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

@SorrengailFables Kyoto is definitely busy - for good reason.

I think if you particularly appreciate history, Kyoto is the traditional and religious heart of Japan making it must see. The temples are stunning (Kinkaku-ji, Daigo-Ji, Fushimi Inari and so many others) as well as day trip to Nara (absolutely stunning). Personally, I cannot imagine not having gone to Kyoto (even in the peak of Sakura)

That being said Japan has so much and the trade offs need to be made given the time you have.

@Sparklinggreen There are beautiful temples in Kyoto, but there’s also so many wonderful and historic temples and shrines all over Japan that I don't let the FOMO get to me. In Onomichi, Kawagoe and Fukuoka we did walking routes through lots of temples and shrines. We’ve been out to the reclining Buddha at Nanzoin and to Itsukushima shrine on Miyajima. We also particularly loved Engaku-ji in Kamakura, Katsuoji in Minnoh, Todaiji in Nara, Hikawa shrine in Kawagoe and Byodo-in in Uji.

We are planning on visiting Eiheiji and Echizen Daibutsu in Fukui prefecture on our next visit and I’m super excited for those. We’ve also got Zenkoji in Nagano and the Daruma-ji in Takasaki on the itinerary.

In total, we’ve spent about 40 days in Japan and only one day of that in Kyoto. I’m sure at some point we’ll go back there, but I don’t feel any need to rush back. We’ve definitely not been short of beautiful temples and shrines to visit. Like you say, you can’t do everything and I’m happy with the trade-offs we’ve made.

@Takoneko thank you - I thought I remembered you had travelled on that late flight.

Completely agree, there is so much beauty and history all over Japan to see.

I’m sure there are many places I don’t even know about that I would love.

I personally loved Kyoto even with all the people at the shrines - and we also saw the wonderful geisha show and did the tea ceremony.

But as you mentioned there’s so many places like Todalji in Nara, Enkakuji in Kamakura (unexpectedly beautiful) and Miyajima in Hiroshima, Hakone etc

I guess the trick is to go with as much time as possible, prioritise as best you can and make every day count!

Delighted to join you all. Booked 15 nights for late June/early July- constrained with work and school holidays. I’m hoping it won’t be too hot, but we’ll take it easier if we need to. Very rough itinerary is Tokyo (4 nights), then Shinkansen to Hiroshima (3 nights), Onomichi and islands (3 nights- thanks @Takoneko loved these recommendations), Osaka and Kyoto (3 nights), then back to Tokyo for 2 nights. I haven’t booked accommodation yet, so I’ll go back over the threads to see the recommendations. I’m so excited, this has been a bucket list destination for so long, and reading all the wonderful posts has made it even more exciting.

Glad to join in. I've booked 11 nights for late June/early July. I’m hoping it won’t be too hot!. Very rough itinerary is Osaka/Kyoto (5-6 days) then Shinkansen to Tokyo (5-6 days). I haven’t booked accommodation yet, but my partner has already found some. We're so excited, this has been a bucket list for so long, can't wait to go! Any help would be brilliant! First time for the 2 of us travelling anywhere!

@Flowersinvase Onomichi is such a cool place. We only did a day trip but loved the place. We took the ropeway up to the observation point and then walked back down the mountain stopping off at all the temples and shrines on the way down and going to cat alley where we stumbled on this charming little place and had lemonade and petted the cats. https://share.google/HyR742wDl5QfQ5JKI

@Flowersinvase yes I agree Ominichi is a wonderful day out. From there we got the little ferry from the port over to Mukaishima (100 yen) and rented e bikes for the afternoon. The island had nice beaches, and had a small commercial area where we spent a lovely hour in a Halows supermarket. We bought food (plus a few souvenirs) and ate in their rest area. It was a great contrast and tourist free (apart from us).
@Takoneko sorry I gave another question about the JAL 1am flight. I’ve tried searching online but … is the flight on the date you check in, or the day after? Technically we’d be flying the next day, as it’s after midnight, but we’d be checking in the day before. I don’t want to book the wrong date and lose a day of my holiday. Apologies if it’s a silly question!

@Pusspot I’ve had the same thought, particularly because the Japanese sometimes use 25:00 to indicate 1am, 26:00 for 2am etc. However it’s just normal 24hr time and done by the flight not the check in.

If you book the 1am flight on the 5th, you’d be arriving at the airport and checking in on the night of the 4th. If you wanted to be in Japan on the 5th then you’d need to book the flight for the 6th.

@Takonekothank you - much appreciated.

