Japan Planning Thread Part 2

[Takoneko]

This is a thread for anyone planning a trip to Japan. All budgets and styles of trip are welcome.

I got so much out of the first thread and would love to be able to continue the conversation with everyone who has been so helpful.

I fly tomorrow morning!

First Thread

Sounds fab!! Did you find the bus easy to navigate and did you buy tickets in advance?
weve got a day and a half in Takayama so weighing up whether we do Kamikochi as well . Hida folk village definitely on the list and the old streets etc, it looks gorgeous. Thanks for the tips!

@2025istheyeari there is a tourist info by the station with lots of info and you buy bus tickets on the day. We got the first bus (you change and those buses link time wise) it was easy. You could return in time to do other things that day. If you go later in the day the last bus back was about 5.30 and gets busy. It is stunning and I would say it's worth it. Hida folk houses are nearer about 15 mins by bus and your bus ticket includes entry.

Great, thanks @Jellyslothbridge , we’re definitely going to do that!
Another change to our itinerary 🫣. We’d struggled to find somewhere in Kamakura which wasn’t very expensive ( we’re there on a Saturday evening). We settled on a ryokan which offered food, but had a message this morning to say their chef is ill, which is very sad, and they’re not offering food. They’ve offered us £40 off which means the actual place is quite expensive and pretty basic too. We wouldn’t have minded if the food was included as we know we’ll be exhausted, but thought of having to find somewhere to eat and staying somewhere that’s expensive but not great means we’re rethinking. All other places are very ££. Any ideas on places between Haneda and Hakone which we’re heading to after Kamakura? Looked at whether we could bring our Hakone hotel forward by a day but it’s full. We’re in Tokyo at the end of the holiday and don’t really want an extra night.
thanks!

@2025istheyeari Sorry you’re having to change plans again. You’ve had some bad luck with bookings. If Kamakura is looking quite pricy what about staying somewhere nearby (like Ofuna or Fujisawa)? Ofuna has the benefit of being able to connect on the monorail to Enoshima as well as the JR line to Kamakura. I don’t think it’s much of a tourist destination by itself (although there is the Kannon there) but there’s plenty of places to eat and it looks like there’s a couple of Sotetsu Fresa Inns by the station. We stayed in one of those in Osaka and they are a decent budget chain. We were pretty impressed with the one we stayed in.

We are slowly getting organised for our July trip but not yet booked all hotels.

For Kyoto where we're are for 4 nights ( coming from Tokyko going to Hiroshima) I am looking at 2 hotels both South of the station on the east side of the river.
https://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/kyoto-royal-park.en-gb.html is one.

Is this a good location ,the reviews would suggest yes? We are a family of 4 and noted previous advice that taxis might be a cheap as metro. I'm finding it really hard to decide where to stay in Kyoto!

Trying to keep accommodation costs down as we used a fair bit in Tokyo and Ishigaki (resort type place).

We’ve stayed near there, it’s a good location.

Sorry its the West Side- got all muddled!

That's not a bad location, places like Nikishi Market and Gion are all less than 20 minutes walk. Taxis are a convenient way to get across Kyoto, but there are also sightseeing buses that stop off at the various sights on the outskirts. Taxis are pretty similar in price to metro/bus for short trips for 4 people, like from the station to your hotel I'd definitely choose a taxi over the stress of finding a bus, especially if you have luggage. It will be cheaper to use public transport to sights further out of town - there are sightseeing buses that do the tourist routes - but Taxis are a relatively affordable way to make sightseeing much more convenient, e.g. if you want to get to the bamboo forest at 6am to get a photo without crowds, from your hotel, I would budget 4 to 5k yen for a taxi, so that's only about 5/6 pounds per person. On public transport, it's about half that at 510 yen pp, so 2k for your group. Having said that, Kyoto was earily empty and sleepy when we got there. Visitor numbers seem to fluctuate very much.

The hotel you linked is North of Kyoto station, not South which is good! It's West of the river, so close to Nishiki market. East of the river is more oldy-worldly, but the restaurants, shrines and theatres of Gion on the East side are still within walking distance.

Thanks @Takoneko we've found somewhere in Fujisawa which is actually better than the original, as on mainline to Odawara for Hakone the following day, and easy to get to lots of the places we want to see. Our main thing was eating as we land that morning, there is a 7/11 right next door which will be perfect- lunch out and easy takeaway tea. I have to say that this Japan holiday has been quite taxing in terms of changes, obviously very unusual but I am praying for no more!!!! Thanks as always for your help!!! 3 1/2 weeks and counting!

