Hi, I'm Nathan (Ninja Monkey) and today
I want to talk to you about
how to plan that perfect trip to Japan, what you need to do
Step by step the way that I do it when I plan my trip to Japan. So stick with me!
So the very first thing that you need to do is decide on what type of trip you want
Do you want to be traveling in your own, do you want to be traveling with a friend, or do you want to be traveling as part of a group?
The very first time that I went to Japan I actually joined a tour group and it was fantastic
It meant that I didn't have to worry about anything. I just followed the rest of the group
I was a little bit of a lemming,
I Just kind of went along with what everybody else was doing
and that meant that I had peace of mind throughout the whole trip
I actually traveled with insidejapantours and they were pretty good, brilliant infact.
I had a blast and that was my basically my maiden voyage into the land of the rising sun
so if you're a little bit worried that have been worried about
Traveling around an Asian country with a completely different culture
with a completely different language then my suggestion is
that you do find a tour operator and just join their tour because you're going to probably end up visiting most of the hot spots
and you're probably going to have a great time
but
if you want to travel on your own
Japan is perfect for that also, if you're going to travel on your own or travel with a friend
Then don't worry Japan is really friendly Japan is really easy to move around
so stick to some of these tips that might help you out,
Okay, so one of the first things that you really need to do is decide
When are you going to travel?
Japan is a perfect country to travel any season say it be winter spring autumn or summer
it doesn't really matter, each season is going to give you a different style and different type of trip.
Wherever it is just go and do it because Japan is awesome any time of the year
Now once you decided when you're going to go to Japan my suggestion
Is that you put yourself a flight because once you've got that flight booked. There's no turning back
It's happening, and that's when the journey really start, now before you do that my suggestion
Is that you look at dates very carefully because you could save a lot of money if your book perhaps ...
a flight leaving a few days later,
a flight leaving maybe a day or two earlier. You could make great savings, so try to be flexible with a dates.
And you might find a better deal
Okay, and once you know how
Long you're going to be traveling for then that's when the journey begins
Get yourself an itinerary Sorted, now my suggestion
And it's what I always tell people is start with tokyo end with tokyo
A Tokyo Sandwich is awesome because it means that when you get to Japan
you settle into Tokyo you have a few days to get over your jet lag and
then at the end of the trip when you travel around Japan you get back to Tokyo you can relax it a little bit before
You head back home. So that's my suggestion get yourself a piece of paper
Write every single day that you have available
so write
The 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th of July for example etc and then
Start thinking of an itinerary, write down the locations that you 're going to be going to, next to that list basically.
and start with Tokyo at the beginning
and Tokyo at the end, filling in the gaps.
Now my suggestion is that you check out some websites such as hyperdia.com
or even Google Maps
Because that's going to give you a really good idea of how long those journeys are going to be to those locations
how much those journeys are going to cost
and weather or not it's worth doing your trip in that order, you might find that
When you start looking at hyperdia or
Google maps you might find that you decide to get rid of some destination, this happened to me in the past
Or you might find that
you will reshuffle your itinerary all together to make a difference more efficient itinerary, so check that out
It's really going to help you out
So once you've got your itinerary sorted my suggestion is that you go onto a website that allows you to cancel your reservation
Such as booking.com is just an example
With booking.com I usually go on there
Search for hotels, book my hotels and then at a later date
review what I have booked
and if I need to cancel I do, in fact sometimes I even come up with two different .. two different itineraries
Bookings for those two itineraries and later on when Im closer to the trip I will decide which one
I'm going to go for and cancel the rest
So that's just a suggestion you probably save some money also
if you frequently look at the website, you'll probably find a cheaper hotel
or maybe find the same hotel, but even cheaper as there might be a deal
So keep an eye out on those websites, and you could save some money there also.
So this is a big one
You've probably heard about Japan rail pass a million times and by now you probably have done a lot of research
This is probably not the first video that you've seen, but this is a Japan rail pass!
This is what's going to save you a lot of money
It was going to make your trip in Japan a breeze, its whats going to make all the locals jealous.
the Japan Rail pass is something that you must look into and that you must research.
Basically my suggestion is that you use a website such as hyperdia.com to cost out how much
all the train Journeys would cost without the Japan rail pass and
Then check out how much the Japan rail pass would cost you, for example for a week or for two weeks and probably you'll find
The Japan rail pass is actually going to be a lot cheaper, and it's going to save you a lot of money, so .. Japan Rail Pass
Look something like that
really really worth it, basically you just wait at the gate and you can use all the JR trains including the
Shinkansen, the fast and trains and
it is a godsend
Just one thing about the Japan rail pass, and that is that you do need to
Purchase this outside of Japan before you get to Japan. You cannot get this in Japan
So if you decide that you want to go for the Japan Rail Pass you must do that
before you leave ok? ok so another big one .. pocket wifi.
and no I did not not steal this pocket Wi-Fi from Japan.
