You're Traveling Japan WRONG - I Can Fix That

I’m will be traveling to Japan and South Korea next year. Looking forward to riding a high speed train to Osaka, which most first time travelers may have ever done, and taking the Ferry from Osaka to Busan. I also hear the real Suica cards, which are refundable, are becoming more widely available.

That coffee cup from the convenience store ❤

I didn't realise that in Japan they drove on the same side of the road as they do in South Africa

Nice vid as allways. Here is challange for you: Whole day in Tokio without a smartphone. I mean some commuting, shoping and little trip. ;-) What do you say?

Oh hey, it's Luke Miani!

Would you recommend giving a gift to attendents in a Sinkansen?

I planned my trip with the bus from Narita Airport to Haneda Airport, then a Bus to Ofuna, 1 week later a Shinkansen to Kyoto, and then another Shinkansen back to Tokyo. Also, i will use the subway when i have to get somewhere further than a mile.
Rate my setup^^

>suica on your phone
laughs in non japanese android that doesn't support suica

More advice. Check out regional rail passes. If you know a rough schedule for what areas you want to travel, it can be a massive cost save. I purchased the west japan kansai-hiroshima, i took shinakansen to kobe from osaka, osaka to hiroshima, Osaka to nomichi. I didn't originally plan any journys from osaka, but I found i had a bunch of time.

Also, metro day passes in tokyo can be a bargin if you intended to mobe around alot in 1 day.

Went in August 2023 with my wife, and we both used the JR Pass before it was increased. Osaka, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Osaka was our loop for the first 7 days of our 10 days away. Worked out at 20p per mile, or on average £30 a day, so for us was super helpful. Stuck to Icoca around the metro in the cities though, and I thought overall was a cost effective way for our first trip there.
We will definitely be going back in the future, so will be interesting to compare!

I always rent nissan epower cars, they are rather cheap, and have full covered, but recently extra cover has increased in price and many rental station has closed down, so my next trip to japan in november, i will stay in tokyo.

When i driver i always visit kusatsu in the gumma region, and over at izu and kawazu.

When i visited japan a few years back i found it cheaper buying tickets point to point over the rail pass that has restriction on what trains you can use!!!! that was a few year a back pre covid but then i was travelling form Hiroshima up to Tokyo(and Narita) in 1 Direction, if i had flown into Narita it MAY and i do mean MAY been marginally cheaper but just barely and it would highly restricted the trains i could used!!!

Just one teeny tiny small issue boss man - I hate flying :) But I get the gist

I have uset Jr pass last year before the price hike came to effect. I purchased it from my country in June of 2023 and used it in late September to travel from Tokyo to Hachinohe and Aomori. For me it was kind of like a farewell ceremony because next time I'll be going to Japan I will not be using any Jr pass

On the subject train vs plane: I would still prefer traveling by train. Yes, the price for the JRP is higher than it was a couple of years ago. BUT you see a lot more of the Japanese country when traveling by train than you would when flying. Also airports usually are not in the city center but train stations are and the rail network covers sooo many places. Next, Shinkansen and other bullet trains are fun and super fast. And lastly but maybe most importantly: On the environmental aspect choosing a train over a plane is always, always the better option.

Different culture different religion different background different country different language , all of that can't separate humans from living a peaceful happy life together, it's only if you choose not to , lot of love from north Africa ( Algeria 🇩🇿 ) ❤

I was in japan for 5 weeks and used the 21days JR Pass in the middle of my trip. It saved me so much money and I made the most I could travelling far south to Kagoshima and then all the way up to Hakodate (making 1-2 night stops at cities on both coastlines along the way). I love the Shinkansen and any excuse to buy Ekibens.

i'm just doing what you did by giving the crew some souvenir recently, but from three times i got rejected once 😂 (jetst*r and spr*ing crew received, but pe*ch crew rejected) don't know if it is bcs of the policy or what
but thanks for the inspiration!

Low cost flight travel between Tokyo to Osaka/Kyoto is great but if you want to save money for hotel and not a light sleeper, night bus is a good options too.

Just visited Japan for the first time, and your advice to bring the flight attendants a small gift (I went with chocolate) was totally on point. They were very thankfully and reciprocated in kind. Thanks for all the great videos and input!

I hate the whole airport-airplane experience so much I much rather spend 3x the money and 2x the time on a train ride instead 🤷‍♀️

Really!? Recommend flying instead of trains?

