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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/bernerdude2020 on 2024-04-13 01:11:30.
My wife and me just finished a three-week trip to Japan. I sense that there is a lot of anxiety among people who have plans to travel to Japan, and so this write-up is an attempt to hopefully alleviate some of that. My precursor to this is that most all of this is subjective. It’s just what worked for us and everyone has different priorities and approaches to travel, obviously. Having said that, we’ve traveled internationally extensively, and this was the best trip of our life.
First some details about our itinerary: we left from Denver and arrived in Tokyo on March 24th and were in Japan for a total of 18 days. We spent the first five nights in Tokyo, then four nights in Kyoto, five nights in Osaka (with three day trips to Nara, Himeji and Hiroshima, and Mount Yoshino), two nights in Fujiyoshida, and two nights in Tokyo on the tail end. I bought a DS and took Pokémon Soul Silver to play on the plane. It made the time go super fast and made me even more excited about Japan.
Hotels: Hotel Metropolitan Edmont (Tokyo), Sora Niwa Terrace (Kyoto), Mitsui Garden Premiere (Osaka), Hotel MyStays Fuji Onsen Resort (Fujiyoshida), and JR Blossom (Tokyo). All hotels were fantastic but my favorite stay was Sora Niwa. It was right across the river from Gion, had an awesome rooftop terrace, and on-site onsen. Kyoto was the destination we were most excited about, and so it was kind of a “splurge hotel” by our standards. Two of our hotels had onsite onsen, which was great after long days of walking. The hotels (especially in Tokyo) were very small and it was difficult to maneuver large luggage. My wife and I actually had separate beds at the JR Blossom (because only a double was available) and having the extra space for luggage and shopping was awesome.
Ultimately I felt like the number of days (18) we spent in Japan was just about perfect. It felt like we had time to settle into each location and explore at a steady pace, but none of our stops felt shortchanged. I didn’t leave anywhere wishing that we would have had more days. The cherry blossoms were sparse for the first week or so, but they really exploded around the time we hit Osaka. We took ¥300,000 (approx. $2,000 USD) in cash and it was handy. Most all places took card except for the odd street vendor here and there, though my Visa cards were not working with setting up the transportation cards. Just don’t forget your cash in the hotel safe like me and you won’t have to rush from Tokyo Station back to your hotel and back to the station…
So now I’ll start off with some macro-advice on mindset and approach to Japan.
First: Let. Things. Roll. Before leaving on our trip, I had a long conversation with one of my friends who spent several years living and working in Tokyo. He said that in his experience, the people who really enjoy Japan, are the ones who let things roll and go with the flow. That mantra was in the back of my mind the entire trip and allowed me to maintain a positive outlook even in “frustrating” situations. Sandwiched into a rush hour car in Tokyo? Let things roll. The restaurant you wanted has a long queue? Let things roll. Google Maps goes crazy and leads you astray when you arrive at a huge station? Let things roll.
Second: relatedly, not everything that you do in Japan needs to be the “best of.” Obviously you should branch out by trying unique foods and experiences, and hit the prominent tourist locations that are popular for a reason, but not every meal or site needs to be life changing or come from a prominent list or social media. Our favorite experiences were the things that we stumbled upon: an Italian restaurant in a back alley in Fujiyoshida (Kagashippo), a table tennis shop in Nara, a random temple we found from a hotel coffee table book in Kyoto, random rivers and streams lined with cherry blossoms, local art stores around Tokyo, listening to a guitar player by the river in Tokyo, and so on and so on. Find your own unique experiences and moments by heading down back alleys, walking instead of taking transit here and there, and interacting with Japanese people.
Third: be a good tourist. More on this later, but the treatment I observed from tourists toward Japanese employees, and towards other tourists, particularly in hotel lobbies and at popular photo spots, was absolutely absurd. Treat the Japanese workers kindly and try to engage with them, if you can. Attempt to communicate with them in Japanese before bombarding someone with a confusing English statement. It is not that hard to learn the twenty or so keywords that you’ll need in most hotel and restaurant situations. If there was an upcoming interaction where I needed to say something, I would write it out in translate and try to quickly learn it on the fly. This wouldn’t always work, but I could sense that the effort was appreciated, and I felt like workers in tourism were more inclined to help me because of it. Telling “oishi” (tastes good) to workers here and there goes a long way.
