Japan certainly has tons of things to keep a traveller amazed for much longer than a week. However, sometimes either because the vacation time is to short, or you want to check other countries in the region, the time to devote to the amazing nation of the raising sun is just one week. In that case, you may find handy how we distributed our time. In each city I will list the most important things we checked out, and in the next few months we will prepare individual posts for each. I also listed a few things we checked before heading to Japan, and what we did at the airport once arrived.
Check our post about How to Plan a Trip!
When researching for your trip to Japan, you will read a lot about the JR Pass, a one week open ticket for many train services. It costs approximately 300 USD per person, but it becomes very useful if using trains a lot, I promise. It seems expensive when you see it at first, but if you are taking at least two trains that are longer than 2 hours, it starts to become cost effective. It also covers some regional trains and even a ferry in Hiroshima, so it is useful! We bougth it in Australia from Flightcentre, however, you can order it online directly. Just note that you need to have the “Exchange order” order before you get to Japan. See below, in “Things to do at the Airport” the details on how to exchange it for the pass.
Things to do at the Airport upon arriving to Japan.
We did this in Tokyo-Haneda Airport, but it applies to any arrival point.
1 – Passport Stamp
If you bought the JR Pass, when doing immigration, ensure to metion that to the officer so the stamp (it is actually a sticker) on your passports says you are a temporary visitor. Otherwise, they will not give your pass to you when trying to exchange the “Exchange Order” you brought with you. In both our cases, the immigration officer was super friendly and completely understood the request (not sure what other type of stamp you can get, but better to be sure it is the one you need, after spending the 300 USD)
2 – JR Pass
Go to the Japan Rail office, and ask to exchange the “Exchange Order” for the actual JR Pass. There, you need to define the day you will start using the Pass (remember it is valid for one week). As it was Saturday at 4pm when we arrived, and we were staying in Japan until the upcoming Sunday, we said “start counting tomorrow” and used it for the entire week, except our last trip to the airport on the next Sunday. They make you sign on this date, so better have it clear! They give you a passport sized carton with your details, that you will use to go through the station controls, and give to the train authorities if needed. The employees at the JR office in Haneda were super friendly and spoke perfect English, so this was not a problem at all. Also, you can reserve seats for the long train rides, if you want to, for free. Note that you can´t ride the Nozomi (the fastest train) but you can take the Hikari, which is almost as fast (only it stops in a few more stations, not too bad).
3 – SimCard
This is something we try to do whenever we are staying in the same country for a week or more -having unlocked phones. Very useful for Google Maps, looking some translation online, and, eventually, social media. In Haneda, we went into one store full of signs of “Sim Card”, and bought one from DOCOMO that gave us 1 GB for one week for 4,500 Yens (40 USD approximately). It stopped working on the morning of the following Sunday, so it seemed to be slightly more than one week. I installed it on the Iphone almost straight away. After inserting the Sim in the phone, I connected to the Airport Wifi, took a picture of a QR code they gave me, and the configuration automatically updated and I was up and running. For Android, they explained us we needed some other changes that we didn´t try.
4 – Get money from an ATM
The first thing we’ll mention is that you need cash in Japan. Not a lot of places accept international credit cards, so your best bet for getting money (besides exchanging), is taking from an ATM with a credit card when you arrive. Exchange rates sometimes are not great, but it is a safe way to get money. In Japan, we did it in the airport and then in the 7-Eleven convenience stores. Super easy as the menu can be checked in English. The ATM looks a little bit futuristic though. Note that you need to have your Credit Card pin number before getting to Japan (I guess you can obtain it while being there, but it´s certainly easier to call the bank and do so while in your home country)
5 – Getting a Pasmo/Suica card.
Besides getting the JR Pass, to use most of the subways and buses a Transport Card (like the London Oyster, the Sydney´s Opal or Argentina´s SUBE) is useful. There are tons of those in Japan. We selected Pasmo as you can also use it to pay in Convenience Stores like 7-Eleven or Family Mart, or on many vending machines -with 35 degrees, we purchased a lot of water from vending machines. Pasmo cards are bougth from a machine, and can be recharged in similar machines in any station. There’s a 500 yen fee on top besides the money you charge on it. It can be used on any machine or transportation system in all of Japan that has the IC letters printed. We used it in Kyoto, Hiroshima and Osaka.
