Things to Organise Before You Go

There are things that you need to organize or should organize before you go to Japan. Especially if you're traveling in a group and with young kids.

Hotel Bookings

Once you have your itinerary done your next step will be booking for hotels. Things are getting complicated once you have limited budget and traveling in a group that require more than 2 occupancy in a room. At least that's what I encountered.

Traveling with elderly and a young kid require hotels that's quite comfortable, not too small and of course within the budget. Tokyo has been notorious for having the smallest hotel rooms in the world with the highest rate. So what I did was start researching for hotel trough tripadvisor.

The easiest things to do is to go to tripadvisor and search for hotels within the date and filter it with your budget accordingly. The result is the highest rating hotels within your budget, now all you need to do is read all the review and make sure it ticks all your boxes.

One hotel can be offering a huge room with reasonable budget but it's a bit far from public transport. One hotel might be within your budget and in a strategic location but turned out to be very small to the extend you won't have room for your luggage. I can carry on about this but at the end of the day, the magic word is COMPROMISE it's either you have to accept that you're budget can only get you to a certain level of comfort or you can stretch your budget in return of comfort.

My first Hotel in Tokyo, Hotel Niwa

The other tricky part of finding the prefect hotel in my case is if I need to find a room with triple occupancy. Naturally my BIL will share room with my MIL and FIL and even though we can get away by booking a twin room and modified the bed a little bit to fit 3 people. But this is Tokyo, and I'm not taking a chance of them not sleeping comfortably. After all this is a holiday and everyone should enjoy their time.

I soon found out that most of the booking websites not offering triple occupancy so once I'm happy with the rate of the normal room I have to go to the hotel website and book trough their website or email them. This is actually cost me more because I'm not really getting the best rate as I would if I book trough booking website but this is the only way.

Looking for hotel in Osaka is not as hard as Tokyo as they relatively cheaper and offers bigger room. One of my bucket list is to stay in a Roykan (traditional Japanese Inn) with Onsen (hot spring) that serves Japanese set dinner and you're expected to wear Yukata (kimono) in the hotel. So I decided for the group to stay a night in Hakone, one of most popular hot spring area outside Tokyo.

Finding a perfect ryokan took a whole lot adventure, most of them has limited photos to show what it looks like and once again I have to rely on tripadvisor. I've done my booking trough Japan Guest House as they give more information than other website and offers competitive price.

View from the private bath area in our Ryokan in Hakone, Aura Tachibana

TIPS:

• Check on Trip Advisor before you book your hotel, the contributors always give honest opinion and post travelers photo which show you what the hotel 'actualy' looks like.
• Most of the hotels in Japan don't require you to pay in advance they will ask for your credit card detail in case of no show. At  most cases you can cancel you're booking 1-2 before arrival date and they won't penalize you.
• Try to book hotels way in advance, some hotels give you as much as 40% discount if you book more than 45 days in advance, but remember they might fully book so booking in advance won't hurt especially you can cancel without any fee involved.

  
JR Pass

JR Pass or Japan Railway Pass is a must must must to buy before you travel to Japan. Reason being, this pass only available for foreigner with temporary visa and can only purchased outside Japan. JR Pass basically let you travel using any JR network during the intended period.

Well not everyone need to buy JR Pass but if you're planning to use bullet train multiple time during your stay at the end you will save money buy buying JR Pass. For example, bullet train ride from Tokyo to Osaka will cost you JPY14,800 which is AUD164 so return ticket without JR Pass is AUD328 and the cost of JR Pass is AUD292 (for 7 day travel) so at the end you will save money by using JR Pass  if you need to do a round trip Tokyo-Osaka

JR Pass

You don't need to buy JR Pass for the length of your stay, like me even though I stay in Japan for 13 days I only buy the 7 day pass covering the time when I leave Tokyo for Osaka and back to Tokyo.

