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.

Sounds wonderful! Look forward to hearing about Uji, we’re thinking of doing that on our way from Osaka to Kyoto. Hope you love Himeji, there was a fab place on the road from the station that did Kobe beef and rice, can’t remember the name but on the left, v small and would recommend. We absolutely loved Miyajima and wished we’d had more time there. Also v envious that you’ll see some of Kyushu, the whole island is on my list for our next trip but July is v wet so we had to give it a miss this time! Sounds like an amazing trip, have a wonderful time!

My updates for my Easter holiday trip is that I've failed to get Studio Ghibli Museum or Kirby Cafe. So difficult for both! I was there in the pre-queue for Studio Ghibli but it seemed to sell out straight away.

I do have a lot of other things booked like USJ, Teamlab Planets, some restaurants/cafes including Monster Hunter.

Hi I joined this thread at the start but I've been off planning and refining since then. We're a family of 3 travelling so hotel rooms have been a little more challenging than for two and we've tried staying near train stations but not super expensive hotels.

I'll post my itinerary later, but we've done no museums or theme parks or many things we'll have to book in advance really, we're just going to go with the flow. The plan is largely just the areas that we'll visit on a given day and if we dont want to see a particular thing when the time comes, we won't. I was in danger of over planning to the point we would have been exhausted so as to not put pressure on myself I've gone with suggestions in my itinerary rather than must do's!

I don't have an iPhone so I can't get the Suica on my phone but I'm planning to pick up a Welcome Suica at the airport. DD is 12 (13 in May) and I'm trying to understand if she needs an adult or child Suica. I've read that she will only count as a child until the 31st of March before her 13th birthday and like many of you, we're going in the Easter Holidays so that won't work for us.

Finally for now, is anyone flying Air China from Gatwick? I was wondering what it would be like as it was so cheap but a friend recently flew to NZ with them and said it was brilliant, the same as any other airline really so I'm not so nervous any more.

Oh no what a shame, they are notoriously difficult to get but you will have an amazing time regardless, honestly seeing all the vending machines, day to day life and culture is phenomenal Not sure of the ages of your kids ( if you have them!) but there are quite a lot of other themed cafes if they would be of interest, Pokemon, hello kitty etc. have a fab time!

Thanks. As I posted before, a lot of it is driven by my DS26 who is ASD and has a life time special interest in Japan. I did ask him about pokemon cage but he wasn't keen.

I did check the Kirby cafe in Osaka when I couldn't get Tokyo but it was similar.

We are going to Samurai Restaurant Time which looks insane (the old Robot restaurant).

Hiya!
we did exactly the same as you when we went, the only thing we hooked in advance was Team Labs as we really wanted to go, other than that we played by ear, had a list but took each day as it came. We found that it was fab just wandering sometimes and also found that some days we were knackered so actually wanted to take things a bit more slowly!
i had a look at the Suica card question, there’s a great guy on Tripadvisor who is a Japan expert and I found this from him, it seems your daughter will need an adult suica. Hope this helps.
Child Suica expires on the first March 31 after a child turns 12. So whether your child’s card still works or not depends on when his birthday is. For example if he turns 12 in February, his card won't work in May but if his birthday is in April, he can still use his child Suica in May. Note that you can convert his child Suica to adult Suica with credit intact at a ticket office. Here is the rules in Japanese:

こども用Suica」には有効期限があり（小学校卒業年の3月31日まで有効※1）、期限が過ぎると使用できなくなります。引き続き、大人用としてご利用になる場合は、Suicaエリア内にあるJR東日本の駅のみどりの窓口、話せる指定席券売機（オペレーターによる対応）または多機能券売機で大人用に変更する手続きを行ってください

※1 満12歳に達する日（誕生日前日）以後の最初の3月31日

I’ve not flown Air China but friends went to Tokyo with them in September and had no issues!

Somewhere else I am interested in is Rock Rock Osaka- famous rock bar in Osaka. I will not be taking DS as he would hate it. Had anyone been?

Oh sorry, I hadn’t realised that. I read that there are sometimes cancellations qonder if it’s worth keeping checking? Also apparently The Kirby Cafe shop opposite the Pokemon Center also offers desserts and some drinks that are also on the menu at the Kirby Cafe, but they sell out really quickly so you’d need to get there first thing in the morning to get one.
Takeout from the cafe is also available without needing a reservation. You just talk to the staff at the Kirby Cafe (or manning the cash register at the shop just behind the actual cafe) and ask for takeout. Just be prepared to go back to that gift shop an hour or so later to get the food. Might they be options? Know not the same….

I am down to 3 weeks and counting 😬😬

Couple of questions:

Which would you choose out of shibuya sky, Tokyo tower and Tokyo sky tree???
And is daytime just as good as sunset? Because I've seen plenty of sunsets!

As 2 adults is teamlab planets worth it?

Can anyone recommend a traditional tea thing we can do?

