Navigating Japan

Last year in June, my sister and I traveled to Japan for the first ever time. Excited and nervous, we had to prepare as much as we could as much as we could! Google was our best friend - finding lots of tips from hundreds of blogs and travel sites. We watched countless YouTube videos and asked friends who had been. I guess our biggest concern other than what to see, where to eat and how to shop - was how to get around?

So here are some of quick tips for traveling in Japan:

Airbnb
If you're choosing to stay via Airbnb (cheaper and you get to experience Japan in an immersive way) - choose carefully! Pick one near a station that connects to many different lines and is not such a far walk. Buses can be quite difficult to take with all your luggage to and from your Airbnb (to see the inside of one of the Airbnbs we stayed at - watch our trip videos here.)

Japan Rail pass
Invest in a JR pass if you are planning to take the shinkansen (bullet trains). It is an experience to go on these trains and honestly - one round trip is basically the price of the JR pass so you might as well make the most of it! You can use it for the bullet trains and for any JR rail lines. As a foreigner to Japan, you will need to apply for your JR Railpass before you enter the country - the documentation will be mailed to you and once you get into Japan you'll have to collect them at a JR office.

Travel Apps
Apps like HYPERDIA and Google Maps helped us navigate the streets of Japan so much. HYPERDIA will cost you but there is a free 30-day trial so download it when you land to make use of it! When you put in your departing station and your arrival station it will search the different routes for you. It will tell you if you need to transfer and it will even tell you how much the fare will cost!

Hyperdia App

Google Maps

With Google Maps a friend gave me a golden piece of advice - use the "saved" feature!! If you find a place you want to go - click "saved" and it will put a star on your map. It's so handy when you want to see what else you have also saved nearby!

 

Pocket WiFi
Now to use these apps you'll need internet of course! My first mistake was trying to buy a prepaid sim for my phone from a vending machine - trust me, do not do this. The most reliable way to stay connected is using a pocket wifi device! Most airbnbs in Japan will provide one (how nice, right?) But sometimes they will fail and you won't have them if you haven't checked in yet or have already checked out of your airbnb. What do you do if you need an app to guide you from the airport to the next place? Hire one from the airport! We hired one from Softbank Rental - for 10 days it cost us $130. So $13 a day and it was ten times more reliable than the ones we had received from our Airbnbs. Plus it's always good to have another just in case!

IC cards
Instead of buying route tickets every time you go to a station - buy a SUICA card or PASMO card - you can load these cards and use them to pay for your fares by simply tapping them on and off at the gates (just like an Opal for fellow Sydney-siders). You can even use these cards at some vending machines or convenient stores (a.k.a "Kon Bini's")!

Station maps

When traveling to the bigger main stations (eg. Shibuya, Tokyo, etc.) always look out for maps around these stations and they will tell you where all the lines are, where the exits are and where elevators/escalators are. Trust me, when you're lugging around a 30kg suitcase (yes, I did a LOT of shopping) - it's not easy carrying it up a flight of stairs (luckily for us, we had some really nice Japanese people help us!)

There are probably so many other tips but these were the main ones that saved our lives! Traveling in Japan can seem a bit daunting if it's your first time - but hopefully these tips can make it a little bit easier.