Just finished a first time to Japan trip with friends, and thought I’d post a breakdown of the bits we liked, any tips we discovered and things we would change.
(Apologies for the wall of text to follow).
Going into the trip, I did an enormous amount of planning and research to know what places we could visit, when they were closed, if they needed reserving etc. It was a massive pain but honestly, it really paid off because it gave a really good structure for days and planning when to do what.
Flights: LHR-NRT via HKG (Cathay). Flights were great. But probably would be worth it going direct for UK peeps.
Luggage:
1 medium suitcase (checked)
1 small photography backpack (carry on)
1 very small golf shoe bag (carry on)
Suitcase had all my clothes exclusively. The backpack had my camera, lenses, travel plug adapter, 65w charger, cables and paper printouts. The shoe bag just had some trainers and socks. Basically to free up space in the suitcase for clothes.
This combo was pretty manageable. Never needed luggage forwarding and could carry the suitcase up stairs easy when needed.
Used Suica via Apple wallet. Never failed. Incredibly easy to top up, no machines needed. Worked in every location for transport. (Used Amex to top up).
Google maps was also incredibly reliable. It tells you entrance and exits, what line, whether it is local/express/rapid etc.
The only times it failed is when we made mistakes (buying subway tickets rather than train tickets), not noticing the station names are different (e.g. Ueno has multiple)
Reservations:
Ghibli – Sells tickets on the 10th 10am (Japan time). Had to slug it out. Queue-it placed me 6000+, still got tickets (just not on the day I originally wanted)
Sumo – Sells tickets on the 10th 10am (Japan time). The website is shit. It will crash repeatedly. You basically have to brute force it and repeatedly go through the process of buying tickets from scratch until it works.
Shinkansen – Bought ahead of time via SmartEx. Was super easy. Barely an inconvenience. Collected at Shinkansen ticket machine 30 mins before departure.
TeamLabs Borderless – Bought as soon as available for date.
Skytree – Waited until in Japan for weather report. Then bought ticket on the day at like 6am. Got sunset easy. DO NOT TRY AND BUY AT SKYTREE. The line was massive. If you don’t want sunset, nighttime will also be a great time for night city views. Also quieter
Gundam Factory – Bought on the day. Didn’t do the dock and instead saw the show from the seating area.
Cities:
Yokohama – Loved Yokohama. Was incredibly cheap for Accomodation and food, had great locations for photography and a cool vibe at night. Really didn’t expect it to be as great as it was.
Tokyo – Also loved Tokyo. All the areas we visited felt distinct and unique, there was so much to do/see. A huge variety in things to do as well. Awesome for photography (Architecture and Cityscapes).
Osaka – Was decent. Not sure it was our kind of city. Ironic as it had some of our favourite activities. Food was good (but it was great everywhere tbh). Had a lot to do both during day and night.
Kyoto – rained heavily each day… but was still brilliant. Each of the areas we visited felt different, we didn’t get temple/shrine fatigue either. Didn’t feel busy either (probably because of the rain) but you can tell it’s more touristy.
Transport:
Trains/Subway – Super easy. IC card friendly, fairly cheap. Reliable and high frequency. In Tokyo, this is the way.
Buses – Also very easy (with IC). Usually flat fare per ride. Less reliable and frequent but honestly it’s hard to go wrong with the buses. The numbers are on the front. In Kyoto we only ever used buses.
Bikes – For a country famed for its politeness and order, it was weird to see how bikes are basically chaos on the footpaths/roads. Still not sure on the rules. Would suggest renting a bike for the Fuji lakes areas.
Day breakdown:
12 – arrival at 2pm. Travel to Yokohama. Eat food. Stay awake until night time to fight jet lag.
13 – Day trip to Kamakura. Started by beach and worked back to station. Saw the lot. Fuji, Big Buddha, bamboo grove tea. 33k steps. Most we walked. Fantastic area. Gundam Show in the evening. Also fantastic.
14 – Shibuya area. Meiji morning, Shibuya shopping areas noon, Ghibli museum afternoon. Ghibli museum was ace, and the Shibuya area was nice for shopping and generally chilling.
