I'm going to Japan in two weeks and most of it is planned. But i was wondering if some of you have some tips for Tokyo and Kioto, perhaps some the usual tourist doesn't know about
I love books, food, whisky and sake and of course culture.
I really like the Kaleidoscope Museum in Kyoto! It's very small and doesn't take very long to go through, so it's a good stop if you just happen to have a bit of free time and like playing with kaleidoscopes.
If you like books, I also recommend popping into any BOOKOFF stores you see. It's a huge used bookstore chain and it's fun to explore them and see what they have (some locations also sell things like toys, clothes, video games, etc.). If you're looking for specific books or authors in Japanese, definitely memorize the gojuuon order (how kana are alphabetized) so you can browse.
I'm not sure if they're as unknown to foreign tourists now as they used to be, but collecting goshuin at shrines and temples is also a nice way to sum up visiting those sites. Goshuin are caligraphic stamps unique to each shrine/temple that staff will write for a small fee in your shuinchou (a commemorative accordion-fold book specifically for goshuin, which you can buy at most book & stationery stores, or sometimes at the temple itself), or onto a slip of paper you can add to an album later.
I haven't been to kyoto for a while but I heard it is the most popular for green tea and btw, are you traveling on the shinkansen between Kyoto and Tokyo as on the ride, it is possible to see Mt Fuji on a clear day for maybe 10secs if you keep a close eye out( at least that was my experiance)
Go see the Little Peeing Monk Statue (on the Hamamatsucho Station platform) if you have nothing better to do, because nobody knows about it and you can brag about it later lol
Fushimi Inari Taish(the fox god shrine with a bunch of tori gates) is a mainstream sight in Kyoto that I would actually recomend, just make sure to go there around 6-7 am, before the crowds arrive. I was lucky and it was pouring down when i was there so i was almost alone which made it really peaceful and beatiful.
