Things To Know

There are a few important things to know about how I’m laying out this guide / post:

The Route

As I mentioned before, it’s much harder to come up with an itinerary for someone visiting for the second time. This particular route is one that I personally like because it gets you to some places that the regular Japan tourist probably wouldn’t venture. It gets you outside of the regular Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto circuit, and you have a chance to see a big change in weather / temperature.

There is one problem with this route, though: You’re missing out on all of Western Japan in favor of the North / Northeast. So, keep that in mind when you’re deciding your second trip. Personally I like the North over the West, though, so that’s the whole reason why we’re focusing our time there during round two!

JR Pass

Just like with your first trip to Japan, you’re going to want to get a JR Pass. I’ve always used JRpass.com in the past, but I’m sure any of the JR Pass websites should get you what you need at a reasonable rate. For this trip, getting a JR Pass is 100% necessary. It may seem like a lot to spend ~$500 on a two-week ticket, but it’s going to save you so much in the long run. We’re going to be covering more distance via Japan Rail compared to last time, so don’t forget to order one of these!

Finding Places To Stay

Also like last time, I’m not going to go into much detail on where to stay. That’s going to be up to you. I’ll give you information on the general area, you find a hotel / ryokan / hostel inside that area.

Packing

I’d recommend packing a small rolling suitcase or backpacking it. You’ll be on the train a lot, so big luggage is just going to cause trouble. Pack light, wash your clothes often, and enjoy the ease of smaller luggage. If you have anything that you want to take back with you (and you will), I’d recommend sending it to yourself via postage, or just waiting until you’re in Tokyo / the airport to do your shopping.

Day 1: Fly Into Narita, Transfer And Fly To Sapporo

This time around, we’re just going to fly into Narita and then leave right after to go to Sapporo. Due to potential delays and all that, there are a couple of options here.

1. You could just do a direct flight to Sapporo, if that’s something you’re able to do.
2. You could schedule a transfer for soon after you get in.
3. You could schedule a transfer for later in the evening (if you arrive in the morning) or the early next morning.

I like “the next morning” personally, but it’s up to you. Point is, we’re flying into Narita (because I’m assuming that most people fly into Narita – if you’re not, then adjust accordingly) then getting on another plane to Sapporo. Note that this flight to Sapporo should be ONE-WAY.

Sidenote: If you have the time, and you should, be sure to go pick up your JR Pass at the airport station. You can get them in Sapporo too, but it’s easier if you just get it out of the way.

Days 2-4: Sapporo, Otaru, Nikka Whiskey

Welcome to Sapporo! I hope you found a nice place to stay. Depending on when you visit, it may be very cold and snowy or it may be moderately warm and sunny. Whichever it is, there’s fun things to do in both situations! I’d recommend spending your days doing something like this:

1. Explore Sapporo: There’s a lot to see and do in Sapporo, though most of them have to do with food. Be sure to eat some Jingisu Khan, go to the fish market and have some of the best seafood / seafood donburi you’ve ever tasted, go up the TV tower, visit Ramen Republic AND Ramen Alley, go to the Sapporo brewery, eat some melon, some soft serve, and some melon soft serve, and see the “Boys, Be Ambitious” statue (there are sheep and stuff too).
2. Otaru: Once you’ve gotten Sapporo out of your system, be sure to go to Otaru. It’s a moderately short train ride to the North and you get some awesome ocean views as your train rides right along the coast. If it’s winter and stormy out… the waves crash up against a wall just feet from the train. It’s awesome. In Otaru, at least in the summer, there are tons of shops. The place is pretty famous for its seafood, its various sweets companies (like, ridiculously famous and crowded), and canal. There’s plenty to do here and you can easily spend most of a day walking around.
3. Nikka Whiskey: If you don’t spend your whole day at Otaru, or you have priorities more in line with mine, you’ll want to keep riding the train to Nikka Whiskey Distillery in Yoichi. You will be able to taste some of the best whiskey you’ve ever had, and the tour/story of the place is pretty interesting too. Be sure to go to the bar and sample everything in the book. Don’t be tempted to buy any alcohol-related souvenirs (unless you’re planning to drink it while in Japan), though. You can’t mail alcohol in Japan, and carrying these bottles around will be a pain. You can buy pretty much everything Nikka at the duty free stores in the airport, and they’re often cheaper too.

