All my Japan travel tips

Sending luggage, onsen stays and the joys of konbini

Growing up, I visited Japan every year to see my grandparents, who lived not far from Tokyo. My mother took us in every season except summer, which is too hot and humid and she never enjoyed. When I was 12, I even took a plane by myself to Tokyo and spent the summer with my grandparents, learning Japanese and enjoying my grandmother’s food, and sweating. Every year, until my grandfather passed away, on this day in 2005, I have made a trip to Japan.

It’s been harder to visit since my grandparents passed away — after my grandfather’s death, my grandmother moved back to her fishing village town in southern Japan, near Hiroshima, but also passed away ten months later. Partly it’s because their home, and the temple that they looked after (my grandfather was a Buddhist priest and the custodian of the same temple since my mother was a child), was always a base. A very special base, a rooted base, from where we would begin and end all our family trips to Japan. Relatives and friends would come to see us there, we didn’t have to go anywhere. My mother often took us to other parts of Japan too — she loves the mountains, she took us to Nikko, to Hakone, up to Hokkaido in the snow — and we always spent time in Tokyo, which was an easy 45 minute train ride away.

But this recent trip was a very different one for me as I was looking to visit very specific producers all over Japan to document for my upcoming cookbook, The Japanese Pantry, and I had also decided to bring the whole family, venturing to parts of Japan that I had never visited before.

The main places we visited this time were:

Tokyo > Saijo > Onomici > Takamatsu > Shodoshima > Nagano

We spent time on beaches and islands and then went up into the mountains. It’s not a traditional or easy itinerary, as I mentioned, I was chasing very specific visits of artisanal producers so we covered a lot of ground in the short time we had. We drove over the Seto insland sea’s series of bridges to visit the oldest vinegar producer in Japan in the charming town of Onomici — 400 years old, this place has been miraculously spared by earthquakes and atomic bombs (it is 20 minutes from Hiroshima) and a persimmon farm in the mountains north of Onomici. We ate snapper sashimi, lots of udon noodles (Kagawa prefecture is udon land) and somen noodles (Shodoshima’s specialty are these impossibly thin noodles), okonomiyaki, dried persimmons and soy sauce ice cream.

From Takamatsu (which has the most beautiful garden, Ritsurin, above), we took a ferry to Shodoshima, the second largest island in the inland sea, where I had my heart set on visiting Yamaroku Shoyu for their artisanal soy sauce, made in 150 year old barrels, and the Kadoya toasted sesame oil factory which you can smell all over the island. We pulled somen noodles and ate oysters pulled right out of the sea. In Nagano, I learned about freeze dried kanten jelly (this blew my mind, I will write more about this soon), made miso over a fire pit and visited tea farmers in the mountains of Tenryu who showed me how to make yubeshi or miso-stuffed yuzu, a specialty of this time of the year.

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In the south it was still very much a balmy autumn, along with the explosion of autumn leaves, while in Nagano up in the mountains we got snow on our last day! We spent a lot of time around the Seto inland sea and it’s a very special place, I would love to explore more and spend more time here. If you look it up on the map, it’s a body of water that separates Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu (the main islands of Japan, together with Hokkaido), borders 11 prefectures (including my grandmother’s prefecture, Yamaguchi) and has over 700 islands in it. Have you seen Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film Ponyo? It was inspired by a fishing village on the Seto inland sea.

This beautiful region, also known as Setouchi, has long been famous as a trade route and for its mild climate, which makes it the perfect place for cultivating fruit, in particular citrus, and nori seaweed (you can see the farms like stitches in the flat sea below).

It took months to plan this trip and I would do it all again in a heartbeat — but with more time in every spot, two weeks was really too short.

If you’re thinking of visiting Japan soon (by the sounds of it many of you are!) here are some of my tips for planning and traveling in Japan.

Japan Travel Tips

Google translate

Many businesses have websites that are only in Japanese, which makes even beginning your trip planning really tricky. Use google to translate the page (the three little dots next to your thumbnail on the top right will take you to the “translate” command) and if you can’t find what you’re looking for, at least get the email and email them directly with your query.

Look up the local tourism office

I have found the local tourism offices of various towns and prefectures so useful — translated pages, listings for local translators or guides if you need them, tips on the local specialties (the Kagawa one for example tells you all about the Udon taxis, a taxi service that takes you to try the famous udon in the area!). I have written before also about the local tourism office in Chino, Nagano, which is super helpful at organising stays and activities unique to their mountains.

