Trip Report, Jan 20 – Feb 7, 2023

This subreddit helped us immensely before and during our travel. In an attempt to pay it back, I have captured our big learnings after this trip and will share them below in the hopes that some people will find them valuable.

We visited Japan from the USA, a 50 year old couple (my first visit in 30 years, partner’s first visit.) Our travel style is last minute, go with the flow, which allows us to flex based on whims, advice, or weather. We started with 5 nights in Asakusa (Tokyo), then 2 in Osaka, 3 in Kyoto, 2 in Hiroshima, and 5 more in Tokyo, this time in Ginza. We use booking.com for all of our stays and found this gave us a nice mix of local hotels with very affordable rates.

Here are our thoughts, in no particular order, on the trip:

We thoroughly enjoyed Japan; the cohesive nature of the society, the food, the sights, the people, the amazing mass transit, and the (surprising) affordability.

The quiet. The silence on the subways and trains. The quiet roads and cars. It rarely felt like there was much noise anywhere and this was so unlike every other country and metro area we have visited.

Travel light. We did not use the luggage forwarding services because we rarely made hotel reservations prior to our day of arrival. This meant we had to carry all luggage onto subways/trains and it was with minimal issues because we just bring one backpack and one roll aboard size luggage each. And luggage lockers were EVERYWHERE which made stowing stuff for a side trip or before checking very easy – we were able to fit our luggage and backpacks into a large locker which cost ~800 yen.

Ask questions of volunteers/docents! Several of our top experiences were being provided with in depth info from these kind folks – at Osaka Castle and Shukkeien Garden in Hiroshima, in particular, we were lucky enough to be guided around and shown stuff we would never have found on our own after a simple initial question!

Maps, maps, and more maps. In addition to our heavy usage of google maps to navigate, we found that pretty much all public areas had maps posted on the walls with a “you are here” marking to help when we got disoriented. Many places also provided paper maps. And there were lots of tourist info locations with detailed visitor info.

Public restrooms. What an amazing asset these are. There was never any need to worry about where the next bathroom stop was…they were everywhere and extremely clean and nice! (Do bring a small hand towel or handkerchief, though, as many did not provide a way to dry one’s hands.)

Masking. Wow, this was surprising in two ways. First, masks are worn by almost all people at almost all times, including outside. As visitors to Japan, it was easy to do the same, but we did have to buy extra masks at a conbi because we didn’t bring 3 weeks worth. Second, the mask quality is very low – we were unable to find anything near the level of a kn95 or kf94, so if you want effective masks for subways/trains/crowded shops, you need to bring your own.

Morning sets. Man, did we love these. At most cafes, there is a combo of a cup of (amazing) coffee, a piece or two of thick, buttered Japanese style toast, and some form of egg (boiled or scrambled .) Usually the cost was ~600yen… just so cool. These were usually buzzing with locals and a nice window into life in the neighborhood.

Train stations. We are mass transit geeks and loved exploring these hubs of activity. At many of the larger stations (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima) there are huge multilevel shopping and eating centers jammed full of fascinating shops and hopping, delicious, affordable restaurants. These underground warrens were particularly great for us on rainy days.

Affordability. Most of the hotels we stayed in cost ~$100 per night. These were mid-level hotels with full service and, usually, an on-site lounge with courtesy snacks/drinks in the evening and a public bath for soaking and cleaning. Meals rarely cost even $20 per person and often much less (we were not eating at Michelin starred restaurants, obviously, but did eat a lot of sushi, ramen, and tonkatsu.) The exchange rate obviously helps, but the costs seemed much more reasonable than we were expecting.

Thanks to all the contributors to this subreddit who provide valuable information, and please hit me up with any questions you might have