The mistakes I made travelling through Japan 🇯🇵

Last year, I spent two weeks travelling through Japan, and it did not quite go as I had imagined. I do not mean only the journey itself, where a cancelled flight cost me two days, but the way I planned and experienced the trip as a whole. Although I saw a great deal, I did not feel the way I had expected to.

After returning home, I spent a long time thinking about what I would do differently today.

Expectations and excessive preparation

My main problem was that my expectations were too high. I had planned the trip for years—essentially since I began learning Japanese and started waiting for Japan to reopen to tourists after the pandemic.

Before leaving, I researched almost everything I might encounter in great detail. I read dozens of articles, watched countless videos and already knew many things from anime.

As a result, everything felt familiar and there was no sense of wonder. When I stepped off the plane in Osaka, I knew exactly which train I would take, what it looked like, where I would get off and what the route to the hotel would look like from studying it on Google Street View. Nothing surprised me.

When I finally reached Akihabara, one of my main destinations, I walked through a few streets and thought, “Is that all? I have already seen this in a video.”

Detailed itineraries and ticking boxes

My excessive planning also meant that I had a detailed itinerary for almost every day.

In Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Tokyo and Kamakura, I had an exact list of places I wanted to see, together with detailed instructions for travelling between them and the order in which to visit them.

Travelling often became a matter of mechanically moving from place to place and ticking items off a list without really noticing my surroundings.

Paradoxically, I enjoyed my final day most, when I had no plan at all. I had to leave my Airbnb early in the morning, but my flight was not until the evening, so I simply wandered around. I visited the Imperial Palace gardens, stopped in a neighbourhood full of bookshops to buy a textbook and had lunch in a small soba restaurant frequented by locals, queuing alongside them.

I then returned to Akihabara and headed to the airport that evening. It was the most enjoyable day of the entire trip.

Taking minimalism too far

I am a minimalist and always travel light. Regardless of the length of a trip, I can manage with a backpack and a cabin suitcase, especially when I can wash my clothes.

In Japan, however, I took it too far. I was worried about moving between cities, so I bought almost nothing to avoid carrying more luggage. Apart from two textbooks and one small gachapon toy, I bought nothing. At Haneda Airport, I picked up a Gundam model kit at the last minute, but otherwise I brought almost nothing home.

I now know that I could have relaxed more, followed the plan less and enjoyed the moment instead of trying to keep everything under control.