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.

So who is going this weekend then?

🙋

On Suica cards, we couldn’t use the iPhone wallet version as most of us have old phones that don’t support it. We found the Welcome Suica card super easy and have used it for subways and buses and ferries in three different cities, as well as for drinks machines.

Only issue was that the machine at the airport didn’t accept my credit card as payment (it said it did accept credit cards, but the transaction failed for both cards I tried) so it was lucky that I’d got some Yen in the UK, and was able to load the Suica card with that.

Glad it all worked out.

Are you in Japan now?

Is the cherry blossom all pretty much gone now? It’s pretty much all gone in my bit of London.

@CherryBlossomFestivaldid those same cards work elsewhere in Japan?

On a separate point, I'm thinking of taking the Romance Car from Shinjuku to do the Hakone Loop in July. I fancy the Open Air Museum and love a cable car and ropeway. Previously was considering a private tour to 5th Station instead. Any experiences of this gratefully received.

Currently in Kyoto, still lots of cherry blossom!

@Takoneko Yes, still lots of cherry blossom.

@YesYesKitten Yes, they’ve worked in Hiroshima and Kyoto as well. So much easier than trying to work out which ticket to buy.

@Takoneko havw the most AMAZING trip! And anyone else who’s going/ is there!
I booked what I thought were tickets on the Vida express from Kyoto to Takanawa last night using Navitime, turns out it’s a prebooking request and will be confirmed a month before. They charge a feee of about £10ish pp and now not sure whether to cancel and try to book when they come
out direct. Read lots of stories about it being sold out v quickly and we don’t have any flexibility, has anyone done this trip? Thanks!

sorry, another question from me! Sumo tickets permitting, we’ll be in Nagoya for the tournament and to walk
some of the Nakasendo trail. We’re heading from there to Tokyo, does anyone have any ideas of places to go enroute? We have 3 days in Tokyo and while I loved it, I’d like to do something on one of the days. Places I’ve found so far are either Shizuoka or Yokohama but not sure whether there is a compelling enough reason to do either! We’re already in Hakone and Kamakura at the beginning so ideally not those! Any other ideas
for trips outside Tokyo? Thanks

That’s a pleasant surprise. Thanks!!

I‘be started a part 2 thread for anyone who would like to carry on this discussion. I suspect this thread will probably run out of space when I’m flying tomorrow.

Here’s the link.

What about Nagano or somewhere nearby like Karuizawa? It’s a direct train (but not a Shinkansen) to Nagano from Nagoya. It’s likely to be a bit cooler there too. You could then catch the hokuriku Shinkansen back to Tokyo. There was a series of Terrace House set on Karuizawa and it looked lovely there.

edit to @Waffles21

ooh Karuizawa looks perfect thanks! Safe flight and fab times!

@Takoneko have a wonderful time! Safe journey see you on the next thread.

Safe travels @Takoneko have the best time 🌸

Well I am back from my first trip to Japan. OMG. It's fantastic!!

We did so much I am slightly overwhelmed at the prospect of reporting it all, but thought I would put some recommendations on for others as we stayed and ate in some incredible places!

Tokyo, we stayed at Hotel Groove in Shinjuku which was incredible, views to die for, its own projector and screen (we watched Kill Bill on it one night after going to Gonpachi, which was fun!) If you can stretch to it it's really worth it

Nakano is a fantastic area to go out in the evening, like Golden Gai but much bigger and not touristy, 5 mins from Shinjuki on the Chuo Line. We ate in several great places and went to some crazy standing bars and met all sorts of people! The mexican restaurant does superb cocktails and there is a bao bun place which does street food, steam everywhere, the best I've ever had!

Team Labs Borderless is really worth visiting, mindblowing (and much better than Planets apparently, my dd had been) [Official] teamLab Borderless TOKYO, Azabudai Hills

We went for amazing lunchtime Omakase, it's about half the price at lunch time if you are after that sort of thing (top tip from dd!)

Hakone - we absolutely loved Hakone! We stayed on the lake in a fab hotel with onsens (and had a private one too so we could all do together, that was v cheap and great) It seems quite expensive but you get breakfast and dinner included (buffet which is not my favourite but was fine in fact) and all booze at dinner which we all took advantage of! Everyone swans around in fancy robes, it's fun.
箱根・芦ノ湖 はなをり［公式・最安］

There is so much to do there, and Fuji made an appearance! We walked a lot and got the various cable cars up to see the hot springs and then went over into some of the villages higher up on the Hakone side, it's all so quaint and beautiful. We only found out about the Hakone pass when we were leaving, you can get for 1 or 2 days to include all trains/cable cars/museums/gardens etc, would be worth it I think

Osaka was brilliant, thank you to whoever recommended the Henn na Hotel Osaka Shinsaibashi with the dinosaur robot receptionists, it was a great location and super clean and comfortable. The palace and gardens were great and also there is a really fun area called Shinsekai which is really worth a visit, a retro-futuristic area modelled on Coney Island
Visit Shinsekai: Osaka’s retro futuristic old town

We also had incredible Okonomiyaki in Nippombashi, highly recommened!
MOEGI, Nippombashi - Restaurant Reviews, Photos & Phone Number - Tripadvisor

Kyoto - we only went for the day, it was horribly crowded in places but you could find plenty of uncrowded places too. It was not my favourite but I was glad we went.