TIPS:

• When you google JR Pass you will find many companies offering JR Pass with competitive price, however most likely you're top list will be the company from USA that requires you to pay extra delivery fee not to mention conversion rate from USD to AUD. What you should do is google JR Pass and your current city for example 'JR Pass Melbourne' by doing so I got a travel agent that offers JR Pass in AUD and I can pick it up in person and no need to pay delivery fee.

Airport Transfer

Traveling with a group of people especially elderly and little kids of course need a proper planning. My number one problem is big luggage, Singapore Airlines just increased the luggage allowance by 10 kgs to give us more reason to shop and carry full size luggage. The normal form of transport in Japan: train won't cut it for my scenario. 5 adults with 5 pieces of luggage plus carry on and a kid with pram.

Rumour has it that Japan railway network even though the most punctual in the world is not the easiest to maneuver. Stories about how the train station can be a labyrinth with thousands of confusing exit, a wrong turn can land you miles from your destination not the mention the sea of human that can overwhelmed you after all Tokyo is one of most populated city in the world.

The idea of dragging our luggage from Narita to Tokyo station and exchange to another train to hotel area was quite daunting. Until a friend who just came back from Japan give us this solution, chartered door to door shuttle from Narita Airport directly to our hotel.

So came a long tokyoairporter.com like a gift from heaven, well it's not a gift because it costs a lot. It offers service to pick up us when we arrive at Narita and drive us to the hotel with fixed price. All of this have to be organized prior arriving in Japan and cost less if we book return transport.

Even though it's not cheap but I think this will save us grievance of using public transport taking into account that both of my parents in law are not the champion on lifting heavy luggage. To justify the cost, we're paying JPY40,000 for a round trip for 6 people, if we're using public transport it will cost us approx. JPY5,000 per adult which at the end we will need to pay JPY25,000 in total plus the hassle of dragging the luggage, potential lost in the station and possibility we have to carry the luggage several flight of stairs in absent of lift.

So I think this is a costly but reasonable decision in the name of convenience.

TIPS:

• Tokyo airporter is just one of the company that offers this kind of service many out there that offers cheaper service but I go with this one based on friend's recommendation.
• Unless you can justify the extra spending I think public transport is still the way to go.

Pocket Wifi and Data Sim Card

In this day and age people trying to connect whenever and wherever they can, I'm one of these people. Selecting hotels with free wifi is one thing but securing internet connection 24 hours is a basic necessity for some. My first initial solution is buying a data packet from my phone carrier which offers reasonable fare for extra data package (around AUD40 for 100MB) errr not really reasonable really because you can just easily exceeding the data allowance and end up with hefty bill.

The second options obviously getting a prepaid data SIM card which allow you to connect to the internet. A data prepaid SIM card cost JPY4,250 with 1 GB data allowance for 30 days, if I'm going by myself I'm definitely going with this options.

Since I'm going with my little family, I might need to get 2 SIM cards for me and my wife which cost more than hiring a pocket wifi. Pocket wifi is like a internet transmitting device which can be connected to 5-10 device at once and the added bonus is it's UNLIMITED. For 13 days they charge JPY8,000 which end up cheaper than having 2 SIM cards and I can connect my old iphone for the little one to watch Youtube.

Pocket Wifi

I came across this company Japan Wireless which offer cheapest price in the market and they're using EMobile network, the biggest and most reliable network in Japan. Along with the pocket wifi I also ordered 3 SIM cards for my in laws, apparently you can call each other when you lost with internet connection something I'm yet to find out.

TIPS:

• Japan Wireless might be the cheapest one in the market but the customer service respond is a little bit slow, expect 24 hours respond delay and in my case was almost 48 hours. But everything turned out well at the end and I read a good review about them so fingers crossed.
• When you hire this device you have the options of it being sent it to your hotel or you can pick it up at the post office in the airport. I decided to pick it up at the airport so I can be connected straight away and I will have time to familiarize myself with the device during 90 minutes drive to the hotel.
• They will give you a prepaid post satchel which you can drop it off in any post box once you finished with your rental.
• Rent the pocket wifi until the last night you're in Japan, like my case I end the rental on the last night I'm in Japan. My flight back home is like 11 in the morning so I don't have to pay the extra day, they give you time until 12noon the next day after the rent period ended to drop the satchel in post box.

