First trip ever! 21 days in November/December 2022

12 comments

1. My first comment is you should activate your jr pass on 29th of nov. that is exactly 14 days until 11th of dec. Don’t waste your jr pass for exploring tokyo. Jr pass is expensive and only be used if you go outside tokyo.

   If you like anime and games. I recommend to split your attention to ikebukuro and nakano broadway. ikebukuro has many interesting anime and games shop. Nakano broadway is cheaper than akihabara. But tbh, den den town in Osaka is cheaper than tokyo (if you wanna go there during your free day in Osaka)

   Not sure if you can do all of your list in kyoto, seems like a lot of places.

   Teamlab borderless closed down 31st august 2022, so you want to plan for something else, how about disneysea?

   If you think of last minute gifts, try don quijote or daiso. they are pretty much everywhere, so just hop to one if you have free time. Or you can go to airport one and buy like millions flavours of kit kat and pocky. My last minute gifts idea was kitkat last time I visited lol

2. Ok, the 14 days pass would make sense, but if you do not use from day 1 ( and I do not really see why you would), do not exchange it at the airport if there is a line, just do it during one of your Tokyo days. 21 days pass is a total waste of money, you just want the pass active when you leave and return to Tokyo.

   25 : Borderless is closing at the end of August, you can still check to do Planets.

   26 : Ichiran is a bit overhyped in my opinion, not bad, but there is for sure better places. Considering you plan shopping, why not move some of the shopping heavy days at the end of the trip so you do not have to move everything to Hiroshima. Could consider Shibuya Sky for observation deck.

   27 : The usual spot in Asakusa in Senso-ji can also add nearby Kappa bashi if you want to get some cooking ware, and there is also Skytree that is nearby.

   28 : Nikko you can be there in the morning if you leave early morning. As you take two days, I would consider going to the lake Chusenji area, maybe even find a ryokan with onsen and second day focus on the temple/shrine area.

   Considering your comment about tattoo, first of all, you do not go in onsen in a bathing suit, you go naked. Second, you have different options, tattoo friendly place, private bath in the room or a place with a private onsen that you can rent, usually for one hour. I’m also not sure I like the idea of doing Nikko-Kyoto, that will be about 5h in the train, so you cannot leave Nikko too late as you will have to be at your accommodation before the end of check-in time (I hope for you the aibnb you found is easy to access and ok with late arrival)

   3 : any specific reason to go to Nijigen no mori ? Like there is a specific part of the park that you really want to see ? It’s not that easy to access, not sure if it is really worth.

   5 : considering you plan to go to Kinosaki, just skip the onsen on that day, Kyoto is not especially known for it.

   6: Don’t go to Kinosaki the day you go to Nara, this is dumb. You likely need to be in Kinosaki for 5 or 6pm the latest to check in the ryokan, so that do not leave you much time for Nara.

   Kinosaki : While it is a nice and relax place, I would not spend two nights there. There is honestly not that much to do in Kinosaki appart from the onsen, so if you get there not too late in the afternoon (like as soon as the ryokan accept you to check-in, so you can get your yukata and public onsen pass), spend the night at the ryokan, maybe get lunch there (or bring something to eat in the train) maybe check to not be too late and stop by Himeji to see the castle on the way to Hiroshima.

   If you want to do two nights in ryokan, then do one in Nikko and one in Kinosaki.

   Hiroshima, the big thing will be the peace museum and peace park with the different memorial, the next day the classic is a day in Miyajima, the torii game may or may not be under renovation at that time, but Miyajima is lovely regardless.

3. There’s better places than Ichiran or Genki sushi. Just walk about and you will probably find a random spot that will end up being better.

4. Akihabara doesn’t really get going until ~1 or 2pm, for 11/24, maybe consider visiting another part of Tokyo in the morning. Maybe look for a garden or temple, something low key since the rest of the day in Akihabara will be pretty high energy.

   In Kyoto, it’s easy to sort of budget a similar amount of time for each attraction, but in reality, some can be explored in 30-45 minutes, while others like Kiyomizaderu and Fushimi Inari are really worth 3+ hours each. Honestly a day that was just Kiyomizaderu in the morning (keep in mind that there is a lot to see on the walk up, and then the complex itself has dozens of sub temples. Then get lunch, and then do Fushimi Inari in the afternoon, see the shrine, climb Mt. Inari to the top seeing all the little spots along the path.

   Overall I think you have a *great* first-timers itinerary. In Hiroshima, it’s definitely worth setting aside ~4 hours to explore the peace memorial and surrounding central area. Also look into Miyajima, if it strikes your fancy, it’s worth a *full* day, take the ferry in the morning, explore the island, climb to the top if you like a good hike, it’s well worth a day.

5. Others have already mentioned about the JR Pass. You can probably get a 14-day instead and save some money, though it’s up to you as perhaps you may want to start doing day trips earlier in your trip, which the 21-day would cover. You could get 24-72 hour subway passes in Tokyo for 500-1500 yen, which is like 5-15CAD. You can get these at the information center in the airport and then you can get more at most major subway stations in Tokyo at their information centers. You just need to bring your passport.

