Blossoms, bullet train and beyond: exploring Japan by Land and Sea.

[Pushka]

Departing next Tuesday for a long planned trip to Japan to see . Well, that's the plan, Mother Nature likely has other plans.

Of course we have to overnight in Sydney and where else but? I checked their drinks prices the other day. It's going to be a quiet night that night.

The trip arrangements have been loosely based around a cruise, but which one! Looking back through emails over the last 18 months I had plans with 6 cruise lines but still waiting on our preferred cruise line (Celebrity) to release the dates we wanted. And knew we had to act immediately as the cruise sells out quickly at this time of the year. Finally it opened and booked our required date.

Next, the flights. Tracked the release of JAL award flights on Qantas, accumulated points, and was hoping for an F experience. Alas, at the release minute there were no F award options. But snared J and was able to select the forward F cabin last row. Then rinse and repeat for the return flight and again obtained the J award seats back. JAL a few weeks ago changed aircraft on the way out and the F cabin disappeared as a result. We were allocated middle seats. Ah nup. Logged in and immediately changed to window left side. Because of course we are going to see Fuji sans on the flight in.

So this is the itinerary of the cruise. A nice circumnavigation. Many of the itineraries we discarded visited more unique ports, but as it's our first time then we simply wanted a broad tourist experience this time.


We didn't particularly want to visit Busan in S Korea. During the 1988 Olympic Games it was called Pusan and was the location of the Yachting events. MrP was with the Olympic team that year but stayed central in Seoul although was able to visit the demilitarised zone with a bunch of officials. Like the US, Japan cruises require an external country port. It's usually either Busan or Jeju. Sometimes Taiwan.

 

[Pushka]

The land trip prior. This changed a few times but we wanted to see Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka area as well. Booked accommodation originally through Booking.com as we found that the hotels we wanted to visit remained stubbornly 'sold out' until just a few months prior, like about 3, which of course set off my relentless need to have everything locked in. Our preferences in Tokyo being Keio Plaza, no preference in Kyoto, then Citadines Harbour front Osanbashi in Yokohama. The latter because you can see the cruise ships coming in and berthing, and then walk to the cruise pier, plus - some rooms had washing machines in the room. .

Had all the hotels booked in each place when possible then as we had heaps of Qantas points, found that we could get very good deals for the Hotels we wanted, and also upgrade the accommodation. Consequently we booked the club rooms at Keio, and the large rooms - with washer - at Yokohama. The hotel in Kyoto we couldn't upgrade as it was completely booked out. It seems rather a boutique one, has a coffee shop with the billboard 'Melbourne style coffee' and is very close to station and Nishiki market.

Touring. We have decided to just walk and explore in Tokyo but booked Planet Labs borderless on the last day (digital museum). In Kyoto we have hired a guide for two days, taking us through Kyoto one day then Osaka the next. I know. It's not enough. But it's all we got. Yokohama seems like a great place to explore, plus the Kamakura Festival ends on our first day and we might take a trip to see the final horse duel.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Am on board @Pushka - enjoy.
(am guessing you didn't go option #3?)

 

[Pushka]

Am on board @Pushka - enjoy.
(am guessing you didn't go option #3?)

Oops. Nice pick up there! So we are left with do nothing, 1 or 2.

 

[Pushka]

So there are many present (and past ) fans of Japan so if anyone could jump in for the next two days and suggest things I've forgotten.

Here's the plan so far.
Cash: -Preloaded the Wise card when ¥ was 1.05. (Now it's 90 damn orange hair.)
-Have a back up ING card which has two cards in case one gets pinched.

Cards: - Have topped up Latitiude credit card and sorted two cards. Will use these for Hotels.
Also have Amex as backup. And ANZ.

Trains: - Have traveller suica card loaded with cash on both iPhones.

Shinkansen: - Booked seats on Tokyo to Kyoto and Kyoto to Yokohama. In Green car. C and D seats.

Luggage forwarding: all hotels will accept this so no luggage on Shinkansen.

Entry: have completed the Visit Japan site and have QR codes. Must complete the wellness check Tuesday?

