Hi, all.
This Sunday I got back from my first ever trip to Japan. I went for two weeks with three friends. I had forged a detailed itinerary, made up of roughly 3-4 blocks per day, but for the sake of simplicity our itinerary was essentially this:
1. 4 nights in Tokyo (based in Kabukicho) with one day trip to Nikko
2. 1 night in Kawaguchiko by Mount Fuji
3. 4 nights in Osaka (Namba), with one day trip to Kobe
4. 4 nights in Kyoto (by the station), with one day trip to Nara
5. 1 last night in Tokyo (Hamamatsucho)
I’d always intended to give a breakdown here; I love reading other peoples’ after all. I thought I’d talk about what I enjoyed but I almost more want to get off my chest the things that I would’ve done differently. So here’s the lessons (I think) learned:
(Caveat: I am a glass half-empty person and am British with added social anxiety. Factor this in.)
**1. The curse of the overplan and the over-research**
*I would stress that this is the master point, and most lessons come back to this point.*
I had wanted to go to Japan since I was a teenager, and when I finally committed and bought tickets 10 months ago, it was like a world of possibility opened before me. I watched endless videos of my favourite Youtubers, read article after article, drafted an incredibly detailed spreadsheet of places to visit, food to eat and things to do, and spent hundreds of hours learning Japanese in preparation.
It’s hard to say, because I have no source of comparison, but I think this was a mistake.
In the final month before we left I actually began to feel burnout. I was spending so many hours a day looking at things Japan-related that I kind of became tired before I left. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed my time there, but I wasn’t buzzing anywhere near as much as I thought I would be on the flight there. The other issue is that by researching the classic “things to see” in such detail before I went, I lacked a sense of discovery when I was there. More than a few times I went to amazing spots that I knew would be amazing, and there was a sense of “Yup. There it is.” Which is one of many reasons that lead me on to point two…
**2. My Itinerary Quickly Went Out of the Window**
It’s not so say that it wasn’t useful. I’m glad we committed to Nikko or else I don’t think we’d have gone. Sometimes forcing ourselves into action helped. Yet when I look at the plans we made things just didn’t work out that way 90% of the time, and all the best moments were when they didn’t. This leads me on to the reasons why:
**3. BRING. WATERPROOF. FOOTWEAR. (and always carry two plastic bags with you)**
I cannot begin to stress this enough. I live in a very rainy part of the UK, so assumed I was somehow immune to rain. The (painfully obvious in hindsight) difference is that when it rains here I don’t normally go outside.
It threw it down in Nikko. My feet were soaked and I had to buy new socks and throw my old ones away they smelled so bad. We had a few days of dry weather where my shoes and feet nearly recovered and then Fukuoka rained solidly for the 24 hours I was there. It was horrible not just because of the feeling but because of the smell. I was mortified. I thought of throwing my shoes away but I don’t think they do shoes my size. In the end I wore plastic bags over my socks which helped but only very minorly.
This comes back to the itinerary. After the disaster of Fukuoka I stopped doing things I want to and just started to go to places that were sunny! The holiday actually picked up a bit after that because I felt a lot more secure in myself.
**4. Japan is Tough for Type 2 Vegetarians**
I’m an omnivore/flexitarian. On holiday I’ll eat anything. Two of our party were type 2 vegetarian. When I say type 2, I mean the following:
1. Type 1: Does not eat mean for any manner of external (usually ethical) reasons.
2. Type 2: The idea or notion of having ingested meat products makes them feel physically ill.
There are lots of blogs from type 1 vegetarians in Japan. Most come down to the fact that while you can eat the meat, you have to forgive yourself if at some point you ingest gelatin or stock (most often dashi). That was difficult for half our party. We flew with the absolutely excellent Japan Airlines and though the service was the best I’ve had there was no vegetarian option on the flight. This was a frequent thing. Two things happened as a consequence:
1. As the person with the best knowledge of Japanese (albeit barely N5) I *felt* a lot of responsibility here. Very quickly I saw them eat things and thought “That’s probably made with fish stock.” But do you tell them? To be fair to them, they never put me directly in a position but it was a stress.
