Japan trip Any tips?

ceewash

Planning trip to first Japan around 23rd May. Anyone got any tips? Atm looking at flights from Manchester. What are best airlines to use? The cost is about £1000 for premium economy or about £500-600 economy. Also there are 2 airports, are they both easy to transfer to centre of Tokyo?

Doom_and_Gloom

Unless using the Narita Express (NEX) getting to and from Narita is a long process. The NEX cost around 3,000 yen, or you can get a tokyo round ticket for around 4,070 yen if traveling back within 2 weeks. NEX is included in the Japan Rail Pass if that is something you are thinking about. Not sure if you have to prebook NEX or not.
There are the bus at 2,800 yen, again a round trip exclusive for foreigners for 4,500 yen is possible. Takes longer than the NEX.

Heneda is in my opinion easier to get to and from, and also takes less time to get to and back.
If not getting the JRPass you can get an IC card (suica or passmo) and load money at the airport from machines (takes cash only be aware!) Around 1,300yen (may be less) gets you to Tokyo.
We got the monorail to Hamamatsucho station and transferred onto the Yamanoto line to get to Tokyo station. The monorail goes into the main train lines in Tokyo and you can get most places this way.

Sorry will help later if need be. Need to get to work.

ceewash

Thank you that is very useful. At the booking flights stage now. Some more reasonable flights land at one airport and leave from the other. I assume that won't be a problem apart from return train ticket no use.

savethepandas

Pack light, most hotels come with laundry areas, and storage for large luggage is often difficult. Credit cards are less widely welcomed than in the UK.

silvercar

Pack a small carry on suitcase as well as your main luggage. Hotels send luggage from one to the next for a very small fee, leaving you to travel around with just a small case. We used the service when travelling around without any problem. Our luggage always arrived straight to our room on schedule.

blindman

ceewash wrote: »

Thank you that is very useful. At the booking flights stage now. Some more reasonable flights land at one airport and leave from the other. I assume that won't be a problem apart from return train ticket no use.

Japan Guide website is very good.

HND airport-to Tokyo easy by rail

Narita airport Longer - cheapest option is bus

Will you catch this offer of free flights?

This service is available only to visitors to Japan between June 1, 2020 (Mon) and October 31 (Sat).

sazaccount

My advise is:

Take a suitcase not a rucksack (unless its day pack size), if you can pack into a cabin sized bag (even if its too heavy to be used in the cabin and you have to check it), take a wallet where the notes can be flat. Cash is king, you may have to try a couple of different ATM's for fee free withdrawals.

Are you staying in Tokyo? if not then look at getting a JR pass but also look at buses between cities, I found the JR pass best for me as I was in Japan for 4 weeks and I liked the freedom of looking at the map and thinking I want to go there tomorrow and just being able to do it.

I love Japan I went in April of last year and got to see all of the cherry blossoms beautiful and all of the festivals they have. Hostels were great as I was backpacking I can't comment on hotels though. Keep in mind Japan is expensive I spent around 2500 GBP for the 4 weeks excluding the flight but including the 3 week JR pass.

TheShape

I was there in November for 15 nights. 7 in Tokyo, 4 in Kyoto, 2 in Hiroshima and 2 in Osaka. Flew into Narita, activated our 14-day Japan Rail Pass in the airport and got the Narita Express. The Narita Express didn't need to be pre-booked.

We flew with Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong. It was a long journey but we chose the cheaper flights with Cathay rather than direct with BA/Japan Airlines. We flew into Tokyo Narita and out of Osaka. On the return we had a 12 hour (planned) layover in Hong Kong. Flew out of Osaka at 9:50am? and out of Hong Kong at 00:30 the next morning. Had a very nice day in Hong Kong.

One of my highlights was the Grand Sumo Tournament in Fukuoka. If you're interested in something like that, the Tournament in Tokyo runs from 10th to 24th May.

As for spending in Japan, experience must vary. Almost everyone I've heard talk about Japan has said it's expensive as does the post above but we didn't find it at all expensive. In fact, we were surprised by how reasonable prices were at tourist attractions and how prices at tourist attraction for food and drink were mostly the same price as anywhere else. The restaurants we ate in were also very reasonably priced.

Vegasgirl1973

Completely agree with Theshape. I was there two years ago and was surprised how reasonable the prices were. This was especially the case for food. You can eat extremely cheaply and well from convenience stores. They even heat the food up for you. We loved a Family mart and Lawsons,lol.

RichardCUK

I went for 3 weeks for my 30th. I got a SIM only card which worked on Japanes mobile networks. Costs lke £20 and gave me 200mb a day which was more than enough for google maps. Made our lives sooooo much easier. We just Google Maps every train and underground route.

Get Revolut for cash. We used it an it worked in every 7/11 out in Japan, and 7/11's are everywhere! Allowed us to take cash out as and when we needed.

If you like a nice drink try Bar High 5 in Ginza. One of the best places to drink in Tokyo in my oppinion.

I could spend hours reocmmeding places. DM me if you want more info.


EDIT


As people have said get a rail pass for sure. We flew to Haneda airport.

Ballard

If you do travel by train you should use hyperdia.com to help plan. I found it an amazing resource.

I purchased a JR card and planned the trip in more detail than usual to make best use of it. This meant that it expired when we were in Nikko so we needed to pay for the train back to Tokyo. Rather than pay a small fortune for a Shinkansen we opted for a different train operator who were much cheaper (and decidedly slower).

We stayed in various accommodation types and I don’t have a favourite as such but I’m pleased that we used a ryokan for one night.