Of all the destinations our office tracks, Japan is the one where Bangalore families talk about it the longest before they actually book. "Next year for sure." "After our daughter's tenth." "When the yen weakens again." I have a folder in my desk of WhatsApp conversations with families who have said "we will plan Japan in detail soon" for between three and seven years.
If you are reading this and you are one of those families, friends, I want to say this directly — let us actually do this.
Here is what has changed, what makes the trip easier today, and what the seven-to-nine-night route from Bangalore actually looks like.
Why this is the right year to go, if you have been postponing
The Japanese yen has been at multi-decade lows against the rupee since twenty twenty-four. At the time I am writing this, a hundred rupees buys you about one hundred and seventy yen, roughly forty per cent more than in twenty nineteen. A hotel that cost twenty thousand rupees a night six years ago might cost twelve to fourteen thousand today. The flights, while not at their cheapest, are still reasonable on Japan Airlines, ANA, and Singapore Airlines connecting through Singapore or Bangkok.
Second, vegetarian and Jain food in Japan has improved dramatically since around twenty twenty. The 2019 Rugby World Cup and twenty-twenty Olympics forced Japanese restaurants to learn about dietary preferences. Now every major hotel in Tokyo and Kyoto has properly designated vegetarian options, and there are now over one hundred genuinely good vegetarian restaurants in Tokyo alone. Indian-Jain travellers still need to plan carefully, but the trip is now possible in a way it was not eight years ago.
Third, the e-Visa process for Indians has been simplified. Single-entry tourist visas cost about two thousand three hundred rupees through us, processing five to seven working days, and the rejection rate for Indians with clean travel history is below three per cent. Multiple-entry visas valid for three years are now available for second-time and third-time visitors. We handle the application end-to-end in the office.
The thing about the JR Pass that nobody is updating their plans for
Most Japan travel guides written before October twenty twenty-three still recommend the Japan Rail Pass — the unlimited-train-travel pass that for decades was the obvious choice for first-time visitors. In October twenty twenty-three, the JR Pass price was raised by about seventy per cent. The seven-day pass that cost roughly seventeen thousand rupees in twenty twenty-two now costs about twenty-nine thousand. For most Tokyo-Kyoto-style itineraries, the JR Pass is no longer the cheaper option. Point-to-point Shinkansen tickets, bought individually, work out less for most seven-night trips.
I mention this because I see families come into the office with a printout from a travel blog saying "buy the JR Pass." They are still paying twenty-nine thousand rupees a head for a pass that, mathematically, ends up costing them more than just buying tickets. We do the calculation per trip and recommend the cheaper option. About seventy per cent of the time, point-to-point wins.
The seven-to-nine-night route that works for first-time families
For a first-time Bangalore family, the trip is essentially Tokyo plus Kyoto, with one extension day-trip or overnight added.
Days one through three, Tokyo. Day one, arrive Narita or Haneda in the morning, transfer to the city hotel, slow afternoon walk through Asakusa and Senso-ji temple, dinner at a vegetarian Tokyo restaurant we have pre-booked. Day two, full Tokyo — Meiji Shrine in the morning, Shibuya crossing for the famous photo, lunch in Harajuku, afternoon in Akihabara for the kids, dinner in Ginza. Day three, day trip to Hakone for Mount Fuji views, the hot spring villages, and the lake. Hakone is doable as a day trip from Tokyo or as an overnight if you want to stay at a traditional ryokan with a private outdoor bath.
Day four, Tokyo to Kyoto on the Shinkansen — two hours and twenty minutes, scenic, smooth. Check into Kyoto. Day five, the gold pavilion (Kinkaku-ji), the bamboo grove at Arashiyama, an afternoon in Gion the geisha district. Day six, Fushimi Inari shrine with its endless torii gates, Kiyomizu-dera temple, an evening in Pontocho alley. Day seven, day trip to Nara to see the deer at Todai-ji temple.
Day eight, return to Tokyo or fly home from Osaka Itami. Families with extra days add Hiroshima and Miyajima island for a sobering and beautiful two-day extension.
