#1: Droplet Idle

I originally found this simple-but-satisfying idle collecting game via a dev post on r/incremental_games, and I’ve been checking it a few times a day for a couple of weeks now!

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 1.1.8:

Main screen	Upgrades	Prestige upgrades	Achievements

Review

Droplet Idle starts undeniably slow. After ~5 minutes I actually closed the game and was pretty ready to uninstall, as it seemed to just consist of swiping the screen to collect the slowly spawning water drops, upgrading drop value etc, and repeat.

Luckily, I gave it another go, and it’s got a lot more going on! Once the momentum of droplet spawning & auto-collecting & auto-upgrading picks up, the game reveals itself to be worth putting time into. Alongside the typical upgrades (droplet value, spawn rate, offline time, etc) are longer term prestige mechanics. Whilst these aren’t dissimilar, they are powerful enough (e.g. double income) to be immediately felt.

Interestingly, these prestige upgrades aren’t entirely permanent. Instead, they will reset on the very rare occasion that you change location, something I’ve only managed to do once so far (but can afford the next movement). Persisting through these are a truly permanent upgrade mechanic: prestige talents. Split into active, passive, and utility, these abilities let you customise your bonuses based on playstyle, and can be redistributed at any time for free.

The developer is clearly listening to feedback, with essentially every criticism from the original post addressed, and it even updated the day before writing this review with minor redesigns and bug fixes! I’m confident it has a lot of potential, although I worry how many other players won’t push through the initial slow gameplay.

Whilst there’s no story or narrative whatsoever besides numbers go up, progressing through the areas (I’m on “City”, next is “Tropical Forest”) to unlock new backgrounds is enough of a motivation for now. It’s also worth mentioning that the quality of life upgrades such as auto-upgrade and idle prestige currency gain are quite early on, meaning the game can be fully idle if desired.

The game also includes an interesting achievements system. 8 metrics (total offline time, prestiges, droplets collected, etc) have up to 18 “tiers”, where each new tier gives an increased relevant bonus. For example, I’m currently tier 8 total offline time (2 days), tier 9 (3 days) would give me +5% offline earnings, a small but noticeable bonus. Additionally, in the most recent update, 1.5x income multipliers were added for being an early adopter (playing before March 2026), completing the game early, or finding a game breaking bug. Nice!

Overall the gameplay loop is not complex, but it’s a straightforward dopamine drip-feed (no pun intended). The need to balance immediate upgrades vs overall prestige value is typical for the genre, as is the lack of any way to lose progress or do any active gameplay besides swipe the screen to collect.

Regardless, it’s a solid candidate for your next “check occasionally” game, and I’m sure the future upgrades will continue to improve it!

Monetisation

• There are banner adverts, but they can be disabled in exchange for losing 15% of income. This is a great trade-off, and lets users who would uninstall (me!) continue playing at a reduced speed.
• Adverts can be watched for a 20 minute 2x multiplier, a reasonable rate. Additionally, due to the achievement tiers, watching more adverts actually increases the per advert benefit, with 200 advert watches in the bonus becoming permanent!
• All adverts can also be removed for £3.49 (~$5).

These options are suitably varied, and I haven’t felt pressured whatsoever to buy them yet (primarily since all adverts are optional). Personally I’d appreciate an additional in-app payment to permanently increase income or similar, as an extra incentive to spend some money, an action I’m currently unlikely to take due to lack of incentive.

Tips

• Occasionally turn off your auto-upgrade to see if you are near a new upgrade tier (e.g. 50, 100), listed below each upgrade type. Saving up to get to these can be far more efficient than upgrading everything equally.
• Moving to a new location resets your prestige bonuses but not talents, so make sure you have purchased as many talents as reasonably possible before moving.
• Offline progress is fairly limited in both time and impact even after quite a few upgrades, so if possible it’s a good “keep open and swipe occasionally” game.
• The game has a website, but no Discord / subreddit.

#2: Idle Gem

Idle Gem is a somewhat confusing idle mining game, where I’m not fully sure what’s going on even after over 10 hours of gameplay! I originally found it via r/incremental_games, in one of the “what are you playing” threads.

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 0.7.10:

Mining	Merging	Combat	Automation	Prestiging

Review

Okay, imagine lining up 5 random idle game mechanics, giving them a grey mining aesthetic, and putting them in a blender. What do you get? Idle Gem! This isn’t necessarily a criticism, it’s just the only explanation I can find for each tab in the game often being almost entirely unrelated, besides shared currencies of “soil” and “tears”.

The “main” screen of the game(?), the mining, is a straightforward automated income method. Your equipment will mine blocks, with timed “DPS check” levels every now and again unlocking deeper depths with higher income. This all happens entirely automatically, with your input limited to simple upgrades to speed, power, earnings etc. So where does the equipment come from?

The equipment tab! Here you’ll spawn items (pickaxe / hammer / mattock) and item enchants (extra resources / chance to teleport to target / damage surrounding blocks / etc) using chests earned idly or with soil / tears. Merging 3 of the same item or 4 of the same enchant increases the level, this process can be repeated until you run out of space to merge.

This merging process has unusual mechanics like the ability to convert all items / enchants to another type, a slightly awkward deletion process for unwanted items, and a manual moving process that only sometimes works. I found merging to be quite painful, with tool & enchant automerging being my top priority for automation upgrades.

Alongside this idle mining game is an idle combat screen that baffles me. Your last prestige’s equipment automatically fights ghosts and other simple enemies, earning… powerup cans(?) that increase various stats. There are a few areas to battle in, although it’s rare that you’ll open the screen at the right time to pick. Reaching various milestones in an area will earn you some sort of… sentient flame(?) icon, that can be used to improve the equipment spawned for merging.

None of these mechanics are particularly strange, I just don’t really have a clue what’s going on? Numbers go up, equipment gets better, prestige bonuses apply, upgrade purchasing gets automated but it’s all slightly mysterious. This could just be user error, yet each screen / component feels like an isolated feature with no real plan.

As another example, occasionally floating chests with wings will appear on a tab, and tapping them earns you chests for the equipment spawning. This isn’t a simple mechanic, but why are they spawning? Did I do something? Is it random? No idea.

I noticed on the Discord that the developer is Japanese, so that may partially explain the difference in user experience (e.g. Japanese websites are designed drastically differently to Western sites, and I don’t play many / any Japanese games).

Overall Idle Gem doesn’t do anything new in my opinion, and whilst it is an interesting combination of various idle game mechanics, it lacks a cohesive vision / story to draw me back in. That being said, I’ve put 10 hours of active gameplay in (I find merging in general addictive…) so it clearly has something going on! Perhaps worth a try to see if the aesthetic is for you.

Monetisation

• Adverts can be watched for various temporary boosts / items, such as doubled income when resuming gameplay, or double prestige bonuses.
• An ad removal pack is available (which I purchased), offering all the advert-based perks and speeding up progress.
• A booster pack is also available, permanently applying the advert-based power / attack / time potion boosts, however this can almost be done with the advert removal pack.

Tips

• Automating is the best way to spend diamonds, especially purchasing crush power and item merging.
• There is a surprisingly full Discord (700+), with the developer sharing frequent updates (at time of writing, they shared information on 6 upcoming enchants a few hours ago).

#3: Energy Loops

Energy Loops is yet another of those “rotate tiles to ensure all are connected” games that have been around for decades, albeit a very polished one that is heavily monetised.

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 8.10.5:

Home screen	Simple level	Complex level	Shop	Customisation

Review

Energy Loops (or “Energy: Anti Stress Loops”, or “∞ ENERGY”) isn’t a game to love or hate. It’s fine, it’s good enough, it’ll do.

The core gameplay is pretty satisfying, as are all loop-based games, with some novel changes like a hexagonal grid and wifi blocks (connect between 2 unconnected blocks), and features some permanent progression in the form of levelling up.

These levels are earned through completing levels, and unlock various cosmetics (colours, icon types, music tracks) that don’t affect gameplay. Unfortunately this is muddied by “cards” (3x XP multipliers that recharge over time), incentivising frequent small sessions.

All the usual habit-forming aspects are here, such as limited time events, online leaderboards, limited time discounts, daily puzzles, anything to get players opening the game. These are all very shallow, with the only gameplay being completing either a square or hexagonal grid, no matter how varied the starting layouts might be.

Limited time events are baffling, with a dramatic framing (e.g. a hot air balloon race) that doesn’t actually mean anything. It claims to be “complete X levels first”, but I easily won every single time so I can only assume it matched me with inactive players. The result is a bit of bonus XP whilst you’re completing the regular levels, and nothing else.

This shallowness is a running theme throughout. Whilst undeniably aesthetic, the light and ethereal theme is somewhat one-note, with all the flowy navigations getting somewhat repetitive. The end result is a game with nothing new, just various monetisation / retention tactics slapped on top of smooth but predictable gameplay. I’ve completed around 75 levels, and doubt I’ll complete many more.

Ultimately it doesn’t feel like a game that has had love put into it, it feels like a cynical cash-grab for simple gameplay. Recently Google Play reviews mention the monetisation has become more aggressive, so it’s possible the game used to be a better experience but changed after achieving popularity (10 million installs).

If you’re after a loop-based game, this is probably one of the best so long as you’re able to ignore the monetisation.

Monetisation

• Adverts to play old levels, gain hints, gain XP.
• Forced adverts if you fail a daily level, or after completing a few levels.
• Hints can be purchased in various packs.
• A surprisingly affordable (£2.59 / $3.50) ad-free pack that also upgrades the max rechargeable “XP boost” cards from 3 -> 4.
• Various obnoxiously expensive purchases, such as £4.29 / $6 for a music track, or £16.49 / $22.50 for ad removal + music track + 150 hints.
• The ridiculous “Diamond membership”. £7.49 ($10) per WEEK, with various daily bonuses, no adverts, etc. It’s hard to justify any subscription for a simple game that costs over $500/year.

Overall the game can be paid for free with no adverts if you just play through the levels in order and ignore everything popping up, and there isn’t much more to the game if you did pay anyway!

Tips

• It’s just a loop solving game, no tips needed!

#1: Railbound

Railbound is a simple logic puzzle concept with a train track-laying aesthetic, from the developers of Golf Peaks and inbento. It’s tricky!

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 4.03:

Level select	Puzzle 2-6A	Puzzle 3-5

Review

The first few levels of Railbound are misleading. Lay some track connecting a train cart to the train’s engine, how could this ever get tricky!? Well, tunnels, junctions, multiple carts, signals, and much more quickly complicate things.

Each level has a limited number of track tiles to lay, and there’s no energy / cost to trying out new ideas. As such, you’re just left to solve the puzzle with no distractions, with a lot of complexity coming from no manual control over the cars, and their requirement to arrive in order. Ideal setup for a puzzle game!

I’m around 30-40 levels in, finishing up world 3 of 13, and I’m consistently impressed with the challenging yet possible design of every single puzzle. It’s very rare that a puzzle game does such a good job of drip-feeding new ideas and techniques without any words, and instead relies on you experimenting and building upon your own knowledge.

Additionally, the game has a “core” path of mandatory levels, but at least as many bonus levels too, any of which can be played after completing the corresponding core level. There’s no incentive or benefit to solving these puzzles, but it’s a great way to reinforce the lessons learned, and solve significantly trickier problems.

For example, Puzzle 2-6A (picture above) appears simple when the non-movable tiles are initially shown (tiles with thick brown wood): just send car 1 through the red tunnel, then route car 2 through the same tunnel to follow afterwards. Except, huh, you’ve got one tile too few to do this, no matter how cleverly you lay the track. I got stuck here for a while, until I eventually solved it through trial-and-error, and the solution may not be obvious even if you see it!

The solution is to let car 1 go through the red tunnel to the engine, easy. Meanwhile, car 2 needs to go through the blue tunnel, into the red tunnel, follow the looped track, then back through the red tunnel to the engine. When I figured this out I felt very proud, pressed play, and my 2 cars promptly crashed in the post-tunnel junction. The solution? A tactical wiggle for car 2 to ensure it arrives at the junction a little later!

This example should highlight how a well-designed simple puzzle can be deeply engaging to solve, and this is reinforced by the overall player-friendliness of the game. In addition to the expected audio & language controls, there are:

• Quality settings (all seem identical to me, it’s a stylised game!)
• Game UI scaling
• Option to unlock all levels
• Option to enable a hint system
• Option to turn on colourblind assistance (e.g. icons for paired tunnels)
• Option to reduce motion effects

Monetisation

Included in Google Play Pass, or £4.29 (~$6).

Tips

• You’ll definitely get stuck on puzzles, I find completely clearing all tiles and trying something that won’t work helps me get to the solution.
• You can increase train speed during playback, you might as well use max speed as you can’t edit anything whilst the cars are moving.
• The game is also available (and well reviewed!) on Steam, where it seems to include a level creator.
• There is a Discord server for the game.

#2: String of Words

Are you a fan of 2-word phrases? Then this is the game for you!

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 1.5.9:

Level select	Mid-level	End of level

Review

This is not a complex game, nor one that works particularly well either on or off Google Play Pass. You’ll start with a word, and a clue, and need to guess the follow-up word. For example, “One _”, clue “Pirate’s handicap”, answer is “leg”. Easy.

“Leg” then becomes the first word for the next clue, and you’ll chain these answers together until you get to the target word. That’s really all there is to it.

There’s a “Daily Mini” where only 1 word needs to be guessed, however each puzzle won’t take more than a minute or two so is pretty “mini” to begin with! The game includes 10x basic achievements for completing each “book” of puzzle, and completing 30 daily puzzles in a row or 100 total.

This relatively simple game wouldn’t be review-worthy if it wasn’t for one thing: The sheer number of puzzles. Each puzzle (consisting of 7 clues) is bundled with 4 others into a “Chapter”. There are then 40 chapters in a book, and 8 books, giving a total of… 1600 puzzles, and 12,800 clues. I can only assume these were generated somehow, since I’m not sure a human could create this many!

The puzzles unfortunately suffer from being quite USA-centric in some of the references and phrases, much more so than other word games I’ve played, meaning I’ll find around 1 answer per 2-3 puzzles that I just don’t know.

Monetisation

String of Words does not seem well monetised. I played it on Google Play Pass, where there’s a free chest of coins (used to provide solution letters) every 30 minutes… and infinite coins by just tapping “+”! This means every puzzle can be solved by spam pressing the “Hint” button with no downside whatsoever, undermining any effort taken to solve it properly.

I suspect this is due to the monetisation when not playing on Play Pass, where you’ll presumably need to watch adverts or pay to gain coins for hints.

Tips

• You can tap the next row to find out what your word will be used for next, which can be helpful.
• As mentioned, this is a very USA-centric game, so try and consider any cultural references you’ve vaguely heard of!

#3: Orbia

Orbia is a true single-button game. Time your tap to try and zoom through the enemies and reach the next checkpoint, that’s the whole game!

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 1.108:

Level select	Skin select	Mountains level	Islands level

Review

Tap to go to the next checkpoint, make it through enough checkpoints without failing to permanently complete the level, repeat. That’s the whole game.

Okay, so there’s a bit more. As you progress through each world, each with a different aesthetic and enemy style (e.g. one might have overlapping “lines” of enemies, another might have overlapping “circles” of enemies), you’ll earn crystals. These crystals can be used to buy powerups or skins along the way, all of which are optional.

