Out of all the countries we have visited in the world, Japan is hands down our favourite – the people, the sights, the culture and above all the food; it is all so amazing, alien (for us Europeans) and fascinating that we could just keep returning every year, if only there was not the rest of the world that we had to visit.

It was Japan that first put us onto the idea of writing a blog, basically as we had many friends also wanting to visit this wonderful country, so we had a standard email to mail out with all the must do’s, must eats and must prepares so that we could share the joy of Japan…that email got longer and longer as we went back, so a blog finally made sense.

Hopefully it will also inspire you to visit Japan and enjoy all that there is to do and see. Naturally we have plenty to write and will include places on our two trips so far – back in 2015 and more recently in 2017 – so expect this blog to be split up into several parts, the first of which is to give you a bit of an overview of Japan, what you need to prepare, what to expect and some itineraries that will give you some ideas on where to go and what to do.

Before arriving

Apart from reading these blogs and getting yourself a copy of the lonely planet guide to Japan the one other thing that you need to look into is getting yourself a Japan Railways travel pass – if you think that you will do more than one return trip to Kyoto from Tokyo then the rail pass will pay for itself in unlimited travel over a one or two weeks;

it is only open to non-Japanese passport holders and has to be bought before you enter the country (JR Pass). The pass can then be exchanged at a JR station in country for your actual ticket, it will be valid from the day you exchange it, so if you start / finish with a few days in Tokyo then time the activation around that as you will not get much use of the pass in Tokyo itself.

Arriving

You will most probably arrive at Narita airport, there are several things you will want to get organised here before you move on – get yourself some Yen at one of the forex counters, then you can get yourself the great value several day metro pass (cash only) that will also get you into the centre of town, albeit not on the Narita express but the standard express train (that is much slower, but gives you time to soak in this new culture).

If you are staying in Tokyo for a few days then don’t activate your JR rail pass yet as it is not accepted on all the lines in Tokyo itself,save it for when you want to explore the rest of the country. If you are travelling with a lot of baggage (for example if you are skiing and you’ve brought a very heavy snowboard bag…as Matt has done) then use the luggage delivery service of Yamato to send your bags to your next destination so you don’t have to lug it around.

This is one of the most awesome services we have found whilst travelling – sending your bags from airport to hotel, hotel to hotel, basically anywhere you want, it is cheap and gets to the destination in a couple of days and leaves you free to wander without dragging excess stuff around.

Getting around Tokyo

The Metro will get you almost everywhere in Tokyo, pick up a travel pass for the number of days you need – it’s cost effective and it’ll mean that you don’t need to enlist the help of local commuters to figure out the ticket machine that looks like something that was last used by the Darma project in Lost (all flashing buttons and big 70’s switches).

As well as the metro what you will rely on most to get you around this city are your feet…we were clocking up ~25,000 steps everyday traipsing around Tokyo.

Toilets

We don’t focus on toilets too much in our blogs, but in Japan they are so awesome that they deserve a mention! Matt keeps a mental ranking of public toilets around the world and Japan comes at the top of that list by far, toilets are ubiquitous, super clean and always free; this means that you can keep yourself well hydrated wherever you are and not be worried that you have to hold things or try to sneak into a random bar or restaurant to use their toilet.

Private toilets are even better with automated loos that have heated seats, multi-direction sprays, music and many other things that you probably won’t understand the buttons for but will spend lots of time pressing and investigating!

Tipping

Tipping is just not the custom in Japan. No matter that you will receive probably the best service in the world and you will really want to say thank you; rather be as equally courteous and friendly as they are to you, don’t forget your bow and just love the service!

Accommodation

In the big cities expect small rooms and big prices, but what you can be sure of is a clean room with all the amenities and more – slippers, robes, fridge, dehumidifier, aircon, coffee & tea..almost so many amenities that the limited space of the room itself is made even more cramped. Luckily for us we are not too tall so we can just about squeeze into beds that are 1.2m wide and sometimes even our feet are pushing up against the wall of the room when lying down.

Ryokan – these are traditional Japanese inns with tatami matted rooms where you can don your yukata and feel like a traveler from the 8th century. A stay here is a must do. It will be pricey but so worth it, and also make sure that during your stay that you go for a dinner in your room as it will be a special experience of wonderful pararde of food in a traditional style.

Ryokan’s are typically found outside the big cities, and although you may find some options in the cities they will probably be more of a modern hotel with an old style makeover inside, so go for one when you are visiting somewhere such as an onsen village.

Itineraries

We’ve only had the fortune to visit Japan twice so far but hopefully you’ll find our route a great introduction, if not somewhat tiring to keep up! Our first trip was a 2.5-week taste of Japan back in 2015 that had us flying in and out of Japan via Tokyo and zipping around the country at high speed on the Shinkansen,

we’ve had to split the trip up into multiple blogs as there is just so much to tell and show you about,so take a look at the following:

• Kanpai! – Tokyo Part I – Ginza & Shinjuku
• Kanpai! – Tokyo Part II – Shibuya, Sumida & Sumo
• Kyoto – Shinto, Kimono and Bento!
• Itadakimasu – Amazing Osaka
• Hiroshima – Dark History, Bright Future
• Kinosaki – Hot Spring Heaven

In 2017 we had a trip back to this amazing country with our friends Willem & Christian, this time during the winter to experience skiing in Japan, so check out:

• Ski Japan – Snow Monsters and Snow Monkeys

We hope you have fun reading these blogs and more importantly all that this amazing country has to offer. Enjoy!