I got to experience Japan a little differently than most people get to this last week.

My band went on a little 6 show tour in mostly Tokyo but also a couple other places off the beaten path.

One of those places was Nagano. We played a punk show in a small venue that ended up being the best show of the tour. Everyone was really excited to talk to us, despite none of us knowing any Japanese and no one at this show knowing any English.

There was a guy who was a big fan of one of the opening bands, and he was particularly interested in talking to me and we did our best using Google translate. I noticed he left the show for about 20 minutes at one point, and when he came back, he handed me a little tin container.

"Famous Nagano souvenir", is what he told me when he handed it to me, and I used Google lense to read the ingredients and saw that it was like a chile type seasoning.

I thought, "oh cool", thanked him a bunch, put it in my bag and forgot about it until I was unpacking our bags today.

And I don't know why, but when I saw it, I cried a little bit.

This man is at a show to see his favorite local band and starts talking to me. Then takes his time and effort to leave, and go buy this spice (that I later looked up and has been being produced in Nagano since 1736), to give to some American band that he's been chatting up.

What an incredible gesture. It's such a small moment that I looked right past when it happened, but now that I'm home, I can't stop thinking about it. It was just an incredibly thoughtful thing to do, and has cemented Nagano, Nagano City as a place that I love and will cherish my memory there (the big crowd who chanted for an encore doesn't hurt either).

This isn't really a recommendation, more than it is a tale to not take any little moments for granted.

My band had an amazing tour and got to talk to so many locals in the local Tokyo/Yokohama/Nagano music scene.

And there were so many small moments like that, that I'm just remembering now that I'm home, that I wish I appreciated more while I was there.

Sorry for my niche little story in your travel sub!

A prominent payment processing service Zentoshin filed for bankruptcy the other week. This means, small private-owned restaurants are unable to get back the sales. And due to that, they are ver wary of using credit cards. So if you intend to goto a small restaurants, be sure to bring cash.

But, you can experience the weirdly technologically backward-ism we are famous for.

I’ve noticed a large majority of people, looking for advice for their first trip, are intending on visit the three golden route cities, and might tack on Nara and Hakone. But, some people do wildly different itineraries. For those of you who went in a different direction, I’m curious what your trip itinerary looked like, and what drew you to those other places? What was something that really stood out for you in those lesser visited places?

I also realize most people arrive in Japan either through Tokyo or Osaka, so please still share if your trip hit part of the golden route.

I’m a stupid 19-year old. Forgive me.

I purchased some Japanese KitKats and ate them here. How can I pay the tax now?

Visited Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka a few years ago and fell in love with the temples in Kyoto. Hoping to head back and see more of Japan, but looking for recommendations on less touristy areas to visit/stay in if we are more interested in visiting shrines/temples

I been reading in the posts and comments that is not a very good area to be... is that the general option??? Did I shoot myself in the foot trying to get a nice/central place? Is it as chaotic as most people say??

Thanks for your time 🙏🏻!!

Hi!

I have booked to go to Japan early march, We are staying the whole of the trip in Tokyo for 8 Days. Currently in the process of sorting out some kind of itenary, but I dont want to go too overboard or it will just stress me out haha especially since this is also my first holiday abroad with my s/o 😅 Just looking for some reccomendations for any good areas for day trips from Tokyo, that are fairly easily accessible? e.g train only? We were looking at doing the area around Mt Fuji via an excursion express but I’m not too sure if it will be very visible around the time we are going.

Also, is it worth buying a rail pass beforehand, like one of those ones you can get unlimited travel for a certain area from? Or do those usually end up working out more expensive than just travelling with a suica card :)

Thanks!

Starting around April a major third party website had a "possible" security breaches with millions of booking IDs and customer info leaked. (booking dot com)

That includes cancelled stays by the way. Scammers will send you emails and messages (whatsapp) with all your booking info pretending to be the hotel and requesting you click the link to confirm your stay.

Because the info is correct it looks legit so beware. Hotels will never do this, it is a scam and thousands have lost money through this. If you had a booking with them any time past April of this year then you might receive these messages right up to your check-in date so stay vigilant.

