Japan has always been No. 1 on the list of countries I wanted to visit. I had an opportunity to visit Japan in 2012/13 when RubyConf was organized in Tokyo. Unfortunately, I couldn’t due to some person reasons. Finally, this year, in March, I got to visit Japan and I loved every second of it. Japan is a wonderful country with wonderful people. I am absolutely certain that I’m going back.
The theme of the trip was to checkout the most obvious touristy places and learn about the Japanese culture and history along the way.
Before the trip, I wasn’t doing well in terms of health and I wasn’t sure if I would make it to the trip. Luckily, my wife was there to help out and pretty much planned/executed the trip along with her friend, Chloe.
I’m so happy that this trip happened. Japan has left a wonderful impression on me. I left Japan with nothing but wonderful memories of the country and its kind, mindful, sweet people.
Japan e-Visa application
We applied for Japan’s e-Visa and the process was quite straightforward. We got our e-Visas approved within a week. One thing to note is that Japan requires the dates of your travel and where you’d be staying. So, it’s important to make those arrangements before applying for the e-Visa. The e-Visa website is perhaps one of the best ones in terms of functionality.
Before the trip
Full disclosure, as I mentioned earlier, I didn’t plan the trip. My contribution towards the planning was very little. Klook and Get Your Guide are the apps we used for booking some of the events and pretty much the hotel reservations were through Booking.com. We got a data-only SIM card via Klook. We got the unlimited data per day plan for the entirety of our trip and it was great. The price is not too different from the limited data plans, so we got the unlimited data plan to not worry about running out of data. Japan has excellent cellular data reception all over. Besides, most of the places have free Wifi including the trains and the train stations. It’s crazy how accessible internet is in Japan.
Note: Try not to get influenced by social media’s representation of anything and that includes Japan. It just skews your views and makes everything IRL dull and disappointing.
Things we did
Day 1: Japan, baby!
Landed in Tokyo, Japan at the Narita International Airport.
Arrived at Hotel Sunroute Ginza and settled in. Our hotel was in the Ginza district in Tokyo. The rooms were tiny. This came to me as a shock. I knew and expected the rooms to be small, but damn, they were tiny. Imagine how tiny the restrooms would be in such a tiny hotel room.
Took me about 2 days to get used to the size of those rooms.
Day 2: Asakusa & Shibuya
We checked the weather forecast and moved a few things around to adjust to the weather. So, Day 2 was visiting the beautiful Senso-ji temple.
Day 3: Mt. Fuji
We booked a tour to Mt. Fuji. Mt. Fuji was glorious that day. We lucked out with 10 visibility. The day before, the visibility was 4. It’s not that common to get a 10 visibility at that time of the year.
Apparently, people hike to the mountain summit. We didn’t hike, we just went on a tour and it was amazing. Mt. Fuji is massive and you can see it in its full glory from afar. The tour takes you around places where you can see Fuji-san (that’s how the tour guide kept referring to Fuji and I thought it was cute) and enjoy the views.
Day 4: Tokyo Tower, Team Labs
We wanted to checkout Tokyo and its skyscrapers. Tokyo Tower is the best place to do just that. You get a full 360 degree view of Tokyo from atop the tower and you can enjoy the view from there.
Team Labs is a fun place to check out. Would I go back there again? No. It’s a one-time thing and it was definitely fun. They have some amazing things setup and they did a good job at maintaining the whole place in a very clean way.
Day 5: Shibuya, Shinjuku, & Ginza
Shinjuku station is perhaps the busiest train station in the world. It was fascinating. Also, it’s crazy how good the infrastructure in Japan is. They have malls inside the metro stations and these aren’t small malls. These are huge. They have restaurants, malls, random stores etc, all inside the metro stations.
We then headed out to experience the famous Shibuya Scramble Crossing. It’s the world’s most busiest pedestrian crossing. It did not disappoint.
It’s like this, all day.
I got to shop around a little in Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Ginza. All 3 places are awesome to shop, but Ginza, the place where we were staying, is a level above the rest. The stores in Ginza are great and you can get a ton of designer wear too. I loved the Hermès store in Ginza.
Day 6: Tokyo to Osaka – Bullet train. Arrive at hotel and settle in. Sumo show at Namba Parks.
The next day, we took a Shinkansen (Japanese Bullet Train) train and traveled from Tokyo to Osaka.
Once we arrived at Osaka, we checked out a Sumo wrestling show.
It was fun. They gave us snacks during the show and we could order food to our seats, which made the show even more fun.
Day 7: Nara – Deer park, Budha Temple, Todai-ji temple, Dotonbori night market. Namba, Dotonbori, Nipponbashi
Next on agenda was the Deer park in Nara. I had a fantastic time there. The Deer were so friendly and I had an exciting time feeding them the deer cookies.
As you can see in the video, the deer thanked me. Their way of saying – Deer (wink) Santa, thank you!
The Todai-ji template was beautiful. I got to learn about the history of it and the difference between a Shrine and a Temple. A Temple is Budhism related. A Shrine is Shinto related.
This is what I came to know about Shinto vs Buddhism. While Shinto is associated with this life and celebratory events, Buddhism is more concerned with the afterlife and spiritual development.
That night, we headed out to Namba to head to Dotonbori and Nipponbashi. They had crazy shopping and food places. Got to enjoy the street food there and shop around quite a bit.
Also, I learned that Bashi in Japanese means Bridge.
