Preparing for the Japan trip

As I wrote about in February, Ash and I are traveling to Japan for three months (May → August). It's a trip I've always wanted to take, and since I'm between work engagements I've been taking some time to prepare.

Three months is a long time to spend in a country you've never visited, and I'm going to go over a few ways we've been preparing.

#Skipping the detailed itinerary

We've decided that a detailed itinerary does not make sense over a three month period. This runs counter to a lot of Japan travel advice that I've read or watched, but it seems likely that this advice is geared towards people who have a two week trip and want to squeeze in as many highlights as possible.

If you read reddit, or travel blogs, or watch various YouTube videos, much of the prevailing advice on traveling to Japan is to book everything from accommodation to events months ahead. Ghibli Park sells out months in advance, accommodation can be hard to find during peak season, special discounts are only available months in advance, etc.

Historically, this is not how Ash and I have enjoyed traveling. Sure, there are one or two things that we'll plan in advance for, but otherwise we'll be happy to go off the beaten path rather than queue for the most popular attractions.

An itinerary so long and detailed would become a straitjacket, sucking all the fun and serendipity out of the trip. We want to have the flexibility to allow for chance and discovery. No matter how much research we could do ahead of time, once we're on the ground we will undoubtedly start to find people, places, and opportunities that no amount of preparation could account for. We spent some time figuring out the high level shape of our trip, with a handful of specifics planned, then will handle the rest as we go.

We're prepared to camp or even head to another country for a bit if the relaxed plan isn't working out. I doubt it will come to that, but it's been a relief to realize that ultimately we can just peace out and go somewhere else if it's not working 🙂

The only specific dates we've nailed down so far are flights and accommodation around our first week upon landing in Japan, and then later a few weeks accommodation in Osaka around Ash's exams.

That doesn't mean we're going unprepared, though. I've gotten an International Driving Permit, have been learning Japanese, and roughly sketched out what the trip might look like, as well as booking a few key accommodations and event tickets (e.g., Expo 2025 in Osaka).

The general idea is a sort of V-shaped itinerary (below), in which we start in the north (Sapporo, Hokkaido) during spring, head down to Osaka for a bit, then proceed to Yakushima, maybe Okinawa, and then make our way north to Hokkaido again as the summer heats up. This really depends on how we're feeling about the weather – I think I'm relatively comfortable in high heat and humidity, but we'll adjust our plans as needed.

It's a bit odd maybe, but Japan's public transport infrastructure is what has made it possible to even consider a zigzagging plan like this. This is not how I would travel around South Africa, for example – you'd be driving and flying everywhere.

Given the season, duration, and availability of public transport, this seems like a plan that will let us visit a lot of places, as well as make return trips or catch things we may have missed on the southward leg.

We also want to do some hiking – maybe the Kumano Kodo, though there's no shortage of places to walk – and even camping if the opportunity arises!

#Researching a trip in 2025

In terms of research, I've been watching a lot of Youtube videos. Like, a lot. There are a ton of recent and detailed guides put out by a variety of native Japanese, as well as foreigners who have been living in Japan for years. Back when I first considered a Japan trip the best option was an infrequently updated Lonely Planet guide. I was fishing around for a while looking for that guide again before I realized that it was the year 2025 and I was being a moron.

Something else I learned is that the Japan Rail Pass, which used to be practically a no-brainer for foreign travellers, is less of a no-brainer now since price increases in 2023:

For most first-timers to Japan, whether the JR Pass is for you is quite a simple question to answer. It usually boils down to whether you’re traveling to another major city after going from Tokyo to Kyoto via the Shinkansen (bullet train).
In other words, you need to be taking at least three Shinkansen rides in a 7-day window.

Frankly, the Japan Rail Pass probably didn't even make sense for our trip before the price changes. Three months slowly meandering around the entire country is not what it was designed for.

Just to call out some of the YouTube channels I found most useful:

• Kensho Quest – detailed and up to date information on the practicalities of traveling to Japan, from what to pack, how to get around, and what to expect by season.
• Toshi Guide – (maybe unintentionally?) hilarious with lots of dramatic stock footage, Toshi gets into the details of how travel to Japan is changing over the last couple of years, as well as specific details on things like smoking bans in Osaka, improving border control, and avoiding tourist traps and scams.
• Japan Guide – wonderful mini travel documentaries in which someone takes a short trip to some part of Japan, showing some highlights and transport options. Great inspiration for places to visit.
• Mrs. Eats – intentionally hilarious insights from a Japanese woman on Japanese culture, and nerdy things to do when in Japan.
• Japan By Food – so many amazing looking restaurants to visit everywhere 🤤
• Shohei Kondo – Shohei reviews and critiques the videos that various gaijin (foreigner) influencers produce about Japan. Really great to have another perspective on popular TikTok and YouTube videos that otherwise might have you worried about visiting Japan.

#Backpack or suitcase? 🎒か🧳？

Both of us like traveling light. For me there's a Tetris-y, technical optimization element to it – I like to pack as much flexibility as possible into as few grams and items as possible. For example, making sure most devices are USB-C, or using my laptop as a battery pack instead of bringing a separate power bank.
Ash is the true backpacker type – by which I mean she'd happily throw a toothbrush, change of clothes, and running shoes into a rucksack and traipse around India for a month.

We'll both have real-life things to accomplish during this trip – Ash will be doing exams, and I'll be coding, writing, and keeping up with Japanese study.

At the moment, backpack is winning out. We'll be moving around a lot, and ideally to less-traveled places, which means relying on takuhaibin seems awkward. Plus, if we're wrong it seems easier to bump up to a suitcase trip than it would be to downsize to a backpack trip.

#Learning Japanese 🇯🇵の📚

Ash is a bit too busy doing concurrent qualifications in both art and quantum physics (😵‍💫) to also learn a language, so I'll be the one attempting to learn enough of the language to be polite and navigate food, transport and accommodation.

While years of watching anime has given me a smattering of vocabulary and some familiarity with pronunciation, it's a whole other thing to converse in real time, read, and parse numbers.

I've been attending a weekly class in Portobello, which has been an excellent starting point, and is a good place for practicing and keeping me accountable.

I'm using Pimsleur's Japanese audiobooks to drum in sentence construction. I'm not sure these are as well known as I thought they were (maybe it's a bit old-school and expensive in 2025), but I've found them a good accompaniment to the regular classes. Sitting there for 30 minutes each day trying to build sentences before the recorded response kicks in has been a great motivator.

I'm also using Anki, which I'd heard of but never used before. I'm using a premade "deck" of 1500 basic vocabulary words to try and boost my vocabulary at the same time as maybe helping me parse signage, documents, etc. while I'm in Japan.

Including hiragana/katakana practice and other comprehension exercises, all of this adds up to a couple of hours day of deliberative effort. Hopefully it pays off.

I can imagine a version of this whole thing that is more targeted at my specific requirements, i.e., navigation, food, transport, and accommodation, but I'm willing to press on in the hopes that it will leave me with some basic level of preparation that I can improve upon when I'm actually in Japan.

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