Honeymoon in japan.. (Personal experianc/ info help)

So hopefully this year me and my fiancé will marry and hope to take are honeymoon in japan.

 

I thought I would make a thread just to ask about others and there trips to japan.

 

Where did you stay, what did you do there and most importantly info on where I can go to get doll things XD. I will be looking about for info too but any personal experiences would be awesome to hear.

Congratulations in advance!

 

Are you going to be staying in Tokyo, or visiting Osaka or Kyoto---? Or are you still undecided?

Are there things on your 'must do list' aside from finding doll stores? I'm assuming you've already skimmed the other recent thread about going to Japan, correct? ( if not: here it is :3 )

 

Staying at a ryokan/traditional Japanese inn would be a lovely & romantic thing to do; staying at one near the 5 lakes near Mt. Fuji would be lovely ( but takes at least 2hrs by bus/transit-- however there are busses that will take you almost directly there (( they have 1-2 pit stops during the trip )) from Shinjuku & Tokyo station, possibly another one but I wasn't really paying attention |'D ) There are also ryokans closer to Tokyo, as well as ones near Osaka and Kyoto... But I've only been to one near Mt. Fuji with a friend haha.

 

I think it'd be easier to find doll stores in Tokyo ( more people dobleepent how to get to places there ), but that could just be because I failed miserably to find Dolk in Osaka X'D ( I did find the Volks Osaka store though, it's easy to find if you can locate yourself in DenDen town. DenDen town also has cheaper second hand anime goods than Tokyo IMO )

 

 

As foo said in his Dolpa thread;

... For anyone going to Japan, I HIGHLY recommend ordering a Pupuru which gives you a personal Wi-Fi hotspot and LTE speeds for about $12 per day (a cheaper one is available if you don't need the longer battery & speed).

There are other personal portable wifi eggs/devices & wifi options that you can look into as well. The only free wifi hotspots that I know of & have used are the ones connected to convenience stores ( 7-11 & Family Mart, you have to sign up your email for both, I can't remember if there was an english page or if I just clicked around for it though ) I think starbucks & mcdonalds also have wifi spots but I'm not 100% sure as my friend and I prefer Mos Burger haha.

hakone.

 

 

private hotspring suite. ultra romance.

Thank you for the info there.

 

so far the plan is go to japan and have fun and bring back as much as I can XD. I would like to go to some doll shops along with anime/manga things so it mostly a buying holiday but after spending are money just days out where we can enjoy the country will be nice.

 

we are not sure where we would be staying as of yet so any places really would be nice. with are budget its probably best if its like some sort of BnB so we can eat at lease XD. a friend of mine has been and lived in japan for a wile so when we can she is going to see what she can find info wise so that is nice too.

I'd recommend booking hotels as early as possible. I don't know if it was because of cherry blossom season (in Tokyo?), but getting nice hotels ~1 month before you plan to go may be too late. Mine were ok, but I was also looking to see if there was other stuff a couple weeks before I arrived, and everything was sold out in Tokyo & Kyoto.

Well, since you haven't decided 100% on which city you'll be staying in... I have a few travel tips:

 

But first---- Please note that I am not an expert, these are just my opinions from my previous trips to Tokyo and my trip last September to Tokyo & Osaka ( with short visits to Kyoto, Nara & Kobe ). I might be mistaken on some things, or some of this advice might be out of date ( you can never be too sure ). I primarily travelled by train, I have not caught any of the local busses before. ^^ I hope that some of what I write will be helpful, and if I am wrong I hope someone more knowledgable will step in and correct any errors.

 

JR Pass : Unlimited rides on most JR busses & trains, you must order this either online or through a travel agent before you go to Japan. You have to activate it before you use it, but you don't have to activate it right away--- You could ask them to activate it for the day after. This is useful if you plan on staying in Tokyo for awhile and then travelling to Osaka or Kyoto or any other place you might be travelling to via Shinkansen.

There is a JR counter area in the basement of the airport ( where all the trains are ), you can always ask the info booth at the airport for directions -- Since this is the airport there should be a handful of people who can understand English and help you ^^

 

• Pros: Unlimited rides, can use the Shinkansen often ( You must book a ticket to ride it, but you can book a ticket the day of your trip --- or if you are better at planning, you can book it in advance as well. Booking the day of is quite easy to do -- just go line up for shinkansen tickets at any shinkansen station and show them your pass and let them know where you would like to go. They'll let you know which trains have seats and you can get your tickets no problemm ), Shinkansen is comfy, you can buy and enjoy an ekiben on the train, there is a washroom on the train, there is a lady who pushes a snack cart and you can buy snacks/drinks if you forgot to buy some prior to your trip.
   
