[2023-12-09] How i plan a Trip to Japan - Japan Itinerary guide [GkrmISiLhrw]

I've been seeing a lot of these videos

recently about best things to do if you're

going to Japan for the first time. Top 5

things to do, 14-day itinerary in Japan,

and they're always kind of lame. When I

watch them, I just think to myself, this

is lame. They always say the same stuff

like go to Tokyo, arrive in Narita, get

the train into Tokyo, get the JR Pass,

and then eat sushi. And I'm thinking to

myself, this is all really basic and

boring stuff. And if I was going to

recommend what someone should do when they

first go to Japan, I would not say any of

this stuff, and I thought I'd make my own

video as someone who has been to Japan

over 15 times now. And in total, I've

lived in Japan for over 5 years if you add

up all of the times I went, because I went

15 times, I stayed about 3 to 6 months

each time, and 2 times I actually stayed

there for like a year or more because I

was married and lived there. Something

that inspired me to make this video is

actually my sister, because she's going to

be going to Japan for the first time in

her entire life next year. And I still

can't believe none of my family have even

ever been to Japan. My mum's never been,

my dad never went when he was alive, and I

was really shocked to find out my dad's

never been to Japan and he never will be

able to now because, you know, he passed

away. And I just don't understand why my

family don't have any interest in Japan

when it's easily the greatest country in

the entire world. I've lived in a lot of

countries and Japan is easily on the

number one spot on my list of favorite

countries to live in. Sorry Thailand, but

you're— it's just not good enough. I would

Thailand is like a strong number 2. When I

was married in Japan and living there,

one of my wishes was I really hoped my dad

would come to Japan and come and see it,

and then I could show him how great it is

and show him why I've been obsessing over

this country ever since I was about 17

years old. But he never got the chance to

come, even though he's traveled all across

the world. He's been to many countries in

Asia— Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea,

and many places in the Middle East— but

mainly because his job sent him there to

do work on UK naval ships, and we don't

have any UK Royal Navy ships in Japan.

Okay, so first of all, I would not

recommend to go to Tokyo. Every single

Japan itinerary guide video I see, they

always say book your ticket and arrive in

Haneda or Narita and then go to Tokyo.

Why do they always say go to Tokyo? Tokyo

is boring. There's only like a few

districts in Tokyo, the famous ones like

Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ginza, and then a few

things like Tokyo Tower and Skytree and

Disneyland. Apart from that, there's not

really much to do in Tokyo. You have

Yokohama Chinatown. That's okay, I guess.

But you can see all this stuff in one day.

I feel like Tokyo is a one-day, two-day

trip max. Shibuya is okay if you're

interested in like the weird fashion and

you want to see the Shibuya Scramble.

Ginza is really boring. It's like this

really fancy, high-end, luxurious place

with lots of expensive shops like Dolce

Gabbana and Gucci or whatever stupid

Italian-sounding brand names that sell

stuff that we can't even afford to buy.

Like, who's going to go there and buy a

$10,000, $20,000 handbag? No one's going

Those shops all empty because no one can

afford their rubbish, and it's just a

waste of time. Don't go to Ginza.

Akihabara is boring as well. It's just

like a dead ghost town. Used to be a very

big booming anime tech kind of place, but

it kind of died off and it's just boring

now. I wouldn't recommend going to Tokyo.

I'd recommend going to Osaka, or Osaka,

as people who like to show off how good

their Japanese is when they're speaking in

English, which is kind of stupid because

when I'm speaking in English, I'm going to

pronounce foreign city names in the

English way. So I'm gonna say Tokyo and

Kyoto and Osaka. Now I believe Osaka is

superior to Tokyo because it's basically

like a miniature version of Tokyo.

Anything you can find in Tokyo, you'll

find in Osaka as well. It's just a much

smaller scale. But the good thing about

Osaka is it's in the Kansai region, which

has many more interesting things than the

Kanto region where Tokyo is. It has Kyoto

and Nara and some other places. And

Hiroshima is not too far away, and Kobe,

famous for Kobe beef. So Kyoto is really

nice because it's got loads of temples.