There’s more to do in and around Hokkaido, depending on when you’re visiting. If you’re there during the winter, things like skiing and snowboarding will be options. If you’re there during the summer you might want to explore the outer reaches of this Northern Island, or go to Showa Shinzan for some hot spring time.

Days 5-6: Travel Day / Hakodate / Aomori / Sendai

Since we’re taking the train from Sapporo, you’ll have a lot of time to stop, look around, and then get back on (thank you JR Pass!). Do keep in mind that during the winter trains are often delayed, so make sure you’re flexible! Whatever you do, I’d recommend stopping and staying in one of these places for one or two of the nights, otherwise you’re in for a 12ish hour train ride back to Tokyo.

1. Hakodate: This city was the first in Japan to open its ports to foreign trade back in 1854 so it has some interesting architecture and influences going on. That being said, there was a huge fire in 1934 that wiped out a lot of it, so keep that in mind. It also has the Goryoukaku Fort, which is an awesome star-shaped fort (hard to see from the ground, though). The history of this fort is pretty interesting too, but I’ll leave that to your own curiosity should you choose to follow it.
2. Aomori: Probably my favorite place of the three, this city is at the Northern edge of Honshu (the main island) and also where the shinkansen starts and ends, depending on which direction you’re going. If you can get to Aomori, the rest of the ride back towards Tokyo should be pretty fast and easy. I don’t think you could spend several days here (at least on a 2-week trip), but if you do be sure to check out the Modern Art Museum, the Jomon Museum, and anything you can find that’s apple related. Basically, Aomori = Apples, so if you’re here during apple season then… good for you! Also be sure to try the vinegar, black garlic, and whatever other foods you can get your hands on. Aomori food is pretty awesome, and will be a nice refresher after all the Jingis Khan, beer, and seafood that you ate in Sapporo.
3. Sendai: Of course there’s Sendai as well, which is very close to where the Tohoku Earthquake of 2011 hit. The city itself is pretty much business as usual, though if you go outside the city to try to visit places like Ishinomaki (to go to Cat Island?) you’ll still see a lot of cleared land from where the tsunami hit. There’s plenty to do in Sendai, though when I’m there it’s usually to go to Cat Island, so… there you go. Sendai is also a good spot to stop for the night if it’s getting late and trains are running out.

Days 7-10: Travel, Tokyo, Mt. Fuji

Days 7-10 are going to depend on how long you spent in Northeast Japan. First you should spend some of it traveling to Tokyo. If it’s early enough, keep going to Mt. Fuji. If not, stay the night and then leave again in the morning. Don’t worry, we’ll be back.

In terms of “Mt. Fuji”, though, there are a lot of options. There are so many places on and around Mt. Fuji that are worth visiting that I’d need an entire other article or two to go through them. So, you’ll need to do the research for that on your own. It’s going to depend on things like whether or not you want onsen, whether or not you want to climb it, or whether or not you want to ride roller coasters. If it’s the last option, then be sure to go to Fuji-Q highland. There’s onsen there as well. Two of my favorite roller coasters are at Fuji-Q, and I don’t say that lightly.

Anyways, spend a couple days in and around Fuji. If you run out of things to do here you can always move on to the next section early and then go back to Tokyo a little early too.

Days 10-12: Things You Missed

These days are for things that you missed last time. What did you want to do that you couldn’t? Snow monkeys? Nikko? What else? There had to have been something, even if it’s just going back to Tokyo to sit in an arcade all day to play Gundam Extreme.

Alternatively, you could also head West for a day or two. I wouldn’t go too far (as that will be another trip… let’s say your third one), but feel free to look around and see the things you want. These are free days after all, and Mt. Fuji provides a nice “middle ground” between Tokyo and the West.

