Japan Tips
February 19, 2025
In 2023 I spent nearly three, wonderful weeks in Japan. Here’s what we did, in the hope that it might help you plan your trip.
Overall - it’s an amazing place. All of what you’ve heard about Japanese politeness and cleanliness is absolutely true.
You definitely need to take plenty of hard cash as they aren’t as contactless as the UK, but quite a few of the restaurants and 7/11 convenience stores took card. We took about 75% of our money in cash and the rest on one of those post office travel money cards.
7/11 stores are amazing. You could save a tonne of money by getting a lot of your meals there - it’s cheap but good quality. They also have microwaves and rice cookers in the store.
You definitely want to hire a wifi dongle so you can use google maps to figure out the subways. We pre-booked ours with Japan Experience and picked it up from the airport on arrival.
We bought a 14-day JR pass as we were travelling around so much - which was definitely worth it (although the rules on this have changed and the price has gone up massively, so check this before you go). You need to read up about these before hand though as they work on most bullet trains, but only some subways and local buses. There a good app called Japan Travel - that lets you journey plan but filter by what is compatible with the JR Pass - very handy as Google Maps doesn’t do that.
Having said that, Google Maps was excellent for navigating the subway in Tokyo. All of the Subway signs in big cities were in English, making it easier to navigate (with a few minor mishaps).
You can’t really go wrong getting hotels near main train stations. The stations themselves are often a central hub of shops and good restaurants. For cities like Toyk, it doesn’t really have a typical downtown that you would expect in western cities - a lot of the sightseeing spots are spread out. The big train stations are more like mini-hubs that have shops, restaurants and shires around them.
We spent:
- 5 nights in Toyko
- 4 nights in Kyoto
- 5 nights in Osaka
- 1 final night in Tokyo
Toyko
- Visited Meiji Shrine - worth doing on a sunny day, very pretty
- Went to Shibuya crossing - walked over the crossing, had dinner in observation tower near by.
- Shibuya Sky Tower - this was good, but it was raining so the open air floor was closed, but worth doing. You need to book a ticket for this and its timed. Theres plenty of other observation areas in Tokyo tho, so its not essential.
- Did a day trip to Fuji. We took a train to an area called Kawaguchiko (took a few hours and a couple of trains), but theres a lake there with a gondola to go up and get a view of Fuji and a few other walks. Theres a sightseeing bus (The Kawaguchiko Sight Seeing Bus) that stops at loads of interesting places. It worth checking the weather beforehand, then going when its clear, as Fuji is notorious for being clouded (it was when we were there, but then we got a good view and photo from the bullet train on the last day).
- Visited the Imperial Palace - just walked around which was nice. The tours get really busy and have to be booked in advance.
- Walked around the nerdy Akihabara area. This has got loads of manga and anime stuff, but also weird maid cafes. Cool area though.
- Walked around Asakusa - this is a big shrine and market - would recommend this, we ate there and looked around all the little stalls, it was fun but really busy (we were there on a sunday)
- Walked around Ginza district. This was cool, its a posh area for shopping. Went to the flagship Muji store (about 10 floors including a hotel) and this cool stationary store called Itoya.
- On the last night of the trip we came back to Tokyo for one night and had drinks at New York Bar in The Hyatt. This is the bar featured in Lost in Translation (such a cliche but we loved it). Its a pain in the arse to find (the hotel is on the 47–52 floors or something, but the way you get up to isn’t straightforward, so look it up before you go). But this was one of my favourite things, an amazing view of the city, the sun setting and a cool jazz band playing.
- We stopped at Miyako City Tokyo Takanawa. This is less than 10 mins walk from Shinagawa station (which is also a Shinkansen station and only 20 mins from Haneda airport). Shinagawa is also on the the Yamanote loop line - basically a circle line around Tokyo where you can get to a lot of the stops. We chose it for price and convenience. We paid for a king room, to get a slightly bigger room, but it was still small by UK standards. It was about £112 per night, so not bad really (also included breakfast)
Kyoto
- Walked around traditional Gion district. This was interesting, saw loads of Geishas.
- Went to International Manga Museum. Good for a couple of hours.
- Visited Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. To be honest we wouldn’t do this again, it was really touristy - noisy and busy. If you get there early you can avoid crowds. Theres other bamboo groves you can find.
- Visited the Golden Pavilion - a golden temple in a pretty garden - this was much more peaceful.
- Went to Nara Park. You can go here from Kyoto or Osaka, its about the same distance. Lots of deer who bow to you for food. Probably avoid the weekend here. There a massive temple with this huge Buddha state in it which is cool.
- Kyoto imperial palace was really quiet when we were there, which was nice.
- Fushimi Inari Shrine - this has a walking route up a nearby hill with thousands on small red tori gates that you pass through. Again, go early to avoid crowds and tedious tiktokers.
- We stopped at Sakura Terrace The Gallery. This was nice as the room was a Deluxe King with Balcony - really good sized, had a sofa in it as well, plenty of room. You also got a complementary drink per person every night you were there. Also has a Gym and onsen. This was also 5 mins from Kyoto station, so easy to find and then get around and do stuff in Kyoto. This was about £125 per night. Worth it thought. Some nights we just got some beers from the 7/11 and sat on the balcony.
Osaka
- Was probably my favourite place, a really different vibe to the other cities. More relaxed.
- Floating garden observatory - this was another observation tower but he building was so cool it was worth it. We just paid on the day.
- Eat in Dotonbori - this is a bustling food and drink area by the river. Its a bit mad but was one of my favorite things of the whole trip.
- Visited Osaka Castle - I just walked around the outside, but you can queue to get in.
- Did a day trip to Hiroshima, all in 1 day and travelled to here from Osaka on the bullet train. We went to the Museum and the Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima island. Worth visiting, but be warned that the Hiroshima Museum was very intense, there were several people who couldn’t make it all the way around from being upset.
- Stopped at the Hilton Osaka. Went a bit posh here, mostly because prices and availability was affected by the G7 that was in town around the same time (which we had no idea about when we booked). So this ended up being about £190 per night, but it was a king room, decent size and we had a nice view out of the 27th floor. Also 5 mins from the station. Would recommend, but you’ll hopefully be able to find somewhere cheaper.