Maybe in the past you have followed tour groups and you wanted to visit again.

Maybe this is your first time visiting Japan.

But now, you have to plan everything on your own and you worry about language barriers and getting lost in an unknown city.

If the above is your concern, you've come to the right post!

While I get questions from people asking how I travel to Japan, here's a tutorial that I hope would be helpful to newcomers

BTW just to let you know that this tutorial is suitable for only mainstream cities, such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Sapporo, Fukuoka etc.

For less-famous cities like Ise, Niigata, Shikoku Areas, Yamaguchi etc, the timetables aren't as accurate, since Google's data are updated by humans so they may not be as updated or accurate. In this case, you'll need some hard work checking out official sites for transportation information.

If you have zero idea on how to make an arrangement, these are the few things you should know:

1. Your flight ticket

When, what time, and where are you arriving and leaving Japan? Knowing these you'll know if your desired itinerary is realistic or not.

2. Your accommodation

Copy all you want about other's itinerary, but you might not be living the same area as others. You need to see where you are staying in Japan and start searching your transportation from the nearest train or bus station from your accommodation. Plan your route accordingly.

3. Your own budget

If you have only RM2000 (Flights excluded) but you wanted to visit both Tokyo + Osaka, you can either consider overnight buses or just choose a single city. If you insist to visit both cities, most likely you'd need an open jaw ticket (enter from one city and exit from another). Why? If you enter and exit from Tokyo but wanted to go to Osaka and you hated overnight buses, you will be needing a JR Pass and that takes up half of your budget already.

4. Your motive

What do you want to do in Japan? Sightseeing? Shopping? City Life? Nature scenery? It's your trip, and each of us have different interests so you need to know what you like and dislike before thinking a city is boring. 😅

5. Make a priority list

What's on the top of your list? Not everyone has the time to do all the must-do activities. People often tell me Disneyland and Disneysea are must-gos in Japan, but I'm not a fan of Disney so I'd rather shop around Shinjuku or take a Shinkansen to Takasaki to paint some Daruma dolls. We are different individuals after all 😊

6. Learn how to search for transportation

1. Open Google Maps on your browser or your phone. Enter departure and destination and select your transportation mode.

2. If you are (almost) sure of the time of transit, you can set the date & time here. Not too far ahead though!

3. As a result, the list of transportation modes will appear.

Bonus: Updated Google Map (EN ver) will allow you to see the transfer coaches

4. Here's a bonus to those who wanted to 'do a day trip to Shirakawago'