I went once in 2002 I think? I can't remember. I really want my daughter to go though. She loved Spirited Away. They were closed as they were putting a special Cat Bus exhibit in which of course is over by the time we go back to Japan. lol I think you will be there for it.
Certain things I will be cheap about, the extra 30 minutes for a Hikari for me are not so bad, since I will be saving so much money because we are going: Tokyo to Hiroshima, Hiroshima to Osaka, we are probably going to Nagoya for dinner one night, and once we are back in Tokyo we are going up to Koriyama to take the slow train to Licca's Castle.. I will time many of my trains ahead of time thanks to Hyperdia, so it's not like I will be bored at a station, though I like eating in Tokyo Station and wandering Kyoto Station. lol If we go to Hakone, I'll take a Romance Car from Shinjuku on the Odakyu line and just pay out of pocket. It goes directly to Hakone Yumoto as it is, so is easier than JR, unless JR is free. (The same goes for Nikko, which is a bit easier to get to from private lines.) When I was young, I was cheap about hotels. Now not so much, though outside Tokyo Disney and Tokyo Station Hotel I'm trying to keep to $200 a night and not just staying at the Conrad or the Tokyo Station Hotel for my other 5 nights lol Last time I got a free upgrade to a suite at the Tokyo Station Hotel, it spoiled us. My daughter and I are both vegetarians and my daughter is a picky 6 year old. We eat a lot more pizza than I would like. But we're not cheap about it, if that makes sense? It's more a matter of just trying to find places we will eat lol I research ahead of time and make sure I know where we want to go, so no looking at several places. I always get Mexican at the Mexican place in Shinsaibashi. It's just this super popular place with ex-pats and I think I've been there 5 or 6x times now lol I do have a list of vegan and vegetarian friendly places, it can just be harder when I have to take a 6 year old into account. We do snack, because I love Japanese ice cream and sweets in general because they're a little less sweet.
Other than the awful "ryokan" in Shin-Nakano, nothing has terrible.. oh and the cheap "ryokan" in Kyoto my first trip, where I learned why not to take bags on the bus. I use to do the APA chain a lot pre-daughter. It's not luxury but is clean modern and often convenient. It just would be a little squishy for 2. I've also tried the Super, Dormy, Trusty, Associa and Prince chains. I once had an enormous room in the Sunshine 60 Prince.
No problem, it is one of my favorite sites for Japan. I do still visit Japan-Guide, they can be useful for info for getting to places and have more destinations in Japan than most websites.
Really our travel parts will be in the middle too, so if not for the Nozomi we'd get the pass... I don't think you can top up for that one though. I was expecting it to be difficult, but I was stalking the site every day waiting for the dates to release - Disney style stalking. They never showed... but as you say its THE most popular time I am sure, and we are going to save a bundle just doing it as a day trip so I am only a little disappointed.You have no idea how relieved I am to see the sakura cooperating this trip..! Last trip we aimed for cherry blossoms and I went home right as they were opening in Tokyo. I have some lovely early shots in Kyoto but they aren't in full bloom... to add insult to injury my boyfriend at the time who had made the trip miserable got to stay an extra week and enjoyed the full festivities. I went home since I was working full time and used up my vacation... he has no affinity with Japan and didn't enjoy it saying the parks were full and it was awkward for him which is what you should EXPECT... have you been in June before..? I kind of wanted to enjoy Japan in the summer sometime but I am not sure if the humidity trumps Florida's/Hawaii's during that time. I may just plan the next trip in the fall which I have never been during.... I love chestnuts, sweet potatoes and all the seasonal foods as well as want to see the leaves too.
I saw the start of Sakura in Himeji in '07 and probably elsewhere but I lost my hard drive that year and have very few pictures. I know I traveled to Fukuoka in late March '09 and got full on, and then got the start in Takematsu, Kyoto, and Tokyo. Tokyo was far enough along that people were camping out. In late April '09 I hit full on in Kakunodate and Hirosaki. I also got caught in a blizzard near Towadako that trip. I've seen gorgeous ume in Kairakuen and some great momo in Shinjuku Gyoen Park, it's worth admission. I love taking flower pictures. I got some great hydrangea/ajisai last June.
Technically, I have been to Japan every single month of the year now, though only a day or two in July. August is really hot and humid and the Japanese don't use a lot of strong a/c. June can be hot, but it's not dreadful, but it can be rainy. We had rain and were quite cold while in Hakone. I don't think I've ever been in Japan when it was as hot as WDW the first full week of September in 2016. (Though the parks were dead which makes up for it.) I've only been to Hawaii in December and it was perfect. I want to go back to Hawaii very much. I love late October and early November in Japan. I love Japanese sweet potatoes. I could eat them for every meal. We went June 2016 last year, I had to wait for my daughter to finish school and we're doing almost the same dates this year. Just adding on a few days since the trip went well. We're also switching a few things up since we're doing Disney and not Universal. I did enjoy Osaka Universal, it's just everything at Universal is a just a touch more scary. My daughter got a lot of attention, which was great because she thrives on it. We're thinking of renting yuakata to walk around Kyoto in.
I love Japan. Japan is my happy place. I am not sure I would want to live there, but I love visiting. I also collect many Japanese things and love tea.