Days 13-14: Tokyo, Shopping, Going Home

Once again there has to be some time for shopping / Tokyo touristing. There’s always a lot to do in Tokyo, though I tend to avoid the city as much as possible. Come back, get your omiyage done, and head on out. Don’t forget to pick up your Nikka Whiskey at the duty free shop in Narita (and leave some space in your suitcase as well).

For A 1-Week Trip

To turn this into a 1-week trip instead of a two, you’ll want to cut out the Fuji part, the “things you missed” part, and then shorten up your time during days 5-6 to just one day if you can. Of course, you can now adjust more appropriately on your own since you’ve been to Japan before and know what you like and don’t like, but that’s where I’d use the ol’ trip razor.

I hope this helps some of you to plan your second trips to Japan! Let me know in the comments what kind of second trips you’d plan if it were you. Surely it will help out some other people planning second trips who don’t have the same tastes as me :)

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There hasn’t been a lot of good news coming out of Japan lately (though I’d say a big part of that is news agencies trying to shock audiences as much as possible so they can make more $$$). At this point, sure, the nuclear reactors are kind of a problem (though time will only tell), but the real issue is the hundreds of thousands of people that are displaced, homeless, cold, cut off, or without food (i.e. people are going to start starving soon). While you probably can’t do much to help with the nuclear reactor thing, you can do something to help the people… After all, it’s the people who need the most help anyways. If something like this happened to you, you’d surely want to be helped as well.

Ways You Can Help

There are tons of ways you can help that do involve your hard earned cash. I’m sure they’re pretty good. I’ve donated myself. The more I read, though, the more it seems as though relief organizations are “over funded” (i.e., they have more money than they know what to do with, and the money you’re donating isn’t doing anything… and eventually will probably make it to some other country, which is good too, I suppose).

I think donating money to help is good – and I think that donating money will have more affect in the next week or so (when we can finally see who and what needs the most financial support), but right now it just doesn’t seem like funding disaster relief will help very much right now.

That being said, if you’d like to donate anyways, that’s great. Just be sure you don’t earmark your donations (so that they can be used in other places of need as well). Japan is printing off loads of money… money isn’t the issue. Red Cross and other big relief organizations will surely help and play a role in repairing Japan, but if you tell them you only want your money spent on Japan, it’ll probably end up being inefficiently used (like I said, there’s plenty of money already).

NihongoUp, JapanTimes, and so many other list off many more ways to donate. The most important thing is that you make sure your donated funds aren’t earmarked. I’d recommend Doctor’s Without Borders (as does that above article), but anything you donate will probably eventually help someone, and that’s good.

In the meantime, though, there are other ways you can help.

Buy TextFugu (And Donate 110% Of Your Payment)

If you were going to donate some money anyways, here’s an offer for you.

Before you go all crazy saying “omgwtfbbq he’s trying to make money off a disaster” – please keep reading.

Over the next 5ish days or so (we’ll see how long I can afford this), 110% of every dollar spent on TextFugu will be donated to disaster relief in Japan (more on who the donations go to in a minute).

Here’s my thinking on this: At first, I was going to donate part of the revenues, but then I realized that would just make it seem like I wanted your money, hoping more people would sign up to make up for the difference. So then I thought… okay, how about 100% of the revenues? I probably can’t afford to do this for a really long time, but even if sign ups stay the same, then at least I’m donating a good chunk of money to Japan. If sign-ups go up, then I’d be able to donate a bigger chunk of money to Japan. Then I realized that even though technically this is money I’m donating, it feels like you’re donating and I’m doing nothing, so I want to throw some of my own personal dollars (or more of them) into the mix. So I thought, why not donate 110% of revenues instead?

So, before you get in a tizzy, know that I’m donating extra money for every sign-up on TextFugu.

So here’s the deal. As long as you see a big green message on the homepage / pricing page of TextFugu saying I’m doing this, I’ll still be doing this. In about a week, I’ll probably take it down (and let you know how it went, of course). If you don’t see this big green message on the homepage, 110% of your payment probably isn’t going to disaster relief. So, if you’re interested in TextFugu (or want to give it to a friend, or something) you should do it now. Otherwise, go donate money directly, because that’s cool too.

