Visiting Japan

[SoSolid]

The girlfriend and I are going to be visiting Japan next month and I am after an recommendations or ideas from fellow forum members. We are flying in to Tokyo where we plan to spend 6 days and then travel around Japan for the remaining 2 weeks on the bullet train before flying back out of Tokyo.

Our current route plane is; Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Osaka, Okinawa to see amazing aquarium and back to Tokyo.

 

[SoSolid]

Buy your train tickets before you get there, considerably cheaper.

If time permits, also get into niigata

Are you referring to the JR pass? Is this pass worth it? It still seems expensive?

 

[SoSolid]

You're going to have such a good time. I went out for 14 days a number of years ago when I met my wife and it was amazing.

She's off again this year to see her brother and I wish I could go too. Regarding transport, trains in populated towns/cities run every 2-3 mins and cost about 90% less than they do here. Well, they did about 6 years ago when I was out there

Dont forget to take some pics, that aquarium is insane!!!!

Wow thanks for the advice, I am really excited. The aquarium does indeed sound awesome.

 

[SoSolid]

Ok guys, thanks for the info.

Here is my planned route so far, thoughts and opinions on this would be greatly appreciated:

Tokyo 10-14th July

Kyoto 14th-16th July

Hiroshima 16th- 18th July

Osaka 18th-20th July

Okinawa 20th-27th July

Tokyo 27th-30th July

 

[SoSolid]

Hiroshima - go to the museum at the peace park. Also have okonomiyaki (which is very different from okonomiyaki in Tokyo/Osaka) ... best place we found for it there was Okonomimura - I think we ate in Yamachan on the 2F. Miyajima is a nice side trip from Hiroshima.

Osaka - mmmmm takoyaki. Osaka/Kyoto possible side trip to Nara.

Kyoto - you can get good curry udon here too

Tokyo - day trip out to Kamakura/Enoshima. Science and Nature museum at Ueno. Possibly a day trip out to Nikko.

Be prepared to have odd conversations with people who just want to practice their english on you (in my case last time it was a station cleaner at Hiroshima).

Hyperdia is your friend ... print off what trains you are aiming to get before hand and it makes making reservations a lot easier when you get the person at the desk who doesn't speak good english.

Great advice, is it mandatory to reserve seats for train travel?

 

[SoSolid]

One thing I'd really recommend doing before you go to Japan is learning the Katakana character set. You can learn it in a couple of days and it will be extremely helpful because so many products are written in it.

Katakana is mostly used for writing loan words, so if you know it, you'll be able to read a lot of the things on restaurant menus (especially at more Western style restaurants - no idea why you'd go there but oh well) and products.

ビーフステーキ - Biifu Suteeki - Beef Steak
チキン - Chikin - Chicken
パチンコ - Pachinko - Pachinko (gambling game)
ポテトフライ - Poteto furai - Potato Fries (chips)
スポーツジム - Supoutsu Jimu - Sports Gym

I've been to Japan on business trips several times now and things became a lot easier for me once I learned these 48 characters (this was before I started taking lessons).

Oh, and finally, if you don't want wasabi with your sushi:

sabi nuki de onegaishimasu

Cool, where did you guys order your JR passes from?