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're going in the Easter holidays in April too.

Everyone has recommended Mimaru hotels but the £400pn price is ridiculous.

Looking at Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka and back to Tokyo. There will be day trips within that but itinerary not finalised.

Not sure if I'll bother with Teamlabs Borderless, seems to be a super touristy thing. Will try and get to Disneysea though.

Thanks for the tips, exactly what we need! There are a few things in Tokyo we'd like to do so will probably spend a few days there. DS is Pokémon mad sadly so I suspect there will be a theme to his choices.

DH loves the railways and has been before so counting on him to book travel. I like good scenery, relaxing countryside and some authentic food. The kids are good travellers so anywhere accessible on public transport is fine.

We're flying to Seoul and then catching the ferry over to Japan as it was miles cheaper. Should be a good adventure.

We're there for two weeks plus travel either side. Not decided how many days in each place yet but keen to stay overnight in Hakone to stay in a traditional guesthouse.

Thanks for the sumo info.

I didn’t realise mimaru hotels were that expensive!
Our hotels have worked out about £150pn for Tokyo and £85pn for Osaka and Hiroshima for April.
They aren’t apart-hotels like mimarus though, so no kitchenette or washing machines in the room.
I can see why people with kids would pay a premium for that.

Since you're going in April you might be lucky and catch the cherry blossom season. I hope you're not allergic to pollen because it's lovely just wandering around their parks!

I think we’ll be too late for cherry blossom. We are going to be there in mid-late April. We’re ok with that as we got the cherry blossom experience this year.

I have been to Tokyo and Osaka. I would switch the times around personally, Tokyo IMO is a much more interesting city (sorry if this has been addressed upthread!). Tokyo tip: if you're going on the train/cable car trip to see Mt Fuji, take the train called romancecar (for some reason). We took the normal train and it was like being on the circle line for 90 minutes.

Also: try and get a decent translation app on your phone. An unusual feature of Japanese shops is that they can be different outlets on different floors of the same building. The signs (in kanji) run up the side of the building, and that's the only way you'll understand what's in there. You can't tell what's what from street level, unusually.

We were in Tokyo for a full week this Spring. I definitely agree with you that you want a decent amount of time in Tokyo if you’ve never been before, but we did all the main Tokyo spots this year.

In that case, how about Koya San monastery as a side trip from Osaka? Its worth staying overnight, but be prepared for paper walls and being expected to take part in sunrise prayers! The cemetery there is also amazing.

My mistake, its one word: Koyasan

@FatArse123 We dislike changing hotels too much, so tend not to do one night overnights anywhere. We prefer to use well connected hub hotels for day trips. However, we have been considering renting a car and heading out to Koyasan and to explore Wakayama prefecture a bit more. At the minute we’re just very wary of overpacking the itinerary and running out of steam at the end. A lot of our big priorities for this trip are at the end of the itinerary so we don’t want to overdo it early on.

Kurashiki, Onomichi, Uji, Himeji, Hiroshima, Iwakuni and Miyajima are our big priorities and they all fall in the last week of our itinerary, so we are very aware of the need to not overdo it in the first week.

You’re the second person to recommend Koyasan though, so I’m definitely going to keep it on our list of possibilities.

Hopping onboard to bookmark. Off on October....

Happy to talk Japan having lived there for almost 10 years (in Tokyo). We were back for a holiday last Autumn and did a whole mix, Tokyo, Kyoto, Naoshima (art island), Kyoto, Amanohashidate, San'in Kaigan Geopark, Tottori dunes, Matsue, the Adachi museum, Arifukuonsen, etc. Majority by train, but some of the Amanohashidate to Tottori leg was by car with a Japanese friend.

We both like Miyajima, would highly recommend Hida-Takayama if you have not been.

Glad to see Miyajima getting a good shout! We'll be going there.

Where else are you planning on going? Apparently October is a great time of year to visit. I bet you’ll have a wonderful time.

4 nights in Tokyo
1 at an onsen ryokan on the Izu peninsula (I forget its name right now!)
4 nights Kyoto
1 night Hiroshima
2 nights Miyajima
1 night Tokyo
Then home.

We're also doing 3 nights in Seoul on the way out so hopefully will have lost the jet lag by the time we get to Tokyo

We're keen on temples, gardens, traditional crafts. Not so much the tech side. Happy to take day trips out from the cities. In Tokyo we're staying at the Station hotel, so presumably that helps.

Very worried about crowds in Kyoto. Have come close several times to switching to elsewhere, but everyone says oh no you must go to Kyoto!

Sounds like a lovely itinerary. Three nights in Seoul sounds great too. I really want to do a Seoul-Kyushu itinerary one day, so would love to hear how your trip goes.

I wasn’t personally a fan of Kyoto. It’s undeniably beautiful, but not for me with crowds as they are now.

The obvious impacts of over tourism on the city made me feel uncomfortable and we didn’t go back for the second day that we had planned to spend there. We skipped a load of the “must sees” like Arashiyama and Kinkaku-ji and have no regrets whatsoever.
I know everyone says you must go to Kyoto, but I won’t be rushing back.

I’ve decided that there’s plenty of other places in Japan that I intend work my way through first.

@Takoneko
We had similar experience as well, went to some less well known temples and enjoyed it. Kyoto suffers from over tourism and we did not do Arashiyama bamboo forest.
Op - Go to Nara very early, we went there at 7:30 and by the time we left the main temple around 10:00 am, the place was heaving and it is a completely different experience then.

Unless you have any particular reason to stay in Hiroshima, see the peace museum and park on your way to Miyajima. Spend an extra day in Tokyo instead. You could do some shopping before you fly back, that is if you are interested in shopping.

Following as we're off to Tokyo for 9 days in October half term and I'm so nervous! It's our first time but my teenage daughter is absolutely Japan-obsessed, so this is her dream holiday destination. I'm open to absolutely all suggestions and any recommendations.

Arashiyama is open 24 hours so if you can get there very very early (transport allowing) you could miss the majority of the crowds.

To be honest we're planning to skip Arashiyama entirely. It sounds hellish. And im beginning to think we need to stay elsewhere and nip into Kyoto.

This whole trip is concerning me!

We’ve been to Japan a couple of times (Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto) and loved it.

I haven’t done any detailed research but for our next trip there, I’m planning to add on some experiences/day classes such as kintsugi pottery repair, roketsu indigo dyeing and soba making.

The World Expo 2025 will be held in Osaka next year: https://www.expo2025.or.jp/en/

I honestly don’t think you need to worry too much. Just because you’re in Kyoto doesn’t mean you have to go to all the Kyoto “must see” places. It sounds like @ProfessorLayton1 found quieter places to enjoy there away from the main hotspots and there’s other far less crowded places really nearby that you could head out to. We’re really looking forward to Uji which is very nearby Kyoto. Everything I’ve read says that it is very quiet there and sounds like exactly the sort of thing you’d like.

Whether you turn out to be a Kyoto person or not, Japan is fabulous. I’m very jealous of your stay at the station hotel. It’s always been on my “maybe someday” list.