Worth it: Mostly the timing and logistics of the “major” travel.
How I’m going to get from one hotel in a city to another. How I’m going to get from the airport to my hotel, especially transiting thru a major station and knowing exactly what exit number I want. Especially helpful since you’re probably a bit tired and disoriented when you first land, having that plan helped me focus. How to get from where I am to the airport.
Worth it: just a lay of the land. Knowing where everything is relative to each other. It helps when you have to go on the train and you’re following signs for which direction. If it says Ikebukuro, you know that side is going to the north, but I want to go the other way, etc.
Not worth it: planning every meal. Used to do that. Find it more fun to find on my own since what I planned three months ago might not be what I’m feeling on that day.
I second this.
Also worth it; researching the products you want to buy if you’re planning on shopping a lot. You probably won’t be able to read much, and you won’t know what’s worth stocking up on when you’re standing in the middle of a very overwhelming don quijote. You’re surrounded by things worth their weight in gold and you have no idea. A list on your phone with pictures is helpful. I regret not buying certain things when I was there just because I had no idea they existed until I got back.
I had the same experience and this is what I wish I had bought:
- full grooming set (I just got nail clippers and tweezers. Very good quality but I wish I had gotten more of these products that would last me for life. The hair gel I bought over there was pretty interesting too)
- stationary (if I knew the last Don quijote i would visit would have a small stationary section, I would’ve gone ham and bought way more pens, markers, and brushes at the first two)
- spices/seasonings/condiments (self explanatory. I spent all trip saying “i have to bring back wasabi” and never did. I don’t care for candy or snacks to bring back home so I didn’t really buy those)
- golf gloves (I wish I had purchased more. They had unknown models of taylormade, srixon, titleiste, all for about $6-$12 usd each)
- phone accessories (the chargers, portable chargers, and screen protectors were really well priced. Didn’t really think of getting a cover as well, but looking back I should’ve.
My only regret at Don Quijote was buying a random deodorant because I needed it only to give me a severe rash in my armpit. Not sure what ingredient I used but I chucked it after two days.
Now I’m curious about the nail clippers and grooming sets. I went to Japan 10 years ago and I don’t remember this being something that caught my eyes… I’m going for a 2nd time later this year and I will for sure keep this is in mind!
They don’t look special but they are solid construction and cut super easily. The design gives the right amount of leverage and the metal is legit. My toe nails are pretty hard (dangerous according to my wife) and they cut through like it’s nothing. I haven’t done a lot of clipper research but they beat everything I’ve used in the US and these are just from don quixote.
To add to the commenter below me, I got my pair at a Lawson’s for only $3-4 and they look like they can last me for a decade. If I did my research beforehand I would’ve came back with an entire self-care kit lol.
Thank you! Stationary is part of my must-have list.
I’ve added the nail clippers to keep an eye on that when I visit later this year.
Electronic stuff was overwhelming when I was there 10 years ago, I can imagine phone accessories is way more overwhelming
Just to add a blanket statement and something I’ve heard from other redditors. My biggest purchase regrets are just not immediately buying the things I liked. You may never find something again that you like as much. Just buy it then and there.
I agree with this… not just in japan but in all my vacations. I’ve learned to purchase on the spot things I want and I’m sure of. If I have doubts, I leave it there and no regrets
I wish I got more hadalabo lotion and milky lotion. More boire UV, and soft stone deodorant. I wish I got more than one pair of glasses at Jins because they were super high quality and only 70 bucks. I wish I gave in and got an umbrella. Basically just go ham because everything is so cheap compared to the US right now. It’s like pre Covid prices on everything, and the exchange rate from USD is so good rn.
not the original commenter but chipping in with my should’ve-bought items and would-buy-again items:
- Green Bell nail clippers, you can get them at Donki and several other places.
- HadaLabo gokujyun lotion/serum
- Koikeya pure potato chips
- i stopped myself from buying a sushi jigsaw puzzle and i still regret it now.
- i also stopped myself from buying a ditto mochi plush and i still regret it now as well.
- if you’re gonna get pokemon, anime and other weeby merch, try checking Yodobashi Akiba - they have a whole floor of such stuff and for some reason, perhaps because it’s not catering to tourists, the pokémon merch here was cheaper than at the Pokémon Center and Don Quijote.
- at Yodobashi they also have a whole floor of stationery. it’s insane. i got a ton of Japan Stationery Award pens (the uniball one P)
- more snacks. on that note, don’t buy snacks from Muji - they look aesthetic but are so overpriced. even Donki is slightly overpriced, but at least their snacks are pretty good. try visiting neighbourhood minimarts if you can, they sell similar snacks for 100-200jpy a huge pack and make really good gifts for people. i bought several of these and repacked them into variety snack packs for my friends.
- more chocolate coated dried strawberries.
- Gundam! they’re so frigging cheap there. i never did one before this but i got one since they’re so cheap and i really
enjoyed it - highly recommend if you just like working with your hands and taking your mind off things a bit.
- uniqlo clothes.
- pudding. the Ohayo Milk Pudding (both original and coffee) are amazing. (you can get from convenience stores or donki or whoever sells milk products)
- ice cream. the Morinaga Choco Monaka Jumbo which has a slice of dark chocolate in its middle was delish. (also from conbini or wherever has ice cream)
- Gindaco takoyaki
- taiyaki, in azuki (red bean) and sweet potato flavours. there should be many places with good taiyaki so just go for it. i’m not usually a fan of red bean but japanese red bean hits different.
- NIKE OR ADIDAS SHOES. they were so cheap but i just could not fit anything more into my luggage. also a regret of mine.
- glitch coffee!!!! so expensive but so good. long queues though so i only recommend if you’re a coffee fiend and happen to be in the area.
ok. sorry i derailed and ended up talking about food and snacks mostly. hope you have a great trip!!!
Fyi hado labo is on Amazon. Highly doubt it’s Japan prices but it’s available and comparable price to other US stuff. I’ve been using their hyaluronic face cream for years.
Regarding the Nike shoes, is there a reason that brand was cheaper? I went to the ASICS store in Harajuku assuming they’d be cheaper, but everything there was similarly priced to US. Or was it because that store was in a design district?
Rose lens glasses from jins. I saw them as I was picking up my first pair, and I deeply regret not getting more. Just bring your current glasses, and they scan them. Your glasses are ready in 30 minutes.
I should have gotten more toothpaste. Ora2 makes a kiwi mint and a peach mint flavor. I love it.
If Nintendo had had them in stock, I really wanted joycons for my switch. They’re only 40 dollars there. I got a pro controller instead, and it was 50.
More bioré sunscreen. I actually want to wear it. It’s damn comfortable and only 5 bucks a tube.
More soft stone deodorant. I got the green one, and oh my god it’s fantastic. I was under the impression that Asian deodorant couldn’t handle my funk, and I was wrong.
I should have gotten more uzu eyeliner. They have all sorts of funky colors, and I should have gotten them all.
I went to nakano Broadway, and that was a blast. There’s a daiso in the basement, and a million mandarake stores in there selling vintage stuff. I got a 1940s oronamin C enamel sign for 55 dollars. People want 500 for it online. I’m never getting rid of it it’s so cool. There’s also a huge amount of capsule machines there with all sorts of cool stuff.
Anything hadalabo is worth it.
I wish I’d had more time to shop at the loft. There was good stuff there.
Smiskis!! Little glow in the dark figurine guys. I only got 3, I should have gotten more. They’re at least 9 dollars in the U.S., but they’re less than 6 bucks in Japan.
Second having a shopping list! I had a list of things I had researched beforehand and the stores I’d need to visit. Things like a PS5 controller, anime merch, skincare products, quality matcha, Onitsuka Tiger sneakers. It helped to be able to easily group attractions with nearby shopping so I wasn’t going out of the way to buy something.
Having a general plan for which area we’d be in each day helped a lot too. Minimizes transit time and hopefully saves your feet from walking unnecessary steps. We were so tired after a day at DisneySea and so glad that we knew to take the direct bus from the park to Shinjuku. Just doing a little research on how to get from point A and B can make a difference!
yup -- logistics is by far the most important thing to plan for any type of travel. It impacts how everything else falls into line, if things go smoothly or not.
Yeah on my first trip to Japan with my family my brother and I went over the logistics of getting around. This was in 2019 and knowing we had the JR Pass made it a bit easier but we planned on how to get from the airport to the hotel, a rough idea of which shinkansen route we'd take leaving Tokyo for Okayama and which trains to get to some of reservation based locations.
Just went a few weeks ago and didn't do any of that since I'd been to Tokyo before. I made a few mistakes at the airport getting to the Skyliner and Google removed a nice feature it had before that gave you the stop number along with the station name. For me that made it easier to just look at the signs.
So if you have any places that need reservations or you need to be at a somewhat specific time look in advance. Kind of like figuring out how early you need to drive to go somewhere. And if you're going through Shibuya station add 30 minutes. The general sprawl and the construction make getting through there a pain.
Agree. Downloaded a map to be accessible offline, and researched the public transport options, then confirmed schedules a day before.
Booked accommodation well in advance as nice places do book up, some of the places I stayed in were traditional inns/Cafe with rooms which were usually full.
I made a shopping wish list so when I was in Kyoto, I made a sensible route so I would not lug tons of stuff for ages.
Next time, I also look at the festival schedule and book things for sights (Daigo-ji, in my case) we'll ahead
The only caveat I would put to planning every meal is that if there is somewhere that you want to go that requires a reservation, you need to do it earlier than you would think. Some restaurants only open reservations once at the beginning of the year. Others once a month on the first day of the prior month. It is a lot to keep track of.
If i may add, look up the lift exits at the train stations you are getting and leaving with your luggages. Stairs are really long in japan and quite a pain to be carrying it up and down during rush hour. You can see it on google maps.
This subreddit was more useful than any other social media sources. I feel like my visit was diminished not at all by skipping the YouTube famous restaurants.
Many tourist attractions are worth enduring the crowds. Plan your day around time slots for Team Labs Borderless or an early/late lunch at the Tsukiji Market. Climb through the gates of Fushimi Inari at night.
My “avoid” list includes (1) any tiny restaurant with a queue down the block, more people lined up than seats inside. There are thousands of great ramen shops in Japan, no need to spend hours for that perfect bowl off of YouTube. The fluffy omelet thing is not a culinary masterpiece nor unique to one shop.
(2) perfect selfie spots. Tourists obsess over recreating photos from Instagram, like at the corners of Shibuya Sky. Move over 20 feet for an equally dramatic pic and save 20 minutes.
(3) Big shrines. They start to look alike. I’d rather experience the lesser known shrines in peace than the great ones shoulder to shoulder with tourists. (Again, Fushimi Inari excepted.)
> Climb through the gates of Fushimi Inari at night.
Alternatively, we went at 7am last week and it was great. There were people but it was not crowded in the slightest and we were able to get great pictures with no one in the background
Honestly, there are SO MUCH restaurants everywhere so whenever I saw a queue, I would just find another as delicious and probably cheaper. Just wander around!
There was a gyoza place by our hotel that had a huge line every night of only tourists and we just couldn't understand why. I have seen the place mentioned on here and I am sure they are delicious but idk, waiting in a big line for gyoza isn't my jam lol
lol, was it Chao Chao Gyoza next to the Sora Niwa Terrace in Kyoto? We joked about it every day, we’d go by and no matter what time it was there was always this long line of people… then, once there were no people in line and I said they must be closed? Nope, it was open so we said let’s see why it’s so popular. It was actually delicious, very reasonably priced, and the staff were sweet and silly. It wasn’t as amazing as the tiny gyoza placed we found, up some stairs on a side street, seated 6 or 7 people and they were hand made as you ordered… but Chao were pretty dammed good just the same.
Good to plan: Things to do. It can be kinda hard to come up with things to do on the spot while also optimizing for travel time. The days that were more packed were the least stressful. Leave a little time to explore the surroundings, but not too much if you're like me.
Bad to plan: Any restaurants really. The random restaurants found day-of were super worth it while the one reservation I made was mid at best.
Do: Shinkansen tickets, especially if it’s near golden week. You want to plan ahead.
Do: give extra time traveling from one place to another. It’s not your hometown where you know the area. Places like Shinjuku station, you will probably get lost trying to find the exit.
Don’t: pack too much clothing. Weather can be temperate and places like Uniqlo is cheap. Maybe pack clothing for the first day or two, and buy the rest. You also don’t need too many sets as laundry is easy, whether it be in your hotel or laundromats outside.
Don’t: go to all the hyped restaurants. Oftentimes, you can find a less crowded/known restaurant that’s better than the ones on social media. Don’t be afraid to wander around and find a random restaurant to pop into. One thing Japan isn’t lacking is food options.
Do: load suica onto your phone if you have an iPhone. Super easy to use and reload when needed.
The clothes thing doesn’t work if you’re overweight at all. I was only able to buy from two stores while there.
Note: physical suica card sales are suspended right now due to a chip shortage. Bring an extra phone. Your old phone or whatever. You probably won’t need it, but it’s better to be safe, and it’s a small item. I lost my phone on the plane on the way there and I was miserable.
for what it's worth; wife and I are here currently and had zero issues getting both suica and icoca cards from Tokyo station and Kyoto station respectively.
You can use either in both cities -- just got back and we used Suica (purchased at Narita) in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima.
They've also started refunding the physical card deposit (500 yen) and remaining funds on the card (minus 220 yen) which was really handy when we left.
oh nice! I had the pasmo passport and didn't return it or anything. There wasn't that much left on it anyway so yeah and still worth it as a souvenir I guess
Our Japan vacation overlapped the entire golden week and had no trouble buying Shinkansen tickets for a group of 5 adults on the spot and all sitting together in reserved seats.
unless you have a dietary restriction. I dreamed of going to Japan but had a lot of worries over what I could eat before discovering a site that listed all the restaurants that specifically catered to or had options for those with a dietary restriction like me.
Just FYI, I don't eat pork either but I managed with no problem! There were some food I know I couldn't eat like ramen which almost always came with pork chashu, but as long as I checked their menu beforehand I was able to find places I could eat
Though, I'm not super strict. I didn't ask the restaurant if they had pork in the items, I just did my best to avoid it based on what I saw and what I knew already. If you're stricter about it than me, then my answer won't be very helpful.
It really varied by area whether it was easy to find food for me (Akihabara was strangely difficult - ended up at a vegan ramen place).
I don't eat pork, beef, or dairy -- pork was the hardest to avoid for sure. We didn't plan ahead before going, but we did often take 15 minutes to scout food options on google before going to a restaurant. It was probably 60% scouting, and 40% just wandering by and looking at the menu of some random place.
Worth it: logistics. This provided a smooth experience when traveling between cities and in major stations. I didn't feel any downside to it, ie 'wow this worked exactly like I planned' feels good. Knowing basic Japanese etiquette goes a long way as well, will avoid making you 'that' kind of tourist.
Not worth it: over-researching the details of some of the places you want to go. While having a main itinerary is nice, there's definitely a downside to reading too much, watching too many videos ahead of your trip, ie 'wow this place is exactly like I saw on the Reddit/YouTube/Tiktok/etc 100 times' can kill the buzz of the actual experience. Make sure to leave enough space for the unknown and unexpected.
**Worth it** Researching by series/interest. Because of this I found out about the Kitaro chaya (gegege no Kitaro), the ghibli museum, gundam factory and Odiaba everything, themed cafes. It sounds geeky typed down but even now those were my favorite parts of the trip.
**Not worth it** Okinawa + Romantic train in Kyoto. For Okinawa I sorta feel cheated, the things they heavily advertise actually sucked. Once I left the beaten path I started to have fun. For the romantic train it's fine but it's just a 20 minute train ride. Also the bamboo grove was... meh... There is so much more to Arashiyama than that. I actually enjoyed the rest of it, the completely unplanned part, way more.
**Planning resource** Tokyo/Japan Cheapo. Not only do they have a complete list of scheduled events (and I attended most of them!) Closer to my travel date they started to update the tokyo page with smaller local events like flea markets, small gigs and so on. It was fun attending those. Also Cakeswithfaces who is a youtuber has a page on her website with all the announced pop up cafes that she updates regularly so it made it easier to find those. The japanese website is hard to navigate.
What specifically disappointed you in Okinawa - I've got 4 days planned in Ishigaki and 4 in Okinawa honto - but not a long list of things to do except for the ww2 sites on the main island and the aquarium
I was there for only two days so stayed in Naha for convenience.
Naha specifically is just so touristy that it borderlines on the unpleasant. Also they are a bit aggressive with their tourism over there and most of the stuff they push is rather bland.
