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.

@princesspadam have you tried the happy cow app? I’ve seen it recommended for Tokyo. If you’re really struggling where your hotel is it might be worth heading into Ginza where there’s a bit more choice and variety.

Are the TeamLab experiences similar or significantly better than the immersion experiences in London e.g. Frameless, Monet off Brick Lane?

I suppose the water feature is different.

So I bit the bullet and booked my flights yesterday - for 3 weeks in October/ November. Yay!

I’ve now got 6 months to save for my trip and figure out some sort of itinerary, although I’d be happy enough wandering around people watching.

Anyway, I hope people who are currently in Japan are having a ball, and those of you going soon are getting excited.

I’m off to read this thread from the beginning to get some good ideas.

I’ll probably come back with lots more questions!!

Ive been catching up with this thread and getting on with my bookings!
Flying toTokyo on 8th may this year for 3 weeks, . 2 adults late 50s

Rough plan so far:
Tokyo 6 Nights- Accomodation Booked. Uneo area
Kyoto 2 Nights- Accomodation Booked. Kyoto station area
Hiroshima 3 Nights
Osaka 5 Nights
Hamamatsu 1 Night
Tokyo 3 Nights

Will be travelling on shinkansen and planning some day tips from these bases, but we want wander time and not an uber busy schedule .

Wondered if anyone has any recommendations for hotels or areas to stay in Osaka / Hiroshima and Hamamatsu.

Whats the best way to get internet/ mobile data please?
EE mobile browsing is coming up at £7.50 per day each which would be a whopping £315 for us both Any suggestions as we will both need good reliable data access.

Can we just roll up to buy our train tickets on the day at the station ?

Thanks for reading and greatful for any tips.

@omega4ever

Best way to get data is with an ESIM provider. Big names are Airalo, Nomad and Saily.

Yes, you can just buy your tickets on the day and the station.

In Osaka, my best advice is to prioritise staying along the Midosuji metro line. We stayed by Shinsaibashi station last time, which was great. We’ve booked a couple of stops further north for this year, Yodoyabashi but still on that same metro line. It’s really convenient.

Came on to recommend this - should be useful for you

I too came in to recommend that app! Hope you find places.
@omega4ever we stayed here in Hiroshima and found it fab https://randorhiroshimaprestige.com-hotel.info

To all who are going over Easter, I’m slightly envious!! Hope you have the most amazing time and can’t wait to hear all about it!!

Daft question from me, I’ve forgotten! How do I book tickets without a JR pass please?
also for anyone looking at the hide express between Kyoto and Takayama, be aware bookings open 3 months before!

Just back from a 3 week trip, my first and it was fantastic. Thanks for many of the tips on this thread, thanks @Takoneko for starting the thread!

Just as OP suggests, we used Airalo. We bought a £15 package which easily lasted the whole trip (but I don't watch films and only really used data for maps and online guides when out and about).

We were recommended APA hotels by friends and they turned out to be excellent. Great breakfasts, usually very well located for public transport and very reasonably priced. Standard double rooms are not huge, they're exactly as much space as you need (often with under bed storage for your luggage).

@omega4ever the Osaka one we stayed in had its own entrance (exit 18) from the subway on the Midosuji line, super convenient (APA Hotel & Resort Midosuji Hommachi Eki Tower).

We bought Shinkansen tickets online a day or a couple of days in advance, because we had luggage with us I wanted to guarantee seats with luggage space. And you can link your purchased tickets to your Suica/PASMO card so you can use those to get through the ticket barriers.

Have a great time everyone, I already want to go back :)

@Waffles21 We've booked that hotel
too. We’re really looking forward to staying there.

Bump! Also wondering whether it's worth to go to TeamLab in Tokyo. We've spent ages in the London PACE gallery last summer while it did the 'on all walls projection thingy', but that's because the gallery is like a bus shelter - if you don't know it, it's open on 2 sides and you just walk in, sit down and watch the projections for as long or short as you like, so it's a great place to rest if it's hot or rainy. Is Borderless much more than the recent Pace exhibitions and worth the trip? The London PACE galery is just off Lancaster Square, so very central and so can easily be combined with sightseeing/eating out/shows etc while the Tokyo locations look off the beaten track in a more office building area.

