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.

Yes but there’s the monorail. For anyone with boy teens it’s more interesting. It’s unusual,

I think we must have crossed wires somewhere. I assumed you were talking about the Shonan Monorail which is the only one that I’m aware of that connects with the Enoden line, but that only goes as far as Ofuna in Kamakura, not back to Tokyo. I think you must have got some other monorail that I’m not aware of if you took it all the way from Tokyo. I had no idea you could take a monorail that far. Do you mind sharing what the line was? I might be interested in taking it on a future trip. I do love a monorail. Is it a hanging one like in Tokyo or a normal one?

We used it one way. Out of Tokyo. So yes, you would need a train to get to it. However you do that, it’s worth it. We did not find anything overcrowded but maybe got lucky. We just got a standard train back and got a seat.

The book I recommended gives details where I’m hazy.

Our experience was probably affected by the fact that we’re were there on a crystal clear day in peak cherry blossom season in the year that Japan broke its record for the highest ever number of overseas visitors. The Enoden line was gorgeous but we were packed in like on a rush hour tube and the commuter train that we got out to connect to the Enoden line we ended up standing for a good chunk of the journey, although it was not quite so tightly packed.

Away from Kotoku-in and the mad crowds around the level crossings, we found Kamakura quiet though.

Just a few second hand top tips. We did our trip last year but our son and his wife spent the last month in Japan (their second trip). They went to a rugby game to see how the Japanese supporters do it, and went to a baseball nets place which looked huge fun. Two Japanese sporting obsessions!
They also watched the ekiden race on New Year's Day which looked phenomenal fun.

@cheezncrackers we went with our then 13 year old in October 23 and are going back this summer. In Tokyo, there is a chain sushi restaurant which delivers food on Shinkansen that he loved, we enjoyed team lab planets and Donki shop ( Don Quixote, it’s bonkers!) there are some bars you can go to with unlimited sweets and snacks once you’ve paid your entrance. It’s super easy as pp have said to explore Tokyo by yourselves and you’ll find things you maybe wouldn’t on a tour. We loved Senso Ji temple, Ueno Park and the Tokyo National museum, and exploring harajuku and looking in all the trainer shops! Second street is a great vintage shop.if they like manga and anime there is loads of stuff. Ds not into that but we did go to the pokemon store.
Osaka he loved the running man and we did universal and Mario land. He loved Nara too.
bullet trains and eki Ben to eat on them went down well too! Oh and Himeji castle ( ticked the final item off in his food bucket list- Kobe beef!). He basically loved absolutely everything, they’re going to have an amazing time!

I would love to go to Japan with my DS. I probably couldn’t afford it for a few years yet so he would be around 10 years old. Do you think it would be a suitable holiday with a 10 year old? We love sight-seeing etc. thank you

Forgot to say he obsessed with Pokémon too. Whether he will be by aged 10 or not I don’t know! X

@Willyoujust It’s a brilliant holiday for a 10 year old.

Theme parks, theme cafes, bullet trains, eki stamps, sushi restaurants where your food whizzes to you on little Shinkansen. Everything is different and exciting.

if your son is into Pokémon you could go hunting for Pokémon manhole covers. https://tokyocheapo.com/entertainment/sightseeing/poke-lids-the-beauty-of-pokemon-manhole-covers-in-japan/

Eki stamps are also great fun, especially for kids. Get him a little A6 notebook and he can collect stamps at train stations, tourist information centres and attractions. https://gohsomewhere.com/guide-to-eki-stamps/

Amazing thank you! X

Hi

Thank you so much for this thread, I've been watching for months.
I've decided to ditch Kyoto now as we only have 7/8 days and doing 3 cities was crazy.

I was just wondering if anyone could look at my itinerary please and make any suggestions or glaring errors?

Thanks

@princesspadam I’d be more than happy to take a look. You could post it here or PM me if for whatever reason you don’t want to post it on the thread.

Thank you so much @Waffles21 - those are great suggestions. Our kids aren't really into manga, anime and Pokemon, but they both love trainers, sushi and can't wait to try Kobe beef! They're the most adventurous kids when it comes to eating and younger DS can't wait to try things like strawberry sandwiches from convenience stores and many flavoured Kit Kats

@Takoneko thank you so much 😌

Plan is:

Fly into Osaka arrive 10am
Do Osaka Castle
Kuromon Market
Maybe Umeda Sky building

In the evening do Dotonburi

Next day
Namba Shrine
Amerikamura
Tsutenkaku Tower
Shinsekai

Day 3
A day trip to Nara Deer park & Kyoto
(No plans for anything in Kyoto so anything welcome)

Day 4
Bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo

We have 4 days here:
No idea where to stay but ideally a twin room and somewhere £5-600 for 4 nights

Non negotiable:
Cherry blossom - but not sure where best to see
Snoopy Museum
Disney Land or Sea - which is best?
Shibuya Crossing

Would like:
Meiji Jingu Shrine
Kura Sushi
Yoyogi Park
Shinjuku Goyan Garden
Mario Katt
Onset (that allows covered tattoos)

I would love some help please 🙏🏼 I feel like my head is going to explode

Your Osaka plans are very similar to the things that we did. We really enjoyed Osaka and your itinerary is definitely doable.

