Hi Everyone,
My family and I are planning a trip to Japan. We are looking to fly out on May 12 (should reach Tokyo on the 13th) and flying back home on May 25th. We are looking to do the following with our time there.
May 13th to 18th – Tokyo and head to Disneyland and DisneySEA. We are considering dedicating 2 full days at the parks. Three remaining days will be going around town and sight-seeing. What we’ll see is to be determined. For this leg of the trip, what area should I be looking for a hotel in? Ideally, we want a central spot where we can get on the train or grab a taxi to go about our day.
May 18th to 25th – on the 18th, we’ll grab a JR with oversized luggage (just in case) and head to Osaka. When we arrive, check into the hotel and do something light in close vicinity to the hotel. Here in Osaka, we want to hit up Universal Studio Japan and dedicating a day or two here. With the remaining time, we’ll check out local attractions. We are also looking to get a train to Kyoto for a day trip and google map says that we can get to it in 15mins. Does this train run all day or at a specific schedule? How frequent are the trains?
DisneyLand and SEA – is a day at each park enough? Likewise with Universal Studio Japan, we are thinking two days, or do we need more time here?
Etiquette – are there any that we should pay special attention to? Obvious things such as, not making a mess, speaking loud at restaurant.
Tipping culture – no tipping anywhere in Japan as they will be some what offended correct?
Thanks
2 comments
Etiquette, don’t be loud on the train, do not speak on the phone in the train, remove shoes at places that require to remove shoes.
JR pass you do not need it unless you add some more expensive trips out is Osaka and you would still want to return to Tokyo within 7 days not 8 as you planned. Instead do not use the pass and keep the plan as it is. The train between Kyoto and Osaka is frequent. It is 15 minutes on the Shinkansen but it is unlikely that you want to only move from Shin-Osaka station to Kyoto station. In reality you can expect it to take 1h from hotel to attraction in the other city and Shinkansen often make the route more complicated and really more expensive if you do not have a jr pass.
Tipping in not a custom, it’s not really that they will be offended, but more confused and they might run after you to give money you forgot.
Hi!
How much time you need for theme parks depends on your theme park goals and how crowded they are. You sort of have to give Land and Sea each their own day because there is currently no park hopping and even when there was park hopping only people staying on property in Deluxe Hotels qualified for 1 day park hopper tickets. (Cause Toy Story wasn’t open yet.)
I personally would not want to give Land or Sea more than a day, but I also prefer staying as close as possible so I can be there and be ready. I also like being able to pre book sit down restaurants.
I usually only give USJ a single day. I also tend to buy expressway passes and stay at one of the hotels in City Walk. USJ is small and now has two dead ends in the park, so the park can feel really crowded. Based on someone’s recent trip report, it tends to have longer lines than TDR.
I’ve only once taken the shinkasen between Kyoto and Shin-Osaka. It was when I was meeting a friend at Shin-Osaka and I just happened to get to the station at the right time. Outside of shinkansen transfers, there is no reason to ever visit Shin-Osaka. I would not get a rail pass so I could do this when there are so many other options to get between Osaka and Kyoto and depending on where you are going others might make more sense. (Like Keihan and Hankyu)
I think in terms of big suitcases, the other issue is taking them on crowded subways or crowded shopping streets, I tend to use luggage delivery services to hotels.
Your trip also coincides with the G7 Summit. I was in Japan for the G20 in 2019 and based on that…. for several days around the summit all locker banks in train station were closed All public waste receptacles in train stations, on trains, and just in parks were closed. So make sure if you are traveling around this time you have a bag for carrying all trash out of the train with you, since it might be awhile before you find a trash bin.
Tokyo has several central areas, so it’s really about what you want to do in Tokyo. If you are going to TDR for 2 days it makes sense to stay on the East side and closer to Tokyo Station, because it is closer to the parks. If you’re a large group you might even want to stay at one of the hotels near TDR since they tend to have some of the largest hotel rooms.