Hi,
In April my husband wants to go to Japan for my 40th birthday. It was always my dream to go since I was a child. He wants to take me now in case I get any sicker. I am worried about the journey and how I am going to cope with all the travelling etc. Plus can I bring my medication in my hand luggage? Any advice on travel insurance?
Thank you so much xx
Hi Tulipano 
There have been a few discussions on here about getting travel insurance. The more complications you have the less people cover you but it is very important you are honest so if you do fall ill they will treat you right. Not sure who to recommend as I just used compare the market to get mine!
For drugs the best thing to do is check online if any of them are restricted or illegal in Japan, talk to your GP or Rheumy about getting a signed copy of your prescription. Also bring the most recent copy of any medical letters you have to "prove" your condition. I got through security fine but if they do ask you about it you have prof that it is all for your medication. If any of it is restricted you may have to declare you have it but again as long as you have prof you need it medically it'll be fine.
Others in the past suggested calling the airport if you need any extra help like a chair if you get easily tired or an assistant to help carry luggage.
Hope this helps!
Awww so happy for you! We did exactly the same this Easter. My husband took us to Japan for my 40th and we had the time of our lives!
It was the most wonderful trip and I got to tick seeing the cherry blossom off my to do list.
All my meds were fine to take and I'm on a lot of stuff. I took a enough for the trip in my hand luggage with a copy of my prescription and the same again in my suitcase with a copy of my specialist report just in case we didn't get our suitcase the other side. You can not take certain pain killers, I think aspirin is one of them. But it's easy to look up. No one looked or cared about them.
The best thing we did was start watching YouTube videos. There are loads of travellers that go through everything you need to know to go to Japan. Through that we got the travel card which saved us loads of money and cheaper tickets to places.
You can not underestimate how much walking you will end up doing some days we walk 10miles a day just around Tokyo. I ended up buying crocs because i had worn my shoes out.
We hope to go back asap!
Anything you need to know just ask.
Sarah x
Thank you so much xx which city you recommend seeing? We will do Tokyo. Nara. Kamakura and kyoto. Do you recommend booking breakfast at least for the 1st hotel?
Hi.
We stayed for 9 nights in all, 3 in Tokyo right next to the sumo wrestling area, then 3 nights in Osaka then 3 in an onsen hotel by the Disney theme parks Tokyo.
Japan has an amazing luggage service. So we sent most our luggage from the 1st hotel to the 3rd, it cost £13ish. Which meant we were travelling light to Osaka. The best money we spent!!
Tokyo blew us away, but I ended up loving Nara and Osaka more, they are more relaxed. Feeding the deer at Nara is a must!
Tokyo is packed during the day, there is no point trying to get on the underground until after 10am. So it's worth booking somewhere, where you will be walking distance to somewhere you want to go. The trains are amazing though!! And easy to use. At night, it is so weird as the streets are silent and eerie. Food and places to see are a lot cheaper than we though they would be, but some items like gifts, toys and anime figures are very expensive.
We only had breakfast booked at the 1st hotel, it was amazing! And I wish we had done breakfast at all the hotels. A lot of shops and food outlets open later like 10am so we lived on corner shop meals and sandwiches for breakfast. I can't express how high the standard of food is out there! Their Spar corner shop food is better than our Waitrose! And very good value! The corner shops lack fruit and veg and we never saw a supermarket anywhere. Tokyo is very clean and in a way, straight laced.
Osaka is more a little rougher around the edges and a slower pace of life which we liked. Next time we will hopefully spend more time there than Tokyo.
We planned a day trip to Kyoto and never got there as there is just too much to see and do and we ran out of time and energy, gutted!
I think you have to careful plan what you really want to see and plan in rest. I think we would have to go at least 10 more times to even scrape the surface of what we want to see and do.
We flew with Air France and up graded premium economy, which I'm so glad about. It's a long flight!
I had no problems with insurance and I think it cost about £40 for the both of us.
Xx
Thank you so much xx can't wait now 😊
I promise you will have the time of your life!! Xx
There are reliable recommendations for insurance on the Lupus UK website.In fact the website & the wonderful staff at Lupus UK are fantastic sources of information . Hope you get to Japan & have a fabulous time !
First of all you must go. My husband had his prostrate gland removed through cancer ten years ago and I have Sjogrens and SCLE. We’ve found the best insurer for us is Explorer Travel, either online or over the phone. We’ve been using them for about seven years and now they simply note our conditions but don’t charge an extra premium. As an example it’s costing us £45 for a week in Europe at the end of this month which, as we’re both ‘older’ (71 and 67) we feel is a good deal. Hope you have a fabulous time!
Hi Tulipano ,
I hope that you have a wonderful holiday! We have an article on our website with loads of advice for going on holiday with lupus which should answer most of your questions - lupusuk.org.uk/going-on-hol...
Thank you so much xx
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