January 2, 2015

5 Travel Tips to Japan

For full itinerary of the 9D8N Hiroshima & Kyushu Area trip, check it out HERE

#1 Plan your trip
If you are planning to cover places, trip-planning is very important. Open the map and circle which area you wish to cover. Plan your itinerary from there.

#2 Get your JR Rail Pass
If you think you will be travelling a lot on trains (not subways ya), get the JR Rail Pass. You can get it from Japan Travel Bureau in Amoda Building, KL. There are a few types of JR rail passes depending on which area you wish to cover and explore, eg: Hokkaido, East Japan, West Japan, Kyushu and Shikoku. I got the JR Rail Pass Nationwide which allowed me to travel from north to south, east to west. Basically, the whole Japan, unlimited on the JR Railway. This pass covers the entire Japan Railway JR system including some buses and ferries and bullet trains too. I hopped on numerous shinkansen/ bullet train ride with JR Rail Pass but only limited to HIKARI, SAKURA, KODAMA and TSUBAME bullet trains. The pass comes in 7, 14 and 21 consecutive days. I bought the 7days pass as I was travelling for a total of 7 days + 2 days of travelling in air. And yes it is so lot worth it with the JR Rail Pass if you are travelling a lot and covering many places. Check the price here. They accept Japanese Yen and RM (after conversion).

Of course, you must do all the homework on each bullet train schedule (shinkansen) you would like to take especially if there is a need to transit. Bear in mind, the train arrive on time and leave on time.

#3 Learn a bit of their language
Brush up a little with their basic conversation and it can be helpful especially asking for direction. If you know Chinese character, it will be a plus point as their Kanji is slightly similar to the Chinese character. 无料 = Free / FOC in Japanese!!!

#4 Pack light
It is always advisable to pack light when travelling in Japan especially if you are hopping on and off the trains very frequently, changing hotel every night and when you are stopping by a place to explore. Pack light allows you to get the coin locker easily at the train station (if you are just stopping by to explore that area for few hours).

There are more small and medium size coin lockers than the huge one at the station. But you know lar, there are so many things to buy in Japan. How to pack light wer?! Of course there is huge locker too but it is always taken.

#5 Japanese brand skin care/ make up is always cheaper here
Save some of your luggage space for their skin care/ make up. It’s always cheaper in Japan than in KL. My aunt got her SKII skin care at 20 – 30% off from the drug store. Maybe they are on promotion or something, not too sure but definitely so much cheaper. The Shiseido Senka I bought is about 40 – 50% cheaper ler. So, make your buying list before flying off, if they are so much cheaper, just buy!!!