There's much better and much more

impressive temples in Kyoto than you can

find in Tokyo. In Tokyo, if you want to

see a temple, the best you have is

Asakusa, and apart from that, there's not

much else. So Kyoto is definitely the best

place for temples and shrines and like

very old-looking Japanese stuff. And it

also has the mountain with the monkeys on

the top, and it's got the bamboo forest,

and it's got like a nice river that comes

out the mountains, and people sail boats

on it, and it's very pretty. Nara is

famous for Nara Deer Park, and it has all

the deers roaming around. You can feed

them the biscuits, and it's also got that

really big temple that's very, very old,

and it has a big Buddha statue inside of

it. So if you want traditional Japan,

like temples and Buddhist statues and

stuff like that, the best places are in

Kyoto and Nara. I also don't recommend

getting the JR Pass. Every single video

they say you go get the JR Pass so you can

ride trains, and you don't have to pay

more than what you've paid for the JR

Pass. But I feel like the JR Pass is kind

of expensive for what it is, and it also

puts this pressure on you to always keep

using the JR Pass and keep getting on

trains and riding trains here and there

every single day. Otherwise, you think

that you've wasted your money and you're

not getting value for your money. I have

never gotten the JR Pass before, and

that's because I don't want to have to

ride the train every single day and travel

to like a new region every day. I just

want to go to a place and just relax and

take it easy and take it slowly in each

area instead of rushing around all over

the place trying to desperately use my

stupid JR Pass, which is a rip-off.

Instead, I would recommend you buy a

bicycle to get around Japan. You should

buy a bicycle. Bikes are really cheap.

You can go to a secondhand store and buy a

secondhand used bike for about $20 or $30.

They're really cheap. Got a little bell on

it and a basket, and you can ride this all

around the city. Don't have to pay

anything. For trains and taxis and stuff.

You just pay one time, maybe $20, and then

you've got a free mode of transport and

you can put your shopping in the basket.

It's a win-win. I don't know why more

people don't recommend just buying a

bicycle when you're in Japan. It's such a

great country for bicycling. It's so clean

and nice to ride on the roads, and there's

bike lanes everywhere, and the traffic

isn't all chaotic in Japan like it is in

Thailand. So I felt pretty safe just

riding my bicycle on the roads, and

everyone around you is also biking as

well. Japan loves bicycles. They love

moving around on bicycles. So, you know,

when in Rome, do as the Romans do. I went

to Japan earlier this year in May— was it

April or March?— and I bought a bicycle,

and it was the first time I rode all over

Osaka on the bicycle, and I did it for

free because after I bought the bike, I

didn't have to pay for trains or taxis or

buses ever again. The one problem with

getting a bicycle is parking it at night.

So in my experience, some hotels will have

a free place to store your bicycle. Other

hotels might charge you like ¥500 a night

to store the bicycle in the storage area.

And if you just leave your bicycle out on

the street, it's kind of risky. You could

just lock it up on the street like loads

of other people do, but then sometimes

bicycle collectors come around and remove

the bikes because you're not supposed to

park there, and they confiscate the bike

and take it to a compound. And then you

have to go to the compound and pay a fine

to get the bicycle back. That happened to

me one time. I left my bicycle outside of

a train station. I came back and it was

gone, and there was a note there saying

Your bike has been taken away. And then

there's also paid parking spots, which can

cost like ¥100 to leave it there for 24

hours. But you could just find like a

secret place behind a bush and stash it

there. Or you can do what I did. So there

was a week when I was in Japan because my

girlfriend came over and we were

traveling, so I couldn't really use the

bicycle anymore. So I just left the

bicycle outside of a supermarket and it

was like a low-key kind of cheap

supermarket, not like a big fancy chain

supermarket. It's just like a low-key

normal-looking supermarket with a little

car park out front and a place for

bicycles. And I just stashed my bike in

front of the supermarket for a whole week.

