Part 1: Preparing for Autumn trip to Japan

1:45 PM artcher 0 Comments

 I just came back from my 11 days trip to experience autumn in Japan, mainly Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo. It was a long awaited holiday for me to get away from my usual routine in life. It wasn't easy for me to decide and actually go for any tour due to many many nonsense-but-reality-reason in life, which is too bothersome to explain to anyone.

Planning and researching for any self-guided tour is tedious and time consuming. My objective for this trip was to see the autumn leaf and I'm so glad that i did, and I don't mind the crowd of people that had the same idea as me. It's too beautiful not to share the view and my experience with everyone.

Preparation before the trip

1. Do a digital travel planner, list out all the itinerary (I use the iPad App - Number) and sort them by the day of my 11 days trip. Preferable only 1 to 2 places per day, because traveling in Japan by yourself involve changing multiple subway lines and walking a lot (most of the old subway station only have stairs or if you want to spend extra time looking for elevator and walking extra steps)
2. I bought my SIA plane tickets about 4.5 months before my traveling date at a promotion deal for 2 at S$1,552 inc travel insurance (SIA provide the shortest traveling time from Singapore to Osaka and return from Tokyo to Singapore in Airbus 330 / 380 when I compare with all other available airline at the time of date.
3. I booked my 3 hotel stay for 3 different city from booking.com which is easy to search and compare hotels for best price, location and good review. (the best prices and option for some hotel get fully booked as early a 5 or 4 month in advance, no joke! Best is to get hotel that provide breakfast also, save money and time!)
4. Go back to your travel planner and file in all estimated expenses to get a auto calculation for total budget. Expenses will include transport fee (get estimation from Google map that give you the fare between 2 locations), meals, tickets to temple, amusement park, shopping etc. I brought along JPY$218,000.
5. Prepare good walking shoes, down jacket with hood to protect from rain in Nov. It's cold and occasionally rain. Good lip bum, moisturizer, muscle cream (we had to buy all these from the local pharmacy when we were there..LOL)
6. Bring minimal luggage, because if you are travelling on budget like us, you will tend to do a lot of walking carrying your luggage up and down stairs between stations when you are traveling to different city, or just bring a strong man with you..LOL)
7. This is important!!! We booked online in advance our Icoca and Haruka packages consists of a ticket that can be used to travel from Kansai Airport to Osaka and a Icoca prepaid card valued 2000 yen which allow us to use and top up the value on all subway and train in the 3 city except for Shinkansen. The package can only be collected at Osaka airport station with printed copy of your airline e-ticket when you arrive on date. More info here.