By aussie
After months of studying this guide and worrying about my trip to Japan, I have finally been. I (female) travelled with my mother in her late 60's my 12 year old daughter to Japan to visit my daughter studying in Nagoya. Everything went really well, and we enjoyed our trip and would love to return their soon. We purchased cheap flights from Jetstar (better then expected) and arrived in Kansai late at night. We stayed at the Ramada which offered a free shuttle from the airport. Budget hotel clean and comfortable,
We then made our way back to the airport on the shuttle and caught the train to Kyoto. This was the highlight of our trip and we wished we stayed an extra day. We stayed at the holiday inn which offered a shuttle bus also. A little bit out of town but no problems at all, the shuttle will drop you back in town and it is walking distance from the bus stop where you could get a $5 day pass and hop off and on all day. We managed to get around and look at some temples and see the geisha's and absorb the atmosphere. This hotel was the best hotel on our trip. Good price, friendly helpful staff who could speak english, free internet, supermarket, department store and 100y shop and food court all in the one building.
After two nights we headed off to Nagoya to meet my daughter. We managed the subway's there ok but lots of steps which was hard to manage luggage with and if we weren't fit when we arrived we certainly where after our trip. We stayed at Sake at The B Nagoya, basic room but cheap, comfortable and clean. Staff very helpful but had limited english so a few miss understandings but with a little sign language got by. They stored our luggage for us when we went to tokyo which was great, and even had it waiting in our room for us on our return. Once you worked the subway out it was easy to find the hotel and lots of good shops in walking distance. A visit to Nagoya castle is a must and also Osen which has a temple, market style shopping and if you are lucky some wrestlers. We had three nights in Nagoya and then headed to Tokyo.
We purchased a sunrise disney tour with a nights accommodation before we left Australia, this was the most expensive part of our trip and cost $1100 for four of us to catch the train to tokyo, passes to disney sea and 2 rooms at The Prince Takanaya. We enjoyed it but I think I would have preferred more time in Kyoto. As the hotel normal rates where $350 a night for a double I was expecting better then it was. It was very worn and dated but was clean and comfortable. While in Tokyo we wandered the streets of Ginza, went to Electric City and to Disney Sea.
We then returned back to Nagoya for some shopping, visit to my daughters school and out to dinner with her host family.
We then headed off to Osaka by train and stayed at the Sunroute Umeda Hotel, this hotel was good also. It had the biggest room, easy to find and close to the shops. As we only had a day in Osaka we only exployered near our hotel and enjoyed the hep 5 shopping centre before catching the Airport Limosine back to the airport for our flight home to Brisbane.
I was very pleased with everything that I had booked. I could not fault Japan at all. The people where very friendly and went out of their way to chat to us. I think they wanted to practice their english. We even meet a lovely old gentleman at Osaka who carried my mothers luggage right to our hotel door, school children who wanted to interview us at temples for school assignments, hairdressers who asked my blonde daughter could they play with her hair and many helpful people. I was really concerned about the rail systems but had no problems and if I couldn't work it out I always found someone who could understand me. Eating in Japan is cheap, I ended up cancelling our Hotel breakfast because we where sick of them and had McDonalds for under $10 for Three of us which is very cheap
Live Love and Enjoy Japan It is great
