Reddit Trip Report 3/12-3/23
Hi reddit! Y’all have helped me out so much on various occasions both before and during my recent Japan trip so I thought I’d try and return the favor with a trip report.
23F solo traveler here from the US here, first time to Japan, managed to get there at the end of shoulder season right before Sakura season. I hit all the highlights on the golden route and had an absolute blast!
Planning Essentials:
-Given the recent price jump, purchasing a Japan Rail Pass is a contentious subject because its value compared to buying individual tickets is much less than it was before. After much research, I opted to buy it and am glad I did. It was worth it for me because I ended up using the Shinkansen for Tokyo to Odawara, Odawara to Kyoto, Kyoto to Osaka (multiple times), Kyoto to Hiroshima, and Kyoto back to Tokyo (Shinagawa). While the monetary bang for your buck might be worth less than it used to be, the convenience is priceless. Not having to book individual Shinkansen tickets and being able to board the high speed trains on a whim was VERY nice—and I was also able to use the other JR lines as well.
-Suica and Pasmo: My original plan was to pick up a suica welcome card in Narita airport. With the card chip shortage in Japan, I had heard that they’re only limiting suica distribution to tourists. However, I quickly learned that it’s even more limited than that. To my knowledge, you can only pick up welcome suicas at Haneda. But no worries—they offer the Pasmo Passport in Narita! For those not in the know, Pasmo is the same thing as a suica—it functions as a subway card and reloadable instant cash card. Plus, it’s way cuter than the suica imo because of the adorable Sanrio characters!
-Major Attractions: Universal Studios, Tokyo Disneyland, TeamLabs, Pokemon Cafe, Osaka Aquarium. Because I’m from Socal, there was really no desire to check out disney and universal. However, I highly highly recommend booking tickets for those and the Pokemon Cafe BEFORE your trip—weeks in advance if possible! For TeamLab and the Osaka Aquarium, a couple of days to a week prior should be fine. If you’re going in the height of sakura season, maybe book a few weeks in advance.
Sakura Szn: While I may have avoided the wild crowds I’ve heard so much about in Japan during sakura season, I also avoided…the sakura :(. I was in Japan from 3/12-3/23 and didn’t get anything near full bloom. Many trees were still barren, and gardens like the ones in the Meiji Jingu or Sumida Park were colorless. Also, it snowed my last few days in Kyoto. There were still pockets of Sakura trees, especially in Nara! Just do your research. I think next time I go, I’ll either bite the bullet or go to Japan in fall to get the dramatic crimson landscapes.
Culture & Customs:
I was hugely obsessed with all facets of Japanese culture as a kid so I was fortunate enough to know some of these things going in, but there was so much that I had to learn once I was there.
-Queuing Up: The level of patience that the Japanese possess is simply unparalleled by any other culture in the world! Even in the most crowded of train stations, they’ll queue up for the escalator instead of crowding it. You can tell how great a restaurant is by the length of its queue. If you have the time and patience and are undecided on a place to eat, join the queue to one of those restaurants. You’ll be rewarded.
-The subway crush: On my second to last day in Japan, I boarded a local subway from the Arashiyama area back to central Kyoto. Complete opposite of the orderly and patient queues I just described. The subway car was packed in a way that I hadn’t even witnessed in Warped Tour mosh-pits or in India. I couldn’t move, my ribcage struggled to expand when I breathed, and my body was flung wherever the shaking of the subway car threw me. Truly terrifying. Being so short, I genuinely thought I would be crushed. The good news is that all it took to get out of that mess was one loud cry of “Sumimasen!” And the entire car parted as much as they could to let me off. But yeah, just be aware that that can happen, and keep your arms above your chest if you can.
-Other subway etiquette: You might have heard of these ones: firstly, no eating and no talking on the phone in the subway. Ever. On longer haul trains and the Shinkansen, however, eating is allowed and encouraged! You’ll find special ekiben (bento boxes) in the Shinkansen stations optimized for snacking. If you must field a phone call in the Shinkansen, do it outside of the main passenger area and head near the doors and bathroom. Now let’s talk about priority seating and the women’s only cars. Neither of those are enforced, unfortunately. In the states, no one dares to sit in handicapped bus seats usually unless they’re handicapped. However, I saw so many able bodied young adults in the priority seating areas, which are reserved of the elderly, handicapped, and mothers with young children. So yes, you can sit there if the other seats are taken, BUT the moment you see anybody who looks like they actually need those seats, you better stand your ass up. Also, I was bummed to learn that the women-only cars aren’t really women only. I understand husbands accompanying their wives and kids, but for the dudes who were riding the train solo, take a damn hint. Sit somewhere else. Finally, I fell asleep on the trains more times than I’d like to admit—they’re quiet, calming, and they were blasting the heat. And that’s ok. Because the trains are so damn safe, and it’s so easy to get off at a platform and find the train heading the other way.
