From the futuristic bright lights of Tokyo’s Shinjuku, to the picturesque temples and Japanese gardens of traditional Kyoto, Japan has everything and more to offer.

Hard as it is to believe, Japan was actually never on my bucket list of places to visit. Truthfully, I only went because it was on so many of my friends’ bucket list. When they decided that Spring of 2019 was the time to go, I must admit, that while no longer a teenager, the FOMO in me was still there.

I felt that it was now or never.

I certainly wasn’t going there on my own and they were probably not going back for a couple of years.

And that is the story of how this Land of the Rising Sun became the destination of my first international trip with my friends.

After my experience, I cannot recommend Japan enough. For both experienced and first-time international travelers, Japan provides the friendliness and safety that makes traveling solo or in a group a blast. I came to Japan knowing one word, “Arigatou” and survived just fine.

While most things in Japan will only be written in Japanese, it is an English-friendly country and with the help of Google Maps and Google Translate, I made it there and back home safe and sound.

In total, I spent 10 days (excluding travel days), in Japan so I will be sharing my 10-day Japan itinerary for first-timers in Part 2 of this Japan series.

But first, planning for your Japan trip. You know what they say, “good planning is half the battle”. I considered my trip to Japan to be a successful one and I fully attribute that to having researched my destination thoroughly and arriving prepared.

Flights, length of stay, accommodations, weather, transportation, and currency are some of the things you need to consider before going.

How Long To Stay in Japan

When my friends and I started planning our trip, I initially thought 10 days was far too long and had wanted to split my time between Japan and South Korea. After all, Japan is a small country (about the size of California) so how much could there be to see?

Well, I was dead wrong. While I still think 10 days was perfect for me, I absolutely did not get to see every part of Japan. So if you wish for a more thorough travel or a more leisure travel to take your time exploring, 10 days may be too short for you.

My 10-day trip was jam-packed and because as a group we were exhausted by the last few days, we actually missed out on some of the places we had planned on visiting.

Pre-Travel

Other than selecting the places I wanted to visit, the other two areas I had to do the most research on were the best way to get Japanese yen and figuring out transportation while in Japan.

Getting Japanese Yen

Most travel sites and blogs I visited did not recommend exchanging at a currency exchange. The best recommendation I found was to get money through the ATM at the airport or 7-Eleven (which is the biggest wonder of Japan as I will talk about in Part 2!) banks.

Now, you may ask, what about withdrawal fees? For that, I found the best recommendation to be getting the Charles Schwab Investor Checking Account which comes with free checks and ATM Fee Rebates.

It is completely free to get with no annual fees. They will create a brokerage account automatically to go with the Checking account but there is no minimum balance that you have to keep on either account.

*Feel free to use this referral link which will get you $100 upon opening a new Schwab account. As a disclaimer, I actually will receive nothing for referring people into Schwab so you know I’m recommending this card just because I truly see its value.

I was already planning on getting the card but when I found out how the card looked, I was sold. That quote, that color! It’s gorgeous.

Airport

While most people think the major airport in Japan would be in Tokyo, it is actually not the case. Japan has two main airports near Tokyo, Narita and Haneda. Narita is further from central Tokyo but most international flights will land at this airport. Haneda is closer but will have fewer transportation options.

I flew to Narita because I wanted a direct non-stop flight and because there was no direct flight from my city to Haneda, the choice was a no-brainer for me.

Transportation

By far the best way to get around Japan is to use their extensive network of trains and subways.

I got a Suica card (which can be used at the convenience store as well. I didn’t know that until the end of my trip) which is the equivalent of a Metro card in Japan. It saved me so much time to simply recharge my Suica card every couple of days than buying individual tickets.

At the end of your trip, you can return your card and get your leftover money back.

I also bought the 7-day JR pass in advance (note: there is no way you can get the JR pass once you’re in Japan). I bought both my JR pass and Suica card from this website and it was delivered to me in 2 days via Fedex.

The JR pass is used to take the bullet train, the “Shinkansen” which can take you from Tokyo to Osaka or Kyoto in less than 3 hours.