What's your top priority when picking a place to eat while traveling?

Whenever I travel, figuring out where to eat is honestly more stressful than it should be. I'm hungry and just can't decide where to go.

So I'm curious how everyone else picks. If you had to rank these five, what order would you go in?

1. Type of food (what you're in the mood for)
2. Ratings (Google, TripAdvisor, etc.)
3. Whether you can get a table right now (no wait)
4. Price
5. Distance (how close it is to where you're standing)

Personally I usually check ratings first, but then I show up and there's a huge wait and I end up bailing and going somewhere else. And even if a place has great ratings, if it's too far I just give up on it.

What order do you all go in? And if there's something not on this list that matters more to you, let me know that too.

Hi everyone! I’m planning a 12-night trip from Nov 8–20 and was wondering if these dates are a little too early for autumn foliage.

Current itinerary:
Kyoto
Kōyasan
Takayama
Magome
Himeji
Kawaguchiko

Possible day trips:
Ohara
Kurama–Kibune

Since some of these places, especially Kōyasan and Takayama, are at higher elevations, I’m wondering if Nov 8–20 is a good window overall, particularly for Kyoto.
Should I keep this itinerary as is, or would it be worth pushing the trip back by about a week? If I do push it back, will I end up dealing with significantly larger crowds that outweigh the foliage benefit?

Thanks!

Hi everyone!

I'm a 23 yo girl and I'll leave for Japan in the end of december, for a couple of weeks. I have planned the whole trip already (Tokyo-Kamakura-Takayama-Shirakawa Go-Kanazawa-Kyoto-Nara-Osaka). I am super excited, but I am thinking about the packing, the shoes and the clothes.

I'm allowed to bring 1 40L backpack with me, with a max weight of 7kg. I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations for a nice comfortable backpack that is going to work well for the trip. I'm also thinking about the shoes and the clothing. I was thinking about a pair of gore tex Salomons for the shoes, but I'm really not sure about the clothing. Do you have any tips/recommendations for clothing for a winter trip? thank you in advance!

I have my trip to Japan in 1 week and I have tried to buy the jr hokuriko arch pass but my credit cards do not allow it either by klook or by the official jr east website, does anyone know if it can be purchased at the offices in Tokyo?

Hello!

I'm currently planning my first time trip to Japan for end of october-start of november. I'm pretty anxious in general, and would love to join a tour of some description for maybe the first couple days or so to make it easier on myself to acclimate. Does anyone have any recommendations for websites/pages/companies that I could look at? I've looked at JapanTravel so far and thats it.

I'll fly into Narita, and for probably the first day after arriving I already know I'll sleep for a fair while, and then look around the hotel area (not yet booked) to get familiar with it, but then I really would love to have some sort of guide to look around and introduce me to places. Especially if they have any knowledge on the historical side of things!

Furthermore, I'm a cook and would looooove to do some sort cooking class in either Tokyo/Osaka/Kyoto or a neighbouring area, but have no idea where to even look for that sort of thing.

Any advice or ideas are welcome!

Hi there,

I’m hoping to catch some baseball in the first week of October. I know the Postseason starts after this and the regular season finishes before this. I’ve read that there might be make up dates for weather during this week. My question is when are these releases and how hard is it to get tickets to them?

TIA!

Hi everyone!

Me and my girlfriend are currently thinking about taking a second trip to Japan, the trubbel is that she can only be off work between June 16th to August 6 (plus-minus a week or two if she uses her paid vacation that she saved)

June and July is rainy season, July and August is hot as hell, and August has typhoons. But even soo, I’m really excited to go back! Is it ideal, no. But we do what we can when we can.

My question is, when should we plan on going if we would like a 3-3,5 week long trip within this time span? Or at least close to it?

We would love to see some festivals and fireworks, but from my understanding they are in July or August which are the hottest moths.

We will probably stay in Tokyo for at least 5 days, visit Hokkaido for maybe a week, see Nikko, Sendai and maybe Aomori. It would be awesome to go back to Osaka as well, but I would love more suggestions on places to visit or things to do in the hot, rainy summer season.

