Surfing for Airfares
The "big three" online travel agencies -- Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, and Orbitz.com -- sell most of the air tickets bought on the Internet. (Canadian travelers should try expedia.ca and travelocity.ca; U.K. residents can go to expedia.co.uk and opodo.co.uk.). Each has different business deals with the airlines and may offer different fares on the same flights, so it's wise to compare.
Be sure to check airline websites, too. Even with major airlines you can often shave a few bucks from a fare by booking directly through the airline website and avoiding a travel agency's transaction fee (even airline phone agents may not know the cheapest online fare). The Japan National Tourist Organization provides convenient links to airlines on its website; for a roundup of cheap fares originating in North America, go to JNTO's www.japantravelinfo.com.
Surfing for Hotels
Shopping online for hotels is generally done one of two ways: by booking through the hotel's own website or through an independent booking agency. These Internet hotel agencies have multiplied in mind-boggling numbers, competing for the business of millions of consumers surfing for accommodations around the world. This competitiveness can be a boon to consumers who have the patience and time to shop and compare online sites for good deals -- but shop they must, for prices can vary considerably from site to site. And keep in mind that hotels at the top of a site's listing may be there for no other reason than that they paid money to get the placement.
Expedia.com offers a long list of special deals and "virtual tours" or photos of available rooms so you can see what you're paying for (a feature that helps counter the claims that the best rooms are often held back from bargain websites). Travelocity.com posts unvarnished customer reviews and ranks its properties according to the AAA rating system. An excellent free program, TravelAxe (www.travelaxe.net), can help you search multiple hotel sites at once, even ones you may never have heard of -- and conveniently lists the total price of the room, including the taxes and service charges. Other good sources include Hotels.com, Asiatravel.com, and Asia-hotels.com, but be sure to compare rates with individual hotel websites to make sure you're getting a good deal.
For Japan-specific websites, some 300 government-approved moderate and higher-priced hotels that are members of the Japan Hotel Association are listed at www.j-hotel.or.jp/welcome-e.html. Likewise, high-priced, government-registered members of the Japan Ryokan Association can be found at www.ryokan.or.jp. Budget-priced Japanese inns -- which do not offer the service or the class of high-priced inns but do offer the experience of sleeping Japanese-style -- are listed at www.jpinn.com. In addition, some 700 modestly priced accommodations throughout Japan are members of the Welcome Inn Reservations system, all priced at about ¥13,000 ($124) or less for a double (go to www.itcj.jp for information and bookings). But Japan's largest online hotel reservations company for budget and moderately priced accommodations is http://travel.rakuten.co.jp.
More websites are listed below under "Tips on Accommodations." In any case, it's always a good idea to get a confirmation number and make a printout of any online bookings.