Littering, Photos, Shoes, and other annoying things that we do as tourists: Be prepared to carry your trash with you since trash cans on the street are so few and far between. This discourages eating while walking or eating on subway cars. If you grab food at a roadside stand, please be courteous and finish it in front of the store or wait until you arrive at a sitting area. (this is the one rule I knowingly broke a couple times while shoving wasabi peanuts or a 7/11 onigiri down my throat while trying to make it in time for my train, so to all of Japan, I’m very sorry for that). But for the love of god! PLEASE! Don’t litter. This should be common sense. Also as far as photos go: rumor has it that Gion, better known as Kyoto’s geisha district, is closing to foreigners because of problems with the tourists swarming the geisha for photos. Don’t be an asshole. If you see a geisha or maiko, leave them alone. Better yet, offer a little bow their way. Same with a lot of areas in Harajuku and Shinjuku. Many stores selling alternative fashion clothes (ie: the Foret Mall) or Gothic Lolita style stuff do NOT want you taking photos of the shop workers or their wares. This is to protect the safety of the workers, who often have to keep their alternative lifestyles from family. Or just ask the workers if photos are ok. Also, shoes. Rule of thumb: when you enter a building and the floor is raised above the entry way, take yo shoes off. Often times, slippers will be available for you. I’m in Thailand now and I’ve found that the same applies there. Finally, eye contact. In the states, we’re taught to hold eye contact and give big smiles when greeting someone. The Japanese don’t fw that. When bowing to greet someone, be sure to avert your eyes, and don’t go crazy with the strong eye contact.
PSA about JAL & Yamato Shipping in the Haneda Airport: Somebody wrote an ENTIRE blog post about using the Yamato shipping service located in Terminal 3 of Haneda airport to ship things back home to the US. So naturally I mosied on over there to ship some things back to the states since I had hours to kill in the airport. And guess what?! You can only ship domestically. So I had to carry this stuff with me to Thailand. Good news is that the “stuff” in question is just a collection of old sweaters I had been planning to donate anyways after the Japan trip (it’s very hot in Thailand), but I managed to sell it to a street pawn shop of sorts in an alleyway in Bangkok. But if you’re stopping elsewhere after your Japan trip and want to send stuff home, I highly recommend going to the Japan Post and doing surface mail for budget shipping or heading to DHL or Fedex for more express international stuff.
Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrive in Narita 16:00, wait in lines for currency exchange, Pasmo, and NEX tickets. Got some dinner, found my airbnb, went to sleep.
Day 2 Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku: Hachiko Statue, Shibuya Scramble Crossing + the wrong starbucks, Yoyogi park walk, Meiji Jingu, Ichiran in Harajuku, window shopping harajuku and Foret Mall and others, feeling poor in Jingumae area w the designers stores, sunset from Tokyo Met Government Building, bed.
Day 3 Imperial Palace + Asakusa: Imperial Palace Gardens and museum (because my dumbass didn’t book a tour of the inside in advance), wandering Asakusa, Senso-ji Temple, toy poodle cafe, sushi, Sumida Park, my first takoyaki, wandering the gambling halls and arcades in Ueno, and then drinking the night away at Golden Gai
Day 4 Hangover, TeamLab Planets, and Shinjuku Nichome: slept thru my checkout time at airbnb and awoke to a very pissed off host, packed my shit and headed to the next place I was staying (also Shinjuku), was revived from my hangover by Curry House Coco curry, checked out TeamLab Planets (I had no idea Borderless was back open!! I still really enjoyed Planets though), then took my fruity ass out to the gay district in Shinjuku and babysat my friend until she got back to her hotel at 8am.
Day 5 MUCH NEEDED R&R day in Hakone: slept off my hangover and headed to Hakone in the afternoon, arrived at sunset. Checked into incredible ryokan, ran happy laps around my room for 5 minutes because I couldn’t believe I was ACTUALLY in a ryokan, grabbed instant noodles from a konbini, ate and watched Blue Eyed Samurai, soaked in the onset, got an AMAZING night’s sleep.
Day 6 Onsen, Owakudani, Shinkansen to Kyoto: Got a morning soak in the onsen and headed to Owakudani to ride the ropeway and see Mt. Fuji. Sadly, the ropeway was suspended that day due to high winds. Fucking sucked but I got to ride the cool mountain train and see some sick views. Then, headed to the Shinkansen and rode that. Saw about half of Fuji and that was good enough for me. Got to my hostel, had a beer at the incredible Kyoto Beer Lab, and conked out.