The cherry blossom question — the timing trap
Every Bangalore family that has Japan on their list secretly wants to time the trip for cherry blossom season. I have to be honest about this. The cherry blossom window in Tokyo is genuinely only seven to ten days, and it shifts by a week or two each year. The peak is usually around the twenty-fifth of March to the fifth of April in Tokyo, with Kyoto running a few days later. To hit it properly, you must book ten months in advance because every Indian, Chinese, and European family is trying to do the same. Hotel prices in Tokyo cherry blossom week are double the off-peak rate.
What we usually suggest, for families who care about the cherry blossom but cannot book ten months ahead, is the late-October to mid-November window when the maple leaves turn red across Kyoto. The autumn colours in Kyoto are arguably more beautiful than the cherry blossom, the temples are less crowded, and the hotel rates are forty to fifty per cent lower. About half of our Japan families now go in autumn instead of spring.
The food, because Bangalore families really do worry about this
Tokyo has more than a hundred properly vegetarian restaurants, including Indian restaurants serving full Indian thalis. Saravana Bhavan has multiple Tokyo branches. Nataraj is a long-running vegetarian restaurant chain. The shojin-ryori cuisine — the Buddhist temple food tradition — is entirely vegetarian by design and is one of the most refined dining experiences in Japan. We pre-book one or two shojin-ryori meals for our families because the better restaurants need a few days' notice.
Kyoto, being the cultural-religious centre, is even better for vegetarian food than Tokyo. Many temples run their own vegetarian restaurants.
For Jain travellers, we maintain a list of about a dozen restaurants in Tokyo and Kyoto that have been confirmed to make Jain meals on advance request. The hotel chefs at the four-star and above properties we use are universally willing to prepare Jain meals when we communicate the requirements in advance.
What it costs, from Bangalore
A seven-night Japan trip from BLR for a couple lands today at one lakh sixty to two lakh forty thousand rupees, depending on the hotel category. A family of four with two children runs three lakhs to four lakhs eighty thousand. These numbers include the BLR-Tokyo return flights via Singapore or Bangkok, all hotels, the e-Visa, point-to-point Shinkansen tickets, all transfers, daily breakfast, and one or two pre-booked dinners.
This is not a cheap trip. But it is now meaningfully less expensive than it was five years ago. And the experience-per-rupee is, in my opinion, among the highest of any country we send families to.
What our families have written about
A family from Dollars Colony wrote to me after their April twenty twenty-five trip about the moment in the Fushimi Inari shrine when they walked through the longest stretch of torii gates and the path opened onto a quiet bamboo grove with no other tourists. The husband said it was the closest he had felt to his late father, who had wanted to visit Japan all his life but never made it.
An older couple from Vasanthnagar wrote about the bullet train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto in the morning — the cleanness, the punctuality, the Mount Fuji visible from the right-side window seat. "We were thirty minutes into the journey before we realised the train was moving at three hundred kilometres an hour. It is that smooth."
The most common regret families share is that they did not budget for one truly memorable meal — a kaiseki dinner in Kyoto, a vegetarian shojin-ryori at Daitoku-ji, the chef's table at one of the better Tokyo restaurants. These are not cheap, but they are part of the country in a way no temple visit can be. We tell every family — set aside fifteen thousand rupees for one extraordinary meal. You will remember it more than any souvenir.
If you are ready to actually plan it
Send me a WhatsApp on +91 98805 72995 with your travel month, family size, and one line on whether you want cherry blossom, autumn colours, or off-peak. I will draft an itinerary, a cost estimate, and a list of the things we will need to book first (the hotels in cherry blossom season, the Hakone ryokan, the kaiseki dinner reservation).
And if you have been postponing this for three years already, please, friends, let us finally do it. The yen is not going to stay weak forever. Your children are not going to stay this age forever. The cherry blossom is not waiting for your perfect work schedule. Some trips you plan twice and finally take on the third try. Let this be the third try.
With warm regards,
Dada Peer
Oyster Holidays