I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas! Thanks for visiting my Japan tips blog!

If you are a first time visitor, please take a look through all of my blog entries. I hope the entries can be of assistance to you if you are planning a trip to Japan one day.

Scroll through the entries, and click “Previous Entries” at the bottom of the page to see more. Or if you want to search for specific keywords, use the search bar at the top of the page.

Two of my favorite posts on this blog are: Tokyo to Kyoto for 2,300 yen and my post on traveling overnight by train in Japan.

Enjoy, and thanks again for visiting!

I am happy to post and recommend several videos posted by HIUC students in Japan who are learning English. They give lessons about the Japanese culture. When I saw these videos I was pleased to see that they know a lot of English! I also learned many things that I never knew before when it comes to Japanese culture. For example I did not know that when visiting a Japanese shrine (Shinto religion), you are not supposed to walk under the middle of the torii gate at the entrance… that entrance is reserved for the gods so you have to walk around it. A bad thing because, if I remember correctly, I walked through the middle of several of them when I went to Meiji shrine 😛

My thanks to the HIUC students (I wish I knew what HIUC means!)  for providing such a valuable service to everyone via YouTube. I highly recommend that you view all of their videos so that you can get a better understanding of the culture. Who knows, these all might come into play when you visit Japan one day!

HOW TO BEHAVE AT A JAPANESE SHRINE, presented by Daishiro, Asuka and Tai

JAPANESE LUCKY CHARMS, presented by Ken, Ayaka and Hayami

JINBEI AND YUKATA, presented by Ryo and Natsuko

PRINT CLUB (“Purikura”), presented by Yuya, Hayato and Mei

SUMMER FESTIVALS, presented by Masato and Shoko

JAPANESE RICE, presented by Haruka and Karin

LUNCH BOXES, presented by Mai and Tomomi

POCKET TISSUES, presented by Shin (Nice shirt!) and Rie

Around this time of year (Winter), many good deals are out there for those wanting to travel to Japan in the near future. Here is a brief summary of some of those.

First there are deals in place with airlines traveling to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, which is located closer to Tokyo than Narita Airport is. Haneda Airport is the world’s busiest airport for domestic traffic, as several major Japanese carriers operate flights from Haneda to other destinations in Japan. Recently Haneda opened up slots for international air carriers during the night hours, along with a new runway and new international building to boot. Airlines offering new flights are starting to promote this with bonus mileage for their frequent flier members.

American Airlines’ AAdvantage frequent flier program is offering bonus miles for their new service from New York JFK to Tokyo Haneda that starts on January 20, on top of the miles that are already earned for flying the route: 5,000 bonus miles for discounted Economy, 10,000 for full fare Economy, and 15,000 for First or Business class. A round-trip purchase is required and travel must be completed by April 30, 2011. Visit the special offer page at American Airlines for more details.

Delta Air Lines has an attractive offer for its Skymiles members, myself included, on their flights between Detroit and Haneda, and between Los Angeles and Haneda. Fly in Economy Class and earn double miles for the trip, or fly in Business Class and earn triple miles. A round-trip purchase is NOT required… you can fly as many legs as you want (a single one-way journey, five round-trips, etc.) Both routes begin operating on February 19, and all travel must be completed by May 31, 2011. Visit the special offer page at Delta for more details.

The best offer out of these is on Delta, flying from Detroit to Tokyo Haneda. The distance between the two airports is 6,428 miles, so for flying that route one-way you would earn 6,428 miles. Fly a round-trip and you earn 12,856 miles. With the bonus mileage promotion, you would earn 25,712 miles for the round-trip in Economy Class, or 38,568 miles in Business Class.

CONGRATULATIONS! You now have enough miles for a FREE, round-trip economy ticket on Delta within the United States. See what I mean?

American and Delta are not the only airlines offering bonus mile campaigns… similar campaigns are being offered by All Nippon and possibly others, while Japan Airlines is offering a discounted mileage upgrade to business class on its flights from San Francisco.

Of course, the good news is that you can get all of this bonus mileage. Now for some not-so-good news: These flights all land at night, at around 10:30 or 11 PM. Land, and then pass through immigration and customs… If you make it out of the airport past midnight, chances are you won’t have a train ride into Tokyo as midnight is the time when most train services stop. Your best bet then is to take a Taxi or one of the few Limousine Buses that run into Tokyo after midnight in order to reach your hotel.

Besides the mileage bonus offers, some companies are offering inclusive travel packages.

Right now one of the best – and least expensive – is from American Airlines Vacations, offering an Air+Hotel package starting at $965 from Los Angeles that includes round-trip air transportation and six nights in a Tokyo hotel. Packages from Chicago start at $1,035, New York $1,065 and Dallas $1,085. Prices are per person, double occupancy. The deal is good for travel in January or February only. You have until December 31 to purchase the package.

If you want to spread your horizons a bit, IACE travel is offering a trip to the world-famous Sapporo Snow Festival from February 7-15. Packages are $2,150 from Los Angeles and $2,265 from New York, and include round-trip transpacific air travel, air travel from Narita to Sapporo, four nights at a hotel in Sapporo, air travel from Sapporo to Tokyo Haneda, and three nights at a hotel in Tokyo. Land packages (no round-trip transpacific air) cost $1,485. Prices are per person, double occupancy.

JTB is also offering discounts on a few of its inclusive travel plans during January and February. This includes their 7-day/5-night Tokyo Osaka Free Plan (Round-trip airfare, 3 nights in Tokyo, bullet train to Osaka, 2 nights in Osaka) starting at $1,525 from Los Angeles and $1,645 from New York. The package does not include any guided tours, but you can book such tours at additional cost if you wish.

