So. You've booked your flight to Japan and you specifically want to go to Kyoto and experience anything and everything traditional this awesome country can offer. In that case,let me share my Japan 2015 trip itinerary with you along with other stuff which I hope will help you in more ways than one.
Things to take note of:
-We arrived at Kansai International Airport (KIX) at around 9:00pm and got past the immigration around 11:00pm of April 4 so I will tag this as Day 0.
-I was with my mom and I was the one who paid for our accommodation and the pocket wifi, but the rest of the budget are for one person
6 DAY ITINERARY
Day 0
Arrival at KIX
Check-in at Higurashi-sou guesthouse
Day 1
Arashiyama
Tenryu-ji
Bamboo Grove
Nonomiya-jinja
Day 2
Halfday trip to Nara!(coz we started late.hehe)
Nara Deer Park
Todai-ji
Nigatsu-do
Day 3
Nijo Castle
Check-out Higurashi-sou and transfer to Guesthouse Rakuza
Shopping at Kawaramachi area
Yasaka-jinja
Hanami at Maruyama Park
Day 4
Kiyomizu-dera
(afternoon was spent going to the airport for my mom's flight back to Manila at night)
Day 5
Fushimi Inari Taisha
Nishiki market
Pontocho
Day 6
Walk along Kamogawa
Kyoto International Manga Museum
Flight back to Manila
So that's basically what I visited for my first trip, but this is what my original itinerary looks like. Haha!
BUDGET
And to give you an idea on the cost of our trip, basing on what we visited and where we stayed in during our stay, here is the estimated budget in Japanese Yen excluding the air fare.
44,400 Accommodation (6 days)
8,500 Transportation (Haruka, trains, buses and two taxi rides)
5,2000 Japan Wireless Pocket Wifi (incl. insurance and shipping)
15,000 Food (estimated 3,000 JPY/day for 1,000 JPY/meal which is the normal cost of a meal and even lower sometimes)
2,800 Entrance fees (Temples, Shrines and KIMM
75,900 JPY Total
In April 2015, 1 JPY = 0.376846 PHP so the total was about PHP 28,602.61. Please take note that it doesn't include the cost of omiyage (souvenirs) and shopping yet, so depending on how much you are willing to spend for these, it could cost more.
AIRFARE
The ticket we bought weren't promo fare. It was around Php 17,000 in total. It was originally about Php 14,000, but I decided to stay longer and rebooked my return trip 2 days later. Expensive, I know. It was just that I really wanted to visit Japan during the cherry blossom season. It was supposed to be a solo trip until my mom decided to join me in January. Her fare was shouldered by my 2 sisters, which was around Php 20,000 already by that time. We both booked through Cebu Pacific Airlines.
There is only one flight per day which leaves Manila at 3:05 pm and arrives at Kansai Internation Airport at 7:45 pm (Japan time), which is approximately 4 hours. The flight back to Manila was at around 8:40 pm (still Japan time) and arrives in Manila at around 12 midnight. No flights on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays so plan your trip accordingly. Or try checking out other airlines. Simple as that. :)
ACCOMMODATION
I chose Kyoto because I love to see the more traditional and cultural side of Japan. So when it comes to accommodation, it was a must to book a traditional Japanese tatami room. I ran a search in google and first saw the high end ryokans and I was getting depressed thinking that I won't be able to book a tatami room without hurting my budget. But as I try looking some more, I found these small guesthouses - Guesthouse Rakuza and Higurashi-sou which are also called minshuku, if I'm not mistaken - that are 90 and 80 year old house, respectively, which were recently renovated and turned to a guesthouse. Both were lovely traditional style houses which provides authentic Japanese experience.The twin/double rooms good for 2-3 persons costs around 7,000 to 8,000 JPY. Toilet and bath were shared, but it was always clean so we didn't have any issues whatsoever. The bed was a Japanese futon which we prepare ourselves at night and put aside every morning. There's an instruction on how to prepare the futon bed which was fun. So there. It is possible to have an authentic Japanese tatami room experience that is within your budget. Awesome, right?
