K's House Ito Onsen-a fabulous traditional ryokan for a great price. |
When I was a kid, I had a paper route. I walked those Wisconsin neighborhoods
everyday but Sunday for about four years.
It wasn’t fun much of the time, but it was a great job for my child
self. One thing I usually hated was
getting up at five am on Saturday to get the paper delivered by seven. There
were times, though, that I did not mind the early morning walk. Especially when I discovered (nerd alert) a
great radio show on NPR called The Savvy Traveler.
As I walked my paper route, I would listen to people’s incredible stories from all over
the world and imagine myself to be there: sipping a cappuccino on a tiny street
café in Verona, riding a zip-line through the jungles in Costa Rica, hiking the
Great Wall of China.
Perhaps the seed was planted then. The seed which sprouted into a great desire
to travel everywhere, experience everything, and meet everyone. I have been fortunate enough to nurture this
desire and gain many experiences, though they are few compared to others.
As someone who has lived, traveled, and worked in Japan for
a few years now, I feel obligated to do my part in sharing things I have
learned. I’ve learned an incredible
amount during my time here. One such
thing is how to travel.
I’d been on a few major trips before moving to Japan, but
these trips (one to China and one to Europe) were more or less group
tours. Not to knock group tours-they
certainly have their own draw. My point
is that group tours are a certain type of travel. Traveling solo, or without a guide is a
totally different story.
There are so many factors that go into planning major trips
on one’s own. First you have to decide
what type of trip you want/can afford.
Japan is known to be an expensive country. It’s expensive to get here, live here, and
get around here. (Though the exchange
rate is now beginning to even out between the Yen and USD…which is bad for us,
but great for anyone coming to Japan to travel.)
There are many things I could talk about or suggest for
people who have a desire to visit Japan, but I only want to mention two here:
1) Buy
a Japan rail pass. This is by far the most cost effective way to
get around Japan. You have to buy them
outside of Japan though. Find more
information here.
2) Don’t
stay in hotels; Japan does the backpacker’s hostel very well. I want to specifically recommend K’s House. They have eight locations across Japan and
they are staffed by some of the nicest people I have ever met. Also, the facilities are extremely nice and
very clean. They offer private rooms as well as the cheaper dorm rooms.
K's House Ito Onsen-street side. |
These two things alone will help in planning a fantastic
trip through Japan! Happy traveling,
everyone!
Side note: Unfortunately, The Savvy Traveler was taken off the air several years ago due to lack of listener donation during pledge
drives. Sigh.
Anyone know of any great travel podcasts?
Such a great post, thanks for the tips!
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