The difficulty comes in trying to figure out the patterns formed by the enemy patterns, since multiple groups moving in different directions, with different speeds, changing direction and speed, makes it pretty tricky. It’s not unusual to watch for 10-15 seconds to figure out the exact moment to tap to move. Depending on your skin chosen, you’ll gain perks like shields (take a hit without failing the level), extra crystals, reduced enemy numbers, etc.

With a game all about timing and pattern recognition like Orbia, screenshots really don’t convey the game’s feel. Enemies move predictably, yet with a somewhat “alive” flow, and despite the complete lack of story there is still a motivation to progress through the clearly malevolent enemies.

There are an oddly high number of levels, with the initial world containing 2500, each consisting of 2-5 checkpoints to navigate between. Other worlds contain fewer but longer levels, increasing the consecutive successful movements required, and therefore the difficulty.

Overall the UI does a good job of keeping out of the way, and letting you focus on enemies and movement time. The powerups are fairly powerful (e.g. increased movement speed, extra shields, slowing down enemies) and affordable, I’m around 10-15% through the game and haven’t purchased any powerups whatsoever, preferring to spend crystals on permanent unlocks like skins.

Monetisation

Included in Google Play Pass, otherwise (according to store reviews) there are adverts every few deaths, and plenty of in-app purchases.

Tips

• I’d recommend saving crystals for skins, as powerups are only temporary.
• Skins reducing the number of enemies seem the most powerful, since they open up entirely new routes when navigating.
• Once you’ve successfully made it to a checkpoint within a level, a “line” appears showing the route. This makes it significantly easier next time, so every extra movement helps.
• The dots in the top left of the screen show the visited (grey) and unvisited (white) checkpoints within the current level.

#1: Spin Hero

Similar in concept to games like Spincraft (reviewed 2 years ago), Spin Hero is all about fighting your way through dungeons using the synergy between items in your slot machine. It’s great!

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 1.2.1:

Hero select	Gameplay	Game over	Map

Review

As mentioned, Spin Hero is all about combat. After picking from the 4 heroes (essentially Melee, Thief, Lifesteal, Boss Hunter), and choosing your starter item pack (e.g. a more melee focussed one, or a blind one with more coins, etc), you’ll begin your adventure.

Making your way through enemies, elite enemies, bosses, chests, and shops, your goal is to build up a “deck” of items that can deal enough damage whilst still defending yourself from enemy attacks. You’ll be attacking with melee (some weapons degrade), ranged (need a bow and arrows), or magic (need mana), or (ideally!) some combination of all 3.

Each turn you’ll spin, your items will interact with each other and calculate the melee / range / mage attack, your armour, and “apply” it to the enemy. Deal more damage than their armour & health? You win, time for the next round, until you complete the entire stage!

Layered on top of this basic gameplay loop are 12 status effects, from simple things like Poison or Regeneration to interesting modifiers like Shock (randomly increase / decrease all attacks) or Frail (reduces armour gain). These effects operate in “stacks”, so 20 stacked Poison will deal 20x as much damage, making it entirely possible to focus on accumulating these effects during a run.

There are also “Runes”, essential manual attacks with a cooldown. They typically apply a stack of some kind, and can be purchased in the store alongside various items. Oh right, the items…

The main way your runs will vary are the items. Stacking effects, combining the effects of similar items, and eventually getting a crazy overpowered item are what drive your runs. I’ve done a few melee & lifesteal driven runs, where the entire aim is to maximise damage (and therefore healing), using melee weapons that affect each other. For example, axes often amplify the damage of nearby axes, or even permanently increase their damage.

Items are selected after each enemy kill (with stronger enemies rewarding better items) or in the store, with limited rerolls. They have the typical rarity colours, although I’ve only seen 1 Legendary item and 0 Uniques yet.

Range and mage a bit trickier to use than melee, since even the best bow (ignoring infinity bows!) still needs a quiver either near them or on the board and mana for magic is a constantly draining and renewing resource. To balance this they typically deal more damage, so if you get a good collection of items (e.g. items that gain mana more than you use it) the combat styles can be impressively high damage.

These items can get confusing, especially when they have multiple damage multipliers applied, making the ability to tap an item for details being super helpful.

Finally, your characters will also gain XP and unlock new unique abilities as you play. After completing all 5 stages as a character (I managed with Baldwin’s Lifesteal!), you unlock modifiers making the game a bit more difficult (e.g. extra enemy HP), unfortunately after managing to complete the game once, there’s not much extra gameplay to encourage repeated playthroughs.

Monetisation

Spin Hero is a one-off payment of £3.99 (~$5), or is included in Google Play Pass.

Tips

• You can drastically increase the turn speed with the >>>> in the bottom right, and enable autospin (not recommended).
• Read items carefully, and mentally keep track of what resources (e.g. mana) you have a surplus or deficit of.
• Anything that permanently stacks (e.g. max mana, damage per hit) will become essential later on, as enemy health scales up.
• It’s usually worth fighting basic enemies since you should be able to kill them easily, gaining gold and stacking permanent item boosts.
• I love lifesteal in games, and it seems super powerful in Spin Hero too!
• The game is also available on Steam for the same price, where it has received “Mostly Positive” reviews.
• There’s a Discord server for the game, with the developer being fairly active.

#2: Prune

Prune is a relaxing real-time puzzle game all about tactically growing a tree and reaching as much light as possible, or as the developer puts it:

Cultivate what matters. Cut away the rest.

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 1.1.7:

Level select	Deadly sun	Blue energy	Multiple obstacles

Review

Prune is a good example of how a single core game mechanic can carry a game with minimal additions. In this case, your tree steadily grows and you must guide it towards light sources to help it flower. How? You guessed it, by pruning.

Pruning part of your growing tree lets the growth happen elsewhere, but if you run out of places to grow further you’re stuck. This, plus wind, lets you grow your tree in a curved shape around obstacles or towards energy sources. There are also red suns that kill the tree part that touches them, so need to be given a wide berth.

I’m on Prune’s 24th level, and pretty sure I’ve seen most of the mechanics. Failure is not a big setback, as you can grow a new tree without even restarting the level by just pruning your entire tree away. Each puzzle is well-designed, clearly being solvable even though actually solving it might require a combination of lucky growths and skill.

Unbelievably, Prune is apparently 10 years old (at least the iOS original is)! It looks excellent for its age, and impressively has no text (as far as I can see) besides the credits and language select. This means anyone can pick it up easily without a lengthy tutorial, impressive for a game with a unique core mechanic.

Monetisation

One-time £3.89 (~$5) purchase, included with Play Pass.

Tips

• Cut branches early, so energy isn’t wasted on them.
• When low on energy, branches will slowly grow a tiny bit more, excellent for just squeezing into the light.
• The dots at the top of the screen roughly indicate how many flowers need to grow, but generally you’ll either solve the puzzle or not.

#3: Psychofunk

Psychofunk is an absurdly stylish autowalking platforming puzzler, which does an excellent job at reminding me how poor I am at this kind of game!

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 2.1.4:

Main menu	Level select	Level	Boss fight

Review

Psychofunk is an unforgiving game, where you must help your relentlessly forward walking character into the exit, ideally collecting any bonus coins. Along the way, you’ll have all kinds of blocks impeding you (ice, spikes, enemies). Dying usually restarts from the level’s start, with some levels featuring a single breakpoint.

The early levels will seem overly simple, but even 20 levels in I’m getting a little baffled figuring out the series of actions needed to reach the exit! For example, you may be on the same level as a block that breaks under impact, so you’ll need to use a “bounce” block to go up a level, then tap the togglable block on that level to land, walk along a bit, and drop down, breaking the block. But oops, you’re facing the wrong way, you should have turned around halfway through this process somehow!

Stylistically, Psychofunk reminds me a bit of Google Jump, with the sketched blocks clearly having fairly generous hitboxes “under the hood”, and every screen being full of little intricately designed details. A great distraction from the repeated deaths.

I’m around 25 levels in, with 1 boss killed, and it’s hard to fault the quick gameplay loops, even if they are somewhat infuriatingly difficult! The challenge is entirely within my own brain, with the responsive and easily understood controls (tap a block to interact, that’s it) not hindering whatsoever.

Monetisation

One-time £2.99 (~$4) purchase, also included in Play Pass.

Tips

• You can land on the head of green block enemies to break them, I took an embarrassingly long time to realise this, making early levels far harder than they needed to be!
• There’s usually 2 paths to proceed forward, so going back and replaying past levels where you missed coins will let you skip levels.

#1: Ironpost

I’ve played a few of GX Studio’s games before over the last few years, and like Kairosoft’s games, you kinda know what you’re in for, just with a different skin each time. This time, it’s tower defence.

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 1.1.3:

Early game	Late game	Permanent upgrades	Card collection

Review

As with GX Studio’s other games (e.g. Lone Tower, reviewed 2 years ago), you complete a 1-10 minute playthrough of a simple game (in this case tower defence), with upgrades along the way, until you either fail or complete all stages. Either way you’ll earn gems for permanent upgrades, with success having the benefit of unlocking harder, more rewarding difficulties.

The upgrades are varied but fairly straightforward, with simple stats like attack range, speed, and damage placed alongside knockback, lifesteal, luck (for critical hits), gold rewards on kill, etc. Killing enemies earns you coins to upgrade these within the run, earning gems lets you permanent unlock these. Additionally, there are occasional opportunities to pick perks such as extra damage, more XP per kill, etc.

This fairly simply gameplay loop is somewhat improved by the concept of “cards” (basically permanent upgradeable powerups). These can be as basic as crates giving more gold & XP, or situational such as extra damage when low HP.

The actual tower defence part of the game pretty much plays itself, with your interaction mostly limited to tapping the occasional crates that appear, and hoping you survive to the next upgrade opportunity. Oddly, the game also includes a fairly standard blackjack gambling system from the main menu.

Since initially downloading the game in August, a few new features (Auto crate open, auto perk pick) have been added alongside the existing quality of life features such as button colour customisation, increasing game speed, etc.

Overall, Ironpost isn’t very complex, but it is a fairly satisfying way to spend 10-30 minutes occasionally, especially without any adverts or aggressive monetisation. Speaking from experience, it works great as a vertical split-screen game before bed if you’re watching something else!

Looking at my statistics, I’ve played 80 runs, killed 23,000 enemies, and have unlocked Tier 6 difficulty.

Note: I emailed the dev a bug report back in August and he fixed it a few days later, but other than that I have no connection / affiliation with the game.

Monetisation

Adverts are available for a fairly minor boost, but are not forced, overpowered, or at all required.

Tips

• There is a fairly active Discord server for all GX Studio games.
• I found Attack Speed to be the most powerful upgrade, with Attack Damage and Kill Gold Bonus being my next priorities.
• When picking perks mid-run, always choose more souls per kill if possible.
• I didn’t find Interest Rate / Max Interest useful at all, since I typically spend all my gold.
• You can manually aim your archer by tapping, but it doesn’t seem to be very useful.
• For cards, you should aim to unlock all slots as soon as possible, and only upgrade the cards you find useful. For me, this was:
  • Critical Gold: Earn gold on critical hit.
  • Critical XP: Earn XP on critical hit.
  • Critical Heart: Heal on critical hit.
  • Plunder: Enemies sometimes drop gems on death.
  • Supply Drop: More gold & gems in crates.

#2: Word Run

It’s another GX Studio game, like the first game in this article! This time, the gameplay loop is spelling words instead of tower defence.

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 1.0.4:

Title screen	Gameplay	Perks	Upgrades

Review

Get a 4x4 grid of letters, spell the best word you can (or shuffle to get new letters), earn enough points to complete the round before you run out of Plays. That’s it!

As with all GX Studio games, you’ll pick from perks throughout your run, and be able to buy permanent upgrades with gems earned from each run. Unfortunately the 4x4 grid makes it quite hard to actually spell decent words, especially as all letters seem to have equal likelihood, so you’ll end up with no vowels, or 3 X’s. Most of my words are 4-5 letters.

A preview screenshot on the Play Store shows a 5x5 letter grid, which would be much easier (25 letters vs 16), so it’s a real shame that doesn’t seem to have made it to the final design.

Throughout your run, you’ll have a small chance to spawn gold, heart, star, and tree tiles:

• Gold tiles: Earn gold when shuffling tiles.
• Heart: Earn 1 Play when used.
• Star: Earn +1 to multiplier (increase score of next word) when used.
• Tree: Tile gains 1 value every time a word is played.

These are unfortunately quite simple tools with little strategy involved. Obviously with Plays being the most important part of the game, playing heart tiles is a no-brainer, with the others being rare enough that they should almost always be played.

The constantly slightly moving background is somewhat distracting whilst trying to spell words, and I found it harder than usual to spell words that score well. The round-based nature of the game also means that using a good tile (e.g. a useful “s” or high-value consonant) removes it from the board, however the difficulty of spelling strong words means this doesn’t end up being a concern.

Higher difficulties feel hard, but the difficulty does not feel fair. If you are given a board with a single vowel, you simply cannot spell a good word. Whilst you can shuffle for new letters, there’s no guarantee there’ll be any vowels, or useful consonants.

Overall this feels too simplistic for now, with little incentive to keep grinding. Each difficulty plays and looks identical, except with higher targets and more gem rewards. Despite usually being a fan of word games, and “upgrade after each run” games, Word Run just doesn’t do it for me.

Looking at my statistics, I’ve played 20 games and my best score is 421.

Monetisation

Unfortunately, there are forced video ads after every run, and no incentivised adverts / in-app purchases.

This is probably my least liked kind of monetisation, since it’s not even possible to pay to remove the adverts. However, they are at least predictable. Additionally, with a run taking up to 10 minutes, they are infrequent.

Tips

It’s just spelling words, there ares not many tips! I found Plays to be the most important element, so anything that increases those is worth buying. Then, anything that improves point earning.

#3: Puzzle Peaks EXE

A nice and simple physics-based platformer, with quick gameplay loops and plenty of levels.

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 3.5:

Level select	Level	Level

Review

Puzzle Peaks EXE has a story. I’m not following it in the slightest, something about a virtual assistant and following their advice (or not), and “glitches”? Luckily, it isn’t important!

In Puzzle Peaks, you’ll be solving straightforward physics puzzles with just 2 controls: rotate orange platforms left, and rotate them right. This simple control scheme makes gameplay very easy and reliable to control (tap left or right half of screen), whilst the clever level design ensures you’re constantly being taught new techniques and movement strategies. Later platforms rotate the other way, but in general you’ll almost always be rotating orange platforms.

Whilst some levels can be essentially brute forced, most require learning some sort of tactic, and combining both timing and precise movement to fling your skull towards the indicated exit. Most take an average player (me!) around 2-10 tries, although occasionally you’ll get stuck on an awkward throw.

The level design does an excellent job of balancing difficulty, with each level feeling instantly solvable, whilst still being challenging. So far, I’ve completed 63 out of the available 100, and I’m expecting to eventually finish all 100.

Unfortunately the game isn’t perfect, with the virtual assistant’s dialog not being subtitled, and no sound controls(!) in the game. This makes it a poor game for multitasking, yet as a simple physics puzzler you’re unlikely to want sound on at all times.

Monetisation

A one-off $1.99 payment unlocks the whole game, it is also included in Google Play Pass.

Tips

• The game is also available on Steam, although the touch controls make it well suited for mobile.
• Blindly flinging your skull is rarely the correct solution, it can usually be logically solved.
• Sometimes you need to nudge your skull onto the other half of a rotating platform before rotating the correct way to build up enough momentum for a fling.

#1: hocus.

A minimalist brain-melting optical illusion-based cube-rolling puzzle game!

