When planning for any big trip, you should do a lot of research. But that can sometimes become too stressful going to all the different website's, blogs, and youtube channels to find. I have compiled all the information that I would recommend into one place to make things a little easier. There are a few things that you should do and get before leaving on your trip which will relieve a lot of the stress that comes with traveling to another country. I’ve attached links to all the places that we purchased ours from in the sub-titles.
JR exchange orders: If you plan on traveling to different parts of Japan, this is a must. We planned on going to Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, and Tokyo. These passes are available in 7 days, 14 days, and 21 days. The website that sells the Pasmo cards also carries them, so it would probably be more convenient to get it from there because the prices are the same. You can choose either the Green first class tickets or the ordinary passes. What is the difference between the two? The 'Green Pass' entitles you to travel in the 'Green Car', the equivalent of our 1st class, on all Shinkansens and certain fast lines. The Green Japan Rail Pass is not often used by foreign travelers but, considering the comfort it offers, space, the hot towel and even free drinks you receive on some routes, it is a good value for the money. Buying the Green Japan Rail Pass is a good idea if you are planning on traveling during busy times (May, August, and September) because, in addition to the fact that there is more space allocated to each traveler, the Green cars are generally less busy giving you more of a chance of reserving a seat. One very important thing about the exchange order is to make sure that your name is exactly how it shows on your passport. When I purchased them originally I forgot to put my fiancé’s name, now husband, on the other pass. So we had 2 passes both with my name (Ms. Jamie Saranghilo and Mr. Jamie Saranghilo). Luckily, we had more than enough time to exchange our passes with the company we purchased them from. The downside is that you have to purchase the new ones separately, then return the bad one stating that it is an exchange and return it with your own money. I was lucky enough that a friend of mine was able to do it through their work. Otherwise, it would have cost me almost $100 to send it back. So be very careful when purchasing the exchange orders. Please note these aren’t the actual passes (shown in the picture on the left below). You need to go to a JR office and exchange them for the actual Japan Rail Pass (shown in the picture on the right below). I’ll go into more detail in the next section
Before we left we purchased about 51,000 yen from Wells Fargo bank, which was approximately $500 USD. The first branch I went to didn’t carry JPY, but I asked if there were any branches nearby that did and they were able to confirm that someone had the amount I was looking for before I headed over there. Since I have an account with them they were able to take it out of my account and give me the money right away. Most banks locations will require you to order the money, but there are a few bank branches that will carry the foreign currency on hand. I’d recommend giving them a call before you head over. Most bank branches near airports will carry a wide variety of foreign currency. Try contacting those if one near you isn’t available. For the 2 weeks that we were in Japan, we had approximately ¥82,000, but also used our card as much as possible. The last five days we decided to withdraw an additional ¥20,000 to be on the safe side. Will we go through all the cash we brought? Probably not. Did we go through all of the cash? Technically yes, cause we decided to pay for everything in cash till we ran out. The rest of our JPY was spent on duty-free alcohol and airport Japanese food.
