After planning my upcoming trip for months and reading about nearly every possible thing there is to do in the Land of the Rising Sun, I’ve come to the realisation that, in spite of the existence of the internet and globalisation, there simply isn’t adequate information out there on certain areas, visit lengths for certain attractions, and, worst of all, public transportation.

If you visit Japan for 2-3 weeks and do the obvious stuff (e.g., some version of the Golden Route, a straight line between Tokyo-Hakone-Fuji-Kyoto-Osaka-Hiroshima, with day trips to Nara, Miyajima, etc.), you’ll be fine. But outside the big cities, a lot of the information out there on attractions, accommodation, transportation, etc. is in Japanese. Many websites present meagre (and often obsolete) information in English, particularly now that COVID has annihilated foreign tourism in Japan for the last 2.5 years.

Long story short, I found myself forced to navigate sites in Japanese to get the whole picture and book a lot of things. If you speak Japanese that’s fine – more than fine, actually, it’s a good practice – but if you don’t, tough luck. Some remote and adventurous stuff can be booked only by phone (which I intend to do when I’m in Japan).

So, as I travel, I’ll try to post my daily itineraries after I’ve done them, in case someone reads this and finds this information helpful.

This isn’t to say there aren’t some fantastic resources online. Here are some I used.

Travel guides

• Japan-guide.com is a behemoth and the BEST English site online for anything Japan. Nearly everything can be found there, a lot of it updated post-COVID, too. I’m pretty sure I’ve read every single guide they’ve got. Some great YouTube videos as well. But as I planned more and more, I stumbled upon some things that even they don’t mention.
• GaijinPot is a good rival site with some information that fills in Japan-guide’s gaps. (Also a very good place to rent an apartment as a foreigner, which I considered once)
• Reddit.com/r/JapanTravel offers tips from fellow travellers. I posted some questions there about stuff I couldn’t find any information on, and they helped me figure things out.

Ultimately, I found it best to get a general sense of a place through these big websites, and then see if it has its own dedicated website, to dig deeper into what it offers. For the cities it’s not really necessary – mostly for towns and national parks. Examples include:

• IyaTime.com for anything Iya Valley. It’s mind-blowing that such a remote place has such an in-depth English website.
• TB-Kumano.jp for anything Kumano Kodo; Kumano-travel.com for booking guest houses, luggage service… I heard it’s best to book everything through them so they know your itinerary, in case something goes wrong during the hike.

Accommodation

Booking.com is unsurprisingly the best place for accommodation. I spent HOURS booking places on my phone (it’s cheaper than on the computer) just for peace of mind, because boy do they fill up MONTHS in advance. When I finalised my itinerary, I cancelled the reservations I no longer needed (weeks in advance, so other people would have ample time to snag them).

Yet even the monstrous booking.com doesn’t carry every single fruit in its basket.

• Agoda.com is a nice alternative, although in my experience a bit dodgy / annoying. Not as informative or productive. Sometimes it shows you amazing promotions, only to egregiously raise the price (sometimes double or triple) when you attempt to book. They should change the website’s name to Tantalus.
• JAPANiCAN.com is better.
• Hostelworld.com for hostels, though I think booking.com has a wider selection.
• Hotels.com is another decent alternative, I used it for a few places.
• Japaneseguesthouses.com is THE place for those unique stays you can do only in Japan. Their selection is very limited, because they don’t work with every cool place you can stay in (some ryokans / minshukus I booked on booking.com or by contacting them on their Japanese website), but the places they do work with seem to be the best of the best. You give them several options, they contact the places themselves, and get back to you with an offer. I booked only a couple of places there, because “unique stays” in Japanese roughly translates to “kiss your dough goodbye”, but travellers with a bigger budget can have a field day with this one.
• By the way, finding a place through one of the above and making a reservation on its offical website can sometimes be cheaper. Not always though.
• I wouldn’t recommend Airbnb. I think it’s common knowledge by now that it’s actually more expensive than even hotels? (And there are plenty of city-centre business hotels in Japan for less than 5,000 yen a night) I booked 1 place on Airbnb for my birthday, just to splurge, but ultimately cancelled it in favour of a ryokan better suited for a solo traveller. Maybe it’s more affordable when you’re in a group.

Public transportation

Google Maps is, needless to say, a literal lifesaver when it comes to navigation (I always download offline maps on my phone when I’m abroad) and planning your route, but even it has its limitations. It doesn’t carry all the information about transportation in Japan; it’s much more reliable to use Japanese apps and sites. Again, for the megacities it’s fine, but if you want to brave the countryside without a car, expect things to get complex.

• I often discovered alternative bus routes on rome2rio.com, and then verified the information on the official (non-English) site of the bus company. Helped me save HOURS of redundant railway detours, which were obviously more expensive.
• Checking out the official Japanese website of a certain area (like Hokkaido) helped too, because it sometimes has an up-to-date map of every line in the area.
• There are plenty of Japanese sites and apps alternative to Google Maps, but I’ve found Navitime’s Japan Travel to be the best. It even includes projected cab fare.

Misc.

• Klook for discount tickets. It’s good if you like to book things like tours, workshops, all sorts of experiences; I haven’t used it yet. The few things I booked were through their official website. Though I heard you can also purchase discount tickets for stuff when you’re in Japan in convenience stores like Lawson, e.g. Ghibli Museum and Universal Studios.
• HappyCow.net for vegetarian- and vegan-friendly food spots. Who knew there are vegan establishments in Japan? Even in the countryside? I will definitely check some out.
• Japancamp for campsites.
• Note that Japan has a very strict policy regarding importing medicine. Some over-the-counter painkillers and meds for ADHD and stuff are forbidden. Also, if you want to bring more than a month’s supply of any sort of medication, you must apply for approval first.
• I think I have more resources somewhere in my bookmarks, I’ll see if I can find them.
• Free Wi-Fi hotspots
• List of stations in Tokyo where you can store your luggage
• Japan meteorological agency’s map for weather & warnings

Of course, this is just my two cents – I haven’t even set foot in the country yet – we’ll see how it goes…