First Time Visiting Japan Part 1

First Time Visiting Japan Part 1

[Music] Japan. For those who have never been, it exists only in your imagination as a destination where you could possibly spend your next vacation. But how? How do you make a vacation or holiday possible in a country with so much to see? Do you visit Tokyo or Osaka or embrace yourself in nature while hiking Mount Fuji? If the answer is Tokyo, then where does one stay in the world’s largest city? Which hotel do you choose? How do you get around? In this video series, we’ve got you covered. From the food we ate to the places we visited, this was our first trip to Japan. And as intimidating as planning our trip may have been, it all paid off, making this one of the most memorable vacations we’ve ever been on. So, stick around. We’ll show you how we did it. This video series shows our journey, our adventures, and our first trip to Japan and Taiwan. [Music] [Applause] [Music] First, we had to decide what our itinerary would be. We decided our first stop would be Tokyo. We would spend a few days there, followed by Kanazawa, Kyoto and Osaka. This would give us an opportunity to ride the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kanazawa and from Kazawa to Kyoto. We then figured since we were on that side of the world, where else could we visit in Asia? We decided on Taipei, Taiwan, we had plenty of time to create our itinerary. And our plan was to spend 16 days in total abroad in Japan and Taiwan. [Music] There are many ways to get to Japan from the United States. Your airport may not have a direct flight to Tokyo. We were originating in Phoenix, so we needed to connect to an airport that offered direct flights to Tokyo. These cities include Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle. You will have to keep in mind which airport you want to fly into since Tokyo has two major airports, Narita and Haneda. Haneda is closer to Tokyo, so your transportation to and from Haneda to your hotel would be much shorter than traveling from Narita. Narita is located much further than Haneda, so travel time to and from Narita could be significant depending on your method of ground transportation to and from the airport. More on airport transportation in a moment. Japan Airlines, Allnipon Airways, Singapore Airlines, as well as all the major US airlines offer non-stop flights from LAX and San Francisco. However, we chose San Jose. It was convenient to fly in and out of. The airline we chose was Zip Air. They offer non-stop flights from San Jose to Narita Airport. Zip Air is a budget airline operating limited service using Boeing 787 Dreamliner widebody aircraft. Zip Air is owned by Japan Airlines. So, we were not worried about the quality of service seeing that they are a budget airline. Japan Airlines currently ranks sixth of the Skyras world’s top 100 airlines of 2024. Zip Air is a lowcost carrier, so there are fees associated with how many bags you can bring or seat selection, meals, etc. Refer to their website for the exact fair structure and fees associated. This was not an issue for us, but can be frustrating for some who were drawn in via the allure of low airfare. However, the airfare in our case was amazing. Zip Air offers a business class with lie flat seats, which is what we opted for. All right, guys. Thanks for watching the debut of our channel. This is a video series on the decisions we made that led to one of the most memorable vacations we’ve ever been on, Tokyo, Japan, and Taipei, Taiwan. Coming up next, our next video will be a review of Zip Air. How wonderful the airline was, how good the food was on board, how we believe we got good value for the money. If you want some insight on Zip Air, skip to the next video. This video series also pays homage to the content creators on YouTube who gave us valuable information to make our trip again extremely memorable. As well as we’ll be documenting our future endeavors via travel, be it Asia, Latin America, cruises or even locally in our backyard. Stay tuned for more. Thanks again for watching guys. Peace.

The first of many videos in this series. This is a how to guide of our first trip to Japan!