  
• Cons: You can only use JR lines ( and there are some restrictions, but it's explained on the website & also is mailed out with a booklet with more information), expensive, must show station attendant your pass to enter & leave the station ( not really a bad thing unless you are in a rush )
   
  
• Personal opinion: If you are staying in Tokyo, I'd skip the JR pass and just get a regular Suica or Pasmo. Both are reloadable train tickets that you just tap to enter and tap to leave trains& busses. Make sure you remember to tap out or else you'll be charged for the maximum train trip --- plus it kind of messes things up if it doesn't read you as leaving or entering a train station, but you can tell the train station attendant about your problem and they can fix it there... But not all station attendants can speak/understand english so... :'D
  I feel it is not worth it unless you use Shinkansen at least 2-3 times ( ie. Tokyo - Osaka/Kyoto and back ). Going from Tokyo - Osaka one way ticket : 14,140yen; JR Pass is $239 for 7 days.
  I went from Tokyo -> Osaka and then from Osaka to Kyoto and back twice ( it's a 15min ride on shinkansen, 40min on regular train ) and Osaka to Kobe once before going from Osaka to Mt. Fuji ( not recommended to go via train as it requires station hopping and that might be a bit overwhelming for your first trip to Japan )

 

Suica/Pasmo: A reloadable smart card that acts as both a train pass & alternative method of payment for various places/things ( you can use it at a convenience store, newer vending machines ). If you are staying in Tokyo then either card will work, as far as I'm aware only Suica will work on other systems outside of Tokyo.

 

• Pros: Can buy it in Japan, reloadable, faster than JR pass ( just tap and go go ), can use to pay at some restaurants, convenience stores & other places
  
• Cons: Must remember to check your balance and reload when necessary--- otherwise you'll have to pay the rest of the ticket price at the station attendant, sometimes it doesn't register you tapping in or out, it's super packed during rush hour
  
• Personal opinion:The main reason I suggest getting a Suica or Pasmo if you stay in Tokyo is ---- the Tokyo metro vs the JR east map. With the JR pass you'd be restricted to only taking JR trains, which would work out since the Yamanote line is a lovely loop that goes through most of the hot spots in Tokyo... But being able to go onto the Metro makes your life easier because it gives you more options for trains....
  I recommend using the Tokyo Rail Map+ Lite by Urban-Map ( iPhone app ); I'm not sure if it's available onandroid. You are able to type in/pick the station you are at and your destination and it will give you directions on which stops you'll pass and which stop to transfer at ( offline too if I remember correctly ) which saves you time from figuring it out yourself ( which is also fun imo )
  PS. Remember that there are rush hours! Japan Guide says that weekday morning rush hour peaks at 8-9am and evening rush hour starts around 5pm. It gets seriously packed on the train;;
  PPS. Some links on train etiquette: general information on etiquette & the train system, some general do nots & cute list by JR

 

Holidays/Seasonal Events: Definitely look up what's happening the month you plan on going to Japan! Japan does celebrate some of the same holidays the west does, but it also has it's own holidays and celebrations. So trains could be more full than usual, or they could be emptier... But... Personally, the most important thing is----

Themed items& Events! ( I love themed things. Japan does it best ) Things like Valentines/White Day, Halloween,Christmas & etc. = shittons of themed items.

I went to Japan from mid- September to early October. Even though it was really early, they had quite a few Halloween themed items popping up such as:

Flyer about Volks Osaka's Halloween events

 

Halloween themed draw prize at the convenience store.... Actually, convenience stores tend to have a lot of tie-in events. Keep your eyes peeled! Some of the older event stuff will be sold near the front, you can always just try to buy it if it interests you. Sometimes it's a buy xx amount and get a raffle ticket, sometimes it's buy xx product... ^^;; My friend found out about a Fate// conbini tie-in that was happening during our stay and then we had to down several of the tie-in drinks so she could earn enough points for the prize raffle...