Hiroshima - stayed in a great apartment in a nice quiet area by the Peace park, it was incredibly comfortable, lots of space and it had a washing machine and the most superb drying room, basically the bath/shower room with a heater in the ceiling and racks you could hang clothes on and go out and leave them to dry. We did all our washing there! The staff were incredibly friendly too
5 minutes walk from Peace Memorial Park [Official] in front of Grand Base Hiroshima Peace Park

Probably a 15-20 minute walk to the busier area on the other side of the Peace Park. Obviously the Peace Memorial park and exhibition were incredible, so moving.

Onomichi - This was my favourite place I think, we went to do the Shimanami Kaido cycling route, we got a stunning day and cycled across amazing bridges through very varied islands, some quite industrial areas, lots of agriculture and stunning beaches and scenery throughout.
A Cyclist's Guide to the Shimanami Kaido - Things to Do - Japan Travel

We rented e-bikes and cycled 35km and then got a ferry with cycle storage back. The town itself is gorgeous, amazing food (one of the best bakeries I've been to ever!) and very cheap. We stayed in a really beautiful traditional house up the hill with views to die for.

I cannot wait to go back, the food, the people, the total weirdness and the amazing loos!!

Oh and in all we spent about £6k on hotels (some including food, most with free booze/snacks etc) Shinkansens and local trains/cable cars/boats etc for 4 people, plus spending money which was a lot less than we thought it might be!

Oh I'm staying at the Groove in July! Premier twin room with extra bed. If you can recommend a floor / room number I'd be interested to hear it.

Did you get the limousine bus straight to the door from Haneda?

Hakone Loop definitely on our list for a long day trip. How were the queues for the boat/ropeway/cable/car etc? And how long do we need at the Open Air Museum for arty DD?

We were in a Premier Suite on the 32nd floor, it was incredible, on a corner so views in two directions! No extra bed though (dd and her bf live in Tokyo)

We got the train from Narita and did battle with Shinjuku station which was hilarious!

Queues were fine in the morning but got busier later, we were going to get the hotel bus transfer back to Odawara but missed it due to the queue, so just got the local bus which was fine. We didn't make it to the museum.

Thanks @OldieButBaddie, was the Groove being near the red light district a problem at all?

And did you eat in Kabukicho Tower at all? Our fam has mixed dietary requirements so hoping a food court setting will suit us all.

I was planning on Planets for the water feature rather than Borderless.

@OldieButBaddie That sounds like an amazing trip. I’m glad you enjoyed the Henn na Hotel!

We’re in Tokyo at the minute (we’re on a train to Kawagoe currently) but will be heading to Onomichi next week. Glad to hear that you loved it, we’re really excited about that day.
I really enjoyed reading about your trip.

We did eat in the tower on the day we arrived for lunch, it was fine, I can't actually remember the food so it was unmemorable I guess!

No problem with being in the red light district, just girls outside holding up boards, no one approaches you or anything and they are dressed normally.

DD said that Planets was good but not a patch on Borderless fyi

Ooh lucky you, I really did love it there!
You must go to this bakery in the shopping street
PANYA KORO, Onomichi - Restaurant Reviews, Photos & Phone Number - Tripadvisor

They have the best bagels I have ever had outside NYC! The cheese ones are to die for, our cycling picnic consisted of these with Japanese version of Dairylea and we all agreed it was the best thing we had ever eaten 😆

We also had a very good and cheap meal at Kurata (izakaya near the station) The sashimi was fantastic and everything else was good

this was meant for @Takoneko sorry the board glitched!

@OldieButBaddieglad you enjoyed Onomichi, as it’s on our list too. The cycle trip is something we’re also thinking of doing.
@Takonekohope you are enjoying your travels.
We have finalised our itinerary, thanks to this thread. We have 6 nights in Tokyo (we arrive late evening so first one doesn’t count), then 3 nights in Kyoto, 4 nights in Okayama and just one night in Osaka (flying from KIX). We took ages deciding on how to split our time between Hiroshima and Osaka, but realised that there are many things that interest us near Okayama , so we are making that a base for day trips. We will get the 7 day JR regional pass.
I’m now looking at a nice hotel in Osaka for the final night. We are going to have a modest splurge on something a bit more special (ie £300 ish). Does anyone have any recommendations please?
I’m hoping for a balcony/fancy city view, in a central area. Thanks all.