Happy New Year all. Loving this thread.
Feeling excited now and still a bit overwhelmed! we go on 28th March for 2 weeks flying in and out of Tokyo. We didn't want to move hotels too much so doing first week in Tokyo and 2nd in Osaka but plan to do day trips from our base.- Kyoto, Nara etc.
Can I ask when booking things do you generally book direct or use Klook etc? I keep seeing advice to use Klook but it looks more expensive to me.
I'm just trying to work out when i need to be ready to book the Shinkansen & some activities we definitely want to go to Universal, Teamlab planets and an observation tower maybe Skytree.
My husbands asks are Baseball and the seaside. The kids are all about Universal, food, anime and beauty shopping so far and i'd like to find somewhere a bit less travelled in amongst the obvious tourist hotspots we are going to.
If anyone has any advice on how to book or where else to go it would be greatly appreciated

@Japlan I always book direct. I’ve never used Klook. Japanese websites can be a bit of a pain, but it’s cheaper to book things direct. Apparently lots of Americans have issues with Japanese websites rejecting their credit/debit cards, and so often need to use Klook, but we’ve never had any issue with our variety of British ones. We booked tickets on the USJ website/app for universal and on the JR west and JR East website for Shinkansen.

For baseball, we bought our tickets a few hours before the game from the ticket office at the stadium. We got awesome seats for a little over £20 each. April is very early in the season and there seemed to be plenty of seats unsold still. That was in Hiroshima though. I don’t know if tickets are more likely to sell out elsewhere.

We've also only booked direct. Shinkansens at the ticket window, other trains at the ticket window or machines,Teamlab Planets/Borderless/Botanical via their website, baseball was at the ticket window approx 90 mins before the game (in Osaka, midweek evening game, in Oct), we just turned up and walked into the lift at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building for free high views.

Hi guys for flights and hotels are booked 11 days in end of June (5 Tokyo, 5 Osaka, 1 travel day) we plan to do lots of trips from base e.g. Kyoto and Nara. Starting in Tokyo flying in to narita, then flying out of kansai.

If anyone has any advice on where else to go it would be appreciated

@ChristmasMad1 I love Osaka for day trips. It depends on what you’re into.

On our two trips we’ve done the following day trips from Osaka.

• Nara- We really loved Nara. The deer are fun.
• Kyoto- we did Kiyomizu, Gion and Fushimi Inari. I don’t regret it but found it very crowded.
• Uji- Quieter but very tourist friendly. Byodoin temple was fantastic.
• Himeji- If you love a castle, it’s hard to beat. Great gardens. Quick and easy to get to.
• Okayama and Kurashiki- we wished we’d done this on a weekday. On a sunny weekend Kurashiki was really busy with Japanese families. Lots of places had lines and the boat tours were sold out for the day. Okayama was lovely, but this wouldn’t be my first recommendation for first timers.
• Katsuoji temple- maybe my favourite temple in Japan. A bit out of the way, but in breathtaking surroundings and it’s really good fun spotting all the little daruma and collecting the stamps. Can be combined with Minnoh Falls.
• Universal studios- The Nintendo area is really cool but probably not somewhere that we’re going to revisit.

Thank you for context we're 23 and first timers and we want to experience a bit of everything. We're also big foodies

@ChristmasMad1 Osaka is great for food. You’ll eat well there.

It’s hard to go too far wrong in Japan. I can’t think of anywhere that I regret going to. Just pick the day trips that most appeal to you.

Thanks for your responses, great advice as always. Also does anyone have any experience of sorting the disability pass at Universal? My son has ADHD so standing in those long queues won't be fun for anyone around us!

Can finally join the fun, after lurking for months we’ve booked our flights for October.

13 nights, not 100% on itinerary just yet, but travelling with 8 year old so I don’t want to be travelling too much. Rough thoughts so far is the typical 1st timer route.

4 nights in Osaka (arrive late)
3 nights Kyoto
6 nights/7 days in Tokyo

Any tips for traveling with children would be greatly appreciated.

How do you plan the itinerary? So far 11 days in end of June (5 Tokyo, 5 Osaka, 1 travel day) all we have done is just written a list of some things we would like to do but how do we plan and any recommendations?

Hi @Squiggle13 if you scroll back on this thread to around November I wrote out what we did with children a similar age. We stopped at all the places you're planning. Funnily enough the kids were discussing in the bath yesterday what their favourite things were and it was the monkey park at arashiyama and eating yakitori at Omoide Yokocho (memory lane) at Shinjuku. I thought teamlab planets was well worth the visit with kids too but was surprised they don't mention it now!

I found it helpful pinning all the places we had researched and were interested to go with a tag on Google maps so they come up as an overlay and could then group then into districts or those that are nearby to plan each day.

Thank you we're both very nervous and we're staying in shinjuku and Miyakojima Ward

@ChristmasMad1 I use the Wanderlog app (just the free version) to plan out our itinerary. I really recommend giving it a try. I find it massively helpful in turning all of my amassed google maps ideas into a manageable and organised itinerary and it helps me to see when I’m being over ambitious because it gives transport times between places.

@ChristmasMad1 Alternatively, if you have a text list you could C+P and feed into AI for an itinerary to start with. You could also ask it for advice on location of accommodation if you havent got anything booked ....

You'd need to check it for sense and opening hour issues etc but it might be a place to start.

Remember, you are not trying to have the perfect holiday because it doesn't exist, you just want to have a great trip (which is much easier to plan 😎)