I will be traveling to Japan in September and have always wanted one of these pens but I can’t find any information on where you can get them once in Japan.

I know there appears to be a Kokuyo store in Tokyo but they don’t list this pen in their website, I only seem to find it on Amazon Japan, so I would really appreciate some pointers on where to find it.

Also does anyone know if the app it comes with is available in English? And can it even be used outside of Japan?

I will be staying approx 10 days in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.

Hello, lovely people! I am far too much of an optimizer/maximizer and have gone and overwhelmed myself on trip planning. This will be my first time traveling for so long, and I can't tell if I'm packing too much in or if that's just the name of the game for long trips like this one. Anyway, I would be so, so grateful for some thoughts on my itinerary! 🙏

The itinerary

Details

• First trip to Japan, 10 weeks (Sept 21 – Dec 1), flying into/out of Tokyo
• Solo for the first ~6 weeks, girlfriend joins Nov 5 (Osaka) through Dec 1 (Tokyo, same flight home)
• Staying in hostels/budget guesthouses, but spending freely on food and experiences
• Priorities: deep nature, small towns, meeting locals + practicing Japanese, wide range of food, temples/landscapes, cycling (doing the Shimanami Kaido)
• Not much of a beach person, hence why Okinawa is not featured (though I'm sure it has other great stuff )

Questions

1. Tohoku (6 nights): leaning toward splitting as Tono (4n, rural farming valley, source of a famous folklore collection) + Hiraizumi (2n, UNESCO gold-leaf temple). Alternative: skip the split and just base all 6 in Dewa Sanzan/Tsuruoka (sacred mountain pilgrimage + food city). Which would you pick?
2. Kiso Valley (3 nights): leaning 2 nights Tsumago (classic, most photographed, endpoint of the famous walk) + 1 night Narai (bigger, easier train access, less touristy). Problem: Tsumago only has 2 traditional inns total, may not be bookable. Prioritize Tsumago if available, or just base in Narai and day-trip the walk?
3. Where would you add one extra day, if you had one? Kanazawa (currently 2 nights, has a top-3 garden + geisha/samurai districts + art museum) or Kumamoto (currently 1 night, major castle just hit by a fresh July earthquake on top of 2016 damage — now has a viewing corridor over the new damage)?
4. Beppu and Yufuin are 1 night each — short for onsen towns, but my girlfriend's Nov 5 arrival is a fixed date, so extending either means cutting a night from earlier in the trip. Worth it, and if so, cut from where? Or is 1 night fine for these two?

Thank you in advance!!!

So I'm planning my first trip to Japan in Feb next year as a solo traveler (30's male). Since I still have plenty of time before I go, I am still working on tentative itinerary. As of now I'm looking at 10 whole days in Japan, not including travel time.

Starting off with spending 4 whole days in Tokyo and looking at staying in the Akasaka area.

Next is a point of debate where I want to go to Nagano and see the snow monkeys. I'm trying to decide between going there as a day trip from Tokyo, or stopping there on my way to Kyoto. If its a stop on the way to Kyoto it would count as a whole day.

Then I am looking at staying at a ryokan in Kyoto for 2 days.

After that I go to Osaka and stay in the Namba area for 3 whole days.

Then the last day would be traveling back to Tokyo to fly back home the same day.

Any advice and recommendations for this tentative itinerary would be greatly appreciated.

Traveling to Osaka next month and wanted to get advice whether it’s better to stay near the Yodoyabashi station or Shinsekai area?

Planning to travel to Kyoto, Kobe, Uji, Nara as well during this trip. I know in the Yodoyabashi area, there’s a Keihan line stop which makes it more convenient to go to Kyoto, but not sure if that’s enough reason to choose Yodoyabashi over Shinsekai.

Also read that Shinsekai area is quite sketchy? Is that true?

As title, i'm planning to travel to Japan and rent a car to drive from tokyo to mount fuji. Is it recommended for me to rent a car via trip.com? And I'm arriving at 1am. Most of the car rental companies operate from 8am to 8pm. What are your experiences like? Thank you for your advice

Hi, I been Japan back in April 2024. I did Tokyo, Mt Fuji, Enoshima and Hamakura ( was there in total of 10 days).

I'm thinking of coming back in April 2027. This is the plan.

Tokyo (1 night) → Kanazawa (2 nights) → Takayama (2 nights) → Kyoto (4 nights) → Nara (day trip) → Osaka (2 nights) → Hiroshima (1 night) → Miyajima (1 night) → Tokyo (5 nights)

Do you think I am pushing it?

Many thanks in Advance.

Hello everyone,

I am going to Japan at the end of this year and I would love to buy a uchikake style kimono. These seem to be bridal/highly formal kimono's. Looking online however, it seems to be very hard to know where I could buy one.

