Travel to Japan – Tips and Experiences

Recently, I have noticed an increase in interest in BiH for traveling to Japan. For me, it was a lifelong wish that I managed to fulfill only this year, and I spent 30 days (May 15 to June 15) in Japan.

Things you should know before starting planning:

The Japanese Embassy is asking you for a travel plan on the base "and po and"with all reserved hotels and airline tickets, as well as confirmation of available funds on the basis of €100/day of stay.

The procedure lasts about 2 weeks from the day of the lecture for the visa, the standard visa is single entry and begins to be valid on the day of entry into Japan.

The embassy staff are incredibly friendly and ready to answer any questions.

Regarding hotel and airline ticket reservations:

Already booking.com a reservation can be made with the option of cash payment or payment at the Hotel, such a reservation is easier to change and cancel in case of problems with the visa or travel plan and is sufficient for the visa application.

Airline tickets through Turkish are possible "conclude" for a duration of up to 45 days at a price of approx. 70€, which means that the plane ticket is reserved even though it has not been paid yet, and that is enough for the visa application.

Mobile Internet:

There are a million options on how to have mobile internet while in Japan, for me the best was with the Japanese Data-Sim package from Sakura mobile, it costs about 60 KM and I had non-stop internet for a month without any problems.

Money and Prices:

Return air ticket on the route Sarajevo – Istanbul – Osaka; Tokyo – Istanbul – Sarajevo cost me about €1100, it was booked 2 months before departure.

Hotel prices are around 80 – 200 KM a night for a normal three – four star hotel in a solid location, for example, in Osaka, 3 minutes’ walk from the Dotonburi Bridge, I slept for 100 KM a night.

I carried some cash with me in Euros that I exchanged, but it was not necessary. 7-11 ATMs accept our cards without problems, I withdrew from a BAM account with a commission of 220 Yen (2.65 KM).

Before the trip, I recommend that you take out a spare card, which you should never carry with you. In Tokyo, I lost my wallet with some 30,000 Yen (350 BAM) and cards, I had a spare in the hotel so the damage was in my ID card and cash, if I didn’t have it I would have had a problem.

Food prices are acceptable and in many cases cheaper than in restaurants in Bosnia and Herzegovina. BBQ with 4 types of meat and 2 beers cost me about 65 KM.

The prices of drinks are also not far from ours, so draft beer goes from 600-800 Yen for half a liter (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya), cocktails 1500 – 3000 yen (Tokyo), and for a low budget option you can always buy it in a supermarket and sit in a nearby park, which many locals and tourists do.

Shinkanzen – fast train, depending on the distance, but the price is also acceptable, Osaka – Hiroshima I paid about 70 BAM one way, Nagoya – shin-Fuji about 140 KM.

For city transport, buy an EC card (Icoca, Suica or Pasmo) immediately upon arrival, fill it with about 2000 yen and it can last you 5 days depending on how much you use public transport.

Locations:

Most tourists visit the golden triangle (Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo), but outside the triangle there are phenomenal places that should not be missed, do some research, I personally liked Atagawa-Izu (on the coast of the North Pacific) and Hiroshima the most.

Community:

r/traveljapan there is a great community on discord that can answer a lot of questions, it consists of regular travelers and people who have lived in Japan for years, so that was my main source of information.

Additional tips:

If you are looking for accommodation, you will often come across APA Hotell locations. For 1-2 nights they are OK, for anything longer they are terribly tiring, the rooms are too small and that hotel chain is more intended for business travelers who will stay overnight than for someone staying for 10 days (Like me, an idiot in Tokyo).

cigarettes – A slightly unusual situation in Japan is that smoking is allowed inside most bars, but not always outside on the street, each city has its own rules, so while in Osaka it is enough just to get away from the main street and not let passers-by smoke, in You can only smoke Kyoto in certain zones.

Language: English is not understood in Japan, not even among waiters in tourist attractions, I mostly used the DeepL application for conversation and Google Lens for reading the menu, the only thing that confused me for a long time was the railway stations, but the workers were always happy to help.

Let: Anyone over 180cm would have to take a seat with extra legroom… I’m 194cm and I didn’t do it for the return trip, I struggled, the Istanbul – Osaka flight takes 11 and a half hours… so et

If something else comes to my mind or if you have questions, feel free to ask, but I see that more and more people from Bosnia and Herzegovina want to go, so I thought I’d share my experiences.