 

We stumbled across Jump World( in Sunshine City, Ikebukuro. It's on the third floor of the building~ ) the day before their Halloween event started... Needless to say we went back the next day and joined the 1hr+ queue for kurobasu stuff... It also has 5 attractions that you can play and get collectable coins, most attractions will either be self explanatory or the staff will have a booklet to explain how the mini game works ^^; There are also the other mini games where you need to pay for tokens to play, but you'll get some sort of prize from it ~ (( If you are in this area, I highly recommend you check out the UFO catchers in the various arcades around here, there's at least 4... My friend and I managed to win a whole bunch of stuff here haha ))

 

I'm not sure what is the current promotion, but checking out the Patisserie Swallowtail Annex cafe in the Marui Annex might be worth it for you. ^^ I'm not sure if it's there all the time, but the ad ( first two pics ) we saw was a booth in the same building as DollPoint in Akiba ( it was one of the floors with manga... Not sure which one;; Probably one with more of the official stuff rather than the doujin ). We walked around each of the floors to see what was there before slowly making our way up to DollPoint~ That's how we spotted this ad. The Marui Annex is in Shinjuku, it might be a bit hard to find so I recommend looking it up |'D My friend had to blindly trust in my memory of Shinjuku. The process of buying the anime themed food is a bit tedious, you'll have to buy a ticket in the pop up anime shop right beside the cafe, and then bring it to the front counter and let them know you if you'll be eating it there or having it to go.

 

 

My favourite trip was the time I timed it so that I was in Japan for their new years 福袋/lucky bags ( fu ku bu ku ro, the board censored it ww ) ... I'm a sucker for lucky bags. New years lucky bag sales starts from Jan 1 and lasts till it sells out afaik... Not all stores will be open on the 1st though, and it's actually kind of dead in some places... If you do go during this period, make sure you exchange enough cash to last you since many exchange places will close for the holidays ^^;; I had to use the hotel exchange... Lots of places will have lucky bags, but I focused on clothes that year.

 

Other advice:

 

I don't have any advice for hotels... But if you have an idea of where you plan on going most-- maybe you should stay near there, so it's easier for you to get to and from the area. Personally I prefer Shinjuku because of its close proximity to Harajuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro... But it's on the opposite side of the city from Akiba ( on the other hand, both of them are on the Yamanote loop ). During my last trip my friend and I stayed at an airbnb apartment in Ginza, we were really close to Tsukiji--- but further away from our beloved Ikebukuro ( and it's UFO catchers )

 

Most hotels will be near at least one convenience store, so if they don't offer breakfast you can easily just pop on over and buy an onigiri, sandwich or whatever suits your fancy. ( don't go overboard though, if you explore around there are probably cafes & restaurants that have morning/lunch specials that you could try instead )

 

Most fast food chains will have an english menu. Some restaurants might have an english menu. If you have any food allergies, I definitely recommend learning how to say so and/or look up what foods may contain it/ learn how to read the name of the food so you can avoid it... Or you can look up food that you would like to try so you can spot it on the menu or something ^^ Although, even if you can't read the menu... If it has pictures you could just point to it, or you could just take a gamble and randomly pick one...

 

I haven't been to Nakano Broadway, but in addition to second hand doll & anime good stores.... It has this ice cream cone that my friend and I wanted to try but ran out of time for...

 

If you are in Asakusa to visit the temple, I recommend you two trying to find this pudding store, it's near the entrance of an alley. It was delicious, and I'm not a big fan of pudding.

I also suggest visiting the Tokyo SkyTree -- if only for the Shounen Jump store. You could also get cute tokyo sky tree themed souvenirs, but I think they've started to sell those at all the souvenir stands at the airport too...

 

 

\'D I'm sorry for this huge post... I hope that it's helpful! ( I didn't even cover Osaka or Kyoto... hahaa;;;; )

we booked our kyoto hotels in october for our trip we just got back from on the 12th of april. Even in october, hotel selection in osaka was slim pickings in the downtown area and kyoto for a week later was almost no selection at all.

 

The last 2 weeks in march and first 2 weeks in april are super busy. If you want to book for cherry blossom season sometime in those 4 weeks is the best time, and hotels MUST be booked at least 6 months prior to departure. The actual period when the trees reach full bloom is never guaranteed so you'll always roll the dice when you book.

 

I've gone 2 times now in that time frame and both cases kyoto was the most difficult to get a hotel for.

 

My first trip, we hit the max bloom in 3 of the 4 cities we went to, tokyo had a freakish warm spell and the trees bloomed 2 weeks earlier than the rest of the country.

 

This trip, we hit the height of bloom in tokyo and osaka but missed it in other cities and according to my passport, we entered and exited the country on the exact same dates as last trip.

