I hate travelling in hot weather. April it is then lol.
Thanks guys ^_^
Japan Travel |OT| We have to go back
- Thread starter MikeHattsu
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I hate travelling in hot weather. April it is then lol.
Thanks guys ^_^
This year has been the warmest winter Ive ever experienced. I always go either Jan,Feb, or early March. It was almost always in the 60s and worse, it was raining quite a bit which also was a first for me. Ive never had to buy a umbrella ever and this time I did. Climate change is going to wreck a lot of countries.
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It rained a bunch in late March and early April too when I was there. Didn't ruin the plans too much, but had to switch 2 days around so we didn't have to do USJ in the rain. Good thing the tickets were valid later in the week so we didn't have to buy new ones :P
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Sure, but some attractions close in the rain at USJ, and standing in 2 hour queues in the rain isn't that much fun when it could easily be avoided this time. We already did DisneySea in the rain in um... 2019 I think it was :p
I now have hotels reserved up to the first 10 nights in Japan. Now I need to figure out the next 10.
Going through all of these different places and locations, and you know, I know I'm a nerd and would love so much of the crazy shit I could find in Tokyo, but fuck me, the nature of Japan is just pulling me so much more. Like, holy shit, seriously. Gorgeous.
Going through all of these different places and locations, and you know, I know I'm a nerd and would love so much of the crazy shit I could find in Tokyo, but fuck me, the nature of Japan is just pulling me so much more. Like, holy shit, seriously. Gorgeous.
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Tozai Line in Tokyo to be partially suspended on weekend | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
Tokyo Metro says it will partially suspend service on the Tozai Line in Tokyo this weekend. It is asking passengers to take alternative routes.
www3.nhk.or.jp
Shouldn't affect normal tourists too much since it's a part of the line that's to the east of central Tokyo. Don't think I've ever taken the Tozai line that far out myself even, only in the other direction to the west of cental Tokyo since it goes to Nakano.
You should probably start preparing to reserve a lot of spots in places you wanted to visit.
How often did it rain last year?
Yeah I know. We're seeing a lot of places that don't need reservations, but we do know some do, like the Ghibli Park in Osaka. The tickets for July just went on sale today.
Also, we just need to get a hotel for Tokyo before we leave Japan (last 5 nights), so there's that.
First 2 nights in Tokyo, 2 nights in Nagoya, 6 nights in Kyoto/Osaka, 5 nights in Okayama (using it as a hub for other locations mainly) and 5 nights in Tokyo, then flying out.
If it was me I'd just chill in Asakusa. Sensoji without the crowds is nice, there's a Don-Quijote next to the station to kill some time, and it's easy to access from both Haneda and Narita.
Honestly, I would just wander around Haneda to kill time, haha. It's a neat airport.
As stated above too, chilling around Asakusa in the morning with less crowds is cool as well (which I have done, it's great).
Is two months to little prep time to go to Japan? My brother and I want to go since he just graduated, and he will have free time before August so we were looking at July.
I planned a whole two-week trip to Japan in a little less than two months last year, so I think it's doable. Planning for two people might complicate things, but if you can figure out roughly where you want to stay now and book hotels ASAP, I think you should be okay. That said, there will be some attractions you'll have a tough time getting into or won't be able to book at all because you missed the window (ex. I'm gonna guess the Ghibli Museum will be very difficult/impossible to get tickets for).
Other people can probably comment on how busy tourist stuff is in the summer, I'm not sure when their school summer break is and/or how many people go on vacation during that time. I personally wouldn't want to go in July because I hate heat and humidity and don't want to die, so keep that in mind too. (Any trip to Japan is probably still better than no trip to Japan so I wouldn't let the month on the calendar stop you!)
Yeah good to know about things like the Ghibli Museum probably being out of the cards. And yeah, definitely will note about the heat and humidity.
My family and I were going to go in December but I saw tickets that were pretty much half the price I was planning on paying for May/June. I bought in mid April (so less than 2 months). So very doable, we have planned everything out for a family of four, just make sure you pay attention to how early you need to book things as you will have to start booking things very soon.
We've been planning a 3 week trip in July (hotels, locations and such) in the last week (literally still need to book 1 more hotel) and it's been generally fine for us.
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You mean the Tokyo Subway pass which let's you ride both the Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway, right? If you get a Tokyo Metro pass you can only ride Tokyo Metro and not the Toei Subway.
It depends on what places you visit and which trains you're taking. The subway pass doesn't work on JR trains, so depending on where your hotel is located and what you're planning to do, it might be better to get a subway pass, or it might not pay off at all.
