Traveling Abroad? Here's The Big Three

Maybe it’s “something in the water” but traveling abroad is currently on everyone’s mind. But, before you book that hotel or request that PTO I highly recommend squaring away these things AKA: The Big 3.

FIRST: Passport.

Probably a no-brainer… but to be honest you’ll be surprised at how many people had no idea you actually need to have one of these. I blame cruise ships for this. Many cruise lines leaving the US ports will allow you to travel with just proof of a valid US birth certificate (or a valid passport).
Passports are a bit of an eyeroll to get - mainly on the approval/processing end. 
When it comes to the paperwork you MUST make sure you fill everything out correctly based on what the website states. Adult passports last 10 years and children 5 years. Renewal needs to be completed before 6 months of the expiration date indicated on your passport book. If you do let it expire (from what I’ve been told) it’s a long process to reestablish. 

You can print and fill out all the paperwork at home, take photos at a location that has a passport backdrop, take papers + photos to USPS or a government building that has a passport office, pay and wait. Your passport will arrive to your home address.

*YES, you can complete ALL of this at a USPS or government building that has a photo station. Research beforehand to see if your location will provide that. ALSO make appointments. Some locations will not see you if there isn’t an appointment on file. Link to find locations to do passport approval and fill out forms in person.

** Passport photo tip is to have on a plain color top (I wore black). The passport backdrop is white so do NOT wear white! Also keep yourself looking natural. No heavy makeup. I had my photos taken at a Walgreens. It was a $10 charge and photos were instant.

The passport approval and processing end is the longest window you’ll have to wait. Online you can see the processing estimation time frame and there is an option to expedite your paperwork. You will be asked this on your passport appointment when you pay and drop off the documents. Choose wisely. When I completed my passport in Spring 2023 the window was 6-8 weeks; I did NOT pay to expedite and arrived exactly in 6 weeks. I also had all my paperwork filled out correctly the first time. My passport appointment was at USPS and it took about 45 minutes.

If you have any other questions about passports I first recommend reading the website where you can access all the required documents. On the official website there is a huge FAQ page that I relied on. You can also reach out to me if you have questions too! I will have linked here the website to passport documents and linked here is the FAQ page for passports.SECOND: International Driver Permit.

This is a really weird one but if you plan to travel somewhere abroad and you want to rent a car - you MUST have an international drivers permit. YES, those “Tokyo race car driving around Shibuya” reels you see… You MUST have a valid international driver permit to do those. Some countries require you to have this permit on hand for renting motorbikes and scooters. International drivers permits are valid for one year and are quite easy to get. I have linked here the website AAA international driver permit !

THIRD: ENTRY VISA.
Some countries require you to have an entry visa. Some require a visitor visa. And some require nothing but proof of where you’ll be staying (hotel, Airbnb, family house, etc) and how long you’ll be staying via word of mouth. You can NOT get this visa at the Custom and Boarder office the day of. It must be approved and paid for BEFORE your trip. Please research beforehand of what your destination will require of you to have proof of. To find this out - simply google “What is required to visit ___”.
An example: My most recent UK trip I needed to have UK ETA. It’s an app I downloaded, I put in my passport info, the dates I’m visiting the UK, and paid. Then it gave a QR code to show at the Customs and Boarder desk for them to scan.
Another example: currently for Japan you do not need an entry visa. BUT you do have to fill out the Immigration and Customs Declaration form. Either you can do this by hand on the plane (flight attendants will have the forms available) or you can fill this out in advance via the Visit Japan Web. I personally, ALWAYS fill out the Visit Japan Web one month before my trip on my cellphone. This is free and it creates a QR code to show at the gate as I enter the country. It speeds up entry and is hassle free. I highly recommend!

Of course when traveling there’s other things like phone data, your luggage size, hotel bookings, what medications are legal etc. But The Big 3 mentioned above is what I believe you must have sorted and in place before you can request PTO from work.

Thanks again for reading and please follow along on my Instagram!. On my Instagram page you’ll see tips and tricks for traveling, recommendations for places I’ve been and my love of fashion plus so so much more! 