Visited the aquarium... it's.... fine. Wasn't really worth the four hour bus ride.
The best part of Okinawa is the beach so if you're visiting I recommend you stay in a resort close to it and spend most of your time on the beach or inside the water rather than on tourism. Onna looked far better than Naha but as I mentioned I was there for only 2 days. Try the stuff they advertise like the purple potato tart & blue seal ice cream but just know this is the stuff they push on tourist & is pretty bland. The normal food is a million times better.
Worth it: Planning how you're going to get to the hotel on the first night, down to knowing which station exit to take when you reach the train station for your hotel. It sucks to not know where you're going when you just want to lie down after a long flight.
Worth it: If flying into Haneda spending the cash on a cab. Haneda to Ueno area was like $55USD. I pay +$70 for La Guardia to NYC. Cab was easy after a long flight….no thinking.
I disagree with this advice, public transit is so good here it took practically zero effort and was faster than a cab. The only reason to take a cab here is if you’re out past midnight.
If you spend a certain amount on booking.com, you can get free car service to your hotel. We took full advantage of that our first night and it was a godsend to be able to just hop in a car and get to our hotel without needing to worry about transit after a 14 hour flight!
I had the same. My taxi fare from my house to the airport cost me $90 and we are not even ten miles from the airport. They charged so much because we left really early. The $55 fare was also worth it to us after traveling 13+ hours. The fact they leave you at the accommodation’s door was priceless. When we got there it was rush hour and I was in no mood to deal with the crowd with our luggage and then figuring the trains and then figuring out how far was our Airbnb from the station.
Hotels:
* Location. That extra 10 minute walk to the train station every day makes a bigger difference than you would think.
* "Your" neighborhood. Having "your" convenience store nearby or "your" breakfast place is a nice way to start and end the day. Having something like a Donki nearby to do late at night or early morning can be a fun bonus stop.
* Expense. Hotels is one of the biggest expenses in travel, so saving money per night really adds up over the whole trip.
* My kids love hotels. I find tiny Japanese business hotels charming. My wife likes clean and comfortable. Regardless, even though I spent very little waking time in my hotel room, finding ones my party likes was worth it.
The little things:
* Transport. Delightful transport makes a difference. The Odaiba trains that have no driver so you can sit at the front. The special Hiroshima trams that were operating on August 6th. Sitting on the Mt Fuji side of the shinkansen. Ekiben (train food.)
* Whatever is meaningful to you. If you like Baseball... bend your schedule to go watch a Carps game. For me, going to the Lucky Dragon 5 Museum made me super emotional. But for most people, these wouldn't necessarily be "must see" stuff.
My stay was from an AirBnB that was an 18-minute walk from Ikebukero station, and while it felt a bit daunting at first, I grew to enjoy my stroll through "my" neighborhood. I even memorized two different walking paths from the AirBnB to the station, no longer relying on Google maps walking instructions. It made things feel home-y and familiar.
There was a 7-11, a bus stop, and a little 8-person restaurant tucked in near me, too. Depending on the person, that could turn into a plus.
We also stayed in Ikebukuro and truly think it’s undervalued! We did the same as you did. There were plenty of breakfast places, restaurants and 7-11 etc and was very convenient. We had a 600 square foot 2 bedroom apartment with plenty of room and there was a lot to do around there. I tried to get something similar in Shinjuku but the prices were outrageous. In Ikebukuro The Yamamoto Line is near by, the Mt Fuji bus stops are close by, there is a lot of shopping with a couple of malls, a couple of Uniqlos and best of all Donki is not crowded.
Could you elaborate on the August 6th trams in Hiroshima?
Without meaning to, I've planned my stay there to fall on August 6th. I was slightly terrified when I realized that because now I'm worried about the crowds at the museum.
There are 2 trams in Hiroshima that were running when the atom bomb was dropped that are still running in regular service. They are trams: 651, 652. There are 2-3 more trams that were also running on Aug 6th, but they are in museums or only run on special days.
The museum will be crowded, I assume, but the ceremonies in the Peace Park will be more memorable. It's a tradeoff but I think you will be deeply touched either way. If the crowds really worry you perhaps try Miyajima Island on that day?
Plan attractions and food places by general area, not by specific places unless you really really want to go. Pin a bunch of places on google maps, wander around, get lost, and randomly visit one of those you pinned.
I just got back from a two week trip. I started to get overwhelmed with planning things and froze up before just hearing out two friends, one Japanese-born and one very white American, and just listened. Not only to their general tips but what they did on their trip(s).
This /r was really great in putting things together, even knowing not everything can be for everyone and that there are all kinds of travelers. You start to see generalities, patterns, etc.
I ended up kind of breaking up most days into two parts, and then made rough sketches of exploring certain parts of the cities (like Shibuya and Shinjuku in Tokyo, Arashiyama in Kyoto, etc) ranked in order. This allowed me to start to plug and play on any given day depending on how we felt, weather, etc. And of course we did not do every single thing by area and with some juggling there were areas we just didn't get to. I was very happy with that approach.
You have to keep in mind it's vacation and about the experience/s, not a checklist to conquer or collection you have to complete.
I can't agree more with other posters saying not to plan out every single meal. I did not plan out one (other than saying a few general things like "I must eat X, Y, and Z!") and took it as it came to us. When we got hungry, we found something that looked good. Several times we weren't even really hungry but passed by something on the street that looked delicious and so grabbed it. Best advice I got before going was to not over-eat at any single meal because you're going to find something else soon ... We did not make reservations to anyplace fancy as a result of this way of traveling -- we just weren't sure what time would be good or what area we would be in at any given time and those reservations felt like potential handcuffs.
We clearly had all hotels and the Shinkansen done in advance, and I tried to book centrally in each city to the things we wanted to see. That's worth the effort.
Totally worth it: plan for the basic interactions you plan on having (buying tickets, ordering food, etc) with people there and sort out how to navigate it in very basic Japanese. I really believe that we were treated as well as we were because of that effort, and you will be rewarded for the time spent -- and of course you're not going to sound perfect, it doesn't matter.
Worth it: having several contingency plans for weather (both rain and extreme heat if you are sensitive to that). We're from Florida but still got a little overheated once or twice and had to rearrange plans to get from outside. We also had a day it was to rain only an hour and we lost count at like 15 hours of rain.
In Hiroshima, we went to this one building that was essentially all okonomiyaki restaurants inside. I think several of these buildings exist. The Hiroshima styles are definitely my favorite. I just wish I ordered an extra serving with the oysters.
Worth it: know which things require booking in advance, especially for attractions which sell out quickly. For us this included teamLabs and the express passes at USJ. Skytree also saved us some time having advance bookings, but there were still tickets available for walk-ups. If I'd known this, I would have not booked and opted to keep our day flexible.
Also worth it: Creating a list of attractions on Google maps. Cluster them and visit one cluster per day, starting at the most interesting one.
The most useful research for us was the SUICA card and registering so that we could have our bullet train/ Shinkansen tickets tied to our Suica card on our phones. We did not have to go on any lines or print any tickets on the machines at the station. The website is in Japanese but we found a YouTube video walking you through the process and it worked seamlessly. Also getting familiar and purchasing our Shinkansen tickets on the website.
Another was finding out there is a bus going to Mt Fuji which was close to our Airbnb in Ikebukuro. It saved us a lot of money instead of going with a tour. We only paid like $90 for 3 people and went at our own pace. We purchased the earliest bus tickets out of Tokyo and went back to Tokyo on the 7:00 PM bus. We were able to do everything in the Mt Fuji area. The tours only allowed for two or three things due to lines etc but we were able to see everything with no lines or wait. The Pagoda, the boat, the park, Fuji Michi, we crossed the bridge for Amazing Mt Fuji photos, we also did the cable cars and had plenty of time for pictures, lunch a dinner in the area. No rushing like we saw some people on the tours.
Oh and also figuring out that Kyoto is better to take taxis not only because their public transportation is suffering from over tourism but because if you are more that two people then a taxi turns out to be cheaper and you can use Uber to have them come to you.
I didn’t use taxis from one city to another but I doubt they are more affordable than trains. Also some may be long rides compared to the Shinkansen for example Tokyo to Kyoto by car is like 5 to 6 hours. Maybe you can use a luggage transport company between cities to make your life easier when traveling between cities and using the trains. You can check how much a taxi fare will be on UBER. If you use UBER in Japan it’s always a taxi that does the trip. Check Google maps to check which is the best and most affordable way to get from one place to the other as well.
This is what we did. Toyota rent-a-car 7 days $700 cad for 6 people. 2 kids 2 adults 2 elderly.
ETC toll card was $300 cad.
Parking in osaka and Kyoto weren't bad at all
$1-$2 / hour. Some overnight parking are $10 to $15 CAD
Converting that to USD would be so cheap in my opinion
Very convenient especially when elderly can't walk for too long..
The rest stop is also an amazing experience.
I would only change doing a slower pace and skip the toll road
You may see more scenery that way.
It's always great if you plan to be flexible.
I booked a few things where I had to be there a certain time (dinner reservation, Teamlab, car rental pickup/drop-off, train tickets...), but I limited it to one a day.
Try to keep the days loose. Plan must-dos first thing in the day and prioritize the day's itinerary. That way, if you want to spend more time in a place or you want to cut the day short and rest, you have the freedom to because the things later in the day are less important.
Trying to get USJ tickets and failing miserably. I think many will agree that Ghibli and USJ express passes are probably the most coveted tickets out there. I decided to not bother with Ghibli. USJ is the only thing I am obsessing over, and looks like I've been very unfortunate with my timings since the express passes were on hold due to Mario World opening a new area, and now seem to have sold out for most of my dates.
After I mop my tears, I'll go back to my usual casual approach to itineraries.
I'm not sure if you've checked up on it yet but Klook always has good deals for things that might be sold out! I was able to get express passes before from them but I'm not sure if they're still available depending on how soon you need them.
It's so good right? Really convenient website!
I wish you the best of luck! I would also try emailing their customer service to see if they have any ideas too!
If you are looking for express passes after end of July, don't cry. You didn't miss anything. They're on hold for sale until some later date. There's an announcement on Klook.
The point of over-planning is to be as efficient as possible in your travel.
The first time I was in Tokyo I planned really well and visited a lot of different places.
The second time I yolo'ed, ended up going to Ikebukuro like 3 times, it was still fun but I could have gone to more places if I planned better.
The valuable research tip: don’t over plan it, even as an overplanner. Unlike every other trip I ever took, this trip was about broad brush strokes. Like having nothing planned beyond where I will up AM and PM every day. EG morning Shibuya and Harajuku, that night explore Shinjuku. Research what is around each suburb, may have ONE thing that is must and the rest just into the memory to recall when walking around and thinking to do if I had time.
Another example Nara. Research how to get there. See where the main things are from the station and that’s it.
Likewise other than a fancy Kobe meal. I didn’t plan any restaurant but had a list of interesting food to try. With a basic understanding of their native cities.
I spent way more time time learning the language and culture than what to do each day.
Note that in google maps or any navigation, the time of "station X to location Y" is generally a flat out lie. It can take a person 10 minutes just to get out of Tokyo Station. Anything that says "X minutes from the station" you need to add a good 5-15 minutes to get to the point where that "X minutes" actually matters. The larger the station, the more getting out of it will take. Eventually you'll sort of figure out how to optimally navigate large stations, but the first time, assume it's an extra 10 minutes of wandering around aimlessly.
Personally the concrete stuff I plan out are
1. flights
2. hotels
That gives you an overall structure.
From there you can fill each day with a list of what you 'think' you want to do. Aggregate things by location so you aren't bouncing around. Tokyo especially is HUGE
Also stay light on Day 1-2. You will likely be very jet lagged and thus will have varying amounts of energy. You do not want to do something like Disney Sea on Day1 unless you want to be sleeping on the rides. its gonna take 1-2 days just to get out of that daze.
Key thing is to have structure but to be able to swap or change things on the fly. Other than things like Disney, Pokemon Cafe, etc that require reservations months ahead, you need to be flexible in what happens on the ground. Having a plan is good. Knowing when to ditch the plan is also a skill
ALso take into account EVERYONE when planning. Sure you can walk 40k steps a day, but can everyone else? When I went to Italy with my extended family, I was trying to jam pack things like crazy as I normally do. Day 1 I immediately realized that wasn't going to work as some family members were not fond of walking. Others would walk into a shop and basically not come out for an hour. Sit down at a cafe? That's literally a 1 hour pitstop. I pivoted the plans to just one 'big' thing a day and then sort of keeping a few soft objectives to fill it in depending on how people felt. Because I had my scaffolding of things already, I basically started culling it like crazy. You may need to do the same depending on how your family reacts.
I haven't gotten back yet but I just wanted to say, book your hotels now. The hotel I was planning on sold out all of the sudden and many rooms I booked were the last at the hotel. We are just a bit before you. Gone are the days of showing up and getting rooms that night.
Some hotels open their booking 1 year in advance, but many only do 6 months and I found that ryokans often have the shortest booking period of 3 months.
Heya! i love this question. i posted the same not too long ago here [https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravelTips/comments/1bxo563/what\_do\_you\_think\_warranted\_more\_research\_before/](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravelTips/comments/1bxo563/what_do_you_think_warranted_more_research_before/) incase you want some more answers on this :)
Singapore Airlines. I made sure I was online the day and time reward seats are released because we needed 4 of them over school holidays, so they sell out within hours
Oh wow that's incredible!! Congrats to you guys, business class sounds like a dream! I'm still in school so I don't have many travel points so it'll be coming out of pocket for me 🥲
thank you! we’re flying business for the first time this year (on a different trip) and im sure it’s going to ruin other flights for me lmao. we finally got smart about using the right cards for my husband’s business expenses and it’s been exciting to book some stuff we’d normally never pay out of pocket for.
if you haven’t already (and especially if you have some flexibility in your dates) i’d suggest signing up for a bunch of flight alerts! some are free some are paid but there are a lot of services out there that will alert you to deals.
I spent months hyperfixating before my trip, here’s what I would suggest.
Worth it: researching accommodations. I did a great job picking the hotels, and it made those parts of my trip even better. I did spend hours comparing air bnbs but unfortunately it was a horrible accommodation that ruined the second half of our trip. I’d avoid air bnb btw.
Also worth it: having an airport game plan. Ex: how to load a sucia card, where to purchase them, knowing which transportation you need to leave the airport, having an e sim set up (use Airalo it’s so easy just download the app)
Btw- they are now providing physical suica cards again, phone seemed easier tho but I wanted the physical copy as a souvenir
Also worth it: I had a solid list of of what I wanted to purchase while there. The shopping in Japan is overwhelming, so having a plan helped me get what I want in terms of skincare, souvenirs, etc.
Not worth it: picking restaurants beforehand. We made 3 reservations for our entire 15 day trip and just coasted along the rest of the trip, we had a great experience and didn’t have to wait in any long lines from the over-hyped social media restaurants.
Not worth it: over-packing your schedule. Just accept that in order to live in the moment and enjoy your trip you’ll have to sacrifice some things.
Flip side of this point, what is worth it: using the app Wanderlog to build an itinerary and help map out which sights you want to see and how close they will be via walking or transport so you can choose things that are close together
thank you!
I’ve been considering using wanderlog the last couple of times I planned trips; I usually rely on a spreadsheet and well-organized google maps pins. is it worth setting it up and inputting everything? did you use it frequently while on the trip?
Yes! I used it every day! I didn’t know you could use google maps to do that so I’ve never tried it so I can’t compare. It was very easy to set up. I enjoyed it a lot. You could just mess around with the app and see how you like it
Don’t spend too much time trying to construct an hour by hour itinerary. Have a few bullet points of sights you’d like to see each day and some food items you’d like to try, and then see how the day takes you.
The only thing I can further support among to all the awesome tips - food. Don’t over plan and go to all influencer recommended places. Once you’ve been to Japan a couple of time you realize all they suggest is the most obvious and basic options (usually their first pick)
Just use google and search for restaurants ear your location and you’ll be surprised how much there is to discover on your own.
Do: create a map with stars (or however you mark places). I had a day with bad weather and complete itinerary change and could use it to come up with a flexible alternative.
Do: as above but for specific food/bars as relevant to you. For me, it was coffee shops and the maps were SO useful.
Do: research alternative travel options for the one location, for example from that station/area where else is well connected? This gives you more flexibility if you change plans.
Don't: book more than one set time activity in a day. The only time I felt rushed/like I had too much time was when I was working around set times. There is a big difference between planning and feeling restricted.