Download the Google Translate app: Most Japanese people will know how to speak English, however, they are too shy to use it, in fear that they will butcher the language. So whether you have the time to practice the phrases above having this app on hand definitely comes in handy. It gives you different ways to get around in Japanese. 1. You can type it in English, translate to Japanese, and have it speak for you. 2. Take a photo, highlight the Japanese text, and it will translate the text (very handy for Japanese medicine, signs, or packaging). 3. Tap the conversation button and you can have a live conversation in English and Japanese with the app translating for you (just make sure to tap the language before the person speaks). Label restaurants or places you want to do or see. Use your google maps to label the restaurants you want to go to, places you want to see, and places you will be staying at. It makes it very easy to access this information if it is already saved under the "Your Places" tab in Google Maps. I would recommend saving it to whoever will be getting the SIM card for the trip. Here is a link for a few that I researched on my own that we'd recommend. Bold = able to try it. (*) = we highly recommend it. Making reservations or buying tickets: If you are a nerd like me, you'd want to check out some places like: The Pokemon Cafe, Miyazaki Ghibli Museum, the Kirby Cafe, Zauo (you can catch your own fish and have the kitchen prepare it anyway you want), and a few other places. It is highly recommended that you do that as soon as possible. These places sell out quickly. We unfortunately weren't able to go to any of the ones that I mentioned earlier but we will definitely go next time. Keep in mind that if they do any kind of performance that it will most likely be in Japanese (i.e. the Final Fantasy Eorzea Cafe), so unless you are fluent you will sitting there with question marks wondering what's so funny. See the links below to go directly to the reservation website. MAKE SURE YOU RESERVE FOR THE CORRECT LOCATION
Recommended things to pack: If you are like me and tend to overpack this list should help you out. Most AirBNB's in Japan will be equipped with a washer inside, but if your's doesn't have one there are laundromats within a 5-10 minute walking distance of where you will be staying. We stayed for 2 weeks in Japan and this is what we brought. Japan packing list for June
Most Japanese accommodations will only have a handful of outlets for you to charge your electronics. Purchase a Multi-port USB charger, so that you can easily charge your USB devices in one area. Also, Japan will use the same outlets that are used in the U.S. minus the grounding prong and at a lower voltage. So there is no need for an adaptor or a converter. A lot of the public bathrooms in Japan will not have paper towels or a hand dryer. So having a handkerchief and/or small hand sanitizer to keep on your person would be a good idea. When we had left for Japan, between the two of us we had 1 large checked rolling luggage, 1 rolling carry on, 1 camelback backpack, and 1 travel computer backpack. If you are able to check in the large luggage, but only pack it a third of the way. We had intended on purchasing a lot of souvenirs for ourselves and other people, underpacking allowed us to bring everything back without having to purchase another suitcase. When we packed to leave, we used the small travel duffle to hold both of our clothes, and both rolling bags were used for items we purchased during our trip. Upon leaving Japan, we checked both rolling bags and boarded the plane with 1 travel duffle and 1 travel computer backpack. Broken-in and comfortable walking shoes are a MUST for your trip to Japan. Japan is very big on walking, biking, and public transportation. You will do at least a minimum of 20,000 steps in 1 day. I have pretty flat feet, but I made sure I found some comfortable shoes with good insoles that are easy to slip on and off. I did pack slippers, and flats for the trip; however, I never used the slippers and the flats I wore for about 6 hours and regretted bringing them. By the end of the trip, aside from I the one time that I wore the flats, I wasn't feeling any of the fatigue from bad support. Both my husband and I have iPhone 7's, but the battery life on our phones have seen better days. Bring 3 Small portable battery packs with charging cables for your phone and to charge the packs (most likely a micro USB cable). We kept our phones on battery saver for the majority of the trip and were able to get at least 2 charges
Tokyo Disneyland: If you plan on going to Disneyland, I would highly recommend staying at one of the hotels close to the park. If you do decide to stay at one of the hotels nearby, I would recommend Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay . It is located right next to the Disney Bayside monorail which is one stop away from DisneySea and 3 away from Disneyland. And compared to the other Disney hotels it is pretty affordable. I was able to find a deal for about $150 per night. As far as getting yourself to Disneyland read my blog about "While in Japan" (Link to come) for more information. Below are a few tips while you plan out your Disneyland trip.
There are many blogs and videos that we watched to prepare us for our travels, but the one that we referenced a lot was Paulo from Tokyo. A filipino guy named Paulo who moved to Japan, and married a Japanese native. His videos are very informative and definitely helped us find a few good food recommendations. Let me know how helpful this was for you or if you have any questions I might be able to answer. Safe travels to Japan
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I understand how frustrating it can get searching for GOOD food or places to try while in another country. So here are some of the places we found to try out in Disneyland, Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima, and Kyoto. If it is in BOLD we were able to try it; if it has a (*) next to it we highly recommend it.
