April travel to Japan

JanePotter

I'm planning a surprise trip to Japan for my boyfriend's birthday next year. Flights are booked for April (flying to Tokyo 12 day trip) and was looking for ideas of what to put in our itinerary?

Anything/where we must visit?
Any important info we should know before we go?

Any ideas would be great!

Thanks so much

TomasMacR

Book yourself into a high-end Ryokan with an Onsen for a night.

Suggestions here...

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/the-7-best-ryokan-in-osaka/

ogsjw

TomasMacR wrote: »

Book yourself into a high-end Ryokan with an Onsen for a night.

Suggestions here...

Dunno if I'd recommend that personally, Ryokan can be expensive, 'high-end' even more so...

You may be there for Hanami if it hits early OP, that's the whole cherry blossom shtick, so that's good. Hit up Yoyogi Park for that, visit it anyway, nice place. Meiji Jingu is there and a great walk as well. Japan in summer gets crazy hot and humid, but you may miss the start of it. What are your interests? That would help with suggestions. In Tokyo itself, everything interesting can pretty much be experienced on the green line (there are subways and a national train service called JR, you'll want to be using the subways). Ueno, Shinjuku, Roppongi, Shibuya, Harajuku, maybe Akihabara are all worthwhile districts to get the full-fat Japanese experience, and some of those are even very close to each other. For accommodation, there will be some capsule hotels that accept women (assuming you're female here sorry; most don't for safety reasons), a very Japanese experience that I recommend, and can even be cheaper than tourist hostels at this time of the year; use booking.com. If you want a hotel room, I've had pleasant stays at Dormy Inn, but again, browse around booking.com if you won't be staying with the bf every night (like the first night before the jump out for example).

Unfortunately the iconic fish market Tsukiji has closed, but there is a new one, dunno how tourist friendly it is... but there is awesome kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi to be hand for cheap everywhere.

Make sure you try a good pork ramen place. Have religious experience. Thank me later.

What are your interests?

JanePotter

Thanks so much for all of that! We're pretty much up for anything. My bf always wanted to go as he's very into technology/city life and the fact that Tokyo in particular is so different from what we're used to.

I love food, history, the outdoors, exploring the culture. Anything that's a bit different I suppose! . I would probably like to head down to Kyoto on a day trip too

ogsjw wrote: »

Dunno if I'd recommend that personally, Ryokan can be expensive, 'high-end' even more so...

You may be there for Hanami if it hits early OP, that's the whole cherry blossom shtick, so that's good. Hit up Yoyogi Park for that, visit it anyway, nice place. Meiji Jingu is there and a great walk as well. Japan in summer gets crazy hot and humid, but you may miss the start of it. What are your interests? That would help with suggestions. In Tokyo itself, everything interesting can pretty much be experienced on the green line (there are subways and a national train service called JR, you'll want to be using the subways). Ueno, Shinjuku, Roppongi, Shibuya, Harajuku, maybe Akihabara are all worthwhile districts to get the full-fat Japanese experience, and some of those are even very close to each other. For accommodation, there will be some capsule hotels that accept women (assuming you're female here sorry; most don't for safety reasons), a very Japanese experience that I recommend, and can even be cheaper than tourist hostels at this time of the year; use booking.com. If you want a hotel room, I've had pleasant stays at Dormy Inn, but again, browse around booking.com if you won't be staying with the bf every night (like the first night before the jump out for example).

Unfortunately the iconic fish market Tsukiji has closed, but there is a new one, dunno how tourist friendly it is... but there is awesome kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi to be hand for cheap everywhere.

Make sure you try a good pork ramen place. Have religious experience. Thank me later.

What are your interests?

ogsjw

JanePotter wrote: »

Thanks so much for all of that! We're pretty much up for anything. My bf always wanted to go as he's very into technology/city life and the fact that Tokyo in particular is so different from what we're used to.

