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

Oh they’re not little 😂 they’re 11 and 13! They should be better here.

But thank you - super useful

@TheyNotLikeUs thanks for the post trip post. Lots of good intel. I really enjoy reading posters’ experiences on this thread.

@Takoneko I was thinking of sumo tickets, will proceed with caution.

I am in Yokohama for a day and was wondering if Mount Fuji is possible from there. What happens if you just get a train there? Do you view it from a bench? Or do a self guide mini hike at the bottom or is a guided tour necessary. This will be beginning of November.

@JapanOnceMore Fukuoka in November is traditionally the tournament least likely to sell out. Presumably that’s because it’s just so much further away from the population centres than Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo. Demand this year is unusually high though.

I think the best way is to just to set an alarm and be online when the tickets go live on the official website, know what kind of seat you want to buy in advance, be ready with your credit card, choose a weekday and try and buy as quickly as you possibly can. If you don’t get them on the official site then your options are limited to resellers who inflate prices or the rather pricy (but more reputable) guided tours which come with tickets.

It’s a fantastic sport and super easy to understand and follow. I’d really recommend watching the NHK highlights when the September tournament comes around if you do get tickets so that you can get a feel for the sport and pick out your favourite wrestlers to cheer for.

The Fuji climbing season is over in November but there’s loads of places in and around where you can self-guide and view the mountain from. We went to the viewing point in Kamakura, which is like 90km away, and it’s crazy how huge and imposing it feels even at that distance. If you’re in one of the towns or resorts nearer to the mountain on a clear day there will be amazing views all over the place.

I still don’t think anyone’s going to be too offended if they can’t use chopsticks. In some places I’ve even been asked if I want a fork when I sat down. I can use chopsticks so never had to ask for a fork but I’m sure it would be fine if you did ask. I think there is an expectation that western tourists may not be able to use chopsticks.

There are also some foods that are not usually eaten with chopsticks. Fried rice dishes are usually served with a spoon and so is Japanese curry. If you order curry rice you’ll always be given a spoon. Doria (a sort of baked/gratinated rice with sauce) is eaten with a spoon too.

Thanks @JapanOnceMore, I do hope it helps someone, it's those little things that make you feel like you're winning when things go smoothly.

Meant to add that Ekiben (the bento boxes) at Tokyo station were purchased after ticket barriers in waiting room or on platform. I couldn't find them on the station concourse but happy to be corrected.

Also, in Uniqlo you have to pay for Gu stock separately and I dont think they like you carrying Gu stock to the Uniqlo section but they were lovely about it.

BA staff were lovely too about DD's meal choice not being taken.

It was a truly wonderful holiday, any mishaps were insignificant and just part of the journey. Happy to answer any specifics if anyone does anything from our itinerary.

The itinerary nearly broke DH but that's a story I won't be thinking about further!

My itinerary for next spring is starting to take shape now. Flights and accommodation are all booked and we have an idea of the route we will take. Anyone familiar with these regions have any tips for us?

Day 1-2- Tokyo. Staying in Asakusa. No specific plans yet except that I will want to go to the kokugikan and Ryogoku area for at least a couple of hours.
Day 3- Start Hokuriku arch pass and get train to Nagano where we’ll stay for 2 nights.
Day 4- Snow monkeys
Day 5- Matsumoto and train to Kanazawa (4 nights).
Day 6-8- Fairly flexible. One day we’ll be getting the train to Fukui and renting a car to visit the Dinosaur museum and some temples/monasteries. We’re also hoping that the sumo tour will end up in Ishikawa while we’re there, so that will eat up a day if so.
Day 9- Ship luggage to Morioka. Visit somewhere on the way back to Omiya (perhaps Takasaki, perhaps Toyama). Pit stop overnight in Omiya.
Day 10- Start 5 day Tohoku rail pass. Train to Morioka, perhaps stopping somewhere on the way. We’ll be in Morioka for 4 nights.
Day 11-13- Flexible but we want to do a day trip to Aomori/Hirosaki and one to Kakunodate.
Day 14- Head back to Tokyo. Overnight in Airport Hotel
Day 15- morning flight home.