 

If you plan to go to more than 1 or 2 cities, the JR pass is a no brainer, shinkansen tickets add up. If you need to travel outside of the JR infrastructure, you can use IC cards like suica, passmo or icoca to pay cash fare... it really doesn't amount to that much, in the end, you have to look at justifying the expense of maybe another 3000-4000 yen depending on the frequency you use the IC card to save time over taking JR lines that take longer to traverse than it would by using the 2 in combination. For me, airfare was 1800$, 40 more to save a few hours in order to get me from my hotel to dotonbori in 15 minutes instead of 40 minutes each time was worth the 3-4 dollars in return trip in conjunction with my JR pass, not to mention the extra walking. In a lot of cases a JR station would service one end of a district, but not the other end, which is serviced by a non JR rail or subway, it would save us 30-60 minutes of walking back to the JR for a 130 yen or so 2 stop subway ride to link back to a JR line. Your feet will thank you. Walking through ginza is like that, the JR line is at one end of the district, metro services the other end.

 

Tokyo the JR pass will be king unless you want to go to roppongi, tsukiji fishmarket, or the sky tree, you will need cash fare for subway lines that service those locations. yamanote and chuo lines will get you to most of the major stuff in tokyo, those are JR lines.

 

JR pass will also cover the 35$ ticket from narita to tokyo and back. JR pass will also cover the ferry from hiroshima to miyajima island if you want to go there.

 

On both trips the only buses we took were in kyoto, JR pass does not cover those. A day pass is available for 500yen, also a no brainer, as 2 trips on a kyoto city bus is about 480yen.

 

Hiroshima city tram/rail is not covered by the JR pass, but a 600yen day pass is available, 4 rides make that worth it, a single trip I think is 130yen unless you ride out to miyajima port then it's like 280yen.

 

There are business hotels that are like 50-70$ a night for a single bed, if you're looking for a double bed or more, then the prices start going up from there. Shop around. APA, dormy inn, tokyoo inn are great hotel chains that are cheap and clean, but may not have double rooms for couples. Shop around on expedia.

 

There is free wifi almost EVERYWHERE now vs 2 years ago. I was very surprised at how much free wifi there was this trip. Most major stations by JR had it, some districts like akibahara had a huge area of black cylinders that were wifi hubs, all shinkansen stations had wifi. Even most of the non JR stations in osaka had free wifi. Osaka has a great free wifi initative going and they have huge areas of the city covered now.

 

Also there's a fairly substantial national wifi coverage area that is like 1500y for a week if you are really stuck.

Congratulations!

 

I went on a tour last year with a company called PacSet, for their animated spring tour. They highlighted to the rest of us that a couple was there on their honeymoon (they were so sweet!). I'm about to totally sound like a salesperson for the company -_-; But I just wanted to highlight the benefits of a guided tour (as I've done parts solo, and parts guided, and they've both got their benefits and drawbacks).

 

The first tour I went on with them in 2014 visited four cities - staying in Tokyo and Osaka, visiting Kyoto and Kobe - over the course of around 10 days. It gave a great view of different areas, seeing the real highlights, whilst getting to stay in the areas with the most things to do.

 

The big attractions - things like Studio Ghibli, Butler and Maid cafes, specific shrines, even Mount Fuji Q themepark - all had guided tour options, along with a 'We'll take you there, you've got X hours to meet us at Y location, go, BE FREE!' options as well. Great areas to find second hand BJDs (Nakano, and Akihabara) are covered on most of their tours.

 

I asked the tour guide ahead of time if he could help me find any Volks stores, or other BJD stores. He actually introduced me to Mandarake stores, as well as finding the location of the Harajuku showroom and helping me find it. I was quite lucky that another couple of girls on the tour were in to BJDs, so we managed to find a number of stores together.

 

The hotels were all 3-4*, lovely if a bit worn (only the Osaka one looked tired) - but I know some of this years tours include 4-5* traditional ins with onsens (they even told me that they could do private onsen hire etc for couples or shy people).

 

I think my biggest regret when I went last time was that I didn't rent a cell phone or portable wifi! My ipad and mobile phone providers both assured me my devices would work in Japan - neither did. I spent a lot of time worrying about getting lost (as the maps provided didn't have street names - as they aren't used often in Japan ), and although the first hotel had free wifi, the second only had the old style plug-in options (which of course wouldn't work with my phone) so I couldn't double-check store locations before the start of each day.

 

I must admit, I approached the tour as a manga fan first and foremost, and a newbie BJD collector, Japanese culture lover and anime appreciator second. That being said, my second trip to Japan (a week solo, a week and a half with the same tour company) will be a good 70-80% BJD focused I've lucked out booking when Dollpa is on without even realising it, as well as Golden Week (with last year's tour taking place during Anime Japan). If you can time your honeymoon to coincide with a big event (BJD related, or culture related) it is 100% worth it.