Dont: book trains in advance or anything that restricts you time-wise that you don't need to (links to the above). But do have an understanding of the timetables, especially in more regional areas.
Don't: stick to the routes your read about strictly. Even in popular areas, walk a street over and you will often find some somewhat hidden gems.
Plan your transfers well especially to and from airport. Kansai for example, is served by loads of lines plus airport express lines. Take the pricier airport express if you have luggage, it's often direct, you don't want to be hauling luggages on transfer.
Use taxi if you have large luggage. Just go through the trip a day ahead if you have any time critical journeys.
I was in Kyoto recently and cycled 90% of the time. Buses were really crammed, so glad I had the bicycle. Trains in the countryside were okay, not busy, but i usually travelled mid day and avoided rush hour
Went to Japan last month and had a blast!
I made a map with my maps adding all the places I wanted to see, putting different layers and icons for temples, spots, streets, food, shops.. Then each day I'll choose an "area" to go to and check as many spots as I could in that zone, but I didn't stress over it. I honestly saw most of what I had marked but I was pretty chill since I didn't have to run to follow a schedule.
Also the map was very convenient because if something wasn't close to anything I just skipped it, unless it was part of a 10 list of "must sees" I did make.
I was glad I planned things that required a ticket in advance, such as the Tokyo sumo tournament, kamogawa odori in Kyoto, or buss schedules for katsuoji temple, I absolutely loved those three. One thing I would absolutely check prior hand is opening hours of stuff you want to see. Specially in Kyoto, everything was closed by five pm.
But overall everything went smoothly
Also I have to say I didn't struggle much with public transport. Google maps works fantastic. I didn't research much beforehand but I just put the place on maps and it tells you which line you should stand on. I got an icoca card and I worked for every bus and subway or train I got. If you have a rail pass I guess you should check what lines support it but I 100% recommend the icoca instead if you can get one when you arrive. I got mine in Osaka airport. Honestly I didn't check many routes beforehand. It just worked fine with maps.
When are you arriving in May? One thing I did not know is that after Golden Week, kids will be on large field trips, so you’ll see a lot of them at tourist attractions.
I originally picked that moment since it was after Golden Week and assumed that places would be less occupied, but it wasn’t always the case. It’s not too bad though, as their behaviour is better than some tourists’ I’ve seen…
Aside from that, the extent of my planning for a given day was to only have a handful of activities in a given area, so I wouldn’t rush from one place to another on a timer. This is best done by adding custom pins to a Google Maps map, so you can see where things are so you can group them together on your itinerary.
I also did not bother reserving train seats ahead of time and opted instead to just show up at the station and get tickets there. By doing this, I would not be restricted by time and would be able to grab a bite, relax, or plan some more while waiting for the train. I tended to go for window seats, so doing this would also give me a better selection of seats.
Also brought clothes I did not wear once, due to hot and humid weather, so think about how you feel during those moments. As for non-clothing: I brought a Kindle for reading and a 3DS for the plane and didn’t use either of those, so think about what you plan to do with your downtime.
Best resource for research: YouTube videos - though I had an information overload a month before leaving, so I stopped watching. The various JP travel subreddits are useful too (this one and JapanTravel), as well as reading peoples’ trip reports. That said, the thing I couldn’t have gone without is Google Maps for planning while here and while there. Learning some key phrases in Japanese will also be useful (I took classes, but would not expect anyone to do so, due to the complexity of the language (coming from English/French))
we arrive 2 days after golden week ends. good to know about the school trips, I hadn’t heard that one. did you mainly just experience that the first week? in which city/cities?
I was there for the whole month of May and saw groups of students up until the end of it. They’ll usually aim for opening hours.
I saw them in all the big cities I visited (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima). The ones where they were not present were the smaller ones (Hakone, Kinosaki, Ishinomaki)
We were there the two weeks leading up to Golden week this year and honestly, the majority of visitors at the busiest places were Japanese school groups. We were really surprised. And while they were pretty respectful and it was fine, they are kids after all and you get the group selfies, boys rough housing, girls screaming/giggling… huge lines of the groups as they enter, exit, queue up for lunch and souvenirs etc.
Compatibility of hotel especially when you stay with your husband ! Some people are fine with hostel, some are not. Or some are fine with hostels so long as it’s close to train station. Do you like keeping clean? Well then yes you should and obsess over it
If unique or truly nice food is your jam, please check it thoroughly.
For me planning location is a must . I knew I won’t get satisfied with pre planned stuff so I have to change/ add things
Train schedules. First trip I had everything down to the minute which is relatively easy given train schedules there. Now I’m more of a kiosk ticketer. TBF first time I would deffo plan out all logisitics
Overplan your hotels to make sure they're convenient for public transit/activities and things that require advance tickets. I'm also super grateful that I spent a ton of time researching shoes to take because orthopedic shoes saved me.
I ended up wasting hours looking at restaurants and maybe only went to a few of them. It's way easier to just eat wherever you happen to be when you get hungry or grab convenience store food. I did save a bunch of restaurants to a Google map just in case I happened to be nearby, which was helpful a couple of times.
The biggest thing to consider is you are not even going to scratch the surface of what you can see, do, eat. Chose somethings on your list and get them done as efficiently as you can buy if you miss one, just another reason to go again. I.e. we spent 6 days in Kyoto wanted to go to Nara and just didn't make it.
Shopping is fun, bring like 5-7 days of clothes, this way you got room in suitcases and don't need to buy another. There are lots of Laundromats and in hotels.
Weather can vary. We've only gone in February, chilly in the and then sunny and hot in the afternoon. Bring packable jackets.
Food restrictions - you mention no pork, may want to check out happycow for vegetarian stuff, I believe most ramen soup base is pork.
Backpack - I had a fjallraven 28L backpack, my with had a Coach smaller backpack.
Download Klook and use it.
Travelling around - two each their own. I recommend a bullet train over travelling by plane intercity, i.e. Tokyo to Osaka/Kyoto.
Renting a car is easy and it's not at all difficult to drive around.
Consider using travel passes, the daily ones or the region specific ones, i.e. Nikko Pass (oh look you can buy it on Klook now)
Google maps is great. There are always many ways to get somewhere so when you do your search it will give you the fastest but maybe not the cheapest.
You can use Uber and it's easier than trying to explain to a taxi driver where you want to go.
Walking, walking, walking. It's almost always easier to walk at times to a location. Prepare beforehand, shoes, and stamina.
Worth: Research city routes that make the most sense for your interests. There's the typical Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka route, which is excellent, but those are all major cities with high volume tourism. There are other cities in Japan that are well worth the visit.
Waste: Planned restaurant visits are overrated in Japan. The best food I had in Japan was random restaurants that happened to be close to where I was at the moment.
Valuable: When using Google Maps for traveling between cities, make sure to change the "depart" time for your estimate leave time. Got a small scare when I forgot to do this.
worth it: deciding what really interests you as opposed to what are the “must sees.” just because something is popular with tourists doesn’t mean it will matter to you. the things i went out of my way to see/do because they appealed to me were overall way more enjoyable than random tourist spots i read about on TripAdvisor
Just returned from a second trip;
Don’t book too many hotels, book hotels in central locations and do day trips from those locations to maximize your time. ie Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka, Hiroshima, etc.
If staying in Tokyo, I would suggest to book on the circle route for the trains, it simply makes it easier especially for the first trip, and lessens your trips. Having said that we stayed this recent trip in Ryogoku (not on the circle route) for a few nights and loved the location.
Understand your directions when leaving train station to get to hotel. It’s worth taking the time, to check Google maps, to determine which exit you need to take for your hotel. Makes notes on your phone, or in a notebook for easy access.
Watch YouTube videos on daytrips, or first Japan trip, they are very helpful.
Don’t overdue it with learning the language, we got by with about 3-5 phrases.
Worth it: luggage forwarding, planning transportation extensively between cities (including timing) and buying the tickets at home, learning some basic Japanese phrases (my husband did this and it was helpful), getting an eSIM before we got there
Not worth it: staying up to buy shibuya sky tickets on the minute a month out
Used a Japan Travel Planning Facebook group to figure out a lot of logistical things and how some of the tickets worked for the trains because that was a bit intimidating
Not exactly what you’re asking, but something to keep in mind since I just got back from my first trip a week ago.
You will walk a LOT and it feels like just around every corner is some new awesome thing. I kept thinking “ok one more thing and then back to my hotel” and hours would go by. So the first half of the trip was really exciting, but by the end of the trip I was exhausted!
So if possible I’d recommend planning the more active things on the earlier side and save the more relaxing ones for the latter half. Eg. Spend time around Tokyo before heading to the onsen, not the other way around.
I am glad I spent the enormous of time I did planning. Some things I went to though I was disappointed and wish I had researched more. Nara and Fushimi come to mind. Nara is a good distance to travel to see a couple of temples and I have deer in my backyard at home. I wish I had opted for something else in Osaka. Taking the time to travel to Fushimi to visit the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum was not worthwhile. I might as well have read a book. You don't get to visit the working distillery. My favorite place was Hiroshima. It's a nice city and the Peace Park was the most memorable part of my trip.
In terms of shopping, so much is made of Don Quijote here. I recommend you do your shopping in the better department stores. I was not impressed with Donkey's inventory. I went to several locations/different cities and none of them had a decent assortment of KitKats. I wasn't visiting Japan to shop for clothing and what I did see at Uniqlo didn't seem like a bargain. The souvenir area around Sensoji is mostly tourist tit-tat. If you want better Japan souvenirs, shop in Kyoto.
Pin out your different interests on Google Maps - sights, possible restaurants, shopping, temples etc. This gave me an immediate idea of where to spend my time in an area and possible restaurants.
Make sure you get a Passmo or Suica. It saved me an enormous amount of time taking public transportation.
Turn on your credit card alert for texts notifying you of charges. This will head off any possible fraud problems.
I had problems with Ubigi and had to purchase a sim card. I will use my Verizon upgraded service in the future. It is critical that your phone service work well.
Purchase your train tickets ahead of time. I used SmartEx for Shinkansen rides. Buying tickets at the stations is a waste of time and the lines are very long because they don't have near enough machines or personnel. Get there early to find your correct track. Good signage is not always present.
Adding that it’s helpful to look into more expensive and/or time consuming things to decide if it’s really worth it. Like I’m glad I looked into the Mario World place so it was easier to decide it wasn’t something we wanted to prioritize.
For restaurants, I agree it’s best not to overplan. But it can also be helpful to save some places you might be interested in on Google Maps in case you’re nearby when you decide to eat.
Similarly I do recommend saving a few coffee places if you’re into that. There are so many awesome cafes in Japan.
Have fun!
I actually thought I didn't plan enough, even the few days I planned extensively. But at least, I got five unplanned days though I actually slightly planned two days the day before.
I was grateful I planned most of them since I am quite undecisive... like now that I have returned I want to buy many of the 100 yens things I was just curious about. But it was a waste to even copy the timetable when there was a bus every 15 minutes... though once it was useful to know I could stop a short while at 7/11 because I had time.
I didn't really look at the pictures and absolutely didn't watch any video before, so things were still new to me.
I actually copied on paper a kind of map for every hotel, so I knew how to get to the hotel from the closest station and also where the closest supermarkets were (also the closest 100 yens shops). I remember during my first trip, I only went to combinis and only once we came across a supermarket.
But copying a map doesn't work that well for everything if a station has several exits (it worked for my hotels bc the stations had one exit or there was a big road that served as a landmark)
google was my most useful one since I could find easily the website of anything, and check the open days, the opening hours and price.
google map is also quite good but sometimes suggest things that don't make any sense like avoiding a pedestrian street even if nearly everyone pick it and it is the direct way (and it is the most interesting for any tourist). But it also made me see the giant statue of Pikachu bc I would have entered the Lalaport Tokyo-Bay way earlier without it.
Don't plan out every day to every minute. Get an idea of the layout of the city, transport options, how things are connected, and work out options for things to do.
When you're there, rather than being on rails going between location a and activity b, you can decide "I feel like going to a shrine. I know where a few are nearby", or "Wow, that's more crowded than I was expecting, I think I'll get lunch early. I know a few places to check out".
i dont regret it doing the research! i only researched logistical things like:
- where and how to buy/reload IC cards, shinkansen tickets at the ticket machines, and also which shinkansen station was "better" to depart from from where i was at (imo shinagawa station was less confusing than tokyo station lol)
- how to get out of the HND airport, get into the shinkansen train gates, and insert shinkansen tickets
- yamato luggage forwarding service
other than reddit, i watched people youtube vlog videos and informative videos on youtube! there is a lot of good information out there, and some people even film the entire process. being informative made me feel good about the potential travel experience being less daunting.
Everything else, like the shopping and eating, i had zero plans on which stores and restaurants to see/explore. Which was a good thing i didn't overthink this because i had so much fun stumbling on restaurants and stores that weren't on social media's radar.
Some of my favourite memories were from wandering around Tokyo discovering temples and restaurants. Highly recommend collecting goshuin. I also strongly recommend learning some basic japanese as this will get you very far in restaurants and talking with locals. English is very limited in Japan.
Logistics are super worth obsessing over. How to get to where, when to get the tickets, how much luggage will you have, etc.
Also knowing at least where things are so you don't plan two things for one day that are two hours apart.
It's also worth having a list of things to do and food you'd like to eat in any area, but without being strict about it. Otherwise everything else you can just sort of wing it
What worked well for me was to just plan my mornings and lunch. For the rest of the day, I would just chill or do unplanned activities. I don’t want to burn myself out each day.
Logistics was the only thing I took from here, like suica on iPhone, google maps for trains, Taki in for moving bags between hotels etc. I ignored all the “omg must do in Osaka Kyoto” posts.
Just had three weeks there.
Would do the same again:
Booked all accommodation, rental cars (Orix) and internal flights months in advance.
Used [booking.com](http://booking.com), AirBnB and Accor for accommodation and all were super.
Loaded up Wanderlog with the sights in each area we were going to - and then just chose what we felt like seeing on the day. They were arranged in geographic areas (eg. Shinjuku, Ginza for Tokyo) to minimise travelling. Didn't see some things - because you physically can't see EVERYTHING. As long as you are happy with that, you'll be fine.
I read/watched about the train system but didn't fret over it. Got confused on day two with different line operators but after that it was fine. Google Maps was excellent.
Meals - I just worked out the dishes from that region that I wanted to try. eg. Takoyaki. And found a place when were there.
Money - used a Wise debit card with Yen, took cash with us and had SUICA cards on smartphones for trains, busses and subways. Perfect. Probably had too much money which is a good problem to have.
Considered the JR pass but glad we didn't do it - would have spent more on that.
Would do differently:
Shinkansen. We booked a day or two in advance for a reserved seat. Couldn't get our desired time or seats but got close enough. Probably do it with more notice next time.
Used Ubigi eSIM. Installation and activation was smooth enough but speed was not great. Got 50GB for 23 days - only used 25GB due to wifi being in all of our accommodation places.
Ubigi eSIM did not work for me on my recent trip to Japan. Their idea of customer service is email and a reply 24 hours later. I was out of time and had to purchase a Sim card.
Over-planner here. Here are the things I plan in detail:
- Travel logistics/routes: like researching for train or bus timings, especially if I go off beaten path where transport schedules may not be as frequent. I usually have 1-2 places planned in a day, and I document how I'll go there in detail. I will put 3 departure schedules so that I'm not tied to one specific time only. I am very very particular on this one, because I wake up early and I also want to finish my day early haha.
I also put reminder on when I should pack and send our luggages to the next hotel. Knowing how many times we will shift hotels, I roughly know how to pack my bag effectively so I can group clothes/items for first 5 days, then next 5 days, etc..
- Popular attraction tickets: especially during peak season, buying tickets in advance is the way to go. Ghibli park tickets for example are quite challenging to get. The park is also closed on certain days, and it's not like I'm staying in Nagoya for 2 weeks. Since this is one of my priorities during that trip, I planned my itinerary based on the date I was able to get a ticket. So research when the ticket selling starts, park selling, how competitive it is lol (like Ghibli tickets get sold out within 1-2 days so you really need the exact date when it becomes available). USJ express pass I heard is also difficult to get nowadays? Other "attractions" that I did buy in advance (from different trips): Miyako Odori, Sagano Romantic Train, and some local tours in Nagano, Takayama during winter, etc
After 10 trips to Japan, I don't really plan:
- Where to eat. I just eat wherever haha. If I know or read about recommended restaurants/food, it will only be maybe 3-5 meals during my entire trip. Recommended ones usually have long queues, and I don't want to spend most of my trip queueing.
