Tokyo. The Hows, Whens and Whys.

 

       

Before we get cracking on our journey I wanted to give you some beginners help that also may explain the in-between details as we blog. We needed someone to do this when we were planning as people left out ALOT of detail. Using our trip details as examples I want to cover in this post some help on: 

*Our Tour Operators

*Our Hotel Options

*Our location and its travel options

*Wifi

*Train Cards and how to REALLY get about before you have one 

*Etiquette and main worries about Tourism

During the COVID lock down we had our travel taste buds tickled by watching walking videos on You Tube through other countries. Our main go to was Tokyo and a You-Tuber called Rambalac! 

He took us everywhere and at every time of day; Shinbuya, Shinjuku, Shiodome the list goes on... and after a while the walks were becoming indented on our minds. The first thing we did when the travel bans were becoming lighter was to book our trip to Tokyo. Our first question was, what time of year would be best? 

Now you would think this easy, so much going on throughout the year that anytime would be amazing BUT from our research we noted that Japanese tourism was on the up and in a BIG way, whilst this is amazing it often means that all the places we wanted to visit on our first trip would be rammed. We also had to think about the weather; for us as a family we are not about the sun. We prefer it cold and being from the Midlands of England, we knew we could handle rain. So we needed to think about peak times and it not being too impeded by rain stopping play. February seemed to be a winner, Travel for most tourists wasn't attractive, Some attractions we wanted to visit close in March and Sakura season begins which is when things get really packed.

Our Tour Operators 

Next job was how to get there. There are so many intrepid travellers out there who segregated their travel plans. For example to keep the pricing reasonable they opted to book flights, hotel and travel independently and for our second trip, with the knowledge we now have behind us this will be the way to go BUT for our first trip and knowing we wanted to spend all of our time in Tokyo we opted for a comfortable package deal and British Airways seemed to be the best option.

We needed direct return flights and two rooms for 11 nights as our base ask. When searching today the cheapest options for this search was £1,533 (£4600 for three) for a hotel based in Askausa; for these base requirements. We opted for the Park Hotel Tokyo (check out the next paragraph for why we did) and added a private mini bus welcome at Haneda Airport to take us to our hotel and also pick us up again when we travel home, at £261. Why did we do this? because once again when doing research there was not a lot of guidance on how to get to your hotel from Haneda airport for first timers. Oh don't get me wrong; there were endless videos of people queuing at Haneda airport for SUICA cards and mobile WiFi then travelling through the hustle and bustle of commuter time Tokyo with suitcases, Jet-Lagged and overwhelmed as UK bound flights arrive at 7am  which all seemed mental, YOU ARE ON HOLIDAY AND THIS COST YOU A LOT OF MONEY! the trains seemed overwhelming as everyone had an opinion on what manner to travel and there was also an issue with SUICA cards which I will cover later; so knowing myself  I opted for comfort if  I was going to go for a great time (was also in hindsight one of the best things we did) This meant that in total for us the trip price was  £6.500. What would I do different? look into roomier seats and upgrade. I am plus sized and whilst not a larger plus size it left little room for my son who was next to me and my tall husband sat on the other side. Adrenaline and excitement carried us the 13 hours to Tokyo but tiredness and sadness dragged the 15 hour flight back out so best to do it comfortable.

Our Hotel Options

One extra minefield when booking was the choice of areas to stay as the options seemed overwhelming 

As mentioned, and after much debating and research, we went for the Park Hotel Tokyo based in Shiodome. We were told that Shiodome seemed a little out there but was a great option for a bit of quiet after the neon heaven and bustling city life each day. After further investigation we found out that The Park Hotel was also an art gallery with themed hotel rooms designed and decorated by house artists with each room having also a fantastic view of the city, either Tokyo Tower OR Shimbashi. If you are thinking of opting for a Tokyo Tower view just a piece of advice, you don't need to! The Hotel is based on the 25th floor of the Shiodome media tower (where we often saw them filming weather for a local station) and when you arrive in the lobby, press the 25th floor in the lift  you walk out the elevator into a glorious art gallery with a huge panoramic window option of the Tokyo Tower with seating and a small bar and two restaurants, on a clear day we saw Fuji in the background and it was breathtaking. This hotel kept on giving in terms of location. 

From the lift you can choose Level 1 and walk to Shimbashi overground in one direction for a whole host of bars and eateries of an evening or Hamamatsuchō Station for travel to further reaches in our itinerary.  You can also choose the basement where you can walk to Shiodome underground station and shops and yet further eateries. There is also the worlds best Family Mart in the basement where we ended up every day. Another tip is that you don't need to book a breakfast with your hotel room when you choose, Tokyo is full of convenience stores with the best pastries and hot coffees as well as Denny's should you end up after a few days needing that egg and bacon fix before each day, most destinations on our journeys had a Dennys where we started the day before exploring.

