Traveling to Japan was one of the most exciting (and scary) trips of our lives. After telling Rob that I’d always wanted to go (and having harboured a secret dream of going there for my honeymoon one day), he treated us to flights and we got busy planning. We wanted to explore Tokyo but also see a few other places outside of the city, but we only had a week to fit everything in! That called for some serious organisation.

Why did we want to visit Japan so badly? Rob loves the culture; from video games to Manga, and I was keen to learn more about their history, as well as immersing myself in a busy city full of life that I’d only seen in films. We were very nervous; neither of us knew any Japanese or had travelled to Asia before. As a vegetarian I was also worried about finding food options for me. However, Tokyo turned out to be a fantastic introduction to an incredibly beautiful country and is definitely our favourite trip that we’ve taken together so far.

Choosing your airline

We flew to Narita airport from Heathrow via Amsterdam, opting for KLM. They were great and - hot tip! - book as early as you can to get the two seats together at the back of the plane. Having our own space on a 15 hour flight was MUCH appreciated.

Our friends recently flew with Japan Airlines and really rated them too. They’d just got engaged and the flight crew gave them a little parcels of presents to celebrate which I absolutely loved. Such a nice thing to do for customers!

Japan Rail Pass

Once at Narita airport we headed to the JR Station to swap our vouchers for our official Japan Rail passes that we’d ordered online - these saved us a lot of money. If you’re looking at visiting places outside Tokyo and using the JR railway we’d definitely recommend checking them out & seeing if it’s worth it for you. At over £200, they were a big lump of our travel budget but once we’d realised how expensive travel is out there (because the trains are so quick and efficient and generally amazing!) we worked out that they would save us so much money. It meant that we were able to use the fast train to get to and from Narita airport, as well as take trips to Kyoto and most of the way to Mount Fuji.

The trains in Japan were a dream (especially compared to British trains!). Everything was on time, clean and efficient. I actually left my phone on an express train that had already left the station when I realised! Terrified that I’d lost three days worth of holiday photos, I ran back to the station and it had been picked up, processed and locked away safely in the 20 minutes the train had sat on the platform. I was ridiculously thankful!

Navigating the Metro

Using our rail passes we booked onto the next Narita Express to Tokyo Station. Once there, we took the metro Keihintohoku Line to Okachimachi as our hotel was a 5 minute walk from there. We found the metro really easy to use ONCE we’d worked it out. Even as Londoners used to public transport, we suffered from quite a culture shock finding ourselves in the middle of a crazy busy station. We soon found out that we needed to exit Tokyo Station (as we’d arrived there by train) and re-enter once we’d bought out passes from the station entrance. Being jet-lagged and attempting to read the intricate map and locate our stops, and then work out how to buy our metro cards was one situation I don’t want to repeat ever again, there may have been some tears, but we worked it out in the end and from that moment on we were fine. I found traveling around the city one of the nicest experiences of our trip there.

Accommodation

We stayed at the Super Hotel Akihabara Suehirocho in Akihabara, the ‘Electric City.’ Rob was keen to stay in the middle of videogame land, it had great reviews, was within our budget and close to the train station. A large skyscraper, you could see the familiar yellow logo of the hotel from quite a distance which was very handy when we got lost! We were given the option to choose to have a traditional Japanese room with a futon to sleep on, but we opted for an ‘American room’ with a double bed in case we couldn’t sleep. Although comfortable, the room was tiny, but that’s standard for Tokyo!

You also got a choice of food at the breakfast buffet with ‘American’ style sausages and bread, as well as typical Japanese breakfast options like sticky white rice with raw egg and Korean kimchi. It was delicious and we soon found ourselves opting for the local foods every morning.

Our advice is to look at what it is you want to do and choose that area of Tokyo. You’ll have to travel around the city as it’s large and sprawling, so the Metro is unavoidable. However each district has it’s own personality and flavour - Akihabara is quite touristy, so there are lots of restaurants, bars and attractions which made it a fun base.

Eating Out

I was really worried about what we would eat when we got out there. I’ve been a vegetarian for ten years and Rob is notoriously fussy about food. We needn’t have worried - it was affordable, fresh and amazing each time.

Lunch is the cheapest time to eat as restaurants usually sell their dishes at a fraction of the price compared to the evening. As a result, it’s very rare for the locals to bring their own lunch into the office when it’s more affordable to pop out for their food. Most places we visited offered a paired down lunch menu of their most popular dishes, often accompanied with green tea, miso soup and some kind of rice or noodle. Often the kitchen is in the middle of the restaurant so you can literally see your food being cooked while you wait. On our first day in Akihabara in our cloud of jetlag, we ended up strolling into a random restaurant in the basement of a nondescript building near our hotel. We ended up paying the equivalent of £12 for both our lunches of fresh tuna, rice, vegetables, soup and tea. It was one of the best meals that I’ve had in my life. No exaggeration.

We did end up visiting CoCo ICHIBANYA a fair few times. When you’re hungry and just want to fuel up for the rest of the day living as a tourist, we really believe that you can’t get better than a plate piled high with delicious katsu. It’ a chain curry house where you can customise your katsu curry with the level of spice, how much rice, and what meat or vegetables you’d like added from a choice of over 40 toppings. It was ridiculously tasty, filling and again - surprisingly cheap. They are all over the city (we even found one in Kyoto) so look out for them.

We wanted to try everything, from sushi, ramen and everything in between. We even visited an izakaya bar where we tried the Japanese ‘drunk food,’ basically mini pizzas, chips and, again, sushi. The izakaya bar is an after work, casual place to hang out and have a drink, similar to an English pub in many ways, except that they usually impose a strict two hour limit.

We’d also recommend trying out convenience store food. They are all over the city and so different from what you’d get from your local 7-11 at home. At most times of the day and night you can head there when you’re feeling peckish and buy semi-nutritious meals and snacks for really good prices. We started using any train trip we were taking as an excuse to visit one and stock up on yummy snacks to travel with, like delicious onigiri or hot egg rolls.

Pocket WiFi

We ordered a pocket WiFi device online before our trip that we were able to collect up from the airport post office when we landed at Narito. We kept it with us the whole trip and were able to access everything we needed, from Instagram to Google maps, dropping it back at the post office on the way home. Absolutely essential if you don’t have a data package on your phone to use out there. There are quite a few to choose from, but we went for one from Japan Wireless, and can vouch for them being easy and affordable way to ensure instant WiFi for your phones, tablets and laptops.

The Language

Last but (definitely) not least is our advice to try and learn a little of the language before you go. Download DuoLingo, or buy a travel book with some phrases (we loved the Lonely Planet’s guide) so that you can at least say some of the basics. The Japanese are super polite, to the point where they may even say ‘thank you’ three times in one sentence! Being able to at least show that you’re trying to communicate in their language is a huge sign of respect.

Most people know konnichiwa which is ‘hello’, and then you have Arigato gozaimasu, which is a very polite way of saying ‘thank you.’ But if you just take one word away from this, it should be sumimasen, meaning ‘excuse me,’ ‘sorry,’ and even, you guessed it, ‘thank you.’