Every year for MY birthday we normally do something pretty extravagant or well thought out like traveling to Florida for the Food and Wine Festival at Disney World in Orlando, getting a few friends together to do an escape game, or spending an entire day in the Napa Valley going Jet skiing, wine tasting, and eating lots of delicious food from places like Bouchon bakery and Morimoto Napa. This was the first year that we decided to travel for Joe’s birthday. The biggest reason why we chose to go to Oahu, Hawaii was because Joe has family on that island that we wanted to see before we got married. But also Alaska was having a Buy One, Get One deal for anyone who went to a specific Giants game. It all worked out for us in the end because we were able to stay with that family member for the majority of our stay, which saved us a bunch of money. And they were nice enough to lend us their car for the duration as well. It has been a long time since both of us have been to Hawaii, so it was such a nice feeling to go together. Prior to our trip, I did a bunch of research of the must-see and must do stuff for Hawaii. It took a lot of strategic planning to fit everything we wanted to do in the 5 days that we planned on being there for. First of all, I found it super convenient to use Google Sheets to plan out our trip for several reasons: 1. Since it is a mobile online app I was able to share it with Joe, and open it anywhere (even if we don’t have a connection) 2. The itinerary can be set up so you can see what you have planned every 10, 15, 30 minutes. (I decided to go with 15-minute increments starting at 7:00 A.M.) 3. We were able to easily share our itinerary with anyone else who was going to meet up with us or pick up/drop us off anywhere. 4. Lastly, it gave us a better idea of how much time we had to B.S. in between each activity we did. (This definitely became useful a lot) Here are a few highlights of our first trip to Hawaii: After having a nice breakfast with Joe’s Uncle and his wife, we drove to our first destination Manoa Falls: It is a beautiful 2.3-mile hike with 500+ feet of elevation. For the average hiker who is in good shape and takes the occasional photo, you can easily finish this hike in less than an hour. It has lots of greenery that will remind you of Jurassic Park (probably because Jurassic Park was filmed on a Hawaiian Island), rivers/streams, lots of wet rocks, and a beautiful waterfall at the very top. Disclaimer: For anyone who plays Pokemon Go you can find a stop and a gym when you reach the waterfall. (yes… Joe and I are a bunch of nerds XP) I highly recommend doing this hike in hiking shoes or something with ankle support. There were a lot of muddy and slippery rock areas, having that extra ankle support definitely helped. There were a few people who did it in flip-flops and they looked like they were miserable. Little facts before you do the hike, you’ll actually drive through a lot of residential houses to get to the start of the Manoa Falls hike (we thought we were lost at one point). If you park at the parking lot provided there is normally someone waiting there under an umbrella and they charge $5 to park there. To the left of the base of the Manoa Falls hike sign, there is an Arboretum that you can check out, its “FREE” (technically admission is the parking cost). I would recommend doing this one beforehand because by the end of the hike we were too exhausted to go up any more hills. The hiking area can be very slippery and it rained on us a couple of times during the entire hike. So prepare yourself with a poncho or some kind of rain jacket, we were drenched by the end of it. One last thing, make sure you pack good mosquito repellent, by the end of it I found 6 new bikes on each leg. I was miserable and itching like crazy for the rest of the day.
