Japan Travel Planning Made Easy: 10-Day Itinerary for First-Timers

You have to check out teamLab Planets! This interactive art museum is insane, featuring everything from a floating flower garden to a room they call a soft black hole. We paid around $25 USD per person, and it was so much fun. I highly recommend it, but tickets sell out months in advance, so book ahead. Make sure to wear shorts because the water is high in some areas, and in others, mirrors will make everything visible, if you know what I mean.

We stayed at Fuji Kawaguchiko Onsen Hotel, a traditional Japanese ryokan located on Lake Kawaguchiko with stunning views of Mount Fuji. Ryokans typically have tatami-matted rooms, an onsen (communal bath), and include traditional Japanese meals. We spent the day wearing traditional Japanese clothing, relaxing at the onsen, and taking in all the views Mount Fuji had to offer. The ryokan included a traditional Japanese dinner with seven delicious dishes. With full stomachs, we slept like babies on the tatami mats.

After dinner, we burned some calories and walked over to Yasaka Shrine, where we learned how to pay respects at a Japanese shrine.

We took a taxi to Fushimi Inari Shrine and arrived at 7:30 in the morning. This is one of the most important shrines for the Inari god, with free admission and hiking trails that take you to the mountain summit. It seems a lot of people don't hike all the way up, stopping halfway, so don't worry about taking your pictures down below. Just keep going to the top, and it's beautiful, and you'll have it much more to yourself. The gates are so big, it's almost hard to describe how large they are until you see them up close in person.

After lunch, we headed to Kiyomizu-dera, about a 10-minute walk. This Buddhist temple and UNESCO World Heritage site is well-known for its wooden stage and the Otowa Waterfall. The waterfall has three streams of sacred water thought to bring love, success, and longevity. The entrance fee is about 400 Yen per person.

Lauren and I always try to book a cooking class when we are in a new country; it's a fun date night for us as we learn how to cook traditional meals. We booked a class at Ramen Factory Kyoto, which cost us about $120 USD per person. We had so much fun making our noodles, creating our own broth, and making fun of each other's cooking skills.

We woke up early to see the bamboo forest, hopping in a taxi to get there as quick as possible to beat the crowds. It was about a 30-minute journey from our hotel, and we arrived around 7:15 AM. Some of the bamboo stalks are 90 feet tall. Waking up early paid off; there were only a few people here, and it was just beautiful walking through with the birds chirping and seeing how tall these bamboo stalks are. We got there at like 7:15 AM, and it was about perfect, but by 8 AM, it was already pretty packed, so a lot of people are going to be upset they didn't get here earlier.

While in Osaka, we had to visit Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios. Lauren and I had a blast trying all the foods at Kinopio's Cafe, doing VR Mario Kart racing, and interacting with all of the park's features. We even went out of our comfort zone and rode the Flying Dinosaur at Jurassic Park, which was very intense. All in all, it was a great day, and we had so much fun acting like kids again. The park is easily accessible by the Osaka subway system.