For the Osaka Metro you'll need to take the subway 4 times each day for the 2 day pass to make sense. Again, doesn't work on JR, so again it depends. And for the Osaka Metro, there's also the Eco Card that's cheaper than the 2 day pass if you take the Metro on the weekends or Japanese holidays.
I think I've gotten a Tokyo Subway pass 2 times in all the trips I've been in Japan. But then I've carefully planned out the 3 days. Other times it has not made sense at all, even when I've stayed in hotels where the subway station is the closest station. I've often only taken the subway 2 times each day then, just from the hotel to a JR station and then from a JR station back to the hotel. Everything else has been JR trains. Or the plans only have some subway trips on 1 day, but other days have no subway trips at all, so it doesn't work out to an average of 3 trips each day.
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Yeah, the only problem is that everything will be more expensive. The good and affordable accommodations will have long since been booked, and plane tickets will be at a premium price.
My last trip had less time then that, and I think it was fine.
The only big issue were hotels in smaller towns. Things like staying overnight on Miyajima. Big cities like Tokyo and Osaka have a ton of reasonably priced business hotels, so even if the best places are sold out you can find something reasonable.
Flight prices are super random, but while 2 months in advance might be pricier than booking earlier it shouldn't be too bad. Prices from my airport look decent, and google flights says they're lower than average right now.
None of the attractions I went to required booking this far in advance. Ghibli museum sales open up a month in advance so you can still try for those.
As for the planning itself, it will take some time, especially if you don't have experience with international travel in general. But there are so many resources online and in this thread that it's doable.
Thanks everyone for the replies! Will definitely have a lot of research to do ahead of time and will be posting questions here beforehand!
Thanks for the reply! I appreciate the clarification, as I assumed JR was the same/included.
Yes, I meant the Tokyo subway pass. I'll have to look at my planned itinerary and check which lines I'm taking to see if it makes sense. Thanks again!
Haha. Thank you. Sounds like good plans. I've been to Sensoji before six years ago but there was a lot of people. It does sound nice to walk around without having to push through the crowds.
For getting the JR Pass, is it best to go right through the official site (I assume this is the official site: https://www.japanrailpass-reservation.net/) or is it okay to go through like Klook or something? Recommendations?
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As said in the OP, if you really do want to get the overpriced pass, then it's best to get it from the official site because of the reason mentioned.
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Looks like it will be done on the Fujisan-Climb site:
【吉田ルート】山梨県富士山吉田ルート通行予約システム｜お知らせ｜富士登山オフィシャルサイト
There's only info in Japanese at the moment, but some info from that page:
Google Translate said:
Here's also some statistics:
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Thanks. I know it's over priced, but going by the calculator for travel for all the places we're going in 3 weeks time, we do actually meet the minimum, in terms of minimum trips we're going to be making with the trains.
So now I have 3 people I know who came back from Japan, within 6 months. All of them reporting the trip was so cheap they were really surprised and went crazy with food and shopping.
Last time I've been in 2018 - doing the classic Tokyo, Kyoto Osaka (with some Alps and Fuji in between) with my family before proceeding to a solo trip in Hokkaido.
Really thinking about going there 3rd time next April with my SO. Anything important I should know about that changed about itineraries between 2018 and now?
I guess it would be another classic trip due to her never being in Japan and constraints of time. But would love if I somehow get to see new stuff as well
Last time I've been in 2018 - doing the classic Tokyo, Kyoto Osaka (with some Alps and Fuji in between) with my family before proceeding to a solo trip in Hokkaido.
Really thinking about going there 3rd time next April with my SO. Anything important I should know about that changed about itineraries between 2018 and now?
I guess it would be another classic trip due to her never being in Japan and constraints of time. But would love if I somehow get to see new stuff as well
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The JR Pass has become more expensive and is now not often worth the cost. Read the rest of the updated OP as well.
Wow. Where are you going? How many weeks pass are you getting?
21 day pass. These are the bare minimum trips:
Narita Airport -> Tokyo -> Nagoya -> Takayama -> Nagoya -> Kyoto -> Osaka -> Technically going back and forth between Kyoto and Osaka for 6 days -> Okayama -> Hiroshima -> Fukuoka -> Okayama -> Takamatsu -> Okayama -> Tokyo -> Narita Airport.
2 days in Tokyo, 2 days in Nagoya, 6 days in Kyoto/Osaka, 5 days using Okayama as a hub area for travel, 5 days in Tokyo and then heading back to Narita to head home.
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When I input that into the JR Pass calculator it says a 21 day pass doesn't pay off.
