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

@2025istheyeari I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you on the sumo tickets. I don’t know if you follow the sport, but the March tournament is currently in progress. The highlights show is on NHK at 17:30 every day or you can catch them on their YouTube channel a day or two behind.

It’s potentially quite an exciting tournament because Onosato is on a Yokozuna run. If he wins this tournament he’ll be promoted to Yokozuna for the Nagoya tournament, which would be fun! I’m cheering for him because I’d like for there to be two Yokozuna in time for the October London tournament. The Japanese are also desperate for a Japanese Yokozuna. The only one they’ve had in the last 20 years got injured almost immediately and then never won anything again.

@2025istheyeari Did you manage to get the Sumo tickets?

@2025istheyeari Just in case you’ve been unlucky, I’ve seen on sumo chats online that the IG arena are also selling tickets that have not yet sold out. https://ig-arena.venue-ticket.

Hi @Takoneko i was just coming in to say we don’t know! We’ve had an email from the company saying that tickets sold out in under 5 minutes!!! The capacity of the new stadium is 17000 but they had agreed 12000 for sumo but apparently they only sold 7800. The company think they probably only
maanged to get 85% of their pre bookings. We have to wait for up to a week! Seems the boxes were v popular and day 1 of the tournament. Holding onto the fact we had tried for arena tickets on a Tuesday ! I’ll definitely take a look at the link though, thanks so much!

We’ve also now realised that Kansai international is about 40k from the city, so we’ve decided to stay at the airport overnight for our v early flight. We’re planning to forward our luggage from our hotel in Hakone and have late morning, afternoon and evening in Osaka. My son’s still
keen to see the baseball but it seems it’s about 40 mins from the castle and then an hour to the airport so trying to convince him
we can do that in Tokyo/ there’s a big match on the day we arrive between 2 of the Tokyo teams, tickets on sale in a couple of weeks so 🤞🏻.
We’ll probably arrive in Osaka midday and plan to go straight to Osaka Jo and the park area. Think we’ll head to Nakazakicho
for some vintage shopping for the teen and Namba for some food as it’s on the line to the hotel. Sorry I know I’ve asked this lots but anything else we should do
with an afternoon in Osaka? It’s the most tricky place I’ve had to plan for! We’ve been to Dotombori etc and think we’ve ruled out Umeda Sky. I think we can probably fill our afternoon and early evening with the above but don’t want to miss something amazing! We had planned to go to the Misono building for food and drinks but it seems it’s been or being demolished so that’s out!

thanks all, 7 weeks to go!

Just found this and making my way through the first thread as there's loads of great information. We're thinking about visiting Japan next Easter and one thing we've found is an MSC cruise visiting several places in Japan. Has anyone done this before and would you recommend it? We're limited to 2wks due to school holidays so trying to work out the best way to get the most out of the trip. We'd ideally spend 3-4 days before the cruise in Tokyo depending on flights

Hughes Pizza in Nakazakicho is fabulous if you’re in that area anyway. The cheese and honey pizza is to die for.
The guy who runs it is a very chatty Brit. It’s a by the slice pizza place so great for a short pit stop.

I don’t personally think a cruise is the best way to get the most out of a two week visit. You can travel around so much more efficiently by train and will spend so much more time actually in Japan that way. Spending so much time on the ship and eating meals there would mean missing out on a lot of the best things about a trip to Japan. The after dark walks, the food, the izakayas etc.

If you only have two weeks then the train is by far the best way to get the most out of it.

If the main attraction for you is the cruise itself, then it makes sense, but if you’re looking to maximise seeing as much of Japan as possible in two weeks, then it’s not a good option.

