Welcome to another brand new trip series from Seeing The World In Steps! It is finally JAPAN! Woohoo! Seeing The World In Steps first ever trip to Japan! I am so excited! I have always been wanting to visit Japan and finally have the chance to do so back last November. Furthermore, the stars were all lined up and I had both existing tickets and hotel bookings. How amazing is that. Furthermore, it sure helps that Yen were at an all time low. This trip have been two years in the planning. I really can’t wait to be in Japan for the first time ever. The weather, the food, the Japanese hospitality, I am looking forward to experiencing it for myself firsthand. OMG and the convenience stores? Let’s go Nippon or Nihon!

Flights

Dreams do come true and luck sometimes do stand on your side of things. Planning travels during a pandemic raved world is no mean feat and even scoring deals or in this case a highly sought after business saver redemption to Japan in SQ Business Class. You never know whether you will ever be be able to get onboard or into Japan. It is safe to say that no one expected Japan to be close off to the world for that long.

This will never be possible if I didn’t have tickets secured way it advance. The demand is way ridiculous once Japan announced the reopening. I was lucky to even book these tickets before the devaluation and this were under the stopover trick as part of my Europe tickets back last year. I paid 120,000 miles for a Business Advantage redemption from BCN to SIN to HND. Expensive at that point in time but what a deal right now! This meant that my tickets for SIN – HND cost just 28,000 miles and 52.24 SGD in taxes. I issued my HND – SIN tickets with a stopover to Perth for 66,000 miles and 49.20 SGD in taxes. It is nothing creative but I will be flying

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Singapore Airlines SQ636 A350-900 SIN – HND Regional Business Class

Singapore Airlines SQ636 A350-900 HND – SIN Regional Business Class Review

I will be sharing my thoughts on a mid haul flight where you are neither here nor there. Suffice to say, it kind of create an awkward feeling where it is too short to have a good rest but too long to get by without a nap too. I will also share why I am not a fan of these regional seats and the Japan flight really stretch those seats to the limit.

Trains 

I did a bunch of domestic travel while in Japan since I was getting around the country. As with Japan, the trains are much more efficient way of doing so rather than flights. The cream of the crop is definitely their Shinkansen! I took a couple of them in Japan and will be sharing my experience riding on the JR Shinkansen! I will also cover my thoughts on transportation in Japan especially Tokyo. This will includes travelling on a JR Rail Pass, IC Card, Local Trains and Google Map.

I travel to a total of 6 cities in Japan and got a 7 day JR Rail Pass. I supplemented it with an IC card and this nicely covered Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya and Lake Kawaguchiko.

Hotels

I am excited to share the hotels that I stayed in Japan. There are some really exciting properties. I managed to stay at the two most aspiring properties under Hilton that were on my bucketlist. You can expect to see full hotel reviews of both Conrad Tokyo and Conrad Osaka. These are said to be one of the best Conrad hotels in the world. I have been wanting to check that out after so long. This is another aspect that shows planning goes a long way! always lock in rates whenever you can! I am just lucky that I lock in the rates when prices are very low! To put it in perspective, I paid around 330 SGD a night before the increase to almost 700 to 1000 SGD a night after Japan reopen.

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I will be spending a total of 6 nights at Conrad Tokyo, 3 nights in Conrad Osaka as well as 2 nights in Hilton Nagoya. More details to follow in the actual hotel review coming very soon.

Lounges

This time around I will be taking the opportunity to check out the recently reopened SilverKris Lounge in Terminal 2 as well as the Krisflyer Gold Lounge. Let’s see if anything changes or they are still stop in time. You can check out my previous review of the lounges. I spent most of the time in the SilverKris Lounge in Terminal 3 but will not do another review since it is mostly the same.

I will be sharing a review of the ANA Lounge at Tokyo Haneda International Airport. The flagship lounge of Air Nippon Airlines. It is a rather disappointing stay especially with their policies. More to follow.

Japan

This is the unique part for me. I finally made it to Japan. To be honest, Japan was never top of my list back a couple of years ago. I do not know why exactly I keep putting it off. Perhaps given how stressful and expensive it is. Japan certainly doesn’t disappoint. People were already laughing how I didn’t even go Japan when I have travelled the world. Finally when I had plans to go, COVID hits and I had to put my plans backward. Japan turn out to be amazing. I can’t wait to check out more places already. Expect to see my sharing for Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya and Lake Kawaguchiko. That sight of Mt Fuji! Priceless!

I can’t wait to be back in Japan to visit more regions in the North and South of the country. In fact, Hokkaido is already planned for later on this year. Look forward to my tons and tons of sharing in the various cities I visited. Going to have plenty of food.

I will also share my visit to a Sake Brewery!

Upcoming Highlights for Nippon or Nihon:

Introduction
Singapore Airlines SilverKris Business Class Lounge Changi Airport Terminal 2 Review
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold Lounge Changi Airport Terminal 2 Review
Marhaba Lounge Changi Airport Terminal 3 Review
Singapore Airlines SQ636 A350-900 SIN – HND Regional Business Class Review
Ginza Kyubey Omakase Review
Conrad Tokyo Executive Bayview Room Review
JR Shinkansen Tokyo to Osaka Review
Conrad Osaka Executive Corner Room Review
Fukuju Sake Brewery
Kobe
Osaka
Kyoto
Hilton Nagoya Premium Executive Room Review
Nagoya
Day trip to Lake Kawaguchiko & Mt Fuji
Tokyo
ANA Lounge Tokyo Haneda Airport Terminal 3 Review
Conrad Tokyo vs Conrad Osaka
Transportation in Japan and Tokyo
Singapore Airlines SQ636 A350-900 HND – SIN Regional Business Class Review
How much did I spend in Japan?

Hope you guys are looking forward to following me on my adventures once again. Very excited to share with you my 34th unique country in the world. I love Japan so much! In fact, I have already planned another trip back in 2023. I can’t believe that it had took me so long to visit Japan. P.S. Bring more empty suitcases there!