You can also try calculating with a JR Setouchi Area Pass... Would most likely be cheaper overall. Just remove Osaka -> Okayama -> Hiroshima -> Fukuoka -> Okayama -> Takamatsu -> Okayama -> Tokyo, and add Osaka -> Tokyo and + 22K JPY instead.
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When I put in for the minimum trips that I would be making (there are going to many other train rides on different days), it still came out to about 95k Yen. I can easily see us going above the 100k Yen that it would cost for the JR Pass. Unless I'm missing something?
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I'll take a look at it more from that perspective. Requires some more finagling going between the regional passes.
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That's the only pass you'd need then. Buy normal tickets (or do some even cheaper flying) for the rest of the trip.
Depending on where you stay in Tokyo you can take the cheaper Skyliner, and where you're staying and going in Kyoto/Osaka, take other trains than JR between Osaka and Kyoto too.
I know I was at least going to skip over to Nara as well, but yeah, I'll have to figure out the math for some of this.
I'm one of those people that can obsess about the numbers (not all the times, but sometimes). But I will also stop and go back to something later if I start getting a headache thinking about it too much haha.
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Well, with the JR Setouchi Area Pass you'd save somewhere between 15-20k, so the total would be closer to 75-80k instead of 95k vs the 21 day JR Pass at 100k. And you'd also be able to take the fastest Nozomi and Mizuho shinkansens.
I just wanted to say that thank you for being patient with me. Even if other outcomes come out of this, I want to thank you for putting up with me as I can sometimes be caught up with the idea of something and be stuck in it. It's no offense to you or anyone else, and also, I have to take what my partner wants to do as well in the matter. I'll be honest, we've been together for 7.5 years and this is technically our first actual vacation together, so it's a lot haha.
In other words, you are awesome and I'm sure others on here think the same.
I'm planning a trip to Japan in October and was wondering what ya all would recommend to be as a chill starting point?
I will be landing in Tokyo but I'd prefer to save Tokyo for the end of my trip so I am getting a flight that arrives as early as possible in the day and would then like to take a train to instantly go to another nearby place.
I will be landing in Tokyo but I'd prefer to save Tokyo for the end of my trip so I am getting a flight that arrives as early as possible in the day and would then like to take a train to instantly go to another nearby place.
Of the places I have personally visited, Hakone and Nikko were both notably more chill than the big cities; both are not super far from Tokyo and have nice ryokans you could stay at. In general the Fuji Five Lakes area should be good and I've heard good things about Kanazawa (but have not been there myself) as being somewhat like a less-touristy and more-laid-back version of Kyoto (it's on my list for next time!).
I always do a couple days in Tokyo first after arriving just to get settled. Arriving from Haneda, then immediately jumping on a Shinkansen from Tokyo or Ueno Station for the North or Kansai is a lot. What I tend to do is do three days in Tokyo, then take the Shinkansen for whatever city or prefecture I'm staying in for a longer period, then close out the last few days / week of the trip back in Tokyo.
I'm terrible at sleeping on flights. The fewer things sending me to the bathroom the better. So I try not to finish all of the food and only hydrate sparingly.
I do the same. I don't eat on any flights really. I bring protein snacks/beef jerky on long haul flights. Nothing at all on short haul.
For the long ass flights, I started using those long compression socks that go up to your knees on my last flight. We are all different bodies of course, but they worked for me, my legs felt way better than my previous flights. I was sceptical when I bought them, but they helped me out. I also bring comfy house slippers to were on the plane, as I saw a bunch of people use them last time I went.
I can't sleep on flights, but the more things sending me to the bathroom the better. I drink as much as I can to try and cut down on jetlag at the other end and the more excuses I have to go to the bathroom the more I have to stand up and stretch my legs.
It's not healthy to sit the whole way, you really should get up every few hours and stretch at least and walk a bit or you risk getting blood clots (maybe it doesn't affect everyone and I'm just paranoid but I'm not taking the chance, also the seats even if you get comfortable ones sitting down for 14 hours straight is uncomfortable).
My go to after my 4 Japan flights (there and back) last year which were 14 hours were to do this.
Watch like 3 episodes of an anime (20 minutes) 1 episode of a TV show (1hour) - get up for a few minutes
Play on my switch or 3DS for about an hour - get up for a few minutes
Then repeated that. The variation on what I was doing made me feel like time was moving so much faster.
The first flight I didn't do that and tried to sleep and I found that because I made myself dead tired and couldn't sleep time seemed to go so slow, then the few times I did drift off it was only for like half hour so it didn't help at all. I also got insane jetlag headaches the first night there after doing that. My head felt like it was on fire.