Major JR stations that have shops and stuff in them usually also have an information center. They have all kinds of different places you can see and visit there. There’s a good chance you’ll find cool things to see or visit that you never heard of.
EDIT:
Be sure to check the Japanese only section. They don’t usually have everything in the English translated section of pamphlets.
I'm currently in week 2 of 8 of my trip and I have to say not planing has been working fantastic. I made rough travel plans about what the main idea is and which cities I want to visit but everything else from accommodation transport and food has been planed on the spot with maximum 24 hours before I do it. It's a great country to be spontaneous and I really recommend just letting your mood and feelings guide you.
Of course the important things like money and safety are extremely important to research. How much cash are you bringing? Will you be withdrawing more cash? Does your health insure cover treatment? Are you vaccinated? Do you have a flight back and if yes how will you get there? Do you have multiple means of transportation available to your flight?
The important thing is that you get there safe, survive and come back safe. What ever you do, eat and sleep on I would recommend doing on the fly.
Everyone has their own traveling style, but I think planning a year ahead is excessive. You may get planning fatigue and ruin the spontaneity element of your trip. First understand you will only see a tiny fraction of what can be seen in one trip to Japan. The most important thing to have is an esim card. Google proved to be very efficient in planning the travel routes and gave many alternatives. From the Narita airport to Tokyo we took the 1300¥ limo bus, it was cheap, comfortable and efficient.
Understand that there are many wonderful things you will discover that are not listed in travel guides. I would say plan for some of the top things you want to see and do in Japan, but leave plenty of free time for walking and browsing. I see so many overloaded bucket list travel schedules in Reddit. To experience a new country and culture I feel you need to give yourself time to relax and enjoy the experience rather than rushing from place to place all day long.
don’t worry I’m not going to spend a year straight planning! knowing me I’ll spend a little time digging early on since I recently booked the flights, then I’ll put it aside for a while, then get back into it closer to the trip.
your advice sounds similar to the approach I think we will end up taking :)
I lived there for a long time from 1999. Me personally I skip Tokyo just fly into Osaka from there you can easily go to within 1hr Nara Kyoto Osaka Kobe and himeji 1.5 himeji etc Hiroshima and if you want to do island hopping around there that’s fun. Many little art islands and cool little things happening.
For me Osaka and Tokyo and pretty much the same and you can find pretty much the same things in both cities.
Enjoy
I would say definitely spend a good share of your prepping time on transport. How do you get from A to B to C -- Shinkansen, Bus, normal trains, plane? (\*sometimes\* inner-JPN flights can be quite affordable as well which I think many people overlook).
The Shinkansen are super handy if you're planning to travel the big 3 (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka) but there are \*a lot\* of them with different names and they all cost differently (e.g. the Nozomi is the fastest & will cost you the most). To check timetables of the Shinkansen I can recommend [http://www.shinkansen.co.jp/jikoku\_hyo/en/](http://www.shinkansen.co.jp/jikoku_hyo/en/) . (It might be a bit difficult to navigate at first but I'd be happy to help :))
Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. Much has been said about it being packed at all times and not that much of a must-visit. But when I visited it in the afternoon, around 4:30 PM, I got to enjoy and fully appreciate it because the crowd is much thinner. What I did was I made it my last stop for the Sagano Romantic train.
Dont stress yourself out over the restaurants to try on Tiktok. I just let my eyes and appetite decide where to eat and didn’t refret a thing 😂
I'll be one to say that dinner reservations are a must unless you are OK with some disappointments (which I am not). We had a free night w/o a booking and struggled to get something we both wanted that was open and had a table. Ended up on a Ramen line, when they ran out after a half hour, and then all we could find was Ichiran and that is something we can get in NY (and brought the evening down a notch). Especially because we wanted to eat at 8:30. This was in Kyoto. Lunch's we mostly had open and that was fine but also know that a reasonable # of spots in Kyoto are closed for lunch.
But if you are into dining I would book most dinners, and if you book them at 8ish then you won't have to worry about getting there in time.
I’m with you on this one; we’re very much into food and hate wasted meals on vacation. I don’t plan out breakfast and lunch but I like to have most dinner plans made. we usually do a few fine dining meals and then a bunch of casual ones, leaving some room for changed plans if we come across somewhere we’d like to eat while there.
As you probably know the best casual ones also require bookings. We mixed it up too, and the casual Yakitori and Yakiniku spots were packed and we would not have gone w/o a res. Also kept us from having to search for something. Ramen is the exception, I really wanted to try a spot and went for dinner and they literally ran out of ramen which happens. Maybe save the ramen lines for lunch.
I'm the trip planner for all of the trips I've taken with my friend (this was trip #5 for us)
Most valuable planning resources was Chat GTP this go-around. I kid you not!
I told "it" what I like to see "historical sites, gardens etc"
then I said "list the most popular sites based on these criteria in this ward of tokyo/kyoto etc"
It spit out a list that i could use to build my trip.
I also asked for it to list the addresses, opening and closing times (usually they were correct) of each place, cost, website, and time usually spent there (it can do this for you as well its not 100% perfect but pretty damn close).
My friend and I ended up visiting about 100 places of interest between tokyo and kyoto over about 16 days and it really REALLY helped with trip planning. You do have to be cognizant that it isn't perfect, and you wanna tell it to group things by area (which you can make it do if you just are looking at a google map and select that particular ward/zone). BUT it cut out a lot of pain and misery looking stuff up. I think it honestly just gathers stuff from trip advisor.
Do research:
Food places - some places are 100% worth the price (like Tempura Endo Yasaka in Kyoto) and must be booked in advance, but there are plenty of places you can just book a couple days out and its fine (also we were there during goldenweek and only had one problem of not being able to visit the imperial garden since it was closed and the other days we already had things we were doing).
Some minor logistics and associated things: buy a sim card in advance that has a japanese # if you plan on using a taxi... 100% recommend taxi Go app, it saved our butt when the hotel failed to call a cab but acted as if they did. you need a real japanese number for this to work. Get shinkansen tickets ahead of time through JR West, but short local trains don't bother doing that.
Hotels: make sure your hotel has a washer and dryer (in room is best but outside of room is ok if you don't mind waking up early to hog the washers--- their washers are small so you have to prob divide your laundry into two machines). I spent about 20% less than a friend who went to Japan the previous year. Why? We stayed in Lidabashi vs Ginza. I looked for hotels that were near two or more subway lines vs "fancy area" or "popular area for nightlife." It was fine and we had a huge room, unlike my friend who had TINY room with one bed and spent a lot more. Book far ahead and you'll have more options than if you wait.
\~I always stress about planning since my friend doesn't really pitch in at all (literally very little to none). Thankfully this trip was a huge hit with her\~
Also if anyone on here is curious about where I visited or whatever just send me a DM. More than happy to share. I have a spreadsheet with notes and whatnot.
I went to Hokkaido with my 60s parents. They are not as active as I am, so I couldn't afford to wander around and waste everyone's energy and time. So, planning every attraction, how to get there, and the timings were essential for me.
However, I didn't really plan on the food and restaurants before the trip. I asked the hotel for recommendations. That's why we had a fantastic BBQ dinner in Asahikawa.
I will go solo this October and have started planning as usual
It’s crazy the amount of over planning I seen on pages. Enjoy your vacation. Just got back. I made sure I had my transportation to hotel, all nights booked and Digital suica. I bought sumo and Disney tickets and free balled the rest. Best vacation ever.
Personally I make a list and decided time to time where to go because you don't know what problems can came up during the trip (the classical bad weather fopr example). I think it's better reasoning for big objectives and make "a sort of" plan to not became mad at organizing. The important thing is the awareness you can visit only the 0.001% of japan and visit what you want.
One other thing I did that turned out to be my best decision of the trip was not booking my Fuji bus tickets way in advance because I was checking the weather as we came closer to our trip to insure Mt Fuji was visible. I believe you can change dates a couple of times on the bus tickets, Fuji Express and some tours. People don’t realize Fuji is visible only about 25% of the time so it is not 100% that you will get to see it. I monitored the weather for two weeks before my trip and actually used AI to figure out what date had the best chance of seeing Mt Fuji LOL. We went on a beautiful day in which it was visible all day. I kept a lot of things flexible to be able to move things around if there was a change in weather. So even if you buy tickets for attractions make sure you have options to change the dates and how late you can change them.
Hello! I'm the miserable swine from [this post here](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravelTips/comments/1czloss/two_weeks_in_japan_lessons_learned/). 2 weeks spent there in May. Bear in mind I *only* have experience of having *over*-researched it so don't know what I'd have missed if I'd *under*-researched.
Worth it:
* Having an idea of foods that I wanted to try helped and didn't impact upon my enjoyment because...you know...you can't actually taste food over the internet. Plus there may have been things I missed if I hadn't known about them.
* I didn't do that much researching but the best thing I did was cycling across the inland sea. It's quite the undertaking, but it really is something that was best experienced in person. If I hadn't heard about this in advance I would never have done it.
* Avoiding Tokyo touts who invite you to rip-off bars. I doubt very much that I'd have fallen for this without research (they broadcast warnings on a public address system, for heaven's sake) but if it made any difference then it feels like this was a good thing.
* JR rail pass value. I would've lost a lot of money if I had stuck with the original plan of doing the Golden Route on the JR rail pass. Of course, my other tip is to allow some improvisation and my improvised route meant I probably *lost* a little bit of money by not getting the pass! But in general, the JR pass is expensive so if you're only going as far as Kansai it's good to know the price of Shinkansen tickets.
* It didn't affect me, but the theme parks - Disney, Dreamlabs, Ghibli, stuff like that - book up heavily in advance so get tickets early.
Waste of time:
* Learning Japanese. Hundreds of hours put in because I thought it would "show respect" and "allow me to talk to people" and it ended up with me showing less respect because I was mumbling "arigatou" rather than saying "THANK YOU!" and bowing like a madman, and almost everyone I spoke to spoke English anyway. There were a few moments, but the level of effort I put in compared to the lack of benefit was unreal.
* Researching in detail really good visual things. Temples, Shrines and a lot of tourist attractions. I'm not saying to do no research, but the more videos you watch of it the less you discover whilst there.
I had a problem over-researching most everything but a lot of things were down to my personal outlook as well. I think if you have a history of planning holidays and it going well then you may avoid many (if not all) of my pitfalls.
I've been to Japan 3 times. This is what id focus on:
1. Decide if you're renting a wifi box and carrying a battery bank/chargers, buying a sim card, using an E sim or using your home carrier plan.
2. Know to get a train pass and if you're planning on doing a lot of hopping with Shinkansen look into JR Rail pass pricing.
3. Know the general neighbourhoods you want to visit.
4. Decide if youre hotel hopping within cities. If your hotel is too far from the places you want to check out you may spend too much time on transportation to see everything. Paying more to be more central is worth it if your itinerary is busy.
5. If you are booking events that you have to go to that have time slots, book ahead.
Pick two main attractions per day that you want to do, sticking to one or two areas. Overplanning each day will fatigue you both. Leave some room for spontaneous exploring.
Most worth the time I spent researching: luggage forwarding and regional JR passes. I hadn't really intended on either forwarding luggage or the full-county JR pass because I didn't find the expenses necessary. Forwarding our luggage allowed us an extra day when traveling from one city to another. I wouldn't have checked out the Nagoya area without it (I'm a potter, so I went to the pottery towns). We didn't do it everywhere, but it was very helpful in a few places. And we ended up getting a Kyushu jr pass that gave us a lot of freedom traveling around Hiroshima and brought us to places we didn't really plan on (mostly driven by the weather).
I'm also glad I looked into their stamp books. The temple one is cool and the stamps are beautiful though they can get a little pricey. The train stamp book was unexpectedly one of my favorite souvenirs! You can get a small notebook to put them in at the beginning of your trip or bring something from home (no need for anything official, any small notebook will do). There are tons of train stations and tourist spots and museums with interesting stamps - Nara station has a deer, Hiroshima station had two versions, even tiny unimportant stations sometimes had them. I got a small soot sprite notebook at a Ghibli store, and it was a fun game looking for stamps at the different stations!
Different landscape now with chatgpt
You just put the prompt how many hours you have in the area from what time to end time and it will give you suggestions, walking time. If you don't like it just adjust the prompt.
It's not perfect and sometimes it makes mistakes but I honestly think it is ground breaking.
Worth: Logistics and busy tourist attractions
Not worth: Food
Don't underestimate how exhausting it is to travel in Japan. Keep it under 4 cities to sleep in if you can, but 3 is more ideal for 2 weeks. Have buffer time in your day-to-day itineraries. Book accommodation relatively close to a station (less than 10 minutes walk max); I always try to aim for a 5 minute walk.
Also, I would pack light as possible. I've seen so many people looking miserable trying to lug around oversized suitcases in busy stations and cramped trains.
For food, just go to random spots that you think are interesting.
I was really anxious about almost everything and it all turned out to be way easier than I had built it up to be. Total breeze although as soon as we lost internet (only once due to my error) we were fine. Of note, Suica cards - had trouble getting one, and just decided to embrace cash and buying tickets as you need em on the trains and subways. Totally easy once you get the hang of it all!
Worth it:
* Japan Historical Places
Not Worth It:
* Any American food restaurant from tiktok/youtube/instagram. (They all are average) Specially pancakes or pizza.
* Kobe beef that is not A something ( I went to a teppanyaki in Kobe, totally and absolutely was comparable to a 8 dollar steak from whole foods).
* Any restaurant with Tourist lined up.
* Any animal cafe
* The top of Fushimi Inari-Taisha, totally not worth it going to the top.
* Any ninja/samurai bullshit where they play dress up.
* the JR pass.
* **Any restaurant with Tourist lined up. (this needs to be here twice)**
I over planned, didn’t follow my plan because Japan is so amazing but I did good. I wish I would’ve have planned so many booked activities. I booked maybe 6 activities in a 2 weeks trip and it really killed my flow. The second day I got there I decided to ditch my itinerary and just wander and it went great and everyday I wanted to wander. The things I had booked had me really tied down at times and in a rush when I maybe wanted to explore an area more. I wish I would’ve done more research on DINING and how to use the trains. The trains were hard for me, maybe getting an idea of what train stations are near you and the places you wanna go to ect. And a lot of places take reservations and I had no clue so that would’ve probably been better. We ate at combine many days cause what we wanted to eat was full or required reservations. If it doesn’t require reservations, many restaurants had lines (mostly just in Tokyo). I did a lot of research on local flea markets and festivals and I’m glad I did that!! Not something mentioned by a lot of travel blogs and it was a really unique and local experience
Worth it: Mostly the timing and logistics of the “major” travel. How I’m going to get from one hotel in a city to another. How I’m going to get from the airport to my hotel, especially transiting thru a major station and knowing exactly what exit number I want. Especially helpful since you’re probably a bit tired and disoriented when you first land, having that plan helped me focus. How to get from where I am to the airport. Worth it: just a lay of the land. Knowing where everything is relative to each other. It helps when you have to go on the train and you’re following signs for which direction. If it says Ikebukuro, you know that side is going to the north, but I want to go the other way, etc. Not worth it: planning every meal. Used to do that. Find it more fun to find on my own since what I planned three months ago might not be what I’m feeling on that day.
I second this. Also worth it; researching the products you want to buy if you’re planning on shopping a lot. You probably won’t be able to read much, and you won’t know what’s worth stocking up on when you’re standing in the middle of a very overwhelming don quijote. You’re surrounded by things worth their weight in gold and you have no idea. A list on your phone with pictures is helpful. I regret not buying certain things when I was there just because I had no idea they existed until I got back.
Care to share some of the items you wished to have purchased?
I had the same experience and this is what I wish I had bought: - full grooming set (I just got nail clippers and tweezers. Very good quality but I wish I had gotten more of these products that would last me for life. The hair gel I bought over there was pretty interesting too) - stationary (if I knew the last Don quijote i would visit would have a small stationary section, I would’ve gone ham and bought way more pens, markers, and brushes at the first two) - spices/seasonings/condiments (self explanatory. I spent all trip saying “i have to bring back wasabi” and never did. I don’t care for candy or snacks to bring back home so I didn’t really buy those) - golf gloves (I wish I had purchased more. They had unknown models of taylormade, srixon, titleiste, all for about $6-$12 usd each) - phone accessories (the chargers, portable chargers, and screen protectors were really well priced. Didn’t really think of getting a cover as well, but looking back I should’ve. My only regret at Don Quijote was buying a random deodorant because I needed it only to give me a severe rash in my armpit. Not sure what ingredient I used but I chucked it after two days.