Also discounted is the 9-day/7-night JTB Heritage Tour, which includes stops in Tokyo, Hakone, Takayama, Shirakawago, Kanazawa and Kyoto plus round-trip airfare, guided tours and intercity transportation starting at $2,875 from Los Angeles and $3,000 from New York. These prices are per person, double occupancy.

These deals and others can be found on the offical website, for Japan tourism, http://www.japantravelinfo.com/. They have done an excellent job providing information on Japan’s major tourist destinations and I highly recommend combing every nook and cranny of that website to see if any destinations and offers appeal to you.

I would first like to express my thanks and gratitude to everyone that has read my blog and has asked me questions regarding travel in Japan. I by no means consider myself an expert on this subject… but I have done a lot of research through guide books and the Internet regarding the culture and its transportation. So I am happy to share my love of Japan and my travel advice to people one-by-one, and to everyone through this blog.

Today’s topic will be about Japan’s efficient Shinkansen network, which is going to get bigger over the next four months with the opening of two important extensions. These extensions will make traveling in Japan faster and easier, bringing major cities closer to each other. The first, opening this Saturday December 4, is an 81.8 km (50.8 mile) segment in northern Japan between the cities of Hachinohe and Aomori. The second, opening on March 12, 2011, is a 130 km (80.7 mile) stretch in Kyushu between the cities of Fukuoka and Yatsushiro.

The first extension opening December 4 will reduce travel times to northern Japan by a small margin… yet, any sort of time savings is a plus, in my opinion, because it’s just more time on your hands to enjoy the wonderful country. The Tohoku Shinkansen line will extend north to the city of Aomori, known for its hot springs, mountains and Aomori Nebuta festival. Near Aomori is a historical site where you can view remnants from the Jomon period (10,000 BC-300 BC).  Aomori is also a top producer of Japanese apples known as Obokoi apples.

Before the shinkansen network existed, Aomori was easily an overnight trip from Tokyo.  Today, thanks to the Shinkansen, it takes 4 hours: 3 on the bullet train to Hachinohe, then one hour on a Tohoku Line limited express train to Aomori. When the extension opens December 4, the trip will be reduced by about 20 minutes or so. The fastest trains from Tokyo to Aomori will take 3 hours, 20 minutes… but note that the station where the bullet trains arrive will be at Shin-Aomori (literally New Aomori) station. From Shin-Aomori, it’s a 6 minute ride or so to (plain) Aomori station. So the overall travel time, including transfer and waiting times at Shin-Aomori, will be about 3 hours and 40 minutes.

When arriving at Shin-Aomori station, you will have to wait for the next regular train to “shuttle” you to Aomori station… a special rule being introduced will permit travelers to use non-reserved seats of Limited Express (i.e. long distance) trains between Shin-Aomori and Aomori stations, so if a Limited Express comes first, you can use that. Speaking of Limited Express, trains bound for Hokkaido will now start at Shin-Aomori station, go to Aomori, then reverse direction for the trip to Hokkaido. Journey times to Hakodate, the major city on the southern part of the island, will be reduced by an average of 15 minutes.

Overall journey times will be reduced further in March 2011 when new, faster “Hayabusa” trains will be introduced on the Tokyo – Shin-Aomori route. These trains will reduce travel times by an additional 15 minutes.

The regular, one-way fare between Tokyo and Aomori will be 16,370 yen in ordinary class and 21,860 yen in green class… so an excellent way for tourists to save is to buy a 7-day Japan Rail Pass, or better yet, a JR East Rail Pass which costs 20,000 yen for 5 consecutive or 4 non-consecutive days and covers all journeys north of Tokyo into the Tohoku region, including the Tohoku Shinkansen. If you continue to Hokkaido, however, the Japan Rail Pass will generally be the better deal.

The second shinkansen line, opening March 12 2011, will be very significant as it will be a missing piece that will cover an entire shinkansen network stretching from Tokyo through Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Fukuoka to the main city in the southern region of Kyushu, Kagoshima. This will reduce one hour from the current travel times between Fukuoka and Kagoshima to 1 hour and 20 minutes. The Kyushu Shinkansen will link to one of Japan’s major bullet train networks, the San’yo Shinkansen. Hourly trains, called either “Mizuho” or “Sakura”, will run from Osaka west to Fukuoka then south to Kagoshima. From Osaka you’ll be able to reach Kumamoto – home to one of Japan’s most famous castles – in as little as 3 hours, and you can travel from Osaka to Kagoshima in as little as 3 hours 45 minutes. More details about timetables and fares should be made known later this month.

To wrap up this blog entry, a note about the segment opening in northern Japan, which was sort of referenced in my last post: The local railway between Hachinohe and Aomori will be taken over by a private railway, now that Japan Railway will operate the bullet train line between those two cities instead. This means that if you have a Japan Rail Pass and were to take one of those overnight trains up to Hokkaido, you will have to pay more in extra fees since you would now travel over a longer section of railway that is not operated by JR, and therefore is not included in the rail pass. Fees for traveling over this line will now increase from 3,700 yen up to 6,560 yen… Not to mention you will also have to pay for your accomodation on the train as well.

With this in mind, using a Japan Rail Pass, we return to my idea of an overnight trip with a rest stop. In a day and age where the yen is strong, this might work out better, and cost less: Take the bullet train north, stop somewhere to spend the evening, and in the morning continue the journey to your destination. Sendai, Morioka, Hachinohe and Aomori are some good locations where you can rest at reasonably-priced business hotels such as Toyoko Inn.