The ULTIMATE (Lazy) 14 Day Japan Guide

Japan is a dream travel destination for most, I know when I decided I would travel to Japan one of the first things I did was research to see what to do and where to go with just 14 days.

Each blog I read would focus on waking up early to sight see and while I wanted to take in and experience Japan in its entirety, I did not want to sacrifice my sleep and wanted to keep in mind that this is my holiday.

Because of this, I've decided to collate what my 14 day Japan trip looked like for others than may be in the same boat as me. Whilst this isn't a perfect and sightseeing packed itinerary, it is a good base with room to make additions.

Day 1 BRISBANE - TOKYO:

We'll skip the hustle and bustle of the early wake up and flight and skip to the landing. We arrived at Narita airport at approximately 7:30pm, my partner and I chose Narita airport as this was the cheaper direct flight ticket.

Upon our landing, I realised that I did not have an international data plan arranged or sim card so we headed to the Travelex assistance desk and waited in line to purchase this esim. This was not a pleasant experience, this esim was purchased and after following the instructions it did not work. I went back to the desk for assistance and after 45 minutes and multiple calls they made to who I assume was their support team they were still unable to set up the esim. This esim cost approximately 8,000 yen and was limited to 25 gigabytes, when I asked for a refund the assistant pulled out a laminated sign stating, "ESims are not beginner friendly, No refunds available". 

Our first experience in Japan was not a good one and displayed a lack of consumer protection in comparison to Australia. After this encounter, we located a vending machine approximately 10 metres from this booth which had cheaper sims with unlimited data available. I purchased a sim for 6,000 yen with unlimited data which actually worked.

After we had sorted out our data situation, we then caught the bus to the train station and went to our first hotel. To avoid additional stress, make sure you book a hotel within walking distance of a train line. We booked a hotel within 3 minutes of Higashi-Shinjuku Station which made travelling a lot easier.

Day 2 TOKYO:

To start our first official day in Japan, we took our first walk to 711 as all tourists do. 711 was a daily visit and was the only place that we withdrew Yen after leaving the airport. 

Once we had finished our shopping and took a little walk around the area of our hotel, we headed back to the hotel and planned our day. At this point, the only plans we had for certain were trips to amusement parks and pre-purchased events such as Team Labs.

After some searching, we decided to get the train and explore the shopping strip Takeshita street. As this was our first day we took many breaks in between our wandering to return to the hotel and rest. After buying multiple train tickets we decided to head to a train station and find out where to purchase a Pasmo Passport.

You can find out where to buy Pasmo Passports by going to the assistance / help desks within the trains stations or purchase them at airports. The Pasmo Passport functions the same as an Australian Go Card, you purchase it with a beginning balance and can then tap on and off eligible public transport. You can then recharge your Pasmo Passport at train stations.

At some point at the end of the day, we travelled back to Takeshita street to start our souvenir shopping. After a successful shopping trip, we then decided to walk to the Shibuya Scramble Crossing and walk through the Shibuya districts.

Day 3 TOKYO:

We started the day with high hopes to go to multiple museums and temples. On our way to the first temple, we stumbled upon the Ueno Zoo and decided to take a detour to explore the zoo. I'd heard of the zoo but hadn't known where it was located so was really happy to randomly encounter this.

The highlight of the trip for me was the Penguins and nocturnal creatures section, my partners highlight was the Kangaroos and also the Penguins. 

The main attraction was the Pandas which unfortunately had a large waiting line so we were unable to see them but still had a great time and had tickets for memorabilia.

After leaving the Zoo, we took a wander around and came to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. The multi level museum had many features including the evolution of technology and humans through the ages.

Additionally, this museum has limited time exhibitions.

Day 4 TOKYO:

When we decided we would be going to Japan, one of my non-negotiables was going to Tokyo Disney. We booked our tickets using Klook and were unfortunately unable to purchase express passes as these are booked out months in advance.

We started our day waking up at 10am and caught a train to Disneyland and our first stop was the gift shop to purchase our hats for the day. I settled with a Christmas special 'Minnie Mouse' hat which I later replaced with a Toy Story Alien hat that was better for the cold weather and my partner chose a Toy Story's 'Forkys' hat. Wearing novelty hats when visiting the parks is popular for all ages, unlike parks within Australia where only a handful of adults will participate.

After entering the park we realised that we had no idea where we were going or what to do, after researching we realised that there are no longer paper maps provided. We downloaded the Disneyland app which was super helpful. The app provided a map with details of rides, restaurants, average wait times and had a search function to locate and provide directions to your destination.

Tokyo Disney was a must see for myself, the park is beautiful and if you go during a school day is not over crowded. The rides are unique and nothing like what we have in Australia.

As we went to Japan in late November, the weather was cold and windy and although we tried to outlast it for the fireworks in the end we returned to our hotel to prepare for our trip to Mount Fuji the following day.