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 7.0.1:

Grid puzzle	Triangular puzzle	Level creator

Review

If you were playing free online flash games in the early 2000s, you might immediately think that “hocus” looks like “Bloxors”, an infuriatingly hard game. Luckily, it’s only similar on the surface, the gameplay is very different!

In hocus, you roll a small red cube around the level trying to get into the highlighted hole. You can’t go “around” the outside of corners, but can navigate on any surface you’re touching. The twist is… every level is an optical illusion, very similar to the “Impossible Triangle” (Penrose Triangle).

The truly baffling layout of each level means getting to the end is a genuine struggle. You’ll work your way around a complex structure, make your way to the exit… and then realise you’re on the wrong surface. Oops. Time to carry on your rolling journey and try another approach.

I’m not ashamed to admit my puzzle solving process was about 50% luck and 50% puzzle solving. I’d try to mentally work out which surfaces could get me to the exit, then how to get to those surfaces, and then wander around the level until one of them looked achievable. Or just swipe at random until I ended up somewhere interesting!

The game features 120 levels, and completing them can take either a few seconds or a few minutes each. Some of them will just “click” immediately, and others you’ll go slightly insane rolling in circles seemingly endlessly. These won’t take too long, and full completion took me perhaps 2-3 hours split across 2 sessions whilst watching videos.

Seems short? Well, yes, however there’s also an infinite (randomly generated) mode, and an astonishingly simple yet powerful level creator! I didn’t spend too much time with this, but the game’s approach of technically simple layouts resulting in complicated levels means recreating any of the game’s levels is very easy.

On that topic, I discovered hocus is also on Steam, making it a good place for finding custom levels. There are also a few on r/hocus. Despite being originally released in 2016, and having 10m+ installs, I couldn’t find any other decent sources of custom levels.

Overall, hocus will be a short but sweet puzzling experience that’ll frustrate you, then reward you with a healthy dose of dopamine, 120 times. Great!

Monetisation

I accessed hocus for free via Google Play Pass, but it looks like a one-off £1.99 payment unlocks the full game.

Tips

• I found it help to think in terms of flat surfaces, not tiles, when trying to figure out a successful route.
• Swiping randomly does work if you get stuck!
• Triangles are great for getting onto another side of a cube.
• The game doesn’t mislead you as much as I expected. If there’s an optional triangle on your way to the exit, you’ll probably need it!
• The circle at the top of the screen shows the available movement directions, early on the game this can help you understand normal movement methods.
• Due to the game’s confusing perspective, never assume how 2 poles are going to interact! I often found I’d unexpectedly be able to hop from one to the other, or be blocked, so it’s always worth trying out all possible routes.

#2: Idle Tribe

Idle Tribe isn’t doing anything new. But, it’s scratching the “build up a town without thinking much” incremental itch perfectly, without being too obnoxious about the monetisation!

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 1.31.0:

Island area	Dungeon area	Mine event	Avatars

Review

In Idle Tribe, you’ll spend your time fulfilling orders from… sentient circles? The story is non-existent, but is also irrelevant. They pop up, ask for items, you provide them, receiving XP + gold / spawn coins in return. These materials are used for:

• XP: Level up, unlock new areas & increase worker level cap.
• Gold: Area upgrades, unlocking new areas.
• Spawn coins: Create workers, merging them to increase level.

The items requested start off simple, e.g. an apple from an apple tree farm you have, but quickly evolve as you unlock new areas. The new areas form supply chains with each other, with the ~20 different food items (not all in the same area) all flowing together in different zones (although not all at the same time).

Your workers are responsible for both producing and transporting your produced items, meaning there is a small amount of strategy involved in upgrading the most effective area. For example, it doesn’t make sense to upgrade your chocolate manufacturing plant if your cocoa powder area is always fully out of stock. Similarly, if you constantly have a bottleneck in a certain area, spending your spawn coins on upgrading those workers is probably a good idea.

This relatively simple formula of fulfilling orders and obtaining gold & spawn coins to upgrade areas & workers is not too appealing by itself. However, the game handles both prestiging and seasonal events well, making them all feel like progress towards an overall goal.

When an area is fully completed (usually when all areas & workers are maximum level), it provides passive income for the rest of your time with the game, at a fairly generous rate. There appear to be 13 areas in all (I’m finishing up area 12), although you can “prestige” an area which I haven’t tried yet. Every time I open the game there are a few thousand coins available, although my earlier grinding has meant money is no longer an issue.

Luckily, prestiging by moving to a new area does not mean you lose all your progress. You collect “cards” throughout, with upgrading each item (e.g. walk speed, or cocoa powder) being permanent and global. These benefits stack noticeably, with a highly upgraded produce item earning significantly more per item.

Similarly, whilst there are always 1-2 standalone events running for a few days, they provide benefits in the main game. This can be as simple as gems (the premium currency, you get given plenty!) for good performance, new avatars, or cards to upgrade items. These minigames vary from the very overused “mine & transport & sell” structure, to a copy of the main game set in the desert, to a beanstalk with each rung earning you rewards, and more. Whilst none of these games are complex or brand new, they provide a nice distraction from the core upgrading gameplay.

I suspect these events aren’t entirely real players, as you’ll soon notice your “competitors” seem to be slowly accumulating points at a steady rate throughout the event’s duration. A real player will gain them in short bursts as they actually play! My theory is the events are populated with fake scores based on real player highscores from previous occurrences of the event, slowly increasing until the end of event. Regardless, they’re still some form of multiplayer, real or not.

However, that’s if you find time to play them! Unlike many incremental games, you will never run out of “energy” in Idle Tribe. You may briefly not have enough coins or spawn coins, but these are rewarded with every order so you are constantly incentivised to keep playing. Many games would use this addictive “one more upgrade” trait in a more predatory way, but Idle Tribe seems content to just keep you playing, regardless of if you’re spending or not.

Overall, this is a time-consuming game that is excellent to mindlessly grind away at whilst on a call or waiting for something. You won’t have any amazing experiences or revelations, but you will get a steady stream of dopamine!

Monetisation

This is a game where spending money is rarely worth it. I purchased a very cheap starter pack early on, only to scale up so quickly that it became clear these paid items were almost worthless an hour later! There are all the usual limited time offers, season passes etc, but resources are given out so freely that they’ll rarely be attractive.

Similarly, there are gems but… you are given thousands of them for free. Nothing is locked behind them, and they are instead just a way to purchase extra chests (containing upgrade cards).

The only monetisation that is appealing is the incentivised adverts providing upgrade cards (none are forced). In seasonal events, watching an advert or two may reward upgrade cards relevant to your current upgrade task, which would otherwise be a complete blocker. During the desert event I probably “watched” (phone ignored on my desk, or advert muted) ~10 over the multi-day event and came first overall, highlighting how completely unnecessary any payment is.

Tips

• As mentioned, always upgrade your critical path. If an item isn’t fully stocked, it needs upgrading.
• Follow the tasks. Whilst you can upgrade anything in any order, generally you might as well follow the suggested upgrade to earn the extra gems.
• Participate in the events. They’re easy gems, and offer avatars!
• Offline rewards for events often aren’t calculated accurately until you re-enter an area. When reopening the app, briefly going into the main game and back will correctly reward the entire amount.
• Many events have leaderboards based on tasks completed, whereby the first person to complete all tasks is guaranteed first. As such, rushing to full completion is worth the early effort.

#3: subpar pool

I don’t particularly enjoy pool, mostly because I’m not very good! However, subpar pool has really hooked me recently, with the modifiers and challenges making each run feel unique, and challenging yet possible.

Screenshots

All screenshots are from version 1.0.4:

Level select	Modifier select	Gameplay	Round win

Review

In subpar pool, you’ll be playing relatively short 5-table rounds of pool across various maps and modifiers. Why? Well, to complete challenges to unlock more maps and modifiers!

Completing challenges unlocks more challenges, and these can be as simple as completing a specified table or as tricky as completing a certain number of ball pots after dying in a round. Most of these challenges can be completed first or second time if you’re a decent enough shot, but the real difficulty comes in:

1. Trying to combine challenges for efficiency without making a round impossible.
2. The occasional truly difficult challenges like potting 8 consecutive shots on a map with conveyor belts and extra awkward spaces added.

Gameplay itself is very simple, and essentially the same as pool: At the start of each table (or if you pot the white ball), drag where on the table you want to start. Then, line up your shots (there’s a “bounce line”) and get the balls in the holes. Easy!

Unlike real pool, the tables have impossible traits (teleports, moving holes, rotating conveyor belts), the balls are impossible (hunter balls chasing your white ball, balls that split, crystal balls that shatter), and there are plenty of extra traits available (fixed start position, extra balls to pot, fewer lives, etc).

This simple loop of selecting modifier cards with challenges to unlock new cards and challenges is very satisfying, with a sense of progress after ever 3-4 minute run. New content is also regularly unlocked, and the stats page reports I’ve played 46 runs and completed 42/196 challenges, with nearly 3 hours of gameplay.

Whilst I’m pretty confident I’ll get most of the way through subpar pool, I suspect there’ll be some challenges later on that I’m just not good enough for! For example, one challenge requires passing through a teleport on the “gateways” map 16 times in 1 short, and I’m yet to see a map layout that allows it. Perhaps there’ll be a modifier combination later on that allows it…

There’s no penalty for failing or abandoning the short runs, so trying experimental modifier combinations to complete as many challenges as possible is encouraged.

Monetisation

I accessed subpar pool as part of Google Play Pass, otherwise it’s a one-off £4.39 (~$5.99) purchase. There are no in-app purchases.

Tips

• With quick restarts, if you don’t make any progress towards a challenge on your first map, you might as well just restart the round.
• Pay attention to the “also requires” part of a challenge, if the challenge isn’t lit up then you don’t currently have all the required maps or modifiers selected.
• The holes are quite forgiving, so knocking a ball vaguely nearby a corner should get it in.
• There’s no penalty for potting the cue ball (excluding any challenge requirements), and it’s usually a good idea since you can freely place the white ball afterwards.

Note: This is a series of posts, with Tokyo Part 1, Takayama Part 2, Kyoto Part 3 and Part 4, and Tokyo again (this article).

Day 1 (7th September): Arrival

We arrived from Kyoto around lunchtime, still managing to have a busy afternoon and evening! A total of 13,730 steps (5.68 miles).

Shibuya Excel Tower ★★★★✰

A decent business-y hotel overlooking Shibuya Scramble, with some annoyances. We selected the high floor corner room specifically for the views, and luckily it didn’t disappoint! Watching the rush at all hours was easily the highlight. However, it was a bit of a shame the windows, the main selling point, were inexplicably not properly cleaned and had grease smears from previous guests.

Entering the hotel directly from the station is quite challenging, make sure to follow the detailed guide on the hotel’s site. Alternatively, it’s far easier to just find “Shibuya Mark City”, and look for the direct entrance on the street level. This will take you up to the lobby, where you can change elevators to get to your actual room.

Breakfast was fairly good, although seemed pretty crowded no matter what time we went, and having a long central table meant reaching past people occasionally. There is a fresh pancake machine which works well, other than that it’s all pretty typical breakfast buffet offerings and very western overall. Tasty, but nothing too surprising.

The laundry situation was also unusual, with 1 unmentioned washing machine and dryer on SOME floors, I believe 7 - 11 or so. This meant taking the lift multiple times to try and find an empty machine, and then repeating the process for the dryer. Both machines only accepted 100 Yen coins, yet there was no change machine. There were some small vending machines… but they didn’t take new 500 Yen coins! All in all, laundry was very inconvenient.

Original review (12 photos)

Shibuya Scramble ★★★★★

As chaotic as you’d expect! Every few minutes, a couple of hundred people flood in from all directions, with selfie-takers trying to sprint across of the crowds for the perfect shot. It’s not too bad to get across, with the regular and long crossing periods making it easy to get through.

Looking from above is far less chaotic, but provides you a great overview. Try predicting which tourist will stay on the road too long and almost get run over!

Original review (5 photos)

Tokyo Tower ★★★★★

Absolutely stunning views of Tokyo, especially at sunset!

We paid for the upper floor, and it’s well worth the extra cost and should be booked in advance. The main floor is a little crowded, and features a cramped shop and various brand-related events. This whole area becomes pitch black at night, with glass or glow-in-the-dark floor areas, and is overall a great way to experience the area.

However, if you have a time-slot for the additional floor you can line up at another elevator (note your time STARTS at the time listed, not “must arrive by” as the email says!) to go higher. This includes a brief promotional video, a professional photo (printed on a small promotional leaflet as you leave), a small drink, but most importantly a mirror-filled observation deck.

From this deck you can see miles and miles in all directions, with the city’s drastic appearance change during sunset providing a unique perspective. Whilst it can be quite crowded, people typically move on after taking their selfies so you can stare in peace. It’s even possible to see mt fuji sometimes!

Upon exiting there’s a strange small mall at the base, selling various mementos and snacks, with the exit hidden away and requiring careful sign following.

Original review (10 photos)

teamLab Borderless ★★★★✰

As one of the most Instagram-y places in Tokyo, this is obviously a place where aesthetics and visuals are prioritised above all else! Make sure to book in advance, as it can get busy at all hours on a weekend.

A free-flowing, dark, and fluid space with various rooms and corridors, this museum often feels like an accidental maze. Each room or area has unique exhibits moving across the walls and floor, with many of them actually migrating between areas. This means you might see a pretty school of fish swim away, then come across them a room or two later unexpectedly.

This effect is limited however, with most rooms having more of a looping cast of artworks. These are typically nature-based, such as fish, water, or flowers, although there’s good variety such as some corridors feature bizarre walking animations.

The space itself is dark throughout, although the layout is only confusing the first time you enter. After being in a room once, it’s fairly simple to figure out which other rooms are nearby and make your way there. The rooms by themselves vary in quality, with my favourites (typically the most otherworldly) often hidden away in side corridors, such as the “water lily” style room or vertically strobing lights. Other rooms feature mysterious balls rolling round, or large cubes in a completely dark room.

Overall it’s definitely worth visiting once, although if you visit in the evening the entrance in the basement of the mall can be hard to find! The mall itself seems empty, yet an open door leads to an escalator taking you to the correct location.

Original review (11 photos)

Yakitori Tsukada ★★★★★

A high-end yakitori restaurant offering a tasting menu of 10 or so dishes. All members of a group need to order the same menu, as they are served at the same time along with an explanation of what they are. We went for the “standard course” (Y4800 each), and it filled us up, but everything was so tasty I wish we’d gone for the premium!

Each course is unique, although unsurprisingly they are mostly chicken with something, however each is served so differently that it’s easy to forget there’s primarily one type of meat here. Courses are timed well, so there’s enough time for your group to talk about each dish and chat before the next one arrives, to avoid becoming overwhelmed.

Almost all cooking is done in front of you, including the occasional large fireballs! There’s a low level of conversation, but everyone was upbeat, I’d definitely recommend sitting at the counter not the larger tables. We had the matcha tiramisu at the end, a perfect dessert for two to share and finish the meal.

Overall the price was high, but we got what we paid for, clearly being the best chicken either of us have ever had. Even a dish as simple as a fried chicken wing somehow evolves through the cooking technique and seasoning! Pictured is a tsukimi tsukune.

Original review (3 photos)

Day 2 (8th September): Shinjuku

A meandering day that eventually ended up in Shinjuku, although the busy day yesterday meant our energy reserves were a little low! Regardless, we managed yet another high step day at 19,906 steps (9.03 miles).