FOOD
Japanese food is awesome. All the food I ate in Japan were all very delicious, except the onigiri I had for breakfast. Hehe. It had something to do with the filling, which was pickled something, I wasn't sure. The food cost around 700 JPY to 1100 JPY per meal depending on one's appetite, but ours usually around 1,000 JPY including drinks already. Anyway, as far as Japanese food is concerned, try everything and anything you can! Japanese food is an amazing experience in itself. I swear. During our trip, we were able to try the katsudon, tempura, ramen, karaage, Japanese roast beef, udon, curry udon, sushi, sashimi, tonkatsu curry, yakitori, takoyaki, taiyaki, dango, unagidon, pork and asparagus skewers, green tea, sakura and black sesame flavored ice cream and beers such as sapporo and kirin and other stuff I don't remember anymore. Haha! Oh, I remember I tried the gyoza and didn't like it too much. But, I just have to say that I tried the gyoza from Osaka Ohsho resto here in the Philippines and that one was so goooood!
TRANSPORTATION
You will most likely take either a bus or a train. It's best to plan ahead on which transportation to use for the day. If you're traveling just around Kyoto and you're going to use the bus, it's best to buy the one day pass which is about 500 JPY. One ride costs around 230 JPY, so if you're going to use the bus at least 3 times, it's a big savings. You only need to insert the card (pass) to the machine beside the driver before you get off so the date will be printed on it. The next time you board a bus, just show the side of the card with the date to the driver.
For trains, you can buy prepaid IC cards. In Kyoto, the ICOCA is the popular choice. You can buy the ICOCA for 2,000 JPY which includes 1,500 JPY worth of load and 500 JPY deposit. You can also use it in stores that displays the ICOCA mark. The ICOCA is valid for use up to 10 years from the date of purchase, if you decide not to return it. For more infomation, you can visit this page and this page.
MISCELLANEOUS
You might ask, what's the weather like? Was it cold? If yes, how cold? To answer these questions, yes, it rained on some days, but it wasn't a heavy pour and it lasts only a couple of minutes. Those that last longer than a couple of minutes were mostly just drizzles. Good thing we brought umbrellas. However, if you forget to bring one, you can easily buy the cute transparent umbrellas that the Japanese love to use from any kombini (convenience stores) such as 7-11, Lawson and Family Mart. As for the temperature, being the start of spring, it ranged from 3C to 15C degrees so it's best to be prepared clothing wise. Put on a couple of layers which you can easily remove if and when the temperature rises, and put back on once it gets cooler. It was my first out of the country trip and had no idea how cold anything less than 10C degrees feels like so I didn't know how to properly dress to keep myself warm and toasty. There was one day I had to buy a sweater from Uniqlo to avoid getting hypothermia. Lol. Also, make sure to bring gloves or mittens, scarf and a hat/beanie at all times as these can add warmth should you ever need it.
If you noticed, I included a pocket wifi in my budget. I highly recommend renting one to keep connected to the internet. Yeah, there were free wifi at the airport and most train stations, and both of the guesthouse we stayed in offered free wifi as well, but when you're out and about, trying to figure where/what bus/train to take and you can't connect to the internet, it's a big hassle and can take away precious time out of your trip. Sure you can ask someone and most definitely, based on my experience, they will go out of their way to help you, nothing beats being able to easily connect to the internet. Good thing Japan's internet connection is waaaayyyyyyy faster and very much reliable compared to the Philippines. I rented the JapanWireless pocket wifi and it was so easy! You can have it delivered to your hotel or wherever you're going to stay, or you can also claim it from the post office at the airport. I can't recommend this enough because it made planning my trip so much easier especially when I had to change plans at the last minute.
Downloading necessary app/s for your trip is also essential. For this trip, I downloaded Hyperdia to easily check which train to take. It will show you the name of the train, the travel time, number of transfer, the fare and even the distance. This is helpful in budgeting your trip since you'll be able to determine the estimated fare for each train ride.
Communication. English is not widely spoken in Japan so you might struggle in trying to communicate with Japanese people that could end up in mostly sign language. Japanese are extremely helpful people based on my experience and even if I know how to talk and understand some Japanese, it's still wasn't enough. My suggestion is to download a simple language app on your phone/table. I'll recommend Japanese Lite which has a topic on greetings, general conversation, numbers, directions & places, transportation, eating out and emergency. There are other topics, but you'll have to pay and upgrade to Pro Edition for only Php 205.75. But the free version is enough, I think. You can also download Google Translate. All you need to do is type your question or anything you want to say in english or any language you prefer to Japanese or any other language as well. It has a camera that can translate Japanese texts to english or, again, any other language you prefer. Awesome, right? I so love google! Lol.
