Hi guys,

Looking for recommendation for affordable accomodation near to Shinjuku station from 2 - 5 Nov. I've searched through AirBnB and also Agoda. Not cheap
Appreciate if anyone could provide recommendations/suggestions.
Just recently booked 4D3N at Mystays Hotel near Urayasu from 5 - 8 Nov.

My bad.. Affordable as in the range of RM 150 - RM 280 per night. 2 adults and 1 child (2 years of age).
I've searched Agoda, AirBnB and Booking.com. Most of them are in the range of RM 380 - RM 500.
Before the Minpaku law was regulated, u could easily get a decent AirBnB from RM 100 - RM 200 per night in Shinjuku area 

Hi, anyone used the Seishun 18 ticket to get from Osaka to Tokyo before? Need some guidance as this is purely dependent on JR trains and the regular trains. In the blog, I read that there are reserved seats and if my memory doesn't fail me when I last went to Osaka several years ago, I sat on proper cushioned seats from Osaka to Kyoto, are these reserved seats? If I don't reserved my seat in the train from Osaka to Tokyo, am I sitting on the steel seats? I once sat on those from Kyoto to Osaka, stopping at every station, it was a killer!

To all the Sensei-s .. me wish to ask your esteemed opinion

I'll be going on a 4 days company trip that will end up in Osaka at early November later this year. I'm considering whether or not to extend another 1-2 days to do some free and easy on my own. However I'm kinda worry about the extra cost that i need to bear for staying the extra 2 days. Costs involving accomodation, food and transportation. So how much do u guys think i need to prepare if I were to stay around for the extra 2 days?

P/S: I recently moved into a new place, so money is kinda tight ! T_____T

RM500 doable?? 

Guys any tactic on booking which date to catch sakura full bloom for sure in 2019? Without booking 1 month prior to sakura season ofc, as the accomodation will become a big problem.

This year the forecast is inaccurate and many tourist end up arriving too late to see sakura.

Planning to bring my parents there as sakura viewing is their dream, it would be real disappointment if we arrive too late/too early.

Plan to go from osaka-kyoto-tokyo-hokkaido - 14days++ trip.

Thanks in advance.

Do we need any vaccines to go to Japan? Especially for kids. Going in autumn

No choice then, hopefully it wont be long queue when i am there...
Because my flight scheduled to arrive on 10 Nov 7.45AM, then i need the pass to rush for 9.15am NEX from narita airport directly to kawaguchiko...

Few questions regarding bank and money in Japan.

1) heard that there is no fee when we withdraw cash from ATM in 7 11? Is it true? I am using Maybank VISA debit card by the way.

2) can we open a Japanese bank account in Japan if we have a temporarily Japanese phone number?

3) this is not about Japan actually. I will be in Japan for 2 months plus under Malaysia travel visa.
Let's say I want to do fund transfer with my maybank online banking while I am in Japan, if I don't activate roaming (say I use Digi postpaid sim in Japan) then I wouldn't receive the 6 digit PAC code and thus I can't make online transaction. If I just activate roaming for that SMS, will I being charged crazy fees from tele provider Digi?

2) Japanese address as in housing address? I will go to there for intern for 2.5 months. I was told Malaysian will only use normal travel visa since we can go to there for 90 days, but I am not sure if this is the one I will be using.

3) since my Digi postpaid sim most probably has no signal when I am in Oversea, how can I receive SMS?

Will visit Tokyo and Sapporo from 23/12/2019 - 4/1/2020
Below is my plan, cam you guys have a look at it and maybe add in some thing if that day looks empty and vice versa.

23/12/2019 (Arrival date at Tokyo)
Oedo Onsen Monogatari (Stay the night)

24/12/2019
Night time: Tokyo Skytree

25/12/2019
Noon: Mori Art Museum
Night: Roppongi Hills Winter Illuminate

26/12/2019
Disneyland

27/12/2019
DisneySea

28/12/2019
Mt Fuji one day trip

29/12/2019
Oedo Onsen Monogatari (Getting all the srrvices they have)
Spend the Night

30/12/2019
Tokyo to Sapporo
Prefer by (bullet) train
31/12/2019
Sapporo Art Park
Historic Village of Sapporo

1/01/2020
Mt Moiwa hatsuhinode
Hokkaido Shrine hatsumodo

2/01/2020 and 3/01/2020
Grand Hirafu Ski Resort

4/01/2020
Probably an onsen nearby before coming back to KL

Portable Wifi + Insurance RM264

Question
What train pass is most recommended with a reasonable price
Planning to eat the local foods, is 5000 yen enough for one day? (not those fancy restaurant, maybe just specialised ramen shop, family restaurant. NO CONVENIENT SHOP FOOD)
Is it easy to find capsule accomadation (1 people ) if i dont want to book in advance?