So I’m back from my cruise! In total we had 18 days including travel to/from uk in Japan and South Korea.

positives - we went to lots of places as you’re in a new port everyday. My highlights were seeing Mount Fuji, Nara park and the deer, a monkey mountain sanctuary in Beppu and meeting women divers in Jeju. I loved Tokyo and Seoul, so much to do and see.

meh - the cruise was fine but because you’re in and out of port everyday you don’t get much time to wander round. The best days were days we went on trips organised by the cruise company which were £££. Other days there was always a free bus to a shopping centre or something to do at the port but those days weren’t as good. We did a trip to Osaka castle and Nara park from Kobe and you could’ve gone to Osaka proper, or Kyoto or Super Nintendo land at universal but you couldn’t do all of those things as you’re only there a day.

Also because you’ve already paid for meals on the boat and some days you’re back on for 3.30pm at the latest you don’t get to eat much local food. The cruise ship I was on was American so there was very little Japanese or Korean food to try on board which was a massive missed opportunity.

In Japan however the local ports put on a little show as your boat leaves port which is so cool! Sometimes it was classical music, j-pop, traditional Japanese drumming and dancing etc.

I’d recommend a cruise if you want someone to do all the planning for you or if you’re with people who struggle with lots of walking. I was with someone with some mobility issues and I think the cruise helped them travel with more confidence as they found the self led cities harder work at each end. Personally I preferred that and I wouldn’t cruise round Japan again, I’d diy with public transport/ taxis.

I can go into lots more detail if anyone is interested 😊

@SomethingFun That’s really interesting. It confirms broadly what I expected the pros and cons to be.

Having to be back on board at 3:30pm sounds pretty limiting.

I hope you had a good time, even though you might not choose to travel the same way again.

@Takoneko @SomethingFun
Thank you both, that's really helpful! Will keep doing lots of research and look at public transport to see more of Japan as the short days on a cruise are a big downside. We're not fussed specifically about the cruise, just wasn't sure if it was a good way to do a whistle stop tour. We went on our first cruise last year and did find there was some advantages especially with bottomless teenagers able to eat their own body weight in food and it not costing more however we do enjoy planning trips and the food and evenings in Japan sounds amazing so worth giving the cruise a miss. Thank you!

@endofstory You really won’t regret it. You'll be able to see far more by train.

We spent 13 nights in Japan this April. We were able to visit 9 different prefectures stretching from Tokyo to Fukuoka. If you stay close to major Shinkansen stations and make good use of regional rail passes you can see a lot of places with day trips without spending too long on the trains.

So we’ve just heard we didn’t get Sumo tickets 😢, apparently the area we requested tickets for ( the cheap seats!) is tiny and v few tickets. So we replan again 🤣. I don’t think we have one thing left from our existing itinerary! Thinking of Kanazawa from Kyoto and enroute back to Tokyo.

They haven’t sold out on the IG Arena website yet. Some days are marked as “only a few left” but the other days are all still on sale.

Thanks @Takoneko they do have seats but they’re over £100 pp, we went for the cheap seats 🤣and they’re all sold out! I don’t think we can justify £350 to see them. We may have a look at visiting a sumo stable instead I think.

I hadn’t realised that they were only the expensive hospitality seats on the Arena website. That’s a shame, sorry.

It’s looking increasingly likely as the days go on that there will be a new Japanese Yokozuna for the July tournament, so there is a lot of excitement about it. I’m not terribly surprised that the tickets disappeared quickly. The Japanese have been waiting 20 years for the era of Mongolian domination in sumo to end and they might finally be about to get a Japanese grand champion who can properly dominate the top division.

I think the sumo stable visits are also a very pricy option. It was way more expensive than the sumo tournament cheap seats when we looked.

Hi everyone - I have not yet had a chance to RTWT but we are going to Japan soon - the usual sights - I am wondering about getting a Goodwill guide for, say, Hiroshima or Kyoto - has anyone done this and what was it like? Thank you!

Thanks @Takoneko, yes sumo stable does look expensive. Sounds like the tournament will be fab! Never mind, maybe next time!!