2. Sometimes vegetarianism would be amazingly poorly understood, which was hard for everyone. In the Kawaguchiko ryokan, we had a 6 course meal arranged in advance. We had explained in advance that two people were vegetarian and the ryokan had done its best but sometimes understandings with the waiting staff were poor. Our vegetarians were repeatedly offered fish and what started with understanding became more frustrating as it kept happening. I felt sorry for the vegetarians, sorry for the staff, and quite frankly sorry for myself for being in that situation.
**5. Four people is a crowd in a Japanese Bar?**
I asked here about taking four people to Golden Gai, and people said that four people is *a lot* for Golden Gai. They weren’t wrong. In truth, four people was a lot for most of the bars we went into. It was much, much easier to go out drinking in Japan either on your own or as a couple. At least in the following sense…
**6. Four socially awkward people is a crowd in a Japanese Bar**
…this was the case. There’s a wonderful video out there of Chris Broad and Connor drinking in Tokyo, and then American Pete (PremierTwo) arrives and suddenly everything becomes easier. I felt at times that I, someone far less capable of striding into a random bar than Chris Broad, was forced into the Pete role and I buckled under that pressure. Part of it is the analysis paralysis of having so many damned places to choose from, the other was finding places that matched the criteria listed (or in one *incredibly frustrating* situation, unlisted) by all parties.
**7. Japan was better solo (or as a romantic couple)**
Eventually I apologised to my friends and went off on my own. I did Hiroshima, Fukuoka, The Inland Sea, Osaka and a few days in Tokyo solo. All my favourite bits were at these points. I did meet a few traveling couples and I can imagine that would work, but unless you have a confident leader and a group with no requirements, four is tough.
It was much easier to get chatting with people in bars when I was on my own (although I will always find that difficult), I consistently ate much better because I could just walk into places (although I still struggle with that). I also felt like the holiday was much more aligned with what I was looking for. I was able to genuinely explore places – not just hit the landmarks – and I really, deeply enjoyed that.
**8. Spontaneity of where to go is great! Just not in Tokyo**
I ran off spontaneously to Hiroshima. I ended up having to pay about 8000yen a night for a double bed with an en-suite. I paid even less in Fukuoka. A fraction of that for Osaka and Onomichi, although those were proper hostels (I had to keep costs a bit low as I found out I was being made redundant while over there. \*sadface\*). All of these were booked on the day itself. Flexibility was not a challenge.
…until I got back to Tokyo, and it got a lot harder. Both my Tokyo hostel bed and the capsule hotel cost more than Hiroshima each, and the hostel only had room for one night. This is admittedly looking only at Shinjuku/Shibuya/Nakano and surrounding areas, but that was my requirement. So feel free to be spontaneous but book your Tokyo hotels in advance.
**9. Huge Arachnids That Will Devour Me and Everyone I Love**
I saw two spiders over the entire trip, the biggest had a leg span of less than an inch. Was almost disappointed. Almost.
**10. Don’t bother learning more than a few words of Japanese for a holiday**
In my defence, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to move there. Having been, the answer is no. Don’t get wrong, Japan is awesome, but holidays != residence. So this is from a tourist perspective. The level of English I encountered was much better than I imagined. Japanese to English is tough, and grammar was often difficult, but their vocabulary was amazing. Even those who thought their English was poor were very good. But I had learned Japanese, so I felt I had to try.
…but when I did, it often seemed to go wrong. Even very simple phrases just didn’t seem to land. Undoubtedly poor pronunciation on my part was a factor, but it also felt like a lot of people seemed just totally thrown by it. In the few customer service instances where their English was poor, they seemed to absolutely panic at having to deal with me and were reluctant to listen to me try. They were still welcoming and accommodating, and I don’t believe we were committing any obvious social faux pas, but they were much more comfortable with me pointing at the menu than me asking in Japanese.
