Japan planning thread

[Takoneko]

I’ve just booked the hotels for my third trip to Japan next year and about to start planning the itinerary in earnest.

Japan threads pop up here quite a bit and I think people spend a lot of time on planning for Japan trips. I thought it might be nice to have a shared thread where we can pool questions, tips and share research for anyone who has a trip coming up.

All budgets and styles of trip are welcome, whether you’re going hiking, temple-hopping, skiing or visiting theme parks, maid cafes and arcades and whether you’re going to hostels or 5 star hotels. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to enjoy Japan. It has something for everyone.

We’re a couple in our late 30s and our trip will be mid-budget, probably up to about £3.4k per person with food and spends. We’ve splashed out a bit on direct JAL flights and have upgraded all our hotel rooms to at least king size beds in hotels that are in really well connected locations. They are all mid-range Japanese business hotel chains rather than luxury hotels though. (Candeo, Daiwa Roynet and Sotetsu Fresa). We like Japanese food but we’re definitely more likely to be eating eat in mom and pop restaurants and mid-range Japanese chains than in fancy kaiseki places. Any recommendations for mid range restaurants with relaxed atmospheres would be very welcome.

We plan to use the Sanyo-San’in rail pass in the second half of our trip and would be really interested to share ideas for places to visit with anyone else who is planning on using that pass (or who has used it in the past). At the moment we are thinking Iwakuni, Miyajima, Kurashiki and Onomichi from Hiroshima and Himeji and Uji from Osaka, but we are open to other ideas. I speak passable tourist Japanese and we are ok with going to places that don’t cater to English speakers and muddling through with broken Japanese and Google translate.

We did. Lasted a couple of days. I'm no expert at long haul but the advice is always to stick to local time as much as possible in the early days. If you're knackered, power on! Better to have short sharp jet lag than let it linger!

People generally advise avoiding a nap on arrival, but I personally find a short 1hr nap really perks me up and is enough to keep me going until bedtime (any longer than that i think would be counter productive). By the first full day I'm generally on japanese time. Excitement tends to overcome any jet lag!

Hiya
for those going next summer, so are we, it’s our second trip and we’re doing the Japanese alps with Tokyo at the end as figure - it’s cooler and b a bit less busy! We are doing Kyoto for a couple of days as going with friends but one of those days we’re doing an e-bike tour at a lake and making lunch in a local farm- again cool🤣
we have 2 16 year olds with us. The last trip was with our then 14 year old and we did the golden route including Himeji, we had the most amazing time!

@wizzler The first time we went to Japan we arrived in the morning and made the mistake of going to sleep in the afternoon once we checked into the hotel. We were horribly jet lagged for days and woke up absurdly early in the mornings when nothing was open and were dead on our feet in the afternoons and fit for nothing by evening.

Since then we’ve been back to the Far East a few times and we’re always really strict about getting on destination time right away on the flight and not sleeping before a normal bedtime on the first day, however tired we feel. I’ve never really suffered with jet lag since that first trip.

I would schedule things in for the first couple of days but make them outdoor activities as far as possible. Museums, galleries and shopping malls are not good choices for the first day or so because they don’t expose you to natural daylight. The natural daylight helps set your body clock.

And yes would agree with @Takoneko on jet lag advice. Get into local time straight away and you should be fine. Day 1 will be a bit tiring but hopefully so exciting that you’ll be ok!

Bumping your question about onsen etiquette @Evamaisie . I have booked several hotels with spas, 2 of them 'sky spas', so roof top infinity pool thingy-mags. So will I need to flash half of Tokyo and Osaka from a roof terrace? Is there still an onson etiquette in places that basically look like Western hotel spas? The hotel website lists a man's and a women's infinity pool, so does that mean we are going naked? I did live in Germany as a child - back then running around naked in sauna-swimming leisure worlds or at the beach was normal, but since living in the UK and US for 30 years and having several dc, it feels a bit more daunting.

@Evamaisie Oh, I booked a hotel in Asakusa called Prostyle Ryokan that has rooms that come with it's private onsen tubs on your balcony. We only got a normal room, but I assume there might be other options for private onsen experiences.

@NellyBarney The term “Sky Spa” makes me think you might be staying in a Candeo hotel. We originally booked a Candeo hotel in Hiroshima and when I looked, their website stated that swimwear is not allowed in their baths. If it’s a Candeo then you’ll need to be naked. They operate like a Japanese onsen or sento.

@Evamaisie You might find this useful. https://travel.gaijinpot.com/japan-sightseeing-essentials/30-tattoo-friendly-onsen-in-japan/

You can also buy patches to cover tattoos for onsen. If you just have one or two little tattoos then that may be an option.

@Takoneko Yes, one of the hotels is The Tower in Osaka by Candeo! Just found their policy on their website and it says strictly no swimsuits, but children and tattoos are OK! At least it's divided into males and females, that's more than the German Saunalandschaften 😬

Oh, just realised the other hotel we are staying at with a 'sky spa' at Universal Studios also belongs to the Candeo chain and has the same no swimsuits policy - and even no tattoos!. Blimey, that puts the pressure on to hit the gym and stay off the chocolate ...

Thank you @Takoneko and @NellyBarney

No jet lag on arrival just tiredness in the first couple of days.
However, the jet lag after coming home was brutal. Not sure if it's worse going the other way normally but it seemed terrible for us...

Has anybody stayed at Mount Koya at all? Thanks

When thinking about onsen, good to remember that the water is VERY hot and not really suitable for children.x

I found I could bathe for 2-3 minutes at a time. The Japanese are used to this temperature so can sit in for longer. The etiquette and bathing before hand is all part of the experience. Sitting on a stool and washing with the pail before going into the onsen etc. it's all part of it.

