My Japan Solo Trip (2022): Things to know before leaving
In November 2022, I booked a trip to Japan and spent 1 night in Fukuoka, and 1 night in Yufuin. Since it was a trip during my 2 week stay in Korea, the stay in Japan was short. But it was one of the best solo trips I’ve been on- so I wanted to organize all my itinerary and information that helped me roam around as a tourist.
First and foremost I want to thank my good friend Mimi’s mom who hooked me up all her recs for my trip. I would not have been able to enjoy my trip as much as I did without her help,
While these travel posts are totally catered to my taste and preferences of travel, at least this one about logistics will be quite helpful, especially if you’re going for the first time to Japan. so- enjoy
Things to figure out before leaving (2022 November)
Flight. / Immigration
Arrive early morning into Fukuoka Airport so you have a full day to enjoy the city.
My immigration took 2 hours. If it’s busy season, be ready for the wait (the wait time always be changing, this was 11/8/22. I downloaded a few netflix shows, had a phone mount on my bag, and the wait was a breeze)
On 11/8/22, I entered all my passport and vaccine information 3 days prior to leaving for japan here: https://vjw-lp.digital.go.jp/en/ you must enter everything in advance and get preapproved, so you get the QR codes ready to scan at immigration. Otherwise it will be a nightmare to scramble at the airport with the poor airport wifi
Make sure you stay up to date on the requirements for entry are in Japan, and what form you need to fill out. Right when i was leaving it changed from an app to a different website, so it seemed to be constantly changing
Train tickets (FUKUOKA <> YUFUIN)
Absolutely reserve train tickets before you leave to japan. Trains to Yufuin is popular and gets booked out pretty quickly.
By mimi’s mom’s rec, I took the wonderful vintage train called yufuin no mori. This way you can enjoy a beautiful, green and wooden interior train and the countryside view on your way to yufuin. Seriously don’t miss it.
It was a pain to figure out how to reserve the ticket. Make sure you figure it out before you set foot in japan so you’re worry free. Here’s a step by step how to reserve your tickets:
Go to https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/ [[ON SAFARI. For some reason payment did NOT go through on chrome for me]]
Enter date, time, HAKATA -> YUFUIN
You will see the following options:
you can select the KYUSHI NET KIPPU, the cheaper option. Not too sure but I think other options give you more flexibility in changing tickets. it didn’t make a difference for me (as i wasn’t changing train times)
3. Then, it gives you seat selection:
4. I selected “window seat” and “reserve another seat of the same class”, and also reserved a return ticket while at it.
5. Then it asks you to enter all your information and credit card. (again, use SAFARI not CHROME as chrome may have a problem with processing payment)
6. Once purchased, you’ll get an email and it’ll tell you where you can pick up your tx. Each way is 2 tickets, so you’ll pick up a total of 4 tickets at a hakata station kiosk. (you will need the same credit card you used for purchase at the kiosk)
7. *** keep in mind each way you need 2 tickets: one, your basic ticket, two, your seat reservation. When you enter the platform, you have to insert 2 tickets together into the slot or else it won’t let you through. I almost missed my train because I kept putting in 1 ticket only! T_T
Sim Card
You will absolutely need a sim card / data roaming. It’ll come in handy
Either buy at the airport, or before through amazon
You’ll need it for ubers, google translate, google maps, train information, the vjw (covid entry app) bc the wifi at the airport was very spotty
Cash
Take out ~ $200 cash per person, as a lot of good food in yufuin will be cash only. I kept taking out more cash but i should have done it all at once -_-
Take out cash from any ATM machine with your debit card. Mine cost about $6-7 per transaction. This is almost always a better idea than converting at a conversion station at the airport
You’ll need cash to take the subway too.
Hotel
Fukuoka: I stayed at Zonk Hotel for $47 a night at the time.
10 minute walking distance from hakata station. In hindsight I would have booked somewhere right by the station. But if I hadn’t stayed there, I wouldn’t have found my nail artist or walked around the area.
Zonk was great. Clean, safe, stored luggage in the morning, close to the station, across a beautiful bar, and close to restaurants
Yufuin: I stayed at Yufuin Onsen Toshoan ~$250 per night
100/10 would recommend. At the time there were only a few ryokans left on agoda.com that included the kaiseki dinner and breakfast, with a decent onsen, so I went with this (the photos don’t do justice for this ryokan) and it was absolutely the best choice for me.
I paid ~$250 per night, and included was a very spacious room for 2 with 2 beds, private onsen tub, yukata (robe to wear around the building), kaiseki dinner (9 course, don’t miss it), and a japanese breakfast spread, welcome snack and drink, and even the taxi ride back to Yufuin train station was covered.
Subway
Watch a youtube video to roughly figure out the kiosk system so you know what to expect. (you’ll need CASH!)
If you’re going to be using the subway a lot, get an IC card (aka Suika Card) the link shows you where to get it and how to use it
But I was in Fukuoka for 24 hours, so I just bought tickets each time at the kiosk (plus I loved using the small tickets!)
Cabs
Uber works in fukuoka, but not yufuin
JapanTaxi is a japanese taxi app, also available to use
To take a cab in yufuin, i got some bus drivers’ help and they called the cab from their phone for me… T_T but when i checked out of the ryokan, they reserve taxis for you at your requested time
Language
make effort to speak some basic japanese, even if you cram it from your google translate!
Most people won’t speak english.
Worst case, use the voice to translate function on the google translate app.
OK. so these were the things to hash out before leaving, so you can enjoy and relax, and not waste time when you land. Hope this helped!
The actual itinerary of Fukuoka and Yufuin are coming in the next few posts !