   In Hiroshima, you can visit Miyajima by taking a ferry, which the JR pass covers. There’s also a rabbit island called Okunoshima that you may be interested in, but not sure if it’s worth it if you only have 2 days in Hiroshima. Also one thing to note about Hiroshima is that other than the main JR station, most of the transportation there is by streetcar. Not a big deal, but I remember if I booked my accommodation outside of the streetcar routes, it was quite a walk with my luggage.

   If you prefer SIM cards and are getting a good one with enough data for your needs, then great. However, just wanted to mention that you could get pocket WiFi for pretty good prices from https://www.ivideo.com.tw/english/japanwifirental
   Just from my experience the first time in Japan, I had SIM and used up my daily data a lot, which was inconvenient as Google Maps stopped working unless I went into a wifi zone or topped up my data again. Plus, the pocket WiFi provides connection for laptop as well if you’re in a weak wifi area or on the bullet train, but connection isn’t too stable while riding the train.

   Tokyo Station has a good underground shopping area for sweets and candies if you’re interested in buying those as gifts.

   You’ll also need to get an outlet converter if you’re coming from Canada. It’s also nice to have a portable power bank for your phone and perhaps pocket WiFi if you plan on being out and about a lot.

6. Good for you, but why are people planning trips, the city is still all locked down…

   I haven’t read anything in the newspaper yet about individual people being able to come to the city,

   Maybe you are lucky, in any case.

   Team borderless is closing soon.

   One full day in akiba might be too much (taito is a big city btw, narrow it down a tiny bit)

   genki sushi doesn’t exist anymore, there’s something else nearby with a different name (Uobei)

   Mandarake in shibuya is very small to be honest, not sure how you will spend the whole day there, at most 1 or 2 hours, in any case go to nakano broadway, there you can spend the full day.

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   I know people like Ichiran ramen, and it’s good, but I don’t think it’s spcial at all, there are tons of mom and pops ramen places that can beat the hell out of ichiran and are better for stories and more special.

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   Anyway I only read the Tokyo part because I live here, If I were you…

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   I would joint Asakusa and Akihabara day together (Start in Akihabara and walk all your way to Asakusa through the sumida river) walk through ryogoku and asakusa.

   The other day I would add Shinjuku to the list, the botanical park is beautiful, etc

7. On the 25th, are you going to visit Mega Web? It was closed last year. You can visit Toyota Automobile Museum near Nagoya instead.

8. If you’re into cars – also check out the Nissan Heritage museum. You have to buy a ticket in advance and it’s a takes a non JR train and a bus to get to but well worth it.

9. Can you help me a bit with this? I want to plan a trip bit i have no clue where to start.

10. 1. Teamlab borderless is moving locations in August, so you’ll need to either check if the new location is open by then or try one of the other exhibits.

    2. Plan to miss 1-2 connections both to and from Nijigen no Mori because unless you’re fluent in Japanese and very good at directions, there’s not a lot of signage or indication of where bus stops and things are. Even pre-covid it never had enough visitors that you could just “follow the crowd” either so just be careful you don’t get stranded.

    3. Hiroshima: highly recommend the atomic bomb museum. But if you go, do it a little after lunch because you will likely lose your appetite after. Still something everyone should experience at least once imo

    4. As a foodie, I recommend trying to include at least 1 local specialty dish for each city you go to. Many foreigners never really step out of their ‘comfort zone’ simply eating Ramen and sushi everyday when there’s so many good dishes you can try. E.g. Kyoto: yudofu, Osaka: kushikatsu, takoyaki, etc

11. I don’t do the JR pass. I did a suica card which is used everywhere from trains to restaurants etc. I did get in Kyoto the 3 day Kansaka pass or whatever it’s called (I haven’t had coffee) that lets me travel Kyoto Osaka nara area on all trains free and I get discounts. The math didn’t work out that I would save money on a pass. I did buy a high speed rail ticket between Tokyo and Kyoto. Again it was cheaper. The reason you definitely want a suica or pasemo card is that in Tokyo for example you may switch trains which have different owners. You need to exit and buy another ticket. With a suica card you tap getting in the out of stations and it figures it out. You also pay exact fares instead of the tickets for high are rounded up. Trust me without the tap cards it’s a nightmare.
    My biggest recommendation is giving yourself time to explore and also just be zen. I sat in a park in Tokyo at like 530 am (sunrise was like 4:55am) and there wasn’t a sound but the breeze in the trees. That 35min has stuck with me for years! There’s so much to see you can’t possibly do it in one trip so get some key experiences and then sit and soak up the culture… and well… breathing.
    Oh and definitely take a samurai class! In Kyoto see if you can catch a samurai joe tour. He’s world famous and epic. He’s pretty old, not sure he’s doing them every Saturday like he used to.

12. There’s direct flights from Pearson to Haneda which is within the city and you can take local transit to anywhere. Way easier and cheaper than Narita.

    Also, Genki sushi in Shibuya closed at some point last year or even 2020 not sure. But there’s plenty of similar places everywhere.