Shanghai, Kyoto, Tokyo - Dec 2025

This section is how the whole trip came about. For more about each of the cities, please check separate blogs Shanghai, Kyoto and Tokyo.

In Dec 2024 I visited Tokyo for the first time, blog here. Then in 2025, I wanted to just revisit, without any big ambitions to see tourist spots, although all are worth it. No, my simple idea was just to see Tokyo again, to revisit places I have been to and to eat good food. Because I was taking two weeks off work as opposed to one week in 2024, Kyoto made it to my list too. One week in Kyoto and one in Tokyo.

But then I thought how to make this trip more interesting. It simoultaneously came to my attention that 1. Shanghai is fairly close by and 2. Citizens of most countries may enter China on visa free transit for up to 240 hours (10 days) via participating airports and Shanghai’s Pudong was one of them. Transit means you have to arrive to China from one country and leave for a different country, not the one you originally came from.

That was settled then, I was going to go London - Shanghai - Osaka/ Kyoto - Tokyo and then back to London.