How we organized our week in Japan
Once we finished with all the “paperwork” listed above, we took the Monorail to Tokyo. As mentioned, we arrived in Tokyo-Haneda on a Saturday afternoon, and left the upcoming Sunday from Osaka. This is how we organized our week and what we managed to see.
Tokyo 2 entire days plus one night.
See our post dedicated to Tokyo here
Tokyo has so much life when the neon lights go on, that it is worth counting that night. We managed to check the following things (and many small spots within them 🙂
- Shinjuku and the night life
- Yoyogi Park, the Meiji Shrine and a few weedings in there
- Harajuku & Omotesando – Tokyo´s trendy area
- Shibuya Crossing (day and night) – certainly my favorite in Tokyo
- Akihabara – the gaming, electronics and very nice people
- Asakusa and the Senso-Ji temple (we stayed in this area)
- Tsujiki Fish market
- Ginza, Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace
- Ueno Park
That was Saturday night, Sunday and Monday in Tokyo. On Tuesday early morning (I mean we woke up at 6 am), we went to Tokyo station and took the train to Kyoto. We had reserved seats when we visited the station the day before. Not super necessary (there are cars with no-reserved seats) but if you want to ensure a window spot, might be worth doing so -and it is free.
Two days in Kyoto and one in Nara
See our post dedicated to Kyoto here!
The train took 2 hours and 43 minutes (yes, that is how exact Japanese trains are), and we arrived at the Kyoto Station and took the metro to our hostel. To ride the metro and buses in Kyoto you can also use the Pasmo card. Note that you have to get on the bus by the middle door, and pay with your card upon getting of.
Upon arriving to the hostel, and as it was still too early for check-in, we left our packs and started to explore this majestic city. We stayed in Kyoto for three entire days, but took one of those to go to Nara on a day trip. This is what we managed to see in Kyoto. Most of them are obviously temples and gardens, and most of them have something nice to show.
- Silver Pavilion, the Path of Philosphers and Nanzenji,
- Kiyomizu-dera and the surrounding streets
- Gion and the geishas district -note that it is unlikely that you will see a real geisha, but streets are full of “geisha wannabes”
- Arashiyama Bamboo Forest – we went there super early (before 7 am) as it is open 24/7, at that time it was not that hot and it was almost tourist free 🙂
- The Golden Pavilion (One of Kyoto´s most popular attraction) we did not love it, but it is a spot you have to check out.
- Ryoan-Ji and Ninna-ji – I liked Ninna-Ji the most, to be honest.
- Nishiki Market
- Nijo Castle
- The Fushimi Inari (Another Kyoto´s must) – this we we loved!
On our third day in Kyoto, we headed to Nara. This lovely -and touristy- city is located approximately one hour away from Kyoto (depends on the stopping path of the train – JR Train, included in the Pass :)), and besides the lovely temples, has something that makes it unique – the deers walking around the entire city! You won´t believe how many of them.
On the way to Nara, we stopped at Uji to see the Byodo-In temple. Nice temple and gardens, average museum. Worth visiting though, in less than one hour the entire visit can be completed.
Then, back on the train all the way to Nara. When we got there, with the huge amount of tourists, there are indications to take the bus to the area where most of the temples are located. Not a bad idea with 35 degrees as it happened to us. In this bus, you have to pay upon going on the bus. Pasmo card can be used.
These are the temples we checked in Nara in approximately 4 hours:
- Kasuga Shrine, plenty of lamps and full of deers
- Yoshiken
- Todai-Ji temple – Our favorite in Nara, huge buddha inside. Really enjoyed it.
- Nigatsudo Hall – up in the hill a little bit, very nice and quiet, recommended.
- Kofukuji – not so nice, just a pagoda.
After that, we returned to Kyoto, to recharge batteries as the next day, Friday, we took the train from Kyoto Station to Hiroshima (again, included in the JR Pass, can reserve seats in advance).
