How far can we wing it?
 

We are very excited about a two week trip to Japan in June. I've only ever been to Tokyo for business and it will be the first time for my spouse and our Japan-interested 16 year old daughter. We've got flights organized- IAD-NRT nonstop - ANA out and United home. We've also got three nights at the beginning and three nights at the end in Tokyo, staying at the Tokyo American Club. So, there's a week in the middle up for grabs. I am planning to get Japan Rail passes for that week, but we haven't really sketched out much of a plan, yet. How much can we play it by ear and fill in the blanks as we go that week? Are there any things we absolutely must plan and reserve in advance? We have a huge list of places we'd like to visit - way to many for the one week we will have, so we are a bit paralyzed in planning, and thought maybe making it up as we go along would be more fun. Smart or crazy? Some of our best travel experiences have been happenstance, but that goes out the window if it's stressful.

The Japan Rail Pass allows for a lot of spontaneity, since all trains, including the Shinkansen, have at least some, if not all, non-reserved seats.

I've even changed my mind about my destination in the middle of a trip.

However, since you have five months to plan, you have time to buy a guidebook and study it carefully. Japan is small, so you can cover a lot of ground in eight days.

The standard tourist attractions outside of Tokyo are Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Hakone, and Nikko, and those would make for a full eight days.

If you're staying at the American Club while in Tokyo, then you are not budget travelers, so it will be hard to go wrong on hotels. I've used booking.com in Japan, Korea, and Scandinavia, and I've found the users' ratings and photos to be accurate. It has hotels in all price ranges. The best thing about booking.com is that it allows cancellations up to 6PM local time the day before your scheduled stay, which is about the most spontaneity you can hope for.

I am all for spontaneity but with 3 of you I'd think some reservations would be a good thing. The nice thing is that even if you book rooms in, say, Osaka or Kyoto, with a Rail Pass those cities make very good home bases for explorations farther afield. Day trips abound - Kyoto -or- Osaka, Nara, Hiroshima, Himeji, Kanazawa and many others.

You should be aware that June is the monsoon (rainy) season and be ready for rainy days.

I wing it every trip. =D

Of course, I'm a single traveller -- as abmj-jr mentions, reservations might be a good idea for 3 people. That being said, if you make reservations for a rough area, you can leave the details up in the air. I.e., reservations in Kyoto for a few days, then decide what to do (including day trips to other cities) later.

+1 for booking.com; I use both it and hotels.com.

What's this huge list of places you have? Maybe some of us here can help you narrow it down a bit, or at least point you into certain directions for planning but not planning too much. ;)

>> since all trains, including the Shinkansen, have at least some, if not all, non-reserved seats.

Many "scenic" trains, and some Shinkansen are 100% reserved seat only.

One morning I arrived at Tokyo Station from the Sunrise Seto night train. Checked to see what Shinkansen I can get on to spend the half day. Well quite a few of those going north are 全車指定席 100% reserved seat only.

For hotels I use Jalan and Rakuten apps. Sometimes I book just 30 minutes before arrival.

Whilst I appreciate that this is a golden opportunity for your family and that you will want to pack in as many experiences as possible, please bear in mind that from the second week of June onwards you can expect it to feel rather warmer than the actual predicted temperature might suggest. The humidity levels, even on a dry day, can really sap away at your energy levels.

When planning itineraries do take care not to schedule in too much in a day, getting around on foot may well take more out of you than you expect, and take care with your wardrobe; thin, light clothes that let you perspire and which dry out quickly, same with footwear (and take spare socks around with you as there will be places you'll want to visit which require that you remove footwear - you will want something dry to slip clammy feet into). A tip from my Japanese husband on drying out shoes overnight: Shred newspaper into strips and push a generous amount into your soggy footwear. Also, Japanese deodorant is way less effective than Western equivalents, make sure you bring plenty!

I would really suggest booking hotels in advance. The kinds of hotels you can book at the last minute probably aren't going to be "vacation of a lifetime" type hotels, especially for three people. I'm not suggesting there's something wrong with doing that for the people who do, but you're probably not going to get the best deals or the best rooms.

I usually spend several months researching hotels and watching deals before pulling the trigger. My wife tells me I have a talent for picking memorable hotels, but it's really just a question of looking at what's available, narrowing it down based on whatever criteria you have, then setting a pricing strategy and waiting. You can get lucky by winging it and booking at the last minute, but you'll be just as likely to get an older, smaller room with no view in a hotel further away from where you want to be.

I think that makes it better to plan out the whole trip in advance, at least in terms of what cities you want to be in. You can still wing it with the specific places you want to go in those cities.

The rail pass also makes a lot of last-minute day trips easier. You can go from Tokyo to Nagoya and be back in time for dinner. So there's still a lot of opportunity for being impulsive, but I just think it's best to have your home bases mapped out in advance.

With the ongoing hotel room shortage, I would certainly book in advance ! Just a shade under 20 million tourists last year , 5 years ahead of the JNTO plan of welcoming 20 million tourists by 2020 !

Yes, I like to plant myself in one city and make day trips, because all the major cities have an incredible number of worthwhile sights within day trip distance, especially with the Shinkansen.

My farthest recent day trip was from Tokyo to Sendai and Matsushima. I got back to my hotel at 10PM, but the trip back on the Shinkansen let me just lean back and relax.

When taking students to Japan in 1991, I gave them a free day in Kyoto and then headed off to Tokyo to buy kabuki tickets for the following week. It was easy, since I know Tokyo well enough to head straight to most major destination without hesitation, but I would NOT recommend a day trip to Kyoto. There's too much to see there.

It's been really hard to get hotel reservations. I usually book 4 months in advance. The nicer ryokans will likely be booked for the weekend.

Fully agree with this. Book now and cancel/change later. Japanese hotels don't like it, because Japanese tourists don't usually operate that way. But, recently hotel rooms have been very difficult to secure at the last minute in most major cities.

Hotel rooms are certainly harder to come by these days. I'm having hard time finding rooms in some of the places in Hokkaido for this summer. Some places don't open up room inventory until 3-4 months out. But at places that are taking bookings already, there's not much left.

But the interesting thing is that, when you contact some of these hotels, their actual room availability and the online availability differ. If you're after a non-smoking room at a given hotel that's only showing smoking rooms as available online, it's always worth emailing the hotel and checking with them directly.

I'm in the same predicament. I'm taking my son next October. We will be flying into HIJ then take seven days working our way back to Tokyo, where we'll stay a week. I'm thinking 2 days in Hiroshima to see the city and Miyajima. Then perhaps 3 days based in Kyoto to see Kyoto, Nara, the Yamazaki Distillery, and who know what else. I then want to do 2 days to see Fuji and Kamakura.

I think I will make reservations for Hiroshima and Kyoto, but what about Fuji and Kamakura? I'd like to have flexibility and committing to set reservations will prevent us from spontaneously deciding to route ourselves along the northern coast of Western Honshu, which has peaked my curiosity.

Given the hopefully low tourist season in October, do we really need to have set reservations everywhere?

Depends on what part of October. Late October is the beginning of fall color season, which is definitely not "low season" in Kyoto.

And the first week of October is a very popular time for Chinese visitors. They are given 3 days off (1st to 3rd October) and (in 2016) many will take the 1st to the 7th as holidays.