Amusement Park Tickets

The last thing you want to do while holidaying is to stay in line for several hours to get a ticket to go to an attraction. The main amusement park for Tokyo obviously is Disneyland, fortunately we can buy ticket online for Disneyland.

Downside buying ticket online is the only option is e-ticket so you don't get those printed ticket which can be a nice momento of you're visit to Tokyo Disneyland. To get the e-ticket you can go to their website or follow this E-ticket link.

Disneyland E-ticket

With Disneyland E-ticket you have to print it at home and bring it with you for access to the park. Mind you, you can't print the ticket at the park so make sure you have done this prior arriving at the park or even prior entering the country.

Other attraction that I know you can have the ticket in advance is Studio Ghibli Museum, however I'm not going to see the museum at this trip. Universal Studio Osaka ticket can't be purchased online, your option is going to Lawson (convenience store), major JR station or travel agents. I found a travel agents in Australia selling advance ticket for Universal Studio Osaka but they put a huge margin on the ticket and I think it's not worth it so I will get the ticket when I'm in Osaka.


TIPS:

• Get the ticket to amusement park in advance to avoid queuing.
• You have to print Disneyland e-ticket, if you're planning to go in multiple days print copies the same amount of your days or more in case you loose it or ruin it. For example, I'm going to Tokyo Disney Resorts with my 2-day passport so I'm making 2 copies of my ticket just in case.

These are the things that I organized and finalized approximately 2 weeks prior my departure, I think I've covered all bases and I hope there's someone out there find this useful.

Planning the Trip

So we had like 6 months before we embark on the trip to Japan, plenty of time to plan the trip right? Right and wrong.

We have decided that we will go around Easter time which fall on 28-21 April but we also want to see the cherry blossom which normally happens later of March until early-mid April. With this consideration we decide to go early April until Easter long weekend so we have time to rest before back to work.

First thing I did was finding the flight that suits our requirement, OK no we have 2 contingents: 1  is me, and my little family plus BIL from Melbourne and 2 is my MIL dan FIL from Surabaya. It will be much cheaper and faster flying Qantas or Jetstar from Australia but ideally we would like to go on the same flight to Tokyo right? So I have to fin an airline that will do a transit somewhere and catch the same flight to Japan.

My first initial reaction was jumping into webjet.com.au website and punched in Melbourne to Tokyo and I found some reasonable deals with JAL of course. But it was my friend's travel agent that informed me that MAS and SQ have promotions during that period. As a loyal SQ customers I jumped on the chance of scoring reasonable plane tickets from SQ and I managed to organize the contingent from Melbourne fly to Singapore to meet the contingent from Surabaya and take the same flight to Tokyo and back.

TIPS:

• Try to contact travel agent to find whether there's a promotion from your favourite airlines which you might miss if you book direct from the website. 

• Even though budget airlines offering cheap fare you have to be careful to see about how long the flight will take and what time it will arrive at your destination. For example: Jetstar offers a cheap fare via Darwin but the flight from Melbourne departs at 6am (you have to be at the airport at least 5am meaning you have to leave home at 4am almost impossible if you travel with kids). AirAsia also offers attractive fare for flight via KL but the arrival time is close to midnight at Tokyo (you have to take taxi to your hotel because train is not running after midnight which cost a lot more). Some of the flight took more than 24 hours to arrive at the destination and you have to spend a lot of time in transit.

• Also, with the budget airline normally they don't include check in baggage, entertainment and meals you might end up paying close to the non-budget airline with the add-ons (they even charge you $7 if you want to pick your seat with Jetstar).