Day 5 TOKYO = MT FUJI: 

Instead of catching a train to Mt Fuji, my partner and I decided to rent a car and drive there as my partners non-negotiable for the trip was no bus's and Mt Fuji  does not have a train network as vast as Tokyo.

To simplify this process, my partner and I booked a rental car company that was within walking distance of Tokyo Station in preparation for our upcoming trip to Osaka from Tokyo Station on the Shinkansen.

The process of renting this car was very easy and the workers were very helpful. The drive from the car rental to the Mt Fuji area was 3-4 hours but consisted of beautiful mountain views and suburban Japan.

As we rented a car, we drove directly to Lake Kawaguchi to get a nice view of Mt Fuji. Once we arrived at the parking area we realised there was a market area with food trucks and other stalls. Once parked we had a beautiful view of Mt Fuji luckily with no fog.

From here, we drove around exploring the areas until check in time. The hotel we stayed at also had a view of Mt Fuji and a cat junior manager named Wasuke that we were unfortunately unable to meet.

Day 6 MT FUJI-TOKYO-OSAKA: 

Day 6 was a big travel day, we started our morning by visiting a Denny's for the first time. On the way back to Tokyo to return our rental car, we visited a supermarket as this was the first we had seen in Japan. 

The drive back to Tokyo was also beautiful, although it's daunting to drive in a foreign country I do not regret it and upon my next trip to Japan I will be doing this again. If you're looking at renting a car make sure you acquire the correct documents. For myself, this was an International Drivers Permit.

After returning our car to the rental, we headed to Tokyo Station to purchase tickets for the Shinkansen to Osaka. When buying these tickets, there's an option to purchase using a booth or by waiting in line for a staff member to book this.

To simplify this process, we waited in line for a staff member to help us. The encounter was very easy and once we received these tickets we were on our way to the station. The stations that the Shinkansen stopped had separate lines and directions that were very clear throughout the station.

The tickets we received for the Shinkansen were numbered, providing the carriage that we were seated and the seat numbers.

I wont bore you with the details of the train ride but as we had tickets for Universal Studios.

Day 7 OSAKA:

This was another day that I was very excited for as we had express passes for Universal Studios. We knew that we wanted to purchase the express passes for Universal Studios as we were not willing to wake up early and wait in line prior to opening then race to Super Nintendo World to ensure that we could visit. 

The express passes we purchased included timed entry to Super Nintendo World, we purchased these through Klook but were unfortunately unable to choose our timed entry times and were allocated entry at 7:30pm.

As our time entry rides did not begin until around 10:30am, we slept in and arrived at the park around 10am with no wait time. As we did at Disney, we started our day by choosing our hats for the day, I wore a Snoopy hat and my partner wore a Yoshi hat. Side note, I preferred the Disney Toy Story Alien hat.

Purchasing the express passes was a huge time saver especially if you only have a day. Each ride had an hour wait time (at the shortest) the express passes enabled us to get in line and be at the front within ten minutes. 

Universal was truly a fantastic, being able to experience a New York City area, Harry Potter world and Super Nintendo world over the span of a few hours was amazing and each section and ride was full of detail. My partner and I's favourite rides were the Spiderman and the Harry Potter Experiences.

Day 8 OSAKA:

Day 8 began with a hotel change, we booked our first hotel in Osaka to be close to Universal Studios. As we no longer had any need to be in this area, we changed locations to be closer to the shopping areas and other attractions.

As check in was not available until 4pm, we contacted our hotel beforehand to see if they offered early baggage drop off as this is very popular in Japan. Thankfully, we were able to leave our bags at our new hotel prior to check in and wander from there.

Before we had planned anything for our Japan trip, my Dad had already decided that we needed to visit The Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum (AKA Astro Boy Museum to him). Since we had the whole day, we set off to visit this museum. The town this museum is located in has many signs showing the direction to walk to visit.

This museum is a must see for Astro Boy fans, it has a timeline of the creators work and many animation slides for his various shows. This was also the perfect place to find souvenirs for my Dad as it had a gift shop that was overrun with Astro Boy merchandise that you would not find in Australia.

Day 9 OSAKA:

It was at this point in our trip that we realised we had only visited very few temples and historic Japanese structures, and each that we had visited was stumbled upon by mistake. For our last full day in Osaka, we decided to travel walk to Osaka Castle. Any walk in Japan has beautiful scenery and views but this castle is beautiful.

It was a good thing that the past nine days in Japan had built our stamina because this was quite a huge uphill walk from our hotel to the Castle. Unknowing to us, you can enter the castle with purchased tickets. Apparently everyone else had done their research as the line for entrance was a long one which we chose to skip and instead enjoy the view from the outside.

On our walk from the castle down, we encountered a stall that had the infamous 10 Yen coin pancakes with fillings which was very exciting.

From here, we caught the train to Osaka Station and browsed the multi level shopping centre which was almost impossible to find our way out of. Once we were able to find our way out found a Wendy's and tried this for the first time as well.

After we returned to our hotel room, we realised that we had tickets to the Team Labs Botanical Gardens and rushed to the event, when we went in November we were required to wear face masks so keep this in mind and check for any regulations that are current.

