Japan - Tokyo - March 09

Early last year I travelled to Japan with my partner, and most of the places we stayed and wonderful experiences we had were all thanks to information I got from travel forums and blogs. I am going to retro-blog the trip (luckily I posted trip reports up at the time!) because I think I might have some useful information for some :)

This trip consisted of going to; Tokyo - Yunishigawa Onsen - Nikko - Tokyo - Takayama - Kanazawa - Kyoto - Shikoku - Hakone - Osaka - Tokyo.

First up - planning your Japan trip - some tips!

• At Narita Airport I bought a suica and n'ex combined for 3,500 yen - very helpful - you can use your suica for travel in the subways and also in vending machines and some shops that display the suica logo.
• I spent the majority of the first week in Tokyo, and activated a 14 day JR pass on the 8th day of my trip. The JR pass is a must - we used JR almost every day in the last fortnight, even up to taking the n'ex back to the airport. Not only is it worth it - you dont have the hassle of finding out how much tickets cost, having cash on hand etc etc. It made it all easy, even reserving seats was simple - most of the JR staff are used to foreign travellers.
• I went to Nikko/Yunishigawa Onsen on the second day of my trip, I recommend getting a Tobu Rail World Heritage Pass. It costs 3,600 yen and gives you a round trip to Nikko + use of tobu buses and shrine entry. If you are planning to look around Nikko it is worth it - also much easier than catching a JR train to Nikko (with the jr pass) as you have to do a few transfers whereas the tobu line goes direct. This pass is available from Asakusa Station at the Tobu Travel Agency located outside.
• Another useful pass was the Hakone Tozan Railway Pass. A two day pass costs 3,900 yen and gives you unlimited usage of the tozan railway, boats, cablecar, ropeway etc. If you are going to do a round course of Hakone it is worth it. This pass is available from Odawara and any rail station in Hakone.
• When booking hotels - always print out the map of where the hotel is located, it is also useful to print out a japanese version as once you get lost - theres not much use showing a local your english maps.
• Print out as many maps as you can of the Subway, JR Rail, Towns you are visiting, Sites you are visiting. Chances are there will be tourist maps at the site - but most chances are it wont be in english.

On to the trip!

We arrived pretty late at Narita Airport, 6.30pm - immediately we experienced cold (4 degrees!), technology overload and loathing of other foreign tourists. No need to walk here, they have conveyor belts to help you out, shuttle trains to save you a few metres, toilets have control panels and all foreign tourists seem to be pimps, predatory and/or obnoxious? (but really, we heard an american on the N'ex trying to recruit a girl tourist into a stripper show).

We spent the night (and many more to come) at a Toyoko Inn in Shinjuku. Great location (although might be a bit risque on the streets for some) close to Shinjuku & Higashi-shinjuku stations. Very cheap (9,240 a night for two), however you get what you pay for. The beds are like slabs of concrete and the rooms are very small. However we stayed in a lot of these in the major cities as it meant we could spend more at Ryokans out of the city. If you are like me and dont really care about staying at a nice western hotel in japan it can help to stay at these for your budget. The Toyoko Inns also give you a simple free buffet breakfast in the morning (miso, rice, coffee etc) and there are free PCs for internet browsing in the lobby as well as rental laptops for 1,000 yen a night. Although my back wont forgive me, I did find the hotels handy.

Next day we were headed to Yunishigawa Onsen, a tiny village north of Nikko and a highlight of the trip.

Shinjuku