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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Cedceg on 2024-10-29 08:31:13+00:00.

While I was researching my holiday to Japan, I had a lot of help from these kind of trip reports. So I thought I’d pay it forward and share my own experiences from our recent holiday, end of august/first half september . It ended up being more of a diary-entry style of post than I’d set out to do, so apologies for it turning out massive (and having to split it into 2 posts). But I had a lot of fun reminiscing about all the wonderful moments we had in Japan, so I can only hope some people will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

ABOUT US:

Two Belgians, 35(m) and 35(f), first time in Japan. Very broad tastes, with a big focus on food and drink culture. Normally not hugely into shopping, but we did find ourselves doing so (and spending) a lot more in Japan than we’d done in other countries. I also really get into photography while on holiday. So if a place feels a bit meh, but I manage to get some good photos out of it, I still feel like I had a pretty good time.

BUDGET SPENT:

Per person, our flights were about 1000€. Hotels ended up almost the same, around 1000€ for 19 nights, with the ryokan and shokubo stays bumping the overall price a bit. We did manage to get some amazing deals (under 80€ pp for 4 nights in Osaka!), so doing some research can really reduce those costs. We started off with 1500€ pp in yen from the bank, and had to draw some more spending money twice. Did some of the more expensive dinners and shopping on visa, but mostly used cash.

Entire costs turned out at 4200€ per person, which we’re pretty happy with.

PRACTICAL STUFF AND OVERALL THINGS PEOPLE ALWAYS SEEM TO BE ASKING ABOUT:

• My main tip, and everyone says this but I feel like I have to emphasize: make sure you’ve got solid, comfy, well-worn shoes. Maybe even 2 pairs so you can switch it up. In Japan, you’re going to be doing a lot of walking; doesn’t matter how easy-going you think you’re going to be, you’ll be hitting at least 15k steps on a lot of days. My biggest issues during this trip were blisters on my feet, and I had to buy quite a few blister plasters to try and sort that out. And a little bonus tip for people who aren’t huge hikers: start getting in your daily 10k steps a month or 2 before your trip. It really does help getting your legs into the habit of doing a bit of walking every single day.
• We used Google Maps for everything and it never once steered me wrong. There’s a slight learning curve to using it on the public transportation, but by our second or third day it’s second nature. Just make sure you look at the final destination so you know you’re going the right direction, and take notice of which yellow exit you have to take. It was as intuitive and free of hassle as I could possibly imagine public transportation being.
• For internet we had a pocket wifi from Japan-Wireless delivered to our hotel. Worked brilliantly. Only slight issue is you have to recharge it during the day with a powerbank they supplied. So sometimes we’d lose internet in the evening, and it’d be because I forgot to recharge our wifi. Really small issue really, but it is another set of batteries you’ll have to manage. An e-sim is probably even easier if your phones are high-tech enough, but the overall wifi experience was pretty flawless.
• Get a Suica-Card. You can obviously keep buying individual tickets for single trips, and in the short term that’s not really a problem. But an IC-card will make traversing cities 10 times easier, so I’d call it borderline essential.
• Luggage delivery is a gift from the traveling-Gods. We used it 3 times, and it cost us (two large bags) 5,200 yen per transport. And I’d honestly recommend it if it was 2 or even 3 times that price. Really makes traveling absolutely stress-free, and it really is a wonderful feeling to be able to enjoy your first experiences when stepping out into a new place, instead of having to drag this big heavy block behind you. The amount of comfort and ease of mind it provides it pretty much unparalleled.
• I’d highly recommend against planning specific restaurants, except for special meals. There can be big lines for a specific place when you don’t really want to wait. Or a restaurant can be quite a bit out of the way from where you think you are going to be. I just couldn’t imagine having to worry about making sure I’d get to a specific location for my meals, seeing as there are hundreds if not thousands of decent restaurants pretty much anywhere. I’d recommend making a list of specific dishes you want to try, and finding restaurants near you on the fly, ticking off those boxes. Don’t completely trap yourself into your travel-planning, and leave room for some spontaneity. We often just searched google and reddit for some options while on the train or in the hotelroom, which lead us to some of the best meals we had on the entire trip.
• The garbage issue is real, but overall not that big of a problem. Garbage cans on the streets are few and far between, but you’ll be able to deposit your empty bottles near a lot of the vending machines, and most konbini’s will have garbage cans inside the stores. Just put your garbage in a bag and you’ll probably be able to dump it somewhere within 30 minutes.
• We didn’t have many issues with hotels. My gf spent a lot of time doing research to make sure we had spacious hotels with large beds, and we felt they were all adequate. By Western standards some may have been a tad small, but never really an issue. We also didn’t have a single instance where we were bothered by noise coming from other rooms. We mostly only use our hotelrooms for showering and sleeping, though, so mileage may vary.
• We both adapt pretty well to hot weather. So the Japanese 35° at high humidity - although being really hot - never really fazed us, and we never had to resort to cooling neckbraces or fans. But the sun can really burn, and you will be sweating a whole lot. I bought some deodorant and simply took it with me everywhere so I could spray a couple of times during the day. But although the sun could be pretty harsh, we never got sunburnt. I’d say the whiplash you’d get from the freezing airconditionings were a bigger hurdle for us than the actual heat.
• The language barrier was so so so much better than we thought it’d be. The people are super friendly and many of them speak decent English, especially in the cities. And when they don’t speak English, pointing at things with a couple of basic phrases gets you 99% of the way. My main takeaway is that people really, really like you just making an effort. Don’t be that tourist who’s loudly saying “THANK YOU”, just learn some basic sentences and you’ll see quite a lot of people light up and going the extra mile to accommodate you.