To drive in Japan, please learn the traffic signs. Be aware of motorcycles and scooters passing on both sides when you are turning. Also, in certain prefectures, 4 to 8 cars may continue through red lights after the light turns red.

sadly as a german tourist i can never rent a car. Since my Driving license is not accepted by Japan. 😞

IN my opinion, the bullet trains, and the train focused transit culture in general is part of the experience of being in Japan. I was lucky enough to get the JR pass in it's last few months of it being worth it, so I can't really complain about the value, but personally I would never fly between cities in japan unless I'm going very far north or very far south.

How do you talk japan

Great video, thanks for the content. We are going to get Suica cards on the first day 👌🏻

I took the skyliner from Narita and to Narita, honestly I liked it so I'd just do it again, also luckily for me when I went the Suica was available so I personally don't have to worry about that part thankfully and we had the rail pass last time I was there but yeah with the price hike I wouldn't use it, we took 8 Shinkansen so it was worth it at the old price point.

i have a japan trip coming up and looked into renting a car and it was very expensive £100 for 2 days plus petrol, maybe its only good if you have multiple people with you to share the cost

I rented a car for the first time in Japan when I went to Fukuoka and the girls didn’t give me the Foreigner is driver magnet label and was more excited about the Hawaii driver license design with rainbows lol. 😂

The new license plate that is white with prismatic colors is another license plate too.

well that was rude lol

I would still encourage people to consider the JR rail pass while planning. The JR website has a calculator you can use to weigh what train routes would be without the pass (though planes and cars may be cheaper, apparently).

If the pass price is close to your anticipated costs I would recommend it. I'm a disorganized person and would have spent hundreds of dollars more than I expected during my trip from missing connections and having to rebuy tickets. I also ended up going on some extra trips I didn't expect and was able to have that flexibility because of the pass.

If you have a really set itinerary, plan on flying/driving some, or aren't staying for a long time then the pass probably isn't for you. However, it's worth considering still in some situations where you think you'll travel quite a bit.

I'm traveling to Japan in October, and the price of the railpass sadly put us off from going to Kyoto for a weekend. The pricing with the trains just put us off altogether, so we're staying around Tokyo for most of the trip, although we'd definitely love to come a second time and explore Japan in a camper van ;o

I used a 3week JRP and a one week one in November. I bought them right before they hiked the price but still 800$ in total. Now except Kyoto I traveled every day out of town. Without the inter city trains I calculated my tickets, bought separately, 3000$ so yeah, even at the current price would be worth it but... From Sapporo to Kagoshima, Kochi, Matsuyama, Kumamoto and Kanazawa included, I moved a lot.

You used to say how much the price is in dollars

I drove in Japan on my last trip to Japan (Nov 23) and I absolutely loved it, clocked around 3000km in about 2 weeks?
Drove family vans to campervans, every vehicle was well maintained, always felt looked after and process was quick and easy. Just remember to have all documentation ready.

- MY recommendation, 100% ask for Expressway Pass if you are doing multi-day driving as it will save you heaps of money on toll road charges.

Definitely a wonderful experience except when I was driving within Tokyo. I do not recommend driving within Tokyo as it reminded me of driving in peak hour traffic in Sydney and for anyone that knows, you know.

I am traveling to Tokyo next week, what a coincidence!! This video will be very useful ❤

by repeating several times I still couldn't figure out "tokyo something made" and only after being told tokyo station I thought "oh that sounds like eki" haha

Wife and I did HND -> KOJ -> KUM (2-day Explore) -> FUK via plane.

Positive:
- Huge time-saver
- Planes were cheaper than x-country train
- Ferry was as expensive as flight to Yakushima
- Air Travel in Japan (domestic) was soooo much easier than USA

Negative:
- Yakushima flights were on small turbo-prop, and more prone to causing motion sickness

Next trip - definitely want to get more rural/mountainous via car.

I don't have any travel tips specifically per say, but it could be fun if you reviewed "Views from Japan" by Ben Richards. I have a copy and it's been incredibly helpful for locating some less frequented spots and various restaurants and amenities in their proximity. Add to that the fact that Ben does some spectacular photography, and you've got a pretty amazing travel guide.

I personally recommend it, but maybe there's something I'm missing that you could shed some light on...

I gifted Starbucks gift cards and chocolates to the flight attendants on my trip to and from Japan last year. They were so excited, I can't see not doing it in the future as well. Glad I could do a little to make their day when they do so much to provide for the safety and comfort of the passengers

Surprised to not see masking on the taxis or transit, has that all loosened up now?

I’ve always wanted to give flight attendants a gift but didn’t know if they would accept it I’m going to go for it on my next trip 🥰

I just love your vids, I really want to go to Japan