Thank you all so much in advance 🙇‍♂️

Hihi!
I'm going on a family trip to Japan in 2 weeks. We're going to stay in Tokyo and visit Osaka and Kyoto. It's our first time there, and they have already made a whole travel guide on what we're going to do and such, but with my personal shopping, i dunno where to start. I want to buy cute clothing, like lolita fashion, platform shoes, and find nice street clothing as well. We're going to visit the big tourist areas like Harajuku (we're staying in Shinjuku unfortunately, the hotels are expensive). I know some stores are a bit expensive. Are there any cheaper options?

I'm also interested in buying a camera, planning on taking pictures and videos to avoid using the little bit of storage on my phone, but I don't want an expensive camera cause honestly, I'll be using it a lot on the trip, but once I get back, It'll be sitting on my shelf most days. I know of the stores in Shinjuku, but I know NOTHING about cameras, and I know walking into any stores and looking would feel intimidating..Any help on that would be sweet!

Of course I'm going to buy merch, like anime, Sanrio, and Vocaloid things, again I was thinking of just staying in Harajuku to buy all of those things, but if there's an alternative, please let me know. Thanks!

Hi everyone!

Me and 3 others are heading to Japan soon, and I wanted to ask you all — if we visit TeamLab Planets at 9 AM and then head straight to Tsukiji, will we be getting there too late in the day? I've heard some shops close by 1 PM, but we'll probably arrive around 11:30 AM-12 PM at the latest. What would you recommend — should we just move Tsukiji to a different day instead? Or does the timing still work?

Thanks in advance!

I've been to Japan once before in 2016 and visited Tokyo for 10 days, Kyoto for 4 days and Osaka for just 1 day. I'm going back because it was my favorite trip ever, I dream of the sushi and ramen still and I want to see more of the places I missed but also more of the places I loved in Tokyo Kyoto Osaka. I went in July last time and it was unbearable with the heat, so I learned my lesson to go in Fall.

Would appreciate any advice on this trip, the cities and the route I am planning. Most important to me is just taking in all of the beauty, food, excitement, and amazing vibes that I felt last time, mixed with some photography of the beautiful fall foliage, sitting and having a coffee and people watching, walking/exploring and eating amazing meals. This would be a solo trip, male in his late 30s.

Tokyo (4 nights) → Kanazawa (2 nights) → Shirakawa-go  → Takayama (2 nights) → Kyoto (4 nights) → Osaka (2 nights) → Kinosaki Onsen (1 night Ryokan experience) → Tokyo (1 night before flight back)

Hi all,

We are a couple and are planning our first trip to Japan. We would love to explore the culture and are big time into hiking. We are also looking forward to the red/yellow foliage colours.

Our tentative itinerary is:

Dates: Nov 8th - Nov 20th
Land and return from Tokyo

Land in Tokyo and head to Fujikawaguchiko - spend 3 days (do lots of hiking with views of Mt. Fuji)
Travel to Kyoto via the Shinkansen - spend 3 days exploring the city and villages (eg. Nariai-ji Temple)
Travel back to Tokyo and spend 4-5 days - mix of Tokyo city and day trips to Hakone, Nikko, Kamakura

Few questions:

1. What are some recommended hikes for the foliage season that would be efficient to travel to (not too far away from Tokyo/Kyoto)?
2. Any mountain huts that might be open in the season?
3. Any recommended Ryokans that wouldn't break the bank in Kyoto/Kawaguchiko? (< JPY 25-30k per night)?
4. We would want to do 3-4 amazing easy-moderate hikes (some options: Mt. Takao, Mt Kintoki, Chureito Pagoda, Shiraito Falls). Any suggestions on what to include for November? Is it possible to do these as day hikes from our base in Tokyo/Kawaguchiko
5. Optional thought: We came across the free stopover promos by ANA and Japan Airlines that claim we can take 1-2 domestic flights in Japan to other cities and that wouldn't add to our cost of a round trip from India to Japan. Any places we can travel to and spend 1-2 days that are recommended (hiking, nature, experience) - a few options in mind - Okinawa: for blue whale shark snorkeling, Kyushu for volcano hikes

Thank you in advance (sort of overwhelmed by so much that Japan has to offer and having less than 2 weeks feels short but want to make the most of the time and explore the best for a first trip) :)

Hello everyone,

We need help deciding between train or rental car for a small duration of our trip. After departing Osaka for Hiroshima, my girlfriend and I want to stop in Kobe, and then stay somewhere near Fukusaki (possibly Kasai) for 2 nights. Then depart and stop at Okayama Korakuen before continuing to Hiroshima for 4 nights where we will also visit Miyajima Island.

