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Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Time to deep dive into the cities we explored while in Japan! Tokyo was our home base on the first half of the trip so instead of having full days there we ended up with half and three quarter days to explore. In total we had a little over 3 days. 

I think for these posts I'm going to go day by day and recap where we went, where we ate and where we stayed. The numbers will look a little funny because I'm going based on the whole trip itinerary dates. Probably a weird way to do it, but that's what I'm going with!
 
 

Before diving into the details of our Japan trip I wanted to share a quicker rundown—what we did, where we stayed, and how it all came together. I'll post recaps for each city soon and update this with links when they’re live. This isn’t a "how-to" guide—just a look at how we planned and experienced everything with a few tips thrown in. Let me know if you have any questions on how to plan your own trip to Japan!

Posts for each city:
Tokyo Recap | Tokyo Disney Recap

Planning & Timing


Christian only gets 10 vacation days a year, so that was our limit for weekday travel. We flew out on the morning of Saturday, January 11th, and landed in Japan the afternoon of January 12th. Our return flight left Tokyo in the evening on Saturday, January 25th, and we got back to New York the same day—time zones are wild! Altogether, we were gone for 15 days, but only about 12.5 were actual exploring days.

We’d been saving up for this trip for years and had a dedicated "Japan" travel fund ready to pull from as we booked everything. Originally, we planned for October or November 2024, but when my brother and sister-in-law wanted to join, we shifted to January 2025. They had to back out later, but we stuck with the dates since Christian’s 2024 vacation days were already spoken for by then. Luckily, we’d budgeted as if it were just us, so not splitting hotel costs wasn’t a big deal.

Travel is important to us so we save for a bunch of different trips at once and always have a Miscellaneous, Disney and Missouri fund (to visit Christian's family) 



Booking Flights



We decided to fly in and out of Tokyo instead of booking separate arrival and departure cities. We booked a nonstop flight with American Airlines (operated by JAL) from JFK to Haneda Airport. I’d been keeping an eye on prices for over a year with Google Flight alerts and manual checks, but booking always feels like a gamble no matter how much research you do. I kept seeing advice like "book your flights 6 months out!" or "50–100 days before departure," so it was tough to know what to trust. In the end, I just went with my gut.

We bought our tickets on November 4th, 2024—68 days before departure—for $926 each. Not bad for a 7,000-mile (almost) journey, but I’m still kicking myself because I could’ve saved $300 by booking a week earlier. Unfortunately, I was on a memorial trip for my best friend and wanted to wait until I was home to book. Luckily we did buy before the huge increase a couple days later so our timing was still okay. 



Our flight left New York at 10:00 AM and landed in Tokyo at 2:35 PM. I originally wanted a 12:45 AM departure with a 5:00 AM arrival to maximize our time, but that flight was more expensive. The later flight was a blessing—all we wanted to do was eat and crash when we arrived. For the return, we picked a 5:10 PM flight so we’d have one last morning in Tokyo for shopping and one last bowl of ramen. We landed back in New York at 4:30 PM the same day we left.

Itinerary Overview


We’d been collecting Japan travel tips and locations for years, and both had lists of must-see spots. With only 12.5 days, we had to cut a few things—Hokkaido was the biggest one since it’s so far out. We’ll save that for next time. 😉

There are a couple of main routes tourists usually follow for visiting the most popular spots. The classic "Golden Route" takes you from Tokyo to Mt. Fuji, then to Kyoto, and finally Osaka. The "New Golden Route" also starts in Tokyo but heads north to Nagano, Takayama, and Kanazawa before following the coast down to Kyoto.

Since the cities on our wish list aligned more with the New Golden Route, we decided to keep Tokyo as our home base for the first half of the trip. After that, we followed the New Golden Route to Kyoto before looping back to Tokyo for our flight home. Here’s a quick overview of our itinerary:

  • Day 1: Land in Tokyo at 3pm
  • Day 2: Tokyo morning, Tokyo Disneyland afternoon
  • Days 3-5: Tokyo Disneyland (my trip planning guide)
  • Day 6: Tokyo morning, Mt. Fuji afternoon
  • Day 7: Mt. Fuji morning, back to Tokyo afternoon
  • Day 8: Tokyo morning, travel to Nagano afternoon
  • Day 9: Snow Monkey Park morning, travel to Kanazawa
  • Day 10: Kanazawa
  • Day 11: Travel to Kyoto, visit the Nintendo Museum
  • Day 12: Kyoto morning, Osaka afternoon/evening, back to Kyoto
  • Day 13: Nara Deer Park morning, Kyoto afternoon, back to Tokyo early evening
  • Day 14: Tokyo morning, flight home at 5pm

We spent a lot of time at Tokyo Disney—more than most people would—but it was a huge priority for me. Next time, we will scale that back (even if I won’t want to!) We also ended up skipping Shirakawa-go while in Kanazawa because we were just too exhausted to deal with tight train and bus schedules.