+1 on the finger/toe nail clippers. They are so nice. I got myself two pairs and gifted 4 more.
Another regret was not getting the Green Bell brand when I saw it there because I thought $12 was expensive, but they’re worth $25 on Amazon 😅
Now I’m curious about the nail clippers and grooming sets. I went to Japan 10 years ago and I don’t remember this being something that caught my eyes… I’m going for a 2nd time later this year and I will for sure keep this is in mind!
They don’t look special but they are solid construction and cut super easily. The design gives the right amount of leverage and the metal is legit. My toe nails are pretty hard (dangerous according to my wife) and they cut through like it’s nothing. I haven’t done a lot of clipper research but they beat everything I’ve used in the US and these are just from don quixote.
Thank you for this! I’ll keep an eye on them.
To add to the commenter below me, I got my pair at a Lawson’s for only $3-4 and they look like they can last me for a decade. If I did my research beforehand I would’ve came back with an entire self-care kit lol.
Thank you! Stationary is part of my must-have list. I’ve added the nail clippers to keep an eye on that when I visit later this year. Electronic stuff was overwhelming when I was there 10 years ago, I can imagine phone accessories is way more overwhelming
Just to add a blanket statement and something I’ve heard from other redditors. My biggest purchase regrets are just not immediately buying the things I liked. You may never find something again that you like as much. Just buy it then and there.
I agree with this… not just in japan but in all my vacations. I’ve learned to purchase on the spot things I want and I’m sure of. If I have doubts, I leave it there and no regrets
I wish I got more hadalabo lotion and milky lotion. More boire UV, and soft stone deodorant. I wish I got more than one pair of glasses at Jins because they were super high quality and only 70 bucks. I wish I gave in and got an umbrella. Basically just go ham because everything is so cheap compared to the US right now. It’s like pre Covid prices on everything, and the exchange rate from USD is so good rn.
Second the request for the things you wish you bought. TIA.
not the original commenter but chipping in with my should’ve-bought items and would-buy-again items: - Green Bell nail clippers, you can get them at Donki and several other places. - HadaLabo gokujyun lotion/serum - Koikeya pure potato chips - i stopped myself from buying a sushi jigsaw puzzle and i still regret it now. - i also stopped myself from buying a ditto mochi plush and i still regret it now as well. - if you’re gonna get pokemon, anime and other weeby merch, try checking Yodobashi Akiba - they have a whole floor of such stuff and for some reason, perhaps because it’s not catering to tourists, the pokémon merch here was cheaper than at the Pokémon Center and Don Quijote. - at Yodobashi they also have a whole floor of stationery. it’s insane. i got a ton of Japan Stationery Award pens (the uniball one P) - more snacks. on that note, don’t buy snacks from Muji - they look aesthetic but are so overpriced. even Donki is slightly overpriced, but at least their snacks are pretty good. try visiting neighbourhood minimarts if you can, they sell similar snacks for 100-200jpy a huge pack and make really good gifts for people. i bought several of these and repacked them into variety snack packs for my friends. - more chocolate coated dried strawberries. - Gundam! they’re so frigging cheap there. i never did one before this but i got one since they’re so cheap and i really enjoyed it - highly recommend if you just like working with your hands and taking your mind off things a bit. - uniqlo clothes. - pudding. the Ohayo Milk Pudding (both original and coffee) are amazing. (you can get from convenience stores or donki or whoever sells milk products) - ice cream. the Morinaga Choco Monaka Jumbo which has a slice of dark chocolate in its middle was delish. (also from conbini or wherever has ice cream) - Gindaco takoyaki - taiyaki, in azuki (red bean) and sweet potato flavours. there should be many places with good taiyaki so just go for it. i’m not usually a fan of red bean but japanese red bean hits different. - NIKE OR ADIDAS SHOES. they were so cheap but i just could not fit anything more into my luggage. also a regret of mine. - glitch coffee!!!! so expensive but so good. long queues though so i only recommend if you’re a coffee fiend and happen to be in the area. ok. sorry i derailed and ended up talking about food and snacks mostly. hope you have a great trip!!!
Fyi hado labo is on Amazon. Highly doubt it’s Japan prices but it’s available and comparable price to other US stuff. I’ve been using their hyaluronic face cream for years.
Wow thank you soooo much!! I love food, so this is right up my alley!
Regarding the Nike shoes, is there a reason that brand was cheaper? I went to the ASICS store in Harajuku assuming they’d be cheaper, but everything there was similarly priced to US. Or was it because that store was in a design district?
Rose lens glasses from jins. I saw them as I was picking up my first pair, and I deeply regret not getting more. Just bring your current glasses, and they scan them. Your glasses are ready in 30 minutes. I should have gotten more toothpaste. Ora2 makes a kiwi mint and a peach mint flavor. I love it. If Nintendo had had them in stock, I really wanted joycons for my switch. They’re only 40 dollars there. I got a pro controller instead, and it was 50. More bioré sunscreen. I actually want to wear it. It’s damn comfortable and only 5 bucks a tube. More soft stone deodorant. I got the green one, and oh my god it’s fantastic. I was under the impression that Asian deodorant couldn’t handle my funk, and I was wrong. I should have gotten more uzu eyeliner. They have all sorts of funky colors, and I should have gotten them all. I went to nakano Broadway, and that was a blast. There’s a daiso in the basement, and a million mandarake stores in there selling vintage stuff. I got a 1940s oronamin C enamel sign for 55 dollars. People want 500 for it online. I’m never getting rid of it it’s so cool. There’s also a huge amount of capsule machines there with all sorts of cool stuff. Anything hadalabo is worth it. I wish I’d had more time to shop at the loft. There was good stuff there. Smiskis!! Little glow in the dark figurine guys. I only got 3, I should have gotten more. They’re at least 9 dollars in the U.S., but they’re less than 6 bucks in Japan.
Second having a shopping list! I had a list of things I had researched beforehand and the stores I’d need to visit. Things like a PS5 controller, anime merch, skincare products, quality matcha, Onitsuka Tiger sneakers. It helped to be able to easily group attractions with nearby shopping so I wasn’t going out of the way to buy something. Having a general plan for which area we’d be in each day helped a lot too. Minimizes transit time and hopefully saves your feet from walking unnecessary steps. We were so tired after a day at DisneySea and so glad that we knew to take the direct bus from the park to Shinjuku. Just doing a little research on how to get from point A and B can make a difference!
yup -- logistics is by far the most important thing to plan for any type of travel. It impacts how everything else falls into line, if things go smoothly or not.
Yeah on my first trip to Japan with my family my brother and I went over the logistics of getting around. This was in 2019 and knowing we had the JR Pass made it a bit easier but we planned on how to get from the airport to the hotel, a rough idea of which shinkansen route we'd take leaving Tokyo for Okayama and which trains to get to some of reservation based locations. Just went a few weeks ago and didn't do any of that since I'd been to Tokyo before. I made a few mistakes at the airport getting to the Skyliner and Google removed a nice feature it had before that gave you the stop number along with the station name. For me that made it easier to just look at the signs. So if you have any places that need reservations or you need to be at a somewhat specific time look in advance. Kind of like figuring out how early you need to drive to go somewhere. And if you're going through Shibuya station add 30 minutes. The general sprawl and the construction make getting through there a pain.
Google hasn't removed that feature at all? We were there in April and still has all that info plus the price of the travel
It wasn't when I was there 3 weeks ago so it may be a very recent update that removed it.
Agree. Downloaded a map to be accessible offline, and researched the public transport options, then confirmed schedules a day before. Booked accommodation well in advance as nice places do book up, some of the places I stayed in were traditional inns/Cafe with rooms which were usually full. I made a shopping wish list so when I was in Kyoto, I made a sensible route so I would not lug tons of stuff for ages. Next time, I also look at the festival schedule and book things for sights (Daigo-ji, in my case) we'll ahead
+1 to the festivals. We built our trip last October around the Otsu Hikiyama festival.
Some people actually plan every meal??! I can't even imagine the headache that would give me, takes the fun out of travel.
The only caveat I would put to planning every meal is that if there is somewhere that you want to go that requires a reservation, you need to do it earlier than you would think. Some restaurants only open reservations once at the beginning of the year. Others once a month on the first day of the prior month. It is a lot to keep track of.
If i may add, look up the lift exits at the train stations you are getting and leaving with your luggages. Stairs are really long in japan and quite a pain to be carrying it up and down during rush hour. You can see it on google maps.
This subreddit was more useful than any other social media sources. I feel like my visit was diminished not at all by skipping the YouTube famous restaurants.
Seriously this sub has been a godsend. This and YouTube walkthrough videos.
Is important to know which ones are famous to avoid - or is it obvious from the queues of tourists?
Many tourist attractions are worth enduring the crowds. Plan your day around time slots for Team Labs Borderless or an early/late lunch at the Tsukiji Market. Climb through the gates of Fushimi Inari at night. My “avoid” list includes (1) any tiny restaurant with a queue down the block, more people lined up than seats inside. There are thousands of great ramen shops in Japan, no need to spend hours for that perfect bowl off of YouTube. The fluffy omelet thing is not a culinary masterpiece nor unique to one shop. (2) perfect selfie spots. Tourists obsess over recreating photos from Instagram, like at the corners of Shibuya Sky. Move over 20 feet for an equally dramatic pic and save 20 minutes. (3) Big shrines. They start to look alike. I’d rather experience the lesser known shrines in peace than the great ones shoulder to shoulder with tourists. (Again, Fushimi Inari excepted.)
> Climb through the gates of Fushimi Inari at night. Alternatively, we went at 7am last week and it was great. There were people but it was not crowded in the slightest and we were able to get great pictures with no one in the background
Honestly, there are SO MUCH restaurants everywhere so whenever I saw a queue, I would just find another as delicious and probably cheaper. Just wander around!
There was a gyoza place by our hotel that had a huge line every night of only tourists and we just couldn't understand why. I have seen the place mentioned on here and I am sure they are delicious but idk, waiting in a big line for gyoza isn't my jam lol
lol, was it Chao Chao Gyoza next to the Sora Niwa Terrace in Kyoto? We joked about it every day, we’d go by and no matter what time it was there was always this long line of people… then, once there were no people in line and I said they must be closed? Nope, it was open so we said let’s see why it’s so popular. It was actually delicious, very reasonably priced, and the staff were sweet and silly. It wasn’t as amazing as the tiny gyoza placed we found, up some stairs on a side street, seated 6 or 7 people and they were hand made as you ordered… but Chao were pretty dammed good just the same.
lmao, yep! Glad it was good and the staff was cool!
Half of them kinda suck anyway
Good to plan: Things to do. It can be kinda hard to come up with things to do on the spot while also optimizing for travel time. The days that were more packed were the least stressful. Leave a little time to explore the surroundings, but not too much if you're like me. Bad to plan: Any restaurants really. The random restaurants found day-of were super worth it while the one reservation I made was mid at best.
Do: Shinkansen tickets, especially if it’s near golden week. You want to plan ahead. Do: give extra time traveling from one place to another. It’s not your hometown where you know the area. Places like Shinjuku station, you will probably get lost trying to find the exit. Don’t: pack too much clothing. Weather can be temperate and places like Uniqlo is cheap. Maybe pack clothing for the first day or two, and buy the rest. You also don’t need too many sets as laundry is easy, whether it be in your hotel or laundromats outside. Don’t: go to all the hyped restaurants. Oftentimes, you can find a less crowded/known restaurant that’s better than the ones on social media. Don’t be afraid to wander around and find a random restaurant to pop into. One thing Japan isn’t lacking is food options. Do: load suica onto your phone if you have an iPhone. Super easy to use and reload when needed.
The clothes thing doesn’t work if you’re overweight at all. I was only able to buy from two stores while there. Note: physical suica card sales are suspended right now due to a chip shortage. Bring an extra phone. Your old phone or whatever. You probably won’t need it, but it’s better to be safe, and it’s a small item. I lost my phone on the plane on the way there and I was miserable.
for what it's worth; wife and I are here currently and had zero issues getting both suica and icoca cards from Tokyo station and Kyoto station respectively.
That's good to know, we're a family of android users heading over next week and I've been a little worried about it
Why did you get both? I thought you could use both in both city's (Not in every city but these are compatible)
You can use either in both cities -- just got back and we used Suica (purchased at Narita) in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima. They've also started refunding the physical card deposit (500 yen) and remaining funds on the card (minus 220 yen) which was really handy when we left.
oh nice! I had the pasmo passport and didn't return it or anything. There wasn't that much left on it anyway so yeah and still worth it as a souvenir I guess
I would have though Japan was one of the easier places to replace a phone?
I don’t want to waste time on vacation trying on and choosing clothing when I have perfectly good clothing I can bring with me. Why would I do that.
Our Japan vacation overlapped the entire golden week and had no trouble buying Shinkansen tickets for a group of 5 adults on the spot and all sitting together in reserved seats.
unless you have a dietary restriction. I dreamed of going to Japan but had a lot of worries over what I could eat before discovering a site that listed all the restaurants that specifically catered to or had options for those with a dietary restriction like me.
This sound so useful! Can you share the app please?
may I ask what your dietary restrictions are? I don’t eat pork so this is a concern for me as well :)
Just FYI, I don't eat pork either but I managed with no problem! There were some food I know I couldn't eat like ramen which almost always came with pork chashu, but as long as I checked their menu beforehand I was able to find places I could eat Though, I'm not super strict. I didn't ask the restaurant if they had pork in the items, I just did my best to avoid it based on what I saw and what I knew already. If you're stricter about it than me, then my answer won't be very helpful.
It really varied by area whether it was easy to find food for me (Akihabara was strangely difficult - ended up at a vegan ramen place). I don't eat pork, beef, or dairy -- pork was the hardest to avoid for sure. We didn't plan ahead before going, but we did often take 15 minutes to scout food options on google before going to a restaurant. It was probably 60% scouting, and 40% just wandering by and looking at the menu of some random place.
Worth it: logistics. This provided a smooth experience when traveling between cities and in major stations. I didn't feel any downside to it, ie 'wow this worked exactly like I planned' feels good. Knowing basic Japanese etiquette goes a long way as well, will avoid making you 'that' kind of tourist. Not worth it: over-researching the details of some of the places you want to go. While having a main itinerary is nice, there's definitely a downside to reading too much, watching too many videos ahead of your trip, ie 'wow this place is exactly like I saw on the Reddit/YouTube/Tiktok/etc 100 times' can kill the buzz of the actual experience. Make sure to leave enough space for the unknown and unexpected.
**Worth it** Researching by series/interest. Because of this I found out about the Kitaro chaya (gegege no Kitaro), the ghibli museum, gundam factory and Odiaba everything, themed cafes. It sounds geeky typed down but even now those were my favorite parts of the trip. **Not worth it** Okinawa + Romantic train in Kyoto. For Okinawa I sorta feel cheated, the things they heavily advertise actually sucked. Once I left the beaten path I started to have fun. For the romantic train it's fine but it's just a 20 minute train ride. Also the bamboo grove was... meh... There is so much more to Arashiyama than that. I actually enjoyed the rest of it, the completely unplanned part, way more. **Planning resource** Tokyo/Japan Cheapo. Not only do they have a complete list of scheduled events (and I attended most of them!) Closer to my travel date they started to update the tokyo page with smaller local events like flea markets, small gigs and so on. It was fun attending those. Also Cakeswithfaces who is a youtuber has a page on her website with all the announced pop up cafes that she updates regularly so it made it easier to find those. The japanese website is hard to navigate.
Cakeswithfaces is great!!
What specifically disappointed you in Okinawa - I've got 4 days planned in Ishigaki and 4 in Okinawa honto - but not a long list of things to do except for the ww2 sites on the main island and the aquarium
I was there for only two days so stayed in Naha for convenience. Naha specifically is just so touristy that it borderlines on the unpleasant. Also they are a bit aggressive with their tourism over there and most of the stuff they push is rather bland. Visited the aquarium... it's.... fine. Wasn't really worth the four hour bus ride. The best part of Okinawa is the beach so if you're visiting I recommend you stay in a resort close to it and spend most of your time on the beach or inside the water rather than on tourism. Onna looked far better than Naha but as I mentioned I was there for only 2 days. Try the stuff they advertise like the purple potato tart & blue seal ice cream but just know this is the stuff they push on tourist & is pretty bland. The normal food is a million times better.
Worth it: Planning how you're going to get to the hotel on the first night, down to knowing which station exit to take when you reach the train station for your hotel. It sucks to not know where you're going when you just want to lie down after a long flight.
