How to Plan the PERFECT Japan Trip (Step by Step Guide)

How to Plan the PERFECT Japan Trip (Step by Step Guide)

Heading to Japan. This video is all about planning your perfect Japan trip step by step. I’m going to show you how to map out your route, choose your trip type, and give you my personal advice. And I’ll show you the tricks that make any Japan itinerary work, not just on paper, but also in the real world. If I was planning my first Japan trip, this is exactly how I would do it. What you need to know, it’s not about the best time to go, but the expectations when you get there. Yes, it’s true. Tourists tend to go to Japan in spring and in autumn, and summer is pretty hot. However, it’s not a lost cause because if you get your expectations right, you’re going to be fine. Like I always say, it’s better to go to Japan than not to go to Japan at all. I actually made a whole video about the best and the worst times to go to Japan, so you might want to check that one out. Your passport needs to be valid for the duration of your trip and it must have enough space for the tourist stamp or tourist sticker that they put in the passport. Also, when transiting on the way to Japan, some countries might require you to have a passport with three months validity. Check out visa requirements. Japan does have many agreements with countries for short-term entry. However, this list is always being updated and I’ll leave the information to the official list in the video description. the planning. Okay, I’m sure that you can sort out your own flight, so I’m not going to go into that. However, it’s important that you decide how long your trip is going to be. And if you have specific dates, this will really help in your planning. Decide on your type of trip. Is it going to be a pat trip? Is it going to be laid-back? Is it going to be familyfriendly? All of these things will have a huge impact on how your final itinerary will pan out. How are you going to go about it? Is it going to be base and spoke model, meaning that you have one base in a city and you do multiple day trips, or are you going to be doing an extensive tour where you’re actually traveling from location to location, maybe spending one or two nights at each? This is quite an important decision. It’s going to affect your itinerary, but neither of them are wrong. I’m going to give you some advice here and that is that if I was planning my very first trip to Japan, I would follow the 7030% model. Meaning that I would either choose to spend 70% of my trip in the golden triangle mainly Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and back and 30% in more rural, less crowded, less known of locations or the other way round. You could do 100% of your trip in the golden route. That’s absolutely fine. But my recommendation is to add some rural locations. And the best way to do it is to add it to your itinerary. 30% or even more might be the perfect ratio. The itinerary. If you’re going to be choosing the base and spoke model, then you have to choose your base and make a list of all the different locations that you might want to visit on day trips. And if you’re doing a more extensive tour, then make a list of all the cities, towns, and locations that you want to visit. For both models, it’s incredibly important that you take note and factor in transportation time using public transport, for example, or driving if you’re going to be driving, and that you make sure that you know when that last train or bus is back to your hotel. The next step would actually be to pin all of your choices onto a Google map. This step will help you visualize and help you figure out your itinerary. You’ll be able to see the distances between locations and that will potentially change the order that you put them in. So, let’s start drafting our itinerary. The very first thing that you need to do is make a list of the days available to you. And if you have exact dates, even better. Note them down, highlighting the weekends and any public holidays. Public holidays are actually really easy to find by doing a quick search on Google. You’ll probably end up making so many versions of your itinerary, but that’s perfectly fine. It’s part of the process, and doing it this way really helps you visualize your trip and amend as needed. So, now it’s time to fill up our days with our previous research, the places that we wanted to visit, the places that we wanted to stay at, or if you’re doing day trips, the day trips that we want to visit, taking into account that some day trips might be half day trips, and taking into account journey times. And this is very easy to figure out by using Google Maps. You can actually change the setting on Google Maps to a certain day of the week or even better to a exact date. Doing this will give you rough ideas of how long trains or public transport will take and also give you an idea of when departure times are. Never forgetting to check out that very important last trip back to your hotel. Doing this may actually mean that you end up rearranging your itinerary a little bit, but it’s okay. We’re drafting. We are coming up with our perfect itinerary and practice makes perfect. If you’re traveling Japan for an extensive period of time, you might want to add some laundry days. And if your itinerary starts looking a little bit too packed, then make sure that you add a rest day in between. Lists, guys. You can see that I’m a list sort of person. Making lists will really unlock your perfect Japan itinerary. For every day of your itinerary, make a list of three or four things that you might want to do or see in each location. If you’re spending time in one specific location, like