IKEA Harajuku ★★★★✰

It’s hard to review this IKEA properly, since I just came in for their cheap drinks and snacks on a Monday morning! Tasty food, easy self-serve drinks, and a fairly quiet canteen.

Original review (1 photo)

Consecrated Sake Barrels ★★★★✰

An interesting diversion along the way to Meiji Jingu consisting of temple gifts on one side, and wines on the other side. Primarily a photo opportunity with little additional information.

Original review (1 photo)

Meiji Jingu ★★★✰✰

Whilst the surrounding green space is pretty good, especially for a crowded urban area, the actual shrine itself is fairly limited with far more impressive examples elsewhere. If you like this, you’ll love Kyoto!

Original review

Meiji Jingu Terrace ★★★★✰

A small food hall selling various drinks and snacks, excellent after walking through Meiji Jingu’s grounds. There’s also vending machines and a smoking area here, along with plenty of indoor and outside seats and other amenities.

A little expensive, but the convenient location within the park makes it hard to complain much.

Original review

NUIR ★★★★★

Despite not being interested in vintage luxury bags whatsoever, the calm and organised nature of NUIR needs mentioning! Upstairs in an unassuming building, the secluded shop is far larger and more full of items than expected, yet still finds space for a few seats to rest on.

Definitely worth a visit if interested in luxury vintage bags, and as a +1 the friendly staff and quiet atmosphere make it far preferable to other shops!

Original review

NANAKO ★★★★★

A simple waving cat statue in front of SEIBU Movida (with MUJI), make sure to say hello!

Original review (1 photo)

Milk Cheese Factory ★★★★★

This small shop within the food hall sells extremely tasty cheese cracker snacks! The free samples given out were enough to convince us to buy 2 packs, initially intended as gifts but half-eaten before we left Japan.

They seem simple, just cheese within seasoned crackers, but the flavour combinations and convenient pack size make them a convenient snack to bring out, even after they crumble!

Original review

Tonkatsu Wako ★★★★★

This restaurant’s front looks quite different to the current picture! Situated outside the actual metro plaza building, almost underneath a bridge, this is a tasty and inexpensive tonkatsu eatery.

We visited just after lunch, and whilst there were a few unique tonkatsu options we just went for classic pork. Served quickly and cooked fresh along with some gravy and hot tea, this was a perfect place for a quick meal.

Original review (1 photo)

Omoide Yokocho ★★★★✰

These 2 very narrow north-south alleyways feature tens of small izakayas and stalls selling basic snack food and drinks. Whilst we weren’t here at a meal time, walking down the central alleyway is highly recommended to experience the ambience!

Original review

The Giant 3D Cat ★★★✰✰

A bit of a disappointment as cat lovers! Whilst the cat does look fairly 3D at the right angle (pictured is the wrong angle!), the board is full of adverts the vast majority of the time. The large crowds in the area ensure this might be one of those things that looks best as a short video, not necessarily in person.

Original review (1 photo)

Kinokuniya Shinjuku ★★★★✰

A large book store with multiple floors accessible via a lift. The English books section has a pretty good selection, with plenty of books from Japanese authors as well as global classics. Staff at checkout were friendly, and wrapped the book in a paper cover.

Original review

Godzilla Head ★★★★✰

Yep, it’s a large Godzilla head at the end of a shopping road leading into a popular area of Shinjuku. Nothing to do besides take a photo of it and move on!

Original review (1 photo)

King Kong Statue ★★★✰✰

A small statue you might spot on your walk, nothing to do besides take a photo and move on!

Original review (1 photo)

Golden-Gai ★★★★✰

A few streets of tiny bars, even coming here during the day provides an intriguing atmosphere!

Original review (2 photos)

Quatre ★★★★✰

Tasty slices of cake, convenient for taking away, but very expensive!

Original review (1 photo)

Day 3 (9th September): Misc

A few final stops before we fly home on the 10th, all places that didn’t make it into earlier days! A healthy 15,488 steps (6.12 miles).

Nyankodo Bookstore ★★★★★

A wonderful little shop in Jimbocho near the metro station, containing hundreds of cat books and nothing else! All are in Japanese, but this isn’t an issue for the many, many cat photography books.

We purchased a book with professional photography of Kyoto-based cats (ねこの京都 by 岩合 光昭) after looking around for a bit, with the shop assistant letting us get on with it. Highly recommend a visit if you’re in the area!

Original review (1 photo)

Science & Tech Museum ★★★★★

Despite appearing closed on the outside, it’s very much open! After chatting to a friendly security guard and making our way to the ticket desk through a completely empty hallway, we purchased our tickets and made our way in.

This is obviously primarily a place for Japanese children / families, but non-Japanese adults can have lots of fun here too! There are 4 floors, each with a slightly different feel, I recommend working your way top to bottom.

There are hundreds of interactive exhibits scattered throughout, everything from an earthquake simulator to curling to cannons to walking pianos and optical illusions! You’ll need to use Google Translate for most items, but the child-friendly Japanese means it all translates well. My personal highlights are, using the floor map, 4F (construction), 5F (optical illusions), and 5H (guitar hero-style piano).

Around lunchtime you might turn a corner near 4E and suddenly discover… hundreds of Japanese school children eating their lunch! This was quite a surprise, as we’d only seen a few running around playing with the exhibits.

There’s a shop back on the ground floor, although mostly full of toys for kids (the museum’s main audience!).

Original review (5 photos)

Menchirashi ★★★✰✰

This extremely popular restaurant had a waiting time of around 30 minutes for lunch, so it must be great right? Well, it’s fine.

The signature dish is udon carbonara made with plenty of cheese, and it’s OK for a one-off, too unhealthy to enjoy often though. We had some tempura too, and again, that was fine. We were seated near the entrance, meaning people hungrily waiting outside did a lot of staring throughout, not a particularly relaxing environment.

Ultimately if this place had been empty and we’d just stopped in, it would be a 4/5. However the absurdly long queue makes it definitely not worth it, even though I understand that’s not entirely their fault!

Original review

Starbucks Fountain Park ★★★★★

A well-designed Starbucks offering excellent views over the nearby fountain park, with good food and drink options. It tends to be quite busy, with people sticking around to work or just socialise on hot days.

Original review

Kita-Hanebashi Gate ★★★★✰

A pretty entrance into the Imperial Palace East National Gardens, security was efficient and speedy, with no queue when we visited on a weekday lunchtime.

Original review (2 photos)

East National Gardens ★★★★✰

Large, well-maintained free gardens with a few entrances near the Imperial Palace. There’s plenty of shade, plus large open spaces, and is perfect for a very peaceful and relaxing walk during a weekday.

Original review

Conclusion

These final 3 days were easily the least planned part of our 5-part trip, consisting of 2 booked events (teamLab & Tokyo Tower), a vague plan for Shinjuku, and a completely unplanned final day! This flexibility was a great idea, as there were a few things (especially restaurants) that didn’t fit into our Tokyo part 1.

As our ~20 day trip came to an end, it was simply unbelievably how many different things we’d done! As the exactly 150 reviews(!) confirm, every day was busy. This is without even considering how many “things” aren’t reviewable (or aren’t worth reviewing). For example, spending 2 hours exploring a park, including various statues and areas? Probably only 1 review!

Similarly, it doesn’t contain any of the tens of stations / stops we took trains / buses / trams / metros / Shinkansens between, with us both spending around £75 (¥15000) on day-to-day transport (and a few vending machine drinks). Some of these, especially the Shinkansen and larger stations (Tokyo, Kyoto) are easily reviewable by themselves, but 150 is enough for anyone.

There’ll probably be a follow-up post covering techniques for handling the heat as a westerner (Tokyo broke consistent heat records whilst we were there!), but the structured reviews are all finished for now. I think I’m also travelled-out for now too, with 3 weeks of constant mental stimulation making me crave the boring, grey, day-to-day routine back in England!

Note: This is a series of posts, with Tokyo Part 1, Takayama Part 2, Kyoto Part 3 and Part 4 (this article), and finally Tokyo again Part 5.

Day 5 (3rd September): Osaka

A day trip to Osaka, this was mostly vintage clothing stores for my partner and aimless wandering by me! A total of 18,561 steps (8.45 miles).

Umeda Sky Building ★★★★✰

This initially unassuming building has a quite good free area, with a shop and great views, but it’s worth paying to go all the way up! No prebooking was needed when we came during a weekday morning.

The open-air top has good views of the surrounding area, although the ideal south view is blocked by other skyscrapers, unfortunately. There’s a very small museum with the history of the building, containing an excellent time-lapse video of the unbelievable central area raising process.

There’s a fairly good food & drink shop inside, worth a rest here if you can get a good window seat.

Original review (5 photos)

Glico Sign Dotonbori ★★★✰✰

Iconic, but ultimately just a large sign visible from a crowded bridge. More of a checklist item than actually good!

Original review

Shinsekai Market ★★★✰✰

A slightly run down shopping avenue with various small shops selling food and souvenirs. Most were closed or half-open on a normal weekday afternoon, so I suspect this only exists to catch visitors at the weekend!

Original review (1 photo)

Shinsekai ★★★★✰

A busy few streets centred on the distinctive Tsutenkaku tower, with lots of over the top decorations! There are plenty of food options here, along with all the typical Don Quijote and convenience stores. Worth a visit for a meal, but perhaps not more than a couple of hours.

Original review (6 photos)

Naniwa Kushikatsu Shichifuku ★★★★★

We accidentally came here looking for somewhere else, but we’re glad we did! Excellent kushikatsu is ordered via a multilingual ipad, along with drinks and other snacks, and the chef was helpful in describing what the variety of fried food actually was.

It was fairly quiet when we visited during a weekday afternoon, with only a few locals chatting at another table, and food and drinks were prepared quickly.

Original review

Shinsaibashi-Suji ★★★✰✰

A fairly typical, albeit larger than usual, shopping street. Lots of brands and chain stores instead of the usual unique stores, and many vintage clothing stores. As busy as you’d expect for central Osaka.

Original review (1 photo)

Day 6 (4th September): Misc

A rare peaceful and unplanned day, with only a few spontaneous events plus plenty of shopping! A relatively small 13,334 steps (5.88 miles).

Gion Kagai Art Museum ★★★★★

We came here after a recommendation during a Gion walking tour, and it definitely deserves to be more popular! Upon entry, you’ll need to remove your shoes and your ticket will be checked. Next, you’ll spend some time in the museum before your performance, followed by a tea room and pretty garden. Overall you should expect to spend around 60-90 minutes here.

The museum consists of 5-6 rooms with historical information on Geiko (Geisha) and Japanese culture, with Japanese text but a QR code to read it in English on your phone. These were very interesting, and we could have spent far longer here before being informed our booked performance time was about to start. I’d recommend coming 30 minutes before your performance time to allow enough time for the museum beforehand.

Surprisingly, we had a genuine geiko (geisha) for our performance, who was introduced by museum staff and did not say a word / display any expression throughout her 15 minute performance, clearly a professional. Whilst I can’t pretend to fully understand the dance’s culture at all, she was obviously confident in her abilities, and it was powerful. No photos or talking are allowed during the performance, with a page of information provided beforehand.

After the performance, you can pay extra to get a photo with her, or progress to the shop / tea room. We had a green tea here, which was surprisingly slow but came with small snacks so balanced out! The shop has magnets / photos of all the performers and other similar merchandise, with today’s highlighted so you can easily identify them.

Original review

the Art Cafe ★★★★★

A small tea room / cafe, accessible within the Gion Kagai Art Museum after watching a performance and next to the museum shop.

We ordered a green tea here, and it took a surprisingly long time to prepare, but that’s probably due to being made from scratch just for us (there were no other visitors), and came with small mochi snacks.

There’s an excellent view over a well maintained garden whilst resting here.

Original review

Nandattei ★★★★★

Unbelievably excellent tomato curry ramen. Hot temperature, hot spiciness, lively yet quiet atmosphere as everyone is busy eating apart from the chefs!

The entrance can be a little hard to find, hidden down a side street opposite a burger shop, inside a sliding door. The inside is reminiscent of an izakaya, with the chefs working away in front of you inside the L-shaped eating counter. There can be a short wait, but people get through their meals pretty fast so it’s acceptable.

Pictured is the Number 21 (Tomato Curry Tsukemen), a very affordable (¥1150) and filling dinner.

Original review (1 photo)

Day 7 (5th September): Hiroshima

A day trip to Hiroshima, with the long travel time (2.5-3 hours each way, made worse by typhoon flooding) resulting in only 10,039 steps (4.31 miles).

Atomic Bomb Dome ★★★★★

The iconic landmark of Hiroshima, the bombed out remains of the Industrial Promotion Hall stand in stark contrast to the high rises behind it, showing Hiroshima (and Japan’s) strong recovery since.

A must-see whilst in the area, an information board nearby has excellent images of the building’s original state, and immediately after the bombing. There is a pleasant green area surrounding the dome, plus the larger memorial park across the river with a good vantage point.

Original review (4 photos)

Hypocenter Monument ★★★★★

A completely ignored small plaque down a side street near the Atomic Dome landmark marks the actual spot underneath where the bomb exploded. There are no tourists here, and it’s easy to miss the sign if you don’t know it’s there, but it’s an essential visit for the sheer globally unique nature of it.

Original review (1 photo)

Children’s Peace Monument ★★★★★

Perhaps the most distinctive memorial in the memorial park, this statue dedicated to the lost children is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of paper cranes representing peace in intricate designs. Whilst still quiet, this area will likely have a few other people around, and contains a few small signs of information.

Original review

Bell of Peace ★★★★✰

This (loud!) bell invites visitors to ring it, as a symbolic representation of the intent of global peace. There’s some sort of irony in the presence of a sign asking visitors to not be overly aggressive with the bell, and ring it gently!

Original review (1 photo)

Korean Victims Cenotaph ★★★★★

An important recognition of the 10% of Hiroshima citizens that were Korean, a fact that is usually omitted. A plaque at the monument explains why these Koreans were there, and to acknowledge that no funerals or memorial services were given, and to hope that they experience greater recognition in the future.

Whilst small, the distinctive turtle design and important message makes this a key part of the memorial park, and worth visiting.

Original review (2 photos)

Memorial Burial Mound ★★★★★

A seemingly ceremonial dirt hill that gains a drastically different meaning after reading the nearby sign, mentioning the tens of thousands of victims’ ashes underneath. I’m not sure of anywhere else on earth you can be so close to the actual remains of so many people at once, a sobering experience.

Original review

Victims Memorial Cenotaph ★★★★★

An archway with views of the flame of peace, this cenotaph has frequently replaced flowers and features a tomb containing the names of every victim of the bomb. In the shallow water is a short description of the monument in 7-8 languages.

Original review (1 photo)

Clock Tower of Peace ★★★★✰

This distinctive clock tower rings out every morning at the time of the bomb, 8:15am. Similar to the Bell of Peace, this is with the intention of this noise symbolically ringing globally, bringing peace with it.

The structure is unfortunately noticeably rusting in a few places.

Original review

Peace Memorial Museum ★★★★★

This fairly large museum features sprawling exhibits on Hiroshima, primarily the experience during and after the bomb was dropped. This includes hundreds of items, horrific stories of how individuals and families were affected, and an entire section dedicated to one family who experienced decades of trouble (likely PTSD) as a result.

The museum can be a little crowded, with the dense information necessarily meaning a slow single-file queue at times. After the main sombre and dark area, there is a palette cleansing long bright walkway with a view of the park, followed by an open area with a wider perspective on both time and location towards the end.