一期一会 , Britt

Gotokuji Temple (The Lucky Cat Temple of Tokyo)

One of my favorite places to visit in Tokyo is the Gotokuji Temple. Many people might know this as the ‘Lucky Cat Temple’ for all the beckoning cat statues. There is lots of folklore and history behind the beckoning cat aka Maneki Neko and I highly recommend reading about it - its so interesting!
To get to this Temple it’s an easy subway train ride. We left from Asakusa station and it was a $3.00 in total cost and about 50 minutes. We planned visiting here first in the morning and then hop back onto the subway line and spending the day in Shibuya.
But more about Gotokuji Temple. Instagram and TikTok has made this area quite a tourist spot when in reality its tucked away into a quiet neighborhood in a residential part of Tokyo. With that being said, if you plan to visit this shrine please be mindful of the locals and the homes around here. Its a very quiet area and to be honest, if I ever moved to Tokyo its a spot I would consider living at. There’s also a cemetery but for respect we didn’t walk into it (some people did which is fine but once again be very respectful to the graves). 

After we made our blessings we went into the shop where you can purchase a Neko. PLEASE NOTE - due to the over tourism of the area you’re only allowed to purchase one Neko. There was many signs asking people to take their Neko home with them since the Temple is flooded with statues already. We decided each time we visit Japan we will stop by here to purchase a new Neko for our home. Reading online the Neko will bring good fortune for shop keepers which is why a lot of small businesses in Japan has one of these Neko’s at the entryway of their shops. 

Below is a few photos from our visit and I highly recommend checking out my Instagram page for a video tour of what the area is like! 

If you’d want to see more about Japan we’ll be returning October/November 2024. My Instagram will feature LIVE and in the moment posts so please follow along! There’s also highlights from my previous trips. 

*Please note this is free to enter. There are many tour groups that will take you here but if you have google maps and carve out some time to learn the subway lines - you can visit here with no tour guide needed! :D

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Where We Stayed at in Japan Spring 2024

Today’s blog post is all about the hotels we stayed at in Japan for our Spring Sakura trip!  

One of our top priorities when booking hotels is location. We wanted to make sure the hotel was within walking distance to a train/subway for quick navigation. But also in an area that has access to what we might need (quick bite to eat, retail, etc). But, each hotel had its flaws which I'll include in each review.

* Keep in mind hotels in Japan are VERY small. IMO it is cruise ship size rooms so keep that in mind with larger families you might want to consider airbnb, booking multiple rooms on the same floor, or larger suites that could accommodate a larger family. 

** Most Japanese hotels will take your rolling luggage/bags and hold them for you until check in and there's lots of lockers at the train stations you can store luggage in if the hotel is unable to hold the bags for you.... But Japan is very strict on time - so don’t expect any form of early check in. (We did get early check in at our last hotel but they charged us an additional 4,000 yen to do so). 

HOW WE DID OUR HOTELS: I wanted to break down how we did hotels cause its a bit different than how I've seen other travel influencers do. We knew we were going to be shopping quite a bite so we decided to have a 'main hotel' or a HQ that we booked for our ENTIRE trip. This hotel was in Asakusa, Tokyo. We decided on Asakusa because location wise it's the best and was near the main subway line. When we went to Osaka for USJ and Hakone for the Onsen resort - we kept our 'main hotel/HQ' so we can keep our items there and packed just a small overnight bag. 

*** Links to each hotel is included and these are NOT commission links. 

Hotel #1 Asakusa Tobu : We only stayed here for one night. Our Asakusa hotel didn’t have availability for the day our flight landed. We originally had an airport room but last minute swapped for this location and TBH, I’m glad I was able to experience this place! Location wise, this place was a great spot if you’re wanting to be near the subway, Senso-ji, and walking distance to Skytree. Their breakfast buffet was both Japanese and Western dishes and it was probably one of the best "hotel breakfast" we had on the entire trip. The entry to the hotel was so posh. The hotel room was VERY nice, bigger than expected and the TV even had access to Youtube so we were able to fight off jet lag. My only complaint is the beds weren’t comfortable at all (maybe it was just our room but the bed felt rock hard).

