Tokyo/Kyoto trip

ivrytwr3 said:
Awesome - ty!

Are you able to share the name of the hotel either here or in a DM? They really are starting from scratch and i'd feel better knowing that they are in a researched hotel/area!
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I personally was looking at either Shinagawa prince hotel or Miyako City Tokyo Takanawa (bit of a walk from station).
Would trust Raymond over me though as I haven't been Japan before :). I just chose Shinagawa for convenience as its a good transport hub, was debating between this and Tokyo Station.

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I went in 2018 for around 11 days and split my time between Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka. Flew into Kyoto landing in the afternoon, had 2 full days there and then shinkansen to Tokyo. Around a week in Tokyo and then shinkansen to Osaka for an evening and a full day. Then flew out of Osaka first thing on the last day.

I made a tourist friend in Kyoto on the very first morning so we crammed an awful lot into 2.5 days before parting ways, I'd say we saw two thirds of the must-see stuff so yeah, as others say you could easily spend 5 days there if not hurrying.

For Tokyo similarly I didn't see nearly everything I wanted to, just focused on the really important bucket list type stuff.

I don't travel abroad an awful lot so tend not to pine for places or wish I could return. But I regularly find myself missing Japan and wanting to go back.

I think I survived with about 5 words - yes, no, excuse me, good morning/afternoon/evening, thank you, and "dozo" which sort of means "please, go ahead". Useful when offering your seat on the train etc.
 
To be honest, with how easy to use the metro is in general, I wouldn’t worry too much about the area of Tokyo you stay in. So long as you’re near a metro station it won’t take too long to get to Tokyo Station or another Shinkansen stop.

Plus you get to experience the delightful metro music.

I liked Kanda when we first went in 2018 and we’re probably going to stay in the same hotel chains as they’re still looking to be the cheapest (APA and Sotetso Fresa Inn - think equivalent to Premier Inn and Travelodge but quite a bit nicer). It’s also just a short walk over the river bridge to Akihabara which is a must visit.

Will echo the general comments about a week not being long enough though. We did Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka (with excursions to Kobe and Nara) in 16 days last time and that felt a bit rushed. Japan is a country that rewards taking your time and a slower pace I think.
 
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MichaelAwkward said:
To be honest, with how easy to use the metro is in general, I wouldn’t worry too much about the area of Tokyo you stay in. So long as you’re near a metro station it won’t take too long to get to Tokyo Station or another Shinkansen stop.

Plus you get to experience the delightful metro music.

I liked Kanda when we first went in 2018 and we’re probably going to stay in the same hotel chains as they’re still looking to be the cheapest (APA and Sotetso Fresa Inn). It’s also just a short walk over the river bridge to Akihabara which is a must visit.

Will echo the general comments about a week not being long enough though. We did Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka (with excursions to Kobe and Nara) in 16 days last time and that felt a bit rushed. Japan is a country that rewards taking your time and a slower pace I think.
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I found a zip file on Reddit with all the train station jingles...just need to figure out how to put that as my ring tone on my phone lol
 
sithlord said:
I would also advise to carry lots of cash. They arent as accepting of credit cards etc as you may think Japan would be.
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This is true to an extent, however....from my experience this year, this has changed for the better in terms of accepting cards. This was due to the Olympics and also the pandemic, more contactless methods of payment. In fact, in convenience stores, the machines that takes the money, it is kinds self service. You put your items down on the counter, the cashier scans it in, and then on the screen facing you shows the price and you press how you want to pay, from IC cards, cash or card. And then the machine spits out the receipt and change.

A small amount of cash would still be wise, i would suggest keeping 10,000 yen, about £70 per person. Use it if you need it, but a lot more places now take cards.
 
MichaelAwkward said:
Even in 2018 we ended up with more cash than we actually needed in reality. I think the view that Japan is still a largely cash based society is a bit outdated.
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Yeah I think it only really applies to rural areas, or the odd mom and pop store off the beaten track. Any mainstream areas or big cities were no problem at all, and that was before covid.
If you take a fee free card then if it really comes to it you can withdraw more money. You may need to pay it off the same day to avoid interest, but even with a withdrawal fee you'll probably pay less than the commission of exchanging cash anyway and get a better rate.
 
Another here for don't worry about cash too much. The only place I remember using some was in 2016 was at a small restaurant in Mount Fuji. None in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima - gives you an idea of what we did :)
 
sithlord said:
Cash is still king in Japan. Sure you can use cards in some places but you'll end up paying conversion fees on most cards.
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You’ll end up paying conversion fees either way; when you buy the Yen in cash in the first place, or when you use a card that converts at close to the interchange rate (Revolut, Halifax Clarity etc).

Better to convert at the time of transaction rather than getting a bad rate on more cash than you’ll likely need here before you go.

Several people have replied to you saying that cash isn’t still king in Japan, some of whom have been recently, so I’m not sure why you’d still say that.
 