Downstairs is a free area (also accessible after the paid area) that is arguably the most valuable part, featuring hundreds of photos from the day and subsequent periods. Many of these I hadn’t seen before, although I believe this exhibition changes over time.

Original review (1 photo)

Komeda’s Coffee ★★★★★

We came here on a whim and it was super tasty! It feels like a family run restaurant, with friendly staff more than happy to navigate a conversation despite not speaking a word of each other’s language, and a small welcome snack provided.

I had a (very large, only half pictured!) pork cutlet sandwich that was excellent, and I kept thinking about it the following few days. My partner had spaghetti and garlic bread, with a shiro-noir dessert. We both had strong black coffees, not particularly notable.

We were surprised to learn afterwards that this is a chain restaurant, and that they are well known for their giant portions. A great discovery at the end of a tiring day!

Original review (1 photo)

Day 8 (6th September): Shrines & Temples

What was intended to be a relaxing final Kyoto day resulted in climbing 2 mountains (well, big hills), oops! This resulted in 24,367 steps (10.03 miles), half of them uphill, all of them in very hot weather.

Fushimi Inari-taisha ★★★★✰

One of the defining visuals of Kyoto, this series of hundreds of tori gates all the way up Mount Inari is a unique experience! This is an intense climb, with the relentless stairs and relatively rare rest stops making reaching the top “loop” a genuine achievement.

The hike itself will take around an hour, however it will be more tiring than you expect due to the lack of flat areas, and occasionally having to change pace due to other visitors on the route.

Make sure you bring comfy shoes, and the best photos are typically of the gates themselves rather than the view you’ve walked so hard to earn! The lower levels of the mountain are also one giant queue at parts, keep walking up and the crowds will thin out though.

Original review (7 photos)

Sanjūsangendō Temple ★★★★★

The unique contents of this relatively small temple are definitely worth seeing, it’s almost surreal seeing hundreds of statues in perfect order. The temple’s grounds are well maintained, featuring plenty of shaded seating and an aesthetic pond.

Luckily, photos are not allowed within, forcing visitors to actually appreciate the statues, and engage with the temple.

Original review (1 photo)

Tendon Makino Teramachi ★★★★✰

If you’re hungry and like tempura, this is for you! Very large portions with plenty of sides, with the set menu offering a very filling (if unhealthy) meal. Soba noodles were tasty and flavourful, with the included mochi dessert being much appreciated.

There’s typically a bit of a queue outside, although the upstairs was not full. Orders are taken whilst waiting outside, meaning your food arrives fairly quickly once you enter.

Original review (2 photos)

Kiyomizu-dera ★★★★✰

As one of the distinctive landmarks of Kyoto, this mountaintop temple is unsurprisingly pretty busy at the weekend! Once through the main gates, there is the distinctive ultra-heavy Spear of Benkai.

Next, there is a 15-minute loop walk, with excellent views of Kyoto and other parts of the temple provided throughout. Finally, you’ll exit via a side path that makes its way out skipping the incoming crowds.

Overall I preferred this to Fushimi Inari-taisha, but it’s a far simpler, shorter, and easier experience, focused more on views than any actual hiking. The main downside is the approach roads being unusably thick with visitors on the weekend, you’ll be moving extremely slowly!

Original review (5 photos)

Conclusion

As mentioned in Kyoto Part 3 article, we really enjoyed Kyoto. The second half of our time here was more subdued, with a couple of days being genuinely spontaneous instead of the usual dense plan! Whilst the day trips to Osaka and Hiroshima were valuable, I’m not sure that they were the best use of our time.

Osaka was very focused on shopping, something I personally have no interest in, and food, of which infinite excellent options are already available in Kyoto. Luckily transport from Kyoto is very simple and quick, and admittedly the unusually grey weather may have influenced our enjoyment. Overall though, we struggled to find many things to look at even in a single day, unlike Kyoto and Tokyo where there are far more things than you can see in a week.

For Osaka, this Reddit post I viewed beforehand kinda summed it up. It’s shopping and bars / food, of which we had plenty elsewhere. I’m sure it appeals to some people, but seeing Osaka / Kyoto / Tokyo being referred to together feels bizarre!

Hiroshima was great, but we knew it was going to be a long commute, made worse by the typhoon disrupting the usually perfect Japanese trains. As such, we only had a few hours there, enough to see the bomb-related area & eat but not actually explore the city, so I’d like to come back one day.

I’m happy that we got most of the “must-see” locations in Kyoto, with those we didn’t see being an intentional choice not a time limitation. Obviously there are many, many more things we could do there, but I’m satisfied with our choices! TripAdvisor is just one source of recommendations, however we visited around 85% of their top “Things to Do”, a good metric.

Note: This is a series of posts, with Tokyo Part 1, Takayama Part 2, Kyoto Part 3 (this article) and Part 4, and Tokyo again Part 5.

Day 1 (30th August): Arrive

Our first afternoon in Kyoto, we spent most of it in Nishiki Market, with a dinner reservation we’d booked before any other activity on our trip! A total of 12,949 steps (5.59 miles).

Good Nature Hotel ★★★★✰

A hotel in an excellent location, close to various transport networks to get around Kyoto. Rooms themselves are spacious and well laid out, although the circular layout can mean quite a long walk to your room if on the opposite side to the elevators.

Breakfast has a good array of western and Japanese items, although it can get a bit busy so going early is recommended. I experienced my half-finished drink + food being removed twice before I’d finished (despite having a “table in use” card down) as I went to get refills etc, which was a little annoying.

There are unfortunately no self-service laundry facilities available (except very expensive hotel-provided laundry, 500 yen for a pair of socks!), an inconvenience during longer stays. The TV has internet, Netflix, Prime etc, and air con is controlled via a tablet.

Overall the location makes this a good hotel, with floors dedicated to an expensive organic / natural food store, massages, etc.

Original review (2 photos)

Nishiki Market ★★★★★

Definitely a Kyoto highlight. This very long market is full of all kinds of meat, seafood, desserts, drinks, souvenirs, and snacks. Stores are densely packed in, and you’ll see new ones every time you walk through!

It can be very crowded, but it’s the best place to go if you’re after a snack and not sure exactly what. Shop owners don’t try to convince you to come in, letting you take your time and pick which shop to go into.

Original review (3 photos)

Maisen-Do ★★★★★

A small shop offering various souvenirs and fans. The helpful staff can engrave your fan with Kanji for a small fee, and the comes in a very attractive gift box, making it the perfect present!

Original review

Food court ★★★★★

As with much of Nishiki Market, it’s almost impossible to know exactly which shop you’re ordering from, but luckily this food court has something for everyone! We ate at the large tempura shop by the entrance, getting some additional snacks from further down inside the food court.

Eating space is quite limited (you’ll need to stand at various small table spaces), but this is more than worth it for being able to try lots of different foods all in one place. Some stalls work using a handheld “beeper” when your food is ready, others will hand a pre-prepared item to you directly. We didn’t go too far in, but I think there may be seating available.

Original review (1 photo)

Ochanokosaisai ★★★★✰

A quite busy store selling seasoning and snacks. We purchased some very popular spicy rice seasoning, at checkout we spotted photos of it being tried on a Japanese TV show!

Original review (1 photo)

KUMONOCHA ★★★★✰

A surprisingly spacious and calm seating area within Nishiki Market, primarily selling very sweet snacks and drinks (we had warabimochi). The food is very aesthetically pleasing, so be aware you’ll pay a premium for this!

Original review

Samurai Ninja Museum ★★★✰✰

A mixed experience, the somewhat odd combination of being guided through detailed exhibits as part of a tour meant not quite being able to listen fully, and also not being able to read fully. I’d have preferred looking through in my own time, but understand it’s an interactive experience! Our tour did not include the dress-up experience, so this might be time-dependant.

The tour included background information on ninjas and feudal Japan, sword making, armour, and similar topics. An opportunity was given to hold real and replica swords & spears, as well as a friendly (plastic) shuriken throwing competition within the group of 20 or so. Booking in advance is recommended, we luckily found last minute seats at a desired time.

There’s a small shop at the end, mostly selling things that would not be legal to carry in many countries!

Original review (3 photos)

Hikiniku to Come ★★★★★

An excellent experience that is worth the hype! After booking a month in advance and entering after a short queue (make sure you don’t accidentally enter via the side exit!), we had a seat at the round eating area.

3 burgers are provided one at a time to you, along with unlimited rice, an egg for one “course”, and 8+ toppings and seasonings in shared pots in front of you. You can watch the burgers being cooked, and the simple method doesn’t reveal how they manage to taste so juicy!

The atmosphere is friendly and bustling, with chefs shouting hello & goodbye to patrons, and each seat feeling somewhat private whilst still having a great view.

Original review (2 photos)

Day 2 (31st August): Kawaramachi

A very busy day, with perhaps some overscheduling of walking-based activities! After the Philosopher’s Path in the morning, the afternoon consisted of an equal parts terrifying and relaxing Kimono tea ceremony, followed by a walking tour of the area. In total, this resulted in 24,382 steps (10.36 miles), quite a lot in the heat!

Ginkaku-ji ★★★★★

A lovely zen temple, featuring a small sample of everything you’d expect in a temple! This includes manicured sand, large mossy areas, waterfalls and natural springs, and viewpoints over the surrounding area. There are plenty of opportunities for photos here, and it’s hard to overstate how peaceful and beautiful it is here.

I highly recommend coming early before it gets too busy, the small entry fee (cash only) is well worth it. There is also a good-sized souvenir shop, water misted seating area, and drinks vending machine by the exit.

Original review (6 photos)

Approach to Ginkaku-ji ★★★★✰

A direct uphill path to the Ginkaku-ji temple, full of shops selling typical tourist snacks and souvenirs. Luckily coming here on a Sunday, especially early, results in a mostly empty street!

Original review

Philosopher’s Path ★★★★★

A beautiful riverside walk from near Ginkaku-ji all the way down to Eikando and near Nanzen-ji, with plenty of temples, shrines, and viewpoints along the way. The walk is mostly 1 or 2 paving stones wide, with a wider road nearby. It was fairly quiet when we visited on a Sunday, especially the southern half of the walk, with most people only doing the top section.

The walk is shaded, with benches and drinks machines along the way, so definitely worth doing when in Kyoto! Various buses go from central Kyoto to the northern start of the walk, which is clearly signposted.

Original review (4 photos)

Hōnenin Temple ★★★★✰

An unusual Buddhist temple, with an approach from the Philosopher’s Path making it hard to even work out where the temple starts and ends! Regardless, the peaceful grounds surrounded by nature are worth a walk through.

Original review

Nanzen-ji ★★★★✰

A large and airy reward for completing the Philosopher’s Path, with free scenic gardens and unique aqueduct archways alongside plenty of trees.

An underrated and empty path from here is up on the aqueduct at the south end, then follow the path to the south-west, down to Keage Incline.

Original review (2 photos)

Sanmon Gate ★★★★✰

An attractive gate within the Nanzen-ji complex, great for a brief rest from the heat and people-watching down the quiet avenues. It’s possible to pay to climb up the historical steps, we did not.

Original review (2 photos)

疏水分線 ★★★★★

This functional aqueduct with a walkway from Nanzen-ji down to Keage incline via an old power station and park is a hidden gem of Kyoto! The path can be entered from Nanzen-ji, and the fast flowing water alongside provides a relaxing air.

Careful with your footing here, since there’s a few loose stones, no handrails, and nobody else around!

Original review (1 photo)

Nejirimampo ★★★★✰

A briefly interesting tunnel with an intricate spiralling brick pattern inside. This is primarily a way to get from Keage Sosui Park to Keage Station, and not worth visiting unless on the way.

Original review

Keage incline ★★★★✰

Even without cherry blossoms, a fairly satisfying but short walk along old railway sleepers from Keage Sosui Park down to Kyoto City Zoo. The walk features irregular paving stones that can be followed, eventually running under a bridge and emerging on the busy Niomon-dori road.

It’s far better than walking along the road, but not worth visiting unless cherry blossoms are on display. Careful with your footing too, as even by yourself you might need to give up on the paving stones and resort to the gravel.

Original review (1 photo)

Kaiten Sushi Onodera ★★★★★

This chain sushi restaurant was a highlight during our Kyoto trip, with a simple ordering process (via a multilingual iPad at the table), fast and easy delivery process (the food zooms along a 2-tier conveyor belt to get to you), and of course tasty yet affordable sushi.

Hot green tea can be self-served at the table, with each sushi item clearly being high quality. Note that the restaurant is sometimes too busy in the evening, and you may find it no longer accepting any guests.

Original review (1 photo)

Tea Ceremony Maikoya ★★★★★

A varied experience, with the two parts of the experience (kimono & tea) feeling like totally different processes! Upon entering, you will be in a small room with other people in your group (for us, all couples). There then follows a fairly chaotic changing room process (for men at least, women go across the road) where your socks and shoes are taken off and put in a bag, your valuables in another smaller bag, then you enter the main changing room.

In this room you’ll undress and be provided an undershirt and undertrousers, and a professional will help you pick and fit a kimono. This is necessarily a fairly intimate experience, and it all happens in quite a whirlwind of activity! Once dressed, you’ll need to find sandals that fit (my UK 11 was 3XL!), and awkwardly wait in a room next to the initial entrance room, trying not to make eye contact with the guests dressed in normal clothes. It’s hard to overstate just how chaotic and confusing this process is, occasionally not quite being sure how many items of clothing you’re meant to have on.

Finally (if you’re in a couple) your partner will appear from the other building, and you can take some photos outside in the garden. When everyone is ready, you’ll enter the tea ceremony, a completely different atmosphere that converted my rating from a 3 into a 5.

This ceremony contains your group (around 12 people, more than I expected) and features a detailed explanation of all the green tea paraphernalia involved, the stages of the ceremony, the meaning behind various related zen concepts, and much more. This was deeply informative, from something as simple as how to sit, to small zen concepts that genuinely changed my mindset.

After these explanations, you will make your own green tea, although the proper whisking technique was beyond me and I needed help! Regardless, the final result was absolutely excellent, and convinced us to buy green tea when we returned home. There are also a couple of small sweet treats included. Overall the ceremony took around 20 minutes (far less than the real multi-hour one!), and was a completely unique experience.

Once finished, there is another opportunity for photos, and an even more chaotic process of changing back into day clothes! Something must have gone wrong for our group, as we were somehow all split up and abandoned. During this, me and another guy buddied up to figure it out together, since there was no guidance on where to go or when to change! We eventually made it out with only minor confusion (what do we do with these socks..?), something of a relief!

Overall it was a truly unique experience, and so long as you can handle a little confusion at the start and end, is well worth the time and cost.

Original review

Gion Night Walking Tour ★★★★★

This tour provides a great opportunity to explore the Gion district, and see the major landmarks in an efficient route. Our guide (Sho) was upbeat and informative, answering questions throughout and ensuring everyone in our ~8 person group was always able to see and hear anything relevant.

We saw a Geisha (well, the head of one getting into a taxi!) during our night tour, and thankfully Sho had already explained the importance of treating them with respect and space so none of the attendees did anything rude. As well as Geisha information (including the presence of the nearby Geisha museum with actual show), the guide also provided historical and religious context on all the places visited.

This included the opportunity to partake in traditional praying techniques, observe locals doing them, and overall understand a lot more about the local area. I’d definitely recommend going after sunset to avoid the crowds and embrace the otherworldly vibe.

Make sure to wear comfortable shoes, there’s quite a few steps!

