JAPAN

Tokyo is one of the most exciting cities not just in Japan, but in the world. It is an absolutely massive metropolis with a never-ending list of fun and interesting things to do.

If you’re visiting Tokyo for the first time and want to truly experience the city, then this 5-day Tokyo itinerary will be helpful to you. It’s a realistic itinerary that features all the best places to visit for first-time travelers to Tokyo.

airKitchen offers so many cooking classes in Japan that you could probably find one for whatever Japanese dish you want to make. As of this writing, they offer over 400 cooking classes in Tokyo alone!

There are many interesting neighborhoods in Tokyo, but for us, the best is Shinjuku. It’s got everything – lights, entertainment, shopping. Most important of all, it’s got food. Lots of it. There are so many interesting restaurants in Shinjuku.

Shirakawago is a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses. It’s located in the remote Shogawa River Valley in Gifu prefecture, close to the border with Toyama.

What the Takayama Hokuriku Pass does is allow you unlimited travel in central Japan so you can explore destinations in the Chubu region like Kanazawa, Fukui, Toyama, Nagoya, and Shirakawa-go. It’s so convenient!

Since 2014, we’ve been to Osaka a total of four times. Each visit gives us the opportunity to explore new restaurants and to continually update and refine this food guide. Our goal is to give you the best, most complete, and most diverse food experience in Osaka, and I believe we’ve done just that with the latest edition of this guide.

Kuromon Ichiba Market is a covered market in Osaka’s Chuo Ward, about a 3-minute walk from Nippombashi Station. It’s often referred to “Osaka’s kitchen” because it’s where many of the city’s chefs get their supplies.

Sapporo is one of Japan’s most popular tourist destinations – famous for its miso ramen, Sapporo beer, and playing host to the Sapporo Snow Festival which draws in over 2 million tourists annually.

We first visited northern Kyushu in 2017 and got to enjoy regional specialties like champon, basashi, and everyone’s favorite Hakata ramen. Everything we had made an impression and got us excited to come back and explore more of the island and its myriad delicacies.