ginza

• Part of the family flew home, and we took a taxi into Ginza for four nights at Hyatt Centric Ginza, on Namiki-dori a few minutes from the Ginza subway hub.

An afternoon at Yasukuni

• Breakfast at the hotel has a fun touch: you bake your own mini croissants in a little press at the table.
• Yasukuni Shrine and the Yushukan in Kudanshita. The shrine is free; the museum is ¥1,000 and open 9 to 4:30. It tells the story of Japan's wars from the shrine's own, strongly nationalist point of view. Worth seeing, with that in mind.
• The moat path at Chidorigafuchi and the Kitanomaru Garden are a short walk away and much calmer.

Senso-ji in the morning, depachika in the afternoon

• The Ginza subway line runs straight to Asakusa in about 20 minutes. Senso-ji is busiest from late morning, and Nakamise-dori, the shopping street up to the temple, is best for snacks rather than souvenirs. Draw an omikuji fortune for ¥100; if it's a bad one, tie it to the rack and leave it behind.
• Around the temple: matcha ice cream in a warm melon pan at Asakusa Kagetsudo, the arcades, a few swings at a batting center, and half an hour with the tiny pigs at a micro pig cafe.
• Back in Ginza: wagashi from Ginza Akebono, then the basement food hall at Mitsukoshi. We took fruit sandos, kimbap and spring rolls up to the store's rooftop garden for a picnic.
• The clearest, coolest day of the Tokyo stretch, in the low 70s.

Tsukiji and a last shopping day

• Breakfast at the Tsukiji Outer Market, a 10 minute walk from Ginza. Go early: by 10 it's crowded, and many stalls close by early afternoon. Graze instead of sitting down for sushi: grilled scallops, tamagoyaki on a stick and strawberry daifuku from the stalls.
• Then the shopping list: Loft for stationery and gadgets, the giant Don Quijote for snacks and skincare, and Ginza Six with its rooftop garden. On weekend afternoons Chuo-dori closes to cars and turns into a wide pedestrian street.
• In the late afternoon we saw family off at Haneda and ate at Haneda Airport Garden, the food hall by Terminal 3, a good place for a meal before a Haneda flight.

On to Manila

• We left from Narita for a week in Manila. That's a post of its own.

Narita is a lot farther out than Haneda: allow an hour or more from Ginza by train, and check which terminal your airline uses.