To me, Kyoto/Osaka is a must. And I’d say it’s a must for most first timers as well. This is where you will see the beautiful traditional side of Japan with temples and gardens.

You can find a JR pass calculator online (just type exactly “JR Pass calculator”) in Google and you will find several options to see if it’s worth it to get a JR pass versus buying individual tickets.

I find that the 7-day JR pass at $260 is worth it with just one round-trip ticket from Tokyo-Kyoto and back.

*Note: you can decide when you want to activate your JR Rail Pass so even if your trip is >7 days, just make sure to activate when you are about to use it and finish using within 7 days of activating so you don’t have to buy the more expensive 14-day pass.

Maximizing your JR Pass: you can use the JR Rail Pass to take the Narita Express (N’EX) from Narita Airport to Tokyo so if you align your trip to Kyoto/Osaka with your arrival/return to Tokyo you can save the ~ 3000 yen (~$27) price each way.

Otherwise you can take the Keisei Skyliner train (~2400 yen) with reserved seating. The other two options would be the Keisei Narita Skyaccess or the Keisei Main Line. These are about half the price of the Skyliner but slower and with no reserved seating, it can get quite busy especially during rush hours.

I personally went with the Narita Skyaccess because I wasn’t ready to activate my JR pass yet upon arrival and did not think splurging for reserved seating on the Skyliner was worth it.

Best Time to Go

I timed my visit with the Cherry Blossom season which blooms around end of March to the beginning of April.

While you can never truly predict when the Cherry Blossom will bloom, I’d say going in the first two weeks of April is a pretty safe bet that you’ll catch the bloom season in Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka.

Japan has a lot to offer at any time of year. But if you are looking for milder weather, spring and fall may be the best time to not only enjoy good weather but also the Cherry blossom or autumn leaves.

Wifi

I debated between buying a portable WIFI or getting a SIM card for this Japan trip, but then found out that my T-Mobile ONE plan actually comes with free unlimited 2G data and texting to 200+ countries with Japan being one of them.

I debated whether the 2G data would be good enough but decided that since one of my friends was getting a SIM card with data, I would be fine as long as we stayed together.

The 2G data worked perfectly fine, if just a tad bit slow. I was able to navigate on Google Maps (although it was a bit slow to load) and could even go on the internet to do some browsing during train rides.

I communicated with my friends (because we got separated A LOT. Japan is a busy place!) mostly through Facebook Messenger by calling and messaging.

You are most likely going to have free WIFI at your accommodations so there is nothing to worry about there.

Places to Stay

Japan offers everything when it comes to accommodation from fancy 5-star hotels to traditional Japan inns or “ryokans”.

I decided that while luxury hotels were great, I wasn’t going to be this young forever. And when one of my friends decided she wanted to stay at a hostel, I thought Japan, known for their friendly people was the perfect place to have the hostel experience.

So while my bougier friends made their way to their hotel in Tokyo, a friend and I decided to experiment with a capsule hotel which is a total phenomenon in Japan.

Used to be marketed for businessmen stuck for an overnight trip, it has now become more popular.

I will however say, it was not much cheaper than the hotel my friends ended up booking. But I did it for the experience anyways.

So where did I go for my hostel inspiration? No other place than youtube of course. I was hooked the moment I saw a video on the 9hour capsule hotel which is located in Shinjuku, Tokyo but also has a location right at the Narita Airport.

It was very clean, and while I wished the capsule was a bit more soundproof, the noise from other people waking up didn’t really bother me since I had planned to start my day early anyways.

AirBnB is also a good option and we actually lucked out and found an amazing AirBnB apartment with 2 bedrooms and 7 full beds that we stayed for 4 days and ended up being my cheapest accommodation in Japan at $50/night.

Cost

Since this is a personal finance blog after all, I cannot forget the numbers. So here’s how much I spent on this Japan trip before I have even set foot in Japan. Not included in these numbers are the food, entertainment, and souvenir costs I spent while in Japan.

Plane tickets: $811
Accommodations: $653 (11 night stay)
JR pass: $260

Total: $1724

Check out Part 2 of this trip in My Japan 10-Day Itinerary for First Time Visitors.