Japan Trips & Travel Tips

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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Junior_Woodpecker519 on 2024-10-12 01:35:59+00:00.

I benefitted so much from reading people’s experiences on here when I was planning my trip to Japan, I thought I would share my own. Feel free to browse on, but if this can make life easier for anyone else - mission accomplished.

Who we were: 2 adults and our 6 year old son, and two grandparents in their 70s who had always wanted to go. Time of year: Sept 26-Oct 13.

Itinerary: Tokyo (6 days), Disney Sea/Land (2 days - grandparents did their own side trip elsewhere until:), Hakone (2 days), Kyoto 5 days, Osaka (for Universal - 2 days - grandparents did their own side trip to the west), stayed at Hotel Excel at Terminal 2 Haneda then flew out. This was a good amount of time for us all.

Weather: Hot and humid when we arrived, but not as bad as some have had it recently. In the last week, the weather was far more pleasant. You either accept it or suffer with it I guess! Dress accordingly and for comfort most of the time. Accept you look like a tourist (if the confused look and constant reference to your phone doesn’t already show that).

Accommodation:

• Tokyo - Shinjuku - Hundred Stays Hotel. Three of us stayed in a 2 br room at the top floor. More like a serviced apartment and roomy for Tokyo standards (had a tiny kitchen and dining room). Quiet, 5 mins to the local station. The hotel was v good but on reflection we would rather have stayed in Rappongi or Shibuya. Next time!
• Disney - Disneyland Hotel - excellent hotel with early entry into the park. Not cheap but made life a lot easier for starting and ending the day with less stress.
• Hakone - Gion Hanaougi - Superb ryokan in the hills of Hakone, at the top of a rope way. Found it via Reddit. Cannot speak highly of it enough - our first experience of Japanese traditional hospitality, food (both breakfast and dinner provided each night), and onsen. Conveniently located near the ropeway exit (which helped because it was pouring down when we arrived).
• Kyoto - Gion Shiraume - I thought we would be done with ryokan experiences after leaving Hakone, but Tomoko san and her staff at this amazing little ryokan in the old district of Kyoto were phenomenal. This was a real highlight and if you are going to splurge anywhere, this would be it. Perched on top of a small stream running through town - there was nothing Tomoko would not organise or know. The food was incredible.
• Universal/Osaka - Universal Port Hotel. It was fine. Mostly a room to stay in to do USJ conveniently. We had split opinions on the buffet here. I see a buffet at a hotel filled with families (like ours!) as a bit of a health hazard, and this was the only option in the hotel. Do not plan on a great diet if you go here.

Transport:

• Three of us had iPhones so life around local trains was super easy. Use Wallet and add a card (any will do - we used Suica) and charge it using your usual method. Activate express pass on either your Apple Watch or iPhone and off you go. Do not stop walking.
• The system worked through all of the cities we visited on all trains aside from Shinkansen (although you can link this I believe).
• One of us (the kid) did not and we had to find a Welcome Suica card at a JR Service Centre at Shinjuku for him. He didn’t come w me when we got it, and so they wouldn’t see us a child ticket - we bought an adult one instead. It did cause some headaches later on the Shinkansen so try not to make the same mistake.
• One of us had a Samsung - sorry android users - but the Japanese train system does not welcome you! Get a Welcome Suica card or regular one from a JR service desk and then you will enjoy train transport a lot more.
• Even by the end of the trip, we were still somewhat confused by the Shinkansen ticketing process. We used SmartEx (official app) and got a QR code to ride. But sometimes you tapped on w your Suica/ICOCA card and sometimes you didn’t. There seemed to be different systems - but it was probably just us. One of us forgot to tap off with their iOS suica at one station - and couldn’t use it for the rest of the trip. Staff couldn’t fix it. Lesson learned. (Edit: and now I know )
• Shinkansen is amazing though. The whole transport system is. But there seems to be a mix of companies and paper tickets are not always compatible. Suica/Icoca will get you through that.
• Staff will always help if you ask. Be patient and use Google Translate.