I don’t know who / where the donation will go to yet. I’m thinking I’ll spend the next week researching smaller organizations that will have big impact. I want to donate to someone who will deliver the most help for the dollar, if you catch my drift. I don’t think that organization will be Red Cross or something like that… It might end up being that, and if it does, of course the donation won’t be earmarked only for Japan, but I’m hoping I can find an organization that has a lot of impact.

Other Japan/Japanese related companies trying to help the relief effort include NihongoUp (50% of revenue), Flutterscape (matching donations up to $3,000), CrunchyRoll (matching donations up to $5,000), jlist (5% of orders up to $10,000) and… (let me know if there’s others in the comments below, please!).

Give Blood

If you’re in Japan, now’s probably a good time to give blood. It doesn’t cost you anything, and there’s going to be a ton of people who need it. If you click on the map above, you can find places around Tokyo to give blood, though I imagine there are many other local areas all around Japan that will be accepting your vampire food. Rules for giving blood in Japan are pretty strict, though, so make sure you take a look at this before donating.

Giving blood definitely saves lives, and will probably be one of the nicest things you can do right now (and you should keep doing it, because giving blood is awesome, and you get cookies).

Volunteer

I’m not sure what’s needed at the moment, but if you’re in Japan, and want to help, you can try to join one of the volunteer efforts that are starting to come underway. It’s divided into areas, so you’ll have to call each government individually to see (non-Japanese language support is probably limited).

Sendai (Miyagi) – 022-262-7294

Iwate – 019-637-9711

Fukushima – 024-523-1254

There’s more information on volunteering on Hikosaemon’s blog.

Send Socks & Support Letters

It’s friggin’ cold in the Sendai area (where the earthquake hit). Disasters like this are also psychologically damaging. Socks and letters will help both of these things.

Jason Kelly is fairly close to the “disaster area” though far enough away to still get mail. If you send him socks, he’ll make sure people get them. If you send “support letters” with the socks, people will get them too.

It also looks like “HopeLetters” is doing an electronic version of the support letter. Check out HopeLetters to send something to relief workers or students.

Nothing like a little letter to make someone feel a little bit better. It’s those human touches that make lives improve.

Don’t Panic

The worst thing you can do in a situation like this is panic. I almost feel like foreign media is panicking more than the people actually affected by the earthquake (actually, I’m pretty sure this is the case). While the situation is terrible, and lots of people are suffering, it doesn’t help to make up stories (though this one was kind of funny), spread rumors, and act off of unreliable information. It’s pretty safe to assume that whatever any not-from-Japan media news source (Tofugu included, by the way) probably doesn’t actually know what they are talking about when it comes to nuclear reactors and earthquakes and things like that. CNN, Fox, whatever… they often don’t know what they’re talking about, and love to blow things out of proportion. Don’t let them scare you, and don’t let them scare others. Sure, the areas affected by the quake suck in a lot of ways, but Big News Media is going crazy, as they always do. Whatever they can do to get viewers and make as much money as possible (*ahem* remember Charlie Sheen?).

So, don’t panic, and just do what you can to help. Accurate information will get to you eventually—it’s not worth spreading rumors, making things worse.

That being said, Tofugu won’t really cover too much about the quake. If I do, it’ll either be focused on helping or be some sort of positive quake-related news story. If you want to see everything else, you don’t have to look far.

Stay Positive

Okay, I don’t know if this actually helps, but I think it does. Stay positive, everyone! Things will get better (especially if everyone chips in to help), and Japan will end up a stronger country because of it (and so will its friends an allies, who are helping out).

So, be happy, even in difficult times. Happiness, kindness, and sharing will be the thing that makes this situation better, so you might as well start now.

Over the next week, I imagine we’ll see how things play out, and then figure out the most effective way to help real people in real need. When that happens, I hope you give and help as much as you possibly can!

Any other ways to help folks out without donating money? Let me know, and I’ll add the good ones into the article. Thanks!

P.S. Donating money is good. It helps people. You should do it anyways.