Original review (4 photos)

Day 3 (1st September): Arashiyama

A busy day, featuring a scenic train, a 2-hour river rapids ride, and a riverside meal! A total of 13,279 steps (5.89 miles).

Sagano Scenic Railway ★★★★★

The bumpiest and noisiest train ride I’ve ever been on! It’s the best way of getting from Arashiyama to Kameoka (for the boat back!), but it’s not necessarily worth doing by itself otherwise. Make sure you book a seat on the RIGHT (as you travel to Kameoka), facing the direction of travel, as this will provide the best views. The first 20% will be out the left window, but after that the right is far better!

After waiting for your train in the spacious and clearly signposted station, you’ll be instructed to stand by your train carriage, and make your way to your seat. These are quite small (and very hard!) seats, so you might consider buying an extra seat for any bags / extra space. The train will likely be full (some people join at later stations), so make sure you’re sitting in the correct seat.

The train conductor was having a great time, singing along to himself, providing a commentary (almost entirely in Japanese), and helping provide an upbeat atmosphere despite the cramped conditions. Everyone on the train was a tourist, and walking towards the station from Randen-Saga you’ll clearly be able to see your fellow passengers!

Once you get to Kameoka you’ll be funnelled out of the station, and whilst there are signposts for a train, you definitely want the free & regular bus to the boat ride area (accessed via the underpass). These are scheduled around the train rides, and have plenty of capacity.

Original review

Hozugawa River Boat ★★★★★

A once in a lifetime experience, the absolute best thing we did in Kyoto!

This 2-hour trip down the Hozugawa river has something for everyone, with the ride varying between long, calm sections of peaceful water and surprisingly violent but brief rapids. These are always warned about in advance, and there’s never much risk, but it can be very disconcerting hearing rocks bumping against the bottom of the boat and having water splashing over the side.

You’re unlikely to get too wet, but if you’re on the outside there’s some light splashing (playfully assisted by the oarsmen!), all quickly drying during the summer. The 3 boatmen we had were genuinely funny and witty throughout, mixing clearly routine jokes with improvised ones based on guests answers. Their constant rowing and steering for 2 hours in melting heat, combined with making conversation and showing landmarks throughout, was truly unbelievable!

Throughout the trip, you’ll see lots of landmarks, beautiful vistas, and we even saw a large group of monkeys, some turtles, frogs, herons, and even rafts with more intrepid explorers! There’s a very endearing tradition of Sagano Scenic Train passengers, Boat Ride passengers, and people rafting to all wave hello to each other along the way, with a positive atmosphere throughout.

There’s an opportunity towards the end to even take photos during a quiet patch, with the boatmen taking photos on your phones. Surprisingly, towards the end a food boat pulls alongside, offering freshly cooked food alongside drinks (including beer!) for cash-only purchase. This is a great end to a truly unique experience, that HAS to be part of any Kyoto trip.

As a tip, when you get off the bus from the Sagano Scenic Train, there’s a consistent flood of people up to the boat station. There’s not really any need to rush, with regular boats. You’ll end up in a queue where staff will take your basic information (such as prebooking) to speed up the final ticket exchange process. After waiting a few minutes, your boat will arrive, and you’ll be fitted with lifejackets and cram yourselves into the small boats.

Overall it felt exciting yet safe, with both children and the elderly included in our boat, and a unique way of viewing the area.

Original review (25 photos, 2 videos)

Arashiyama Itsukichaya ★★★★✰

Pre-booking is required here, weeks in advance, especially for the river view. This quite expensive (for Kyoto) cash-only restaurant was undoubtedly good food (we attended on the first day of a new menu), however the atmosphere was not great.

We were initially greeted with an assumption that we hadn’t booked, but once the prebook was confirmed, we took our seat and received our drinks. 5 minutes later, we were asked to move over despite being fully settled, into a slightly worse seat. This was evidently to make space for a group, but still a disruptive experience. This (American) group proceeded to be quite noisy with relentless talking and walk around lots, forcing us to essentially stop our conversation due to the volume. This obviously isn’t the restaurant’s fault, but they could have intervened.

The food itself was good, although perhaps not excellent enough to necessarily justify the price, especially as I finished all of it! For a meal like this, I would expect to be full afterwards.

It’s also worth noting the restaurant offers a free gift in exchange for reviews (I wrote this afterwards instead), and there is an expensive no-show fee. The entrance is down the side of another restaurant serving more casual street food.

Original review (3 photos)

Enman Rice Cake ★★★★★

Came here for a quick matcha ice cream on a very hot day, it was good! There’s a shaded area outside with a bin, nice and quiet away from the busy main road.

Original review (1 photo)

Arashiyama Bamboo Forest ★★★★✰

A uniquely towering area of bamboo, although always completely full of tourists trying to take selfies. Worth a quick walk through if nearby!

Original review (1 photo)

CoCoNe Laundromat ★★★★★

Very convenient as a tourist, this 2nd floor laundromat just requires asking the receptionist for a gate key then you can access the washing area. The 4 washing machines automatically add detergent, and the 8 drying machines do a good job, requiring 40 minutes (500 yen) to dry a full load. There is a coin exchange machine next to the machines, and all machines etc have English available.

I visited here twice, once it was entirely empty the entire time, the other time it was completely full, so it definitely varies! There’s some manga and notebooks around, and a drinks vending machine, but you’re given a pass so you might as well leave and do something else whilst you wait.

Original review (3 photos)

Menya Yukou ★★★★★

This cosy ramen place is open very late at night, and serves simple cheap comfort food. There’s often a short queue outside, with a menu provided so you can order before entering. The pork is great, and it’s a very introvert-friendly restaurant with all guests just eating their meals quietly.

Original review

Day 4 (2nd September): Nara

A day trip to Nara! Quite a bit of train travel, so only 15,023 steps (6.52 miles).

Nara Park ★★★★★

A massive park with multiple high quality temples and museums, plus of course the hundreds of tame deer! The deer are very friendly, bordering on aggressive, just remember to open your hands if threatened so they can see you have no food for them.

Throughout the area you’ll get used to seeing deer standing guard near shops, hanging out in waterways, and harassing any tourists who reveal they have crackers. They have no fear of humans, with even the young deer happily wandering over.

Original review (17 photos)

Tōdai-ji ★★★★★

This stunningly large Buddha statue with a dedicated building is worth the entry fee, with plenty of options for blessings and related information elsewhere inside.

Original review (2 photos)

Kōfuku-ji ★★★★✰

A complex of 3 enterable buildings with a shared ticket: Western hall, Central hall, and the clear highlight: the treasure hall. I’d recommend just buying tickets to the treasure hall, unless you’re particularly interested in more niche Buddhist statues there is limited value in the two halls.

Original review

Kōfuku-ji Treasure Museum ★★★★★

No photos are allowed within, hence the lack of any here! This rule (along with no phones / technology, no loud talking, etc) is strictly enforced by many guards inside, providing an almost silent environment to appreciate the many statues inside.

Unfortunately as a non-local, an inability to speak Japanese meant around half of the exhibits were completely unexplained, and the other half had a very simple one-line description, leaving unclear what I was looking at. Regardless, the statues were very imposing, and the quiet cool atmosphere was much appreciated during a very hot day.

Looking around will take around 15-25 minutes, and there is a small gift shop afterwards selling typical souvenirs.

Original review

Miyama ★★★★★

This restaurant’s convenient location means there’s typically a small queue out front at lunchtime, however it’s definitely worth the wait!

Very large portions are selected from the menu whilst you wait inside, with even a small (e.g. meal no. 2) easily being enough to fill an adult. These come with instructions for eating, helpful due to the number of different bowls involved! The food is clearly high quality, and there’s a lively but private atmosphere inside, with a mixture of adults, families, couples, locals, and tourists.

Original review

Y’s Burger ★★★★★

We came here for an easy comfort dinner, and were very impressed by the cream cheese wagyu burger! A unique combination of flavours, it definitely deserves more attention. The combos are good value, with a big burger, thick fries, and a drink for around 1500 yen, a good size for dinner.

There’s a table outside we sat at for people-watching, before realising there’s actually a much more comfortable upstairs dining area that we should have used, oops. Staff were friendly, and the food arrived quickly.

Original review

Conclusion

We loved Kyoto! The mixture of shrines, temples, natural rivers and forests, animals, busy malls, and excellent food meant we always had varied and full days. It felt much more varied than Tokyo, with the outskirts having a completely different feel to the centre just a short walk away. Next up, another 4 days of Kyoto, with just as much variety…

Nara was also enjoyable, although a day felt like enough to experience most of the park’s contents. Another day or two could easily be spent within the city proper, but there’s so many other unique places to go within Kyoto nearby that I’m happy with our decision.

Overall the Hozugawa river boat ride was easily the highlight, although the many many many excellent meals and snacks come a close joint second!

Note: This is a series of posts, with Tokyo Part 1, Takayama Part 2 (this article), Kyoto Part 3 and Part 4, and Tokyo again Part 5.

Day 1 (27th August): Arrival

We travelled in from Tokyo (via Toyama), and luckily had plenty of time to explore the historical old town streets we were planning to look at the next day! This resulted in a healthy 9,174 steps (4.15 miles).

Oyado Koto No Yume ★★★★★

This traditional hotel in a great location was such a unique experience! Despite being affordable, guests are treated as honoured visitors, with services offered by default that go far beyond what I’ve experienced elsewhere.

For example, upon check-in we received a detailed room tour by staff, along with free sake in the evening. The options whilst checking in can be a little overwhelming, as the traditional nature means staff will tidy away your beds during lunchtime, then lay them back out again in the evening. Luckily we were out all day so just opted for the single visit (and beds always out), but if you intend to spend lots of time in the hotel be aware of this!

Similarly, upon entering you need to hand your shoes to a staff member in exchange for your key, and reverse the process every time you leave. Whilst this “being waited on” experience is presumably attractive, it disincentivises brief rest stops in your hotel room since it’ll take quite a bit of yours & employees time!

Breakfast is unbelievably high quality, with reserved tables and your meal brought to you upon entering. The Japanese and Western meals vary daily (one example of each in photos), with a staggering array of different foods in each one! The Japanese one is (unsurprisingly) slightly better, but either will absolutely fill you up and leave you feeling like royalty. There’s the usual hot drink / cereal / pastries available, but these foods are rarely touched. Additionally, only some guests use the provided clothing (0-30% per day), but it is of course fine either way.

The rooms themselves are a little outdated, with plug sockets a bit far away, bathing experience a little disjointed, and minor wear and tear on the rooms. They’re perfectly usable though, and the staff redeem them entirely by adding little snacks to your room daily, along with ice cold water! Coming home to these after a day out was a wonderful experience.

Finally, there’s a surprisingly high quality shop in the lobby, offering many of the same products sold within the market. We bought some small gifts and magnets here, it’s a much appreciated feature. There’s also a small gift on checkout to remember your trip by, keep an eye out!

Original review (4 photos)

Wooden beckoning cat ★★★★★

It’s a wooden beckoning cat.

Original review (1 photo)

Hidatakayama Town Museum ★★★★✰

This museum is entirely free, and somewhat hidden away. Upon entering, collecting a free map will guide you around the ~10 exhibition rooms and few small gardens. There’s lots of well written information about the town’s history and traditions, most of it in English.

When we visited there did not seem to be any staff around, despite the clearly well maintained grounds. Regardless of your interest in the local history, there’s enough peaceful places to rest quietly to make this worth a visit.

Original review (3 photos)

Chan-no-me cafe ★★★★✰

Very tasty little filled pastries, only accepts cash and the often busy nature can make it tricky to order. There’s a surprisingly large and quiet eating area at the back, highly recommend it instead of standing in the street.

Original review

MUGI ★★★★★

We ended up eating here due to all other restaurants nearby being closed late at night or having long tourist queues, and we’re so so glad!

This was one of our best eating experiences in Japan, with the friendly chef making a wide variety of food in the surprisingly small cooking area. Everything we had was excellent, with the potato mochi special being a highlight. Sake portions were generous (and strong!), and the open sides let the outside ambience in whilst still feeling intimate.

We stayed for an hour or so, with the small izakaya being around half full throughout.

Original review (6 photos)

SAN AI Japanese Art Culture ★★★★★

Despite plenty of souvenir shops along the old town streets, SAN AI manages to include the simpler, more obvious items alongside many exclusive products created in collaboration with Japanese artists. We bought a couple of things from our multiple visits here, it’s a great place for gifts.

Original review

Kaji Bridge ★★★★★

Busy bridge with shops on both sides, plus a good view downriver. It’s also possible to sit on the waterside and watch the foot traffic.

Original review (2 photos)

Ikada Bridge ★★★★★

Convenient bridge to get into the old town, plus excellent views of Nakabashi Bridge at night!

Original review (1 photo)

Gyojin Bridge ★★★★★

Small convenient bridge to get between the two halves of the town, far quieter than any others. A nice riverside seat too.

Original review (1 photo)

Day 2 (28th August): Museums

A quite rambly day throughout Takayama, with the morning market, Showa era museum, and open air museum proving highlights. A total of 11,216 steps (4.78 miles).

Miyagawa Morning Markets ★★★★✰

There are 2 morning markets in Takayama, this one being a fairly typical small town market, yet running daily! The market runs between Yayoi Bridge and Kaji Bridge during the morning, primarily selling snacks ready to eat. There are more permanent restaurants selling slightly more substantial food and drinks, however these will all close at lunchtime too.

Definitely worth a visit, although most stalls are cash only and often speak limited English, but they’re all fairly specialised so ordering shouldn’t be too hard!

Original review

Takayama Showa-kan ★★★★★

This very dense museum can take 30 minutes or 2-3 hours, depending on how interested you are in the Showa period of Japan! Every room is absolutely full of historical items, with a lot of trust put in visitors to not touch / break all of the items.

Rooms are convincing, and vary from classrooms, opticians, living rooms, arcades, and plenty more. The effect is made convincing by street signs and advertising all over the place. Each room is absolutely full of unique details, and there’s hundreds of opportunities for selfies if interested.

Tickets are purchased at the door, after a small souvenir / traditional sweet shop.

Original review (8 photos)

Yoshijima Traditional House ★★✰✰✰

Hidden inside an unassuming sliding door, this massive empty traditional Japanese living space is quite odd. There is almost nothing on display until you get to the outside space at the back, which seemed to have some sort of collaboration with an artist? As such, the fairly high entry price (1500Y, cash only) is hard to justify when your time will consist of 10 minutes wandering around large empty spaces!

Whilst the hidden entrance and high cost ensures it is empty, there’s almost no actual information here. I’d recommend instead visiting a restaurant or inn with traditional layouts.

Original review (6 photos)

Neko no Tsuki ★★★★★

This cat cafe is instantly noticeable from outside, with some of the key characters peeking out of the large glass windows!

Thankfully, in comparison to many other animal cafes in Japan, the cat’s welfare is clearly placed first here. Shoe coverings must be worn, hands must be washed, and information about how to approach cats, give them space, etc is presented beforehand whilst ordering drinks.

Drinks are a little expensive, on top of the time spent with cats, but this is completely justifiable due to the focus on the cat’s welfare. The owner(?) spoke to us throughout our time about the cats, our experiences with our own cat, and similar topics, with her love and care for the cats being very obvious. She was very knowledgeable about cats, with their health obviously being this cafe’s focus.

The cats themselves were clearly comfortable and well cared for, each expressing their personality instead of desperately asking for treats / affection. For example, a set of two brothers “run the show”, with one patrolling whilst we visited, and another keeping an eye on outdoors. They were both obviously very happy and healthy, enjoying their life and tolerating the occasional visitor intrusion.

