Planning

Table of Contents

I spent a lot of time planning this trip. A lot. I find great comfort and pleasure in the details: Will it be worth my time? What can I expect? Will it be open? How much will it cost? How will we get there?

When I go to countries where I don’t speak the language, I am particularly vigilant about being prepared because of the added complexity of not being able to communicate easily.

I am very hands-on and Van is very hands-off and that dynamic works for us: I always ask Vannie what things she wants to do (in this case, the Hello Kitty shinkansen, theme parks and the Kodokan) and work those into the itinerary.

Being spontaneous can be a little difficult for me 😬 but going with Van — or anyone — helps me with that.

Videos #

I started out by watching YouTube videos — most made since Japan’s October 2022 reopening — to get the lay of the land. I found these videos were particularly helpful:

Japan Web #

Entry requirements are always changing but in readying for our trip, Van and I created separate accounts with Japan Web and filled out the forms. We saved screenshots of the following to our phones for when we arrived in Japan:

Customs declaration QR code
Immigration QR code
COVID vaccination FastTrack

Japan does not require a visa for U.S. citizens traveling to Japan for short-term visits shorter than three months.

Flight #

In November 2022, knowing that Japan was definitely open to tourists now and that we’d be leaving in six months, I configured an alert in Google Flights to track prices to Tokyo.

In December, I booked our air travel with United. The international leg would be through ANA (All Nippon Airways). Interestingly, the entire flight cost more than what we’d originally paid for our Spring 2020 trip (which was refunded to us due to COVID) but less than what I’d paid for my Spring 2013 trip. But they were all pretty close.

I set up another alert in Google Flights tracking specifically the price of our itinerary in case it went down. (It did not, and at one point, was running at nearly twice what we’d paid.)

Hotels #

As much as I enjoyed my 2013 visit to Japan precisely because we covered so much ground, I knew I wanted to go in the other direction for this trip and decrease the number of places we stayed at in order to minimize the schlepping of luggage. (In 2013, we’d stayed at six different places during the course of our 12 nights there.)

So this time I settled on a rough itinerary of four nights in central Tokyo, four nights in Osaka and two nights back in the Tokyo area near DisneySea.

I ended up booking one accommodation each from these sites:

Hotels.com — We found a very reasonably priced hotel, the Yaesu Terminal Hotel, a few minutes’ walk away from Tokyo Station. The room was tiny, with two twin beds about a foot apart, but its location couldn’t be beat.
AirBnB — The AirBnB I reserved was in a quiet neighborhood and a 10-minute walk from JR Shin-Osaka Station and and a 5-minute walk from the Higashimikuni Metro Station.
Japanican — I booked a room at Spa & Hotel Maihama Eurasia because it was less than a mile walk to DisneySea. In addition, it had a shuttle that ran between JR Maihama Station and the hotel three times an hour, saving us what would have felt like an endless walk (even though it was just a mile) due to having our luggage with us. After the cozy quarters we’d been staying in, this hotel room felt ridiculously spacious.

Transportation #

I ordered our 14-day Japan Rail Passes from Klook about a month and a half before our trip. You don’t want to order them early because they have to be redeemed within three months and you don’t want to order them too late to ensure they have time to get shipped to you before your trip.

The vouchers arrived soon after I placed my order and I safely tucked them away to bring with us to exchange for the actual passes once we arrived in Japan.

Because the JR Pass predominantly covers Japan Rail trains (as well as some extras like the Tokyo Monorail), I knew there’d be times we’d be taking non-JR transportation like the Tokyo Metro and the Osaka Metro, so I planned to also purchase a SUICA card once we arrived in Tokyo.

WiFi #

Honestly, having access to a WiFi hotspot is a game changer when it comes travel.

When I’d last been in Japan 10 years ago, I’d not had Internet access except when at our accommodations. Knowing that, I’d saved a bunch of train time tables and notes to my phone so I’d have access to them offline. And even that was an upgrade from before, when I lived in Japan in the mid-2000s and not had a mobile phone at all!

So on that 2013 trip I relied on those offline notes to guide us when making shinkansen reservations but, outside of reserved rides, we just went with the flow and knew the train would come when it came and to enjoy the experience. We never had to wait all that long.

For this trip, I reserved our WiFi hotspot from eConnect Japan. I probably got one data tier too high — I’d wanted to make sure both Van and I would have plenty to work with, but in the end it was mostly just me using it — and even at that rate, I found the price still quite reasonable and the service, totally reliable.

The hotspot was delivered to our hotel in Tokyo a day or two before our arrival. It came with a battery bank — which I did find I needed to use when our days ran long — a charging cable and adapter, as well as a prepaid envelope to returning it. When we returned to Haneda Airport to fly back to the U.S., I popped the hotspot and all its accessories into the envelope and dropped it into a mailbox at Haneda’s Departures area. So convenient!

Apps #

I downloaded these apps to my phone and found all of them useful:

Navitime — For checking train times. It has a handy filter that allows you mark that you have a JR Pass so it will just check routes and timetables between JR stations. Of the two route planners I installed, I did find this app more reliably listed the platforms from which the trains departed but overall both worked great for me.
Japan Transit Planner — Also for checking train times; it was just nice to be able to have two route planners in order to be able to view different options at the same time. Also has the JR Pass filter.
Google Translate — I used the Google Lens feature the most: when you use your phone camera to scan signs or text and Google Translate overlays the translation. So useful! But I also occasionally used the text input feature, too, to translate English to Japanese, such as when I wanted to have some words ready when we visited a customer service desk to explain that Van had lost the receipt that you used to unlock your locker.
Universal Studios Japan — For ride wait times and the map feature.
Tokyo Disney Resort — Covers both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. We used it for ride wait times and the map feature.
Duolingo — I used this language-learning app right up until the day before we left for Japan to review basic Japanese vocabulary and kanji, particularly for numbers.

Tickets #

If I could order tickets ahead of time, I did, so as to knock out the chore while still comfortably at home in the planning phase rather than when we were actually in Japan.

teamLab Osaka #

For visiting the teamLab art installation at Nagai Botanical Garden in Osaka at night. The email confirmation included a link that went live the day of my reservation with a QR code. (We still had to wait in line, as everyone still had to go through a bag check and were granted admittance to the park in batches.)

Universal Studios Japan #

Van and I bought both our USJ tickets and Express Passes from Klook. The Express Passes cost more than the tickets! 🫠

I really hate how complicated Universal Studios makes its Express Passes — there are so many options. We’d wanted to get the Express Passes for the two Harry Potter rides but they were sold out by the time I tried to buy them a month before. We ended up getting the University Express 4 ~ Fun - Ride ~, which had other rides that we were interested in, so it worked out all right for us. We got PDF vouchers with QR codes and they were scanned at entry.

DisneySea #

Our DisneySea tickets were also ordered from Klook, which again emailed us vouchers with QR codes that were scanned at entry.

DisneySea does have a program similar to USJ’s Express Pass called Premier Access but this wasn’t an option in Klook. You’re supposed to be able to order Premier Access via the Tokyo Disney Resort app, but the app really doesn’t accept credit cards outside Japan. I looked around online and did see instances in which people were able to get this route to work for them but it usually involved something ridiculously like trying 10 times and finally succeeding on Try #10.

So we just waited until we were at the theme park and got Premier Access by purchasing at Guest Relations in person.

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