Hello everyone!
Me and a friend (mid 20s) are travelling to Japan for the first time during the beginning of this November for 16 days. It seems like there is so much we need to know before we can indulge ourselves with sushi and have turned to reddit to seek a little bit of advice for our travels! 🙂
**Itinerary:**
Honestly we don’t have anything planned at the moment other than the Airbnb we have booked for 5 nights in Shinjuku and possibly doing a day trip to Mount Fuji. After our stay in Tokyo, we were thinking about travelling to Kyoto for about 2 days and Osaka for around 5 days.
* Are there any places that you’d recommend us visiting? It feels like we would still have a few days to explore other places or we could extend our stay within Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.
**Public Transport:**
JR Pass: We have purchased the 14 day JR pass and are thinking about activating it 2 days into our trip as we want the pass to be available for travelling back to Tokyo to catch our flights. Initially we bought the pass to have the freedom to travel between cities however it seems like we would also need to purchase an additional Suica card to travel around within the cities.
* In terms of travelling between cities, would we have to reserve train seats in advance with the JR pass?
* Any general advice for public transport
**Budget/Spending:**
I’m currently based in Australia and have just joined the digital bank UP as they offer no fees and decent conversion rates. I have heard Japan is still very much cash based and was planning to withdraw cash at an ATM using my UP account once I arrive in Japan. I have read quite a few posts that 7/11 is the best place to withdraw money.
My planned budget was AUD$5000 for the whole trip (hoping it’ll be a bit cheaper🥲).
Accommodation:
I’m looking to spend under AUD$100 per night for accommodation to be able to spend my money on other fun things! Currently we are looking into Airbnb’s as it seems to be the cheapest accommodation without having to share a dorm with other people.
* Which areas you would recommend us to stay at?
* Are Airbnbs the best way to save money on accommodation?
General Spending:
If I’m able to keep accommodation costs to AUD$100 per night it’ll leave me around AUD$130 per day after buying the JR pass and flights. Hopefully it’ll be good enough to travel, buy some cool stuff, go on any day trips and stuff our faces with a load of food!
I know I’ve just bombarded you with a bunch of scribble, but any tips/recommendations would be absolutely amazing!
Thank you so much for reading through this! 😄
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1 comment
The suica is just an IC card! It’s not at all related to or a replacement for the JR pass. You can use your IC pass to check in and out of subway or train stations not covered by JR (which is the bulk of them), or even to buy stuff at konbinis or vending machines. It’s just a charge card.
You don’t have to reserve seats in advance for the JR pass. You can just go to the unreserved section of whatever train you want (besides nozomi).
I use my Amex or suica probably 95% of the time living in Japan, but I always have plenty of cash on me.
Definitely hit up Nara for part of one of your Kyoto days. Definitely activate your pass later in your trip to cover that final trip, otherwise the pass would absolutely not be worth the cost.
Lots of super cheap hotels by Kyoto station. For Tokyo, a lot of people have enjoyed staying in Ueno or Ginza, depending on which areas you’re planning on spending the most time in.
Hakone is always a nice one or two night trip around mt Fuji.