Thanks. Soy, milk, eggs, cheese - yes. Seafood - no.
To be clear: she’s not looking for gourmet experiences. She just wants to be able to do a 7-10 days trip without “just eating plain rice and bananas”.
Wow this thread has really taken off. I’d appreciate advice on cash vs credit cards. I’ve heard conflicting reports about the extent to which credit cards are accepted in Japan.
We’re going for 17 days in October. We had originally booked a 12 day cruise and had added 5 days on the front end in Tokyo. But the cruise line (NCL) made several changes to the itinerary and even changed the ship. The last straw was when they cut the port time for Osaka/Kyoto in half. By that time we’d booked our own air, so we decided to cancel the cruise and turn it into a land trip.
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They are widely accepted, but a few restaurants don’t take them. We grabbed $300 in equivalent yen when we arrived.
We added a $50 international data plan to T-Mobile, but you can get a mobile hotspot or eSim too.
Suica or Passmo are useful for the subways so you don’t have to get tickets every ride.
If you want Studio Ghibli tickets, start early!
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Credit cards are being accepted more and more, but for many of the small (interesting) places, cash (JPY) remains king.
Nicer restaurants and cocktail bars require reservations, sometimes months in andvance.
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We brought $500 in Yen from local bank each of our two trips—one was Japan for cherry blossoms and one was Okinawa. We always had enough cash and many places took credit cards. We liked the flexability of having both plus Schwab ATM that would reimburse any ATM (never used). We always had CC charge us in yen.
They ARE familiar with food allergies—I’m allergic to shellfish and the tour companies already let the restaurants know and I never had any problems.
If you can get google translate to let you take a screenshot of what your wife doesn’t eat and can show it to restaurants, I think she’d be fine.
She may get some interesting soy and bean products as well as cheese and other items.
Tofu, egg, and veg can go long way there. I recently booked a really nice Kaiseki meal in Kyoto and they offered two different vegetarian sets.
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Tmobile has free texts and free low speed wifi. navigation apps didn’t work well for us in japan.
The train stations and airport have many stores that sell a variety of snacks, sandwiches and meals.
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Back to food, you can go high end. Tokyo has more Michelin restaurants than any city on the planet, by a long margin. That said, the food at the hole in the wall places is phenomenal. We traveled with a friend who is a CIA trained restauranteur. He was regularly blown away.
Oh yay! I had a fabulous trip to Japan for 9 days visiting my D in Kyoto when she finished her study abroad.
For context, my D spoke excellent Japanese, which made life easier. It might have been tough to find some of the neat dining spots we found, and the car rental would have been hard to navigate without some language.
My top tip is to rent a car and go to Mt. Koya. Take the crazy, winding back road through the mountains. Definitely stay at least a night in one of the monasteries, even though it is expensive. It’s very special. Eat an exceptional vegetarian meal right there in the monastery. Get up early and attend the service in the morning. One of the best memories of all my many travels. It may have been this place? Not certain. FUKUCHIIN $177 ($̶2̶2̶3̶) - Prices & Shukubo Reviews - Koya-cho, Japan
We thought Nara was a bit overrated. But we did stay in a spotless hotel with beautiful tatami flooring throughout with a very nice, complimentary onsen. My D saw an innocuous sign that would be hard to spot without knowledge of Japanese. It was a fantastic little restaurant on the far side of the temple complex in Nara, through the park. Wish I could remember exactly where it was. Anyway, look for places that locals visit.
We loved the bamboo forest of Arashiyama outside of Kyoto. We walked all around the town up into the hills just outside where there was a lovely shrine.
We attended a geisha concert. Interesting, but not really my cup of tea.
Kyoto has so much to see, so spend time visiting as much as you can. I didn’t go to Tokyo or Osaka.
Be sure to visit a Japanese grocery store. Super interesting. Fruits that look artificial, they are so perfect. D was staying with a host family, so we bought some nice fruit as a gift. It was interesting to just visit an ordinary neighborhood with locals only. There are crazy drinks vending machines just on the sidewalk in the middle of a regular neighborhood.
I loved Japan. It’s a very special place.
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Yes, it’s hard to get bad food in Japan. If one had food one wants to avoid (like a vegetarian), google translate and scouring labels and menus can be very helpful.
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The hotels we stayed at all included buffet breakfast or brunch and had tons of different kinds of food—soups, omelet bar, pre-cooked hot eggs, stir fry, waffles, salad, cold cuts, fruit, sometimes yogurt and ice cream, and sometimes beans and other offerings.
The business hotels also include breakfast. We never stayed at such a hotel but that’s the type of lodging my brother and SIL prefer.
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How easy is to get food during the walk around Arashiyama grounds and temples?
We always do to stock up on kitto kato for our D. The more flavors the better.
Man this thread just keeps on giving.
There was no food inside that we saw. But the town is right there. As soon as you exit the park there are a lot of dining options. That’s not an issue.
I agree that Koyasan is a magical place, that was one of the highlights of our first trip. I would recommend taking the train though. It’s much more relaxed. The last leg is a cool cog rail. Not being encumbered by a car is wonderful.
That actually probably would be better! However, the drive was magical. First, the GPS took us the weird way. The road was deserted and kind of creepy. Second, it was still cherry blossom season in the mountains. So we were alone on this road that had sticks and flower petals all over and we probably didn’t see another car for an hour. On one side of the road, you’d plunge to your death and on the other side, it was dense with blossoms. Super cool.
The cemetery at Koyasan is spectacular too. The whole place is amazing.
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We loved visiting Japan. We stayed in Tokyo and our girls loved the shopping. Next time we will visit some other areas.
For someone asking about food, I was afraid of that as well. I hate all fish and seafood but found plenty to eat. They even have canned hot corn in the vending machines which I found funny.
Don’t have much to add but have a great time!
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Try to stay near a train station—it’s makes getting around so much easier. Also pay attention to which entrance and exit you used at train station (take a photo to help). They can be quite large and make a big difference in finding your way to your destination.
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I love to browse around in the department stores in Japan. My favorite department is housewares and home goods. There were so many things I wanted to take home, but couldn’t find space for them.
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We stayed at Richmond Hotel, Mejiro. It was very convenient to the train station and pretty reasonably-priced (well under $200/night for 2 people). They had a restaurant in the hotel but no buffet. It was a nonsmoking hotel. It is confusing to find the front entrance, which is near the sign for the restaurant. It has a back entrance, which was where the taxi dropped my friends off at (in an alley) and they had a hard time finding the front entrance in the dark.
We also stayed at Hotel Hankyu Respire Osaka (the one in a tall building that had a lot of stores underneath). It was also under $200/night for 2 people and nonsmoking. It was also very near train stations and lots of shopping and restaurants. The hotel lobby is several floors up from the ground. It was a fairly new hotel. Check in and check out was online. Rooms where pretty tiny but NOT a capsule hotel. Lots of places to eat in basements of building (there are escalators and I believe also elevators). We paid a little extra to have buffet breakfast included with our room. The breakfast was quite substantial and served in dining room, off hotel lobby.
The Owl Cafe was Akiba Fukurou Owl Cafe. It was fairly near our 1st hotel.
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