There you go. I hope you were able to get some helpful tips for your trip to Kyoto. Don't forget to eat lots of good Japanese food!
Things to take note of:
-We arrived at Kansai International Airport (KIX) at around 9:00pm and got past the immigration around 11:00pm of April 4 so I will tag this as Day 0.
-I was with my mom and I was the one who paid for our accommodation and the pocket wifi, but the rest of the budget are for one person
6 DAY ITINERARY
Day 0
Arrival at KIX
Check-in at Higurashi-sou guesthouse
Day 1
Arashiyama
Tenryu-ji
Bamboo Grove
Nonomiya-jinja
Day 2
Halfday trip to Nara!(coz we started late.hehe)
Nara Deer Park
Todai-ji
Nigatsu-do
Day 3
Nijo Castle
Check-out Higurashi-sou and transfer to Guesthouse Rakuza
Shopping at Kawaramachi area
Yasaka-jinja
Hanami at Maruyama Park
Day 4
Kiyomizu-dera
(afternoon was spent going to the airport for my mom's flight back to Manila at night)
Day 5
Fushimi Inari Taisha
Nishiki market
Pontocho
Day 6
Walk along Kamogawa
Kyoto International Manga Museum
Flight back to Manila
So that's basically what I visited for my first trip, but this is what my original itinerary looks like. Haha!
 |
| click to see larger photo |
BUDGET
And to give you an idea on the cost of our trip, basing on what we visited and where we stayed in during our stay, here is the estimated budget in Japanese Yen excluding the air fare.
44,400 Accommodation (6 days)
8,500 Transportation (Haruka, trains, buses and two taxi rides)
5,2000 Japan Wireless Pocket Wifi (incl. insurance and shipping)
15,000 Food (estimated 3,000 JPY/day for 1,000 JPY/meal which is the normal cost of a meal and even lower sometimes)
2,800 Entrance fees (Temples, Shrines and KIMM
75,900 JPY Total
In April 2015, 1 JPY = 0.376846 PHP so the total was about PHP 28,602.61. Please take note that it doesn't include the cost of omiyage (souvenirs) and shopping yet, so depending on how much you are willing to spend for these, it could cost more.
AIRFARE
The ticket we bought weren't promo fare. It was around Php 17,000 in total. It was originally about Php 14,000, but I decided to stay longer and rebooked my return trip 2 days later. Expensive, I know. It was just that I really wanted to visit Japan during the cherry blossom season. It was supposed to be a solo trip until my mom decided to join me in January. Her fare was shouldered by my 2 sisters, which was around Php 20,000 already by that time. We both booked through Cebu Pacific Airlines.
There is only one flight per day which leaves Manila at 3:05 pm and arrives at Kansai Internation Airport at 7:45 pm (Japan time), which is approximately 4 hours. The flight back to Manila was at around 8:40 pm (still Japan time) and arrives in Manila at around 12 midnight. No flights on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays so plan your trip accordingly. Or try checking out other airlines. Simple as that. :)
ACCOMMODATION
I chose Kyoto because I love to see the more traditional and cultural side of Japan. So when it comes to accommodation, it was a must to book a traditional Japanese tatami room. I ran a search in google and first saw the high end ryokans and I was getting depressed thinking that I won't be able to book a tatami room without hurting my budget. But as I try looking some more, I found these small guesthouses - Guesthouse Rakuza and Higurashi-sou which are also called minshuku, if I'm not mistaken - that are 90 and 80 year old house, respectively, which were recently renovated and turned to a guesthouse. Both were lovely traditional style houses which provides authentic Japanese experience.The twin/double rooms good for 2-3 persons costs around 7,000 to 8,000 JPY. Toilet and bath were shared, but it was always clean so we didn't have any issues whatsoever. The bed was a Japanese futon which we prepare ourselves at night and put aside every morning. There's an instruction on how to prepare the futon bed which was fun. So there. It is possible to have an authentic Japanese tatami room experience that is within your budget. Awesome, right?