Day 7 Fushimi Inari, Nishiki Market, Tea Ceremony, Samurai + Ninja Museum, Gion: Got up early and headed to Fushimi Inari. Climbed the mountain and enjoyed getting those steps in. Grubbed out at Nishiki Market and went to the Maikoya tea ceremony + Samurai museum combo tour. Highly recommend! Ended the evening wandering around Gion, grabbed some udon, and crashed.
Day 8: Philosopher’s Path, Bamboo Forest, Arashiyama, Monkey Park, Tenryu-ji Temple, run to Kiyomizu-dera in the evening. Ended the night getting tipsy in a McDonalds, as one does.
Day 9 Hiroshima: Got to Hiroshima in the early afternoon via Shinkansen. Visited Hiroshima Castle, not realizing it was Shunbun-no-hi (vernal equinox) and stumbled across a sake festival! The hot sake was perfect for this otherwise dreary day. Visited the ground zero memorial, A-dome, and the Hiroshima Peace Museum. Bawled my eyes out. I think everyone should see this, especially if you’re an American. Then I was supposed to meet a friend out at the bars in Osaka but was pretty drained from the day.
Day 10 Nara & Osaka: Enjoyed Nara Deer Park, took some chill time back in the hostel, headed out to Osaka’s most popular bars for a night out. Made the decision to pull an all-nighter since the trains were closed from midnight to 5am and I was staying in Kyoto.
Day 11: Rest & Kinkaku—ji: Banked up on sleep then visited KInkakuji. Pretty mellow day, spent the rest of it doing housekeeping & trip planning stuff.
Day 12 Leave to Thailand: Went all the way to Osaka to try and go to the aquarium, just to find out that tickets wouldn’t be available for another 3 hours. Moral of the story, book your Osaka Aquarium tickets a few days in advance! Traveled to Haneda and spent a lot of time there. Also tried to ship some stuff home and couldn’t.
This itinerary definitely oscillated from go go go to rest and relax, but as a solo traveler, I was afforded the luxury of pacing the trip how I wanted. I highly recommend everything I did on my trip, but maybe you responsible adults out there will pace things a little better.
Things I would change/do next time: As wonderful as my time in Japan was, there were definitely lessons learned. Here’s what I intend to do differently next time, when I hopefully return to Japan older, wiser, and with a little more cash in my pocket.
1. Check out Skytree for the hell of it. I will say that if you’re on a backpacker budget, the free viewing at the top of the Tokyo Government Metropolitan Building is the way to go. Also, maybe start my day around 9am instead of 7am in Tokyo.
2. Book a tour of the INSIDE of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo
3. Just in general, read up on the history of the sites I visited prior to visiting them . I found that many of them lacked plaques and panels of information in English.
4. Check out TeamLab Borderless. Unless you’re really REALLY into immersive art exhibits, do either Planets or Borderless on your trip, not both.
5. This one’s for wlw in Tokyo: Start your night at GoldFinger, end at the quieter, mellower Adezakura.
6. Hakone: Many people like to do Kamakura, Nikko, and Hakone as “day trips” from Tokyo, but I really loved going from the bustle of Tokyo to the mountain hot spring oasis of Hakone. If I could do it again, I’d spend 2 nights and 3 days in a nice ryokan and do some “onsen” hopping. Within Hakone, the Napa Valley of onsens, there are so many different types of onsen—some are more sulfuric while others run more alkaline. I’d do some onsen hopping, I’d check the weather at Owakudani before going, and as far as dinner goes, I’d make my restaurant reservations a couple weeks in advance. All of the restaurants in Hakone are nice and the majority require reservations. If you’re on a backpacker budget, you’re going to be making your dinner from stuff you find at the konbini (which was still fun and yummy!).
7. Gion & Traditional Kyoto Experiences: IF we’re still allowed in Gion, I will be booking tickets to watch either a kabuki play or one of the shows on Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Small Theater, which include performances by Maiko, kyogen bugaku, ikebana, bunraku, and more. Performances from fully fledged Geiko (or geisha, as we know them) are quite costly, but maybe that’s in the cards for me if I end up with a sugar mommy again. Also, the Maikoya kimono tea ceremony experience is a wonderful experience for families looking to get the highlights of traditional Japanese customs, but for those out there who want to attend the real thing (4 hour tea ceremony), those are out there too.
Thanks for reading! Japan was a blast and, contrary to popular belief, can be done on a backpacker budget if planned well enough. Just don’t expect the spontaneity of backpacker life you get from traveling the likes of SE Asia or Europe.
by wokesloppygoblingirl