 

I found my favourite doll stores in Osaka and Kobe. I actually kept missing the ones in Tokyo, as everything is so crowded I kept bypassing things without realising T__T

 

I think I was most surprised at the price of food. We were advised to budget 3000 - 5000 yen a day. I found myself spending more like 1500-2000 most days (unless it were a specific big group meal at a special restaurant).

 

The other advantage of the tour was not having to worry about figuring out JR Passes or Suica cards. It included all local transport (excluding free days - eg I wanted to visit Tokyo Disney, so this wasn't covered) making things fairly hassle and stress free.

 

Some tour guides are great - really helpful, fluent in both languages, very knowledgeable about Japanese culture - while others weren't so great. That being said, it was so enjoyable I've booked with them again ^_^

 

I really hope you have an amazing honeymoon! You'll have to share with us what you do decide on in the end.

I like not having to be marshalled around, so I'm not a huge fan of tourgroups, however if you navigation skills are suspect, a tourgroup might be a good idea.

 

I've been twice, both for 2 weeks, both armed with nothing but my own savvy. The first trip was the most challenging, having to deal with osaka's transit system for the first time was a bit overwhelming, but by the 3rd day I was fairly comfortable with it.

 

All you need is a small compass to help orient you either when you're underground or just exiting... If you looked up a place before you left the hotel and it's south of the station, it's extremely handy to know that you are indeed walking south. If you want to rent a phone with data that's a great idea, so you can get gps or google maps, you can also bring a device and subscribe to a wireless service, they're quite common in most urban areas now (as I mentioned), or you can do a bit of research to find free wireless spots.

 

You can't get lost in japan unless you're so far away from the transit system that you can't remember or sort out directions from a local. If you stare at a map too long.. especially in osaka, someone WILL ask if you're lost, either in japanese or english... usually in japanese.

 

If you go the railpass route getting lost is no big deal if you're close to any JR line.. just jump on. With a suica card it'll cost you at most 200yen to get back to a JR line. It only costs you a bit of time. You can always ask locals which way to go. All you need to know is the station name you're trying to get to on that line.

 

Also going solo as 2 people, you don't have to adhere to schedules, you can linger or bail out of places as you please, and don't have to worry about trying to find your guide with his silly little flag in the crush of people. This adds a lot more stress than you think it will. Herding 20-30 people is a lot harder than herding 1 or 2.

 

Japan is the country you don't need to worry about if you get lost, crime is so ridiculously low... something like less than 5 crimes per 10000 people in osaka, and that's supposedly the worst, and it's pickpocketing.

 

If all else fails, find the block's police box or koban. But any train station staff will be up to the task of sorting out how to get to specific stations, and prior research can help you sort out how to get to a place from the station.

 

I would say about 70-80% of the transit system in kansai is bilingual japanese/english, and even the 100% japanese is in hiragana. Tokyo it's even more and I would say 80-90% english. Buses and streetcar maybe not as much, but the only place I've ever had to take a bus is kyoto and all you need is go to the tourist information center and get the bus route map, which is in english and gives you route numbers at all the main attractions.

 

The other bus we took was the one from JR mitaka to the ghibli museum, it's a standard city bus... but you'll see the difference if you stand and wait on the platform... you can't miss the specific ghibli bus. It's bright yellow and covered with sootballs. You also need to buy a ghibli ticket ahead of time. There's only a few hundred entries per day I think, so you need to order the tickets from an agency. On the ground in japan there's an event ticket machine in every lawson you can use to buy the tickets but buying for the week of or in a week is usually sold out.

 

The doll places I hit up on this trip this year:

 

akiba:

dollce

dolk

mandarake

volks dollpoint (in radio kaikan)

jungle (both locations though radio kaikan I think is the main store)

azone (radio kaikan building)

 

ikebukoro:

dollyteria (inside closet child, which sells gothic lolita clothes for people)

 

harajuku:

volks SD showroom

 

Lalaport mall chiba:

volks showroom

 

Osaka:

mandarake grand chaos (just on the outskirts of america town)

jungle (in denden town near volks)

volks (denden town)

 

Hiroshima:

volks showroom (in the sunmall)

 

There are a ton more that I didn't get to go to or don't know about, which was a shame.

hakone.

private hotspring suite. ultra romance.

 

Get one with a Mt Fuji view and you are set!