Hotel #2 APA Hotel Asakusa Ekimae (our Tokyo HQ) : The location of this hotel was brilliant! It was VERY close to Senso-Ji, The Don Quijote, Ozeki grocery store, and the subway lines. I love the outside sitting area this hotel had and wished we could have used it more. The bed was VERY comfortable but the room was one of the smallest rooms out of all our hotels (we had to be creative with our 6 suitcases at the end of our trip). This hotel did have a breakfast but we never ate there - it was only a few plate options (not a buffet) plus we wanted to enjoy some of the local cafes each day (I will have a blog post about cafes soon too!). This hotel chain has multiple locations in Asakusa alone and from my understanding there is different tier sizes too - so if you’re wanting to save money on hotel cost, you might really enjoy this location! 

Hotel #3 Osaka Hotel Resol Trinity : We enjoyed this hotel for 2 nights and it was one Bryce was familiar with because he had stayed here before. I must say this hotel being in the heart of Osaka, felt like you were in another world as soon as you stepped in. The design, aromas, and atmosphere was 10/10. The room was quite large too! I enjoyed the big bathtub in our hotel room and the check in area even had bath salt soaks for the guest to enjoy! Bryce and I joked that we need to have our next master bedroom set up to be similar to this hotel room because it was modern Japanese and had that zen feeling I've been searching for. Now, there was a few hiccups with this place. There's a public bath for guests to use which I was very excited for but this hotel had some ‘tour groups’ who weren’t following the rules of the public bath - I felt uncomfortable and didn’t get to enjoy it. Also the same tourist group was very rude at the buffet breakfast and some people even cut us in line and was talking extremely loud in the common areas (which for Japan and the Japanese culture - loud talking isn’t something people do). I truly enjoyed this hotel but felt maybe we just had some bad luck with other guests - it was cherry blossom season so maybe during off season this place would be a perfect Osaka hangout. 

Hotel #4 Hakone Kowakien Tenyu : We only stayed here for one night because this was peak tourist season and the rates were VERY expensive but I must say this is a destination Bryce and I plan to revisit on our future Japan trips. We booked a room with a private hot spring bath which I enjoyed multiple times, there was SO much space in our room (it literally felt like an entire apartment!), and they provided us with pjs and our katas to wear. The hotel had lots of areas for the guest to relax, there was 3 dinner options and all is well worth it, the hotel breakfast was over 80+ item buffet (something literally for anyone - including Champagne!), and the grounds of the retreat were breathtaking. There was 2 public hot spring baths that rotate each day and I truly enjoyed the onsen experience and recommend everyone trying it at least once. This location is out in the mountains so be prepared to either hike to the hotel, ride a bus, or take an expensive taxi. We hiked and enjoyed the sights. This hotel also has an annex building that seems to have a lot more kid-friendly activities. 

 

Hotel #5 Airport Collaboration Room Villa Fontaine Grand Haneda : Our final 24 hours in Japan we enjoyed the airport hotel and it was well worth it (another location we will stay at again for the convenience of being at the airport terminal). The room was a very good size and the tv had access to the internet. The breakfast buffet here was really nice too and we arrived there right when they opened and had great food selection. This hotel also has a rooftop hot spring which we sadly didn’t get to enjoy but if you have the time I recommend going since its open 24 hours. Now, our room was a special collaboration room which meant it was decorated to a theme and had free items gifted to us. We adored this experience and if you’re into Japanese collaboration experiences - I recommend booking one of these collab rooms. The bed wasn’t the softest bed in the world; it was mid. I highly recommend the airport hotels at Hanata. Its nothing like a US airport hotels and the ease of getting our luggage to the check baggage desk and through TSA made this room 100% worth it. 

If you have any further questions or would like to know more about the hotels Bryce stayed at on his solo Japan trip, let me know and I will gladly include the details. 

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