Japan

In summer of 2025, we took our first ‘retirement’ trip. I was not retired yet, but Michele was 3 months into retirement, and the Osaka World Expo was taking place. As the Expo happens once every five years and this is a bucketlist destination, it seemed like a good test of what we have learned about long distance carryon only travel, especially since it was the first time we were traveling to a nation where neither of us spoke the language.

The Language

We did what most people these days are doing - we started with a language app. Some use Rosetta Stone and others use Duolingo. We chose Duolingo’s free version to test our our stamina and perserverence in learning at least the basics for each country we visit. While we started to understand some of the linguistic structure and vocabulary, Duolingo’s Japanese app also famously gets more complex by requiring you to write in three distinctly different forms of Japanese. As we were beginning to feel the pressure to be better prepared before we took off, we turned to YouTube and found Ninja Monkey Guy. Ninja Monkey had 16 phrases that really set us up for success. A further bonus was that his site had a lot of great tips and resources for touring and insights on Japanese culture. When we arrived, we found that most signs on transit displayed Japanese, Korean, Chinese & English. We were also able to converse with many individuals in the hospitality industry who spoke English far better than we spoke Japanese. In the end, if you want to go to Japan but are concerned about the language barrier, we would encourage you to go. It was a life changing experience to be in a country whose culture is so different from our own.

Our Itinerary

Our travel style is largely DIY on mass transit. However, when visiting Tokyo, the largest city in the world, and Kyoto, a city rich with culturally significant sites on a two week vacation schedule, we did opt for some local tour guides to enhance our visit. We therefore planned a multi-city itinerary that included:

• Yokohama (2 Days)

• Tokyo (1 Day Tour with private guide)

• Osaka (2 Days)

• Kyoto (2 Days including 1 day tour with private guide & one self guided)

• World Expo (3 Days)

If you want to see where we went and WHEN we went on our itinerary, check out our Instagram posts from Japan below. Michele did a great job of chronicling our exploits for our viewers. It’s not the same as a video, but she did a great job of capturing the highlights in both photos and in our written itinerary.

We’ve put together a document with all the sites we saw, the tours we took, and information we believe you’ll want to see if you plan to tour Japan. Michele has been writing reviews for Trip Advisor for years and included links to their site for some resources so you too could benefit from the reviews and make an informed decision when spending your travel dollars.

Download the document here.