Ooh Kanazawa is amazing! We loved the ninja temple, weapon museum ( in Nisha Chaya Gai which is nice)and had the most amazing shaved ice, in it was either called Amanat Kamawura, or it was in that area, when I say shaved ice it was more than that, just amazing. We also ate in Fuwari restaurant in Korimbo ( I think), which was fabulous! You can do a day trip to Kamiomicho or Shirakawago from there too which looks lovely, we didn’t have enough time. We ate at a chain ramen restaurant which had actual robots delivering food which was cool, that was at Kanazawa station, the station building is awesome. Omicho market has great seafood. The garden is nice and Higashiyama-Ku Chaya Gai area also beautiful. Can you tell we loved Kanazawa 🤣. There was a lot we didn’t do and I’d go back in a heartbeat! Enjoy!
Toyama is supposed to be beautiful and friends went to Aomori and loved it.

@2025istheyeari Thanks for those tips!

We had the place where you had the shaved ice on our list already (I think I saw it in a YouTube video) but I had missed the weapon museum right around the corner, so thanks for that!

It’s good to hear how much you loved it. Our main reason for choosing Kanazawa was that we wanted to spend a chunk of our tourist money in Ishikawa prefecture (and we think there’s a good chance that the sumo tour will go to Ishikawa that week), but the more I research and hear from others the more it just seems like an awesome city to spend a few days in. Whereabouts did you stay? We’ve booked a place right by the station (because we’ll be doing day trips). Is the city centre relatively easy to reach from there?

Sorry for all the typos!!!
Oh good, you won’t regret it, we had the seasonal peach shaved ice which was amazing and my husband had a parfait with cherries, macarons and all sorts, it was phenomenal and they were lovely!

It’s really lovely and not as busy as some of the more obvious places. We stayed in the Intergate which was fine, free snacks and coffee and drinks in the evening. I’d say it was functional, very clean, nothing spectacular but good value for money. It was about a 15 min walk from the station, and the ninja temple as an example was 20 mins from our hotel.

@2025istheyeari That’s really helpful, thanks. If the Intergate is about 15 minutes or so from the station, that gives me an idea of how long it will take us to walk into town from our hotel.
Because it will be the middle chunk of our trip, we’ve prioritised booking a room with a washing machine, so I went for the Daiwa Roynet. We’ve stayed in one of their other hotels and liked it. Was it you that recommended us the Randor in Hiroshima? Having a washing machine in our room was a game changer. I feel like it’s made me a bit precious about hotel laundry rooms now.

@Takoneko good to hear you’ve mapped out next year’s itinerary. And it’s lovely to read about everyone’s trips recently. It sounds like you all had a great time, and the travel tips are brilliant.
I just had a look at our rail pass options for October. We’re going to get the SanyoSanin 7 day pass, which will be perfect for our week in that area.
The website I looked at is this one
https://www.jrpass.com/regional-passes/sanyo-sanin-area-pass#regional_pass_type
but I want to check it’s the official site. It certainly looks right, but I was surprised it took me straight to an English version.

@Pusspot

This is the official site. I think the website you posted is legit but they are charging a bit of a markup.

https://www.westjr.co.jp/travel-information/en/tickets-passes/jrwest-rail-pass/sanyosanin/

We bought one of the JR west passes for our last trip. They are fantastic value.

Thank you @Takoneko that’s very helpful. It’s a lot cheaper on the official website!
Can you remember if you collected a physical card from a JR station? I’m assuming it’s like a season pass and we can hop on and off trains without an additional ticket? I don’t think we will need seat reservations apart from Tokyo-Kyoto (Fuji view 🤞) and that leg isn’t part of the pass anyway.