There is a good kids place in Hakone, called Yunessun. It's more like a swimming pool vibe with slides etc as well s as Onsen baths. Swimsuits must be worn as it's a mixed family place.

Super useful thread.

I'm considering flying ANA and splashing out on Business for the first time ever, but I can't find any reviews of ANA - can anyone help?

Also grateful to hear of recommendations of chains of hotel - Premier Inn standard will suffice.

There’s loads of Japanese hotel chains. You will be spoiled for choice.

APA hotels are the Japanese equivalent of premier inn and are absolutely everywhere. They have mixed reviews though and the owner is a bit dubious.

Other Japanese chains include Daiwa Roynet, Monterey, Gracery, Candeo, Intergate, Henn Na Hotel, Tokyu Stay, Sunroute, Villa Fontaine, Sotetsu Fresa, Dormy and Toyoko Inn.

There are so many business hotel options and although rooms are small in the cities they will all be clean and most of those chains will offer better amenities than somewhere like a Premier Inn for a very reasonable price. We’ve liked all of the hotels we’ve stayed in but will be going to different ones this trip depending on what took our fancy and looked like a good price.

@YesYesKitten When booking hotels my starting point would be looking at where you’ll be going and choose a hotel as close as possible to a convenient station for those places. If you don’t know what you’ll be doing yet, then book hotels that can be cancelled so that as your itinerary gets fleshed out you can change to another location if it becomes clear you’re better off being closer to another transit line or station. We changed our Hiroshima hotel to one closer to the main station when it became clear how often we’d be taking shinkansen during that part of our trip.

"I can't find any reviews of ANA - can anyone help?"

There is a forum called Flyer Talk - basically it's like Mumsnet but for frequent flyers. My DH posts there from time to time.

They have a whole section dedicated to ANA (and all the other major airlines).

I would suggest having a read there and posting a question yourself

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/all-nippon-airways-ana-mileage-club-443/

[EDIT] But the talk there can get quite "techy" and they use lots of jargon but don't let that dissuade you from asking this question.

"I'm considering flying ANA and splashing out on Business for the first time ever"

Just to add to my previous answer, my DH has flown that route several times over many years.

He says that, in his experience (although do bear in mind that this is just one person's experience) there is little difference between ANA and JAL so take whichever one is cheaper and/or more convenient.

However, if you are open to taking an indirect flight then there are plenty of, perhaps better (or equally good) alternatives that may be cheaper.

Etihad Airways can be a good choice with a two hour stopover at Abu Dhabi on the way.

Cathay Pacific with a two hour stopover at Hong Kong used to be a very good airline but there are now mixed reports about them.

Lufthansa with a one hour stopover in either Frankfurt or Munich also has a very good Business Class on the route to Japan.

But to save some money you can also look at the Chinese airlines. Air China and China Southern are typically a third less than other airlines with a stopover in either Beijing or Shanghai. Part of the reason for this is that they can fly through Russian airspace which means a shorter route.

But, if you're looking for some sort of "special" treatment to justify the upgrade then I would probably pass on the Chinese airlines and go either for the Japanese airlines flying direct or the slightly cheaper Lufthansa or Etihad (a lot of people have good things to say about Etihad but have a read and choose for yourself)

We're doing ANA - indirect out via Frankfurt (business class) and direct (premium economy) back. Looked better than BA and cheaper too.

Is anyone else on here planning to collect eki stamps and kinen stamps?
We had so much fun collecting them last time and my stamp book is my favourite souvenir.
I’ve been using this website today to find out which places we fare visiting have stamps. It’s all in Japanese but translates well enough using my browser’s translate feature.

https://stamp.funakiya.com

Thanks so much for your detailed responses @Another2Cats , I'm looking to upgrade purely because I find economy uncomfortable. I usually just book extra legroom but for such a long flight I think need more space to stretch out.

Hi guys.
I'm in the very early stages of researching a two week trip for 2026 - probably would be in May.
2 adults and 2 kids who will be 7 & 9 then.
A very rough plan is to spend 6 nights each in Tokyo and Kyoto, with 2 nights in Hiroshima (staying in either Hiroshima or Miyajima island).
Ideally I think I'd like to limit our accommodations to three places max (four at a push), so for this reason am thinking of doing some day trips from Tokyo (i.e. Mount Fuji) and Kyoto (i.e. Osaka), rather than changing bases all the time.
This is purely because changing hotels with kids in tow is a hassle.
We will probably do one of the Disney parks whilst in Tokyo also.
I'm just wondering if anybody has any particular recommendatoins of other places that we may have overlooked?
I'm definitely set on staying in both Tokyo & Kyoto but otherwise am open to suggestions.
I've seen so many places mentioned in various blogs that I'm getting a little overwhelmed (Hakone, Kanazawa etc.). and also I guess need to try and be conscious that my kids are still young and not do too much :-)
Many thanks in advance for any recommendations.

Hi @Brycare , welcome! I think your plan sounds sensible. The issue with Japan is there are so many places, the problem is limiting them, so we decided we’d just have to back 🤣 By staying in the 3 places you
mention you’ll be able to see and do loads. We’re having our 2nd trip to Japan this summer, our first was very similar to yours with the addition of 2 nights in Osaka as we did Universal. It worked well, I’d def recommend seeing Himeji on your way back to Tokyo from Osaka or Kyoto, it’s a great stop off. We loved Miyajima, we only visited for a few hours but would have loved to spend the night there. Happy planning!