It's great to have backups when you have extra time.. but just looking at Tsukiji, Akihabara, Ueno and Asakusa all in the same day does sends shivers down my spine... haha.. To assist your planning, maybe you can highlight which one of those is a must go and which ones are optional. It will help you to decide on the spot and not let go of places you really wanted to go in place of just "Meh" locations

Is Tsujiki market still there? i thought they moved to a new location since Nov last year?

i'm very saddened by it.. it was taken down just one month before my trip.. (T_T)

Aus needs IDL if you're on travel Visa. Student visa only requires a translation sheet from the embassy. Correct me if i'm wrong.

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This post has been edited by _ChAoS_: Feb 14 2017, 08:25 AM

You really should climb the mountain though... people came from all over the world to do it...

I have question about the Nikko All area pass. Have anyone used it before? Usually how does it work? After purchasing the pass in their assigned outlets, do i still have to buy a train ticket? Or do i have to exchange it for a separate train ticket when i buy the pass in the same office?

These kinds of information is not very clear and i can't find any details in their official site.

Thanks for the reply

So i can use that pass on the stated date on any departure time i decide on the spot?

Hi there, I wanted to make reservations from KEIO hoping to secure my bus tickets to Kawaguchiko from the link below, however, as i was filling my form, it won't let me proceed when i didn't enter a japanese phone number. How did you guys bypass that?

https://www.highwaybus.com/gp/foreign/frgSelectLine?lang=en

Hi, anyone have any ideas?As they're bus tickets, i think it's easy for those tickets to run out. But when i tried to book online, if kept on giving me invalid information error. Which i think it's due to the format of the phone number given (I wrote Msia phone number).

*Edit* Nvm, i found a way to do it.

This post has been edited by _ChAoS_: Feb 28 2017, 10:07 AM

THat's very useful information on the Kawaguchiko buses. From the website, it said pasco cards can't be used on these buses. Is it true? But i will only be there on a day trip, so the 2 days pass probably won't be worth it, but i don't know exactly because the fares are not shown for this bus type. Is it worth buying the 2 days pass?

Hi guys,

I just came back from my Japan trip yesterday. As i had received a lot of help from this forum, i will be giving my feedback to whoever that asks for it as well. It was my first trip there, so there was a lot of fumbling around and i can share the beginner's experience. Please refer the list below for my itinerary. FYI, if you're thinking of splitting Tokyo with other major cities in just 10 days... please don't....

20/3 Monday 0720 Arrival Narita Terminal 2
Transportation to Asakusa (Keisei Limited express) 80 mins
Leave luggage at Hostel
Tokyo skytree (0800-1700)+Solamachi
Skytree->Tokyo Station
Tokyo station
Tokyo station->Asakusa
"Asakusa (Overnight)
Enaka Asakusa Central Hostel (Agoda)"
21/3 Tuesday Asakusa - Nikko All area pass (Decide)
Toshogu shrine
Historical walking tour
"0800 Nikko (Overnight) (Nikko Pass)
Nikko Guesthouse Sumica (Overnight) (Agoda)"
22/3 Wednesday Chuzenji
Kegon falls observation deck (0800-1700)
Ryuzu no taki
1300 Depart Nikko (2 hours)
Asakusa->Tabata
Tabata (Airbnb) check in
One Piece Tower (1000-2200)
23/3 Thursday Tabata->Shinjuku
Shinjuku->Yoyogi park (walking)
Yoyogi park
Yoyogi park->Harajuku (walking)
Harajuku
Harajuku->Shibuya (walking)
Shibuya
Shibuya->Shinjuku (walking)
Shinjuku
Shinjuku->Tabata
24/3 Friday 0745 (2 hours) Kawaguchiko (Day trip)
Chureito Pagoda
Ice Cave
Kachi kachi ropeway (0900-1710)
Leave Kawaguchiko 1810
25/3 Saturday AnimeJapan 2017 (1000-1700)
Odaiba (Fuji TV station, Diver city, Aquacity, Venus Fort)
26/3 Sunday Tabata->Ueno park
Ueno park
Ameya Yokocho
Ueno->Akihabara
Akihabara (1100-1900)
Akihabara->Tabata
27/3 Monday Tabata->Ikebukuro
Kawagoe (Departs from Ikebukuro)
Kawagoe pass (Premium)
Ikebukuro sunshine city (J world)
Ikebukuro->Tabata
28/3 Tuesday Tabata->Shinjuku
Kamakura - Enoshima (Departs from Shinjuku) (Pass)
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu
Hokoku-ji temple
Daibutsu (Hase station)
Enoshima
Sea candle
Shinjuku->Tabata
29/3 Wednesday Asukayama park
Tabata->Nakano (Nakano station)
Nakano broadway
Togoshi-ginza shotengai
30/3 Thursday Tabata->Ueno
0558 Keisei Skyliner departs from Ueno
0930 Departure Narita Terminal 2

I used MAS from Kota Kinabalu.

