Just got back from our month-long trip to Japan, landed early Tuesday morning. Full of new impressions, slightly tired and my stomach still full of ramen, soba and matcha. Milly did an amazing job planning out the whole trip, a perfect mix of the countryside, amazing food a lot of experieces. Couldn't be happier with the itinerary. We went to eight different cities and got to see a large part of southern Japan. Already planning our next trip there, probably going to the north next time. Here's a small write-up while it's fresh in memory:

Getting there

Our trip began with a tram ride to Korsvägen from which we took the bus to Landvetter airport. We had discussed whether we should bring a stroller or backpack for Martin, finally decided to go for the stroller. Turned out to be a good decision.

We had done our best to pack light, only bringing one small backpack and a carry-on suitcase (which we checked in).

The first leg was a short hop to Helsinki, departing at 9 PM, followed by a direct overnight flight to Nagoya. Martin slept most of the way, and the flight went surprisingly smoothly.

Nagoya

Okay, still a tiny bit tired after the flight..

We landed in Nagoya a little after 7 PM the next day. Immigration was quick and easy, and we caught the train into the city. Thanks to a good nights sleep on the plane, we weren’t too tired.

Our hotel turned out to be in a nightlife-heavy part of town, but it still felt safe and walkable. We still had some energy left to go discover the city and have our first, of many, bowls of ramen.

We chose Nagoya as our entry point because the tickets were about 10,000 SEK cheaper than flying into Tokyo.

With just one full day here, we walked a lot in the mild, rainy weather and took an afternoon trip to Inuyama to see the Innoyama castle.

View from our hotel and the famous Nagoya breakfast: Ogura toast and coffee.

Ordering ramen from a ticket machine, a common sight in the restaurants. Easy when they had photos, slightly harder when no photos and all Japanese.

Innoyama castle, still one of my favorite during the trip.

Ready to board the train to Matsumoto.

Our stay in Nagoya was brief and slightly jetlagged, but that was the plan — we’d return at the end of the trip. After two nights, we boarded a train for the scenic ride to:

Matsumoto

Beautiful scenery on the train ride from Nagoya to Matsumoto

The train ride through the Kiso Valley, framed by the Japanese Alps, was stunning. We arrived in Matsumoto, a mountain town in Nagano Prefecture, in the afternoon and went for a long walk. The hotel turned out to be the best of the whole trip - complete with free evening ramen and an enormous breakfast buffet.

We spent most of our time in Matsumoto just walking around the small streets, visiting the castle and trying out a private onsen (Japanese hot spring).

Went for a run in the afternoon, fresh air and not too hot.

Dinner the first night, okonomiyaki and ox tongue.

The Matsumoto castle, also known as the crow castle. Dating back to the late 1500s and very well-preserved.

Started the second day by exploring the castle.

Having soba for lunch, served either hot or cold so we of course had to try both variants. I preferred the hot one while Milly liked it cold.

Matsumoto is surrounded by the Hida and Kiso mountains, amazing scenery as the clouds lowered over the landscape

All in all a cosy town and well worth a visit. We continued our trip with a three-hour bus ride, going to:

Takayama

Once again riding through beautiful scenery. Martin really liked the foldable toddler seat.

Hidden in the mountains of Gifu Prefecture, Takayama is a charming little town known for its old streets and traditional wooden houses. We spent two full days exploring it.

Cured my restlessness from the long bus ride with a calm 10km run in the evening.

One of our main reasons for going here was not Takayama itself, but the small mountain village of Shirakawa-go. We took a bus there in the morning and spent the whole day walking around the village. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and going there was like travelling back in time. Unfortunately (and understandably) it was quite touristy.

Many of the houses acted as museums, allowing us to look around and get a feel for what local life used to be like centuries back.

As mentioned, very touristy, and no lack of coffee shops.

The iconic gasshō-zukuri farmhouses, traditional wooden homes with steep thatched roofs designed to withstand heavy snowfall.

Takayama is also famous for its morning markets. We spent the whole next morning walking around the small streets and trying on specialties of Gifu prefecture. Not bad, but a bit similar to Swedish Christmas markets: overpriced and touristy.

Having our morning espresso from an edible cup.

Hida beef sushi.

One of many small alleys in Takayama.

Wrapped up our second day by going for a long walk and enjoying the sunset from the Suwa shrine.

We had a bit of time in the morning of our last day in Takayama so we decided to go see the Hida folk village. It's an open-air museum with houses similar to the ones in Shirakawa-go. We were almost alone there, probably due to the heat, warmest day so far on the trip.

Hida folk village, a short bus ride from city center.

Going back to the city and having a quick lunch before boarding the bus to:

Kyoto

Martin enjoying the bus ride from Takayama to Kyoto.

Moving between cities was easy when travelling light.

Kyoto was Japan's capital for over a thousand years, and you can still feel that history in the city today. It's full of old temples, shrines, and traditional wooden houses. This was probably the city where we walked the most.

We stayed in Kyoto for six nights, the longest stay of our trip. It's a huge city but almost felt like home after walking well over 150,000 steps here. Had a bit of the big smalltown feeling.

The perfect matcha, Martin approved.

Strolling through the bamboo forest.

Another (not so) hidden gem: Philophers path. One of my favorite things about this city was how accessible the parks were.

The Kamo river runs through the city and was great for running.

Highlight of the trip if you ask Martin: the Kyoto railway museum. Huge amounts of trains, and a 300 sqm model railway.

The Hokan-ji temple (or Yasaka pagoda), rising 46 meter tall in the old Kyoto neighborhood

Had some really hot days in Kyoto with temperature upwards 35 degrees.

Cheap dinner with takeaway food from a supermarket close to the hotel. Surprisingly good!