Tokyo, then you can actually break that down into different areas of Tokyo, and within each area, make a list of the two or three things that you want to see. This is a perfect opportunity to get your family or friends involved. get them together to make a list of the things that you all want to see. And very crucially at this point is putting that list into an order of preference. You honestly think that you’re going to have enough time to see everything on that list? No way. So the reason why we put them in an order of priority is so that we at least get to see the top things that we want to. And if we miss out on some of the things, then at least we shouldn’t feel too bad because we’ve seen our preferred choices. By this point, your itinerary should be looking pretty good. You should have the locations for each day. You should have the travel time that it’s going to take, and you should also have a rough idea of what you’re going to be doing every day of your trip with some very important buffer time. Now that you hopefully know how to plan your itinerary and you have a good outline, I hope so. Anyway, it’s time to book our hotels. My advice here is to book hotels with free cancellation and try to book hotels within plenty of time. Try not to book too close to your trip unless you’re okay paying more expensive prices. Free cancellation is awesome because it means that you can keep on tweaking your trip and it also means that if you find a better accommodation option, you can cancel the old one and book the better one. Japan has so many types of accommodation. If you’re staying in more rural areas or smaller towns, then I highly recommend that you check out some Japanese traditional rioans or ins or even onens. However, if you’re staying in a city, then usually a hotel will do the trick. If I had to give past Nathan some piece of advice, then I would say make sure that you at least add one rioan or an opportunity for an onsen in your trip. There’s nothing quite like stepping onto Tammy mats, sleeping on a futon, and waking up in the morning to the most traditional Japanese setting that you can imagine. I know that onen sound a little bit scary, you know, public baths, being naked in front of others, etc., etc. But it took me a little bit of time before I actually had my first onen experience. But if I could go back, I’d say, Nathan, don’t waste any time. Give it a go. Onsens are awesome. And if you have tattoos, then you might want to check with your accommodation or the onen in advance to see if they allow tattoos. And if they don’t, you might want to book elsewhere. Or you can actually ask them whether or not you can cover them up. Some hotels even provide some stickers for you to cover up your tattoos. And a lot of places nowadays are actually pretty cool with with tattoos. Remember that list that we made earlier of activities and things that we wanted to see in each location? Well, if your list has any activities that requires reservations, then it’s time for you to set an alarm for you to make your bookings in advance. Do not underestimate the importance of booking early. The amount of tourists that end up disappointed because they didn’t book in advance is shocking. And my advice is for you to use Cluke to book your activities such as Universal Studios Japan, Disney, Team Labs, museums, observation decks, and so much more. All under one app. And best of all, you can actually help the channel out. There’s an affiliate link that you can use. The QR code is here and all the information will be in the video description, too. All right, this one’s kind of important cuz you now need to figure out transport within Japan. Is it worth using a JR pass? Should you use regional passes or even domestic flights? Now is when you need to make that choice. You might actually find that a JR pass is not worth it. And using a JR pass calculator is the best way to figure that out. There are many Japan regional rail passes that you may want to check out depending on your itinerary and here are some that you may want to look into. The Hokuriku Arch Pass is a pass that let you get from Tokyo to Kyoto Osaka or vice versa via Kanazawa with lots of awesome less crowded locations along the way. If you’re based out of Kyoto Osaka, then the Kansai 5-day area pass will let you get all the way down to Okama or my personal favorite, the Sanosan area pass, which lets you travel all the way from Kyoto Osaka all the way to Hakata in Kyushu. This really does unlock many locations. You really should check this one out. And if you’re traveling around a specific area, then there’s probably a regional pass for that, too. For example, the Kyushu regional pass, the Tohoku regional pass or the Hokkaido regional passes are awesome options, too. Just remember that a pass might not be the way for you, and sometimes paying per trip can actually be more affordable. Budgeting. Okay, I’m actually going to make a whole money video in the future, but for now, this is kind of what you need to know. Japan is still kind of a mostly cash society. However, this is rapidly changing. So, my advice is to exchange some cash before you actually head to Japan. Using a currency card like Revolute or Wise among so many others is a great way of keeping your money in check, exchanging money in advance, and keeping your fees to a minimum when taking money out of ATMs. It’s very easy to take cash out of ATMs, especially at 7-Eleven and some other convenience stores. So, don’t worry about that. However, it is important to check with your bank if there are any hidden fees and make arrangements with them accordingly. You are doing so well and we have got so far. So, two