Japan Trip 2025 (Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, Tokyo, Yokohama, Chiba, Narita)

 

This is going to be a massive post so I might divide it into two parts. I'm not going to curate it much because I am lazy, and I also want whoever that is visiting this post to experience my almost two weeks in Japan just like how I saw it. The main goal of my trip was to start in Osaka and then get to Tokyo, but it actually started in Tokyo. I spent a day in Tokyo and then I took an overnight sleeper bus to Osaka and stayed there for a week, with Kobe in between. Then on the second week I took a bus back to Tokyo and spent about five days there while I fit in Yokohama, Narita and Chiba in between.

Looking back onto the trip it was certainly not a perfect one. I had problems with my shoes that were giving me horrible blisters only on my second day of the trip which required me to buy new shoes, which in hindsight was one of the best decisions I had made on this trip. (I might need to build a shrine just for those damn shoes.)

I also missed my bus from Osaka to Tokyo because I could not find the damn coin locker. The train station was so hectic during the night time with massive amounts of people that I literally got lost. I was rushing to the bus station with all of my luggage with my phone on hand and my eyes were darting back and forth from Google maps and the the road in front of me. I knew I had missed the bus but I was running anyways hoping for a miracle. (I had also dropped my phone and cracked my screen which really frustrated me.) Luckily there was another bus which had space and I had to splurge extra cash on it. It felt like a lot then, but when I look back on it now it was all worth it even thought it was such a frustrating moment.

The worst part of the trip was on the last day of the trip. For me the last boss of this trip were the coin lockers. As helpful as they were they were also the bane of my existence. I arrived early in Shinjuku to drop off my luggage in the coin lockers as I had just checked out of my guest house. I wanted to get an early start because these coin lockers got filled up pretty quickly and I didn't want to be stuck with my extra carriage. I setup my locker, done and dusted. I spent my entire day frivolously walking around Tokyo trying to maximize my last day. My flight was very early in the morning so I had to take the last train to the airport terminal and sleep there. Thinking back on what happened in Osaka, I didn't want to repeat my mistake. I gave myself a fair hour to prepare so that I could comfortably get to the airport, but oh no you don't. When I got to the locker to tap my Suica (metro card) onto the locker it had rejected me. At first I thought it was a glitch and kept tapping but I constantly got rejected. Then to my horror I had remembered that I had used my coins instead of the card, because I wanted to get rid of my remaining coins before I left the country. Just a quick explanation for context, the coin lockers can be used by two options. You can either tap your metro pass to lock it and re-tap it to open it, or you can use a coin, and when you use a coin you receive a receipt with a QR code. That receipt is essential when you want to access your locker. This is where my mistake was. Throughout the trip I had only used my metro pass to access these coin lockers, so naturally I had forgotten about my receipt. Throughout the day I was unloading garbage and unnecessary receipts because I thought I didn't need them anymore. 

Now, here I was standing in front of the locker realizing what kind of situation I was in and all I could do was to slowly sense the panic and dread that was compounding. My sim card did not have a phone number so I was unable to call their company, and it was passed their working hours. They also did not have a 24 hour service so I was unable to do anything. My last resort was to go to the police and as much as they tried to assist they told me that there was nothing that I could do but wait until the next day, when the locker company returns to work. This of course would not have worked for me because my flight was within a few hours. If I had taken their suggestion then I would have had to miss my flight. Logistically that would have been a nightmare for me because it was peak travelling season and there was no guarantee that I would have found any available tickets. I was not willing to pay exorbitant amounts of cash for an extra plane ticket. I also had to get back to work within three days. All of these thoughts were pressurizing in my head and it was making me feel so helpless and defeated. At this point I was literally begging the officer to do anything from breaking open the locker to calling the company on my behalf, and also try calling the fire department. His response was an apathetic apology and an unhelpful opinion of waiting until the next day. My brain was just blank and all I could do was to thank the police man and walk away. There was literally nothing else I could do. I was frustrated because in my mind I was thinking "how could a 24 hour locker company not have a 24 hour service center, why are they still using receipts, why could they not allow me to use my credit card instead!" But how could I blame them, because at the end of the day it was my mistake. I thought maybe I could try and trace back my steps and rummage through the garbage bins. Yep. Nope. It was Friday night, there were literally millions of people in every corner of the street, and I just knew that it was a lost cause. I was planning in my head on how I could approach contacting my colleagues on  my situation and that I might need to miss out on a few days of work, and how I would need to try and find a way to get plane tickets back home as soon as possible. As my brain was engulfed in a tornado of doubt I had a sudden realization. 

The luggage trapped in the coin locker was my bag with all of my clothes and clothes only. The backpack on my bag had all of my documents ranging from my I.D card and passport. All I needed to do was to part ways with my luggage and then adios amigo, I would be able to leave the country and get back home. I didn't do any shopping so there was nothing dear that I was losing, but I was definitely grieving over the fact that a large portion of my clothing would be sacrificed. The decision was made. I had no choice because I had already wasted my precious extra time haggling the police officer and at that moment I just started to run to the train. If I had missed the train as well I would have needed to wait until the next morning and I really didn't want to miss my flight as well. With my luggage gone I felt very light in both my body and mind. I got to the airport on time and I was happily on the plane flying back home. Albeit I still have so many regrets over my abandoned baggage. It was a service worth 500 yen, but I was left hanging because of one lost receipt and a metallic locker door that was only millimeters thin. I hope whoever finds my luggage puts all of the clothes into good use instead of chucking it into the incinerator. 

I needed to get this off of my chest. It was a rant and you might be thinking that this was the worst trip ever, but please don't get me wrong it was far from it. This trip was one of the best trips that I had ever had in my life. I learned so much, I saw so much, I tried so much, I spent so much. It was a trip that I had worked so hard for, and even with my losses I feel like there was so much more that I had gained. What I experienced there I will not write as it will become too wordy, and by now there are so many explanatory videos on Youtube that could do so much better than whatever I could type.

These photos are reflections on how I saw Japan, and I hope you enjoy them.

After this trip that green bag and those brown shoes were left somewhere in Tokyo.

2 a.m in the morning. I look like a mess.

Usually I would have consumed the broth, but a lot of the ramen broth in Japan is unbelievably salty.

Diet vending machine zero calories

 

10 Minutes only? For 500 yen??? I'll stick with Youtube, Thank you very much.

Best decision of this trip. I usually don't shop when I am travelling, but it was necessary this time. I felt like my blisters suddenly faded away after I bought these shoes. 50 USD wasn't so bad because I thought it would be more expensive.

(I kept this photo because I thought the Korean translation was pretty funny. It basically says spill the water in Korean. They must have used Google translate.)