Do it yourself guide for your dream trip to Japan

“Travel is never a matter of money but of courage.” – Paolo Coelho

While I was sipping coffee in a Japanese guesthouse in downtown Kyoto I overheard a conversation between some of my fellow travelers regarding their experiences in Japan up until that moment.
We clearly shared the same passion about Japan initially, but the depth of our impressions was so much different. I’ve joined the conversation so we could exchange some information and give each other some pointers but soon I realized it was in vain.
We came to Japan for two completely different reasons. Their goal was to see Japan, mine was to experience it. But who could blame them? Countless travel guides and articles are written yearly and most of them point out places to see, things to buy but very few teach us what we are actually looking at. It’s hard to create an emotional response towards something you essentially have no clue about. Yes, visuals can be breathtaking, but in order to truly experience the full range of emotions we need to be better acquainted with our subject. In this case the country we are traveling to, specifically Japan.
This brings us back to the very title of this post. The quote from one of the world’s bestselling writers. He speaks about courage, courage to travel. Some people have it and that’s great, for them. For the rest of us it’s not that easy.
People generally fear the unknown. Being cautious is the primal defense mechanism. While traveling this can be a double edged sword, it can save us from potential danger but also hold us back from opening up and experiencing the new world around us. That’s why having the correct information about the places we are visiting will help us understand, feel and ultimately experience the places we are visiting to the fullest.
I have been traveling quite a lot for the past ten years. For the last five I’ve been sailing the seas on some of the biggest ocean liners out there. I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of tourists aimlessly wondering around ports of call with very few information at hand. Don’t get me wrong, most of them still have a very good time, but imagine how much better it could get if they only invested some effort into learning more. And there is always more, a lot more.

“If you don’t have a plan of your own, you are a part of somebody else’s plan” - Terence McKenna

Question is: Do you want to have the time of your life discovering the world for yourself or are you pleased to follow somebody else’s checklist?
Personally, I have answered that question both ways but ever since I took things into my own hands for the first time there’s only one right answer to it.

Back to Japan:
I’ve invested six months into planning my trip to Japan. Every second spent was well worth it.
I’m not going to tell you about my itinerary in this post because the very purpose of this post is to give you the resolve (if you need it) and the tools to create your own adventure.
I will tell you however, that I had really high expectations for this trip. In fact I was worried a little bit that I might fail at meeting them, especially because I waited for over three years to get the chance to do this.
The result of this extensive preparation for the trip was immense. I attained the proper mindset which allowed me to travel through Japan like trough my own backyard. Every city felt warm and welcoming, every person I’ve met felt like an old friend.

Here, I have compiled a list of useful multimedia materials that I’ve used during six months of planning and during my stay in Japan.
Some of these are obvious choices, some of them are not. Mixing the mainstream with some hidden gems proved to be a very good decision.

Interesting books on Japan:
A Short History of Japan: From Samurai to Sony - Curtis Andressen

Culture Shock! Japan: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Culture Shock! A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette) - P Sean Bramble

Culture Shock! Tokyo: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Culture Shock! At Your Door: A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette) - Yuko Morimoto-Yoshida
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion – Yukio Mishima

Travel guides used:
Lonely planet guide to Japan
EDK Eyewitness guide

On line resources:
http://www.japan-guide.com
http://japanrailpass.net
http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/suica.html
http://www.insidekyoto.com
http://www.mofa.go.jp
www.airbnb.com
www.booking.com

Apps (Android/IOS):
Tokyosubway (great way to have a complete timetable at your fingertips)
Hyperdia (complete train schedule with connections and prices)
MAPS.ME (great offline map with many POI)
Japan Connected Free WI-FI (saves you the trouble of having to register for the available public networks)

Video Materials (Documentaries/Movies):
Life in Japan (19 foreigners talk about their life in Japan
Seven Samurai (Japanese cinema classic)
Lost in translation (many great shots of modern day Tokyo and some of the atmosphere as well)
A LOT of Anime :)

I strongly suggest giving these a chance, although there are countless other resources that you could use. Whether you end up using them or not is up to you but as long as you have a similar philosophy about traveling you can’t go wrong.
If you are interested to see what plans I have made and how I’ve spent two weeks in Japan separate post will be posted soon.

Safe travel!