Solo Japan trip itinerary review & questions!

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1. Not convinced the Hokkaido detour is worth it – if you just want mountains, onsen, and a possibility of snow cover then Gifu/Nagano will have plenty of this and is much closer to Tokyo/Nagoya.

   In the event you are interested in aviation, Flight of Dreams at NGO is pretty cool.

2. 1. Bring large backpack, buy extra there at some discount store to bring stuff.
   2. 10000 yen per day excluding acommodation and long distance transport is a good ballpark
   3. Bring some cash to have as an emergency and for smaller places and small purchases in places that won’t take cards
   4. Plan two main activities per day and leave rest as optional deciding on the go for them. Group Tokyo and Kyoto activities by area. Learning a few basic japanese phrases goes a long way.

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4. You’ll need to book your hotel in Kyoto to start the night before you arrive if you want to check in on arrival in the morning.

   You don’t need to bring much if any cash into Japan. Credit cards are now widely accepted and you can easily withdraw cash as you need it.

5. > I intend to bring 1 duffle bag (38L), 1 day bag & either 1 large backpack or 1 small luggage, which should I go with? (I do intend to bring back a lot of things)

   When I went for two weeks with my wife, we brought one carry-on size bag for clothes (enough for a week) and did laundry at our hotel once. We bought another bag in Japan for souvenirs, as that was cheaper than the check bag fees to get a bag there. That’s what I’d recommend – doing that also allows you to adapt to how much you buy rather than have to guess and not have enough space or have too much baggage.

   > How much should I prepare for food and items alone? I intend to bring roughly ¥330,000, I do intend to buy back a lot of things and avoid eating at convenient stores as my main meals lol

   Food in Japan is very cheap. If you don’t drink alcohol, you can generally get by on ~¥2,000 per meal. ¥330,000 at two meals a day would be ¥11,785 per meal, and you’d have to be eating at a premium steakhouse or something to spend that much. Our most expensive meal (for two people) was about ¥7,500 and that was at a Disney resort. If you’re really wanting to make sure you’re covered ¥100,000 would be more than enough.

   If by “items” you’re also including souvenirs, that largely depends on what you want to buy. Though like with food, things in Japan were much cheaper than I expected. If ¥330,000 is your total budget sans hotel and travel you’ll be perfectly fine unless you’ve got some really expensive interests.

   > How much cash & credit should I bring? I intend to bring roughly ¥100,000 as credit and the rest as cash, should I bring more cash than credit?

   Cash is still king in Japan. I was surprised by how many places accepted card, but Suica and a lot of smaller food places are still cash-only. ¥100,000 is probably sufficient in cash, but I’d feel a little anxious carrying that much around in case I lost my wallet somewhere. Getting additional cash from a 7/11 ATM is pretty painless, so I’d just make sure you have a card with low fees or no fees for foreign transactions and a travel notice in with your bank. Keeping around ¥10,000 on-hand at a time is a good rule of thumb.

   > Any other tips for first time travelers?

   * Learn a little Japanese if you haven’t already – even the basics go a long way. Ability to read hiragana/katakana and knowing basic phrases will help you feel much more comfortable.

   * Download Google Maps and Google Translate – both are essential for getting around and can help you if your Japanese isn’t sufficient to interact or read signage (though most signage has English too).

   * Get a welcome Suica card at the airport, it makes transit much simpler than buying individual tickets.

6. Will be talking about my experience in Tokyo and Kyoto. Actually on the way to the airport now to fly home!

   2) Depends on your preference if you like the normal restaurants or fancier ones. Generally for normal restaurants, it’s about 1200-1800 yen for a meal and a drink e.g, tsukemen and an orange juice. Fancier places like one I visited for an unagi/uni rice bowl cost me around 9000 yen.

   I spent about 260000 yen (just expenditure, not including flight or hotel) for an 8 day trip. 4 days in Tokyo 4 days in Kyoto. I did go a little bit crazy at donguri republic, akihabara and the Kumamon store. Also fell into the gachapon trap haha.

   3) I would say you’d get away with card or Suica payments more in Tokyo with the exception of those mom&pop stores. However in Kyoto I feel cash is king. What I noticed is that quite abit of stores that don’t even accept Suica accepts Alipay. All in all cash is still king.

   Suggestions for Kyoto
   – please don’t skip Tenjuan. In my opinion was the most beautiful garden I’ve seen. I’m sure in winter it would be even more beautiful
   – if you are into collecting unique goshuin, hozo-ji temple near Nishiki market offers a skull goshuin

   Tokyo:
   – Don’t get scammed in akihabara cause I did. Some stores (generally small ones) mark up prices by double. I bought a figurine, walked to the next store to find the same one at half price. So please walk around to compare!

7. I think you are way over budgeting. We spent around ¥5k a day on our trip last week and we were travelling about and eating often.

   Also don’t forget to pick up your IC card at the airport first as most stations don’t issue them right now, other than airports.

8. If you’re from Singapore, you can apply for the Trust bank card which offers pretty competitive exchange rate without charging the transaction fees. Most shops in Tokyo do accept cards, which the exception of the smaller shops such as those at Tsukiji if you’re intending to visit.

9. Suitcases there are really cheap and good so if you are carrying empty luggage i would suggest otherwise! I think the money might be enough but it depends on the stuff you buy and where you eat! Its difficult to predict that! Honestly other than small stores and temples and to load ic cards, credit worked everywhere!