We had such an amazing time in Japan - and we'll definitely head back there at some point - but if you're planning your first holiday to the land of the rising sun, here's what you need to know.
Firstly, great choice: Japan is awesome! Given it's a 13.5 hour flight from London and 15 hours back, spend as much time as you can there. We spent nearly three weeks there, firstly flying into Tokyo (Haneda airport - Narita is the other international airport in Tokyo), which wiped out our first day. We spent two nights in Tokyo (free things to do in Tokyo
here and fun things
here), before heading to
Okayama for three nights. We used there as a base to explore
Hiroshima and Naoshima. Osaka for four nights was next, where we also went to Kyoto for the day. Ditto Universal Studios Japan. And had the best beef in the world in nearby Kobe - Osaka and Kobe food post
here). We then flew to
Miyakojima for three nights to relax, before it was back to Tokyo for the final four nights. Our final day was wiped out by flying home.
I was really happy with what we did and enjoyed all of it -
Naoshima was definitely a highlight and I'd highly recommend adding that to your Japan itinerary, if you can. The only thing we didn't do, which you might expect to see on a Japan holiday what to do post, is Mount Fuji. Originally we had booked a day trip to Mount Fuji from Tokyo but decided to stay there instead as it was going to be a super long day - and the chances of Mount Fuji not been covered by cloud was high. We did, however, get to see Mount Fuji lots flying back from Miyakojima as we ended up circling for fifty minutes. (And exploring around Mount Fuji is definitely on our list when we head back to Japan.)
When to go: We were there from the end of April into May, which coincided with Golden Week, a big Japanese holiday. We were told because of Golden Week everywhere would be rammed, but only really experienced that in
Kyoto. The advantage of travelling then is that we caught the tail end of cherry blossom season in Tokyo, which was super special. And the weather was nice - it varied between 20-28°c with higher temperatures when we were in Miyakojima. When we head back, we'd probably time it to see the autumn foliage. Summer is super humid, hot and can be unbearable.
How to get around:Public transport is king in Japan, from the underground subway to the Shinkansen (bullet train). You'll want an IC card, like Suica, which you can use to pay for local transport (and also use in certain convenience stores). Olly could use an app on his iPhone whereas I, as an Android user, had to pick up a physical Suica card at Haneda airport. Both need topping up with cash to use. Google Maps is excellent at telling you which lines/stations you need, the cost of the trip, and even going as far as telling you where the best place to stand on the platform is.
As with any major city, the Metro is fab because traffic can be really bad. All signs and announcements are made in Japanese and English on the underground, and it's super cheap. From the airport to Asakusa it cost £3.14 - the only issue is that it's mostly stairs up to street level, not escalators, so be warned if you have luggage! Where there are escalators, stand on the left. (Unless in
Osaka where you need to stand on the right.) We did Uber from the airport to our hotel in Tokyo the second time as we were delayed three hours and wanted some of our evening back - you'll read not to do this as it's super expensive but it was about £40. We'd pay less from Heathrow to home, so were totally fine with that price.
The Shinkansen is super fast so if you want to travel around Japan, this is a great option (you can't use your IC card for this). We used it from Tokyo to Okayama and booked it on
Klook, picking up those tickets from the machine. We did struggle with the Shinkansen ticket machines to buy tickets to Hiroshima from Okayama, and Okayama to Osaka, so queued up for those. (Because the Okayama to Osaka journey happened in Golden Week, we also needed to reserve a seat at the ticket office as the service is super busy.) And, you may see something rare like we did, we saw the "Doctor yellow" bullet train which mostly runs over night - it doesn't carry passengers but runs to diagnose the tracks. There was a lot of excitement at Osaka station for this!
Where to stay:Since we were in Tokyo twice we made sure to pick two different sides of the city (though ended up heading back to the other side, typically!). We stayed at
The Gate Hotel Asakusa Kaminarimon by Hulic and
Hotel Groove Shinjuku. Hotel rooms tend to be tiny in Tokyo - The Gate Hotel was bigger than Hotel Groove Shinjuku and it is in a much quieter bit of Tokyo, but I did prefer Hotel Groove Shinjuku (where to eat in Tokyo post
here). Both great options though! In Okayama we stayed at Hotel Granvia, which was conveniently next to the train station. More of a base so we didn't care too much about the aesthetic but it was a comfortable room.