My crazy itinerary spreadsheet


Once we had our locations down I started saving locations of interest on a Google Map. This included things like shrines, stores to shop at, restaurants, basically anything we might want to do. The plan was to see the big stuff and as we had time for more activities we could look on the map to see what was nearby. Sadly we only got to go to a couple of the restaurants on my list because almost every time we walked up to a place there was a line. We even tried to beat everyone by going to get ramen at 9:30-ish AM and still had to wait 45 minutes to sit down! (But it was the best ramen we had on the trip.) That and Happy Pancake were the only real lines we waited in for food. Otherwise we tried to find places that we could just walk in, so that meant most of the places I had saved were out.


Accommodations


We stayed in a lot of different hotels with all the city-hopping. We wanted to stay at at least one traditional hotel (ryokan) and the rest could be whatever fit into the budget. Our goal was to stay under $200 per night on average for the "normal" hotels, and we landed around $165. I picked places close to the major train stations we'd be using to make things easier with luggage.

Left: Dome with view of Mt. Fuji; Right: Traditional Ryokan at Shibu Onsen



Tokyo Hotels: We bounced between a few spots and Tokyo the first half of the trip but I'll list all the hotels together.


Now for the fun accommodations! I couldn't go to Tokyo Disney and NOT stay at one of their gorgeous hotels. Our first night was spent just outside Tokyo Disneyland park, then we moved next to Tokyo DisneySea.


We originally planned a day trip to Mt. Fuji from Tokyo, but then Christian suggested, "Why not find a glamping spot with views?" and I was all in! We booked a 3-night hotel in Tokyo for the surrounding nights, so we only needed backpacks for our glamping adventure. It was totally worth not lugging our bags for just one night, since we’d be spending most of the time staring at the mountain and exploring the area. (Though, we didn’t do much exploring, but I’ll share more on that in my Mt. Fuji post.) We paid $300 for the stay, and it was absolutely worth it—we’d do it again in a heartbeat!

  • Night 6: Retreat Camp Mahoroba Dome Tent (they offered a free shuttle to and from Kawaguchiko station)

Next, we headed to Shibu Onsen to stay in a traditional Ryokan. We booked a room with a private open-air bath outside to enjoy the hot springs without strangers. Our stay included train station pickup, drop-off at the Snow Monkey Park the next morning, and both a traditional Japanese (or Western) dinner and breakfast, all for $465. It was our most expensive accommodation, but worth it for everything we got.

  • Night 8: Shibu Onsen Kokuya - Sakura Room with onsen (hotel offered free shuttle from Yudanaka Station and we took a cab back, but there are also buses)

In Kanazawa, we broke our rule of staying near the train station to spend a couple of nights in a traditional Machiya House. It was a 17-minute walk by the most direct route, but Google Maps kept rerouting us through side streets, making it take longer. While we loved the house (and would still go back,) the walk with all our luggage was a bit of a pain, especially since we were starting to feel the effects of all the walking we’d been doing.


Our last major stop was in Kyoto. We used that as our base to also visit Nara and Osaka (as well as the newly opened Nintendo Museum!) This hotel had indoor hot springs but we didn't use them. We did take advantage of the buffet breakfast though!


Train Travel

The train was empty so we staged a silly photo

Getting around by train is the way to go in Japan. Their JR Rail Pass used to be a great option for tourists, but they have since changed the pricing and it is no longer a guaranteed best option for train travel.  After using this calculator, I found the 14-day pass (¥80,000) cost way more than our estimated ¥51,000 for major trips. Even considering shorter trips on the subway we knew we would not reach ¥80,000 in value.


We used Suica cards set up in our Apple Wallets for local travel and loaded about ¥13,000 ($96) overall. For Shinkansen (bullet train) rides, we bought tickets directly at the station machines—it was easier than using booking apps for us. There are employees there to help if you get confused.

The Suica cards came in handy right at the airport because you can take a monorail and train directly into Tokyo. No rideshare or shuttle bus needed and way cheaper! 