The phrases I learned and used quite a lot:

• Konichiwa / Konbanwa - Hello / Good evening
• Sumimasen - Excuse me (for apologising, or getting attention from someone)
• Arrigato Gozaimasu - Thank you
• Hai - Yes
• Kore - This (when pointing at a menu or something)
• Daijobu - I’m ok (when people ask if you need a plastic bag or anything like that)
• Okaikei kudosai - check please (a really big one that people clearly appreciated)
• Chotto matte, kudosai - Could you wait for one moment, please
• Eigo de daijobu deska - Is English ok? (Probably really butchered that, but had to use it twice and it got the job done both times)

Right, so now that all that’s out of the way: the actual trip!

THE ACTUAL TRIP:

DAY 0: Arrival

Arrived slightly after midnight at Haneda, where a very friendly gentleman explained to us in perfect English how and where we could get an IC-card. We then took a cab for around 10.000 yen to our hotel: MONday in Asakusa. Very friendly check-in, we had some tickets and pocket wi-fi sent beforehand and everything was there, without any problems. This was our first contact with the Japanese organisation and friendliness, and it basically didn’t change for the duration of our trip. Literally every single person we met was helpful and kind, and everything everywhere is clearly defined and communicated. On a cultural level, it really is the perfect location to go on holiday.

DAY 1: Asakusa (steps: 23.000)

People often seem to be asking what part of Tokyo to stay in, and we couldn’t have been happier that we started our trip out in Asakusa. It seems to offer a lot of what makes Tokyo great, but doesn’t feel as overwhelming or crowded as some other areas tend to be. Seeing how you’ll likely be jetlagged and slightly overwhelmed by the new culture, Asakusa seemed like a great place to get our bearings. We also opted not to use any public transportation on our first day, and just took everything in at our own pace.

We visited Senso-Ji at around 10u00. It was quite crowded, but the temple complex is so large that it never felt too dense with people, and we enjoyed our first of many, many temples. Walked around through the neighbourhood snacking on some decent tonkatsu sando’s, konbini onigiri and took our first stab at trying out random drinks (we chose… poorly). We then came across the Don Quijote store we heard so much about, so we decided to have a quick look around. Two hours later we re-emerged, wondering where the time had gone. This is also the point where I started singing the Donqui theme for 20 days straight.

After quickly freshening up at our hotel room (the jetlag was real, and wreaking havoc on…

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