It all depends on what you want to do. The subway is so good that you could stay at Haneda of all places and conveniently do everything there is to do in Tokyo and Yokohama. Know how I know? We just did that because we didn’t want to schlep 4 pairs of skis through town before heading to Tohoku. It was our second time in Japan. That trip we were there for 18 days.
As for Ginza, it’s not my favorite part of Tokyo. We always visit, but it has a generic international feel. If Hermes, and all the other designer brands are important to you, it’s great. I don’t go to Japan to buy French clothes though. Think Manhattan and 5th Ave. JMHO.
Yes, Kyoto will definitely have some history/culture options…. hard to beat a place with 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites - Kyoto UNESCO World Heritage Sites
After the movie Lost in Translation came out, all of my US clients suddenly wanted to stay in Shinjuku, where most of the movie was shot. It’s really not the best choice though, and it would not be convenient for what you describe. I agree with @Rivet2000 that Ginza is more convenient, and there are a lot of interesting shops and restaurants just off the main street there. If it were me, I would probably look in the area right around Tokyo Station. It’s a nice area, and very convenient, and there are a number of excellent hotels around there, both on the side facing the Imperial Palace and on the other (Yaesu) side.
We were meeting the van crew at Haneda, so that would have meant two luggage transfers, either by us, or by service.
The bigger point is that the subway is SO good in Tokyo, that any neighborhood in Central Tokyo is EASILY accessible from another. I wouldn’t camp in any one single neighborhood as there’s great stuff strewn all over Central Tokyo.
In defense of Ginza, Tokyo is an oddly interesting town. Things get clustered. For example, all the best ski shops are in the same neighborhood. Ditto all the knife makers and cooking supplies. If luxury consumption is your thing, you’d be hard pressed to outdo Ginza. I don’t think NYC or Paris even have the density of lux.
For a variety of travel tips and information on Japan, go to Youtube search and type in Kensho Quest. I have been to Japan numerous times but always find interesting and practical tips from them.
We stayed in Yokohama instead of Tokyo, partly because my son was in Yokuska so it was easy to go in either direction. We had lunch at a hotel near the Imperial Palace that was very fancy. Looked lovely if you wanted to spend the money! Our last night in Japan we ended up staying at the Haneda airport hotel which turned out to be a great decision. We had a fabulous view of Mount Fuji from our bedroom and an even better from the breakfast area of the hotel. And it was great to be at the correct terminal without having to deal with any sort of transportation.
I don’t know if I’m too late to help but a couple of notes:
If you have an iphone, you can get the Suica or PASMO card onto your apple wallet (I don’t know if it can be done in android). This will free you from having to buy transit tickets and just refill (pretty much instantly if you’re connected to the internet). BUT it will also be usable as a payment card at many stores and restaurants, especially the FamilyMart, 7-11, etc. We went towards the end of last year with the electronic Suica in the apple wallet and a credit card, and we barely used our cash.
You probably know this but the convenience stores (FamilyMart, 7-11, etc) are great. The 7-11 ATMs have no additional fees so if you have an ATM card with no foreign transaction fees, you can get cash completely fee free from 7-11 (post offices work too I believe but 7-11s are ubiquitous). These “combinis” (convenience stores) also have reasonably good food (onigiri is shipped fresh every single morning to each store) and other fast-ish foods. Good for a quick meal or one on the go if you’re in a rush.
For Tokyo, we like to stay in Ueno. A little more quiet but lots of stores (and a zoo!) within walking distance. It’s more everyday vs Shinjuku or Ginza, but somewhat more relaxing for us.
It’s a little out of your way but Hakone area for hot springs, black eggs, nature, and views of Mt Fuji if you have time
Osaka has a March sumo basho… (baseball season starts on March 29 unfortunately so that’s probably too late for you)
Last but not least, we didn’t do it but our friends rented out a taxi for the day to schlep them around Kyoto to all the temples they were targeting. We did transit (subways, buses) but the subway system isn’t that extensive in Kyoto, and traffic can get pretty bad, and the walks can be long. If it’s within the budget, a taxi for a day might solve some logistics issues (but of course at some more cost).
I hope all you travelers have a blast. I’m a little bit jealous
On a Kyoto trip in 2014 (business trip for my husband), I took two half day tours on my own. Felt safe, saw a lot. Also went out on my own on the bus (with tip from concierge). Staying near the train station was really convenient.
A lot of the nice temples in Kyoto are actually in the outskirts so a tour might be easier. We did the Moss Temple on our own, but missed some of the other ones. It was a second visit to Kyoto, so I knew I’d seen some of them even if I could barely remember them!
Thanks for the details. A couple of questions below if you don’t mind.
Will this work everywhere the cards are used or in some places are they not setup to accept the iphone wallet instead still? Any practical difference between the two cards or are they interchangeable?
By instantly, does that mean, for example, if the fare is the yen equivalent to $4 and you have $ left, that it will allow you through having instantly replenished its balance or is it still something that requires manual user intervention?
(Side note, if their infrastructure has RFID reaers to speak to phones, why can’t it handle just letting you pay in real time from your phone like the NYC subways – why the need to top off a separate debit card, even if a virtual one?)
