Let’s Go! to Japan is a drafting and set collection game.

Title: Let’s Go! To Japan

Year Published: 2024

Designer: Jedziemy do Japonii

Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group

Players: 1-5

Game Time: ~60 mins

Set-up Time: ~5 minutes

Ages: 10+

Theme: Modern-day Japan, focusing on Tokyo and Kyoto.

Mechanisms: Drafting and Set Collection.

How to win: Gain the most points by visiting tourist attractions on the right day, taking luxury trains and having the best experience.

Game Description

You are a traveller planning and then experiencing your own dream vacation to Japan.

How to play Let’s Go! to Japan

A quick and concise how-to-play video for Let’s Go! to Japan including the Passport and Day Trip Expansions.

Main mechanisms

Drafting and set collection get the cards on the board. It’s minimal, slow drafting but it’s drafting nonetheless. You also need to place the cards in the right place and connect similar cards together in order to score big and gain bonuses.

Also, there is technically engine building, but you only run the engine once right at the end of the game.

USP

I’m not sure there is any truly unique standout element. I would say the production quality is very high and a good selling point.

Theme

This happened to be on Kickstarter in 2023 when I was obsessively planning my first trip to Japan. So I really understand the importance of planning ahead. I also get the stress/happiness balance you need to keep in the game.

One thing I don’t understand is why it lets you go back and forth between Tokyo and Kyoto so much. It takes over 2 hours and costs about £80 (~$100) a trip so it’s not something you’d do multiple times a week.

Setup & Rulebook

The setup is straightforward. Boards out, cards about and tokens out. One player has to put out 6 tokens in a random order and have everyone else copy the positions. But one is red, one pink and two are green so it makes communicating around the table a bit confusing. There doesn’t seem to be a reason that these are the same for everyone.

The rulebook is good to a point. It explains everything well, it’s set out clearly and shows good examples of gameplay. However, it does that thing where it’s not all in a sensible order. The exact same rulebook but reorganised would be great.

Components & Artwork

The components are really good. The chunky tokens and bags to hold everything are nice.

I’m not a huge fan of the style of art but it fits in with this game really well. I’m glad the activities in Japan, especially the Shrines and Temples have realistic art and it’s not overly cartoony.

Ease of Teaching

The game is easy to teach for the most part. The hard thing about simultaneous play, especially as the teacher when you’re new to the game is being able to answer all the questions and enjoy playing.

Scoring is quite tricky to explain with lots of symbology and caveats.

What is the board game where you explore Japan?

Let’s Go! to Japan certainly lets you explore Japan, well Tokyo and Kyoto at least. It’s very specific with named shrines, temples, events and even activities including eating Ramen or going to an Anime Convention. There is a mini-expansion that will allow you to wander outside of these areas such as Osaka, Nara Park and Yokohama.

Another game that lets you do this is Tokaido. Here you travel down the Tokaido Road trying to have the most fulfilling journey. You stop off at different points to earn money, eat food, take a bath at an Onsen and more.

Both of these games allow you to explore Japan in different ways with different mechanisms and both look beautiful on the table.

Let’s Go! to Japan Review

Positives

The game has a really nice theme.

The drafting and running of the engine after all the cards have been played is fun.

Planning which card to play while taking the city, experience, highlight of the day and day bonus into account is a really interesting challenge. You also have to look at how it affects the rest of your trip and how its affected by the previous days.

It looks amazing on the table.

Being able to turn a card into another card by going for a walk means you always have a card to play but…

Negatives

…you only ever have 2-4 cards to pick from.

Scoring takes as long as the drafting.

There are some tricky nuances around the scoring phase.

You’re limited to Tokyo and Kyoto. I’d like to see Osaka and other cities added at some point.

Not a negative really, just a note. With simultaneous play and cards flowing around the table, players need to be patient so they don’t mess things up and get too far ahead.

Let’s Go! to Japan Round-Up

A very fun game with a great theme

Rating

I give it 7/10