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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   2551 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 31, 2024

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I'm getting overwhelmed planning my trip to Japan.

There is just too much to see and do and optimize. Also the quality floor for most things seems to be pretty high, which should make things easier but is making things much harder because there are just that many more axis/options along which to optimize.

And this seems to be a common enough experience, given there seems to be a bunch of forums and subreddits dedicated just to planning a Japan trip. This doesn't seem to be the case for any other destination, not to this extent.

I'm seriously considering hiring someone to help me plan the trip..

The sage advice seems to be to not overthink it, because you probably won't make one trip anyways. Just to go there and have a loose plan and everything will plan into place naturally given the aforementioned high quality floor and number of things to do.

But I just can't help not plan this thing out. Planning for the trip is almost half the fun!

I (American) just returned from my own "first time Japan trip" yesterday - two weeks, mostly in Tokyo, and the good news I can share from my experience is that you're going to have an amazing time regardless of how much or how little planning you put in, there's just no way to lose.

Everybody has already hit the big talking points, so I'll just add that in our experience, the limit on how much fun we were having was how much our feet fucking hurt on any given day. I was wearing serious-business hiking boots (my standard never-fail travel option) and my wife was wearing Hoka sneakers (supposed to be optimized for comfort), but by day 3-4 we were already revising daily plans, buying extra-padded insoles, and aggressively adding more "off-foot" time to the itinerary because we were simply standing and walking too much and our aching feet were making it hard to enjoy exploring. I'm no slouch, either - I hike often, run, and travel internationally ~3-4 times a year and I've never before had to take measures like this. My advice is to take some of your planning time and think carefully about your shoe/insole situation and the "on-foot" stretches of your itinerary so that you aren't caught off guard like us, having to take unplanned hotel room rest breaks to rest your brutalized feet.

Also, while I'm typing, here are the best two restaurants we ate at. Both were very popular (presumably instagram awareness), so you may have to really prioritize/go early if you want to get a table without waiting in line for an hour:

Shin Udon (Shibuya) - The perfect noodle dish??

PST Higashi Abuzu (near Roppongi) - I was baffled at how good this pizza was. Maybe the best I've ever had.

Is it your first trip? If so you'll probably end up doing Tokyo and Kyoto which is cool. Some general tips from a resident:

  • In Tokyo, try to hit a single area per day. Tokyo is massive and if you have to traverse it each day you'll end up wasting a ton of time on public transport. If you only have 2 days there you could do east/west, or if you have >3 you could do east/central/west, etc.

  • Stay at hotels with public baths, like Dormy Inn or the APA Resorts. These are really comfortable and affordable, and the baths are very clean and pleasant.

  • Kyoto is small but it is absolutely packed with beautiful architecture, restaurants, temples, shrines, fascinating little boutique stores, and more. Plan to spend twice as many days there as you thought you needed.

  • Check out the shrines and hot springs on the north edge of Kyoto. Mt Hiei is nearby and also quite beautiful.

  • Always get a plastic bag from the convenience store when you buy stuff so you'll be able to keep your trash in your bag since there are no trash cans (sometimes convenience stores have trash cans though)

  • Always have cash, preferable at least 10,000 yen, in your wallet. Lots of places are cash only.

  • Hostels and capsule hotels have gotten so expensive lately that you can usually get a mid-range hotel room for only slightly more.

  • Check what events are happening during the time you're coming. Tokyo (and many other places) are always holding festivals (traditional and modern) and other local events.

  • Go to some museums. The average quality level of museums is really high here. Even small local city museums are usually pretty impressive IME.

I'm curious: do you have any recommendations for things near-ish to Chitose? There's a chance I might be going for work sometime in the future, and if that happens I might as well do some kind of sightseeing while I'm in the country.

Chitose, Tokyo? Go see the Asakusa area, maybe see sumo at Ryogoku if you time it right.

Chitose, Hokkaido? No idea, never been up there.

Hokkaido, I believe. It was a long shot though, thanks anyway!

What advice could you offer to a traveler inexperienced with Japanese cuisine?

Etiquette-wise? Do what other people are doing. Also, don't worry about looking retarded when eating, as a foreigner Japanese people will automatically assume you're retarded and there's often nothing you can do to convince them otherwise.