I brought about 110k Yen there. and i spent a bit more than 80k yen... I shared my food with my GF most of the time and we only had side food most of the time instead of main dishes in restaurants. So we saved quite a bit there. We spent more than 1k per person on meals only twice, once on okonomiyaki and then one more time in a ramen restaurant. However, i bought some of my toys using credit card.

Nikko is an amazing place, because it was raining the whole day for my first day there, i had to change mt itinerary to do the historical walking self-guided tour going through all the shrines. The shrines ranges from huge and grand (Toshogu) to secluded and just a small shack, but it is still interesting to walk through all of them. As for my trip to Chuzenjiko, Kegon falls and Ryuzu falls, it was snowing when i was there, so i couldn't get onto the ropeway for the best view of the area, however, Kegon falls is still amazing to look at, if possible, pay the extra fee to take the elevator to the viewing platform and have a closer look at it. Ryuzu falls however is a big contrast to Kegon. It's a much smaller fall, however, it has it's own elegance to it, you won't be able to appreciate it unless you take a time to view it. They all can be reached relatively easy if you have the All Nikko Pass.

Kamakura was more commercialised that i thought. I'd watched a lot of blog posts and youtube videos before i went but it turned out to be more touristy than i expected. However, if you'd never been there, it's still an interesting place. There are a lot of shrines in the area, but if you're in a hurry, i'll recommend to visit Tsurugaoka Hachimangu (being the biggest in the area) and Hokoku-ji temple. Tsurugaoka Hachimangu requires further fee to visit the treasure room and Hokoku-ji temple also requires a small fee to visit the bamboo garden. I will recommend to take the Odakyu Kamakura-Enoshima pass.

As for J-world, we didn't pay to play all of the games and attractions inside, so it's only 800 yen for the entrance, if you like the anime released by Jump, you'll be able to enjoy an easy 2 hours just going from room to room for the theme they prepared for their major anime (One piece, dragon ball, naruto, Haikyuu and Kuroko).

The temperature was very low while i was there. It dipped to around 8 degrees everyday.. and it was about 3 to 5 degrees in Nikko and Kawaguchiko. It was even snowing at Chuzenjiko too. When i left, it just started blooming, it should be in full bloom this week.

I will recommend some heat-tech if you can, also, gloves and get a face mask at a convenience store there if you feel the wind is too strong.

Heh, maybe we're small eaters. We could be too busy doing sightseeing than eating..

But still, if you buy all the small snacks you see on the road (or even convenience stores, we had a lot of fried chicken there.Heh) , you can easilly skip a lunch or breakfast. Hehe

You'll have to get used to walking in Japan though. Hokokuji temple was quite far away (about 30 mins of slow walk), but everyone else was walking too, so you won't feel alone doing it.

I brought the gloves from Daiso to my trip there, it was kinda useless though Maybe my tolerance is low, i can't feel my hands most of the time even with the Daiso gloves on. Haha...some thin leather gloves might be better though.

Day1: Ramen can be found almost everywhere, for me, they all are very good. I have not found a ramen that's bad in Tokyo. Ichiran (due to it's popularity) is very crowded during meal hours, if you're willing to queue, then you can go for it. I hate standing in queue during holidays, so i just went to other ramen shops and it's still pretty amazing.
Day2: If you don't plan to shop, you can even fit Shinjuku as your last stop and have a walk through Golden Gai at night
Day3: Again, if you don't plan to shop, Fitting in Akiba is ok
Day4: Tokyo station and Ginza are expensive places, it'll be a good place to buy the popular and expensive souvenir food to bring back though.
Day7: Do check the weather report before you go, if it's raining, best to schedule it on another day (That's why i won't want to recommend taking a tour bus)

If you can, bring a scarf too, unless your jacket is perfectly capable to seal your neck. I have a low tolerance to cold, so when it was 6 degrees over there, i had 2 layers of normal heat-tech, a shirt, a jacket, scarf, face mask and gloves.