And a week later, it was still there. No

one touched it. It was not tampered with

and it was completely fine. It's still

kind of risky. Maybe they would move it if

you left it there for too long. But I'm

pretty sure if it's just overnight, no

one's going to notice that your bicycle's

parked there overnight. They'll just not

even bother with it. So I recommend you

book your ticket for Kansai Airport, or

airport symbol KIX. You land there, you

get the train into Osaka, and then you

just rest up in Osaka City, and then do

your city exploring for the first few

days, or maybe the first day. Buy a

bicycle to bike around. You can go to

Osaka Castle, you can go to Denden Town,

Shinsekai, you can go to— you can go to

Tennoji and Tennoji Zoo. There's quite a

few things to do in Osaka. And you get the

whole Japan city life experience that you

would find in Tokyo in Osaka as well.

Like I said earlier, Osaka has everything

Tokyo has, just on a smaller scale. Osaka

has a castle. There's no Tokyo Castle, is

there? And you can also go to the aquarium

that's in Osaka and also USJ if you want

some entertainment. If you want the city

nightlife kind of experience, then

Dotonbori, Shinsaibashi, and Umeda are

very nice modern-looking places in Osaka.

And then once you're bored of Osaka and

you've done the city stuff, You can then

ditch your bike outside of a supermarket

for a few nights or more and then get the

train to Kyoto and then just get a bike in

Kyoto if you want to. You could do that,

or you could just use trains in Kyoto and

then go and see all the temples and go to

the mountain with the monkeys on top

because that's really nice and pretty.

And then go to the bamboo forest, that's

really nice as well. And then also go to

Nara, go down to Nara. I call it the

triangle, it's like a triangle shape of

places you go. You've got Osaka, And then

you go up to Kyoto and you come down to

Nara and then you come back up to Osaka.

And then when you're back at Osaka, you

can head west to go to Kobe and also you

can go to Hiroshima. That's like an hour

away by the bullet train. Or you could

head east, go to Shin-Osaka and get back

on the bullet train. And it takes about an

hour and a half to get the bullet train

back up to Tokyo. And then you can see the

stuff in Tokyo that would just take a few

days and then fly out of Tokyo. Maybe you

want to do that. I'm guessing you're going

to want internet whilst you're in Japan.

So there's quite a few options when it

comes to internet in Japan. There's pocket

Wi-Fi, which I wouldn't recommend getting

pocket Wi-Fi because it's expensive and

the connection is not very fast. And it's

kind of annoying having to arrange to pick

it up. So I tried to get pocket Wi-Fi

earlier this year and I chose the option

to pick it up at the convenience store

that's inside of the airport. But there

were several convenience stores of the

same name in the same airport. And I went

to one of them, it was a Family Mart, and

they said they didn't have my pocket

Wi-Fi. So I went to the other Family Mart,

they also said they didn't have it and

they told me to go back to the other one

because it might be there. So I went back

to the other one. I waited a few hours to

see if the postman would come, or maybe I

was there too early, and still no pocket

Wi-Fi. So I ended up giving up trying to

get my pocket Wi-Fi, and I just went to my

hotel. And then I messaged the pocket

Wi-Fi company, and then they had to

rearrange sending the pocket Wi-Fi to my

new address, to a convenience store

nearby. So it was kind of frustrating. I

was hoping to just pick it up at the

airport, but I couldn't because there was

some kind of delivery problem. Now,

another option would be to get an eSIM,

but they're kind of expensive as well, or

get a travel SIM card at the airport, but

they're also very expensive. I would

recommend going to a camera store like

Yodobashi Camera or Bic Camera, and they

sell SIM cards there as well, and they

have quite a wide variety. They have like

travel cheap ones, or they have really

high capacity 50GB data ones, which can be

like $100. So those were my top tips for

traveling to Japan for the first time.

Now for me personally, next time I go to

Japan, which I'm planning to go to Japan

again next year, I don't think I'm going

to do the bicycle thing again because it

was pretty tiring bicycling all day long

every single day, which I don't think you

would be doing if you're not doing a

subathon on a bike. I think next time I go

to Japan, I'm going to rent a car and then

travel across Japan while sleeping in the

car. So I'm going to try that and then see

how it goes, and if it's a good idea, I

might add that to my guide on what to do

in Japan on your first week or two if

you've never been there before. Renting a

car could be an interesting experience.