Thanks in advance

DisneySea doesn't necessarily mean you gonna play water But from what I heard from others, Disneyland for kids, DisneySea for youngsters. I believe you can have DisneySea layout plan via internet as well, can always check it out and see which you prefer.

As I'm not anime fan, I didn't really go indepth much to those anime shop. I went there to do some window shopping, price comparing, etc. If you are not some hardcore anime fan then probably you can opt for the electrical street to do some price comparing like myself too.

Suica/Pasmo card are like Touch and Go in Malaysia. You pay as you use. Metro Pass is a pass designated for tourist and only tourist can buy them. You will need to plan in more detail to see how is your trip like, then only you get to know how many hours you should buy. Initially I wanted to buy x1 48 hours and x1 24 hours; after detail planning, I realized that x1 24 hours is a waste of money. Remember to go Google or Hyperdia to checkout the train you gotta take to see if is under the Metro Pass train list.

Thanks for this info. Haha. Really need prepare the address of the hotel....



Btw, the form is reach Narita only take the form?

Yes Metro pass is only for tourist. They will request for your passport when you purchase at the counter. It's really cheap when you plan well, maybe that's why it's only to attract tourist and they would not allow locals to use it.

The link you shared is for local Japanese. The price is different; tourists' 1 day Metro pass is 800yen ^__^

One of the term says: "We shall confirm with passports that the visitors are foreign tourists."

It depends. For myself, as I went to Osaka, Kyoto several times. I know that my shopping fix will be done at Osaka. This round my trip are Tokyo>Hokkaido>Osaka. Hence, I don't allocate too much time in Tokyo. Anyway, will only be in Tokyo for 3-days. Day-1 (Tokyo Tower, Shinjuku, Harajaku, Shibuya); Day-2 (Hakone), Day-3 (Toyoso Market, Tsukiji, Divercity, Asakusa, Akihabara, Shinjuku-for final sapu as my hubby wanna check out Tower Record). Very much 'touch-n-go' for all the shopping, as I won't go in the shop if I don't think I will purchase anything there. (thou am a lady).. It quite "biasa" tat my hubby is the one who go in & out the shops check things out, while i stand outside asking "can move ady!?"

Hi all,

I would like to seek forummers' advice on the following draft itinerary for Tokyo during winter

Reached Haneda about 11pm. Might stay at Haneda area for the night (to avoid paying taxi fares) before proceeding to Shibuya area the next morning.

Day 1 - Shibuya
Day 2 - Shinjuku
Day 3 - Fuji Five Lakes
Day 4 - Fuji Five Lakes
Day 5 - Ginza, Imperial Palace, Akihabara
Day 6 - Disneysea
Day 7 - Disneyland
Day 8 - Asakusa, Tokyo Skytree, Tsujiki market
Day 9 - Kamakura - temples/shrines
Day 10 - Morning and afternoon will still be around at Kamakura. Will proceed to Haneda by evening for departure.

I can't seem to fit Ueno and the various museums.

I am deciding whether to forego Disneyland to visit the museums at Ueno instead? 

Just sightseeing/window shopping and walking around there. Because i read somewhere in this thread that one day is not enough for Shinjuku even just for window shopping.

Or probably I can squeeze Shinjuku and Shibuya into one day instead?

And with that I can have one day for Ueno?

True also.haha. Thought of trying an open air bath overlooking nice scenery, but then that can't be cheap in Malaysia moreover Japan.

Hi guys. Me and my gf are going to be traveling to Tokyo on 25th December to 3rd of January. Booked the accommodation and flight as well. Just want some advice on budgeting food and transportation. I have done some research myself. The map I attached have the nearest station to our accommodation marked as H. The rest of the pins are places we want to go to. I even noted the shortest, longest time and the lowest, highest price from our accommodation to each of these stations. We have almost 9 full days to explore everything so we dont have to cram too many places in one day.

So it would be cool if you guys can advice me on whether to get a suica/passmo card or day pass? Personally I think the suica card is the right choice. But let me know if i am wrong.

Also would like to know about pocket wifi options. We are open to picking up one at haneda or from KLIA. But we are arriving at 10 pm or so at Haneda. Luckily we have transport to out first airbnb that night. We will be moving to our main airbnb marked on the map the following day. Internet speed: fast is good. Data usage: unlimited if possible. But more importantly no data throttling. I dont want to end up with crappy speeds while we are out in the middle of the day.

Finally we have RM 2000 pax. This includes transportation and food but not the pocket wifi. Obviously we want to (I want to) buy some swag. We are definitely budget conscious. Keeping that in mind would like to know if this is enough. Or should we save up some more?

Thanks all of you.

Thanks!

Now I'm confuse on which pass should I get to tour around Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.. Should I get both suica and icoca? how about pasmo?