Hotels: have prepaid the main two, thanks Qantas and just have two to pay for.

Anything else I need to do?

 

[RooFlyer]

Anything else I need to do?

A few basic Japanese phrases? Manners, meals, greetings. You are in big cities, so probably less of a 'need' than if going rural, though. I wrote them phonetically on a couple of small cards when I was driving around Hokkaido so I could snatch a reminder before I had to use the phrases.

(I could DM mine to you if you like, inspired by rbjhan ).

 

[Black Duck]

Looks like you are going or is there still time to take the offer? Sounds a lovely trip and look forward for reading all about it.

Busan is not my favourite place in SK, but I hope you find something you want to see. I don't know how long a stay you will have there, but there are some interesting places about an hour out of the city. That's propably too far for comfort though. Food is good in South Korea.

 

[Pushka]

A few basic Japanese phrases? Manners, meals, greetings. You are in big cities, so probably less of a 'need' than if going rural, though. I wrote them phonetically on a couple of small cards when I was driving around Hokkaido so I could snatch a reminder before I had to use the phrases.

(I could DM mine to you if you like, inspired by rbjhan ).

I'd like the list you found useful please? I do have a smattering of language learnt when MrP had a book published in Japan. A lifetime ago. I'm fine while I can control the interaction - ie ask a question but fail when it's answered back in Japanese. So rather useless knowledge there.

 

[Pushka]

Looks like you are going or is there still time to take the offer? Sounds a lovely trip and look forward for reading all about it.

Busan is not my favourite place in SK, but I hope you find something you want to see. I don't know how long a stay you will have there, but there are some interesting places about an hour out of the city. That's propably too far for comfort though. Food is good in South Korea.

Agree. It's only for a few hours as a port stop. A requirement. But it does mean we have to exit Japan and re-enter at a later port which apparently is a bit of a cluster with 3000 people being processed at once an eager to get off.

 

[tgh]

Hope you both have a fun and trouble free holiday.

Have you discussed a medical emergency or Japan legal system "what if process" with your partner ?
Do you both have critical offshore contact numbers stored on a phone or even better..in a wallet or ………?
We kinda rely upon being able to contact one or both of our sons if things go awry as the world can suddenly be very cold
if stuff happens.

 

[Drakecula]

Planet Labs borderless is fantastic, we loved it. Enjoy your trip. Fingers crossed you get to see the blossoms, they're lovely.

 

[moa999]

like the list you found useful please? I

These days I tend to rely on Wikitravel.
I just dump PDF prints of phrase books and cityguides to Google Files and skim on plane.
Eg.

Japanese phrasebook - Wikitravel

Japanese (日本語 nihongo) is spoken in Japan, and essentially nowhere else other than Palau, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Taiwan, South Korea and China, where some use it as a second language. The language is strongly influenced by Chinese though the two are unrelated; although the written form...

wikitravel.org

 

[Pushka]

Hope you both have a fun and trouble free holiday.

Have you discussed a medical emergency or Japan legal system "what if process" with your partner ?
Do you both have critical offshore contact numbers stored on a phone or even better..in a wallet or ………?
We kinda rely upon being able to contact one or both of our sons if things go awry as the world can suddenly be very cold
if stuff happens.

We have WhatsApp with the family. About to have a credit card/financial/emergency discussion in about an hour. We used TripIt to upload insurance policies etc, so easy access for both without scrounging around for papers which we have also. As for legal. I dread even that thought. Can't go there after DrRons experience.

 

[drron]

Google translate is good for basic conversations. It was essential when talking to the local police after my accident.

 

[Pushka]

Don't you hate that last minute panic when going through all the documents, credit cards and insurances etc and you cannot see that you have selected Cruise for cover. Frantic search. Try forget it. Come back to it 10 minutes later and it's staring you in the face. Breathe again.

Well MrP has actually started to pack. I'm in the predeparture panic mode. . Have changed packing clothes list twice. It was hot a couple of weeks ago. Ok. I need some summer dresses. Now it's cold. Revert back to jeans and layers. Looks about mid range, in the late teens/20.