Recommendation-wise? This is all personal taste, but:

  • Go for Korean BBQ over Japanese yakiniku. Japanese yakiniku is more expensive and less flavorful
  • Small local chain kaitenzushi restaurants are often really good and pretty affordable. Avoid national chain kaitenzushi unless you just want something decent and dirt cheap.
  • Go for hipster "gourmet" ramen places over greasy cheapo places. The latter are cheap but are often pretty meh unless you have a local friend who knows where the cheap AND good places are hidden.
  • When you're outside of Tokyo, try whatever the local specialty or delicacy is, it's almost always delicious.
  • Eat all the seafood. Eat at least once any sea creatures you've never eaten before. Kaisen-don are a decent way to get a lot of good sashimi at an affordable price.
  • Try okonomiyaki, it's great
  • Avoid most Chinese food here, most of it has been neutered to cater to the bland Japanese palate
  • Drink nihonshu/sake, and especially local sake (jizake) outside of Tokyo
  • Try the different kinds of shochu, they're interesting and unique.
  • You can skip beer here, the macro brews are unremarkable and the craft beers are decent but terrible value for money compared to any western country
  • Go to a really good soba place once

I think that's all I got for now.

Thanks for the helpful tips.

My first trip.

Rough details are as follows.

  • Visiting with a friend. Both of us are 25M. Both of us first time.
  • We want more modernity than traditional.
  • Budget is around 3k-4k USD.

Here's a rough outline that I came up with, obviously its really sparse and needs a lot of refinement.

https://imgur.com/a/gS3ihdm

Looks like a decent itinerary. Keep in mind that Dec 29-Jan 3 is around Shogatsu so a lot of stuff will be closed/limited during those days. Double check that the stuff you want to do is accessible/open.

Also, don't do the Shibuya go carts, you'll just look like a tool and piss off everyone around you. If you want to do something quirky there are a million more interesting things to do even just right there in Shibuya. There are a billion cool an unique bars, live music venues, edgy boutique stores, and more. TBH you could probably just wander around Dogenzaka for an hour or two and have a great time.

Harajuku is a shell of its former self. It's choked with Chinese and American tourists, random Nigerian touts, and various (non-Japanese) Asian tourists badly LARPing what Harajuku fashion was 20 years ago. If you want to see young people wearing freaky and interesting fashion, go hang around Shibuya station or the rooftop of the nearby Miyashita park. Spend the second half of your Harajuku day in Shibuya or Shinjuku instead.

Mt Fuji is impressive and worth seeing. Good choice. Instead of driving, you might consider taking a fancy train with a beautiful view so you can chill and eat snacks and enjoy the ride. Driving in Japan is IME pretty dreary, slow, and tedious. Around Tokyo, lots of of highways routed through ugly/inconvenient areas with no view and often with large sound barriers so you can't see much. Don't know about the route to Narusawa specifically.

Never been to Sapporo but I've heard great things about it and Hokkaido in general.

Looks like a decent itinerary. Keep in mind that Dec 29-Jan 3 is around Shogatsu so a lot of stuff will be closed/limited during those days. Double check that the stuff you want to do is accessible/open.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to call up a bunch of places and see if they are going to be open. Im assuming restaurants and bars are at least open, in the worst case?

Also, don't do the Shibuya go carts, you'll just look like a tool and piss off everyone around you. If you want to do something quirky there are a million more interesting things to do even just right there in Shibuya. There are a billion cool an unique bars, live music venues, edgy boutique stores, and more. TBH you could probably just wander around Dogenzaka for an hour or two and have a great time.

Nope, go karting through the city sounds like a grand fucking idea and I will do it. We like the act of driving and want various driving-based activities.

Nevertheless, what other quirky things would you recommend? A bit more specific.

Mt Fuji is impressive and worth seeing. Good choice. Instead of driving, you might consider taking a fancy train with a beautiful view so you can chill and eat snacks and enjoy the ride. Driving in Japan is IME pretty dreary, slow, and tedious. Around Tokyo, lots of of highways routed through ugly/inconvenient areas with no view and often with large sound barriers so you can't see much. Don't know about the route to Narusawa specifically.

I plant to redo this drive: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TUgfiNg06GQ

And rent a car from here: https://fun2drive-japan.com/

Never been to Sapporo but I've heard great things about it and Hokkaido in general.

I hope so. I want to sneak in some winter activities and Sapporo should be the place to be.

Is your timeline (14 days) set in stone?

For the most part. Why ?

If there's room to add a couple of extra days in Japan, that could help with the crunch:

I'm getting overwhelmed

There is just too much to see and do and optimize.

I've read three weeks -- 18 to 19 days in the country; one to two days buffer for traveling on both sides -- is ideal, especially if this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip. I understand that may not be possible.

It's not once in a lifetime.

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