Finally you have Level 3, Level 3 was a walk way through to the overground station of Shimbashi  and also the gateway to the Yurikamome line which was a great benefit to our location as it was a monorail across the Rainbow bridge to so many tourist attractions and hidden gems that we will cover. In short this hotel was the best with easy access to all we needed on this trip, and we will never stay anywhere else. The Staff were so welcoming and we felt well looked after so we could never think of going anywhere else as it even had Hibiya Shrine on its doorstep.

WiFi

There were two main debate topics for people when they look to travel to Japan. Do we need WiFi and what do we need it for? There were three schools of thought it would seem, Don't worry about it as most place offer WiFi, well I am here to tell you, they do not! Free WiFi for us was a pain so we were so glad we didn't need it and if we had to use it then it was for a small amount of time.

The next team were the SIM card people, this seemed like a great option but fidgety and the thought of swapping out a SIM when we landed and worrying if I lost my UK based one was gross so we opted for the 3rd option, Pocket WiFI.

There are many to chose from in Japan and most of the options were as mentioned before, needing to be collected at Haneda airport and dropped off again when you leave. We found Sakura mobile who were amazing. You pay in advance for the amount of time you need and they deliver it FOC to your hotel where it is ready for you with everything you need and no queuing at the airport. The best part is that they also give you a return to sender envelope that your hotel reception will post for you when you leave. The whole process is worry free and it connected up to 9 devices for £48

Train Cards

Oh boy, this is the one. This is the one where most people break down and once again on the internet everyone has an opinion on this, so ..here is mine.

You have many different options on how to get around, you have Klook who offer great deals on day outs, you have Pasmo and you have Suica which are very similar to Oyster Cards. For a very long time these cards were actually not available and a special SUICA card was needed that you could only pick up at Airports due to a chip shortage. We were really lucky that this was resolved when we arrived so we could pick it up from most JR East stations, we opted for Shinjuku Tourist office within the main station. How it works is that you pay a deposit of 500 Yen (£2.62) and comes loaded with a choice of options pre-paid. We went for 2000 Yen (£10.47). You log in when you arrive and you log out when you leave, just like an Oyster card so this means, depending on your journey length and if you use the card for purchasing anything (you can use this as currency in most stores and restaurants) you might not need to top up for a few days at the designated machines in all stations. Now, we tried it without for the first two days of our trip and we paid for our ticket to one station, then with the help of a local train representative always on hand, had to buy a transfer ticket using a certain machine should we ever swap lines or providers, this was not ideal but doable so we would suggest getting a SUICA card. The most searched question is Pasmo Vs SUICA but honestly we only used the SUICA so we would recommend that.

Etiquette and Worries when travelling to Japan

Who wants to offend when travelling abroad? not I! so we looked into the easiest things that foreigners do when travelling to Japan which are big no no's and were surprised but grateful to know before we went or planned anything.

•  Don't walk while eating. This a big one, you will often find people huddled at the side of a road to eat the delicious morsels they have purchased. 
• Hang on to your rubbish. You wont have bins in most places so always take a bag in your backpack to prepare for this. Japanese are very strict on recycling so make sure you do it right!
• Don't count your change.Most places do not take cards so be prepared for cash and with cash comes coins. we bought a coin holder from Amazon which was a godsend.
• Don't bombard the locals, geisha's and Maiko for selfies for your gram. In Kyoto bans have now taken place because of this so be mindful.
• Don't blow your nose in public.
• Know your way around the Escalator.
• Be quiet on public transport.
• Take your shoes off indoors.

Myths online say that Japanese people wont speak English to you, not true at all. Everyone tries, Us with Japanese and them to understand it and meet us with a little English and you always have Google translate on your phone which is amazing! It really helps though if you know your basics; 

* Hello - Kon'nichiwa

* Thank you - Arigatō gozaimasu 

* Thank you for my food - itadakimasu (I'll enjoy having this)

* Goodbye -  Sayōnara

You will also read that there are 'No foreigner' signs up on restaurants. This is also not the case for us, we didn't see a single one and most places were fantastic. On the trains we even had people get up and move across so that we could sit together and overall it was a beautiful place with beautiful people.

One last tip from me if this is the adventure you choose...buy a huge piece of cardboard and divide it into the number of days you are travelling. Pop in each days wish and plan...you will need to buy tickets for most things one month in advance and tickets go quickly so don't miss out. Closer to the time buy a journal with blank pages, detail this schedule and make room for inking souvenirs at temples and stations! Start a file on Google Maps and pin all the wonderful places you hear about! Plan a year in advance, save and have the best time with no substitutes. You wont regret it!

       

Let us know below if we left anything out, always happy to help! Stay tuned for our next post which is Day One, Shin-Okubu and Jet lag.

Lis x