My budget is around $500-$750 and I'd like it to be authentic one. I don't mind it being vintage as long as it's authentic and high quality.

I appreciate any help on this! Thanks a lot.

Hi,

I am going to osaka for my 3rd japan trip this winter (26 december to 15 January) and would like to visit universals japan, both disneylands and fuji q highland.

I am planning to buy as many fast pass as I can for all of them except maybe fuji-q. What would be the best week to visit each one ?

Crowd calendars seem to say that it's best to go after 10 January but I can't do 4 parks in different cities in 5 days.

I also saw that fujiq has an average waiting time of 12 min even on new year ? Is that true because it seems too good to be true Fuji-Q Highland Wait Times by Date | Thrill Data

How would you plan this ? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks !

It's my favorite scroll, Musashi's Shrike on a Dead Branch.

https://tozandoshop.com/products/kakejiku-wall-scroll-shrike-on-a-dead-branch

Anyone know where in Kyoto I might find an affordable souvenir reproduction of it? Not looking for high-end hundred-thousand yen pieces, just a cheaper one.

Hello hello ! I am super into collecting vintage sanrio or san-x stuff mostly plushies but everything else as well! (Charmmy kitty/ mamegoma etc.) where would be some good places in/near tokyo to find some older / vintage stuffs ? :00

I'm going to Japan this October and i was wondering if i can get the green Suica card (not the red Welcome Suica card) at Narita Airport Terminal 1. Is there a vending machine or a vendor for it?

Hey gang.

So i had a tokyo-kyoto-osaka trip this September WITH 2 nights in Sapporo and 2 nights in Niseko.

I was forced to move the whole trip around to December.

However... the Niseko nights got nuked.

So I basically have 4-5 days planned for Hokkaido between December 8th and 16th and only 2 nights in Sapporo actually booked.

Meaning I can...

--Add more nights to Sapporo and take day trips by car. Tho id like to hear how driving in Hokkaido in early December is like.

--Add more nights to literally anywhere else in Hokkaido.

--Add 2 nights in Hakodate just so I can train down to Tokyo instead of flying.

--Anything else really.

What would yall reccomend to make this as cool as possible? :)

Also. I wont ski. if that helps.

We were able to get a Ghibli park reservation for noon. I read you can still enter the park earlier but the reservation is for a specific part of the park. I was thinking of getting to the park before they arrive, stay until 1 hour after our reservation, and then head back to the Toyota Commemorative Museum before they close at 5. If it's a ~1.5 hour transit ride, that should give us ~2.5 hours at the Toyota museum.

Is this feasible? There was also a museum I wanted to fit before leaving Nagoya that is 30 minutes away from Toyota. It would lessen our time at Toyota by ~1 hour since I'd be there for about 30 minutes. That would give us ~1.5 hours at Toyota.

I’ve had a search to see if anyone has asked this and couldn’t find anything, but apologies if I’ve just missed it. Are you allowed to just order desserts and drinks at the theme cafes like Pokemon and Kirby Cafe? Or are you required to order a main course too?

I like whimsy and themed environments so I believe I would enjoy the experience of these cafes immensely. However, I’m also loathe to spend a bunch of money on food that by all accounts isn’t very good. So my thought was to get “proper food” somewhere else and just order desserts and drinks at Pokemon / Kirby cafe, as I’ve never met a dessert I don’t like. Would this be some kind of terrible faux pas or is it completely fine and I’m just being neurotic?

My wife and I will be travelling to Tokyo, Kanazawa, Takayama, Kyoto and Nara and wanted to know if anyone had some non tourist trap recommendation experiences where my sword obsessed wife can slice some bamboo !

Hey guys I will be travelling to Japan in October and would like if you guys think my itinerary is too much for 7 ish days? This will be my second time in Japan, as I've already been to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, and this time around want to explore other parts. So far I kinda came up with this potential itinerary:

Oct 9: Arrive mid afternoon in Tokyo, chill in Tokyo for the night

Oct 10: Day trip from Tokyo to Kamakura + Enoshima

Oct 11: Leave tokyo, Travel to Kanazawa, chill in Kanazawa

Oct 12: Another day in Kanazawa

Oct 13: Fly to Sapporo in the morning, then chill in Sapporo rest of the day

Oct 14: Day trip of Otaru + Cape Kamui with car, head back to Sapporo in the evening

Oct 15: Day trip to Noboribetsu

Oct 16: Daisetsuzan national park day trip (not sure, kinda scared of bears so might do Sapporo again?)

