This trip was a big first for me in that it was the first time I would be traveling with a group of friends. Even though I was very used to the trials and tribulations that solo travel was likely to bring, it was hard to tell in advance how well our group would do together. I wasn’t worried about this group for any particular reason, but three months prior I had visited Hong Kong with a best friend and we had disagreements and tense moments for the first time in years. So I was cautious to consider how we could make space for things to go off track every now and then and how my group members might react to them. Despite this, we still decided to plan a very rigorous itinerary and cover a lot of ground over the week we would be in Japan. I’ll give a brief summary of the flights we chose and the itinerary we built through Japan.

For the most part, flights to Japan are extraordinarily expensive from our home airport of San Francisco (SFO), especially if they are nonstop. During our months of searching, none of the nonstop flights on the San Francisco to Tokyo or Osaka routes dropped below $2000 roundtrip in economy. Even connecting itineraries were pricing out at $1200 or more. But there was one needle in that haystack: Air China. We managed to find a multi-city itinerary from SFO to Osaka, and then returning from Tokyo’s more convenient Haneda airport to SFO, both legs with long layovers in Beijing. Originally they were both going to be 11 hours for me but only 3 hours on the return for my friends, but the second one was shortened for a reason I’ll get into later. The original flights were as follows, all in Economy class:

Outbound:

Air China 777-300ER Flight from SFO to Beijing

Scheduled Departure: 1:30 a.m., Friday March 24th, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 4:30 a.m., Saturday March 25th, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 12 hours

Layover Duration in Beijing: 11 hours, 30 minutes

Air China A321 Flight from Beijing to Osaka Kansai

Scheduled Departure: 4:00 p.m., Saturday March 25th, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 8:10 p.m., Saturday March 25th, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 3 hours, 10 minutes

Return (for me only):

Air China A321 Flight from Tokyo Haneda to Beijing

Scheduled Departure: 7:20 a.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 10:10 a.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 3 hours, 50 minutes

Layover in Beijing: 10 hours, 50 mintes

Return (for all others):

Air China A321 Flight from Tokyo Haneda to Beijing

Scheduled Departure: 2 p.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 5:10 p.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 4 hours, 10 minutes

Layover in Beijing: 3 hours, 50 minutes

Air China 777-300ER Flight from Beijing to SFO

Scheduled Departure: 9 p.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 5 p.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 11 hours

This left us with 8 nights and 7 full days to play with, starting in Osaka and ending in Tokyo. This aligned perfectly with the Japan Rail pass for foreigners, which is valid on all JR lines including certain shinkansen lines, for 7 days. We used Osaka as a base for our first 4 nights and 3 days, with plans to go to Osaka itself, Kyoto, and Nara on day trips in that order. I later decided to head up to the old Buddhist site of Koyasan on the first day, skipping Osaka. I also went to the illumination of Nabana no Sato near Nagoya while everyone else went to onsens after the morning in Nara. This was convenient for two reasons: we didn’t have to move our stuff between AirBnBs each day and we stayed near Osaka’s Dotonburi district, which has an abundance of food options in the evenings for when we returned. The next morning we went to Hiroshima and dropped luggage at our 1-night AirBnB, before heading to Miyajima that afternoon. We were able to visit the atomic peace park and museum before taking a train onwards to Tokyo, arriving in the afternoon. We split into various groups during our two full days in Tokyo, covering everything from the Tsukiji fish market to blossoms in Ueno park and a hike up Mt. Takao nearby. 

Originally, it was just going to be me that had to head to Tokyo’s Haneda airport in the morning. However, Air China cancelled their 9 p.m. departure from Beijing to SFO about a month after we booked. They shifted all of us to their earlier 4 p.m. departure on a Boeing 747-8 aircraft, but without changing any of our inbound flights from Tokyo. This shortened my layover to 6 hours, but also left my friends getting to Beijing an hour after the flight to SFO was due to take off. I tried calling Air China to fix this several times to no avail, so I eventually searched their contract of carriage for the clause forcing them to rebook us, and sent them an email. My friends were swapped to my earlier flight out of Tokyo within a day. I guess we just had to be more specific! Anyway, our flights out all ended up looking like this:

Air China A321 Flight from Tokyo Haneda to Beijing

Scheduled Departure: 7:20 a.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 10:10 a.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 3 hours, 50 minutes

Layover in Beijing: 5 hours, 50 mintes

Air China Boeing 747-8i Flight from Beijing to SFO

Scheduled Departure: 4 p.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 12:20 p.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 10 hours, 20 minutes

About a month before our trip, one more friend realized he’d be free to join us. Unfortunately, the price of our Air China flights had soared to $2000+ at this point. The cheapest price for him at that point was on Asiana Airlines via Seoul for ~$1200, but this had the extra bonus that he was able to have a long layover on his return in order to get lunch with his family. We only had to wait for him to arrive for about an hour at Osaka’s Kansai airport, and he came with us to Tokyo’s Haneda airport and only had to wait an extra hour before his flight departed. Here’s what his flights looked like:

Outbound:

Asiana Airlines 777-200LR Flight from SFO to Seoul Incheon

Scheduled Departure: 12:00 p.m., Friday March 24th, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 5:30 p.m., Saturday March 25th, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 13 hours, 30 minutes

Layover Duration in Seoul: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Asiana A321 Flight from Seoul Incheon to Osaka Kansai

Scheduled Departure: 6:50 p.m., Saturday March 25th, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 9:10 p.m., Saturday March 25th, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 2 hours, 20 minutes

Return:

Asiana A321 Flight from Tokyo Haneda to Seoul Gimpo

Scheduled Departure: 8:10 a.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 10:20 a.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Layover in Seoul: 5 hours, 50 minutes (includes transfer to Incheon)

Asiana 777-200LR Flight from Seoul Incheon to SFO

Scheduled Departure: 4 p.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 10:20 a.m., Sunday April 2nd, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 10 hours, 20 minutes

List of Installments:

• Flights to and from Beijing and layovers
• Osaka
• Koyasan
• Kyoto Day Trip
• Nara Day Trip
• Nabana No Sato
• Miyajima and Hiroshima
• Tokyo days
• Whales of August movie bar
• Mt. Takao Hike