In Osaka we stayed at two different hotels:
Zentis and
Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport. Zentis is more of a boutique hotel and we really liked the vibe, whereas the one at airport was practical as it's a two-minute walk from the terminal. (Added bonus, we had the most amazing tonkatsu at the airport at
Tonkatsu Wako Keitei). In Miyakojima we stayed at Miyakojima Tokyu Hotel & Resorts - I've shared in my post how we were the only non-Japanese guests there, but it was a great hotel. One thing to note about hotels in Japan, they all provide pyjamas for you to wear during your stay (not to keep) - loved this! I was also a fan of the Japanese loo for that heated toilet seat - definitely something you quickly get accustomed to.
How to move your luggage around:If you don't fancy struggling with your luggage - and they really would rather you did not bring it on to the Metro or Shinkansen - then luggage services are going to be your new best friend. We used them extensively and were amazed at how cheap and easy it was to do. Every hotel we stayed in were able to sort this for us - and you can also find them at stations, the airport and some convenience stores. Even when we checked out of Zentis Osaka and had one suitcase sent to the airport hotel so we didn't have to pick it up after our day at
Universal Studios Japan, and had the other sent to our hotel in Tokyo - yes, the hotel after next - it wasn't a problem.
It's called takkyubin and the most recognisable company that offers this has a black cat logo (we called it the Jasper service but the company is
Yamato). It cost about £20 to send our two suitcases from one hotel to the next, and everything went smoothly. (If you do feel nervous, whack an AirTag in them.) If you want it to arrive the next day then you need to drop it at reception by 9am - the later in the day you send it, the later it will arrive. The hotel will also phone where you want to send your suitcase to double-check your reservation etc so there's no chance of sending it to the wrong place. I only wish more countries offered this service.
Anything else? Speaking of suitcases, I'd highly recommend packing a suitcase in a suitcase - we did that and were very glad with all the
shopping we did. Other things we'd seen to bring to Japan was a tote bag for rubbish (we didn't and we found plenty of bins), a small hand towel for the loos (again, the only place this would have been needed was the loos in the grounds of Hiroshima Castle so didn't get this one either) and a power bank (totally useful, but that's the case wherever you go in the world).
Now a power bank is recommended because, again, based on research I'd done, it suggested we'd need to use translation apps ALL THE TIME. Other than in Miyakojima when we had to use it twice to communicate with the staff (who all spoke great English by the way, I think they just wanted to be super certain), we didn't need to use it to talk to people. A few Japanese words, smiles and gesturing went along way. For menus if there wasn't an English version, we'd just snap a photo and run it through Google Translate. I did think we would stumble more with the language barrier but we really didn't. I bought an eSIM for £22.45 on
Klook - data was unlimited, and the first 20GB was high speed.
Another thing we read was that cash is needed lots in Japan; again, this wasn't really the case. It's recommended you get money out at 7-ELEVEN as they have no ATM usage fee but we did use other ATMs and the charge was about £1. It was mostly a few street food places that needed cash - and when we took the ferry from Uno to Naoshima - the majority of places took cards. Speaking of 7-ELEVEN, we didn't get the hype around convenience stores (konbini) like there, Lawson and FamilyMart. I get you can pick up cheap food there but we were paying around £3 for a bowl of ramen at restaurants! Ditto vending machines.
Finally, there are a few cute and quirky things to mention about Japan - not surprising since the country created the likes of Hello Kitty, Doraemon and many more. I've already mentioned the colourful manhole covers - they're fun to look out for - and lots of businesses have mascots which are equally as fun to spot (I like the Japan Rail's blue platypus, Ico). But, a cute activity to do is collecting stamps - make sure you bring a notebook because lots of tourist attractions have stamp points. Adorable fun! x
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