Stay in a hotel, or even better, a ryokan

Don’t use Airbnb. This could be a post on its own but basically, Airbnb is problematic in Japan, as elsewhere, but it also didn’t take off like it did everywhere else. It’s used only by tourists/foreigners and is really limited in Japan — for a million reasons I’d say it’s not the best option for staying in Japan. So-called business hotels (a simple/no frills, economical options) can actually be quite good, one of the best places we stayed on this trip was a business hotel that had minature rooms (also a good reason to not have a big suitcase, literally there was no space to open anything larger than a carry on!) but an excellent Japanese buffet breakfast, complimentary coffee (those genius coffee filter bags!) and green tea in the rooms and a glorious in-house onsen (Marco says this was perhaps his favourite onsen). It was about 70 euro a night, breakfast included. A Ryokan is a typical Japanese inn and quite often, you may get the bonus of having an onsen (hot spring) on the property too (See also onsen down below!). Typical Japanese rooms are on a tatami mat and the futon beds are made up while you’re having dinner or an onsen, so when you come back to your room you’re all ready for bed. If there’s a choice between Western beds and Japanese futons, I always choose Japanese futons.

Onsen

We planned our trip so that we were staying in onsen for practically our whole trip except for the Tokyo part! If you aren’t doing this too, then you are missing out on one of the best things about Japan. It is my favourite thing to do in the cooler weather in particular. Onsen hotels/ryokan typically include breakfast and dinner (like a mezza pensione in Italy) and so are priced per person rather than per room. I love this option of not having to think about where to eat or what to order, getting to taste local specialties and also eating dinner in your pyjamas!

If you’ve never been before, make sure to read up about how to do it before hand (most hotels will have a handy set of rules and regulations posted somewhere). You’ll be given a set of pyjamas (like a samue or a jinbei) or yukata (cotton kimono) and in the winter also a thick, padded jacket to wear over the top, along with slippers for wearing around the property all day, even for eating breakfast or dinner in. People with tattoos may be asked to cover them with bandages (some hotels supply these) or to not go in — email to find out before you go.

The onsen are divided by male/female baths as you bathe nude (in places with outdoor baths/views they often switch around the female and male baths at different times of the day so everyone can enjoy the baths). Learn the characters for male 男 and female 女 to be sure! They are typically open until very late at night and very early in the morning until about 10am or so, so there’s time for a hot bath before breakfast and one before bed.

Pocket wifi

You can save on your roaming service by renting pocket wifi from the airport you arrive in for the duration of your time in Japan. I have used Japan Wireless often in the past and it’s so easy, they supply you with an addressed envelope to return it to them and you can pop it in the red post box at Departures in the airport (and there you connect to the airport wifi).

Travel light

I cannot stress this enough, especially if you are thinking of going on a train or the subway. There is often no space for large suitcases (you can reserve carriages on the Shinkansen that have space for suitcases) and if changing train stations you’re often going to have to deal with stairs. Carry on sized suitcases are ideal (or whatever size you can easily carry yourself up and down stairs!). If you happen to be in the Tokyo subway during rush hour it can be frighteningly crowded. The locals do not go around with lots of luggage, so do the same.

One way you can save space in your suitcase, don’t bother with pyjamas or just bring a comfy t-shirt that can double for sleeping in. If you’re planning on staying in ryokan/onsen hotels, pyjamas are supplied, as are all toiletries you could think of. If you visit an onsen, you have to wash yourself before you go in so you’ll find a range of soaps, shampoos, conditioner, everything you can imagine, already there.

Send your luggage with the black cat

On that note, the secret to easy travel in Japan is Yamato Transport (takkyubin), a courier service that allows you to send anything — something you left behind at a hotel, your heavy Tokyo shopping, luggage, bottles of vinegar (some personal examples!), you name it — same day or next day service. Often your hotel will do this for you but you can also go to the nearest konbini (7 Eleven, Family Mart, Lawsons etc) to do it there, if you don’t have a black cat office nearby. It cost me about 16 euro to send our largest suitcase forward from Tokyo to Nagano for the second part of our trip with all our heavier cold weather things in it that we didn’t need for the first part of our trip. I also sent this suitcase from Nagano directly to Haneda airport to pick up on the day of our departure and it couldn’t have been easier or smoother. NO carrying luggage to the airport! It’s one of the things I love most about traveling in Japan.

