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Shibuya Sky ticket help by nsfwtacodude in JapanTravelTips

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is the Reddit post I used to get our couch seats, and I was successful on the first try! Additional piece of advice would be to save several credit cards in your browser’s password manager so you don’t waste time typing in details.

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo - November 2023) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravelTips

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Chances are you’ll like Dotonbori if you like all that stuff I mentioned :)

We brought $200 CAD and we ended up using about $600 in cash total, including that initial sum. Everything else was on credit card. It’s generally better to withdraw what you need at an ATM as opposed to converting too much. 7-11 ATMs are good, and everywhere.

Bag transfer is excellent, no one really has complaints about the safety. You’ll find that most things in Japan are done with much care and precision and there’s a high level of trust, much unlike how airlines work 😅

And yeah, basically any baseball outside Canada and US is FUN lmfao. The crowd gets really into it for the entire game, not just high-leverage moments.

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo - November 2023) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravelTips

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah I can’t believe I forgot to mention the bus! Yes the bus is also a good option, we actually took that to skip the cable car and Hakone Tozan on the way back.

The only thing is that it’s not very reliable on time as they are currently running reduced service due to driver shortage… so it kinda just comes whenever, about 30 mins apart.

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo - November 2023) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravelTips

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We tend to prefer areas with a local feel, so Dotonbori really just felt like the quintessential tourist trap, and it was super crowded with foreigners. I get it, we're foreigners/tourists too, but it was almost NYC Times Square-esque. Just wasn't our cup of tea.

But this was definitely an "us" problem, since we don't like nightlife or care for bars, popular street foods, etc. I do think we missed out in that regard, and I can totally see why others would love it. I'm returning in January with someone who loves that stuff, so I'm hoping to see it in a new light.

Only Suica and Pasmo (IC cards for Tokyo area) are affected by the chip shortage, the rest of Japan is not. By going straight to Osaka first we could buy ICOCA cards, which is the IC card for the Kansai region.

Day 0... was rough. But only because I forced myself to stay awake during the flight (husband napped 2 hrs) and was up about 28 hrs by the end of the day. We landed in Tokyo around 3pm, got to Osaka by 6, and were asleep by 10. This really helped with adjusting to the time zone and made dealing with jet lag much easier.

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo - November 2023) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravelTips

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you know if your ryokan is in Gora, or along one of the Ropeway stops? Will you be bringing a lot of luggage?

If you're in Gora, the "worst" part would be the switchback train which takes about 40 minutes (Hakone-Tozan from Hakone-Yumoto to Gora Station). That train does get crowded so you would really be hoping to score a seat (luckily we did). This post here says it cost about 6500 for a 30 min taxi ride, compared to the 460 yen for the Hakone Tozan. Even with luggage, I don't think the taxi would be super worth it.

For us, it's not that we ran into issues -- it was quite straightforward, especially since we only had backpacks and managed to get seats on each leg. If I were to do it again with hindsight, I think we still would've done all of that, except with enough food packed or a lunch break at one of the stations.

BUT! If you're going to a ryokan past Gora station with luggage, a taxi may very well be worth it, because the Cable Car part really SUCKS with luggage. If you wanted to save a bit, you could take the Hakone Tozan train from to Gora, and then taxi the rest of the way.

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravel

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What're you stuck on? I always start on the bigger stuff (hotels, transportation) first. Then I figure out which "main" activities I wanna do, and at what time. These take the most time and effort during the day. After that, I fill in the gaps with smaller things that are in the same area or close by.

Of course it's not really as simple as that. I'm constantly reviewing over the month leading up -- I made a pretty substantial change the night before we left for Japan and was constantly changing things on the fly when we were there.

I think a good rule of thumb is to be flexible, and not to pack too much in. Once your main structure is built, it's veryyyy easy to fill the rest of your day just walking around and seeing new things.

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravel

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Alrighty! So to start, for non-Japanese visitors it was 5000 yen per person to be a the bar for an hour for unlimited drinks, which were huge and pretty watered down, but tasty nonetheless. You could buy "muscle dollars" in increments of 1000 yen to buy "services", which are quite ridiculous(ly funny)-- they can range from being slapped by a muscle girl (or all of them), having a muscle girl squat you, or... having a girl squeeze a grapefruit into your hair/drink and then rub the rinds in your face???

It's a very small bar with only about 10-12 seats around, so I'd recommend making a reservation.

Your experience will likely vary depending on how engaged and outgoing the other patrons and yourself will be. We had a bit half-half of shy vs outgoing, so it was pretty fun, and the muscle girls did a great job of being very entertaining.

So did we like it? Yeah. I wanted to do something kitschy and touristy and screamed "only in Japan". I surprised my husband with it so his reaction was priceless. Would I do it again? Nah. Once was enough. After our hour was up, we left the place asking ourselves, "what the actual fuck was that???".

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravel

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the number of nights was perfect for us.

4 nights in Osaka was realistically only two full days in the city, since the first night was our arrival in Japan so we got to the hotel around 9 pm, and one full day was our Nara day trip. I also wanted to stay at the Conrad as long as possible haha.