One tip: If your luggage is oversized, you’ll need special tickets or could face limited storage. These tickets also need to be booked a little further in advance because there are not many (which you can still do at the station.) We kept our luggage light until the end when we bought a bigger suitcase for all our souvenirs.

Japan also has many specially themed trains. For our trip back to Kyoto from Nara we booked ourselves on the Aoniyoshi sightseeing limited express. It goes from Kyoto to Osaka but we only went half the route. It is a small low-capacity train that makes you feel like you're in an old movie. They even had purple themed snacks available to match the train. I recommend seeing if there are any special trains on the routes you will be traveling. 


Stay tuned for recaps for each city we visited!



I have a lot of posts planned to recap our two-week trip to Japan, but let’s start with an easy one—what I wore to stay warm and comfortable in the cold weather! After calculating our mileage when we got home, I realized we walked a total of 96 miles over the two weeks. By the end, our feet were definitely feeling it, but thanks to my comfortable supination insoles from PowerStep, I avoided serious pain. I've had these insoles in my boots for over a year now, and while the boots have always been comfortable, the insoles took them to the next level. To stay extra cozy, I also used a pair of Flat Socks fuzzy liner socks on top!

 


I tried to pack as light as possible since I knew we’d be bringing home a lot of souvenirs. The plan was for me to use my Day Owl backpack and a small carry-on, while Christian carried his brand-new Tortuga backpack (which he got specifically for this trip). We entered Japan with just these bags, determined to see how far we could get before needing extra luggage. We made it all the way back to our last night in Tokyo before buying a medium-sized suitcase from Don Quijote to check on the flight home. Before that, we had been using a giant Disney shopping bag for our purchases, which obviously wasn’t going to work for air travel. It was great for train travel because we didn't need to buy "oversized baggage" train tickets that are required if your bags do not fit in the overhead bins or by your feet.


Packing light meant re-wearing a lot of the same clothes, but honestly, it didn’t matter since I had my coat on almost the entire time. No one would have noticed if I repeated outfits every day (not that anyone would care!)


For clothing, I brought two pairs of jeans, comfortable pants that don't look like sweatpants I bought 2 days before we left (mainly for the flights, since hotels in Japan provide pajamas), and a handful of sweaters and layering shirts. For extra warmth I had a Disney hat, big Madewell scarf and gloves. I only packed one pair of boots, knowing they’d work in rain, snow, and cold. Looking back, I probably could have packed even less, but hey—a girl likes to have options! I also brought a simple sling bag that would fit my essentials on sightseeing days.












 

Here’s what you can look forward to in my upcoming Japan posts—assuming I can get myself in gear and actually tackle them! 😉

 

 

Is there anything specific you’d like to hear more about? Let me know! In the meantime, you can check out my daily Instagram recap carousels for a peek at what we did.


*This post was made in partnership with Responsival.*

On day two of our Salem trip we started bright and early again, arriving at our same parking place on Essex street at 8am.  We did all the paid things on day two after deciding what we wanted to do on Saturday. We also repeated a lot of spots since I wanted some non-rainy shots too. We left to drive home a little after 1pm so it was a short day. Before we get to the schedule of the day here comes the outfit photos.








We took a stroll along the water and by the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. After about 45 minutes there we headed back to Town Hall, the Bewitched Statue and Allison's house on the way to walk some of the historic streets like Chestnut, Cambridge and Pickering.  We made sure to walk by The Pickering House, one of the oldest home in Salem.











After our morning walk we headed back toward the water for our tour of The House of the Seven Gables at 10:30am.  I haven’t read the book (whoops) but learning the history of the house and how it inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne was very interesting. After the tour we also walked through the house where Hawthorne was born.




Our next historical activity was walking through The Witch House, which is down the street from the Ropes Mansion. For this tour you have to buy your tickets at 8am. We were on right at 8am and ended up with tickets at 11:45. It was cutting it pretty close to our first tour of the day but we knew we'd be able to make it.









After all that history we headed to the Salem Common to have lunch at the food truck festival! We shared some birria tacos, Christian got a Mac Melt and we both had whoopie pies. 





Before heading home we went back to Forest River Park so we could visit Salem in 1630: Pioneer Village. At only $5 it was a steal. It is a small village but there's a lot to explore within the houses. This is where they filmed the first scenes in Hocus Pocus where Thackery Binx lived. 



As a final photo, enjoy this photo showing the Essex Street shopping area at 8:57am vs 11:35am. And remember, this is September 22nd.




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