Little did I know that planning a two week trip to Japan would be so difficult.
Planning is one of my favourite pass-times. It’s in my genes. So when I arranged to meet a friend for a two week whirlwind tour of Japan earlier this year, I enthusiastically volunteered for the job of loosely planning our itinerary.
I’m a huge fan of guide books, so my first stop was my local book store to buy a comprehensive guide to Japan.
The guidebook was a massive 904 pages long and with so much to see and do in Japan, it’s fair to say I was immediately overwhelmed by the scale of my task.
I had to break my planning down into bite-sized chunks. Here’s how I did it.
1. INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS
First things first. I had to decide where to start and end my trip. We had agreed on rough dates so after a quick search for international flights my decision was made based on the availability and cost of flights from Scotland. I would fly in and out of Tokyo.
2. JAPAN RAIL PASS
We intended to travel around Japan mainly by train. Everything I had read about Japan confirmed that it has a fantastic rail network and that trains are reliable but very, very expensive.
The Japan Rail Pass (JRP) seemed to be the most cost effective way to travel Japan. There are certain eligibility rules around who can us
e the JRP but in a nutshell, as long as you don’t live in Japan, you buy your ticket before leaving your country of residence and you enter Japan as a ‘temporary visitor for sightseeing’ you should be good to go.
We each bought a 14 day JRP which cost a whopping £330 per person. Considering that the price of a single ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto is roughly £100, I thought it would be worth it. Although there are some restrictions on which trains the JRP can be used on, it covers the length and breadth of the country for both long and short distance journeys. An added bonus is that it can be used on certain buses and ferries too.
3. THINGS TO DO IN JAPAN
With so much to see and do and so little time, this was the most difficult part of planning our trip.
I started by writing a list of:
- Must do’s
- Would really like to do’s
We both had an idea of some things we wanted to do/see so that was a good starting point. I supplemented the list by:
Checking out ‘Japan’s Top 25’ (according to my guidebook)
I narrowed this down to 15 based on how far some of the attractions were from Tokyo. As we were flying in and out of Tokyo we had to be realistic about how far we’d actually be able to travel in 2 weeks.
Asking around
It turns out I have 4 friends who have either lived in, or spent long periods of time in Japan. All of them were keen to share their wisdom, hints, tips and recommendations.
Travel Blogs
Travel blogs are great for getting advice from people who have been there, done that and bought the t-shirt. Travel blogs not only helped me to identify things to do/places to go, but provided practical hints and tips about navigating Japan, as well as valuable advice about things to avoid and things to look out for.
Instagram was a fantastic source of inspiration for our trip. A quick search of #japan generated a whole host of awesome travel photos. It also generated some photos that were, shall we say, not particularly travel related, but that’s a whole different story. Nevertheless, Instagram really helped us decide which sights and places we desperately wanted to see for ourselves.
Googling
I googled everything from “things to do in Japan”, “Japan’s best bits”, “night time in Japan”, “free things to do in Japan”, “wacky things to do in Japan”, “fun things to do in Japan”, “beautiful places in Japan”, “unusual things to do in Japan”, “hidden attractions in Japan” to “thing’s not to do in Japan”.
These searches most definitely helped us flesh out our to do list, but also provided some interesting information that helped us get to grips with cultural differences. Snippets of information such as ‘don’t tip’, ‘how (not) to queue in a Japanese public toilet’ and ‘point to your nose instead of chest when gesturing “I”’ most definitely saved our blushes and hopefully made sure we didn’t accidentally cause offence.
Our to-do list looked like this:
4. DRAFTING THE ITINERARY
This was our initial itinerary:
21 Sept. Fly to Tokyo
22 Sept. Arrive in Tokyo
23 Sept. Tokyo
24 Sept. Tokyo/Mt. Fuji
25 Sept. Tokyo
26 Sept. Shikoku
27 Sept. Shikoku/Asakawa Ozuna
28 Sept.Hiroshima/Miyajima Island
29 Sept. Hiroshima/Miyajima Island
30 Sept. Osaka
1 Oct. Osaka
2 Oct. Kyoto
3 Oct. Kyoto
4 Oct. Kyoto
5 Oct. Kyoto
6 Oct. Tokyo
7 Oct. Tokyo & fly home
5. TO BOOK OR NOT TO BOOK (ACCOMMODATION)?
We wanted to keep our options open and keep our plans flexible. Yet we still wanted that little bit of security of knowing we had somewhere to stay when we arrived in Tokyo. So we booked our first 2 nights accommodation in what turned out to be a very small (but perfectly formed) hotel in Shinjuku,Tokyo.
With so much to do and see in Japan, our plans changed on a daily basis so it was great that we could decide the night before, where to go and what to do the next day. Other than our first Tokyo hotel, we hadn’t researched accommodation in Japan and we didn’t have any specific ideas about which hotels or hostels we wanted to stay in so this worked well for us. But, Japan’s hotels and hostels fill up quickly so if you know exactly where you want to stay, you should try and book about a month in advance to avoid disappointment.
If you’re planning on staying in Kyoto, I’d recommend Centurion Cabin and Spa (Capsule) Hotel.
Centurion Cabin and Spa Hotel, Kyoto
6. THE ACTUAL ITINERARY
Our itinerary didn’t work out exactly as planned. That was partly due to the weather, and partly due to recommendations we received whilst we were in Japan. For me, a bit of spontaneity is half the fun of travel. This is what our actual itinerary looked like in the end:
21 Sept. Fly to Tokyo
22 Sept. Arrive in Tokyo
23 Sept. Tokyo
24 Sept. Tokyo – Kyoto
25 Sept. Kyoto
26 Sept. Kyoto
27 Sept. Kyoto
28 Sept. Kyoto
29 Sept. Kyoto – Hiroshima
30 Sept. Hiroshima – Osaka
1 Oct. Osaka
2 Oct. Osaka
3 Oct. Osaka – Hakone
4 Oct. Hakone
5 Oct. Hakone – Tokyo
6 Oct. Tokyo
7 Oct. Tokyo & fly home
What did we miss? What does your Japan itinerary look like?