Fourth: remind yourself to enjoy yourself. It’s ok to try and get some rest and relaxation. It is vacation, after all. I think there is a tendency to try and pack itineraries to the brink, especially in Japan where there is just so much to see. I have done this before on other trips and usually regret it. Of course, not everyone can take three weeks in Japan like us, but the couple of slower paced days that we had (which we planned to correspond with rain) were essential to recharge our bodies and minds. Getting that two hour nap to feel fresh for the next day was more valuable than crossing off another temple.
Now I’ll go into some more specific advice on things that made my life much easier in Japan.
-Invest in a good pair of shoes. Do it. You won’t regret the up-front expenditure, but will certainly regret it if you start having foot issues shortly into the trip. Some of our friends came and the woman had blisters all over her feet after two days. Not fun.
-Get a physical transportation card if you can. We were able to acquire them from the JR counter at Narita Airport. This is not necessary, of course; it was just nice to be able to keep the card in my right pocket, take it out at the stations, and not have to worry about phone battery etc. You can “charge” them with cash at any convenience store.
-Phone: eSim purchased through the AirAlo app worked beautifully the entire trip. You just buy it and activate it right before leaving. For me it started working as soon as we passed through Japanese immigration (be prepared for a long line).
-Taking taxis to the tourist hotspots early in the morning was essential for us. In order to beat the crowds, we took taxis from our hotels to our list of “must see” spots that we knew would get busy. Those sites included: Senso-Ji in Tokyo, Ariyashima Bamboo Forest near Kyoto, Fushimi Inari in Kyoto, and Universal Srudios in Osaka. None of those rides (with the exception of Ariyashima, maybe) were more than ¥4000. This method of transportation might not be for everyone, but for us, the calculation of spending $10-$20 USD to experience these places in complete peace and serenity, or start off the morning with more energy and comfort, was worth it.
-Try to get going early in general. Even if you aren’t a super early riser, I noticed that each hour at popular spots gets progressively busier. For example, we took a day trip to Nara from Osaka. We arrived at Nara Park around 8:00 a.m., and it was relatively peaceful, serene, and “normal” for a couple of hours. Then sometime around 10:30 a.m. the area simply exploded with people.
-Get a power bank, keep it charged, and take it with you. We had an Anker power bank, and the thing was a life-saver. Navigating around the cities, researching sites, taking photos, and pulling out your phone for transportation eats up a lot of battery quickly. With the power bank we could use our phones at our leisure and never had to worry about running out of battery. Of course you can always find a coffee shop or station to charge your phone, but it’s much easier to just plug it in and keep exploring.
-Luggage forwarding is essential. This was something I’d read about before leaving for Japan, and I didn’t anticipate needing or wanting it. But after hauling our carry-ons, backpacks, and a large suitcase from Narita to our hotel in Tokyo, I needed it more than I needed water. A sub-tip is that you can send luggage one destination in advance, that is, skipping a destination. For example, we were in Osaka, from there we had two days in Fujiyoshida, but we sent the luggage from Osaka to the next hotel in Tokyo. It was there waiting for us in our room when we arrived. Very nice. In my experience the cost was approximately ¥2000 per bag per time, and I don’t regret a single cent of it. Edit thanks for kind reply: or just pack lightly, do laundry (easy) while there, and buy a suitcase in Japan for souvenirs.
-I found some of the perceptions of Japan to be overblown. Finding a nice, clean bathroom was never an issue. Much harder in Europe, in my personal experience. Disposing of trash was never an issue. Sometimes we would carry it down the street for a while, but you eventually come across a disposal. People generally respect the crosswalk lights, and we did, but it won’t shatter the earth it someone crosses without a walk signal.
-This one may be controversial and put me in an extreme minority, but I preferred Apple Maps to Google Maps. I j...
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