While this guide is being written, please enjoy a select few of my favorite photos from Japan! If you don’t want to read everything, I’ll make a tl;dr at the bottom.
Before The Trip
Decide on the major cities you want to go to
For my trip, I went to Osaka for 3 nights in an Airbnb, Kyoto for 2 nights in a hotel, Tokyo for 3 nights in a hotel, and Nara for 1 night in a super fancy hotel. That’s pretty much 8 full days in Japan, surrounded by 2 travel days.
If I had enough time, I would definitely spend more days in each city. This, of course, depends on what you like to do. I really loved Kyoto and all of the nature-sightseeing it had to offer. Tokyo and Osaka are very urban. People are super busy here and pay no attention to travelers like us. Nara would be the only exception in my opinion. It seemed to be quite small compared to all the other places I went to, but 2 nights there would have been nice.
Here’s a map I used to help me decide on which places to go based on location. It’s pretty messy and incomplete, so I wouldn’t use it for anything more than inspiration.
Make any reservations you may need
If you want a spot at some of the hottest restaurants or attractions, you might have to make reservations, so be sure to do your research. One example is the famous Omurice place. The reservation system refreshes every Sunday, and getting a spot here is as hard as getting a tickets to a really popular concert. I, unfortunately, was not able to secure a spot for my trip :(
Pre-trip expenses
| Item | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Air Fare | 1,767.99 USD | 3 Person Round Trip SFO (Sep 2, 2019) → LAX → KIX ITM (Sep 12, 2019) → HND → SFO Booked + Payed for on 11 Apr 2019 |
| Osaka AirBnb | 180.05 USD | Sep 3 → Sep 6 3 nights, 3 people |
| Kyoto Tower Hotel Annex | 334.95 USD | Sep 6 → Sep 8 2 nights, 3 people |
| Tokyo Airbnb | 313.28 USD | Sep 8 → Sep 11 3 nights, 3 people |
| Nara Hotel (Kasuga Hotel) | 503.66 USD | Sep 11 → Sep 12 1 night, 3 people Dinner + Breakfast provided |
| JR 7 Day Pass | 795.00 USD | 7 days, 3 people |
| Total | 3,894.93 USD | Again, this would be for 3 people 1 Person ~ 1,293.31 USD |
Should I Buy a JR Pass?
This largely depends on where you want to go. Probably the biggest saving point for this is if you’re planning to travel to and from Tokyo from another location. For example, a 1-way ticket from Osaka to Tokyo will cost about 137.65 USD according to this post. Round trip would then cost 275.30 USD. If you have a 7-day JR pass, you could do this round-trip for whatever the cost of the JR pass. In my case 245 USD for 1 person.
Round trip Osaka → Tokyo, no JR pass: 275.30 USD
Round trip Osaka → Tokyo, JR pass: 245 USD
Buying JR Pass already saves you ~ 30 USD
Not to mention, doing that round trip without a JR pass means that’s all you get. JR passes let you ride some of the city’s railways for free. So you’re saving even more money. There’s sites like these that help you do such calculations, but I never got around to really trusting them.
During The Trip
From here on forward, I’ll just outline some of my favorite things I’ve done in each city, along side some pictures!
Osaka
This isn’t specific to Osaka, but I found that if you’re having trouble finding some place quick and easy to eat, Japan has plenty of restauraunts like this. You pretty much walk in there, head straight to a machine to order your food (a lot of these are cash only), grab you food ticket, hand it over to one of the workers, and you’ll have your food in less than 5 minutes.
Osaka Castle
If you decide to go here, I recommend checking out the Osaka Museum of History. Here, you can buy tickets for the museum and the castle for a total of 900 yen. (400 museum + 500 castle admission). Of course, if you’re not into museums don’t do this, but keep in mind Osaka Castle is actually just another museum.
The view up top isn’t too bad though. It started raining once we got up there, which was actually pretty relaxing.
Dontonbori / Shinsaibashi
These are pretty much two massive shopping districts that are very close together (I accidentally walked into Shinsaibashi thinking I was still in Dontonbori). Shinsaibashi is more for clothes shopping, and Dontonbori is more for entertainment or food. It felt impossible to see everything in this area. There was always a giant sea of people.
Shrines, shrines, shrines.
I’ll only say this once because you can find shrines in literally any city you go to. Many shrines have their own themes, such as the Tsuyu Tenjisha shrine. This shrine in particular has many themes of love.
Almost all shrines have a small store you can purchase lucky charms, or Omamori. These serve as fantastic souvenirs since they usually come paried with wishes of great health, fortune, business, etc.