I just happen to have bought one because I find this very useful for traveling in general
Pocket Wi-Fi is basically a little device like this
That gives you wi-Fi, you just put it in your bag or in your pocket
and basically it will give you wi-Fi wherever you go now in Japan.
thats extremely useful because believe it or not, Japan is not really the most
Wi-Fi Friendly country in the world. You will find Wi-Fi in your hotel room, hotel Lobby ETC but once you are there
not many Cafeterias or restaurants have wifi
So this might get you out of a pickle every now and then, for example you want to find some
route using Google Maps
Pocket Wi-Fi will save your life
You want something translated, you can use Google translate thanks to pocket wi-Fi. This has allowed me to do research
When Im at a temple, I want to find out a bit more about the temple
I just go into my phone and there I am, I know all about the temple, and it makes it so much better
so Pocket Wi-Fi
Once again, there are two ways of doing this. You can purchase your own device and put a sim card in there
you can buy the sim card from the airport if you want to or
In the past I've used a really great service called the pupuru
and you purchased that before you
eave on your trip and you can have it delivered to your hotel room, when you get to your hotel room
It's there waiting for you you use it and then at the end of the trip you just put it in an envelope
Give it to the hotel receptionist
hotel reception, to post and
No hassle
But easy peasy, so I really suggest pocket wi-Fi will make your trip so much better.
Ok and now.. the important thing is research, now by now you have your itinerary sorted
you've you've got your pocket
Wi-Fi booked, your japan rail pass is in the post on the way to you and you've got your flight. You're really excited
You're about to go to this awesome amazing country, but what are you gonna do when you get there?
What are you going to do in all those places that you've been planning for?
That's why you need to go to the bit of research, and what I like to do
Personally is, I like to come up with three four or five
Places that I want to visit in each location.
So let's say let's say I'm going to go to takayama
a town, a city in Japan
I would have already researched three or four main things to see in takayama, and
When I'm there I see those cool things
But then I probably have extra time to do things at a lighter pace
So that's what I tend to do, so do your research and also check out if there are any tech specialist
dishes, food that you can try in these locations, so for example. I know that in
In Takayama, the last time. I went I had some horse sashimi which was quite
interesting and I also had and some bee larvae in
Like honey, it was quite ... actually in soy sauce. It was it was quite interesting, but once again
I did my research I checked out what the specialist
dishes were and I tried them out. So that's something that you should definitely do.
I'm getting to the end of the video, if you are still here. Thank you very much
I hope these tips are really useful. Please get in contact with me if you need any extra help,
Comment below, I will try to reply if I can.
but just one more thing, actually two more things and that is
Exchange your cash before you go to Japan, because probably the airport is going to be a lot more expensive
than getting it at a bank or an exchange Bureau where you live.
Also bear in mind that Japan is really quite a cash society unless you go to a department store
Where they will take your credit card
Then you probably won't be able to purchase much and in smaller stores.
So take all your spending money with you before you get there and don't forget that sometimes you need to
book those yen in Advance.
you might want to do that a few weeks before you actually go on the trip. Yeah, so that's another tip that I
Really recommend you follow!
and finally my final tip is for you to take photos and
digitize all your important documents
Passports, Travel insurance
bookings Etc.
reservations, make photos, make a digital
Copy and send an email to yourself or put it somewhere in the cloud because if something was to happen,
If you were to lose you passport for example
Then you have quick easy access to your passport number, you have quick easy access to your insurance
documents, if anything was to happen to you.
So that is a very valuable tip, thankfully I haven't had to actually resort to any of my backed up
documents, but I recommend that you do that if you can. I hope the video has been useful.
I just talked to you about how I plan my trips to Japan
I haven't really gone into tips for what to do when you're in Japan
Maybe I'll talk about that in the future, but I hope you've enjoyed my video
Please give it a BIG thumbs up, please subscribe
if you haven't already, for more tips about Japan check out some of my previous videos
Check out some of my videos about some of the places that I visited, maybe you want to visit those places too.
Japan is awesome, Japan is full of awesome cities, full of awesome towns
Don't stick to just Tokyo. Go and explore. So thumbs up, subscribe
And let me know what you think about the video. See you next time guys!