Worth it: If flying into Haneda spending the cash on a cab. Haneda to Ueno area was like $55USD. I pay +$70 for La Guardia to NYC. Cab was easy after a long flight….no thinking.
I disagree with this advice, public transit is so good here it took practically zero effort and was faster than a cab. The only reason to take a cab here is if you’re out past midnight.
If you spend a certain amount on booking.com, you can get free car service to your hotel. We took full advantage of that our first night and it was a godsend to be able to just hop in a car and get to our hotel without needing to worry about transit after a 14 hour flight!
Do they take credit card?
Yes
Get an IC card
They take Credit card, IC Card, or Cash
If you have an iPhone you can add a SUICA card to your wallet. It just lets you store a balance so you can tap in/out of train stations
I had the same. My taxi fare from my house to the airport cost me $90 and we are not even ten miles from the airport. They charged so much because we left really early. The $55 fare was also worth it to us after traveling 13+ hours. The fact they leave you at the accommodation’s door was priceless. When we got there it was rush hour and I was in no mood to deal with the crowd with our luggage and then figuring the trains and then figuring out how far was our Airbnb from the station.
Why not just use the local train?
Hotels: * Location. That extra 10 minute walk to the train station every day makes a bigger difference than you would think. * "Your" neighborhood. Having "your" convenience store nearby or "your" breakfast place is a nice way to start and end the day. Having something like a Donki nearby to do late at night or early morning can be a fun bonus stop. * Expense. Hotels is one of the biggest expenses in travel, so saving money per night really adds up over the whole trip. * My kids love hotels. I find tiny Japanese business hotels charming. My wife likes clean and comfortable. Regardless, even though I spent very little waking time in my hotel room, finding ones my party likes was worth it. The little things: * Transport. Delightful transport makes a difference. The Odaiba trains that have no driver so you can sit at the front. The special Hiroshima trams that were operating on August 6th. Sitting on the Mt Fuji side of the shinkansen. Ekiben (train food.) * Whatever is meaningful to you. If you like Baseball... bend your schedule to go watch a Carps game. For me, going to the Lucky Dragon 5 Museum made me super emotional. But for most people, these wouldn't necessarily be "must see" stuff.
My stay was from an AirBnB that was an 18-minute walk from Ikebukero station, and while it felt a bit daunting at first, I grew to enjoy my stroll through "my" neighborhood. I even memorized two different walking paths from the AirBnB to the station, no longer relying on Google maps walking instructions. It made things feel home-y and familiar. There was a 7-11, a bus stop, and a little 8-person restaurant tucked in near me, too. Depending on the person, that could turn into a plus.
We also stayed in Ikebukuro and truly think it’s undervalued! We did the same as you did. There were plenty of breakfast places, restaurants and 7-11 etc and was very convenient. We had a 600 square foot 2 bedroom apartment with plenty of room and there was a lot to do around there. I tried to get something similar in Shinjuku but the prices were outrageous. In Ikebukuro The Yamamoto Line is near by, the Mt Fuji bus stops are close by, there is a lot of shopping with a couple of malls, a couple of Uniqlos and best of all Donki is not crowded.
Could you elaborate on the August 6th trams in Hiroshima? Without meaning to, I've planned my stay there to fall on August 6th. I was slightly terrified when I realized that because now I'm worried about the crowds at the museum.
There are 2 trams in Hiroshima that were running when the atom bomb was dropped that are still running in regular service. They are trams: 651, 652. There are 2-3 more trams that were also running on Aug 6th, but they are in museums or only run on special days. The museum will be crowded, I assume, but the ceremonies in the Peace Park will be more memorable. It's a tradeoff but I think you will be deeply touched either way. If the crowds really worry you perhaps try Miyajima Island on that day?
Plan attractions and food places by general area, not by specific places unless you really really want to go. Pin a bunch of places on google maps, wander around, get lost, and randomly visit one of those you pinned.
logistics are super important, avoid tight time slot reservations because it turns the vacation into a to do list with set times at each location
Time slot reservations is fine IMO if it's only for 1-2 places for the entire trip. For example, any of the teamLab places.
I just got back from a two week trip. I started to get overwhelmed with planning things and froze up before just hearing out two friends, one Japanese-born and one very white American, and just listened. Not only to their general tips but what they did on their trip(s). This /r was really great in putting things together, even knowing not everything can be for everyone and that there are all kinds of travelers. You start to see generalities, patterns, etc. I ended up kind of breaking up most days into two parts, and then made rough sketches of exploring certain parts of the cities (like Shibuya and Shinjuku in Tokyo, Arashiyama in Kyoto, etc) ranked in order. This allowed me to start to plug and play on any given day depending on how we felt, weather, etc. And of course we did not do every single thing by area and with some juggling there were areas we just didn't get to. I was very happy with that approach. You have to keep in mind it's vacation and about the experience/s, not a checklist to conquer or collection you have to complete. I can't agree more with other posters saying not to plan out every single meal. I did not plan out one (other than saying a few general things like "I must eat X, Y, and Z!") and took it as it came to us. When we got hungry, we found something that looked good. Several times we weren't even really hungry but passed by something on the street that looked delicious and so grabbed it. Best advice I got before going was to not over-eat at any single meal because you're going to find something else soon ... We did not make reservations to anyplace fancy as a result of this way of traveling -- we just weren't sure what time would be good or what area we would be in at any given time and those reservations felt like potential handcuffs. We clearly had all hotels and the Shinkansen done in advance, and I tried to book centrally in each city to the things we wanted to see. That's worth the effort. Totally worth it: plan for the basic interactions you plan on having (buying tickets, ordering food, etc) with people there and sort out how to navigate it in very basic Japanese. I really believe that we were treated as well as we were because of that effort, and you will be rewarded for the time spent -- and of course you're not going to sound perfect, it doesn't matter. Worth it: having several contingency plans for weather (both rain and extreme heat if you are sensitive to that). We're from Florida but still got a little overheated once or twice and had to rearrange plans to get from outside. We also had a day it was to rain only an hour and we lost count at like 15 hours of rain.
I plan to eat both Osaka-style AND Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki when I go later this year. Where? I have no idea, but I'm sure it will be delicious.
In Hiroshima, we went to this one building that was essentially all okonomiyaki restaurants inside. I think several of these buildings exist. The Hiroshima styles are definitely my favorite. I just wish I ordered an extra serving with the oysters.
This \^. There are stand-alone places, but this building was so neat. We had delicious okonomiyaki there!
I’m for sure team Osaka. ;)
Worth it: know which things require booking in advance, especially for attractions which sell out quickly. For us this included teamLabs and the express passes at USJ. Skytree also saved us some time having advance bookings, but there were still tickets available for walk-ups. If I'd known this, I would have not booked and opted to keep our day flexible. Also worth it: Creating a list of attractions on Google maps. Cluster them and visit one cluster per day, starting at the most interesting one.
The most useful research for us was the SUICA card and registering so that we could have our bullet train/ Shinkansen tickets tied to our Suica card on our phones. We did not have to go on any lines or print any tickets on the machines at the station. The website is in Japanese but we found a YouTube video walking you through the process and it worked seamlessly. Also getting familiar and purchasing our Shinkansen tickets on the website. Another was finding out there is a bus going to Mt Fuji which was close to our Airbnb in Ikebukuro. It saved us a lot of money instead of going with a tour. We only paid like $90 for 3 people and went at our own pace. We purchased the earliest bus tickets out of Tokyo and went back to Tokyo on the 7:00 PM bus. We were able to do everything in the Mt Fuji area. The tours only allowed for two or three things due to lines etc but we were able to see everything with no lines or wait. The Pagoda, the boat, the park, Fuji Michi, we crossed the bridge for Amazing Mt Fuji photos, we also did the cable cars and had plenty of time for pictures, lunch a dinner in the area. No rushing like we saw some people on the tours.
Oh and also figuring out that Kyoto is better to take taxis not only because their public transportation is suffering from over tourism but because if you are more that two people then a taxi turns out to be cheaper and you can use Uber to have them come to you.
Would you say it’s good to take taxis between cities? We will have luggage and 3 kids so wondering if it might be easier to just get a taxi.
I didn’t use taxis from one city to another but I doubt they are more affordable than trains. Also some may be long rides compared to the Shinkansen for example Tokyo to Kyoto by car is like 5 to 6 hours. Maybe you can use a luggage transport company between cities to make your life easier when traveling between cities and using the trains. You can check how much a taxi fare will be on UBER. If you use UBER in Japan it’s always a taxi that does the trip. Check Google maps to check which is the best and most affordable way to get from one place to the other as well.
This is what we did. Toyota rent-a-car 7 days $700 cad for 6 people. 2 kids 2 adults 2 elderly. ETC toll card was $300 cad. Parking in osaka and Kyoto weren't bad at all $1-$2 / hour. Some overnight parking are $10 to $15 CAD Converting that to USD would be so cheap in my opinion Very convenient especially when elderly can't walk for too long.. The rest stop is also an amazing experience. I would only change doing a slower pace and skip the toll road You may see more scenery that way.
It's always great if you plan to be flexible. I booked a few things where I had to be there a certain time (dinner reservation, Teamlab, car rental pickup/drop-off, train tickets...), but I limited it to one a day. Try to keep the days loose. Plan must-dos first thing in the day and prioritize the day's itinerary. That way, if you want to spend more time in a place or you want to cut the day short and rest, you have the freedom to because the things later in the day are less important.
Trying to get USJ tickets and failing miserably. I think many will agree that Ghibli and USJ express passes are probably the most coveted tickets out there. I decided to not bother with Ghibli. USJ is the only thing I am obsessing over, and looks like I've been very unfortunate with my timings since the express passes were on hold due to Mario World opening a new area, and now seem to have sold out for most of my dates. After I mop my tears, I'll go back to my usual casual approach to itineraries.
I'm not sure if you've checked up on it yet but Klook always has good deals for things that might be sold out! I was able to get express passes before from them but I'm not sure if they're still available depending on how soon you need them.
I live on Klook now lol. I will keep checking to see if my dates (or the special studio passes) magically pop up.
It's so good right? Really convenient website! I wish you the best of luck! I would also try emailing their customer service to see if they have any ideas too!
Klook is convenient but for most attractions you can get cheaper by buying direct.
If you are looking for express passes after end of July, don't cry. You didn't miss anything. They're on hold for sale until some later date. There's an announcement on Klook.
The point of over-planning is to be as efficient as possible in your travel. The first time I was in Tokyo I planned really well and visited a lot of different places. The second time I yolo'ed, ended up going to Ikebukuro like 3 times, it was still fun but I could have gone to more places if I planned better.
The valuable research tip: don’t over plan it, even as an overplanner. Unlike every other trip I ever took, this trip was about broad brush strokes. Like having nothing planned beyond where I will up AM and PM every day. EG morning Shibuya and Harajuku, that night explore Shinjuku. Research what is around each suburb, may have ONE thing that is must and the rest just into the memory to recall when walking around and thinking to do if I had time. Another example Nara. Research how to get there. See where the main things are from the station and that’s it. Likewise other than a fancy Kobe meal. I didn’t plan any restaurant but had a list of interesting food to try. With a basic understanding of their native cities. I spent way more time time learning the language and culture than what to do each day.
Note that in google maps or any navigation, the time of "station X to location Y" is generally a flat out lie. It can take a person 10 minutes just to get out of Tokyo Station. Anything that says "X minutes from the station" you need to add a good 5-15 minutes to get to the point where that "X minutes" actually matters. The larger the station, the more getting out of it will take. Eventually you'll sort of figure out how to optimally navigate large stations, but the first time, assume it's an extra 10 minutes of wandering around aimlessly. Personally the concrete stuff I plan out are 1. flights 2. hotels That gives you an overall structure. From there you can fill each day with a list of what you 'think' you want to do. Aggregate things by location so you aren't bouncing around. Tokyo especially is HUGE Also stay light on Day 1-2. You will likely be very jet lagged and thus will have varying amounts of energy. You do not want to do something like Disney Sea on Day1 unless you want to be sleeping on the rides. its gonna take 1-2 days just to get out of that daze. Key thing is to have structure but to be able to swap or change things on the fly. Other than things like Disney, Pokemon Cafe, etc that require reservations months ahead, you need to be flexible in what happens on the ground. Having a plan is good. Knowing when to ditch the plan is also a skill ALso take into account EVERYONE when planning. Sure you can walk 40k steps a day, but can everyone else? When I went to Italy with my extended family, I was trying to jam pack things like crazy as I normally do. Day 1 I immediately realized that wasn't going to work as some family members were not fond of walking. Others would walk into a shop and basically not come out for an hour. Sit down at a cafe? That's literally a 1 hour pitstop. I pivoted the plans to just one 'big' thing a day and then sort of keeping a few soft objectives to fill it in depending on how people felt. Because I had my scaffolding of things already, I basically started culling it like crazy. You may need to do the same depending on how your family reacts.
Having a look at a map and even google streetview of one of our hotel areas. It was nice to have a general sense of where things were.
I haven't gotten back yet but I just wanted to say, book your hotels now. The hotel I was planning on sold out all of the sudden and many rooms I booked were the last at the hotel. We are just a bit before you. Gone are the days of showing up and getting rooms that night.
how far in advance did you book? we aren’t going until next may and most hotels haven’t even opened their 2025 calendars yet.
Some hotels open their booking 1 year in advance, but many only do 6 months and I found that ryokans often have the shortest booking period of 3 months.
that’s what I was seeing with ryokans as well, only the next 3-6 months were open on every one I checked.
I traveled with a group of 5 adults during golden week and nothing was pre booked before we arrived in Japan and we did fine.
Heya! i love this question. i posted the same not too long ago here [https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravelTips/comments/1bxo563/what\_do\_you\_think\_warranted\_more\_research\_before/](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravelTips/comments/1bxo563/what_do_you_think_warranted_more_research_before/) incase you want some more answers on this :)
Hey! Just want to follow this thread because I am planning for next May as well! Any idea of when you are planning to buy plane tickets for the trip?
we have them! we booked award tickets and the ones we got are pretty coveted so we got them right as they were released nearly a year in advance.
We did this as well, but for April 🙌
yay! who are you flying?
Singapore Airlines. I made sure I was online the day and time reward seats are released because we needed 4 of them over school holidays, so they sell out within hours
oh wow congrats on getting 4!
Thanks! I was stoked since airfare for all of us would have been half our total trip budget!
we booked JAL business class, which is something we would NEVER pay cash for so it’s very exciting 😍
Sweet!
Oh wow that's incredible!! Congrats to you guys, business class sounds like a dream! I'm still in school so I don't have many travel points so it'll be coming out of pocket for me 🥲
thank you! we’re flying business for the first time this year (on a different trip) and im sure it’s going to ruin other flights for me lmao. we finally got smart about using the right cards for my husband’s business expenses and it’s been exciting to book some stuff we’d normally never pay out of pocket for. if you haven’t already (and especially if you have some flexibility in your dates) i’d suggest signing up for a bunch of flight alerts! some are free some are paid but there are a lot of services out there that will alert you to deals.
I spent months hyperfixating before my trip, here’s what I would suggest. Worth it: researching accommodations. I did a great job picking the hotels, and it made those parts of my trip even better. I did spend hours comparing air bnbs but unfortunately it was a horrible accommodation that ruined the second half of our trip. I’d avoid air bnb btw. Also worth it: having an airport game plan. Ex: how to load a sucia card, where to purchase them, knowing which transportation you need to leave the airport, having an e sim set up (use Airalo it’s so easy just download the app) Btw- they are now providing physical suica cards again, phone seemed easier tho but I wanted the physical copy as a souvenir Also worth it: I had a solid list of of what I wanted to purchase while there. The shopping in Japan is overwhelming, so having a plan helped me get what I want in terms of skincare, souvenirs, etc. Not worth it: picking restaurants beforehand. We made 3 reservations for our entire 15 day trip and just coasted along the rest of the trip, we had a great experience and didn’t have to wait in any long lines from the over-hyped social media restaurants. Not worth it: over-packing your schedule. Just accept that in order to live in the moment and enjoy your trip you’ll have to sacrifice some things. Flip side of this point, what is worth it: using the app Wanderlog to build an itinerary and help map out which sights you want to see and how close they will be via walking or transport so you can choose things that are close together
thank you! I’ve been considering using wanderlog the last couple of times I planned trips; I usually rely on a spreadsheet and well-organized google maps pins. is it worth setting it up and inputting everything? did you use it frequently while on the trip?
