jawafour wrote:Outrunner wrote:My first two trips were on tours with Intrepid travel...
It's great to see you back in GR, Outrunner
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Thanks! I've been taking a while to get my life back on track, hopefully I'm back for good now
I've never got the appeal of Japan. Is it just a geek culture thing that makes you want to go?
That was a tiny part of why I first went. I love the history of the country. I go to temples, shrines and battlefields from the Sengoku period and it brings the history that I've read about to life. I like the food, the people. Winter is my favourite time to go and I've been to a few winter festivals. Even after six trips I feel like I've barely scratched the surface.
Any websites that might help me?
For self planning this is my go to site:
https://www.japan-guide.com/ . It breaks the country down by region and prefecture. It's really good on giving you instructions on how to get places. It even gives you cherry blossom and autumn colour reports if you're going at that time of year. They're both obviously dependent on weather but browsing past years gives you a rough idea. Just don't necessarily depend on it (I went last spring and a lot of places I was just a little too early. On the other hand, in 2012 we hit everywhere spot on). Other than that I'll look at tour group websites for ideas then just book my own thing based on stuff I find there. This site:
https://www.japanican.com/en/tour/ has hotels and also day tours if you did fancy doing something with a group. I booked a couple of things through them.
I use Booking.com, Japanican or Jalan.net for my hotels. There might be better sites but they suit me.
How much is food/ travel etc? More than in london?
I can't compare to London but my holidays have ranged from "spoiling myself really expensive" to cheap budget holidays. My main failing is I don't always keep track of what I'm spending (on holiday) so a couple of trips have been more expensive than they should have been. I tend to be able to get my hotels for three weeks in the £1000-£1500 range. You can do this cheaper with hostels. I personally mix it up with business hotels and occasionally spoil myself with a nice hotel here and there. I got an amazing room in Tottori that would have cost me a fortune in Tokyo. I've done a temple stay before and that was brilliant if pricey.
For transport, get a JR pass. They may seem pricey but I found they more than pay for themselves. You can "only" use them on JR trains but that covers loads of the country. You can get a national one (which you have to buy before you enter Japan) or regional ones if you aren't travelling too far. I believe you can either buy them before you go or while you are there. I only ever get the national ones so I'm not sure.