Another recurring lunch option: Ramen from Ichiran. A chain in Japan with private booths and you can have your meal without talking to and seeing anyone else. And open 24/7.

Our last stop before leaving Kyoto: Kinkaku-ji, or the Golden pavilion. Dating back to the 14th century but rebuilt in 1955.

Enjoying the views and taking a well-deserved nap on the train from Kyoto to Osaka.

Osaka

Located only 40km from Kyoto, and got a feeling that the cities were growing together when looking out the train window on the way there. It only took 30 minutes with our slow train, and you can take the Shinkansen in just 15 minutes. But the vibe was completely different from Kyoto. Osaka has lots of high rises, much more modern infrastructure and felt several decades newer.

View from the top of Umeda sky building.

Umeda sky building, two 40 stories skyscrapers connected by the Floating Garden Observatory. Having the highest escalator in the world, crossing 173 meters of vertical gap.

Great food as well, here trying shabu-shabu for the first time.

Loved walking around in the city. It was a mix of super modern architecture and old messy streets side by side.

Spent a rainy day at the Osaka Aquarium. One main attraction being the whale sharks. Five meter long, but can grow up to 12 meter in the wild. I don't love the idea of having them in captivity, but at least it was a giant tank.

Also a lot of other interesting sea creatures, among them garden eels and a jellyfish exibition.

Kobe

Just 20 minutes train ride from Osaka, but a completely different vibe. We had two nights booked here. Short, but enough to see the city and have two amazing Kobe beef dinners.

Arriving in Koba and grabbing some crepes.

Went up the Kobe Port Tower and enjoyed the view.

When in Kobe, we of course had to try the Kobe beef.

We took the cable car up to Kobe Nunobiki Herb Gardens, one of the largets in Japan with around 75,000 herbs and flowers. Well worth a visit! It was clear blue sky when going up, but a thunderstorm rolled in and we had to go down by car.

Martin enjoyed the ride, after some initial hesitation.

The Herb garden is home to around 75,000 herbs and flowers.

And they had great ice cream!

After a short but intense time in Kobe, we headed to the airport and boarded the plane to our next destionation:

Okinawa

The southernmost prefecture of Japan, Okinawa felt like a world away from the cities and mountains. Crystal-clear waters, white sandy beaches, and a relaxed island vibe made it a perfect place to unwind.

Okinawa was also completely different than the rest of Japan. Rough neighborhoods, but in the best possible way. The streets were way less clean than any of the other cities. Crazy traffic, and the public transport was not great. There were some buses but the last bus home to Naha often left around 6 pm. And they were also at least 10-15 minutes late. Would definitely recommend renting a car.

American Village, a very different place...

Depot Island boardwalk in American Village.

Pirate ship playground.

Probably Martin's favorite part of Okinawa: The huge pirate ship playground.

Tokyo

We saved Tokyo for the end of our trip, having four nights and three full days there. Milly used to work for a Japanese company and have many old colleagues in Japan, managed to meet up with three of them. I also went to with my friend Yu who I studied together with in Hong Kong six years ago.

Tokyo is really an amazing city. I expected something like New York, London or Shanghai, but Tokyo was completely different. Extremely well-organized and feeling very safe. Feeling well-rested after the calm pace of Okinawa, so I prioritized seeing the city rather than sleeping. I went for early morning run before the sunrise and walked back home with the family late in night and feeling completely safe.

The streets were clean, a lot of parks (at least where we stayed, in Shibuya) and the subway made it very easy (and cheap!) to get around. Much more walkable than other big cities I've been to as well.

Arriving in Tokyo

Getting tired from a long day of adventure.

Finally got the chance to try out the Apple Vision Pro in real life. Really impressed!

Yep, there's a lot of people living here.

Teamlab planets, a mix a museum and art installation. Hard to describe but definitely worth a visit!

Pepper Parlor, a coffee shop run entirely by robots (well, almost).

Streets of Tokyo

Crowded but also a lot of parks and green areas.

Catching up with my old friend Yu, we met the first time 7 years ago when studying abroad in Hong Kong.

Back to Nagoya

Our flight home departed from Nagoya so we had booked one night there to avoid any stress with travelling from Tokyo the same day. Nagoya was the place I've heard the least about before our trip, . When researching it I found that it has a rumour of being a boring city and many skips over it in favour for Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto but we found it being a quite nice place. It's way less touristy than the other destinations and gave us the opportunity to get a feel of the everyday life.

Taking the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya.

Exploring the old streets of Shikemichi historic townscape in Nagoya

Two of my favorite meals in Nagoya King crab buffet and the famous Nagoya sweet bean breakfast.

We spent most of the last day in Nagoya walking around the streets and soaking up the atmosphere.

Flying home

Our flight was scheduled for 11 pm and we got to the airport early. A bit too early, but that was fine as they had a really nice playground for Martin to spend his last energy in before passing out on the flight. Had a transit in Helsinki early in the morning and landed in Gothenburg before 9 am the next day.

Flying over the north pole on the way home, and then some well-known scenery flying in over Gothenburg.

Flights: Landvetter → Helsinki → Nagoya → Okinawa → Tokyo → Nagoya → Landvetter

Best food: The vegan ramen at TeamLab Planets. It was the only dish on the menu an

Cities visited: Nagoya, Matsumoto, Takayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Naha (Okinawa), Tokyo

Best hotel: Iroha Grand hotel in Matsumoto. Huge room, perfect location, great breakfast. And the cheapest.

Steps walked: Average 19,822 steps per day during our 30 day trip, totalling 594,660 steps.

Best playground: The pirate ship outside American village in Okinawa.

Favorite city: For me: Tokyo. For Martin and Milly: Kyoto. And I see no reason to add more.

Best run: Early morning run in Tokyo around Imperial palace.