Those who have been to Japan multiple times, what adjustments did you make, especially on your second trip? Which ones worked, which ones made things worse?
Background: We are a family of 4 went to Japan June 2024. We only stayed for 10 full days: 6 days in Tokyo and 4 days in Kyoto. We got sick about 2-3 days, mainly when we were in Kyoto. We are going again this June for 22 full days.
Things that worked for us, hence will plan to do it again:
- We stayed at family/apartment style Mimaru hotels. The rooms were spacious and come with a small kitchen. This worked out really well as we had to cook meals at the hotel when we were sick.
- Luggage shipping services. We used it between Tokyo-Kyoto-Tokyo, and then from our hotel to NRT at the end. We may use it again this time to ship from Kyoto to Tokyo, and to the airport.
What didn't work for us, and our plan to address them:
- Our stay was too short and didn't account for sick time. We've taken care of that by planning to stay there more than 3 weeks with a few quarantine days in Tokyo.
- We brought too many clothing and other stuff. We ended up doing laundry often anyways, this time we are planning to just bring two carry-on and an empty full size suitcase. I'm planning to buy another suitcase there or bring a duffle bag for our clothing on the way back.
What we haven't figured out:
- Since my little one is only 10, she gets tired after long walk. When we were there, I thought to have snacks time at cafes but the places we visited had so many people it was pretty challenging to get a table.
- Also when we were there, we tried to avoid rush hours, so that kind of limited our time to do stuff. I need to plan better this time.
- Jet lag/time adjustment. When I was there I woke up 3AM everyday because that's 10AM in the US West Cost. By 6PM, I was spent. Also my family woke up at different time. Hopefully longer time will give us better chance to adjust.
If you could share your experience and tips/tricks, that would be great. Thanks a lot!