Planning a trip to Japan

astridat

Hello,

My husband and I have decided to travel to Japan for 2 weeks in September.

What/where would you recommend visiting? We want to travel around and see as much a possible.

Thanks for any recommendations!

CG19a

As part of your trip I recommend staying in Osaka, this will allow easy access to Kyoto and Nara, while keeping your hotel costs low. My OH and I stayed in the Fraser Residence in Osaka last year, fantastic reviews on trip advisor, right next to the train station which leads to Kansai airport. The hotel is also next to Dotonbori in Osaka, an area with loads of nightlife and restaurants.

aileth

Osaka is absolutely brilliant. Hotels are much cheaper than Tokyo/Kyoto and you can easily go to daytrips from either on the bullet train, make sure to get a JR rail pass and you'll save mega bux.

We stayed in the Crowne Plaza in Osaka, lovely little gyoza restaurant around the corner which is cheap as chips and also a british pub which is good for a laugh as it's packed to the gills with Japanese businessmen downing whisky. Probably not the best if you're going city hopping on the bullet train as from my recollection it's not particularly close to the station (It might be - but this was 4-5 years ago and a little hazy!)

Mk14:37

I was never that bothered with Osaka. Tokyo of course has so much to see and is unmissable. My favourite sight-seeing spot is the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) in Kyoto.

But I absolutely loved my visit to the island of Shikoku, the smallest of the four main islands, full of rural charm that even as late as 2007 felt entirely unspoilt - not a McDonalds anywhere on the island!

catloverbex

If you're in Tokyo, definitely do a day trip to Kamakura & Enoshima. I spent a lot of last year working in Japan and Kamakura was my absolute favourite place. It's almost like a mini Kyoto but quite easy to get to from Tokyo.

Also try Hakone national park. There is a nice little round sightseeing trip that you can do which includes a cable car, train, tram and a boat. You can also stop off at owakadani (spelling is wrong sorry!) and try the volcano cooked black eggs. There are lots of traditional ryokan on the route too. I'd definitely recommend trying one. You also have to go try onsen! Note easy to find a unisex public one so if you're have the budget I'd recommended staying in a ryokan with private onsen.


Nikko is another good day trip. For all of the main Tokyo day trips, you can get really good English booklets from the main tourist information centre in the government building (can't remember the name but its the one with the free viewing platform). You can also buy 'passes' which cover the day trip travel which are really good value.


Kyoto was ok, I thought it was a little overrated and it's difficult to see lots in a short space of time because of the distance between a lot of the main sites. That being said, it is still a bit of a must do when you're in Japan.


A really great website is JapanICan. They have some fantastic offers for tourists on there. I used it to book bullet train and weekend in Kyoto. The price was cheaper through this website than buying e bullet train ticket alone! You should also consider the Japan Rail pass. I don't know much about it as I wasn't eligible due to having a working visa.


Top tip - if you're in business areas, you can get a decent 'business' lunch in a lot of places for around ¥900 -¥1,200. If you go to the same restaurants in the evening, the same meal would usually cost 4 or 5 times that! Alcohol is also very expensive. I'd definitely recommend trying to have your biggest meal at lunch time as you will save a fortune and still get to eat in really nice places.


Watch out for the touts in Roppongi in Tokyo. They're not quite as bad as the guidebooks say but they can be a bit of a pain. I lived in Roppongi and never had any trouble but I ignored them and was always careful and didn't get lulled into the false sense of security that Japan can bring out in westerners. I know people have complained about having drinks spiked and cards skimmed but not sure how often this happens but better to be safe than sorry!


Have a fantastic time!