I booked a flight to Japan for the last week of October and the first two weeks in November.
My plans so far are very vague: For the first week I want to stay in Tokyo, and in the other two weeks I would like to visit two or more cities or towns around the main island or Hokkaido (the northern island). I plan to travel by train and bus.
I would appreciate any tips and inspiration from your experiences in Japan – or just write me some locations that you would like to see when you travel there yourself.
My budget will be around $3000 excluding the flight. A friend will accompany me, so will be able to split the rent.
Late to the party here - yes, the App is Suica. You can use a VPN to get it and load it ahead of time. Sept of 2022 I couldn’t add Visa or MC as payment, but I could add Amex. By putting the Suica app/card in your Apple wallet it becomes the default payment for transit. I think I got a JREast pass as well as my travels took me to Sendai and it was cheaper for a 5 day JREast than to pay the Shinkansen fare by itself. (I was there longer than the 5 day pass, so I use Suica pay-per-ride outside the 5 days)
Thank you for the info. I saw somewhere that the price for the Japanese Rail Pass will increase by around 80% in October. But I will buy it online, before the price increase.
What was your #1 favorite thing you did or place you visited in Japan?
I really enjoyed Kamakura, south of Tokyo. It had a bit of history, a bit of touristy stuff, and what seemed like a laid back vibe. I’ll admit that I didn’t really plan much for what I’d do when I was there. I went to see an old friend (hadn’t seen him in 25-30 years) on an absolute lark. He’s lived in Tokyo for at least 15 years now, so he took me to a few popular places around Tokyo along with two spots I wanted to go (Mt. Takao and Edo-Tokyo Open-Air Architectural Museum; I won’t call either “exciting” and the latter was a little weak on the interpretation imho).
Thank you for the inspiration. I’ll add Kamakura to my list.