Travel Plan For Japan 2022 / 2023 For Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka

When I heard that Japan was re-opening to general tourism in October 2022 it made me happy.  There are new procedures and documentation that are required for entry, just like visiting most countries these days.  Check the requirements for your country on the official Japanese government sites.  Look it up on the Internet if you have to.  I have a couple of links here that I used, but these could change and of course the rules can change.  ALWAYS check the requirements multiple times before you go as any problems that arise are your problems if you're not up to date.

https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/covid-19/bordercontrol.html

https://vjw-lp.digital.go.jp/en/

I've had a delayed trip to Japan for 3 years by the time I go at the end of November.  I'm going for two weeks and had to figure out flights, hotels, itinerary, transportation, and communications.

The exchange rate right now is pretty good for Canadians going to Japan, but it is like half-price for Americans as you can see in the image below.

Best exchange for Canadians since 2008.

So here's how I planned for the trip.

Check prices of airfares as this is not getting cheaper.  The cost of fuel and transportation in general is pricey since COVID hit.  From Canada, the price of an economy ticket with taxes and fees was in the $1300 to $1400 CDN range. Not cheap. I ended up using points I had banked up to cover the entire price.

Story Map with days and cities across the top and things to do going vertically down.

Once I had the flight booked for the two weeks I had to determine my itinerary.  I built a story map / idea board to do this.  I labeled stickies with places and things to do and moved stickies around a lot to determine what to do and when.  This was important as I needed to figure out when to use a Japan Rail Pass (you can only get this as a tourist and getting before you arrive in Japan is the regular way).  I'll be getting a 7 day pass to allow me to travel from Yokohama to Kyoto to Osaka to Himeji and then back to Tokyo on the slightly slower Hikari Shinkansen.

I'll be ordering a Japan Rail Pass from the official site.  I could have ordered from some travel agencies, but with shipping I was only saving $10.  It is way easier to find 3rd party agencies rather than the official site on the web.  I'll be picking up the pass at the airport as I need to book the NEX Express to Tokyo Station anyways.

https://japanrailpass.net/en/purchase.html

Hyperdia, the old rail / transport planning application is now defunct, so I'm using Navitime.

https://japantravel.navitime.com/en/area/jp/route/

The application can help you figure out travel times, schedules, how much train fare is between cities and even has a Japan Rail Pass toggle to only pick trains the pass works on. 

NOTE: You really have to take a lot of trains to make it pay off.  In my case I only used it for the Hikari trains from Yokohama to Kyoto (took a local train to Osaka as it isn't very far), Hikari to Himeji from Osaka and back, and then Osaka to Tokyo via Hikari.  I also used it for a day on the JR Trains in Tokyo. I just broke even.  The only advantage was that I could book my seats on trains online because I bought it on Japanrailpass.net, which is something you cannot do via any other method.

Many cell phone plans now don't offer very good roaming packages any more.  Traveling in Japan requires cellular data to make your life easy and to play Pokemon Go too.  Because of this, I ordered a Japanese data only SIM card for 15 days.  I'll be picking this up at the airport.

https://www.sakuramobile.jp/

NOTE: For me, the SIM worked perfectly for data for 15 days on my Iphone 14.  Was awesome to have unlimited data to stream back home at points.

You can also set up Apple Pay to create an electronic SUICA card to pay for train tickets, and shopping at many stores including many konbini.

https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/suica.html

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207155

NOTE: For me, in Dec 2022, the SUICA on my Iphone was great for paying for stuff and the metro.  Down side was that there are very few machines to charge it, so having a regular IC Card is better.  It would have been good to be able to charge it via Apple Pay online, but that functionality has been broken / not available for foreign VISA cards against SUICA for half a year now, so you could install it on your phone, see if you can transfer money in.  If not, then try PASMO? or stick with a real card.

That covers the general logistics.  I'll cover more about the places and sights to see in the next post.

Go to part 2. The draft itinerary for a two week tour.

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