Sushi Izakaya Gaku: This place was recommended to us by a friend who just returned from her Hawaii trip. When we first walked in you can definitely tell that this place had a really nice ambiance. In the front of the store, they have a table and bar seating set up. And toward the back, they have traditional Japanese floor seating. Unfortunately, Joe caught a stomach bug our first day on the island and couldn’t enjoy all the delicious food we ordered. We had ordered: Hamachi Tartare with fresh quail egg, several orders of grilled beef tongue, a small and simple udon noodle soup, silver skin fish nigiri, and high-grade hamachi nigiri. A lot of the food we ordered were recommendations from the employees, and we loved every single one. We make it a point to always ask the employees, “What is your favorite dish?” because the employees work there every day and probably eat the food every day also. So they would know what is the best above all the rest. Wish we could have gone back before we flew back to the mainland. Definitely one of the better sushi places we have ever been to. I will note that you shouldn’t walk in expecting large portions like a full-on Japanese restaurant would offer. They are more of a small plates tapas kind of place. Hence the name, Izakaya, which translates to a type of Japanese bar in which a variety of small dishes and snacks are served to accompany the alcoholic drinks. Dole Plantation: First thing we did was the dole plantation maze. We’ve never done a labyrinth style maze, so this was exciting. At the beginning after you enter there is a board that basically lets you know to start and end your journey at that spot. The board recommends you download the dole plantation app (I recommend you download this beforehand while you have wifi somewhere). Scan the QR code and it timestamps when you started and stops it when you finish and scan the code again. The maze has 7 secret stations that you need to locate, each named after the larger island in Hawaii. You can also use the app to scan the codes for this. I did both scanning and the tracing the totems. The maze had a lot of shortcuts, which made it a little easier to reach each of the secret stations. (Hint: if you notice a trashcan while in the maze you are really close to one of the secret stations). Toward the end of the maze, we told ourselves that we would stop taking what looked like shortcuts which made the last part of it really difficult. It rained a lot this day also so I would recommend not wearing flip-flops. I experienced a lot of near-slip and fall on my ass moments. But overall the maze was super fun, it was filled with lots of beautiful flowers, and we discovered that I am a way better navigator than Joe, especially when it comes to not looking at a map. After we had finished the maze, we purchased what you MUST get when you visit the Dole Plantation, which is Dole Whip, in our case, it was Pineapple Floats and we headed over to the koi pond. When I originally came here with my family there was a lot of koi fish in the pond next to the train exit, unfortunately, they were all gone, which was really unfortunate. However, we did find it entertaining watching the roosters walking around like they owned the place. They reminded me a lot of Hei Hei the rooster from the movie Moana.
Matsumoto Shave Ice: If you go to Hawaii getting shave ice is a must. Matsumoto was highly recommended from all the websites and apps that I looked at. Joe got the Ichiban Special (1 syrup flavor, ice cream, red bean, condensed milk, and mochi served in a waffle bowl.), and I got large with two flavored syrups (Mango and Strawberry) and ice cream. It was a nice surprise when I found the ice cream that they hid inside the shave ice. The mango flavored syrup was delicious, I wish I only got that flavor though. Oh well, you live and you learn. Romy’s Kahuku Prawns & Shrimp: After our trip to the North Shore a lot of people recommended checking out Romy’s. So after we checked out some sea turtles sunbathing on the beach we headed in that direction. Romy’s has a shrimp and prawn farm onsite that you can see from the outdoor seating. Since we were already stuffed from the food we got at the North Shore we shared the Butter and Garlic Shrimp, the shrimp was cooked perfectly and the garlic butter mix tasted amazing with the rice once all the shrimp was gone. There was a funny sign that they put up that said “This is good food, not fast food” so you know that it will take a while to make your food. If that wasn’t there I probably would have complained about the wait LOL. But definitely worth the wait. Koko Head Shooting Complex:This place is a hidden gem for anyone who likes to shoot almost any type of guns or archery. To shoot here it is completely free, however, you do need to bring your own stuff and follow the rules of the range (for obvious safety reasons). Shooting with the Koko Head volcano in the background was awesome and the weather made it even more beautiful. Shirokiya Japanese Village Walk: I found this place jaw-dropping. I wish I took more pictures, but the whole place was located downstairs on one side of the Ala Moana shopping center. When we walked inside the entire area was filled with 50+ Japanese food booths. They had stands that sold crepes, milk and fruit teas, curries, musubi (its Hawaii, you got to have musubi somewhere), lots of different types of dessert places, as well as a few places that sell alcoholic beverages. We ordered Mango Fruit Tea, Wagyu Katsu Curry with rice, sauteed peppers, pickled onions, and a side salad. I was expecting the Katsu to be overcooked but as you can tell from the picture it was cooked a very nice medium rare. The dish overall was mouth-watering if only we order 2 of these.
This was one of the best trips we’ve been on in a while and we can’t wait to go check some of these places out again. |
AuthorI'm Jamie - a food enthusiast, chef, and blogger. My love for all things food and food science has led me on this journey to becoming a Registered Dietician Nutritionist (RDN). To me, nutrition education means showing and communicating creative and delicious ways to make food healthy. I hope to share these recipes and break the stereotype that healthy food shouldn't taste amazing. ArchivesCategories
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