First time
in Japan

On Sundays the main Ginza street is closed to traffic and given over entirely to pedestrians. Luxury boutiques, old architecture, street musicians. I meant to stop by for half an hour and ended up staying the entire afternoon. The Mitsukoshi building with its golden facade is worth seeing for its own sake.

📷 Ginza, car-free Sunday. August 2025

The tallest tower in Japan and the second tallest in the world. From directly below it looks genuinely unreal — your neck hurts from staring up. I skipped going up (the queue and price put me off) but the view from ground level is already staggering. The Solamachi mall and the Sumida canals nearby make for a great stroll.

📷 Tokyo Skytree — view from below. August 2025

An enormous park in central Tokyo — Japanese, French and English gardens all on one grounds. In August heat it's an absolute lifesaver. The ancient pines are trained into extraordinary horizontal shapes — each tree looks like a living sculpture. I spent three hours there just sitting by the pond with a matcha ice cream.

📷 Japanese garden — pines over the pond. August 2025

An hour by train from Tokyo — and a completely different world. Kamakura was once the samurai capital of Japan. The main draw: a giant bronze Buddha statue sitting in the open air. It stands among the mountains, surrounded by trees. Unlike the Nara Buddha, this one has no building around it — the moment it appears through the trees is genuinely surprising.

A hillside temple overlooking the sea, with hundreds of small stone Jizo statues in red bibs lining the paths. Beautiful and slightly eerie at the same time. The view over Sagami Bay from the top is one of the best of the whole trip.

Osaka is Japan's food capital. Dotonbori is a canal lined with neon signs and street food at every step. Takoyaki, ramen, okonomiyaki — I ate four or five times a day and have zero regrets. The famous running Glico man on the building facade is the compulsory photo.

The white five-story tower against an August blue sky is a striking image. Inside there's a history museum and a city panorama from the top floor. The castle was rebuilt in concrete in 1931 but looks convincing. The surrounding park is huge — great for a morning run or a slow walk.

A traditional Japanese garden at the foot of the castle, made up of several themed sub-gardens connected by covered walkways. This is where you understand what Japanese garden design actually means — every stone, every tree is placed with intention. The wooden pavilion over the green pond is a place where you just want to sit and do nothing at all.

📷 Traditional pavilion over the pond. August 2025

Thousands of orange torii gates winding up a mountainside. One of the most impressive places in the entire trip — honestly in my entire life. Most tourists turn back at the first fork. Keep going — after 30–40 minutes the crowds vanish and you find yourself almost alone in an orange tunnel.

A narrow path through towering bamboo. The sound of the wind in the bamboo is completely unique — you won't hear it anywhere else. The grove itself is small, about 15 minutes walking, but there's so much around it: the Tenryu-ji temple, the riverbank, traditional tea shops. In August the greenery is at its most intense.

I saved this for the end — no regrets. Tokyo's oldest Buddhist temple hits differently at the end of a trip — you understand the context, you read the space differently. Arrived at 7 am, the Nakamise shopping street still closed, barely a tourist in sight. Incense smoke, monks, silence — a completely different temple from the midday version.

Contrasts to finish on. Akihabara — the electronics and anime-culture district, multi-floor shops packed with gadgets and figures. Jiyugaoka — a quiet neighbourhood of European-style cafés and patisseries, called the "little Paris of Tokyo". Both in one day — a fitting end to a trip that was itself full of contrasts.

I bought my 21-day pass at home before flying. Tokyo–Osaka–Kyoto–Hiroshima by shinkansen already pays for itself. In Japan the pass is more expensive and not always available. Buy through the official JR website or a travel agency before departure.

35°C and 80% humidity — that's August in Tokyo. Plan routes so that the middle of the day is spent in a museum or a shaded park. Chilled towels from vending machines are not a novelty item — they're a survival tool.

Japan runs on cash. Small temples, street food, many ryokan — cash only. 7-Eleven ATMs accept foreign cards without any trouble. Use those — regular bank ATMs can be hit or miss with foreign cards.