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MichaelAwkward said:
You’ll end up paying conversion fees either way; when you buy the Yen in cash in the first place, or when you use a card that converts at close to the interchange rate (Revolut, Halifax Clarity etc).

Better to convert at the time of transaction rather than getting a bad rate on more cash than you’ll likely need here before you go.

Several people have replied to you saying that cash isn’t still king in Japan, some of whom have been recently, so I’m not sure why you’d still say that.
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Because FOREIGN credit cards are not widely accepted, sure suicca and other IC cards are accepted but who wants to go through the hassle for 7 days.

When you convert to cash before hand at least you can pick and choose when to do your conversion your rate.
Pay by card and get whatever the rate is on the day is ok if your rich and can afford to lose money.

You can argue against the government :

www.gov.uk

Japan travel advice

FCDO travel advice for Japan. Includes safety and security, insurance, entry requirements and legal differences.
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk

"Japan is mainly a cash society."
 
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sithlord said:
Because FOREIGN credit cards are not widely accepted, sure suicca and other IC cards are accepted but who wants to go through the hassle for 7 days.

When you convert to cash before hand at least you can pick and choose when to do your conversion your rate.
Pay by card and get whatever the rate is on the day is ok if your rich and can afford to lose money.

You can argue against the government :

www.gov.uk

Japan travel advice

FCDO travel advice for Japan. Includes safety and security, insurance, entry requirements and legal differences.
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk

"Japan is mainly a cash society."
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In the 16 days I was there, every single place which accepted my Suica card also accepted Visa and Mastercard. Amex was also more widely accepted than I'd have thought. And this was 5 years ago before Covid forced even more contactless transactions.

The conversion rate you get when you buy forex in cash will no doubt mostly be worse than that offered at the time of transaction by a modern travel card/credit card which doesn't charge fees such as Revolut, Monzo, Halifax Clarity etc. How do you think places which exchange foreign currency in cash make any money?

I don't need to argue against anyone. I've been and experienced not having to use cash half as often as websites like that implied, and so have several others in this thread. Especially since Covid, the notion of Japan being a cash based society is out of date for all but the most rural areas but even then you're never too far away from a combini.

Taking some cash is a good idea of course, but you don't need to take your entire planned spending money.

If you're going to look for government advice on this topic, I'd take the Japanese themselves over ours! https://www.japan.travel/en/plan/credit-cards/
 
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sithlord said:
Cash is still king in Japan. Sure you can use cards in some places but you'll end up paying conversion fees on most cards.
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That's why it's important to have a card for foreign travel that doesn't have conversion fees, even if just for emergencies. Paying in local currency for the daily rate might not be as good as the 'peak' cash rate, but unless you're clairvoyant you've no idea when that peak is so you could be better or worse off by the day you need it anyway. You also avoid commission fees and the hassle of carrying large amounts of cash.
 
MichaelAwkward said:
In the 16 days I was there, every single place which accepted my Suica card also accepted Visa and Mastercard. Amex was also more widely accepted than I'd have thought. And this was 5 years ago before Covid forced even more contactless transactions.

The conversion rate you get when you buy forex in cash will no doubt mostly be worse than that offered at the time of transaction by a modern travel card/credit card which doesn't charge fees such as Revolut, Monzo, Halifax Clarity etc. How do you think places which exchange foreign currency in cash make any money?

I don't need to argue against anyone. I've been and experienced not having to use cash half as often as websites like that implied, and so have several others in this thread. Especially since Covid, the notion of Japan being a cash based society is out of date for all but the most rural areas but even then you're never too far away from a combini.

Taking some cash is a good idea of course, but you don't need to take your entire planned spending money.

If you're going to look for government advice on this topic, I'd take the Japanese themselves over ours! https://www.japan.travel/en/plan/credit-cards/
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Yes and suica can not be charged with a credit card only cash.

I will go by my own experiences and over 18 years of travelling there. I will always recommend anyone going to carry a good bit of cash.
 
sithlord said:
Yes and suica can not be charged with a credit card only cash.

I will go by my own experiences and over 18 years of travelling there. I will always recommend anyone going to carry a good bit of cash.
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You can actually add money to a Suica card through your Apple Wallet these days. Think it works with Amex only at the moment though.

And even if you can't for whatever reason, that's still not an argument to take wads of cash with you to Japan. You can just withdraw the cash you want to load there using one of the aforementioned cards as and when you need to.
 
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Especially for a short stay try to get a flight to Haneda, it’s 30 minutes to downtown. Tokyo is chopped into two main sides, you’ve got the palace, park, akihabra and akusa to the east and shinjuka etc to the west; they are quite far apart.

Kyoto is absolutely tourist trap, you will be wall to wall with foreigners there and unless you know where to go the food will be overpriced and crap.

I haven’t been since they reopened the country so maybe I’m off base.
 
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