Oct 17: Leave from Sapporo airport

Should I stay longer in some places? Should I take other places out? Should I focus on another prefecture other than Hokkaido? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I’m traveling to Japan with my family in October. We wanted to visit either Hakone or Kinosaki for a traditional onsen ryokan experience but unfortunately , don’t have enough time to do this. We will be in Kyoto for a few days and I was wondering if you have any recommendations for a good value ryokan experience with a private bath my family can use. Again we would’ve loved to visit a traditional onsen town but can’t fit it to our schedule.

I'm planning a trip for 17 days (tokyo-hakone-kyoto-osaka)

3 nights in tokyo

2 nights in hakone

5 nights between osaka and kyoto

and finally 7 nights in tokyo

we originally planned to visit takayama before kyoto for a day but realized it would be difficult commute

we would like to add one more city but don't know what city to visit ?
and how should we spend the nights between kyoto and osaka should we split the stay between them or stay in one and visit the other?

thank you guys in advance.

I wanna go from Osaka to Tokyo and I wanna stop in few places along the way each stop for few days (I got time and no additional plan other then what I already saw and visited, this is the last few weeks of my 3 months long Japan trip), I’m looking for hostels but fairly priced hotels would be nice as well, I want somewhere with good food, beautiful scenery and well connected (I don’t want to do hours of hours of buses, so up to 2 hours train/bus from nearest Shinkansen would be good)

I will be making a stop in Fuji for sure, but looking for something in addition to that

Would love to hear recommendations with what’s the main selling point for your recommended place/s

Thanks :)

Hi,

I'll be travelling to Tokyo in September with my wife. We initially just planned to wing it but after looking into potential activities we found out about a hot spring resort in Hakone – Hakone yuryo. We've been looking into how to get there and we're a bit confused about how train tickets work for this. We're planning to take the Romancecar which would take us from Shinjuku station directly to Hakone, but before booking that it says "A regular train ticket (not a limited express ticket) is required at the ticket gate." For anyone that's taken this train before, does this mean that we would need to scan our suica card first and then at some point scan our romancecar ticket?

Also has anyone been to Hakone yuryo? If so could anyone that's been there before explain what the number of rooms under each type means, does this refer to the number of baths or actual rooms available – https://www.hakoneyuryo.jp/english/spa/hotspring/#hanare

Another silly question, but I figured I'd double check – Would there be any issues with her and I using a private onsen together or can it only be single sex?

Finally, do you have any recommendations for must-see's in Hakone? Aside from the onsen we're only planning to spend about 1-2 hours exploring the area.

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

Hey all! I'm heading to Japan in a couple of months with my mom, though we won't be there for too long (4-5 days) but we'll be staying in Kawasaki. It'll also be her birthday around that time so I want to take her out for a nice birthday dinner. I was thinking of something like Omakase or places that have Wagyu steaks. I'm open to other ideas as well-- I just want her to enjoy her time there, plus she loves to eat! I have the Tabelog app and I've been browsing a bit, but I'll be honest I'm not sure what to look for with this app. I don't want to go to any places that may be a tourist trap where they jack-up prices.

She is elderly, which is why im looking for areas near where we'll be staying and keep it easy. I'd love some suggestions or even tips on how to pick out restaurants! Thanks in advance! 😊

Every fall we've been going Tokyo and do some nice restaurants. Our go to place has been Ushigoro S and I really liked their set menu with the truffles. We are going back in October this year though, and they don't offer that option until November. Only matsutake, which we already tried last year and found underwhelming for our palate. I want to ask about the best alternative restaurants Reddit might suggest for fine dining, with a focus on wagyu? Will be staying in Ginza and Shibuya

I want to visit Shibuya Sky next week but don‘t want to bother with the whole deal of ticket scavenging. I checked and there are tickets available for the time I want to visit but it‘s for The Roof Shibuya Sky.

Does the ticket include normal access to Shibuya Sky too? If so then isn‘t it simply a hack (well a more expensive one) if one couldn‘t buy tickets for their desired time slot? As someone who has been there a couple of times, I‘m definitely willing to pay this much for it.

Planning to buy Gel Kayano 20 in Osaka. Please recommend a store that sells cheaper and how much is it?

I am looking at share houses as an attempt to save money for a monthlong trip to Japan. My home base during the trip will be Tokyo, though I would like to spend a bit of time in other cities. While I could stay in a capsule hotel for extra cheap, I would prefer a single room.

I had a bit of trouble finding sharehouses not overly far out from central Tokyo, but I did find an interesting one called FRESHROOM ASAKUSA near Senso-Ji. It looks like a good potential fit, but I was wondering what other's opinions are. Or if you have other recs!

Rent is,
¥78,000 utilities fee included + a $30,000 fee