Day 10 OSAKA = HIROSHIMA:

Fast forward, we've left the hotel and are now at the train station preparing to travel from Osaka to Hiroshima via Shinkansen. We again queued for a staff member to assist us in booking our seats. On the stations, there were mini shops where I purchased a Sanrio Bento box for the ride. The Shinkansen from Osaka to Hiroshima is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes so prepare as you see fit. I had personally started rewatching Greys Anatomy which I had downloaded in preparation for the trip.

After we arrived at Hiroshima, we caught a tram to our hotel. From my experience, Hiroshima seems to have a vaster Tram network than Train. The Trams going to/ from the train station do get extremely crowded, make sure you know your stop before your on as you may not have the space to easily check.

Our hotel in Hiroshima also allowed us to check in our bags prior to check in time. This is seriously a life saver as most hotels have a earliest check in time of 4pm in Japan and the last thing you want is to carry around a suitcase full of souvenirs and Don Quijote shopping hauls.

As usual, after checking our bags in we then proceeded to walk around Hiroshima and made our way the the Hiroshima Memorial Park. My partners highlight of the trip from the beginning was to see this site and it was extremely fascinating to be able to visit.

From here, we made our way around the city and visited arcades and a huge block of light displays.

Day 11 HIROSHIMA:

When my partner and I woke up on day 11, we decided to catch a ferry to Miyajima island. The Ferry's to and from Miyajima island run for a large part of the day, ours departed at 10:40am and took approximately 30 minutes to arrive at Miyajima island.

Miyajima island was beautiful and I was so happy we decided to visit to see the deer and explore the area. There were also a lot of shopping areas which were perfect perfect places for memorabilia. 

We found a little track that took us away from the main strip and up the hill to view the mountains and separate us from the rest of the people on the island.

After we had finished at the island, we caught the Ferry home and then proceeded to walk to Hiroshima castle then the arcades again and they are way better and cheaper than Australian arcades. I was also very excited and was able to win two big teddies from the claw machine!

Day 12 HIROSHIMA - TOKYO:

Again skipping the morning formalities, day 12 was our last day in Hiroshima but we had a big Shinkansen ride back to Tokyo. We got to the station, booked a ticket with the staffs assistance again but when we boarded the train, we realised that the staff member had booked us apart from each other.

Whilst we were still technically next to each other, we were each on an aisle seat, meaning that for the 4 hour train ride there would be an aisle between us and we would be sitting next to strangers.

My partner and I decided to sit in empty seats temporarily and decided that we would leave and return to our assigned seats before we reached stations where others were boarding. The staff member walking the train checking seats noticed we were not in assigned seats and came to talk to us, thankfully she was very kind and understood our situation. She was able to reassign our seats and we now had seats next to each other.

This was a long train ride but the views were very beautiful. 

Once we arrived at our final station, we then travelled to our final hotel for our stay. Up until this point in our trip, each of our hotel rooms were on the cheaper side but we decided for our final night, we would pay a bit extra and book a hotel at the hurt of Shinjuku at Hotel Gracery (The Godzilla hotel).

After dropping our bags off, we walked around Shinjuku and had dinner at Ichiran, my partner isn't really on Tiktok so he didn't understand why I would wait an hour for this but I was very glad to try it.

Day 13 TOKYO:

Whilst we were excited to return home, it was bitter sweet that this was our last final day in Japan. My partner loves Nintendo and consoles so we head off to the Akihabara district to visit the creepy vending machines where we tried to buy Bear Curry for 3300 Yen but it wouldn't come out of the vending machine.

After that disappointment, we proceeded to visit the electronic stores and I followed him as he browsed, this isn't my expertise and I had no idea what was actually going on so we'll just skip this part.

We returned to the hotel, tried Japanese KFC and then spent our last night walking the streets, going to the arcades and doing our final Don Quijote shopping haul.

We then proceeded to return to our hotel and pack our bags for the airport. We flex with Jetstar, we were able to check multiple bags for the weight limit, as our original suitcases were packed and on the verge of bursting we bought IKEA type bags from Don Quijote and packed anything we couldn't fit in the suitcases into this bag. 

Day 14 TOKYO - BRISBANE:

Our final day in Japan. We didn't have our flights until around 9pm so after checking out of our hotel, we organised to pickup our bags from the hotel later in the day as this was a feature offered. We decided to go out and get breakfast at a nearby shopping centre. At this point, we were exhausted from our trip and headed back to our hotel and proceeded to travel to the train station.

From here, we were able to book train tickets that took us directly to the airport and had booked seating to ensure you weren't standing. My partner passed out on my shoulder so this was very useful for the sleepy guy.

Our Pasmo Passports still had some money on them so we drained them in the vending machines at the airport and helped others do the same.

That concludes our Japan trip, whilst this may not look exactly like others or be as in depth it was still a lot of fun and im glad that we didn't prioritise early rises and instead were able to sleep in most days.