We’ve had another change today, our bike tour and farm lunch at Lake Biwa has been cancelled ( I booked this almost a year ago!) argh!! So, we now have a conundrum… after Ishigaki we have 5 1/2 days to play with before Tokyo and really wondering what to do. Options are

1. train to Onomichi and do a days cycling then train to Takayama, a day there, Kanazawa via Shirakawago and miss Kyoto entirely.only worry is rain in Onomichi!
2. I had looked at Naoshima but it’s closed on Mondays, of course!! So Kyoto for a day and a little bit ( to include silver temple, philosophers path and Uji in the afternoon) then Takayama etc
3. Not sure!!!

any ideas v welcome, feeling like I’m constantly replanning!! Worse problems to have but I’m a bit confused!!

thanks

@2025istheyeari

We missed out on the sumo on our trip too. We went for one of the tour events but it was full and we didn’t manage to see any of the action. We did at least get to see a few rikishi that we recognised coming and going but no matches. The next tournament will be exciting, but I feel like Onosato has many years of very impressive dominance ahead of him. He’s an absolute beast. I’m sure you’ll have other opportunities to see him in action.

Sorry about your bike tour being cancelled. How annoying when you booked so early.

We really liked Onomichi. It’s a town with tons of character and that whole region is wonderful.

Kanazawa is on our list for next year. We’re keen to spend some of our tourist money in Ishikawa, which is still recovering from the 2024 earthquake.

Thanks @Takoneko , I think we’ve decided to go to Kanazawa, Shirakwago and Takayama and leave Onomichi for our next visit, probably incorporating Kyushu too.
keeping everything crossed that this is the last itinerary change 😂. Thanks for your help and thoughts as always. We fly 6 weeks today, can’t wait, our itinerary is now

Kamakura 1 night
Hakone 2 nights
Osaka afternoon/ evening and night at airport hotel
Ishigaki 3 nights
Kanazawa 2 nights
Takayama 2 nights
tbc poss Nagano or Matsumoto 1 night
Tokyo 3 nights

@2025istheyeari That sounds like a fab itinerary. Hope you have an amazing time!

We’ve been to sumo in Fukuoka. It was entertaining but we got a lot more out of the baseball. I’d do baseball every time.

Anyway, we used https://www.buysumotickets.com who ship to your hotel. They indicate there are other exhibition events going on.

Thanks @MondayYogurt that’s who we used too, sounds like they were frustrated about what happened as well. We’re going to leave it I think, baseball still a possibility in Tokyo!

Thank you so much for these threads, which have helped enormously! We're going in July for 2 weeks. We booked flights back in March but only got round to booking accommodation this week. Family of 4, DCs aged 11 and 13 and it doesn't feel real that we're going!! DH has been once before, the rest of us have never been.

The plan is Tokyo (5 nights), Kyoto (3 nights coinciding with the float parade of Gion Matsuri), Miyajima Island (1 night), Hiroshima (1 night), Takayama (3 nights), 1 night back in Tokyo before an 8am flight and then 1 night in Hong Kong on the way home.

I've got lots of great recs on here - I'm going to download Wanderlog, sort out esims for everyone, and I'm going to book a cycle tour in Takayama to get out into the countryside which looks idyllic.

I priced up all the trains, and then compared them with a 2 week JR pass and it was much of a muchness so I've opted for the passes - then we'll also have the freedom to do any side trips, it covers the ferry to Miyajima etc. Quite a lot of train time eg. from Hiroshima to Takayama but I think we'll need the downtime and we all love long train journeys looking out the windows.

Now to figure out what to do with the 5 nights in Tokyo! We have no plans except to see friends for dinner at their house one night. I feel a bit overwhelmed as there is so much we could do and I know we won't even scratch the surface. Kyoto will mostly take care of itself with the big festival and one or two sights - I'm aware it'll be baking hot so I don't want to plan too much.

I'm going in July too and only just booking accommodation too not booked ot all yet. I've not booked Kyoto yet we are staying 4 nights - swithering about the best area to stay and greatful for any tips.