Planning far in advance....ya!

[seichan]

Finally getting a small amount of free-time or at least getting my weekends back.
Calling Japan-experienced travelers (who are still alive on lj).
Decided to travel beyond the layover this fall, and venture outside the Narita airport for the first time.

For those who have been there before, any advice?
1. Places to stay
2. Places to play and shop?
3. What not to bring, must bring, what to get (tickets) beforehand?
4. Tour group, or map-it?

I'd rather not spend my brain power on figuring out stuff, or getting hung up on language barriers.
(We'll be focusing our time in Tokyo, Kyoto and a day trip to Mt Fuji.)

...now to figure out what to do during the summer...

Comments

[nokiirat.livejournal.com]

actually had sunshine prince on my list to look up after reading your post. :)

would starting off a few days in kyoto then moving onto tokyo make the most sense?

thx for the help.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

It depends where you start -- whether you fly into Narita or Osaka. I've only ever done Narita, but you can get more or less equivalent prices flying into Osaka, I think, so it's a matter of personal preference.

If you're flying into Tokyo, I would see Tokyo first just so that you don't have to pile a tiring shinkansen trip on top of a long flight -- but again, personal preference. FYI, on my first trip, I flew into Tokyo, spent just under a week in Tokyo, went down to Kyoto for about a week, and returned to Tokyo for the last couple of days. That worked well for me.