Three weeks in Japan ex UK. this is my first attempt at a long form Trip Report and it will only work if I use my mobile and then only with WiFi here have a mi-fi device but who knows)



This is a long awaited trip - we expected to go in 2020 but we all know what happened then. Fast forward to 2023 and thanks to FT we got a bargain fare to australia and our journey with LHG/ Miles & More begins. With hindsight it was amazing how the stars aligned

• a stupid Booking.com offer to get lots of miles
• A clever “RTW” ticket to NZ
• A ridiculously cheap SQ F trip to
• Earn enough miles for Mrs ST and I to do a long haul “somewhere”
• And last, two reward seats in J LHR to NRT (booked almost a year ago just before the move to dynamic pricing)

Our long term planning and luck was in. We are on our way. 21 days in Japan.



We head immediately from Tokyo west to Kyushu prefecture on Jetstar and then work our way back to Tokyo on trains and buses. We wanted to get a mix of must sees and non-touristy things. We also didn’t want to spend all our time on the move so have tried to get three or four nights in most places.



Our plan is Fukuoka - Hiroshima - Okayama - Kyoto - Kanazawa - Alps - Tokyo.



Nearly all the travel is sorted (we are hardened self-bookers); one bus trip can’t be booked. We’ve generally gone for Japanese chain hotels in cities and for ryokens in smaller places. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the cost, perhaps with the exception of the half board ryokens.



And today we are off on step 1. LX LHR - ZRH - NRT.