I asked for three weeks of vacation time from work in the last week of March, hoping to do a short trip to Japan before going on to Hong Kong to visit family. I went to my travel agent today to ask about flights and she told me that is sakura season, meaning it’ll be a royal pain finding available flights. She ended up holding a reservation that allows me 3 days in Tokyo (March 26 to 29, 2023), not counting arrival/departure days. It’s shorter than what I’d like, but there are no flights available within my budget to fly to Hong Kong if I extend my stay.
The problem is, I had originally hoped to do a week in Japan so I can venture out to Kyoto. Obviously 3 days is too short for that, so either I ditch that reservation and see if she can find me something to Osaka instead or I just go with the 3-day trip in Tokyo.
So my questions are:
1. Should I entertain doing Kyoto for 3 days if I can somehow find flights to Osaka within budget? How bad are the crowds going to be? I’ll be traveling alone for the first time so I will have to consider Kyoto for another time if it’s going to be ridiculously crowded. (Don’t really need the extra stress from long waits everywhere)
2. If I go ahead with 3 days in Tokyo, is a day trip to somewhere nearby outside the city feasible? I ventured to Karuizawa last time I was in Tokyo, but that was a 4-day trip.
3. I stayed in Shinjuku previously and there was a bus that took me directly from the airport to the hotel. I’m considering Ueno this time. Are there any hotel recommendations for moderate budgets close to the station? I mainly want a clean room with a private bathroom and preferably a desk. I might need to do some work while traveling, unfortunately.
4. Is cash still widely accepted? I’ve read somewhere that Japan has become increasingly cashless since Covid.
Thank you!
2 comments
I’d wait till the end of this month, and see if you can change your flights. ANA and JAL had recently both announced that they intend to increase incoming flights to the country at the end of October, and you’ll likely see availability open up.
For your questions:
1. Kyoto is always crowded, cherry blossoms are no exception. The blooms don’t last either, so you may want to weigh how badly you want to go with how much crowding you can take. It’s hard to say what levels will be like by the time you go, but expect it to be busy. You can combat it by visiting the bigger locations [(check Japan-Guide for information on the areas with trees, those will be most popular)](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3951.html) early in the morning to avoid the majority of the tour group related crowds.
2. Daytrips from Tokyo in that timeframe would be places like Nikko and Kamakura. I wouldn’t advise Fuji/Kawaguchiko or Hakone as they’re a tad too far or involved, and may not have blossoms at that time.
3. Check with Hotels.com, Booking.com or TripAdvisor.com for information on hotels. Ueno is full of them, so any one of those aggregators will be able to tell you if they have what you seek.
4. Cash is always accepted. Cashless payments are increasingly available, but nobody is going to turn down money from anyone.
While it is a popular time to go, if you look at date of international tourism, it’s not as if there was many times more tourist during this period of time. Yes, they are in the most popular period, but it’s not that much more than the least popular month.
For sure if you go to cherry blossom spots, it will be crowded, but the foreign tourist will only be a small part of the people, most of the crows will be Japanese people enjoying the cherry blossom.
1. No matter where you go, cherry blossom spots are more likely to be crowded during cherry blossom season than out of season, but you won’t see much difference elsewhere. Same could be said for summer, if you go to big matsuri, dance festivals and firework, you can also expect to see big crowds.
2. Yes, there is lot of possible daytrips from Tokyo like Kamakura/Enoshima, Kawaguchiko, Hakone, Chichibu, Kawagoe, Nikko.
3. Yes, there is business hotel about everywhere. No specific recommendation, just use your favorite booking website and you are likely going to have a dozen of options.
4. It’s not because cashless options are getting more common that it mean shops would stop accepting cash… I mean I live in Canada where it is rare to find a shop that does not accept credit/debit card, but everybody also accept cash. I would be surprised if you find a single place that does not accept cash.