I’ve looked into taxis as a backup option if we’re inconvenient to the metro or any other reason and at least if using the Uber app to hail the taxis, it seems like they max out at capacity for 4 people. We are 5. Elsewhere, I can get an UberXL or a taxi that is a minivan with capacity for 5. Is that not a thing in Japan? And if so, is there any short-notice solution for a group of 5 short of privately getting a full van driver for the day?
A lot of people discuss usng the shipping services to move your luggage from location to location but I haven’t been able to find out how this works for a group like us that will need the luggage every day. It would be super convenient, for example, to ship our luggage from Tokyo to Hiroshima since we will be checking out in the morning and spending all morning and early afternoon in Tokyo and ideally would have then gone straight to the Tokyo Station after the activities and departed for Hiroshima. But seems like these services are at least 1 day and maybe 2 to different cities. How do people go without their luggage for days?
Alternatively, what do people think is the best solution for a day like what I described above. We’re staying in West Shinjuku, so it would be super inconvenient and time consuming to return to the hotel to pick up our bags before then heading back over to Tokyo Station for the train. Perhaps we instead take the luggage to the train station in the morning and check our bags for half a day then have them there when we return for the train? Still inconvenient, but less so. Or is there a way to have a service pick them up at the hotel and have them waiting for check out at the train station later?
Separate idea – if we rent a private driver for part of that day, can the bags all safely stay in the car with the driver?
I used the Tokyo example above, but we’ll face a similar issue on our transition day from Hiroshima to Kyoto.
Re: refill, you need to manually do it but it’s pretty fast as in under a minute or two. If you don’t have enough for the fare, you’ll need to step aside, manually add more and then wait a touch before you can try again.
Putting it in your iPhone wallet and turning on express setting (or something to that effect) will allow you to scan your phone over the reader and it should register. This was enabled in all the stations we went through.
In terms of stores and restaurants, you should look for a suica sticker on the door/window/register area. Or just ask “Suica?” and they should be able to figure out what you’re asking.
Here is an online guide. I don’t know if it’s the best but it seems to cover the basics:
I’ll look into the taxi thing a bit more. I thought I recall it being discussed in some TripAdvisor listing but perhaps elsewhere. It seems to be a decently common practice. I’ll report back.
FWIW, here’s our locational itinerary. Haven’t committed to activities yet. This reflected the preferences of my 5 family members, including 3 late teen to mid-20’s kids on where they wanted to spend the most time and how they wanted to break up our travel transition times…
Day 1: Fly out of NYC in the morning.
Day 2: Arrive in Tokyo mid-afternoon on the second day: Arrive at Haneda. By the time we get through everything at the airport and transfer to our hotel in Shinjuku, it will be dinner time. Probably will be wiped but if not we may walk over to Kabukicho to check it out at night.
Day 3-4: Full days of activities in Tokyo.
Day 5: Check out of hotel. Morning and early afternoon activities in Tokyo. Depart mid-afternoon for the 4-4.5 hour train to Hiroshima. Arrive in the evening.
Day 6: Check out of Hiroshima hotel and spend most of the full day in Hiroshima but take the train in the evening to Kyoto.
Day 7-9: Three full days of activities in or in day-trip range of Kyoto.
Day 10: Check out and take the train to Tokyo and transfer to the airport for departure. Because of the direct Tokyo to NYC route, we’re schedule to arrive home about 20 minutes before we departed Tokyo on the same day (on paper – we realize it will be a grueling day in reality).
So basically 3 nights/2.5 usable days in Tokyo, 4 nights/3 usable days in Kyoto(/Osaka) and 1 night/0.75 usable days in Hiroshima, plus travel time half way around the world twice…
This uses literally every bit of every day of college freshman’s spring break. Fortunately he goes to school in NYC and he has only one class on his first day back. The kids voted to bypass Kyoto for Hiroshima and backtrack to Kyoto later versus doing Hiroshima last or as a long day trip because they preferred to have the longest train ride in the middle of the trip instead of near either end.
Re: electronic suica, when we went you had to use a Mastercard (not visa) to refill. The Apple card is a Mastercard so you can use that (or apply and get it approved relatively quickly… no annual fee and can add additional users electronically)
The electronic suica also works on vending machines
The driver we had stayed in/with the van the entire time and said we could leave whatever we wanted in it. There were just 5 of us but there was space for more passengers, including 5th. If you travel with fairly compact luggage, it could fit in the vehicle with the passengers.
Yeah maybe others (like HImom)can give you a better lead re: taxi tours. My friend just said they arranged it with a taxi company, but looking now there seems to be a range of services/companies of which I am not familiar.
We did use MK taxi for just regular rides, and it does seem they have decent reviews online for tours. The reviews say that they can walk with you and explain things but I’m sure you can ask them to just drop you off and wait as well.
Oh and their medium and large taxis can handle 5 passengers while the small ones can only handle 4. We had 5 as well and rode those med/large taxis without issue although my kids were smaller then. If you’re traveling with luggage, I’d guess that a van size would work better.
The shipping service (takkyubin) can be sent to airports and hotels but yeah that no luggage for a day thing is tough to deal with. Our last trip we used it and just threw a days worth of clothes and gear into a day bag and shipped the rest. It may help in some situations.