Hiroshima and Mijayima
In Hiroshima, we left our luggage in the train station. There are two huge luggage storage places, and the big ones (where you can fit two big backpacks or one regular suitcase) cost 700 Yens for the day. Can be paid with 100Y coins or with the Pasmo card. We stayed in Hiroshima for less than 4 hours, particularly looking for Atomic-Bomb related places, and visited the following spots:
- Hiroshima Castle -we only checked it out from outside, which is a nice view.
- A-Bomb dome and the Peace Memorial- the ruins of one of the few buildings that stayed standing after the Atomic Bomb exploded, now a symbol to show humanity of how bad we can be, and a monument raised to remember those who suffered the bomb.
- The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum – Great museum, very well explained, makes you think why society is so disastrous to spend so much intelligence in destruction (both ways).
Once finished, we headed back to Hiroshima Station, grabbed some lunch in one of those rotating food restaurants (I loved it 🙂 ) , recovered our luggage and took the train to Miyajima.
Mijayima is an island off the coast of Hiroshima, and the main attraction is the famous floating tori. From the train station called Miyajimaguchi, there is a Ferry (also included in the JR Pass), that takes you to the island. Many people do this as a day tour from Hiroshima. We decided to spend the night there so we could enjoy the island almost tourist free. We stayed in a ryokan, traditional Japanese accomodation, where one of the main features are the tatami-matted rooms. Worth the experience, and not unconfortable at all, I promise.
In Miyashima, we checked out the following spots, all located within walking distance from the commercial area,
- Daisho-in temple, very nice, full of small stone statues with wool colorful hats.
- Itsukushima Shrine – temple with a view of the tori. The temple is absolutely-not worth the visit.
- Tori with low tide (approximately 5pm) – as you can walk right under it
- Tori with higher tide at sunset- as it looks like it is floating – amazing to check the sunset there. By this time, tourists staying in Hiroshima had left, so it was much quieter
- Tori by night, after dinner – perk of staying in the island, having the tori by night almost just for us. Very enjoyable.
The next day we took the ferry and train and headed to Himeji and Osaka (both JR included).
One day between Himeji and Osaka
Click here to read our post about visiting Himeji castle.
Himeji is a not-so-big city famous for its castle. And believe us, it is worth the visit. We took the train from Hiroshima, and in about one hour, we arrived in Himeji. We left our luggage in the station (also lots of lockers, but here you can only pay with 100Y coins). In one big locker (700Y per day) both our backpacks fitted. We then walked 20 minutes to the castle.
This was our favorite Castle in Japan. Entrance is 1,040 Yen, including the visit to Kokoen Garden -castle only is 1,000 yen. Piece of advice: get in the castle. The view from outside is nice. but the view from the inner grounds and inside is certainly great.
After visiting the castle and the Kokoen Garden (which is nice enough for a 20 minutes visit), we went back to the station and took the train to Osaka.
Our flight back home was departing from Osaka on Sunday morning -main reason why we decided to visit it to be honest- so we had a few hours to check out what was Japan´s second largest city about. We listed a few things and went for them
- Osaka Castle – nice view, within a very crowdy park -it was Saturday afternoon-.
- Nipponbashi – centered on anime, manga and gaming stores, impressive.
- Dotonbori – nigth and food district. Very impressive to check out signs and people and grab a good meal.
- Tsutenkaku – Osaka´s landmark tower – not much to say about it
We didn´t like Osaka much. It was good to see it a little bit on the way back home, but certainly not the highlight of our trip to Japan.
Summary
As a summary, we divided our week in Japan into Tokyo -2 days and a few hours-, Kyoto and Nara -3 days-, Hiroshima and Miyashima -1 day, and Himeji and Osaka – 1 day, and felt we managed to see a lot. Certainly more time can be spent in Japan, we are sure there is so much more to see in other cities, but for a first time it was very good. For sure do not miss Tokyo and Kyoto, try to see Himeji and Hiroshima-Miyashima, and only go to Osaka if needed.
Have you been to Japan? What is your opinion about our itinerary?
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