Now with planning, we have approx 14 days to spend and no idea what to do where to go except a vague preconception about Japan. Then I came across this magnificent website japanguide.com with more than enough information to plan the trip.

I gathered around information from everybody about what the want to see and what expectation they have in this trip. Basically everyone was like leave it up to me to plan everything and the only thing that my MIL requested is cherry blossom viewing and focus on make sure that Princess Alana enjoys the trip AKA spend more time in places that she will enjoy: Disneyland and Universal Studio.

After exploring the options and a little bit of brainstorming with friends that have been to Japan we decided to go with this itinerary: Tokyo, Hakone, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, back to Tokyo.

Since the brief was to focus on Princess Alan first I build my itinerary around her attractions. We have decided that we will spend 2 whole days in Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea and another day in Unversal Studio Osaka. To avoid the crowd I organized the theme park visits during weekdays when the opportunity being overcrowded is less likely.

So I build the itinerary around those 3 days, being arrived in Tokyo first I decided to spend 4 nights in Tokyo, and than 1 night in Hakone for the hot spring experience, 5 nights in Osaka (visiting Kyoto and Nara from Osaka) and 3 more night in Tokyo before we head back to Singapore.

After I decided how many nights I want to spend in which city than I can fill in the attractions I want to see while checking the proximity of the surrounding attractions. I pitched the itinerary to the whole group and we all agreed on it.

TIPS:

• Decide on your major attractions (things that you must and want to see) and build you're itinerary around it
• Avoid weekends for attractions that require you to wait in line (for tickets, rides etc) as much as you can
• Check on the website opening hours for your attraction to avoid dissapointment. For example: Imperial East Garden is close on Monday so I have to move the day from my itinerary
• Buy tickets in advance to avoid queuing

I will not disclose in details where I plan to go but I will reveal it day by day as this blog progressing.

Next I will let you know what to buy before you go, things that will make you're life easier while you're travel. Watch this space.

Welcome to My Cousin Nobita

Hello and welcome,

It was back in October 2013 when we had a family discussion and decided that we're going to Japan in April 2014. Seems like a life time away and now less than 2 weeks before we will board the flight going to Singapore en route Tokyo.

Japan always been one of my dream destination even though it's been replaced by Europe as favorite destination lately. I still remember a conversation I had with my tutor Mr. Harjo back in elementary school about our dream holiday. He said that he would like to go to Europe before the rest of the world and I myself would like to go to Japan to experience the culture.

As a kid of the late 80's and 90's my childhood dominated by Japanese comics/mangas, I can still remember when ELEX Media Computindo first introduce translated Japanese comics around late 80's it was instantly became a hit among Indonesian regardless their age. Manga introduced Japanese cultures and created die hard fans among Indonesian youth and one of the strongest influence is Doraemon.

Doraemon is the longest running program in Indonesian TV history started at the same time as our second and most successful TV Chanel (at that time) RCTI, Doraemon graced the Indonesian small screens every Sunday 8am until today.

The story is about a robot cat from the future sent to mentor a lazy ass elementary student Nobita to excel and change the fate of his descendent. The story took place in an urban area of Tokyo rendered full of Japanese culture and everyday way of life. Hence I chose the blog tittle 'My Cousin Nobita', because Nobita embodied what Japan is for me.

This blog intended to serve as Journal of our journey from preparing for the trip, during the trip and after math of the trip. To record and memories of what we encounter all the experiences and as a memoir of the trip.

I will be traveling in a group of 6, which consist me and my wife with our 3YO daughter Alana and my parents in law and my brother in law. So this blog can be useful for people traveling with a kid, and middle age couple (their in their 50's) and a young man which will be my brainstorming buddy and extra helping hand with Alana.

As a destination, Japan is quite unique as Tokyo is one of the most populated city in the world. I think no matter how many you tube videos you watch and travel blogs you read I have a feeling that it will be a different experience for every each individual.

So watch this space and I will try to tell you in my own way about my experience in Japan.