Japan Tourism for independent travellers

yaziyo said:
Anybody have any insights on how Haneda is these days?
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Dead.

I flew out from HND about a week ago at 6.30pm. Arrived at around 4pm, got through check-in, immigration and security in about 5 min. A lot of shops airside were closed although the restaurants were open.

The Sakura lounge was quiet but also had very limited offerings (there was a small list of food items that you could order and that was it, the beverage selection seemed pretty normal though) which was disappointing.
 
encryptededdy said:
Interested to hear more about this. A friend has booked a PR ticket to Japan in April and I noted to them that I've heard before that transiting MNL can be a bit painful (bag inspections iirc?)

With that said PR fares really are a good 10~20% cheaper than anyone else right now.
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I've found China Airlines via Taipei have great fares for SYD-TPE-NRT, and the transit in TPE is painless.
 
yaziyo said:
While we could hang at the airport and lounge, heading into town for dinner and a bit of a walk seems very doable unless things aren't running smoothly in Haneda, perhaps due to covid procedures. We've been to Japan a few years ago and loved it, and a small detour to an Izakaya or something seems like an amazing layover opportunity.
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Nothing to add on HND itself, but it is pretty easy (with a Pasmo card) to take the Keikyu train to Shinagawa and check out the various izakaya in the Konan district next to Shinagawa station. Or you could take the same train all the way to Asakusa and check out the old temple and all the izakaya in and around Hoppy Street. Just not on a Friday night as everything is booked out.
 
Just returned from 3 weeks in the land of the rising sun so thought I'd share some observations.

Narita was busy on our departure, maybe not quite pre pandemic but T2 certainly pretty full and the Sakura lounge a zoo. First class lounge re-opened and quieter but still maybe 70% seats occupied (fantastic lounge btw).

Haneda domestic terminal very busy, cannot comment on T3. Chitose also maybe 70-80% pre-pandemic levels for domestic travel.

For those heading to Niseko anytime in the next 2-3 years BOOK YOUR RESTAURANTS EARLY. The place has changed so much and the new development has not at all been accompanied by an increase in restaurants and services, if anything it's the opposite with most places and understaffed and a fair few even closed down. This will only get worse with mainland Chinese now allowed to travel again.

Hakuba was pretty much the same, full of Aussies, busy being the school holidays but not manic.

For the foreseeable future (maybe very short term given the recent downgrading of the pandemic) if you plan on going make sure you have all 3 sections of the Visit Japan Web app completed. So many people had only completed the health section and were sent to the back of long lines to complete the other 2 sections.

Mask wearing doesn't seem strictly enforced. In Niseko and Hakuba it was nearly non exisent and in Tokyo/Sapporo compliance is high but plenty of people (local and foreign) now seemingly tiring of it particularly in stores/retaurants. 100% worn on trains though.

If anyone has any further questions happy to answer them!
 
HirafuHeartAttack said:
For those heading to Niseko anytime in the next 2-3 years BOOK YOUR RESTAURANTS EARLY. The place has changed so much and the new development has not at all been accompanied by an increase in restaurants and services, if anything it's the opposite with most places and understaffed and a fair few even closed down. This will only get worse with mainland Chinese now allowed to travel again.
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Echoing how understaffed/undertrained they are at the moment. Hotel service was absolute rubbish, and ski lesson availability was sparse, but the slopes were great
 
RealtimeY said:
Echoing how understaffed/undertrained they are at the moment. Hotel service was absolute rubbish, and ski lesson availability was sparse, but the slopes were great
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Yep can agree with this 100%, also massive supply issues with Japanese suppliers not having to provide for the massive consumption of the resort for the past couple years then going from 0-100 very quickly. I think another huge contributor is that normally within staffing there was about a 50% return rate for seasonal staff/management... So every season there would be half new staff but half with at least a season under their belt, but given there's been 2 full seasons without working holiday makers or seasonal japanese workers there is now near 100% new staff in all locations. (Also the case in Hakuba).
 
Have my SQ F in place from LAX to NRT. Just wondering where I find this Jp Visa application that I need to answer all three questions. Could somebody please post it? Thanks
 
Japan's borders finally reopened to independent travelers in October 2022, and visiting Japan now is virtually as easy as it was before the pandemic.
 
RealtimeY said:
Echoing how understaffed/undertrained they are at the moment. Hotel service was absolute rubbish, and ski lesson availability was sparse, but the slopes were great
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Cannot comment on ski resorts in Niseko or Hakuba but hotel service has been quite bad in general these past few years during covid. The two most memorable for the wrong reasons were Roku Kyoto and Kikyo Karuizawa.

Roku Kyoto is still a new hotel and it clearly shows. Hotel staff were running around like there was an emergency just checking in / out guests. I stood there while staff went past me without even the slightest acknowledgement for 5 mins before somebody finally asked what I needed which was just help to call a taxi. There was a young guy at the restaurant who looked like a uni student, just dumped the food on the serving table where the floor staff would then bring it to guests and he walked back into the kitchen like he didn't want to there. Dishes of finished tables were put on trolleys like the ones you see at the food court and just left beside the table so not sure the reason of doing this if they're not taking it back right away. Trying not to sound arrogant but even though it was near the end of the peak season to see Autumn leaves in Kyoto, the cheapest room for the Saturday night had a rate of 144,000 yen excluding taxes and service charges so I expected something a bit better. Used 110,000 points but if I had to pay over $1.5k for this I wouldn't be very impressed. I'm going to give this hotel a few more years before going back.

Kikyo Karuizawa was amazing previously. Although last year was one to forget. Staff were definitely not experienced where they forgot to ask for our room number when we went down to order the included breakfast to eat in our room (you have to do it the day earlier). In the past, I was totally surprised how everyone knew my name and whenever I had questions they knew my room number which was why I thought the staff didn't ask my room number. Clearly this is not the case now. If I hadn't gone past the front desk and saw the staff again, we might have waited in our room thinking where breakfast was. At checkout, I purchased stuff from the hotel store. The staff added tax on top of the price which was already inclusive of taxes so I would've been charged an extra 10% if I didn't check the receipt again. Took them a while to figure out how to cancel the transaction and redo. Was going to have a quick coffee at a nearby cafe before heading off but because of this, ended up just waiting at the station for the train.

I do think it will improve from here as things ramp up but a friend recently worked as a casual at Hyatt for a day and then the next day at a Hilton executive lounge so hotels are definitely still short of trained staff right now.
 
Entering Japan was fairly straightforward, had to show my vaccination certificate a couple of times during boarding and when arriving in Narita. Since I hadn't filled out the online form, they happily ran me through it in a seated area before letting me go through to immigration
 
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Not sure if this is the best place to post this question but does anyone here have any intel on the restart of direct MEL-HND flights with QF (QF79/QF80)? I can see them in the schedule and on-sale from 26/03 onwards but I know that's just the date of the new IATA timetable period so not sure how much faith to put in that. QF's "restart of international travel" page just says "Coming in 2023" (other routes that haven't restarted have actual dates listed).

Tried googling but only getting old results about previous times when the restart was pushed back in 2022.

Context is trying to help sort out flights for a bunch of people in my team at work to get to an event in Tokyo in mid-April. The QF flight timings work a bit better than the JAL direct flight into NRT (which is already up and running) but don't want to get the blame if we all book onto QF and then everyone's flights get cancelled at the last minute...
 

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