Rent a car

If you are traveling through rural Japan, or wanting to visit producers like I did, then you will likely need a car — quite similarly to Italy. Car rental is relatively cheap, just note that in Japan they drive on the left side of the road and you will need to organise an International Drivers Licence. If you’re not into driving, there is reliable public transport or taxis (but taxis do get expensive) but I would suggest looking into the routes before you lock in visits.

Fly

Ok I would normally say take the train! Especially in Italy. But Japan is SO BIG. Have you ever seen it superimposed on a map of Europe? If you are only going a short distance and the Shinkansen covers it, then sure, the train is amazing. But if you’re traveling from north to south, consider flying to save time and money. We flew from Tokyo to Takamatsu and back (a one hour flight, as opposed to a 9 hour train ride) and it was fantastically smooth. We also noticed no foreigners at all in Tokyo Haneda domestic airport on this occasion so I take it not many people are thinking of flying but JAL has a special Explorer Pass on domestic flights for foreigners and even free domestic flights from travellers coming from certain countries (US, Australia, unfortunately Italy wasn’t on it).

Konbini culture

Beloved konbini (コンビニ, the word for convenience store) are your friend and they have everything you could imagine and more. Come for snacks, for stationary, for hot or cold drinks, wonderful Japanese face lotions, photocopying, the ATM, sending luggage (above), an extra pair of socks, or a bathroom break. Some of my favourite snacks here are rice crackers, onigiri, egg sandwiches (even from long before Anthony Bourdain made them iconic), green tea, black coffee, black sesame ice cream, and the hot nikuman (meat-filled bao buns) at the counter. If you’re jetlagged and awake at ungodly hours with children asking for food, then they are also your best friend as they are open 24 hours.

Pack comfortable, easy to take off shoes

Since shoes aren’t worn in Japanese homes (and often businesses), you might need to get used to taking off your shoes often, even in some restaurants you might have seating that is on traditional tatami so you won’t be allowed to wear shoes. Easy to remove (and put on) shoes are ideal and comfortable shoes if you’re doing a lot of walking (hello Tokyo!) are a good idea. Also — pack your cutest socks.

Cash

It’s not impossible to not go around without cash but it is handy, especially for vending machines (you can get more than just soft drinks in vending machines in Japan — you can get even hot things, from miso soup, matcha lattes and that childhood favourite, corn soup) or public phones — I had to do this to call a taxi in a remote area! I also find our Italian cards weren’t always accepted in shops and taking cash out of ATMs is often problematic, not all of them take our Italian cards — the best bet is usually a konbini ATM rather than a bank one. So if you already have some cash on you, change it at the airport, old school style.

Food

Finally: don’t get hung up on finding “the best” place to eat xyz. I think it is all so good, you literally cannot go wrong! Even a bowl of train station soba can be great. my favourite (nostalgic) thing to do is a walk through the department store’s basement food hall for wonderful bento boxes, or for their top floor cafes, where my grandparents often took us for lunch out in Tokyo. Just follow your instinct.

Eating out in Japan is also so incredibly cheap. As we were on the move all the time (with kids) we often weren’t able to to go to particular places to eat, we just went to the closest place that had enough space for us. A huge bowl of steaming Kagawa udon noodles with DIY toppings for the equivalent of 3.50 euro. A breakfast of comforting tonkatsu curry rice — one of the biggest servings I’ve ever seen — where you punch your order in on a machine, came to 800 yen (4.90 euro). A roadside okonomiyaki joint where we spent about 6-7 euro per person on these enormous towers of Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. A tatami mat experience in front of the Seto sea, where we had an incredibly fresh snapper sashimi set with soup, rice, pickles and a huge platter of the crunchiest tempura was 1800 yen (11 euro) per person. They were all so memorable, so good. And if all else fails there are always Lawson’s egg sandwiches.

That said, here are some of my favourite Tokyo addresses!

Would you like more on Japan? See also:

Kappabashi, Tokyo’s Kitchen Street guide

A restorative trip to Nagano

Making tofu in the Mountains of Nagano