The only people who seemed remotely impressed, for whatever reason, were the few interactions we had with kids, who couldn’t believe that we would know Japanese, but that was three extremely brief interactions over the holiday. Oh, and the girl in the airport who helpfully corrected/added “Kawaii” to my “Kirei” porcelain cat. And the Steak House guy who acted as if I knew the entire language.
**11. Don’t Do Tokyo First (or at least also do it last)**
Chris Broad said this and he’s right. Tokyo is amazing, but it’s also overwhelming. By the end of the holiday I was much better equipped for Tokyo and I was able to enjoy it a lot more. I think this is especially true if you have any sort of anxiety about speaking to people or ambiguity about entering social situations.
12. **British Specific – Don’t look for a pub** ***or*** **a restaurant**
This one was really difficult for me as a British person. The rest of the world may find it easier. See, there are establishments in the UK where I go to eat, and establishments in the UK where I go to drink. And never the twain shall meet. I don’t go to the pub for food (mostly), and I don’t go to get pissed in a restaurant.
In Japan it felt very different. Since the vast majority of places seem to do both. I mentioned at the start that I’m a glass half-empty person. So if I want food, and I see people drinking beer and eating, then it’s not a restaurant. When I want to drink and I see people drinking beer and eating, it’s not a pub. To most people reading this bit must sound insane, but until I adapted my thinking on this I really struggled. Again, it’s a situation anxiety sort of thing.
13. **Kyoto Is Not for Me**
Lots of people enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not for me. The most popular spots were swarming with people and I got the distinct impression that many of the people enjoying it felt like “well, lots of other people are also here so it must be good.” I also – and this subreddit takes some blame here – viewed my interactions with Kyotoans in a slightly different light to the rest of Japan and it just didn’t seem as friendly as a result.
It’s senseless to bash an entire city, and there’s lots there, but what I saw and felt, I enjoyed other parts of Japan a lot more and I ultimately wasted a lot of money on accomodation in place I very quickly bounced from.
I was also dealing with my upcoming redundancy there, which may have been a factor!
**14. Toilet and Recycle When You Can, Rather Than When You Need To**
I was talking to a friend who lived in Tokyo on this and she didn’t experience this (or had forgotten what it was like). Tokyo has a serious public dustbin shortage – most of Japan does, but Tokyo specifically. So whenever you find bins it is time not only to dispose of all the rubbish you’ve been carrying, but to generate new rubbish here so that it can go straight in. Recycling spots are often – but by no means always – offered somewhere in Konbinis, but there were definitely parts early on where I was walking around holding an empty can for an hour.
Similarly, and maybe this is just city exploration rather than anything specifically Japanese, my life got a lot easier when I started seeing toilets and thinking “Can I go right now?” and choosing to if I could. It is a lot easier to find the toilet in Japan rather than the UK, but I often missed it when I most needed it!
**15. Don’t Overthink the Social Faux Pas**
I was warning one co-traveller about eating on trains before we went and she said “As long as we’re better than most tourists we’ll be fine.” I thought this was a terrible attitude and that she would be a massive problem, but by and large, she was right.
Reading a lot of Japanese travel advice on the internet, particularly if you’re anxious in social situations, can quickly lead to you worrying about everything as it is happening. Being anxious about whether you’re committing social faux pas generally leads to you being more stand-offish and less friendly. I actually think the biggest social faux pas I committed were around me not engaging or being clearly uncomfortable in the face of hospitality.
16. **And finally…**
Again, don’t overthink it or overplan it, and whatever you do, don’t spend hours reading lengthy reddit posts from people who have their own idiosyncratic and ill-informed opinions on how to enjoy a holiday. Particularly if you get a sense that they might not be very good at enjoying themselves. It’s your holiday, ruin it the way you want to.
(I did enjoy myself really)
by Kjaamor