Hello!
My husband and I are planning a trip in October 2023, obviously that is a long time away but I want to make sure I am prepared so I can minimise the stress, it’s been many years since i’ve been overseas and its my husbands first time 🙂
I have a terminal illness so we are hoping to go before I become too sick to travel. I am aware japan has strict medication import rules so I think I will need to apply for a Yakkan Shoumei, is it best to do this sooner rather than later or does it need to be issued a certain time period before I arrive?
We don’t have much of a detailed itinerary and are hoping by the time we are due to leave there won’t be too many restrictions remaining, however will have flights, hotels and any tickets we may need booked before christmas this year which I believe suits the restrictions that were announced this morning.
We are leaving from Melbourne, Australia and are planning to fly into Haneda Airport, with a 2hr stopover in Hong Kong, arriving at Haneda at around 8AM. Does anyone know if we will have issues at the airport in HongKong with customs and medication? I can’t remember how it all works as we won’t be leaving the airport. We are then taking the Shinkansen to Osaka and will spend 9 nights there. When south we want to visit Kobe, Nara and Hiroshima, is this possible with only day travel from Osaka? After this we will spend 2 nights in Kyoto
Here we would like to visit the Atomic dome and memorial site, Universal Studios, Osaka Aquarium, Kuromon Markets, Nara Park, 3000 Observation Deck and to have at least 2 days to just wander the city and explore. In Kyoto we are wanting to visit the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove and Monkey Park, Daigoji Temple and the Fushimi Sake District.
We then will Shinkansen back to Tokyo for 11 nights. In Tokyo we are hoping to day travel to Mt Fuji, but otherwise just mainly visiting tourist attractions which I believe are all reasonably accessible by public transport.
We are hoping to visit Tokyo Disney Parks, Tokyo Skytree and tower, Tokyo Dome, Ghibli museum and park, Sanrio world, Uneo zoo, Gotokuji temple and perhaps a tour to Fukushima when in Tokyo.
We are aware of needing to purchase a JR pass prior to leaving and have seen some people mentioning ‘pocket wifi’ but I can’t seem to find much information about this online. I’ve also seen a few people talking about stamps(?) at shrines and temples. I can understand simple Japanese, (reading, writing and speaking) and am able to hold a conversation but wondering if it’s beneficial to learn any further or is English fairly well known? We are planning to take 10,000AUD in Yen, (is this enough for 2 people?) My husband is concerned about taking such a large amount of cash with us but international transaction fees for our cards are high and we are unsure if there is a better option. We will not carry all of our cash each day but only take what we think we will need. Is there anything else I have missed that is necessary?
Any tips and tricks from people who have visited japan before is welcome! I have always wanted to visit japan so want to make the most of our trip! Thank you!!
1 comment
Perhaps you might want to look into flying to Osaka directly.
Kobe, Nara, and Hiroshima are definitely doable as a day trip. You might also want to add Himeji to the list.
If you Google “Japan pocket WiFi” there are a lot of result. I haven’t used any of them so I can’t help you on that. You may also want to check if roaming from Australia may be cheaper too (I know nothing about this, so idk).
English is not well known, but since you are mostly planning popular tourist destination you aren’t going to have a problem.
10,000 AUD (~ 950,000 yen) is going to be more than enough unless you do everything luxuriously. Japan is fairly safe so you don’t have to worry too much about carrying cash.