@2025istheyeari I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you that everything goes smoothly from here on. I’m sure the next few weeks will just fly by.

Under 6 weeks for us now. Can anyone help with how much cash we should take? I get varying info online from “yes take loads” to “not needed at all now”. Would £500 worth be too much? We are a family of four going for a fortnight. I appreciate we can use the ATMs out there but want to take some to have from day 1. Thanks.

@QueenMabby Somewhere between those extremes. You definitely need some cash. We encountered quite a few places that were cash only. Some shops, restaurants, vending machines, shrines, temples and museums were cash only. Even some chain restaurants only took cash or PayPay (which is a Japanese epayment system) but not credit card. If you have physical suica/passmo/icoca cards then a lot of the machines for topping them up are cash only too.

I’ve also seen some people say you don’t need any cash, but that’s not my experience. However, you will be able to use card in the majority of places.

I think taking a couple of hundred pounds is sensible. We didn’t take any cash with us on our trip this year, but did withdraw some from 7-11 on our first day and we did make another couple of withdrawals over the two weeks. I wouldn’t take too much with you through as the rate you get here will be a lot worse than you’d get withdrawing from an ATM in Japan as long as you make sure you pay in yen.

I'm planning on taking cash mostly to top up our Suica as we're on Android.

Exchange rates looking better last few days.

QueenMabby, we took £500 for 15 nights and ended up bringing £200 back! Many more places than we'd been led to believe took cards. I think £500 is probably ideal. We used cash at shrines and museums, some small local cafes and bars, and small, local shops.

One of our Airbnbs required cash, and we found the Suica machines at the airport which were meant to take credit cards in practice didn’t recognise ours. in fact, topping up Suica always had to be cash, and we used them a lot for local buses and drinks from vending machines, not just local trains.

A couple of websites for museum tickets also didn’t work with foreign credit cards, so we ended up paying cash for those tickets (Kyoto railway museum, for example).

I used MSE to get a decent exchange rate here, and just used up the ‘extra’ cash for meals etc in the last few days.

We are going to Seoul, Kyoto and Tokyo in October. Can anyone recommend which area of Tokyo and Kyoto we would be best staying in? There is lots of accomodation available, but I'm not really sure where we are best off being based. We will have our two children with us who are 10 and 13. Thank you!

Hotel, apartment, or ryokan?
What sights do you plan to see?
What is your budget?

@Orangesandlemons82 Where to stay in Tokyo really does depend on what you plan to do while there. The most convenient place could vary if you’re planning to do any day trips or attractions that are on the outskirts of the city.

I’m less familiar with Kyoto, so can’t really advise there.

We're staying in Shinjuku but actually Ginza might have been better for us

Thank you - what makes you think that would have worked best? Do you think that would be a good area for a family?
I need to find our draft itinerary, I think my husband sent it as a spreadsheet and I can't find it anywhere 😳

The Ginza area has a lot of subway lines running through it and is close enough to Tokyo station to walk there. I really like the Ginza and Nihonbashi neighbourhoods. Wherever you stay around there, you’d be within a short walk of multiple metro/subway stations on different lines and Tokyo station. It’s also fairly quiet at night. There’s places to eat and drink but it’s not a heavy drinking spot really. Shinjuku is a bit seedier and more nightlife-focused, especially near Kabukicho.

Just to add, we stayed right on top of Kyobashi station this year and it was great. It was a very short walk to Tokyo station for the Shinkansen and very well connected on the metro. Kyobashi is on the Ginza line but we could take a short walk to nearby stations for the Asakusa, Yurakucho, Marunouchi, Tozai or Hibiya subway lines and the Keiyo JR line, which goes out to Disney. We could also walk very easily to either the Ginza or Nihombashi neighbourhoods. There’s a lot of hotels in the area.

On our next trip we plan to stay near Ueno, which is also very well connected but a bit grittier than Ginza at night. It does have lots for kids during the day though with the park, zoo and museums.

Used to do Ueno, and have tried Asakusa and Shinjuku, but prefer Ginza now and can’t see that changing.

@Orangesandlemons82There are at least 4 things on my list to do in Ginza with our teen - chopstick making, Seiko museum, Ginza 6 sculpture and Uniqlo and had planned to go there after Imperial Palace and Teamlabs Planets on two different days but I'm now worried it will be too much rushing around.