Has anyone rented a car and visited Kobe, Fukusaki, Kasai, Okayama, Hiroshima?

I have no issues with the driving part, but mainly worried about parking. Without comparing price and going off convenience only, would it be worth renting a car or taking multiple trains? It will be for around 7 days including driving back to Osaka at the end to drop the car off.

Thank you all for any tips! Appreciate you

Which shops should I consider for shopping in for bringing back gifts etc. Looking for somewhere reasonably priced and good quality. Primarily looking for food (such as snacks but also ingredients as I love cooking). But I hear Japanese stationary is good so things like that as well would be interesting.

Planning to go to Soy&Co Naturally brewed soy sauce Since 1879 for some soy sauce but open to suggestions.

EDIT: MEANT TO SAY FOR TOKYO

Hi, my full name as it appears on my passport doesn't fit on the eplus jp registration form (my first and last name fit but not my middle name, but my middle name appears on my passport). I know some people have just left out their middle name and it worked, but the concert I'm hoping to attend is a bit bigger and I believe they'll be quite strict with ID checks (K-Arena). Did anyone have a problem with this? Has anyone tried emailing them about this?

I am an American, I will be traveling to Japan in November with myself and three other friends. We all travel together regularly, though this will be the first time we’ve visited a country where English is not the native language. I am often described as charming/friendly, and when we all travel together, it’s a big joke that I am our group representative. My three friends are big introverts, so talking to customer service, getting directions, ordering/bookings are all done by me.

Generally this responsibility does not concern me, since I am confident speaking to strangers, but I am getting anxious for this trip. I recognize that I do not know the language very well, also that there will be differences in social cues and taboos.

I generally try to greet strangers with a genuine smile, eye contact, and a warm greeting. When we visited the UK, I felt as if people were very receptive to my approaches, and elderly people especially would compliment me on being friendly and polite.

This may be a silly question, and I may be over thinking things, but will my “charm” translate well between cultures? I have been learning very basic words and phrases in Japanese so that I do not approach anybody expecting them to speak English, is there any other advice that you would have for the “group representative” in terms of being friendly and polite? Are there any subconscious social norms that an American may say/do that we be disrespectful in Japan?

I'm trying to figure out what kind of bag I need for my trip, and am working backwards from what I want to plan to carry every day to determine the size. Would love some feedback on whether anything is unnecessary or missing.

I am going end of October through Mid November. Will be in Tokyo end of October and ending the trip in Kyoto and Kanazawa by mid November.

Carry list:

- small water bottle

- small umbrella

- wallet

- phone

- small hand towel

- Extremely lightweight jacket

- idk probably some bandaids and Tylenol just in case

- not sure if I want to bring a small camera??

ETA:

• Passport

• Small power bank

This list makes me feel like I need a backpack, but I also super don't want to be carrying around a bulky bag on my back. Ideal scenario is a small crossbody bag or sling bag.

I see a lot of people talking about just having a tiny fanny pack or crossbody bag even late in the year but how do you get away withiut carrying a jacket at minimum?

Hi! American here, planning a trip for late October. I will be flying into Osaka and slowly making my way towards Onomichi to do the Shimanami Kaido. Afterwards, I’m going to stay around that region (Matsuyama, Hiroshima, etc.)

I’m deciding where I should fly out of for my return trip back to the US. Hiroshima (HIJ) to the US is about $250-300 more expensive than flying out of Osaka (KIX). And it’s only about a 2.5-3 hour train ride from Hiroshima back to KIX, so very doable. The journey would cost about $70-80, so I’d still be saving $200. I’m leaning towards choosing KIX considering the considerable savings and minimal downsides. Does that seem like a good idea or are there any concerns that I’m missing?