Some of you have never flown to the other side of the world with a child and suitcase your dad stole for you, and it shows!!
If I did our trip again, I’d spend 5 nights in Tokyo, 2 nights near Mt. Fuji (deffo visit the theme park Fuji-Q Hyland ) and then 3 nights in Kyoto. Maybe more if you fancy.
DON'T go to Osaka. Well, you can if you want. But I was incredibly underwhelmed, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend Osaka for kids. I have friends who’ve been and loved it tho, so maybe don’t listen to me.
Things you need to know.
1. Narita Airport is miles away from Tokyo. And the best possible thing you can do before you leave the UK is buy a Sucia card. (Like an Oyster card that works on the underground, overground and busses) I didn’t. And spent an hour in the airport train station being turned away from every ticket desk, before we eventually found someone to sell us one.
You can add your Sucia card to you Apple wallet and top up using Apple Pay. I didn’t discover this until the last day, and really wish someone had told me.
2. Nobody speaks English. No one! Staff in shops and restaurants will have a translation app on their phone. But if you speak in a fast Scouse accent, you’re fucked.
Expect to get very animated and pointy.
3. It’s cash heavy. The 7eleven all have cash machines and take Apple Pay. But most restaurants have a vending machine where you choose and pay for your food. And they take cash only.
4. It’s not expensive. It’s pretty much the same as here. Food’s pretty cheap, unless you go in a posh restaurant. Most places sell ramen, gyoza or a pork and rice bowl for about £7. Sushi is more expensive, but it’s fit so you have it have it!
We spent about £70-£100 a day, on food and trains. Sonny had his own money for shit he couldn’t resist.
We stayed in Airbnb’s which were fab and pretty cheap. Don’t think I paid more than £50 a night and we had an entire flat with a washing machine.
I got flights on Skyscanner, both of us for £950. With good flight times and short stop over. And that was in half term. All in all I don’t think I spent more than £2500 for the entire trip. And I was paying for 2.
5. All tourist attractions close at 5pm. Very strict! So worreva you do, don’t set off at 3pm for the Golden Temple and get lost for 2 hours on the way. Just to get turned away, and even shouted at for trying to sneak a peek after closing, like we did.
6. Jet lag is a real thing. We were awake until 3am and couldn’t get up before midday. So think about that when you’re planning. Deffo don’t book Ninja School for 10am like I did. Cos you just won’t go.
7. People don’t like it when you accidentally hold hands with them on the tube. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Keep your hands to yourself.
8. You’ll never know what food you’re ordering or in what order you’re supposed to eat it. Don’t be surprised if your order comes with a little bowl of raw egg on the side.
We ate loads out of the 7eleven. They have a lot of hot meat on a stick by the till, and Japanese microwave meals that they’ll heat up for you. We usually grabbed some meat sticks on our way out of a morning. Which was usually lunch time cos we never got over the jet lag.
8a. It’s polite to slurp your noodles. So don’t be alarmed when people around you are doing so.
9. There is no bread anywhere, and you will miss it. Hard.
10. You can’t litter. I’m sure no one in their right mind would think of doing so. But I have witnessed someone throw the remnants of a KFC out the window on the M58, so thought I’d mention it.
I put a bottle of water down for a second in the park to run away from a wasp, and got some serious looks.
10. Other things you can’t do in the park. Skateboard, drink, BBQ.. lots of things. Basically anything other then walking through the park is forbidden.
11. Expect to be told off. There is a certain way of doing almost everything in Japan, and you’re extremely likely to get it wrong. We got told off at least 3 times a day.
12. It’s fast. I can honestly say, I’ve never seen a massive jet empty so fast. And by the time we got off the plane, and got to baggage collection… There was no one else there, just our bags!
Quite a violent initiation to the speed and efficiency of absolutely everything in Tokyo.
Imagine Manchester Airport on speed! And then forget about it. Cos Manchester Airport is incapable of returning your bags to you in reasonable time, even with all the drugs in the world.
13. You don’t really need a Japanese Rail Pass for this trip. If you’re going to more places, say Hiroshima as well, I’d recommend you get one. But the only big trip we did was to Kyoto and the bullet train cost £150 for both of us, where as a Rail Pass each would have cost £300.
14. Tokyo and Kyoto are just wondrous places. You’ll have a ball just walking around and seeing mad mad shit. But I will recommend some places to visit, especially if you’re travelling with kids.
In Kyoto I fully recommend heading to the monkey forest. It’s an area of natural beauty with a river, bamboo forest and a “romantic train” through the mountains to the rice fields, all in one area. You can eat Octopus on a stick while watching the Japanese tourists walking around looking adorable in kimono’s they’ve hired.
Do hire a boat and rein-act that scene from The Inbetweeners. Or Bridget Jones. Depends on who you’re there with, really.
We didn’t go to the Robot Restaurant, cos I personally thought it looked like a load of shite. But people rave about it, so check it out if you want to.
15. You need to trust yourself. You are going to get very very lost, and that’s great! If we hadn’t got as lost as we did, we wouldn’t have seen half the stuff that we did.
It took me about 2 hours to pluck up the nerve to get on the train in the airport. So afraid I was gonna get the wrong one, I kept going back up the stairs to ask people who didn’t speak English and didn’t really care, for directions. Which didn’t help my confidence at all! So I say jump on any train. You’ll soon find out if you’re going in the right direction.
Book it. Book it right now! Even just the flights. And please tag me in your stories. Cos watching people have adventures, is my favourite.
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