I love food, history, the outdoors, exploring the culture. Anything that's a bit different I suppose! . I would probably like to head down to Kyoto on a day trip too

And he's going to be over there for a year? Yeah he'll be practically living out of Akihabara if he's into that stuff. Worth seeing the madness for someone not into it as well, tis a mental place for all nerdy things. The national museum is up in Ueno, and is a must see because you'll never see those artifacts outside of Japan.

Kyoto is a bit of snoozefest, you can see temples anywhere in the country, but close by is Osaka and the park in Nara which are awesome, there's lots of deer in Nara and one of the country's biggest Buddhas. If you are going to do Kyoto, I recommend you do it for a half day and in the evening, when Gion (the old-school tourist trap area) is all lit up. I would recommend Osaka for two days and Nara in the morning of one day, Kyoto in the evening. If you want to save money there are overnight buses from Tokyo to Osaka and back, Willer Bus is the company I think. It leaves the east coast from several locations including Tokyo Disney's parking lot, if that's going to be one of your stops.

If you do do Osaka the Namba area is the best for food/exploration/the Japanese experience, and the bf will want to visit Nippombashi, the nerdy district nicknamed 'Den Den Town', practically next door, you can and should walk between these two areas, there are lots of shopping areas in between. There is a good both sex capsule hotel in Nippombashi called Shell Namba, very modern and safe.

Make sure you seek out Donkey Xote stores, they're like Dealz but on several courses of illegal steroids. Good place to buy gifts for back home too.

TomasMacR

ogsjw wrote: »

Dunno if I'd recommend that personally, Ryokan can be expensive, 'high-end' even more so...

Ok then, have a nice bit alone time and 休憩 in a niced themed Pokemon S&M room for about ¥5000 an hour.

Ramen is dirty greasy piss water with some of worst quality meat you can imagine by the way...avoid at all costs.

ogsjw

TomasMacR wrote: »

Ok then, have a nice bit alone time and 休憩 in a niced themed Pokemon S&M room for about ¥5000 an hour.

The boyfriend is going to be living there and presumably has digs, and ryokan staff stay with you for the majority of the evening, serving you. Rumpy pumpy is also not really the done thing in Ryokan either... it's seen as unsanitary and rude, and the (incredibly thin and not soundproof) sliding doors don't lock. Anyway... moving on from OP's private life...

TomasMacR wrote: »

Ramen is dirty greasy piss water with some of worst quality meat you can imagine by the way...avoid at all costs.

OK chief.

Jane, YouTube is going to be great resource for your research. Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, are all great search terms to start off with.

Also search for 'ramen' to get a few opinions on this dish. I believe the consensus will... more than... speak for itself haha. I'm sure you've tried some semblance of the dish in Wagamas here but they don't compare to the real thing at all. The real deal is this incredible thick, porky broth. Full trimmings with an egg, pork and nori is recommended. Apps like Trip Advisor are a good start to find good places, but I've had some just ok places recommended to me through them too, so don't be afraid to just explore and pop into a random place, be it mom and pop places or chains.

If there was any dishes to avoid it would be bento boxes from any konbini (convenience stores like 7/11) and in terms of just average dishes, fried breaded tonkatsu (breaded pork) is a bit eh, as is tempura. Places that do quick bowls of stuff are fine for walking around though; it's hard to go wrong. You're going to be getting the real Japanese experience no matter what you do in this department. April is a great time for Eel bowls, as they are in season. It's not that adventurous, it's cooked. And delicious. If you will be doing sushi, there are lots of awesome and reasonable conveyor belt places, though I'd suggest avoid the 108yen places, and start at the 145yen a plate places. Primo stuff for a great price.

Anything else just ask. April 2020 a great time to go. The place will be ready for the Olympics, but you're missing them, so you're avoiding the madness and price hikes.

TomasMacR

Listen to Mr. Miyagi here OP, he knows his stuff. Capsule hotels, ramen, hanami whilst not particularly knowing why you are sitting under a cherry blossom tree...and definitely no riding in a ryokan because them Japanese would never do that.

Just a word of caution, make sure you bow at the correct angle to certain superiors, or you’re talking about 2-3 mandatory sentence...Sensei here will fill you in on all of this when he gets his 20 minute lunch break from Nova.