What is a must in Kyoto? Only there for the day on the train from Osaka including a stop in Nara Deer park

Finally do I really need to pre book my snoopy museum tickets?

Regarding Air China, the main reasons they are cheaper are:

1. They use Russian airspace, so the journey is shorter and uses less fuel and there are fewer fees for the airspace of other countries to pay
2. It's usually not direct, and direct long haul flights tend to be more costly for airline and thus more expensive

For peace of mind I ruled out any flight with a stop over as I didn't want to risk missing a connection flight, but if you don't mind a stop over and connecting flight, there is nothing inherently wrong/worse/less safe with Air China and it can be nice to have a break and a quick walk during transfer. As the distance is shorter than on all non-Chinese/Russian airlines, even a connecting flight is pretty quick.

I have flown Air China from NZ to UK, with a transit/change in China.

Flight was great, food was excellent, the transit airport was very fancy wall to wall marble, fairly empty and we had an excellent ramen there.

My main issue with Air China is they often seem to have long transit times between connecting flights.

They can often be a lot cheaper.

Kiyomizudera was worth it for me. It’s insanely crowded at that time of year, and I won’t be rushing back, but it is gorgeous.

Fushimi Inari is probably logistically a better fit with Nara Deer Park though. Also great, but didn’t have quite the same wow factor for me as Kiyomizu.

I’m really sorry you missed out on those. I hope you all have a wonderful time regardless and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a lucky cancellation.

I agree, I checked against a couple of tour companies and we are paying about 1/3 of what they would charge

I have finally finished booking our last place in Onomichi where we will do an ebike tour of the Shimanami Kaido rout in the Setonaikai National park.

Now I just need to book an airport hotel, need one with good food, I was thinking this one looks good
Villa Fontaine Premier Haneda Airport, Tokyo (updated prices 2025)
it's right by T3 at Haneda which we will be flying from

Has anyone stayed there and can recommend? Open to other suggestions too! We have an early flight so will have to be near the airport

My dd and her boyfriend flew with China Southern to Tokyo and said they were great, not sure if they are still flying the route though

In terms of observation decks/towers, have you looked at the government building? It is free and supposed to be a good view: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3011_tocho.html

We are massive fans of observation desks and are doing the government building, Shibuya Sky (tickets for April are on sale on 18th) and the Fuji Television headquarters which is a very cool building (combining this with TeamLabs Planet and the Unicorn Gundam).

Also TeamLabs in supposed to be amazing. I would definitely book in advance- we already have our tickets.

Thanks - we're only 3-4 hours in transit and have an Amex Platinum card so lots of lounges available to us luckily. Plus, although I can't get out of the airport in that time, I can check out Chinese duty free! Even if the layover it wasn't that much difference given other airlines can't fly over Russia.

Hi
we did the government building and it was great. Haven’t done the others but looking at Sky Tree this summer.
We absolutely loved TeamLabs and would def recommend, it’s amazing!
agree with @Takoneko on Kyoto, we loved Kiyomizu and Fushimi Inari, both v busy and quite different but worth a trip to at least one.
I’ve found this tea ceremony,https://mai-ko.com/culture/tea-ceremony/
they do them in Tokyo and Kyoto, I’ve not used them but they were recommended somewhere! We also did one in the gardens of Himeji which was a cheap and b nice!

Ooh am v envious of the e bike tour, we looked at doing that cycle ride but July is v wet!! Another on our list for next time 😀
Ive not stayed there, we stayed at Jal West Wing near the airport and it was good, we arrived late though so can’t comment on food! On our way home we ate in Tokyo and got the monorail out to the airport and hotel after dinner.

What are Kiyomizu & Fushimi Inari?? Parks? Shrines?

Thank you for the Teamlabs reports! Looks like it's deffo worth doing so maybe I'll buy a ticket that combines with an observation deck

Kiyomizudera is a Buddhist temple complex which is stunning, some great views and a gorgeous pagoda as well as lots of other things to see https://www.kiyomizudera.or.jp/en/
Fushimi Inari is an important shrine complex, you’ll have seen photos of all the vermillion tori gates up The hill. It’s a good walk to the too and again amazing views https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3915.html

you won’t regret team lab, it’s fab!

Kiyomizudera is a Buddhist temple. It’s in a mountainside location and the views from it and of it from the surrounding trails are breathtaking. There’s also a pretty unique pitch black tunnel experience. If you love a view and an observation deck then it’s probably not one to miss.

Fushimi Inari is a Shinto inari shrine. Its famous for it’s long tunnel of red tori gates.

They are probably Kyoto’s two most famous sites.

What's the difference between team lab borderless and planets please? And is it a light show, like the Monet immersive experience? I have looked online but was a bit confused. Thanks!

I have no idea what autocorrect is doing with those apostrophes

TeamLabs Planet is a sensory/immersive experience while Boarderless is more like moving art. I have booked TL Planet