Japan - where to stay in Tokyo particularly!

[Aragog]

We are currently doing some prep and planning for a holiday to Japan in the summer. Me, dh and 17y DD.

We will be flying with Emirates with a one night stop over in Dubai, and flying into Tokyo, though we don't land til very late the first night. We will have 13 nights in Japan and the plan is:

5 nights Tokyo (2 full days and 1 night will be at Disneyland/Disney Seas)
4 nights Kyoto
4 nights Osaka (1 day at Universal; final day is a full day in Osaka as very late flight)

We will travel between the cities by train. Not sure yet on whether we will benefit from having the Rail Pass. I know the fastest 2 Bullet trains are not included, plus the cost of the individual trains between Tokyo-Kyoto and Kyoto-Osaka are not coming out as being quite as much as a 14 day Rail Pass. Need to do more playing around with figures to work out how much with the normal day to day travel.

Been looking at where to stay in Tokyo though. Its mind boggling though as there is so much to choose between.

Can anyone recommend districts or specific hotels you've liked?
We would prefer for DD to be in with us - to save us paying for 2 rooms more than anything else. This (3 adults/triple rooms) seems possible with some hotels, though not all.

For Disneyland we will stay at the Disneyland hotel for the middle night, so thats not a concern but will have 2 nights in Tokyo either side.

Then need to consider Kyoto and Osaka hotels too - argh!!!

Any hints and tops appreciated.

Hiyperdia works in the UK as that's what been used, extensively before and when we were there, although maybe we just had the main website rather than the app.

Osaka and Kyoto are around 20-30 mins apart on the train so we travelled between the two lots, going to Osaka for dinner as it was cheaper than in Kyoto where we were based. Nara is around an hour from Kyoto so one day we went to Nara then onto Osaka and then back to Kyoto.

I'd highly highly recommend getting a Japanese sim for the internet. There's sites you can order from and get it delivered to your hotel for when you arrive. Japanese addresses are notoriously complicated and we made use of Google maps a lot plus things like Google translate. We wouldn't normally get a local SIM but were so thankful we did as whilst it cost about £20 for the 3 weeks it was money well spent as I genuinely think it made the trip less stressful just being able to get out our phones to navigate like we'd do in Europe.

I'm sure I can do that Potterhead - though not going til August.

Re Disney - we are just planning to do a day in each park, so not planning park hopping anyway.

We are looking at the SIM options. Though I can just use my own phone data for £5 a day which, although dearer, may be easier and less faff. We will see. We just need access to train times and google translate mainly 😆

Our booked plans are:

Flights with Emirates via a short connection at Dubai - means we can fly from our local airport rather than going to London. And I get a couple of hours leg stretch in the airports. Did it for Singapore at Easter and was fine. We land at Narita Airport which is slightly further out but may just bite the bullet and pay out for a taxi for that journey as we will be tired after the long flight.

6 nights - Tokyo but actually staying at Tokyo Bay. Disney for 2 days, and then rest will be exploring the area and in Tokyo itself. Trains seem fine for going in and out based on a friend who is currently doing similar right now. Not booked park tickets yet as it's slightly too early to do so. Dd is planning those two days via list of google and you tube research :)

Train to Kyoto. Staying in Gion for 4 nights. Have a room which is part Western and part traditional Japanese.

Train to Osaka. Staying near Universal for 3 nights and will go to that park one of the days.

Flight home is from Osaka and not til very late in the evening, so have most of that last day too.

Have the Lonely Planet book and finding lots of the advise on here useful especially now we are up to the planning for when there stage.

Does one of your groups phone have a dual SIM function? My husband's did so we just popped the SIM into that, took 5 seconds. We were there 18 months ago and even my new phone has a dual SIM option now so I'd imagine most do now.

Yes all of our phones do.

Aragog

You should be able to find a coach transfer to Tokyo bay at Narita airport as taxis are extremely expensive in Japan.

Thanks. We shall explore what options we can find and take it from there. There may well be a hotel transfer too

I was told to get out disney tickets at the Disney store in Shabuya, to avoid queues at the park, which worked out really well and we saw the massive queues on the way into the park!

You only need a 7 day rail pass - pick it up and have it valid for the day you leave Tokyo and then by the time you get to osaka you leave directly from there?

It's easy to book bullet trains there. Japanese train stations are very efficient and it's a lot of fun watching the clerk clatter away on their keyboard making the booking.