@Pusspot Yes, we collected our passes at Shin-Osaka station when we arrived in Osaka from Tokyo. Get a staff member to point you in the direction of the correct machines to collect the passes from. There are so many different machines and you need the ones with the passport scanners.

You can just hop on and off like with a season pass if you travel in unreserved carriages. We travelled in unreserved cars a few times but for the most part (and especially on long journeys) we liked to reserve a seat. Either online or on the machines before getting on the trains. Maybe we were unlucky, but we found the unreserved cars to have a much higher concentration of very loud tourists. If do you buy a seat reservation you feed both of your tickets (the pass and the reservation) into the gates at once. You just stack them on top of each other.

Also a warning that the passes are just flimsy little tickets and if you lose it, that’s it. I’m not good with things like that (I lose everything) and so DP kept both our tickets and then just handed mine to me at the gates. 😂

@Takoneko Thank you - that’s very helpful. I think we will be looking at reserved seats now - I don’t want a noisy carriage (I have quite enough of that with TfL).
I’m surprised it’s a little paper ticket - I will be extra careful with it!

My son is autistic, dyspraxic and has ARFID, and we had no problem with food at all. Japanese people were so kind. We stayed at a Ryokan in Asakusa and went to some minor 'celebrity' restaurants in Kyoto and everyone was just so kind to him. He had very simple food requests, like plain rice, plain noodles, plain croissant, plain grilled chicken and everywhere we went they made him that type of food, even usually for free or for a couple of hundred yen, and of course gave him a spoon (the ramen type ones they have everywhere). We found the Japanese super child friendly (son is 9). E.g. he loves his Yoshi t-shirts and wore one most days and dozens of Japanese people must have passed him shouting 'Yoshi' and waving at him. We found gestures, like putting the hands together like in prayer and doing the little head bow when saying 'arigato' or 'sumimasen' went a long way, especially if done by the kids.

You’re welcome! Yes I recommended the Randor, it was fab wasn’t it. Glad I could help a little after all you’ve done for everyone else! Your trip sounds fab! We have Japan withdrawal symptoms.
@Pusspot one of our journeys, think from Kix to Kanazawa we ended up with about 6 tickets each, we did have 2 changes but it was v confusing and like @Takoneko says they are pretty flimsy!! So an area pass is def the way to go if you can!!

@2025istheyeari we have also booked the Randor in Hiroshima!

We stayed in an Airbnb in Asakusa and found it to be a great location (not big enough for your party)
There was a great stationary shop nearby where you can create from different papers and covers your own notebook. We also found a chopstick making workshop that was great value and we made a lovely souvenir (they didn't speak any English but we got by)

That’s great thank you I’m going to consider air bnbs too. Honestly we are just so excited

@2025istheyeari 6 tickets! I’ve got so used to QR codes and tapping in!

I know! Suica is amazing, tap in and out but we had so many flipping trains on this journey, an Osaka area pass, 2 Shinkansen blah! It prob wasn’t my best planning to be fair!!!

The ticket stacking is weird if you’re not used to it. Often Shinkansen tickets print out as two tickets even for one simple journey with no changes. One is the base fare ticket and the other is the Shinkansen surcharge. If you’re changing trains you might end up with three or more tickets for that one journey. The gates are really quite clever though. You just feed in your stack of tickets all together and it sorts it all out for you.

@Takoneko thank you for the stacking tip. I think I’m going to need a ticket purse as well the coin holder I keep hearing about on SM!

@Pusspot I have seen the coin holder things on SM too, but as a Brit I have never found one necessary. I think a lot of those videos about those come from the US, where the largest denomination coin that is in wide circulation and everyday use (the quarter) is only worth about 18p. They just use coins a whole lot less than in Europe or Japan. Coming from the U.K., where we have pound and two-pound coins, there wasn’t anything that felt surprising or unusual to me. I was using cash more than I do at home, but didn’t find it hard to keep track of coins.