FOOD
Japanese food is awesome. All the food I ate in Japan were all very delicious, except the onigiri I had for breakfast. Hehe. It had something to do with the filling, which was pickled something, I wasn't sure. The food cost around 700 JPY to 1100 JPY per meal depending on one's appetite, but ours usually around 1,000 JPY including drinks already. Anyway, as far as Japanese food is concerned, try everything and anything you can! Japanese food is an amazing experience in itself. I swear. During our trip, we were able to try the katsudon, tempura, ramen, karaage, Japanese roast beef, udon, curry udon, sushi, sashimi, tonkatsu curry, yakitori, takoyaki, taiyaki, dango, unagidon, pork and asparagus skewers, green tea, sakura and black sesame flavored ice cream and beers such as sapporo and kirin and other stuff I don't remember anymore. Haha! Oh, I remember I tried the gyoza and didn't like it too much. But, I just have to say that I tried the gyoza from Osaka Ohsho resto here in the Philippines and that one was so goooood!
TRANSPORTATION
You will most likely take either a bus or a train. It's best to plan ahead on which transportation to use for the day. If you're traveling just around Kyoto and you're going to use the bus, it's best to buy the one day pass which is about 500 JPY. One ride costs around 230 JPY, so if you're going to use the bus at least 3 times, it's a big savings. You only need to insert the card (pass) to the machine beside the driver before you get off so the date will be printed on it. The next time you board a bus, just show the side of the card with the date to the driver.
For trains, you can buy prepaid IC cards. In Kyoto, the ICOCA is the popular choice. You can buy the ICOCA for 2,000 JPY which includes 1,500 JPY worth of load and 500 JPY deposit. You can also use it in stores that displays the ICOCA mark. The ICOCA is valid for use up to 10 years from the date of purchase, if you decide not to return it. For more infomation, you can visit this page and this page.
MISCELLANEOUS
You might ask, what's the weather like? Was it cold? If yes, how cold? To answer these questions, yes, it rained on some days, but it wasn't a heavy pour and it lasts only a couple of minutes. Those that last longer than a couple of minutes were mostly just drizzles. Good thing we brought umbrellas. However, if you forget to bring one, you can easily buy the cute transparent umbrellas that the Japanese love to use from any kombini (convenience stores) such as 7-11, Lawson and Family Mart. As for the temperature, being the start of spring, it ranged from 3C to 15C degrees so it's best to be prepared clothing wise. Put on a couple of layers which you can easily remove if and when the temperature rises, and put back on once it gets cooler. It was my first out of the country trip and had no idea how cold anything less than 10C degrees feels like so I didn't know how to properly dress to keep myself warm and toasty. There was one day I had to buy a sweater from Uniqlo to avoid getting hypothermia. Lol. Also, make sure to bring gloves or mittens, scarf and a hat/beanie at all times as these can add warmth should you ever need it.
If you noticed, I included a pocket wifi in my budget. I highly recommend renting one to keep connected to the internet. Yeah, there were free wifi at the airport and most train stations, and both of the guesthouse we stayed in offered free wifi as well, but when you're out and about, trying to figure where/what bus/train to take and you can't connect to the internet, it's a big hassle and can take away precious time out of your trip. Sure you can ask someone and most definitely, based on my experience, they will go out of their way to help you, nothing beats being able to easily connect to the internet. Good thing Japan's internet connection is waaaayyyyyyy faster and very much reliable compared to the Philippines. I rented the JapanWireless pocket wifi and it was so easy! You can have it delivered to your hotel or wherever you're going to stay, or you can also claim it from the post office at the airport. I can't recommend this enough because it made planning my trip so much easier especially when I had to change plans at the last minute.
Downloading necessary app/s for your trip is also essential. For this trip, I downloaded Hyperdia to easily check which train to take. It will show you the name of the train, the travel time, number of transfer, the fare and even the distance. This is helpful in budgeting your trip since you'll be able to determine the estimated fare for each train ride.
Communication. English is not widely spoken in Japan so you might struggle in trying to communicate with Japanese people that could end up in mostly sign language. Japanese are extremely helpful people based on my experience and even if I know how to talk and understand some Japanese, it's still wasn't enough. My suggestion is to download a simple language app on your phone/table. I'll recommend Japanese Lite which has a topic on greetings, general conversation, numbers, directions & places, transportation, eating out and emergency. There are other topics, but you'll have to pay and upgrade to Pro Edition for only Php 205.75. But the free version is enough, I think. You can also download Google Translate. All you need to do is type your question or anything you want to say in english or any language you prefer to Japanese or any other language as well. It has a camera that can translate Japanese texts to english or, again, any other language you prefer. Awesome, right? I so love google! Lol.
There you go. I hope you were able to get some helpful tips for your trip to Kyoto. Don't forget to eat lots of good Japanese food!
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