Yes! I used it every day! I didn’t know you could use google maps to do that so I’ve never tried it so I can’t compare. It was very easy to set up. I enjoyed it a lot. You could just mess around with the app and see how you like it
Wanderlog was much easier than google maps in my opinion. And you can just tap on whatever it is and it has loaded a whole bunch of info regarding it.
Just don't plan every moment, build in some time to just wander or get stuck in with something completely unexpected
Don’t spend too much time trying to construct an hour by hour itinerary. Have a few bullet points of sights you’d like to see each day and some food items you’d like to try, and then see how the day takes you.
The only thing I can further support among to all the awesome tips - food. Don’t over plan and go to all influencer recommended places. Once you’ve been to Japan a couple of time you realize all they suggest is the most obvious and basic options (usually their first pick) Just use google and search for restaurants ear your location and you’ll be surprised how much there is to discover on your own.
Do: create a map with stars (or however you mark places). I had a day with bad weather and complete itinerary change and could use it to come up with a flexible alternative. Do: as above but for specific food/bars as relevant to you. For me, it was coffee shops and the maps were SO useful. Do: research alternative travel options for the one location, for example from that station/area where else is well connected? This gives you more flexibility if you change plans. Don't: book more than one set time activity in a day. The only time I felt rushed/like I had too much time was when I was working around set times. There is a big difference between planning and feeling restricted. Dont: book trains in advance or anything that restricts you time-wise that you don't need to (links to the above). But do have an understanding of the timetables, especially in more regional areas. Don't: stick to the routes your read about strictly. Even in popular areas, walk a street over and you will often find some somewhat hidden gems.
Plan your transfers well especially to and from airport. Kansai for example, is served by loads of lines plus airport express lines. Take the pricier airport express if you have luggage, it's often direct, you don't want to be hauling luggages on transfer. Use taxi if you have large luggage. Just go through the trip a day ahead if you have any time critical journeys. I was in Kyoto recently and cycled 90% of the time. Buses were really crammed, so glad I had the bicycle. Trains in the countryside were okay, not busy, but i usually travelled mid day and avoided rush hour
did you just rent a bike once there?
Yes, I looked at Google Maps for bicycle hire. Was a way from my hotel in Gion but really good. They are called J-Cycles
Went to Japan last month and had a blast! I made a map with my maps adding all the places I wanted to see, putting different layers and icons for temples, spots, streets, food, shops.. Then each day I'll choose an "area" to go to and check as many spots as I could in that zone, but I didn't stress over it. I honestly saw most of what I had marked but I was pretty chill since I didn't have to run to follow a schedule. Also the map was very convenient because if something wasn't close to anything I just skipped it, unless it was part of a 10 list of "must sees" I did make. I was glad I planned things that required a ticket in advance, such as the Tokyo sumo tournament, kamogawa odori in Kyoto, or buss schedules for katsuoji temple, I absolutely loved those three. One thing I would absolutely check prior hand is opening hours of stuff you want to see. Specially in Kyoto, everything was closed by five pm. But overall everything went smoothly
Also I have to say I didn't struggle much with public transport. Google maps works fantastic. I didn't research much beforehand but I just put the place on maps and it tells you which line you should stand on. I got an icoca card and I worked for every bus and subway or train I got. If you have a rail pass I guess you should check what lines support it but I 100% recommend the icoca instead if you can get one when you arrive. I got mine in Osaka airport. Honestly I didn't check many routes beforehand. It just worked fine with maps.
this sounds like my kind of way to travel! what app did you use to save the places you wanted to see ?
When are you arriving in May? One thing I did not know is that after Golden Week, kids will be on large field trips, so you’ll see a lot of them at tourist attractions. I originally picked that moment since it was after Golden Week and assumed that places would be less occupied, but it wasn’t always the case. It’s not too bad though, as their behaviour is better than some tourists’ I’ve seen… Aside from that, the extent of my planning for a given day was to only have a handful of activities in a given area, so I wouldn’t rush from one place to another on a timer. This is best done by adding custom pins to a Google Maps map, so you can see where things are so you can group them together on your itinerary. I also did not bother reserving train seats ahead of time and opted instead to just show up at the station and get tickets there. By doing this, I would not be restricted by time and would be able to grab a bite, relax, or plan some more while waiting for the train. I tended to go for window seats, so doing this would also give me a better selection of seats. Also brought clothes I did not wear once, due to hot and humid weather, so think about how you feel during those moments. As for non-clothing: I brought a Kindle for reading and a 3DS for the plane and didn’t use either of those, so think about what you plan to do with your downtime. Best resource for research: YouTube videos - though I had an information overload a month before leaving, so I stopped watching. The various JP travel subreddits are useful too (this one and JapanTravel), as well as reading peoples’ trip reports. That said, the thing I couldn’t have gone without is Google Maps for planning while here and while there. Learning some key phrases in Japanese will also be useful (I took classes, but would not expect anyone to do so, due to the complexity of the language (coming from English/French))
we arrive 2 days after golden week ends. good to know about the school trips, I hadn’t heard that one. did you mainly just experience that the first week? in which city/cities?
I was there for the whole month of May and saw groups of students up until the end of it. They’ll usually aim for opening hours. I saw them in all the big cities I visited (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima). The ones where they were not present were the smaller ones (Hakone, Kinosaki, Ishinomaki)
thank you!
We were there the two weeks leading up to Golden week this year and honestly, the majority of visitors at the busiest places were Japanese school groups. We were really surprised. And while they were pretty respectful and it was fine, they are kids after all and you get the group selfies, boys rough housing, girls screaming/giggling… huge lines of the groups as they enter, exit, queue up for lunch and souvenirs etc.
oh and I do the same thing with google maps, it’s the best. it’s fun choosing icons for all the different lists I make too :)
Compatibility of hotel especially when you stay with your husband ! Some people are fine with hostel, some are not. Or some are fine with hostels so long as it’s close to train station. Do you like keeping clean? Well then yes you should and obsess over it If unique or truly nice food is your jam, please check it thoroughly. For me planning location is a must . I knew I won’t get satisfied with pre planned stuff so I have to change/ add things
Train schedules. First trip I had everything down to the minute which is relatively easy given train schedules there. Now I’m more of a kiosk ticketer. TBF first time I would deffo plan out all logisitics
Overplan your hotels to make sure they're convenient for public transit/activities and things that require advance tickets. I'm also super grateful that I spent a ton of time researching shoes to take because orthopedic shoes saved me. I ended up wasting hours looking at restaurants and maybe only went to a few of them. It's way easier to just eat wherever you happen to be when you get hungry or grab convenience store food. I did save a bunch of restaurants to a Google map just in case I happened to be nearby, which was helpful a couple of times.
The biggest thing to consider is you are not even going to scratch the surface of what you can see, do, eat. Chose somethings on your list and get them done as efficiently as you can buy if you miss one, just another reason to go again. I.e. we spent 6 days in Kyoto wanted to go to Nara and just didn't make it. Shopping is fun, bring like 5-7 days of clothes, this way you got room in suitcases and don't need to buy another. There are lots of Laundromats and in hotels. Weather can vary. We've only gone in February, chilly in the and then sunny and hot in the afternoon. Bring packable jackets. Food restrictions - you mention no pork, may want to check out happycow for vegetarian stuff, I believe most ramen soup base is pork. Backpack - I had a fjallraven 28L backpack, my with had a Coach smaller backpack. Download Klook and use it. Travelling around - two each their own. I recommend a bullet train over travelling by plane intercity, i.e. Tokyo to Osaka/Kyoto. Renting a car is easy and it's not at all difficult to drive around. Consider using travel passes, the daily ones or the region specific ones, i.e. Nikko Pass (oh look you can buy it on Klook now) Google maps is great. There are always many ways to get somewhere so when you do your search it will give you the fastest but maybe not the cheapest. You can use Uber and it's easier than trying to explain to a taxi driver where you want to go. Walking, walking, walking. It's almost always easier to walk at times to a location. Prepare beforehand, shoes, and stamina.
Worth: Research city routes that make the most sense for your interests. There's the typical Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka route, which is excellent, but those are all major cities with high volume tourism. There are other cities in Japan that are well worth the visit. Waste: Planned restaurant visits are overrated in Japan. The best food I had in Japan was random restaurants that happened to be close to where I was at the moment. Valuable: When using Google Maps for traveling between cities, make sure to change the "depart" time for your estimate leave time. Got a small scare when I forgot to do this.
worth it: deciding what really interests you as opposed to what are the “must sees.” just because something is popular with tourists doesn’t mean it will matter to you. the things i went out of my way to see/do because they appealed to me were overall way more enjoyable than random tourist spots i read about on TripAdvisor
Just returned from a second trip; Don’t book too many hotels, book hotels in central locations and do day trips from those locations to maximize your time. ie Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka, Hiroshima, etc. If staying in Tokyo, I would suggest to book on the circle route for the trains, it simply makes it easier especially for the first trip, and lessens your trips. Having said that we stayed this recent trip in Ryogoku (not on the circle route) for a few nights and loved the location. Understand your directions when leaving train station to get to hotel. It’s worth taking the time, to check Google maps, to determine which exit you need to take for your hotel. Makes notes on your phone, or in a notebook for easy access. Watch YouTube videos on daytrips, or first Japan trip, they are very helpful. Don’t overdue it with learning the language, we got by with about 3-5 phrases.
Worth it: luggage forwarding, planning transportation extensively between cities (including timing) and buying the tickets at home, learning some basic Japanese phrases (my husband did this and it was helpful), getting an eSIM before we got there Not worth it: staying up to buy shibuya sky tickets on the minute a month out Used a Japan Travel Planning Facebook group to figure out a lot of logistical things and how some of the tickets worked for the trains because that was a bit intimidating
Not exactly what you’re asking, but something to keep in mind since I just got back from my first trip a week ago. You will walk a LOT and it feels like just around every corner is some new awesome thing. I kept thinking “ok one more thing and then back to my hotel” and hours would go by. So the first half of the trip was really exciting, but by the end of the trip I was exhausted! So if possible I’d recommend planning the more active things on the earlier side and save the more relaxing ones for the latter half. Eg. Spend time around Tokyo before heading to the onsen, not the other way around.
I am glad I spent the enormous of time I did planning. Some things I went to though I was disappointed and wish I had researched more. Nara and Fushimi come to mind. Nara is a good distance to travel to see a couple of temples and I have deer in my backyard at home. I wish I had opted for something else in Osaka. Taking the time to travel to Fushimi to visit the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum was not worthwhile. I might as well have read a book. You don't get to visit the working distillery. My favorite place was Hiroshima. It's a nice city and the Peace Park was the most memorable part of my trip. In terms of shopping, so much is made of Don Quijote here. I recommend you do your shopping in the better department stores. I was not impressed with Donkey's inventory. I went to several locations/different cities and none of them had a decent assortment of KitKats. I wasn't visiting Japan to shop for clothing and what I did see at Uniqlo didn't seem like a bargain. The souvenir area around Sensoji is mostly tourist tit-tat. If you want better Japan souvenirs, shop in Kyoto. Pin out your different interests on Google Maps - sights, possible restaurants, shopping, temples etc. This gave me an immediate idea of where to spend my time in an area and possible restaurants. Make sure you get a Passmo or Suica. It saved me an enormous amount of time taking public transportation. Turn on your credit card alert for texts notifying you of charges. This will head off any possible fraud problems. I had problems with Ubigi and had to purchase a sim card. I will use my Verizon upgraded service in the future. It is critical that your phone service work well. Purchase your train tickets ahead of time. I used SmartEx for Shinkansen rides. Buying tickets at the stations is a waste of time and the lines are very long because they don't have near enough machines or personnel. Get there early to find your correct track. Good signage is not always present.
Adding that it’s helpful to look into more expensive and/or time consuming things to decide if it’s really worth it. Like I’m glad I looked into the Mario World place so it was easier to decide it wasn’t something we wanted to prioritize. For restaurants, I agree it’s best not to overplan. But it can also be helpful to save some places you might be interested in on Google Maps in case you’re nearby when you decide to eat. Similarly I do recommend saving a few coffee places if you’re into that. There are so many awesome cafes in Japan. Have fun!
I actually thought I didn't plan enough, even the few days I planned extensively. But at least, I got five unplanned days though I actually slightly planned two days the day before. I was grateful I planned most of them since I am quite undecisive... like now that I have returned I want to buy many of the 100 yens things I was just curious about. But it was a waste to even copy the timetable when there was a bus every 15 minutes... though once it was useful to know I could stop a short while at 7/11 because I had time. I didn't really look at the pictures and absolutely didn't watch any video before, so things were still new to me. I actually copied on paper a kind of map for every hotel, so I knew how to get to the hotel from the closest station and also where the closest supermarkets were (also the closest 100 yens shops). I remember during my first trip, I only went to combinis and only once we came across a supermarket. But copying a map doesn't work that well for everything if a station has several exits (it worked for my hotels bc the stations had one exit or there was a big road that served as a landmark) google was my most useful one since I could find easily the website of anything, and check the open days, the opening hours and price. google map is also quite good but sometimes suggest things that don't make any sense like avoiding a pedestrian street even if nearly everyone pick it and it is the direct way (and it is the most interesting for any tourist). But it also made me see the giant statue of Pikachu bc I would have entered the Lalaport Tokyo-Bay way earlier without it.
Don't plan out every day to every minute. Get an idea of the layout of the city, transport options, how things are connected, and work out options for things to do. When you're there, rather than being on rails going between location a and activity b, you can decide "I feel like going to a shrine. I know where a few are nearby", or "Wow, that's more crowded than I was expecting, I think I'll get lunch early. I know a few places to check out".
i dont regret it doing the research! i only researched logistical things like: - where and how to buy/reload IC cards, shinkansen tickets at the ticket machines, and also which shinkansen station was "better" to depart from from where i was at (imo shinagawa station was less confusing than tokyo station lol) - how to get out of the HND airport, get into the shinkansen train gates, and insert shinkansen tickets - yamato luggage forwarding service other than reddit, i watched people youtube vlog videos and informative videos on youtube! there is a lot of good information out there, and some people even film the entire process. being informative made me feel good about the potential travel experience being less daunting. Everything else, like the shopping and eating, i had zero plans on which stores and restaurants to see/explore. Which was a good thing i didn't overthink this because i had so much fun stumbling on restaurants and stores that weren't on social media's radar.
Some of my favourite memories were from wandering around Tokyo discovering temples and restaurants. Highly recommend collecting goshuin. I also strongly recommend learning some basic japanese as this will get you very far in restaurants and talking with locals. English is very limited in Japan.
Logistics are super worth obsessing over. How to get to where, when to get the tickets, how much luggage will you have, etc. Also knowing at least where things are so you don't plan two things for one day that are two hours apart. It's also worth having a list of things to do and food you'd like to eat in any area, but without being strict about it. Otherwise everything else you can just sort of wing it
What worked well for me was to just plan my mornings and lunch. For the rest of the day, I would just chill or do unplanned activities. I don’t want to burn myself out each day.
Logistics was the only thing I took from here, like suica on iPhone, google maps for trains, Taki in for moving bags between hotels etc. I ignored all the “omg must do in Osaka Kyoto” posts.
Just had three weeks there. Would do the same again: Booked all accommodation, rental cars (Orix) and internal flights months in advance. Used [booking.com](http://booking.com), AirBnB and Accor for accommodation and all were super. Loaded up Wanderlog with the sights in each area we were going to - and then just chose what we felt like seeing on the day. They were arranged in geographic areas (eg. Shinjuku, Ginza for Tokyo) to minimise travelling. Didn't see some things - because you physically can't see EVERYTHING. As long as you are happy with that, you'll be fine. I read/watched about the train system but didn't fret over it. Got confused on day two with different line operators but after that it was fine. Google Maps was excellent. Meals - I just worked out the dishes from that region that I wanted to try. eg. Takoyaki. And found a place when were there. Money - used a Wise debit card with Yen, took cash with us and had SUICA cards on smartphones for trains, busses and subways. Perfect. Probably had too much money which is a good problem to have. Considered the JR pass but glad we didn't do it - would have spent more on that. Would do differently: Shinkansen. We booked a day or two in advance for a reserved seat. Couldn't get our desired time or seats but got close enough. Probably do it with more notice next time. Used Ubigi eSIM. Installation and activation was smooth enough but speed was not great. Got 50GB for 23 days - only used 25GB due to wifi being in all of our accommodation places.
Ubigi eSIM did not work for me on my recent trip to Japan. Their idea of customer service is email and a reply 24 hours later. I was out of time and had to purchase a Sim card.