Cherry blossom will be something you can see everywhere if you’re there at the right time. What are the dates for your trip? If the Sakura are in bloom you’ll see them at Osaka castle, Nara Park, Yoyogi Park and Shinjuku Gyoen. They are also just dotted around all over the place in the cities.

You won’t have to hunt out a Kura Sushi either. We ate in one at Namba station but saw loads of them around in various places.

Definitely Disneysea! It’s usually rated by most people as the best Disney park in the world.

Your Tokyo itinerary is going to be a tight, but I’d say you can achieve most of it if you group places well. Disney Sea will take a day, and whilst the Snoopy Museum won’t take that long in itself, it’s not actually in Tokyo, so you need to factor in travelling to and from it. It’s in a suburb of Yokohama and it will probably take you 1-1.5hrs to get there from Tokyo depending on where you stay, so it will eat up most of a day.

Meiji Jingu, Yoyogi Park and/or Shinjuku Gyoen and the Shibuya crossing can all be done on one day.

I’d also add Asakusa to your list. It’s crowded at Senso-Ji at that time of year but the cherry blossom there and down by the Sumida river is gorgeous. There is a free observation deck at the tourist information centre that gives you a view of the temple and also out towards sky tree and the interesting architecture in that direction. I wouldn’t skip it during cherry blossom season. Head from the temple towards the river for some really great cherry blossom viewing and you can even take a water bus down the river for a very affordable price. We did that and really loved it.

@princesspadam If you’re going to Disney I’d stay walking distance to Tokyo Station or Hatchobori station. It will cut down the journey time to Disney hugely compared to staying somewhere like Shinjuku. As Disney tends to be the earliest start in the morning, making that journey as simple as possible makes sense. It’s also convenient for when you arrive from Osaka. With only 8 days I’d be looking to save time wherever I could.

Anyone been to the ghibli park? - not sure if it is aimed at younger teens or also fun for adults (if they liked the films)

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all the knowledgeable contributors to this thread (and I look forward to contributing myself after we've been in April)👏

It's made me a) extremely excited for our first trip to Japan and b) realise that I'll probably want and need to go back again and again and again, because there is so much I want to see and experience and in just two weeks we'll barely scratch the surface 🍲🎍🍵🚅⛩🗻🗼✈🎡🇯🇵

@cheezncrackers something we didn’t do but our son was keen to was design his own cup noodle at the cup noodle museum in Osaka. Random I know, but just in case https://www.cupnoodles-museum.jp/en/. We went to a fab okonomiyaki place in Osaka and tried lots of street food like octopus balls:
Gaming and capsule machines in Akhiabara was good for an hour or so! The sushi place I mentioned is this one and the second one is the sweet place. Genki Sushi (Uobei Shibuya Dogenzaka-Shop) or Dagashi Bar Shibuya.
oh and shaved ice was something else our son really loved, we ended up in a place in the little alley of shops between Nara and the train station. We had a fab bento box type thing at a place called the view in Nara, it included cherry blossom sushi which was delicious.
id be really interested in hearing your thoughts on Nikko, we’re debating whether to do that this summer.
have an amazing time, you’re going to love it! Assume you have your suica card etc sorted?

@cheezncrackers Japan can be addictive like that. There’s always more places to see and things to do.

Hi all, I'm going to Japan in February this year and I've found this thread incredibly helpful.
The trip/accommodation has just been booked so I'm frantically trying to research and prepare (it's all happened a bit last minute to coincide with a business trip). We're staying 3 nights Tokyo, 2 nights Takayama, 3 nights Kyoto, 2 nights Hiroshima, 2 nights Osaka, 2 nights Hakone and 1 night Tokyo airport hotel.

I have some questions about transport within the cities.

I'm very claustrophobic and get panic attacks on the underground so always prefer to walk/bus where possible and happy to walk long distances or taxi where this isn't feasible.

I am ok with overground trains. Is the Yamanote line in Tokyo all overground? We will have a Japan Rail pass - does this include the Yamanote line?

What are the best transport options in the other cities?

Thank you for any advice.

@Takoneko thank you so much for the advice 😌 you're a star

Would you stay in those areas for the whole time in Tokyo then?
I really don't want to move again

This is our hotel in Osaka, is this going to work? Or are there specific areas in Osaka best to stay

I’m not 100% confident but to the best of my knowledge the Yamanote line is an entirely overground line. It gets elevated above ground in places rather than going underground. It’s also a JR line so would be covered by your pass.

If you’re ok with walking, taxis and buses I don’t think you’ll getting around any of those places especially difficult to get around.

How are you travelling between cities? Japan is very mountainous, so the Shinkansen lines in some places spend quite a bit of time in tunnels. You might want to look into that further if it’s likely to be an issue.

Hiroshima has trams and Kyoto has a lot of buses.

I think that Osaka hotel looks OK in terms of location. It’s not in the middle of nowhere.
However, if you’re looking for optimal convenience then the best place to stay is along the Midosuji (red) metro line. It is the most convenient line for getting to the major tourist areas and the main train stations. It connects with Namba, Umeda/Osaka and Shin-Osaka stations, so you can’t really beat it for convenience.

You can absolutely stay in the Tokyo Station/Hatchobori area for the whole of your time in Tokyo. Loads of metro lines run through that area (and the Yamanote line) so it’s a really good base for central Tokyo as well as Disney.