Upstairs is a female cat room, and these continue the trend of keeping themselves to themselves and tolerating visitors’ presence. One of these very sadly has a brain injury so struggled to really understand what was going on, just spending her time sitting quietly instead.

Throughout, I really appreciated the cats not being forced to interact, and just napping or peeking from a distance. One of the more curious kept diving close to us then jogging away, not quite sure of themself!

With around 5-6 cats downstairs and 4-5 upstairs, they have a massive area to play in, with lots of levels and roofing beams to run around on, all clean and tidy. A few were in a cage, with the owner explaining this was due to some bickering between them! One cried a bit whilst we were there, and the owner’s obvious love for them all was shown when she solved it by giving him a stroke instead of disciplining, and he settled down after this.

Overall this was a wonderful, wholesome experience, with the focus on cats making it an easily justifiable cost for half hour.

Original review (4 photos)

Oku ★★★★★

We visited here for lunch after the cat cafe next door, and had a wonderful set menu! Each course was explained by the waitress, and tasted absolutely perfect, especially the bread and butter, and sautéed pork (pictured).

This definitely had similarities to various fancy French-inspired cafe back in the UK, with a relaxed coffee shop vibe combined with clearly high quality food and friendly staff. Slippers are worn throughout, with shoes left outside the front door, the toilet is quite outdated so maybe avoid that part!

Original review (1 photo)

Hida no Sato Open Air Museum ★★★★★

The highlight of Takayama! After purchasing a cheap entry ticket, you can spend a few hours walking around the village, optionally following one of the 3 routes pictured on a provided map (from quick route to visiting all 20 or so buildings).

Every building is unique, and provides lots of information on specific parts of village life. The buildings themselves are transported from different places in the region, being more of a compilation of different examples than an actual village. However, this allows the museum to provide information on these different styles, such as designs to prevent snow buildup, or keep cool in summer.

These buildings all require taking your shoes off, as is expected. A couple are indicated on the map as being extra notable, so make sure you visit these on your route.

A few child friendly physical games are provided at the entrance, and there’s toilets scattered throughout, with a rest area with drinks etc near the end. Check out all the fish on the pier too!

There’s a large souvenir shop at the bus stop outside, so don’t worry about the lack of items inside the village. Make sure you keep an eye on bus routes, since the infrequent bus is one of the only ways to get to or from here!

Original review (15 photos)

Center4 Hamburgers ★★★★✰

Solid burgers, open late, hidden deep inside a building on an empty and dark street! The burgers are good and filling, I recommend the chilli bean burger. Fairly touristy, with an intriguing Johnny Cash / retro americana theme inside and currencies pinned up all over the bars.

Photos aren’t permitted here (you’re meant to focus on the food!) so you may not see many. I’d recommend booking in advance, since the place can fill up for dinner (7pm and later). We had our hotel make a reservation as only phone bookings are possible.

Original review (1 photo)

Day 3 (29th August): Shirakawago

A busy day out visiting Shirakawago and Ainokura, traditional villages up in the mountains! We ended up with 14,915 steps (5.77 miles).

Shirakawago etc Day Trip ★★★★★

Shirakawago is a common tourist destination from Takayama, but this day trip also lets you visit the Ainokura Gassho village, a far smaller and more “real” version, as well as briefly seeing Suganuma village.

After an hour or so journey in the bus whilst information is shared by the host (ours was Chiname Yamashita), you’ll drive past Suganama. This is just a brief preview, but it’s a nice extra.

First is Ainokura Gassho Village. There are around 10 buildings here, and it’s a very quiet and peaceful village. The highlight is the observation deck, accessed by a 10 minute uphill walk, and showing the entire village with perfect tree framing. There are also a few other museums, shops, and landmarks / viewpoints worth taking a look at.

Next is Shirakawago, where you’ll spend most of the day. There’s plenty of reviews of here already, but make sure you spend plenty of time in the historical section, and visit the key landmarks if you have time!

Overall this was a fairly simple day trip, and ended quite early (around 4pm). However, it was an efficient way to visit all of the traditional villages in the area, whilst also learning additional information.

Original review (23 photos)

Ainokura Observation Deck ★★★★★

Unbelievable views! If you’re in Ainokura, make sure you take the 10 minute well-signposted hike up the hill by the car park. There’s no amenities here (besides bells to scare off bears!), but the view itself is completely worth it.

Original review (2 photos)

Ainokurajinushi Shrine ★★★★✰

Small shrine with a nearby stone related to an emperor. Not much information available, but a pretty and shaded area nonetheless.

Original review (2 photos)

Matsuya ★★★★✰

A small restaurant and souvenir shop, with a seating area and drinks. This is the main shop in the quiet village, and the shop had a wide variety of unique items with cute signs.

Original review (1 photo)

Shirakawa-go ★★★★★

A great way to spend at least a few hours! The surprisingly free village has plenty of food, shops, and natural beauty, with a dedicated paid world heritage site. There are plenty of routes around the village, with all sorts of hidden beauty if you look in any direction (check out the fish by pathways)!

Make sure you visit the buildings highlighted on the tourist map, and remember that locals still live here. It was disappointing seeing other tourists treating people’s homes like photoshoots. Regardless, there’s lots of opportunities for photos, without intruding on others’ privacy.

Original review (16 photos)

Soba dojo restaurant ★★★★★

A great set meal of noodles, rice, and meat, in this underrated soba restaurant at the entrance to the historical village. The food is affordable, and there’s a floor seating area if you prefer. Instructions are provided for which dish goes with which, in case you need reminding!

Note that shoes must be taken off at the entrance.

Original review (3 photos)

Shirakawa-go Heritage Site ★★★★★

Very picturesque historical village, with the small entry fee being well worth it for a peaceful walk around. Alongside various traditional buildings with information boards, there’s also a relaxing building with free hot and cold green tea / water, ideal during the summer months.

There’s also a unique ice cream stand, waterfalls, and plenty of places to sit and rest.

Even though the rest of the village is free, this paid heritage section near the car park is essential to visit, if only due to the lack of tourists making it far calmer.

Original review (9 photos)

Deai Bridge ★★★★★

A surprisingly pretty way to cross from the car park into the historical Shirakawa-go village, with great views. It can get quite busy, so try not to hold up traffic when taking a picture!

Original review (2 photos)

Shop ★★★★✰

A small shop selling souvenirs and a few unique ice cream flavours, all of which were surprisingly delicious! There’s also a good rest area outside to sit and enjoy the ice cream.

Visitors via the sightseeing bus can show their sticker for a small discount.

Original review (1 photo)

Nakano Chojiro Residence ★★★★★

Be careful, most of the photos here are inaccurate! This is an excellent place to rest after exploring the village, with a silent and dim interior and a nearby free self-service green tea / water machine.

When we visited, despite already having a cup earlier, and elderly woman with no English insisted we try the green tea! It was easier to just accept, so we had plenty of tea here! Lucky it was tasty.

There’s also a cute stuffed cat, and a small table to look out over the surroundings from.

Original review (4 photos)

Wooden Walkway ★★★★★

An excellent way to get through the village, with natural beauty on all sides.

Original review (2 photos)

Purin no ie ★★★★★

A very busy store selling puddings, clearly with a lot of social media popularity! Regardless, it’s worth the price, being an excellent custard dessert, we ended up buying 2. There is a small amount of seating outside, and a place to return your glass jars / rubbish.

Original review

Shinkogei Sanmachi ★★★★★

A very cute store where hand-dyed stuffed animals are sold in various sizes. Friendly owner.

Original review (3 photos)

Suzuya ★★★★✰

A very hot and chaotic restaurant! A great place for hotpot and sake, with filling portions.

We came during summer evening, where the lack of air con made the whole place unbelievably sweaty, even with the few fans trying their hardest!

Original review (1 photo)

Conclusion

We only visited Takayama for a couple of days, but loved the feel of the town. It felt much calmer and peaceful than Tokyo (obviously, it’s a fraction of the size!), with beautiful mountain landscapes on any train trip. Having a traditional hotel with absurdly good breakfast helped the experience significantly. It was also surprisingly hard to find somewhere to eat in the evenings, with seemingly everywhere closing early, or being fully booked.

The town itself had a somewhat bizarre feel, with a clearly touristy main road, then a very different but also touristy old town, then finally a standard Japanese small town everywhere else. I suspect it’s been affected negatively by overtourism, but that doesn’t take away from the experience much! However, our 2.5 days there seemed enough to do pretty much everything, any longer might get a little dull.

Note: This is a series of posts, with Tokyo Part 1 (this article, 22nd-27th August), Takayama Part 2, Kyoto Part 3 and Part 4, and Tokyo again Part 5.

Day 1: Arrival & Asakusa

We arrived in Tokyo at an impressively early 7am after a 14-hour flight to 38° weather, so our jetlag and exhaustion levels were immense!

Despite this, our wandering around Asakusa both before our hotel’s check-in time, and then after a much-needed nap, resulted in 13,441 steps (5.84 miles).

Onyado Nono Asakusa ★★★★★

We had an excellent experience at Onyado Nono! The breakfast is the highlight feature, with an impressive variety of Japanese and Western options available, all freshly made.

Rooms are small but clean, with tatami mats throughout. Shoes are always stored in a locker area by the entrance, with comfortable loungewear & slippers provided in rooms. At breakfast, typically 50-90% of people will be wearing the beige loungewear, I recommend it!

Staff are helpful and very friendly, with standard laundry facilities available on the 2nd floor (plus tracking of them via the TV!). This made it a convenient place to do laundry on our trip.

Original review (6 photos)

Age.3 ★★★★★

Age.3 is a strange innovation on sandwiches, with their sweet ones ending up something like cream-filled waffles. Worth a visit if nearby, although I’d recommend sharing 1 since they’re pretty sweet!

Original review (1 photo)

Sensō-ji Hozomon Gate ★★★★✰

Whilst the gate is overly full of tourists during the day, at night it becomes an excellent place to walk through. Unfortunately there is only a small amount of information available (entirely about the 2 statues), with the gate serving primarily as a photo opportunity and little else.

Original review (2 photos)

Sensō-ji Five-Storied Pagoda ★★★★✰

As with most temples in the Senso-ji area, it is far better to visit at night for the visuals. Tourists are not allowed inside, and there is nothing to do here besides looking from the outside.

Original review (3 photos)

Sensō-ji Temple ★★★★✰

The main part of the Senso-ji complex, good luck making it past all the tourists during the day! Worth visiting, you’ll occasionally see locals making a contribution during open hours.

Original review (2 photos)

Kaminari mon ★★★✰✰

Technically part of the Senso-ji temple, the close proximity to Nakamise shopping street makes this perhaps the most touristy part of the entire complex. You’ll see tourists taking tripod photos / selfies at pretty much any hour, and during the day there is a dense crowd here. I’d highly recommend moving 100m up the road to Sensi-ji’s Hozomon Gate for a bigger and better gate, with fewer people!

Original review

Nakamise shopping street ★★★✰✰

This street features a variety of fairly touristy foods, drinks, and souvenirs. This street is completely full of people during the day, with lots of options for (overpriced) snacks from small shops where around half only accept cash. If you need to go through here I highly recommend using the 2 side streets.

At night the street gains a very peaceful vibe, with artwork on lots of the shop’s shutters.

Original review (2 photos)

Okimaro ★★★★★

This small cafe-style restaurant serving Okinawan was a pleasant surprise after struggling to find somewhere to eat a casual lunch near the Tokyo Skytree.

Around 10 people can be seated, and I’d highly recommend getting in before 12. We arrived at 11:50, and by 12:10 every seat was full of salarymen clearly having their regular lunches!

The portions are large, and whilst there is an excellent value lunch set menu available we went for a grilled chicken bowl and a limited-quantity pork belly based meal, along with a banana milk drink. An english menu is available out front, as well as inside.

Original review

Gong Cha Asakusa ROX ★★★✰✰

A standard bubble / fruit tea shop, inside the ROX mall. It had quite a loud and chaotic vibe, clearly being a brief stop for families during shopping trips.

Original review

Hoppy Street ★★★✰✰

Pretty much just a tourist trap, walking down here at night will see you shouted at by various touts, with far more affordable / genuine izakayas available elsewhere. If you’re here at night, I’d recommend walking through senso-ji instead.

Original review

Sumida Park ★★★★✰

A good spot for a brief rest if travelling from Asakusa towards the Skytree. Some shade, limited seating, and standard toilet facilities. The strip of shops alongside can be useful.

Original review

Asakusa Gyukatsu ★★★★★

One of the best meals we had during a few weeks in Japan! There is almost always a queue outside, however late at night you can get in fairly quickly, with your order taken whilst queueing. The only options are 1, 1.5, or 2 beef cutlets, so picking should be easy!

Once inside, you are quickly served a tray of tonkatsu, and your cooking slab is heated. The beef cutlets are somehow ridiculously tasty and melt apart in your mouth, with the final few minutes of cooking yourself mostly just tweaking the flavour.

Helpfully, a guide on how to use each item / dip is provided in front of you in English and Japanese, since it can get a little confusing (there’s a small mochi dessert included). We ordered 1 cutlet each, I’d probably recommend 1.5.

Original review (1 photo)

Day 2: Ginza

Our first full day in Tokyo focused on the Tsukiji / Ginza area, making our way from the riverfront to Tokyo Station (with lots of shops along the way) resulted in 23,018 steps (10.70 miles).

Tsukiji Outer Market ★★★★✰

This chaotic market is unique, and has plenty to offer even if you have no interest in seafood. It’s hard to know exactly which shops you’re buying from, so you’ll have to rely on instinct instead of reviews!

Whilst here we had matcha shaved ice, a custard dessert slab, and glazed fruit, all of which were great. The inner market is mostly fish, with the outer market consisting of more standard snacks and drinks. It’s a BIG area, and finding a past shop can be tricky so just buy anything you like the look of!

It can get very crowded here, with some of the smaller alleyways being impossible to get down if a larger family or eating tour group is currently in there. The main roads and outside are easily navigated though, note many will only accept cash however.

Original review (3 photos)

TEATRO eFfe TOKYO ★★★✰✰

A very sweet cream soda and matcha latte, plus fairly high prices and an enforced 1-drink-per-person policy (even when completely empty) makes the store hard to recommend if you’re just after a drink. However, it does have good air con and is in a convenient location.

Original review

Hamarikyu Gardens ★★★★★

A good way to spend a few hours, with the small entry fee ensuring it’s a quiet and peaceful contrast to the nearby Tsukiji market.

The Shonoji Isle bridges are great for photos, with the duck hunting sites providing some interesting information on how ducks were historically trapped here (it includes trained decoys!). The 300-year old pine is also impressively gnarled, whilst the Shogun’s Landing Place is a fairly bland concrete area.

A special shoutout for the “rest area” is needed, since the shaded zone with sprayed water vapour (and a nearby drink seller) was absolutely essential when visiting on a summer day.

Overall it’s a very aesthetic and well maintained garden area, providing contrast from the busy city nearby.

Original review (3 photos)

Marutake ★★★★✰

This popular cash-only shop primarily sells warm tamago (sweet egg omelette), with a small strip costing 200 yen. Whilst nice, it’s not particularly unique (there’s another shop on the same street). There’s no eating area, so you’ll need to stand in the busy & chaotic street.