Day 8: Kyoto – Shrines (Fushimi Inari Taisha), The brownish black shrine check, Kiyomizu-dera, Gion district Geisha event
We checked out Kyoto next. The Shrines in Kyoto were gorgeous. The Fushini Inari Taisha shrine is the most famous one there. There’s also the Hōkan-ji Temple.
We then headed to the Gion district to checkout the Geisha event. I enjoyed the event. There was basically the famous tea preparation, a play, and another dance performance.
We got some fragrance oils in Kyoto. I’ve been using them near my desk and in my car and I love them. Unfortunately, they don’t sell them online. I bought like 6 units of them and I’m already out of 3.
Day 9: Osaka – Shopping and exploring
Pretty much spent the whole day shopping for random things.
Day 10: Osaka – Osaka Castle tour, leg massage
Took a paid tour of the Osaka Castle. It was enlightening. I got to know a lot about the Japanese culture and history, which was one of the main things I was hoping to know from this trip.
Before we went on the trip, I noticed that Tokyo and Kyoto are very similar in their names. I asked the tour guide if there was any significance to it and he explained it. Tokyo is essentially To-Kyoto, which is east capital. To in Japanese means East.Tokyo was previously called Edo, which then became To-Kyoto, which became Tokyo.
I got to learn a ton about how Japan evolved. Our tour guide was a 10/10. The guy was knowledgeable and was very patient with our questions.
Day 11: Osaka to Tokyo. Bullet train Shinkansen. Arrive at Narita.
We took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo since we had our flight the next day. The travel back to Tokyo took up the majority of the time and we just ended up relaxing at the hotel and had dinner.
Day 12: Goodbye, Japan!
The Japanese are very nice people. They’re very kind and patient. They answer in complete and help a little more.
Special Mentions
Tax free shopping
If you plan on shopping, make sure you get tax free goods wherever possible. You’d need to present your passport or you can setup your customs QR code which pretty much works as a Passport when buying tax free stuff in Japan.
Japan Railways (JR)
The Shinkansen lines help you travel from one city to another. We used these to travel between Tokyo <> Osaka. Shinkansen has 2 kinds of tickets, the regular and the Green car tickets. Green Car tickets are the ones with only 2×2 seats per row. The regular car has 2×3 seats per row. We never traveled by a bullet train before, so we chose the Green Car tickets in the Shinkansen train. I’d always pick the Green Car tickets. The price difference is ~$30 and I think it’s worth it.
Luggage storage in metro stations
Metro stations have luggage storage options. These are especially useful if you plan on walking your ass off the entire day while shopping.
Basic words for max RoI
I learned some basic words for communication and ordering food. These really aren’t necessary, but it’s nice to put in some effort. My favorite word is Kudasai, which means Please in Japanese.
Integrated Circuit (IC) card
Japan has a few IC cards for transit. We got the Suica card and it’s very useful. Topping it off can be done from your iPhone Wallet app and it is simple. Suica card can also be used at convenience stores and some other stores. If you have Yen left over on your Suica card, just use your card at those stores.
Google Translate app
Download the Google Translate app on your phone and download the Japanese language in it. If you don’t speak the language, you’ll want to use it. Japanese people are sweet. They’ll patiently work with you as you try to communicate words with them.
Pro tip: If you have an iPhone that has Action Button support, set Google Translate app to it. I used it all the time.
Free umbrellas
We stayed at hotels in Japan and they offer free Umbrellas on rainy days. They just put ’em out at the entrance and you can pick one up and return it after you’re back from your outing. Also, most places offer plastic covers for umbrellas. You go to a store/restaurant, there’s a umbrella cover dispenser that you can use to prevent water spills. Some places even offer plastic covers for your backpacks.
Free shuttles
Most hotels offer free Airport shuttles. We found them very helpful especially with multiple huge luggages.
No tipping culture
The no tipping culture of Japan seemed great. They’re chill and don’t stress you out. I really appreciated it. I’m not against tipping, but I feel pressured into tipping 20% even for an awful haircut. I mean, I don’t have to, but I’d rather do it and not feel guilty later. It’s slightly more than a “me” problem.
OP Toilet technology
The Japanese have the most OP toilet tech. Here’s some of the features you have on a toilet (if you are grossed out by the topic, skip the following points and move on to the next paragraph) –
- Privacy screening – plays music when you’re using the toilet to drown out sounds 🤯
- Seat heater – every single time I sat on the seat, it was pure pleasure
- Insane bidets – now obviously I didn’t use these since they were public but the insane configuration with various styles left me blown away
- Auto-flush – when you sit on the toilet, it automatically flushes
- Flush length – usually we have 2 buttons on the regular ones. They have 3.
- Splash prevention – the design of these toilets is not the same as the regular ones. IDK what they do but it fucking works
Hotel to hotel luggage transport
Hotels in Japan offer transporting your luggage from one hotel to another. For instance, if you have a lot of luggage and you don’t want to lug it around, you can pay your hotel and let them know the destination hotel address and they’ll first confirm your reservation at the destination hotel and then transport it over there. It takes about a day and sometimes two to transport your luggage. They seem to only accept cash as the payment.
Closing notes
I’m grateful for my wife who made this trip possible. Japan has been one of those places that I’ve always wanted to check out. I am 100% going back to visit Japan. I felt welcomed and special when I was in Japan.
Special shout out to Timmy Lee for sharing some good tips about visiting Japan. Thanks, bud.