After an 18-hour layover in Shanghai (courtesy of a $500 roundtrip from SF via China Southern Airlines), I got to my empty hostel in Ginza and immediately scrapped my itinerary.
I had initially planned to bullet train my way through Kyoto and Osaka afterwards, but a 3-day trip to Tokyo quickly turned into a week and a half. As a city kid, there was too much to see.
This list comprises friends’ tips, the best of the travel guides out there (shoutout to Monocle), and things I stumbled upon.