15 -move hotel + NE Tokyo (Akihabara, Ueno, Asakusa, Skytree) – Akihabara had some cool arcades, Ueno park was great although busy, Hokusai Museum was surprisingly good, Skytree was extremely busy (sunset) but the views were epic. Senso-Ji at night was awesome.
16 – originally planned to be nikko day trip. Did Kawaguchiko instead as it was clear. The Fuji views were immense. We didn’t rent bikes – that was a mistake. At night we stumbled into the metropolitan building light show.
17 – St Patrick’s day. Surprised by the sheer amount of events. Also- auld lang syne for st Patrick’s day? Is that a thing? Omoide Yokocho in the evening.
18 – travel to Osaka. Wandering Osaka. Umeda sky building In the evening – great views, extremely cold though.
19 – Osaka aquarium in the morning, Sumo in the afternoon, Dotonbori Evening. Aquarium was unreal. Absolutely massive. The Sumo was timed perfectly. Arrived just as main matches began. Saw until end. Awesome. Dotonbori was impressive. Massive sensory shock but was a cool area.
20 – Nara. The deer are cool. Todai-Ji impressive. Nara visitor centre was the true standout. Told us to forget the deer, go to see Ashura at kofukuji as it’s a national treasure. He was right. Also did a tea ceremony with them.
21 – Osaka castle in the morning then travel to Kyoto. Needed some rest as well. The castle was very pretty. And the walk around the grounds was nice.
22 – East Kyoto pt1 – Ginkakuji, Eikando, Nanzenji, philosopher path, Heian Shrine. All very good temples/shrines. Philosopher path was a bit sad without blossoms.
23 – East Kyoto pt2 – Kiyomizudera, hokanji, Kenninji, Yasaka Shrine. Rained heavy on this day, but again all the shrines/temples were awesome. The cloud dragons were a standout.
24 – Arashiyama – Bamboo Forest, Wander, Tenryu-ji, Jojakkoji, Seiryoji Temple, Daikakuji, Isu Pond. I’ll be honest, the rain didn’t help (although did make for excellent photography) but the temples carried this day. The bamboo and the river path were nice, but it was hard to enjoy the mountains with the rain. The temples were excellent though. More cloud dragons and basically empty.
25 – North-ish Kyoto – KinkakuJi, Ryoanji, Botanical Gardens, Nijojo. Still raining. Golden Pavilion was still awesome. Ryoanji was pretty quiet. Botanical gardens were amazing (the conservatory mainly). Nijojo was surprisingly expensive (a whopping £6.80 each). But inside it was great.
26 – Fushimi Inari and Byodin. Rained extra hard. This obliterated the crowd, only the brave remained. Was an enjoyable hike. Not many people tbh. Byodin was awesome as well. Museum+inside both were impressive.
27 – travel day. Tsukiji Honganji. This temple takes the cake for most enthusiastic helpers. By a mile.
28 – Odaiba. Was pretty dead, but still cool. Monorail, Fuji TV, Gundam, Docks, Big Sight. A treasure trove for photographers. Was pretty cool to see the presenters live as well.
29 – Teamlabs Borderless + Leave. Borderless was epic. Really enjoyed it. 2 hours just flew by.
All in all, Japan was fantastic.
Averaged 20k steps a day. (33k high, 11k low). 8.5 mile average.
Temples are around 400-600 yen
Meals vary between 1000-2000 yen each. You can spend more but you’ll quite easily find a ramen restaurant that will serve ramen + a soft drink for 1500 yen. A significant portion as well.
Drinks vary from 650yen for beers to maybe 1400 yen for cocktails and some sake. This varies massively on the restaurant/bar.
Buses are around 230yen flat fare.
Subways are accurate on Google maps but usually between 180-440 yen depending on distance.
Shinkansen Tokyo-Kyoto is around 12-14k yen.
Coke bottles are 180 yen from vending machines. These machines are everywhere.
Haagen-Dazs Ice cream is around 500 yen from vending machines. They are less common but still epic.
by Juggy2111