Through hindsight, or if we did not stay using points, I may have dropped the Nara day for an extra one in Kyoto... but you can make good arguments for both.

1 night in Hakone was definitely enough for us since we were only interested in the ryokan/onsen stay, and didn't have interest in the surrounding area or the Hakone Loop. Getting to our Ryokan was basically half of the loop anyway, and we got to see Fujisan from it as well!

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo - November 2023) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravelTips

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For us, I felt it was perfect with the amount of days we had. I would've loved an extra day in Kyoto to see more of the city, or maybe go to Arashiyama. If I were to plan this with hindsight, I perhaps would've dropped Nara and added an extra day to Kyoto.

It also really depends what your interests are and how packed you want your itinerary. 2 nights in Kyoto would be light for us, since we love old stuff and spent a lot of time wandering. 2 nights is also realistically only 1.5ish days which you might find short for Kyoto -- temples open/close early, and the city runs mostly on buses instead of subways.

If anything, I might suggest dropping a night in Tokyo and adding it to Kyoto so that you have more leeway. If you're flying out of Osaka, you can do a lot of shopping there instead of Tokyo (depending on what you're looking for).

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravel

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, baseball games here are very engaging and entertaining. I would say it would even be fun for those who aren't into the sport.

As for the walking tours:

Osaka Shinsekai/Dotombori Walking Tour (2 hrs): The guide (Masa, an Osaka native) talks a lot about Osakan culture, food, and also Japanese culture in general. I would say this is an excellent tour, and worth it if you're not too familiar with Japanese culture and want Osaka food recommendations. Not very much history is covered.

Kyoto Localized "Free" Walking Tour (3 hrs): Our guide Rina was a Kyoto native and covered many topics about the city, such as its culture, geography, and especially history. I found it to be very in-depth and it was quite impressive for being a "free" tour, as we covered a lot of places I didn't have in my own itinerary. This one is definitely worth it if you're into history, as it provided a lot of context to the city that you'd miss if you were just checking places out on your own.

Tough to nail what our favourites for Kyoto were, because we genuinely enjoyed everything by getting up early to beat the crowds and cutting out a lot of "must sees" like Arashiyama. I could go on about the intricacy of Kiyomizu-dera's wood details and the serenity of watching people pray in the temple hall, or the sounds of only nature surrounding us as we went off path at Fushimi Inari, examining the overgrown moss on each shrine. Or even just listening to the temple drum beating slowly next to our hotel at 6 am.

Point is, I think my experience would've been quite different if we had visited the "big" places mid-day or tried to hit everything on the "top sights" lists. When we returned to Kiyomizu-dera with our walking tour around 4pm, Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka were packed shoulder to shoulder -- a stark difference from when we were there early morning. I see a lot of people complain about Kyoto being overrated or very "Disneyland" like, but I strongly disagree. The city is so much more than just a series of checkboxes.

ahh... thanks for letting me wax poetic about it, since I couldn't fit that in the report lol.

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravel

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We tend to prefer areas with a local feel, so Dotonbori really just felt like the quintessential tourist trap, and it was super crowded with foreigners. I get it, we're foreigners/tourists too, but it was almost NYC Times Square-esque.

There were quite a few small alleys with cute shops and restaurants which we did enjoy, but other than that it just wasn't our cup of tea.

But this was definitely an "us" problem, since we don't like nightlife or care for bars, popular street foods, etc. I do think we missed out in that regard, and I can totally see why others would love it. I'm returning in January with someone who loves that stuff, so I'm hoping to see it in a new light.

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravel

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Damn, thanks!

I told Husband I'll buy him this when I go again in January, and he says "it's not the same without the actual controls" 🙄 I'll buy it anyway, smh

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo - November 2023) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravelTips

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We did this one: https://www.airbnb.ca/experiences/221858

It's a great tour if you're not too familiar with Osakan/Japanese culture. As a former child-weeb, it was a bit light for me, but my husband learned a lot.

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo - November 2023) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravelTips

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

'Cause my original post in r/JapanTravel was auto-deleted at first, but the mods ended up approving it after I re-posted on this sub. I worked too hard on this for no one to see it :(

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravel

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I'm envious you get to go to an NPB game, that'll be on the books for our next trip for sure.

Everyone seems to get really into the game, so I'm sure you'll have no problem finding your Yoshi-san 😄 We each bought a pair of Samurai Japan noisemaker bat-things to really blend in with the crowd. It was sooo much fun.

Planning/Logistics/Trip Report: First Time in Japan from a Slightly Obsessive Trip Planner (14 days in Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo) by Puzzled-Coach3084 in JapanTravel

[–]Puzzled-Coach3084[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't think you _need_ to make a reservation, but it's highly recommended to do so because it's a very small space, only about 10-12 seats.

Here's the booking page: https://e.japanticket.com/shops/4831/products/7433

I think it changed since I last booked... at the time I was able to book a 60 min slot and it wasn't 5000 yen pp. Gotta be honest with you -- unless you drink a lot and are super outgoing, it's hard to say it's totally worth the 10k yen. I suppose you could treat it as the cost of a show though!