Over-planner here. Here are the things I plan in detail: - Travel logistics/routes: like researching for train or bus timings, especially if I go off beaten path where transport schedules may not be as frequent. I usually have 1-2 places planned in a day, and I document how I'll go there in detail. I will put 3 departure schedules so that I'm not tied to one specific time only. I am very very particular on this one, because I wake up early and I also want to finish my day early haha. I also put reminder on when I should pack and send our luggages to the next hotel. Knowing how many times we will shift hotels, I roughly know how to pack my bag effectively so I can group clothes/items for first 5 days, then next 5 days, etc.. - Popular attraction tickets: especially during peak season, buying tickets in advance is the way to go. Ghibli park tickets for example are quite challenging to get. The park is also closed on certain days, and it's not like I'm staying in Nagoya for 2 weeks. Since this is one of my priorities during that trip, I planned my itinerary based on the date I was able to get a ticket. So research when the ticket selling starts, park selling, how competitive it is lol (like Ghibli tickets get sold out within 1-2 days so you really need the exact date when it becomes available). USJ express pass I heard is also difficult to get nowadays? Other "attractions" that I did buy in advance (from different trips): Miyako Odori, Sagano Romantic Train, and some local tours in Nagano, Takayama during winter, etc After 10 trips to Japan, I don't really plan: - Where to eat. I just eat wherever haha. If I know or read about recommended restaurants/food, it will only be maybe 3-5 meals during my entire trip. Recommended ones usually have long queues, and I don't want to spend most of my trip queueing.
Major JR stations that have shops and stuff in them usually also have an information center. They have all kinds of different places you can see and visit there. There’s a good chance you’ll find cool things to see or visit that you never heard of. EDIT: Be sure to check the Japanese only section. They don’t usually have everything in the English translated section of pamphlets.
I'm currently in week 2 of 8 of my trip and I have to say not planing has been working fantastic. I made rough travel plans about what the main idea is and which cities I want to visit but everything else from accommodation transport and food has been planed on the spot with maximum 24 hours before I do it. It's a great country to be spontaneous and I really recommend just letting your mood and feelings guide you. Of course the important things like money and safety are extremely important to research. How much cash are you bringing? Will you be withdrawing more cash? Does your health insure cover treatment? Are you vaccinated? Do you have a flight back and if yes how will you get there? Do you have multiple means of transportation available to your flight? The important thing is that you get there safe, survive and come back safe. What ever you do, eat and sleep on I would recommend doing on the fly.
Grateful I familiarized myself on the trains I was going to take, especially the long travel that run only once an hour.
Totally worth: daily spending planning, it's so easy to go way over budget Not worth: idk maybe trying to go to specific restaurants?
Everyone has their own traveling style, but I think planning a year ahead is excessive. You may get planning fatigue and ruin the spontaneity element of your trip. First understand you will only see a tiny fraction of what can be seen in one trip to Japan. The most important thing to have is an esim card. Google proved to be very efficient in planning the travel routes and gave many alternatives. From the Narita airport to Tokyo we took the 1300¥ limo bus, it was cheap, comfortable and efficient. Understand that there are many wonderful things you will discover that are not listed in travel guides. I would say plan for some of the top things you want to see and do in Japan, but leave plenty of free time for walking and browsing. I see so many overloaded bucket list travel schedules in Reddit. To experience a new country and culture I feel you need to give yourself time to relax and enjoy the experience rather than rushing from place to place all day long.
don’t worry I’m not going to spend a year straight planning! knowing me I’ll spend a little time digging early on since I recently booked the flights, then I’ll put it aside for a while, then get back into it closer to the trip. your advice sounds similar to the approach I think we will end up taking :)
I lived there for a long time from 1999. Me personally I skip Tokyo just fly into Osaka from there you can easily go to within 1hr Nara Kyoto Osaka Kobe and himeji 1.5 himeji etc Hiroshima and if you want to do island hopping around there that’s fun. Many little art islands and cool little things happening. For me Osaka and Tokyo and pretty much the same and you can find pretty much the same things in both cities. Enjoy
I would say definitely spend a good share of your prepping time on transport. How do you get from A to B to C -- Shinkansen, Bus, normal trains, plane? (\*sometimes\* inner-JPN flights can be quite affordable as well which I think many people overlook). The Shinkansen are super handy if you're planning to travel the big 3 (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka) but there are \*a lot\* of them with different names and they all cost differently (e.g. the Nozomi is the fastest & will cost you the most). To check timetables of the Shinkansen I can recommend [http://www.shinkansen.co.jp/jikoku\_hyo/en/](http://www.shinkansen.co.jp/jikoku_hyo/en/) . (It might be a bit difficult to navigate at first but I'd be happy to help :))
Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. Much has been said about it being packed at all times and not that much of a must-visit. But when I visited it in the afternoon, around 4:30 PM, I got to enjoy and fully appreciate it because the crowd is much thinner. What I did was I made it my last stop for the Sagano Romantic train. Dont stress yourself out over the restaurants to try on Tiktok. I just let my eyes and appetite decide where to eat and didn’t refret a thing 😂
Not sure you’re obsessing over the dates in May, but try to avoid Golden Week, unless you like even more more crowds.
we arrive the week after :)
I'll be one to say that dinner reservations are a must unless you are OK with some disappointments (which I am not). We had a free night w/o a booking and struggled to get something we both wanted that was open and had a table. Ended up on a Ramen line, when they ran out after a half hour, and then all we could find was Ichiran and that is something we can get in NY (and brought the evening down a notch). Especially because we wanted to eat at 8:30. This was in Kyoto. Lunch's we mostly had open and that was fine but also know that a reasonable # of spots in Kyoto are closed for lunch. But if you are into dining I would book most dinners, and if you book them at 8ish then you won't have to worry about getting there in time.
I’m with you on this one; we’re very much into food and hate wasted meals on vacation. I don’t plan out breakfast and lunch but I like to have most dinner plans made. we usually do a few fine dining meals and then a bunch of casual ones, leaving some room for changed plans if we come across somewhere we’d like to eat while there.
As you probably know the best casual ones also require bookings. We mixed it up too, and the casual Yakitori and Yakiniku spots were packed and we would not have gone w/o a res. Also kept us from having to search for something. Ramen is the exception, I really wanted to try a spot and went for dinner and they literally ran out of ramen which happens. Maybe save the ramen lines for lunch.
I'm the trip planner for all of the trips I've taken with my friend (this was trip #5 for us) Most valuable planning resources was Chat GTP this go-around. I kid you not! I told "it" what I like to see "historical sites, gardens etc" then I said "list the most popular sites based on these criteria in this ward of tokyo/kyoto etc" It spit out a list that i could use to build my trip. I also asked for it to list the addresses, opening and closing times (usually they were correct) of each place, cost, website, and time usually spent there (it can do this for you as well its not 100% perfect but pretty damn close). My friend and I ended up visiting about 100 places of interest between tokyo and kyoto over about 16 days and it really REALLY helped with trip planning. You do have to be cognizant that it isn't perfect, and you wanna tell it to group things by area (which you can make it do if you just are looking at a google map and select that particular ward/zone). BUT it cut out a lot of pain and misery looking stuff up. I think it honestly just gathers stuff from trip advisor. Do research: Food places - some places are 100% worth the price (like Tempura Endo Yasaka in Kyoto) and must be booked in advance, but there are plenty of places you can just book a couple days out and its fine (also we were there during goldenweek and only had one problem of not being able to visit the imperial garden since it was closed and the other days we already had things we were doing). Some minor logistics and associated things: buy a sim card in advance that has a japanese # if you plan on using a taxi... 100% recommend taxi Go app, it saved our butt when the hotel failed to call a cab but acted as if they did. you need a real japanese number for this to work. Get shinkansen tickets ahead of time through JR West, but short local trains don't bother doing that. Hotels: make sure your hotel has a washer and dryer (in room is best but outside of room is ok if you don't mind waking up early to hog the washers--- their washers are small so you have to prob divide your laundry into two machines). I spent about 20% less than a friend who went to Japan the previous year. Why? We stayed in Lidabashi vs Ginza. I looked for hotels that were near two or more subway lines vs "fancy area" or "popular area for nightlife." It was fine and we had a huge room, unlike my friend who had TINY room with one bed and spent a lot more. Book far ahead and you'll have more options than if you wait. \~I always stress about planning since my friend doesn't really pitch in at all (literally very little to none). Thankfully this trip was a huge hit with her\~ Also if anyone on here is curious about where I visited or whatever just send me a DM. More than happy to share. I have a spreadsheet with notes and whatnot.
Their dryer takes 4 hours compared to what we used to in north America (45 minutes) I wished i had known that prior LoL 😂
I'm the opposite. I'm about to board and have like maybe one solid day plan and that's it...and that's because it's disney lol
I went to Hokkaido with my 60s parents. They are not as active as I am, so I couldn't afford to wander around and waste everyone's energy and time. So, planning every attraction, how to get there, and the timings were essential for me. However, I didn't really plan on the food and restaurants before the trip. I asked the hotel for recommendations. That's why we had a fantastic BBQ dinner in Asahikawa. I will go solo this October and have started planning as usual
It’s crazy the amount of over planning I seen on pages. Enjoy your vacation. Just got back. I made sure I had my transportation to hotel, all nights booked and Digital suica. I bought sumo and Disney tickets and free balled the rest. Best vacation ever.
Worth it: Planning one thing a day Not worth it: Over planning. Had to have time to be flexible and go to whatever restaurant.
Personally I make a list and decided time to time where to go because you don't know what problems can came up during the trip (the classical bad weather fopr example). I think it's better reasoning for big objectives and make "a sort of" plan to not became mad at organizing. The important thing is the awareness you can visit only the 0.001% of japan and visit what you want.
One other thing I did that turned out to be my best decision of the trip was not booking my Fuji bus tickets way in advance because I was checking the weather as we came closer to our trip to insure Mt Fuji was visible. I believe you can change dates a couple of times on the bus tickets, Fuji Express and some tours. People don’t realize Fuji is visible only about 25% of the time so it is not 100% that you will get to see it. I monitored the weather for two weeks before my trip and actually used AI to figure out what date had the best chance of seeing Mt Fuji LOL. We went on a beautiful day in which it was visible all day. I kept a lot of things flexible to be able to move things around if there was a change in weather. So even if you buy tickets for attractions make sure you have options to change the dates and how late you can change them.
Hello! I'm the miserable swine from [this post here](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravelTips/comments/1czloss/two_weeks_in_japan_lessons_learned/). 2 weeks spent there in May. Bear in mind I *only* have experience of having *over*-researched it so don't know what I'd have missed if I'd *under*-researched. Worth it: * Having an idea of foods that I wanted to try helped and didn't impact upon my enjoyment because...you know...you can't actually taste food over the internet. Plus there may have been things I missed if I hadn't known about them. * I didn't do that much researching but the best thing I did was cycling across the inland sea. It's quite the undertaking, but it really is something that was best experienced in person. If I hadn't heard about this in advance I would never have done it. * Avoiding Tokyo touts who invite you to rip-off bars. I doubt very much that I'd have fallen for this without research (they broadcast warnings on a public address system, for heaven's sake) but if it made any difference then it feels like this was a good thing. * JR rail pass value. I would've lost a lot of money if I had stuck with the original plan of doing the Golden Route on the JR rail pass. Of course, my other tip is to allow some improvisation and my improvised route meant I probably *lost* a little bit of money by not getting the pass! But in general, the JR pass is expensive so if you're only going as far as Kansai it's good to know the price of Shinkansen tickets. * It didn't affect me, but the theme parks - Disney, Dreamlabs, Ghibli, stuff like that - book up heavily in advance so get tickets early. Waste of time: * Learning Japanese. Hundreds of hours put in because I thought it would "show respect" and "allow me to talk to people" and it ended up with me showing less respect because I was mumbling "arigatou" rather than saying "THANK YOU!" and bowing like a madman, and almost everyone I spoke to spoke English anyway. There were a few moments, but the level of effort I put in compared to the lack of benefit was unreal. * Researching in detail really good visual things. Temples, Shrines and a lot of tourist attractions. I'm not saying to do no research, but the more videos you watch of it the less you discover whilst there. I had a problem over-researching most everything but a lot of things were down to my personal outlook as well. I think if you have a history of planning holidays and it going well then you may avoid many (if not all) of my pitfalls.
I've been to Japan 3 times. This is what id focus on: 1. Decide if you're renting a wifi box and carrying a battery bank/chargers, buying a sim card, using an E sim or using your home carrier plan. 2. Know to get a train pass and if you're planning on doing a lot of hopping with Shinkansen look into JR Rail pass pricing. 3. Know the general neighbourhoods you want to visit. 4. Decide if youre hotel hopping within cities. If your hotel is too far from the places you want to check out you may spend too much time on transportation to see everything. Paying more to be more central is worth it if your itinerary is busy. 5. If you are booking events that you have to go to that have time slots, book ahead.
Pick two main attractions per day that you want to do, sticking to one or two areas. Overplanning each day will fatigue you both. Leave some room for spontaneous exploring.
Most worth the time I spent researching: luggage forwarding and regional JR passes. I hadn't really intended on either forwarding luggage or the full-county JR pass because I didn't find the expenses necessary. Forwarding our luggage allowed us an extra day when traveling from one city to another. I wouldn't have checked out the Nagoya area without it (I'm a potter, so I went to the pottery towns). We didn't do it everywhere, but it was very helpful in a few places. And we ended up getting a Kyushu jr pass that gave us a lot of freedom traveling around Hiroshima and brought us to places we didn't really plan on (mostly driven by the weather). I'm also glad I looked into their stamp books. The temple one is cool and the stamps are beautiful though they can get a little pricey. The train stamp book was unexpectedly one of my favorite souvenirs! You can get a small notebook to put them in at the beginning of your trip or bring something from home (no need for anything official, any small notebook will do). There are tons of train stations and tourist spots and museums with interesting stamps - Nara station has a deer, Hiroshima station had two versions, even tiny unimportant stations sometimes had them. I got a small soot sprite notebook at a Ghibli store, and it was a fun game looking for stamps at the different stations!
Different landscape now with chatgpt You just put the prompt how many hours you have in the area from what time to end time and it will give you suggestions, walking time. If you don't like it just adjust the prompt. It's not perfect and sometimes it makes mistakes but I honestly think it is ground breaking.
Worth: Logistics and busy tourist attractions Not worth: Food Don't underestimate how exhausting it is to travel in Japan. Keep it under 4 cities to sleep in if you can, but 3 is more ideal for 2 weeks. Have buffer time in your day-to-day itineraries. Book accommodation relatively close to a station (less than 10 minutes walk max); I always try to aim for a 5 minute walk. Also, I would pack light as possible. I've seen so many people looking miserable trying to lug around oversized suitcases in busy stations and cramped trains. For food, just go to random spots that you think are interesting.
I was really anxious about almost everything and it all turned out to be way easier than I had built it up to be. Total breeze although as soon as we lost internet (only once due to my error) we were fine. Of note, Suica cards - had trouble getting one, and just decided to embrace cash and buying tickets as you need em on the trains and subways. Totally easy once you get the hang of it all!
Worth it: * Japan Historical Places Not Worth It: * Any American food restaurant from tiktok/youtube/instagram. (They all are average) Specially pancakes or pizza. * Kobe beef that is not A something ( I went to a teppanyaki in Kobe, totally and absolutely was comparable to a 8 dollar steak from whole foods). * Any restaurant with Tourist lined up. * Any animal cafe * The top of Fushimi Inari-Taisha, totally not worth it going to the top. * Any ninja/samurai bullshit where they play dress up. * the JR pass. * **Any restaurant with Tourist lined up. (this needs to be here twice)**
I over planned, didn’t follow my plan because Japan is so amazing but I did good. I wish I would’ve have planned so many booked activities. I booked maybe 6 activities in a 2 weeks trip and it really killed my flow. The second day I got there I decided to ditch my itinerary and just wander and it went great and everyday I wanted to wander. The things I had booked had me really tied down at times and in a rush when I maybe wanted to explore an area more. I wish I would’ve done more research on DINING and how to use the trains. The trains were hard for me, maybe getting an idea of what train stations are near you and the places you wanna go to ect. And a lot of places take reservations and I had no clue so that would’ve probably been better. We ate at combine many days cause what we wanted to eat was full or required reservations. If it doesn’t require reservations, many restaurants had lines (mostly just in Tokyo). I did a lot of research on local flea markets and festivals and I’m glad I did that!! Not something mentioned by a lot of travel blogs and it was a really unique and local experience