My ds also liked the butterfly trail in London - is it by outernet? So teamlab is definitely something we are interested in, but worth knowing what else to combine it with in that area.

@NellyBarney I’ve not been to either of them so can’t advise on how “worth it” they are. I wouldn’t say they are off the beaten track though… especially not borderless. We ended up very nearby, even though we weren’t visiting it. Azabudai hills is a hugely popular tourist area because of the swishy shopping malls and views of Tokyo tower. We went for the observation deck at the neighbouring Mori JP Tower, which is sadly no longer open to the public.

Planets is a bit more out of the way, but it’s not really a detour if you were planning on visiting Toyosu fish market and/or Senkyaku Banrai. We could see the building and queue very clearly from the train on our way to Senkyaku Banrai. I think it was one or two stops away.

Hi @NellyBarney and @YesYesKitten we loved team lab planets. We’ve done the Van Gogh and Dali ones in London and thought Tesm Lab was brilliant! There is more to it in that not just one artist and many more different experiences. We combined it with a visit to the fish market and lunch, quite easy to get to, but I suppose it depends on what you want to do/ what your priorities in Tokyo are. We had a number of days there and fancied something different.

I didn’t book in advance for TeamLabs and missed out, so if you decide to go book tickets in advance.

@HornyHornersPinkyWinky I think I’m returning for the first week of October. 3 weeks will be a lovely amount of time for you to explore.

@cheezncrackers Hoping that you made your connection in Seoul ok and are safely in Japan.

Anyone planning on visiting the Expo in Osaka?

I’m home boo hoo, god those flights are loooonnggg

Did you have a great time? What were your highlights?

I’m also really hoping you had better luck with food at the tail end of your trip.

Honestly going with a veggie was hard work because there were lots of places that were a hard no

I felt after a few days I had seen enough shrines to last me a lifetime

I would probably stay somewhere else in Tokyo if I ever went again

Ps I’m tired & grumpy can you tell

@princesspadam I can sympathise with that. I’d imagine it becomes quite stressful if every mealtime becomes a chore in terms of just finding somewhere to eat.

I’m sorry to hear you had a bit of a disappointing trip.

I hope this FB post about mixed diet groups will help us when we're out there Mixed diet groups in Japan

Hope @Takoneko will set up a part 2 thread when this reaches 1000 as I'm finding posts so helpful.

Oh no @princesspadam I’m sorry too! Hope the good outweighed the bad and that you enjoyed the rest of it.

A question I think for @Takoneko , I think you’re going to Uji this time from Osaka, we’ve got a day and a half to play with, with an overnight in Osaka. We’re planning to go to Osaka Castle, we’ve got tickets for the Umeda Sky building and think that’ll fill the afternoon ( we’re coming from Hakone). We may explore Nakazakicho too. We had time in Osaka last year and nothing else is really compelling ( we did the running man, street food etc) so we’re thinking of Uji enroute ( I know it’s a little off route!) to Kyoto, have you booked anything or planning to wander? Is there anywhere else anyone would recommend? We need to be in Kyoto that evening as the following day we’re doing our bike trip on Lake Biwa, but we can get there anytime! Our other option is to do what we didn’t get to last time in Kyoto but I’m worried about how busy it’ll be! So essentially we have a full day to play with! Thanks

I’ll definitely start a part two thread. I’ve loved talking to everyone and will definitely be going back again after this trip, so it would be nice to keep this little community going.

@Waffles21 We haven’t booked anything specific in Uji but have a plan of what we want to do. We want to go to Byodo-in and the Hoshokan museum, we want to take a wander in the Omotesando and visit some tea shops. I’m hoping to pick up a decent hojicha and some matcha. We’re also planning on dropping into the Tale of Genji museum, the observation deck on Mount Daikichi and the Chazuna (looks like a tea themed community centre) to grind our own matcha. We might not do everything depending on time and energy levels but have a rough idea of where we want to walk and what we want to do.

I also have this beef restaurant on our list for lunch. Can’t remember if you’re a meat eater.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JCwG3i1kyRYrMFQ26?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy