Scramble into Shibuya crossing; indulge in sashimi and ramen; feel the magic at Tokyo Disneysea or Universal Studios; have an evening stroll at Senso-ji; before experiencing all of these and more in your Japan trip, there are things to be done and prepared. Here’s our personal experience during the planning and preparation of our Japan trip last 2018. *This is a late post

PART 1: VISA Application 
Now, there are many types of Visas. We applied for a Tourist VISA (no guarantor). Based on the many personal stories and guides about Japan VISA application for Filipinos, a single-entry VISA is usually given to first time Japan tourists. If one has a significant travel history or has a VISA for G7 countries, there is a higher chance of getting a multiple entry VISA that is valid for 5 years.

Two people I know were given multiple entry Japan VISAs on their first attempt, possibly because of the travel history and financial capability reflected on their application documents. Just for the sake of trying, my dad and I wrote a cover letter to request for multiple entry tourist VISAs – even if we didn’t have that travel history and financial capability. You have to submit the requirements to an accredited travel agency. Ours were processed through Reli Travel and Tours Mall of Asia branch.
These were the documents we passed :

• Passport – Valid for at least 6 months. Ours were freshly renewed a few months before this application.
• Application form *download here*
• Multiple entry VISA application form (only if you’ll apply for multiple entry VISA) *download here*
• 2 x 2 ID Picture with name and birthday written at the back – neutral expression, face should not be blocked by hair, ears showing, no earrings.
• Birth Certificate – original copy from PSA
• Marriage Certificate (for married people) – original copy from PSA
• Daily Schedule in Japan– It’s okay even if this is not yet the final plan, just have a draft. You can use tour plans as reference, but don’t just copy as is. We never know, someone might copy paste the same and the embassy *might* just notice. Low chance, but just to be sure 😉 *download here*

Additional Requirements for those applying without sponsor/guarantor

• BIR 2316 – For employees, the company usually gives a copy of this around January to February which covers the income tax details of the previous year. Since one of us was already retired at the time of the trip and cannot provide BIR 2316, he just indicated that he is a retiree in his cover letter. 
• Bank certificate – For our bank, we requested in the morning, then received around lunchtime of the same day. You have to pay a fee, it was Php100 for each of us. Just tell them Bank Certificate for Japan VISA purposes. They already have a template. In our case, it has to be requested in the same branch where you opened your account. You can check with your bank if their rules are the same.

Supporting Documents that we just added

• Cover letter – Here, we stated our request for a multiple entry VISA and a short explanation on why we are requesting for it. 
• Hotel Booking Confirmation Email – we just booked via booking.com, no pre-payment and free cancellation until one week before booking. Eventually, the hotel we used for the application was where we actually stayed. This isn’t required but we just submitted anyway. [More on that soon!]
• Certificate of Employment – tenure and annual gross salary were indicated for the one I submitted. 
• Old passport(?) – we tried submitting our old passport as proof of previous travel to another country (non VISA) but it was just given back to us. Maybe because it had no actual bearing in our application 😅 we didn’t have any other VISAs there.

The Result?
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Approved! – For Single Entry 😍

 
PART 2: Booking a Flight
We were able to book flights during the Ultimate Seat Sale of Philippine Airlines. Yes, we know that it’s not that cheap compared to the cheapest possible ticket price during seat sales of more affordable low cost carries, but for 300+ USD roundtrip each, it’s already a good enough deal for a PAL flight. That is around the same price, or even more affordable, than a regular priced flight of a low cost carrier. Hot meal and 20kg baggage allowance is already included in the price, even for the Economy Supersaver. The difference between the many types of Economy flight classes of PAL is the amount of Mabuhay miles, refund amount for cancellation and rebooking fees. We’re not really after the points and we are sure of our travel dates so we are already okay with the Economy Supersaver.

More details on our actual flight soon!

Note: We decided to apply for a VISA first before booking flights and accommodation because we decided to play it safe instead of losing money in the event that our application gets denied. 

PART 3: Itinerary Planning (the real one)

This was the hardest part! Why? Simply because there is a lot to see and do, but so little time and money!

Step 1: What do you want to see and do?
Culture trip? Food? Temples? City? Theme Parks? We listed all that we wanted to do:

• Theme park
• A few shrines / temples / castles / gardens
• A city stroll
• Food trip
• Street markets

Step 2: Where exactly do you want to go?
Osaka? Kyoto? Tokyo? Hokkaido? To decide, we need look at question number 1. If you prefer to visit more temples and a more traditional Japan, Kyoto / Osaka would be a good choice. If you want to be in the midst of the busy city, then try Tokyo. Or maybe there is a specific must-go place for you like Mt. Fuji, or a specific garden in spring or autumn, or maybe an onsen or ski-resort, then you can plan your trip and other destinations around that.
For a 5 days, 4 nights trip, we made a decision to focus on one city: Tokyo. Limited time = limited places to go to 😦 We would have loved to tour Osaka and Kyoto but I’m sure it would end up being rushed so we decided to stick to Tokyo.
From the list above, here are the further questions that helped us finalize our itinerary.

• Which theme park?
  • Disneyland, Disneysea, Fuji-Q, Sanrio Puroland?
• Which café?
  • Robot café, maid café, animal café, hobbies café?
• Which shrines / temples / castles / gardens?
• Which districts?
  • Shubuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Asakusa?
  • Day trip to Nikko / Yokohama / Fuji?
• Which restaurants/ specific food items?
  • Sushi, Ramen, Japanese steak, Konbini goodies

Step 2.5: Is it still within budget?

Here’s the part where you think about if you really want to go to that theme park or if you would rather save the funds for souvenirs or food tripping.

OR IF you really have the time and funds to see and do everything on your “want list”.

“Some” of My Must-do’s are:

1. Tokyo Disneysea
2. Animal Cafe (not cat/dog cafe)
3. Eat at Tsukiji
4. Eat ramen
5. Ride a Giant Ferris Wheel
6. Visit a Temple/Shrine/Garden
7. Take a photo with Hachiko 
8. Cross the Shibuya scramble
9. Try to hear mass at a Catholic Church
10. Buy weird/unconventional flavors of Kitkat

You will have to factor in the timing of visit too. More of it in the next step.

Step 3: When will you visit?
Group your target destinations based on location and take note of the following! You wouldn’t want to waste time going to a park only to find out that it is closed for the day.

• Crowd calendars
  • Tokyo Disney Resort
• Opening hours
  • most establishments open at 10am – 11am
  • gardens open at 9am, some earlier
  • many stalls and shopping streets set up shop at 5pm
• Closed days
  • Imperial Palace is closed on Mondays and Fridays

Step 4: How will you get there?
After determining which places you’ll go to on specific days, look for the nearest train/subway/bus station.

We used the Japan Official Travel App to determine routes, which train/subway line to take. It even shows the departure time, estimated duration of the ride, and the price. There’s an option to prioritize JR train lines if you choose to buy one. I even made an excel file to visualize and estimate the cost of our train rides.

Based on this, we were able to determine that we might not get the full value of JR pass since we won’t go on day trips outside Tokyo and a lot of our destinations are closer to subway stations like Toei or Tokyo Metro, including our hotel. A 72hr subway pass was purchased (to be paired with a reloadable Suica card) for getting around during our trip [More on the subway pass soon!]

And so, we waited for the day of our flight.

Watch out for the next post Japan 2018: Day 1 – Arrival and Odaiba