Language/culture:

• I did Japanese at high school 30 years ago, and no one else had ever. I also started doing Busuu and Duo Lingo (the first is better, although the latter is better to learn hiragana and katakana) to get an understanding of the language. I did some lessons for a while too.
• Google translate is useful but not foolproof.
• Japanese people are amazing at trying to understand you.
• Learning a few phrases will really help you and make life more fun. Reading the alphabets (maybe not kanji!) also helps a lot. Our 6 year old really got into it and you will too - the Japanese were so appreciative/surprised/good humoured when any of us tried it, and that made our holiday more enjoyable.
• Learn some of the basic rules - no loud/or any talking on the train, line up everywhere you need to, bowing is good, stand on the left side of the escalator in Tokyo, and right in Kyoto/Osaka (I think?), be considerate of others, try not to sit on the floor (hard with kids sometimes) and don’t walk on places people sit (eg walls, benches), take your litter with you and find a bin.

Diet/eating/health:

• I read that a lot of Westerners get constipated on travelling to Japan (TMI?). There’s not a lot of fruit, and probably less salad/vegetable than we were used to. Buy when you can. Grapes and bananas, apples, and kiwi are mostly around.
• Take psyllium (and lots of water) to maintain regularity. Plus fibre is good for you generally. I used a Metamucil supplement the whole stay. It definitely worked.
• We took Parachoc for our son and used if we thought things were getting a bit “slow”.
• One of the grandparents was on a low FODMAP diet and in particular had to avoid garlic and onion. It was doable despite some negative posts I saw about this. Soba noodles, sushi/sashimi, lots of other things. She also has problems with gluten (not Coeliac) and yet still was able to eat Japanese omelette and other foods without significant consequence.
• Contrary to what we were told, sushi/sashimi is common enough. There are lots of conveyer belt restaurants and the quality was always great. This was good because our son really loves these foods, and was reluctant to try new food (and is stubborn). However, he did branch out to soba noodles, izakaya, etc and loved it.
• I read that restaurant reviews are rated slightly differently in Japan than in the West - the scores might be lower but still represent a good meal. We were never disappointed eating out.
• We booked a couple of restaurants ahead of time but otherwise just stumbled across places and took a chance. Never lined up for anywhere. Some of the best places had 10 seats, a tiny kitchen, and were on a back lane or upstairs in a plain office block. Get out there and look.
• Ryokan meals - highly recommended to try at least once if you can.

Clothing/luggage:

• I took two pairs of shoes, worried that I would get one wet but I only wore 1 pair and the other was wasted space. They were super comfortable and required no breaking in.
• I took three pairs of Smart Wool socks (merino) because they can be worn for 5 days without washing, don’t smell, and wick away sweat. They worked as advertised.
• Don’t take a change of clothes for everyday. Pack enough for a week and do washing regularly at hotels. Hundred Stays in Tokyo had a washer/dryer in the room!
• We took a suitcase inside another suitcase on the way over so we could expand as needed and this helped at the end of our trip.

General:

• Tokyo was a shock for the first 3 days. We are all travellers, but had never been somewhere so intense. It was hot, humid, intensely crowded, and then there was the cultural and language differences. After a particularly enjoyable day we felt we had adjusted and then things got easier. Anticipate this and plough on.
• Get an eSIM and use data without concern. We used Airalo. You’ll use it a lot.
• Google Maps is not infallible but it is very useful. Use common sense as well, or ask (xxx wa doko desk ka).
• Activities (and some forms of transport) do book up. Don’t leave everything to the last minute. Accommodation options open up 6 months +/- before your dates so keep an eye on things.
• Klook is quite helpful to book things - but also look at the official websites too.
• My (elderly) parents did fine on their own when not with us. They probably benefited from us organising and navigating generally, but then went off for a few days on their own. They just kept accidentally ordering double portions of sake somehow…
• Money - we used Wise and a spare credit card. We had some cash on hand that we withdrew on arrival from a 7/11 ATM. I would say we used the card mostly and cash about 40% of the time.

Activity highlights: I won’t go into everything I did as it’s too much and there are lots of online opinions. Tokyo:

• Teamlabs - we did Planets and Borderless and we all loved both.
• Disney Sea - an unexpected highlight that we almost didn’t do. I’m glad we did. So unique. Disneyland was also grea...

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