Anyone who's a fan of trains would love Japan, it's a bit like Britain in the 50's.

www2.rph.co.jp/en

We stay here in Tokyo. It is easy to get to from either Narita or Haneda airports as it is at TCat terminal. There is a regular bus service from both airports straight to TCat.
If you upgrade your room to business you have access to the business lounge for breakfast, all day coffee/tea and soft drinks and then from 5-8 in the evening there is a self service bar with wine/champagne spirits and beer (as much as you want) as well as hot and cold Hors d'Oeuvre

It is also built above the Suitengumae Station on the Hanzomon line so easy to get around the city. You don’t leave the building to get to the station.

Next door is a fabulous small restaurant-Kotori - which is always full of locals.

Have a super time. Tokyo is remarkable.

This link might work.

www2.rph.co.jp/en

Far too much time in Osaka; take the Shinkansen train down to Hiroshima for a night and visit the peace museum. It’s breathtaking.

We will only have two actual days in Osaka, as one day will be Universal. We are hoping to have a quieter couple of says to end the holiday as we will have been busy busy the days before.
We did look at going to Hiroshima but it just looks way too far to be practical.

I think when we looked at the rail pass even a 7 day one isn't needed as it's still cheaper for us without. But we will reprice up endeared the time to check.

Thewaronpeace - we plan to get our park tickets before we go. Think we can buy them in a couple of weeks as they're not yet available for our dates at present.

F

I stayed at a business hotel

Keikyu EX Inn Asakusabashiekimae

It was about £45 a night and was adequate for needs. Near to Asakusabashi so will good transport links. Have to say I loved Japan and really need to get back there.

@aragog
I have just returned from Osaka and was at universal for one day. We booked the park tickets in advance and also a fast pass for dd. There is the option to go on the rides as a single rider - you can queue as a family and will then be split to fill spaces on the ride. We were quite happy to do this as waiting times were much better - 10 mins for single rider on the spider man ride vs 40 mins for normal queue and sitting together. We also visited the aquarium which was vg and the big wheel is right next to it so easy to combine.
We bought our tickets in advance from klook (link from universal site) and got a discount by buying aquarium and universal tickets together. There are a limited number of fast passes available for each day, so it may be worth taking a look at that now. The park was really busy and it was a 'quiet' day, but we did not have to queue to get into Harry Potter world. I think the longest queue time we saw was 140 minutes.
I would also price the train cost against the rail pass as not always worth it depending on the number of trips you make and private lines and the fastest Shinkansen are not included. The trains don't excite me that much as my local route to Shanghai is faster - go China!

Thanks :) Queue times we've heard are really long! Luckily we have been to other Universal Studios so know at least some of the rides and which are our priorities. DD has bee doing some online research into those we dont know as well. We've done single rider queues a number of times before on busy days else where so good plan.

We have a day ticket and Express Pass tickets for each of us too = think out EP covers 4 rides (can't remember which ones now, have it on email) and a time slot to access HP land, - the Express pass def includes HP too.

I'm actually doing some research for how to spend our days in Japan right now - hence one of the reasons I am checking on here at the moment! Its definitely worth buying the rail passes for us having priced everything up.

I've booked a Japan tip for autumn and found some lovely traditional places to stay on Airbnb including Kyoto

Hello again

Just been planning some rough itineraries for whilst in the cities - so we don't spend half the morning deciding what to do!

A couple of questions for those in the know:

1. Getting from Nirita airport to Tokyo Bay: seems the limousine bus does't run after 6pm. Our plane lands at 5:35pm so there's little chance of catching it. We know taxis are really expensive and it would be around £150 for the journey. However, we will have been travelling for around 18-19 hours, and have two larger cases, so not sure how practical the train into Tokyo and then out again is going to be. Can anyone advise? Or are we best just swallowing the cost of the taxi?!

1. The subway/trains around Tokyo and between Tokyo Bay. Do you pay as you go, or is there a day/week pass you can get which covers it all?

Thank you x

We changed out flight plans, so although said the other airport earlier - its actually Nirita now where we land, which I know is further out.

Well tonight is our last night in Japan and it's been amazing! I can thoroughly recommend it as a holiday destination for anyone considering it!

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Hi @Aragog glad you've had a fantastic trip. We're heading to japan at the end of September so wondered if you had any tips for us re Tokyo and Kyoto. Was there anything you found especially difficult with the language barrier or any sights you'd recommend we definitely do / avoid? Many thanks!