- Designer: Josh Wood
- Publisher: AEG
- Players: 1-4 Players
- Playtime: 45 minutes
- Ages: 10+
Over here at Berry Plays Games, the team really hopes to go to Japan together. Until we can, this is the next best thing! Let’s Go To Japan is a 1-4 player game for ages 10+, that plays in roughly 45 minutes. Take yourself to destinations all over Tokyo and Kyoto as you learn more about Japanese culture and all it has to offer!
What’s In the Box?
- 160 Activity Cards
- 24 Favorable Conditions Tokens
- 20 Experience Tokens
- 4 Stress Tokens
- 4 Happiness Tokens
- 2 Starting Train Tokens
- 21 Train Tokens
- 20 Wild Tokens
- 24 Research Tokens
- 16 Walk Tokens
- 4 +12 Tokens
- 4 Mood Tokens
- 4 Player Boards
- 1 Round Tracker Token
- 1 Round Tracker Board
- 1 Rulebook
- 1 Score Pad
Setup
Don’t let the amount of components stress you out! Every piece of Let’s Go To Japan has a purpose. First, get each player set up with a color of their choosing. Players will need 6 different Favorable Tokens in their color, 5 different Experience Tokens, 1 Mood Tracker Token, matching Player Board, a Stress Token and a Happiness Token.
Each player will take their Mood Tracker Token and place it on the hexagonal space in the center of the Mood Track on top of their Player Board. The Red Stress Token and the Green Happiness Token will go into the leftmost space of their corresponding trackers on the Player Board.
Players will then take their 5 Experience Tokens to the “0” on the leftmost space on their Player Board, on the Experience Tracker.
To organize the Favorable Conditions, one player will randomly pick their Tokens and arrange them Monday through Saturday on their Player Board. All other players will match this order on their Player Boards. Next, players will shuffle all 80 Tokyo and all 80 Kyoto cards into two piles (one for each city), and place them face down next to each other within reach of all players. The Round Tracker Board is to be placed in the central play area. To start, the Round Tracker should be placed on the leftmost circular space. It should not be covering the icon. The Train, Wild, Research, Walk and +12 Tokens will also be placed in piles within reach of all players. These tokens are considered unlimited. If any of these tokens should run out, a temporary trinket or something similar can be used as needed. You are now ready to play Let’s Go To Japan!
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Objective
The objective of Let’s Go To Japan is to earn the most points by the end of the game. To do this, players will use the Tokyo and Kyoto Activity Cards to pick their itinerary on any given day. If the Activity Cards match the Favorable Conditions Token on a given day, they will earn extra points. As you complete different activities, you will earn points and up your Happiness Tracker. But be careful not to over extend yourself! If you start to do too much, you will lose points on your Stress Tracker. They key to the game is to complete as many activities as possible without wearing yourself out!
Gameplay
In Let’s Go To Japan, a player will take 3 actions during a round. First, is to draw cards. Second, is to play cards and collect the day’s bonuses. Third, is to end the round. Players will draw Activity Cards simultaneously at the beginning of each round. They will draw cards according to where the Tracker Token is placed on the Tracker Board. There is text on the Tracker Board indicating how many Activity Cards players will play or pass to another player. When a player is passing a card, they should do so face down. If a player receives a card in a round, they may not play it in the current round and will not have access to it. Keep in mind that at the end of a round, a player should not have any cards left in their hand.
It is possible to earn Research Tokens during a round that may allow you additional Activity Cards. Before a player passes a card for the end of the round, they may spend 1 Research Token to draw 3 Activity Cards, from either the Tokyo or Kyoto decks. After a player reads these cards, they must immediately discard 3 cards. Players are allows to use more than one Research Token at a time, so long as they do them as separate actions. Any Research Tokens not used by the end of the game are worth 1 point.
After the drawing card phase, comes the phase to play cards. A player will place 1 or 2 Activity Cards on their Player Board each round. How many cards to place is shown on the Round Tracker Board. In the top section of the card, players will find which Experience Tokens to move along their Experience Track and also if any points are added or taken away on the Mood Tracker. On the bottom section of the card, players will find any bonuses for the “Highlight of the Day” card.
During Let’s Go To Japan, players will fill out their itinerary with Activity Cards. Each column of cards will have a maximum of 3 cards, with Extra Walk Cards being an exception to this rule. When placing cards, they should overlap each other, but keep the top of the card showing. The card on the bottom is the “Highlight of the Day” card and if it remains there, will potentially earn bonuses at the end of the game. Keep in mind that once a card is place, it may not be discarded, moved to another day or swapped in position with another card on the same day.
A player may choose to Go for a Walk if they do not like any of their Activity Card choices. A player will do this by discarding 1 Activity Card into their discard pile, face up, and taking 1 Activity Card from either the Tokyo or Kyoto deck and playing in face down into their itinerary. A player also earns 1 research token for taking a walk.
Let’s Go To Japan takes place between Tokyo and Kyoto. Players may visit both cities in one day, as long as they have Train Tokens to do so. There are Regular Train Tokens and Luxury Train Tokens. A Regular Train Token is Stressful and causes a penalty of -2 points. A Luxury Train Token is nice and relaxing and adds +2 points per trip. At the end of the game, unused Luxury Train Tokens are not worth any points. The number of positive of negative points earned from Train Tokens will be scored on the Source Pad at the end of the game. Luxury Train Tokens can be earned in the End of Round Bonuses.
After a player plays their third activity card on a column, finishing out their day, they should check for any bonuses. Bonuses are located in the upper section of their 3 cards and must match the days Favorable Condition Token. Depending on the number of bonuses earn, a player may chose 1 of the available bonuses located on their Player Board.
After players have finished playing their Activity Cards and adding up the day’s bonuses, they will pass their remaining Activity Cards according to the round tracker and should have no Activity Cards remaining in their hand. As the round has ended, the Round Tracker will be moved 1 space to the right. This continues for 13 rounds. At the end of the 13th round, planning is complete! Players are now ready to go on their trip to Japan!
Using the Score Pad, players will read out their trip to the table and track their score for Monday. This will continue throughout the rest of the week, ending on Saturday, in the correct order. The Rule Book “strongly recommends” narrating your trip, especially for your first game. This is where we had a lot of fun with describing how we would visit places like the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove and the Sensoji Temple!
“The key to the game is to complete as many activities as possible, without wearing yourself out!”
Final Thoughts
Let’s Go To Japan exceeded my expectations. I thought it would be a light, kitschy game to have fun with the theme of planning trip to Japan. In reality, it was a much more strategic game than I thought. How will you balance staying in the same city versus earning the highlight of the day balance? Do you take what is known on the Activity Cards or risk it to Go for a Walk? I personally love a game that allows you to employ multiple strategies to win. I think the age recommendation of 10+ is on point. I don’t think younger players would get much of of their time with Let’s Go To Japan. We have only played it with adults at this point, but have played several times over, each time it was brought to the game table. Hopefully, we will all get to the Tokyo Tower together in the near future! Until then, we will have fun making up our own itineraries in Let’s Go To Japan!
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