Original review (1 photo)

Tomago-to-watashi ★★✰✰✰

Small restaurant within the station selling omurice (fluffy egg pancake with rice). The “soufflé” version was better, but both were fairly basic yet expensive meals. We struggled to get noticed when trying to make an order, with staff members seemingly initially avoiding us due to being foreigners, however there was an English menu available.

Original review

Ginza Itoya ★★★★✰

A multi-level stationary store, even if you’re not particularly into arts & crafts it’s intriguing seeing all the options available. The ground floor is a bit too busy, and it can be hard to navigate.

Original review

Ippudo Asakusa ★★★★★

Great ramen, fast service, order is via a touchscreen making it easy for foreigners. Ippudo was one of the few places open late at night, a lucky find!

Careful of the spicy ramen, they really mean spicy.

Original review

Day 3: Mt Fuji & Hakone

The entire day was taken up with a trip to Mt Fuji and Hakone, with lots of travel time resulting in only 7,339 steps (2.62 miles).

Mt Fuji / Hakone tour ★★★★★

This day trip exceeded our expectations! Whilst there was a fair amount of travelling on the bus, this time was used very productively by Aya (with Yamasan driving) to educate about Japan, Mt Fuji, a few Japanese words, and much more.

A brief warning about the meeting point at Shinjuku, there are multiple groups meeting here at once (including multiple from Japan Panoramic Tours), so get there a little early and listen carefully to the groups. We had a few people looking for a Tokyo bus tour getting a bit confused!

Our first main stop, Mt Fuji 5th station, was unexpectedly very busy with hikers, making it tricky to do much there in the allotted time besides buying a few souvenirs and seeing a viewpoint. It was unfortunately cloudy when we visited, so it was a little surreal being surrounded by grey nothingness!

Lunch was a weak point, with a very average “buffet” provided at a strange ninja experience / scenic garden / restaurant hybrid called Shinobi No Sato. At least there was a good shop and the garden was pleasant to walk around.

The ropeway was busier than normal so we had to change plans slightly here, with Aya and another guide impressively changing the itinerary on the fly (including rebooking boats etc) to ensure we still got to do everything. The changed plan was arguably better, with a flyover of the sulfur mines now included, a very alien sight.

Finally, the cruise after the ropeway was excellent! The scenery was breathtaking, and on a hot day the breeze was a welcome break. The boat did a 180 after departing the dock, so our average position at the back became an excellent view forward!

Throughout the day, Aya was informative, friendly, funny and energetic. She had far more patience than I would have with people wandering off, with an early incident disciplined with lighthearted and effective brief teasing instead of anything more dramatic. Aya also made an effort to get not just a group photo at the end, but also take photos for couples at multiple opportunities.

It was truly impressive how she managed to coordinate everyone, and provide information throughout, whilst still finding the time to talk to every group (usually couples) individually about their travel plans, Japan experience, etc. She provided us with some excellent restaurant and vintage shopping recommendations (and local slang!) in her native Osaka, many of which we utilised later in our trip.

I highly recommend the tour, and can’t thank Aya enough!

Original review (10 photos)

Day 4: Ueno & Akihabara

A fairly meandering (and very hot!) day around Ueno then Akihabara, resulting in 16,778 steps (6.73 miles).

Shinobazu Pond Bentendo ★★★★★

A surprisingly pleasant small temple surrounded by a lotus flower pond (with turtles!), very quiet in the mornings. The inside is fairly typical for a temple, peaceful and visually appealing. You can also buy small blessings and similar items.

Original review (2 photos)

Kanazawa Maimonzushi Ueno ★★★★★

This made-to-order sushi restaurant is hidden away on the top floor of the mall, we only found it by following a hungry-looking salaryman!

After registering our group size (2) on the iPad out front, after a few minutes of waiting we were given a table at the counter. Here, we could watch the chefs selecting fish cuts, make ourselves hot green tea, and order dishes from the iPad.

Each “group” is separated by a plastic transparent barrier, so you can use their dishes for inspiration if needed whilst still having your own private space. Dishes are typically passed directly from the chefs in front of you, or sometimes via a waiter behind you, but there’s no conveyer belt we could see.

The dishes themselves were good, perhaps not quite as good as elsewhere but hard to complain for the price. A few were unreasonably oversized making them a challenge to eat, be careful!

Original review (3 photos)

Onitsuka Tiger Parco_ya Ueno ★★★★★

We visited 4-5 different Onitsuka Tiger stores during our trip, and this was consistently the quietest! Whilst others were chaotic and even had queues out front, this slightly less obvious location meant there were as many staff as customers.

Staff were helpful despite missing some items of stock, and the completely open store layout makes it a far better shopping experience than most footwear stores.

Original review

Super Potato ★★★★✰

Super Potato felt like something from another world. After taking the lift up to the top floor, each floor had a different unique vibe. Some had a few guys hanging around playing arcade games, others were more like a small sweet shop, others were more like museums.

I can’t comment on prices, but it was great seeing thousands of retro games and tech scattered everywhere, although the narrow corridors made it hard to navigate sometimes.

Original review (3 photos)

Edion Akiba ★★★★✰

This store has so much variety! Going up the escalators, you’ll start with a massive variety of anime / gaming related figures, then go through watches, then wine, then microwaves, and suddenly you’re surrounded by trading cards or a car racing track.

The top floor had trading card vending machines for various games, plus a few guys playing a game near the drinks vending machine, and it had a very calm and peaceful vibe. I can easily imagine spending a few hours here playing a card game with friends.

The car racing track wasn’t open when I visited, but it seems to be frequently used, with all the related accessories sold nearby too.

Original review (1 photo)

Gachapon hall ★★★✰✰

A very dense gachapon hall. Machines are stacked high, and more than a couple of customers (plus members of staff emptying machines) makes it a challenge to make any progress looking at them all. Other locations have far more space, although perhaps less variety.

The machines are an OK price, with a change dispenser situated in the middle of the hall, employee desk in the middle, and figurine sales at the back.

Original review (1 photo)

GiGO Akihabara 2 ★★★✰✰

Quite a poorly laid out and expensive GiGO, mostly consisting of claw machines, many of which have bizarre items like household stools.

Original review (2 photos)

Uniqlo Asakusa ★★★★★

A large, well laid out Uniqlo with multiple floors. There’s plenty of appealing t-shirts here, plus of course the essential Airism polo / shirt / underwear for hot summers.

Original review (1 photo)

Sumo Entertainment Show ★★★★★

This isn’t a serious sumo show, nor is it trying to be. It’s fun entertainment for tourists, and so long as you know what you’re getting into, you’ll have a great time!

After a short geisha show (fairly authentic as far as I can tell, it was just a much shorter version of a genuine performance seen in Kyoto), there’s a typical hotpot meal provided, with free food refills (and paid drinks) available via a QR code mobile website. A presenter explains what’s happening (in native English) throughout.

Those on the front seats will then have their tables taken away for the main event: Sumo! The 2 wrestlers are obviously playing characters, with all the pantomime “cheer for your guy, boo the other guy” style encouragement you’ll recognise from other family-friendly entertainment. There’s a bit of slapstick entertainment throughout, and the sumo wrestlers sell it well!

After showcasing some basic moves and pushes, the wrestlers have a “real” fight (with the audience throwing in the traditional salt). This looked convincing, but it’s hard to tell as an outsider.

Next up is some audience participation! 6 or so candidates from ~10 volunteers were chosen, with ages ranging from 13 to late 40s. Whilst there’s clearly been some behind-the-scenes coaching on what’s going to happen, making these scripted fights, they’re chaotic fun with lots of audience cheering throughout.

During our show, an Australian rules football player SEEMED to genuinely win his battle with pushing power! At the very least, the brief surprised shout from the losing wrestler was real. The wrestlers themselves deserve extra credit for their physical AND comedic performances.

Finally, you’ll get a chance to take a photo with the wrestlers (and geisha), handled via efficient turn-based coordination, and be given a branded tote bag with branded wooden boxes, stickers, scarves, and your photos.

Overall this was a very fun couple of hours in the evening, and a great way to experience a heavily compacted (and simplified) slice of Japanese culture.

Original review (4 photos)

Day 5: Odaiba

A day spent exploring Tokyo’s reclaimed island “Odaiba”, a slightly surreal area that feels far more artificial and unnatural than the rest of Tokyo. There’s a convenient monorail, however we still managed 14,684 steps (6.41 miles).

Small Worlds Museum ★★★★★

Small Worlds was one of our best experiences in Tokyo, consisting of tens of extremely detailed miniature scenes. There’s a very whimsical seamless blending of fact and fiction, making it not at all unusual to see a bizarre monster next to historically accurate architecture! Note that the entrance is somewhat hidden, being a few minutes walk from a monorail station on the opposite side of the “Under Armour” building.

The first few rooms consist of both nature and urban landscapes, alongside a heavy focus on space exploration and construction. Scattered throughout are buttons that activate a variety of sounds, lights, and movements within the landscapes. For example, one button might make a car navigate around a cityscape, another might make a monster appear, another might make a bizarre domestic scene play out.

Next up, there’s a “guest creator” area, consisting of more modest creations such as sections of rail, individual shops and cottages, or fictional locations. Information is provided on who created each item, and some can even be purchased directly.

Following on, there’s a full-scale airport! This includes a real life departure lounge, departure boards, announcements, security cameras, plus of course a miniature airport including planes taking off and landing. This area can be viewed from multiple angles, and the extreme attention to detail is stunning. No matter what bizarre angle you peek inside a nondescript building, it will be fully detailed throughout, even if it seems impossible that anyone else has looked exactly where you are.

Finally, there is a significant area dedicated to fictional anime locations and characters, specifically Evangelion. We didn’t spend much time here, but an entire city appearing and disappearing from the ground (with day night cycle) was truly impressive, even more so due to the button-triggered actions working in bright light and pitch blackness accordingly.

There are also a few final amenities, such as the ability to purchase a 3D print of yourself (with a multiple week waiting time), a typical souvenir shop with a photobooth etc, a cafe, and a workshop where you can see employees creating both the digital and physical objects necessary. It was a unique experience being able to peek at a 3D printer and see an upcoming attraction being created in real time, or watching a clearly skilled and experienced employee researching the geometry needed.

It’s clear throughout that every person involved in creating these models cares significantly about their art, and do their absolute best to create something far higher quality than you might expect given the scale. Despite this, there are no glass / plastic barriers, instead relying on trust to prevent any theft / vandalism to the easily-touchable models.

I’d recommend coming at opening time, as even an hour later the empty rooms become a bit more crowded, making it harder to see full vistas at once, or activate a button without knowing what will happen.

Original review (28 photos)

Rinkai Disaster Prevention ★★★★★

A surprisingly detailed educational centre focusing on disaster recovery.

There are regular “tours”, with a Japanese-only guide explaining around 5 minutes of preamble before iPads in multiple languages are thankfully provided, followed by 5 minutes more Japanese-only information that apparently isn’t essential!

This tour recreates a real disaster, consisting of being stuck in a lift during an earthquake, escaping through a mall, then making your way around dramatic destroyed architecture. Progress is made by scanning QR codes in each area and answering quiz questions on your iPad, although scanning these codes is a little unreliable and require a few retries.

Throughout, practical and sobering information about exactly what to do during a natural disaster is provided. After the convincing “tour”, there are multiple rooms with extremely high levels of detail around preparing and surviving a disaster. This includes things like how to help blind people, what to do about contact lenses, how to conserve water, and literally dozens of other topics.

Hidden away in a corner is an area where Tokyo’s real disaster management room can be seen (also featured in a recent Godzilla film), a key location when any disaster hits. It’s quite rare to be able to see this crucial infrastructure, and is augmented by information around how this area is protected, what plans would be enacted during a disaster, motivations behind design, etc.

The entire area is suitable for children, yet engaging and practical for adults, and whilst in the small shop afterwards we saw multiple school trips entering.

Original review (5 photos)

Unicorn Gundam ★★★★✰

It’s a big Gundam statue! Easy to take photos of, easy to spot, somewhat bizarre.

Original review (4 photos)

Gyukatsu Kyoto Katsugyu ★★★★★

We ended up here after other lunch plans fell through, and we’re very glad they did! A high quality gyukatsu restaurant despite the mall location, with decent prices and some interesting drinks (matcha beer? matcha soda?).

It can be a little crowded and noisy in here at lunchtime (although no wait on a weekday), but the food is excellent enough that it’s worth it. I’d recommend getting the larger than smallest beef option, since there are plenty of toppings that you’ll want to use up.

Original review (2 photos)

Statue of Liberty - Odaiba ★★★★✰

A smaller clone of NYC’s Statue of Liberty, with a metropolis backdrop, on an artificial island in Tokyo? Sure, why not. Can be viewed from the nearby mall.

Original review (1 photo)

TOKYO CRUISE ★★★★✰

This is a great way to get from Odaiba to Asakusa, taking a scenic cruise up the Sumida River. I recommend purchasing tickets online beforehand, and don’t worry if the QR code doesn’t show up, the ticket inspector somehow uses NFC to scan it!

During summer the waiting area isn’t too appealing, with limited shade and (on some days) no inside waiting area despite needing to get there early. Once on the boat there’s a bit of a rush for seats, although they’re all strange and spaced out, with most inexplicably facing inside the boat instead of at the actual views.

Some drinks (e.g. coffee) are offered onboard, and I believe there’s an open air viewing platform that we didn’t visit. It’s a smooth and peaceful journey, worth doing just for the unique novelty of it.

Original review (4 photos)

Hatoya Asakusa ★★★★✰

A quite busy place to get the matcha-est desserts we found! The brownie is excellent, and the mochi-esque balls are quite good too, although all require a strong tolerance of matcha tastes.

There are a few standing places in the fairly small shop.

Original review (4 photos)

Gonpachi ★★★✰✰

This 2-story restaurant was one of the most tourist-y restaurants we accidentally visited in Tokyo, with around 2/3 of the guests upstairs clearly being non-Japanese. When we visited it was almost entirely full, and whilst the (somewhat expensive) food and drink was tasty, the overcrowded and noisy ambience upstairs combined with slow and inconsistent service made it hard to enjoy.

I don’t recommend the soba noodles, however the zenzai is a surprisingly tasty dessert. Despite this, if you get lucky with seats (or go earlier than dinner!) it becomes noticeably better, offering an excellent view of the river.

Original review

Conclusion

Despite the nearly 40 reviews across 5 days here, tens of small shops or locations that consist of multiple smaller destinations aren’t included! Due to our mixture of planned and unplanned Tokyo exploration, there are plenty of places that I may even have a photo of… yet can’t identify. For example, good luck figuring out any of the tiny shop’s names in Tsukiji Outer Market.

Tokyo is so dense and varied that walking down almost any alley or sideroad will reveal a restaurant or shop worth visiting, and this is especially true when moving even 100 metres away from a touristy attraction, or on a day trip nearby. Ultimately, wandering is never a waste of time, so make sure to leave plenty of gaps and flexible time in any schedule! This is especially true when visiting during summer, this trip covered the 22nd-27th August with temperatures consistently 35°C+.

The size and population of Tokyo means that no matter how thoroughly you explore an area, you can come back at another time of day and it will feel completely different, let alone another time of year. For example, despite walking back to our hotel every evening, the location we came from or the exact time / day completely changed the vibe. One day there might be a film crew outside for unknown reasons, another salarymen on their way home, and another completely silent and empty.

I hope I get a chance to come back here during winter, although there are still so, so many new places I want to visit in Japan (and the world!), it’s impossible to choose yet! This concludes the first part of four posts containing reviews from Japan, it was a very busy 3 weeks.