thumbs up. There are a few things that you need to know before actually arriving in Japan. Before arriving in Japan, I suggest that you fill in the visit Japan web. This website allows you to pre-enter all the information that you need for customs and for immigration, making it a little bit more seamless and also allowing you to travel without having to think about filling up any forms at arrival. In the future, there will be a Japan style ESTA coming into place. So consider subscribing to keep up to date with all the little changes that are constantly happening in Japan. Having the right apps can really unlock Japan. I made a whole video about it, but here are some of the ones that I recommend off the top of my head. Google Maps, Google Translate, and Yuri Call, which is an earthquake warning app. Having data in Japan is so important. It will really make or break your trip. Being able to check maps, check location informations, even purchase tickets on the go makes things so much better. So, my recommendation is that you use an eSIM or a pocket Wi-Fi or a normal SIM. And I have an affiliate link with Sakura Mobile that you can use to also help the channel out at no additional cost to you. And it’s something that you are likely going to get anyway. So, yeah. And if you’re carrying prescription drugs, then you need to know that Japan can get a little bit strict depending on the medication that you’re trying to bring into the country. So, you need to check if the medication is okay before you arrive in Japan and make the arrangements necessary to import them into Japan. I’ll leave all the information in the video description, too. Driving in Japan, well, you’ll need an international driver’s permit. Every country is different and every country has a different way of actually getting one. But the one thing that is the same is you need to do so before arrival in Japan. So make sure that you plan this well in advance. And I highly recommend that you get some sort of travel insurance. Not only for if you get sick, but if there’s any delays or something happens and you need to quickly get back to your country, your insurance should hopefully cover that. Well, hopefully nothing will happen. Yes, we’re going to Japan, so it’s time to pack our bags. I made a whole video about packing and what you should wear in each season, etc., etc. However, my biggest tip here would be to actually keep an eye on the weather forecast two to three days before your trip. And that will give you a really good idea of what you should pack. It’s a no-brainer really. On arrival, getting to the center of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, depending on the airport that you arrive, is actually very easy. And I know that there’s a lot of advice out there saying don’t get a taxi, but this can actually depend on how big your group size is. If you’re a family with a lot of luggage, actually sharing out the price of a taxi might not be a bad idea. And if you can pre-book and plan airport transport to your hotel, this is also a great option. However, the trains are very easy to use from the airport to the cities. They have proper luggage areas and you have nothing to worry about there. And you might want to even consider using the limousine bus from the airport directly to your hotel. On arrival, you want to get an IC card. These transport cards allow you to tap in and out at gates and train stations within the same city or area. You can also use them for payments at convenis, at vending machines, and even restaurants and stores. They’re convenient and they really do speed up traveling and zooming through Japan. And if you have an Apple device like an Apple Watch or an iPhone, you’ll actually be able to set up a digital version of an IC card using the Apple Wallet before even getting to Japan and you’ll be able to tap away using your phone. I think this is actually the best way to do it. Unfortunately, Android users, no luck for you here for now anyway. And a few extra tips. If you want to be really prepared, then learn some Japanese. A little bit gets you a long way. And I have a whole playlist that you can start practicing with. So, check it out. If you have allergies, then write them down, preferably in Japanese. And if you go to a restaurant or a food establishment, you can show them your allergies when you order. And it’s always a great idea, especially for firsttime travelers, to print out the addresses of the hotels or the locations that you want to go to so that you can actually show your taxi. Hopefully, you have now planned a successful, awesome, perfect Japan itinerary. Let me know in the comments below if you have. And if you have any extra tips, also leave them down there. Check out this playlist of other things that you might need to know if you’re going to Japan and you’re planning your trip. And don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks for watching. Stay positive and be a happy guiding, guys. Bye.

Planning your first trip to Japan? 🇯🇵 This is the ultimate STEP BY STEP Japan travel guide for every building the perfect Japan itinerary. Learn how to choose the right trip length, create an itinerary that Works for you and how to balance famous spots with hidden gems.
I’ll share essential tips on transport passes, hotel bookings, everything money related, and the #1 trick that makes any Japan itinerary actually work in real life. If you want to avoid mistakes and plan your Japan trip with confidence, this video has everything you need.

Medication info: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/policy/health-medical/pharmaceuticals/01.html

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