Definitely going to put this in our notes to remind me, thank you! We're definitely going to go with Suica - am I correct that it works in Osaka as well or would we need a different pass for there and Kyoto..? Namba seems to be nice and lively with lots of places to eat - very important for my husband!
Yes, Suica now works in Kansai and it is SO wonderful. I was so sick of buying a separate subway card for Osaka and another one for Kyoto or the Keihan line. Suica now seems to work everywhere and in many shops. If you want a day pass for the buses in Kyoto you will need to get that separate. Though if you want to visit Fushimi Inari, that is best accessed by train.
Do you know about temple/shrine stamps/books?
Not for us anymore... Newark is not convenient for us at all and there is always traffic on the NJ Turnpike. I don't live all that close to NYC so I can't use public transport to avoid traffic. I prefer JFK, though for WDW or if I don't mind stopovers I do Westchester County or Hartford. Right now we mostly have Jetblue miles and some Southwest.
Fingers definitely crossed!
I have 6 friends in Tokyo, 1 in Nagoya and 2 in Osaka. I can't always make it work with everyone, but I do my best. Some are foreigners but some are Japanese.
Oh, I hope not badly hurt..! I have an irrational worry that either my husband and I will get hurt and need to go to the hospital. My Japanese is very rudimentary and so it would probably be a trainwreck since I don't know any medical terms... trying to get cough syrup when I developed whooping cough in Mexico in 2008 was awful. We finally found medicine but it was so nasty I couldn't take it. I felt like i was 5 but it wouldn't stay down it tasted so horrid... Id have gone back and bought something nicer if I could have conveyed what was wrong but I speak zero Spanish. I saw the real one before Epcot so I am the opposite... I love seeing it there because it reminds me of Japan!
I sprained my finger. I went to a walk in Urgent Care type clinic the next day in Osaka and they did an X-Ray, gave me a splint, and some pain patches (probably salonpas.) I had no insurance, but fortunately it was only 5000 yen. Mostly I communicated via sign language and saying "itai!" It all worked out rather well and I learned that don't try to climb down stone steps in Crocs.
I've never been to Horyuji before, just the main temples in Nara itself. Visiting Epcot makes me think of Japan, even though I went to Epcot first, but if I can use things in Epcot to get my daughter to more temples and shrines I am all for it. I've been to Kiyomizudera, Fushimi Inari and I think Daikakuji. I love Fushimi Inari. Since its grounds are so large, it doesn't tend to feel as crowded. I also love Uji. We did Arashiyama/Tenryuji and the monkey park, Kinkakuji/Kitano TenmanGu/ and some smaller temples last trip. I am also a huge fan of Kurama/Kibune, Katsura Imperial Villa (which I can not do again until my daughter is older), and Enryakuji was pretty awesome. If you like to walk, it's not so bad walking Kyoto station to Sanjusanjendo and then onto Kiyomizudera. I would recommend going as early as possible, Kiyomizudera can get very crowded. You can then easily walk to the Keihan line to take it to Fushimi Inari and if you want to go to Uji, continue south post Fushimi Inari. We are probably going to do Yasaka jinja, Chion-in and maybe Kiyomizu-dera. It depends on how my daughter is doing. Maruyama park will be crowded but lovely for you. I know she wants to go back to Arashiyama to shop, but I am not sure we will. We will go to Nara from Osaka since maybe one of my friends will come along as well. I like Nara and Kyoto, both have pluses.
Look into renting a family bath then? It costs additional but it's private for just you and your spouse. It sort of lets you have an onsen experience but is great for someone who doesn't want others to see them. I use to be really body shy, but then I went to a few onsen with a foreigner friend, and she helped me find my courage. Now, I love it and try to do it every trip to Japan. My daughter enjoys it too, because it's different. She loved the onsen on top of the hotel in Osaka because of the views. I loved the one in the Associa in Takayama and the one in the middle of nowhere Takayama prefecture and Zao. The Japanese do get a kick out of seeing foreigners. Someday I would love to go to Kusatsu. The weirdest one I ever went to was in Osorezan. It was full of 60+ Japanese women who were super chatty and wanted their pictures taken! You can also try the mostly bathing suit onsen, Yunessun in Hakone if you are there. It's not as awesome as it use to be, but assuming you didn't go before, you won't be disappointed. They have "themed" baths like coffee, green tea, sake, and wine.
I have Project Fi from Google and I was honestly shocked at how inexpensive my data, texting and phone calls were. (~$25 and this included calling my husband to chat for 30+ minutes.) I live out in the boonies so I frequently don't have LTE, though my phone is capable. I don't remember ever feeling a lag in Japan except underground on the subway when I sometimes had no service. I downloaded the FB messenger app on the train to Kamakura called the US 3 or 4 times and used Google Maps a few times to help me get where I wanted to be. But I also don't stream video on my phone especially not on vacation, so for most of my purposes, whatever speed I was getting in Japan worked fine. My biggest problem is sometimes International Texting worked (usually to people in the US) but only sometimes to people in Japan, and my cell phone never told me if a message didn't go through. (Which is why I downloaded FB Messenger on the train. >>; I was trying to get in contact with a friend and could not.)
