Crash Bandicoot Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Has anyone been? I've booked a month in the summer. Have always wanted to go, been fascinated with the culture since I was young. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 (edited) Have lived there. Best way to get around is a rail pass. It's very safe with little or no crime and it's always easy to have a quick bite to eat in their convenience stores. Best to try to learn some of the core Japanese vocabulary, because it can be a bewildering place to be otherwise, and if you venture into the remoter areas there's little or no English language signage and stuff like public transport announcements will be only in Japanese with no allowances made for confused looking gaijins. 100 words or so can get you through most of the things you'll need to do. Edited February 23, 2015 by LongTimeLurker 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parsforlife Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Went when i was younger its a Pretty cool place. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash Bandicoot Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Have lived there. Best way to get around is a rail pass. It's very safe with little or no crime and it's always easy to have a quick bite to eat in their convenience stores. Best to try to learn some of the core Japanese vocabulary, because it can be a bewildering place to be otherwise, and if you venture into the remoter areas there's little or no English language signage and stuff like public transport announcements will be only in Japanese with no allowances made for confused looking gaijins. 100 words or so can get you through most of the things you'll need to do. Thanks. I'm going with a mate so hopefully between us we can learn enough lingo to get by. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quentin Taranbino Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 (edited) I'm going to Tokyo for a wedding in December. Not a fan of seafood so hoping there are enough traditional Japanese alternatives that don't involve fish Edited February 24, 2015 by DavidMcG 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Lots more to Japanese cuisine than seafood so you should be OK. Korean food is also worth a go and they are the largest minority group in Tokyo and if truth be told their food is usually better than what the Japanese do if like me you are into spicy stuff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tongue_tied_danny Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 I'm going to Tokyo for a wedding in December. Not a fan of seafood so hoping there are enough traditional Japanese alternatives that don't involve fish Some of the best food I had in Tokyo was Yakatori (grilled chicken on a skewer) from some tiny, traditional Izakaya in Harajuku. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonglum25 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Went to Japan last September and really enjoyed it. people were very friendly and helpful. Train signs in both English and Japanese was helpful. Hotel rooms were very small, food was a wide choice and tasty. Has a fantastic day at Mount Fuji and returned to Tokyo on the bullet train. Do a bit of research before you go and you should have a great time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Henry Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Lived there for four years. Drop me a message if you have any particular queries. In general, go to Nikko and Kamakura if you are based in Tokyo and fancy a couple of days out of the city. Also, it's an amazing place. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantene proV Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 (edited) In Furano on Hokkaido right now then off to Tokyo on Tuesday. Sapporo has some of the most beautiful women I've ever seen too ;-) very lively city. An amazing country with the most pleasant people I've met in my lifetime! They will ignore you completely if they don't have to serve you tho but that's OK cos they ignore each other as well :-D Price for stuff around the same as blighty. Get the rail pass, great value and the food is beyond belief; Yakitori and sukiyaki just amazing. Edited March 8, 2015 by pantene proV 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Will probably be the only other person on P&B that's ever been to Furano. The lines I found most interesting on that side of Hokkaido were Kushiro to Abashiri and Asahikawa to Wakkanai. You get right into some very wild countryside on those and if you have time on your hands at any point taking one of the local single car trains rather than the limited expresses is definitely an interesting experience. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.A.F.C Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Are the burds pixelated in real life? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantene proV Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Will probably be the only other person on P&B that's ever been to Furano. The lines I found most interesting on that side of Hokkaido were Kushiro to Abashiri and Asahikawa to Wakkanai. You get right into some very wild countryside on those and if you have time on your hands at any point taking one of the local single car trains rather than the limited expresses is definitely an interesting experience. Been on local single car to Takikawa and today to get to onsen. Mental rickety things a World away from shinkansan (which we get tomorrow to Tokyo) yaas! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gc_smfc Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Any hotel/apartment recommendations in Tokyo. I'm going out for three weeks in May to see a friend. Thinking two weeks in Tokyo then a week of seeing elsewhere. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 (edited) If you are looking for somewhere very inexpensive in the Tokyo area, I'd recommend this place: http://www.meigetsu.jp/e/index.html bit spartan and a challenge to find that will test your map reading skills, but the owner is friendly to non-Japanese people and provides very good value for money. If you have a bit more money to spend and are looking for something closer to a budget western hotel, the Toyoko Inn chain is not bad and is available near the main railway station in most Japanese cities: http://www.toyoko-inn.com/eng/ started off mainly aimed at a female clientelle that were fed up with dealing with drunken Japanese businessmen when staying in hotels, but now used by both genders and families, because they do a good job. In remoter cities the staff are unlikely to know much English and won't be used to dealing with foreign guests, but if you know the core 20 or 30 words of Japanese checking in and checking out is easy enough. In the major cities there are no issues that way. Edited March 10, 2015 by LongTimeLurker 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enigma Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Stayed in a few Toyoko Inns. Nothing spectacular but you know what your getting as they're pretty uniform. Rooms are very much of a Japanese standard size i.e no swinging of cats. IIRC you can some good deals booking in advance online so great if your on a budget but they're reasonably priced enough anyway. Dormy Inn is another similar chain. I've only stayed in one but preferred it to Toyoko Inn. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Other Foot Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 (edited) In Furano on Hokkaido right now then off to Tokyo on Tuesday. Sapporo has some of the most beautiful women I've ever seen too ;-) very lively city. An amazing country with the most pleasant people I've met in my lifetime! They will ignore you completely if they don't have to serve you tho but that's OK cos they ignore each other as well :-D Price for stuff around the same as blighty. Get the rail pass, great value and the food is beyond belief; Yakitori and sukiyaki just amazing. Will probably be the only other person on P&B that's ever been to Furano. The lines I found most interesting on that side of Hokkaido were Kushiro to Abashiri and Asahikawa to Wakkanai. You get right into some very wild countryside on those and if you have time on your hands at any point taking one of the local single car trains rather than the limited expresses is definitely an interesting experience. Also been to Furano, having cycled the length of Japan back in summer 2012. Hokkaido, in general, was probably my favourite island...have to agree with the comment on Sapporo's liveliness and female contingent...check out some of the karaoke bars and clubs, well worth a visit. Have a jingiskhan meal beforehand to line the stomach! Also, if you are in Hokkaido, maybe take a wee trip west of Sapporo, to a small town called Yoichi. The place has a strong connection to Scotland: one of the two Nikka distilleries is there, which has a great tour you can do. There is also a rather large Scottish Pipe Band, whose members are very accommodating and would probably offer you a bed for the night! In the vastly-underhyped north of Japan, there are a few places worth a visit: Aomori can be a vibrant place and the coast around there is stunning...there's a beautiful rooftop onsen on top of a hotel if you exit the city going east. If you get a train pass, travel to Ichinoseki and get a local train to Hiraizumi, which is a stunning world heritage site. Fukushima city is worth a day-trip, nice atmosphere to the place and some lovely yatai food stalls. Definitely a better city to visit than Sendai if you find yourself in that area. With regards to the cluster of cities in Kansai region, I would pay particular attention to Osaka, Kyoto and Nara. These are the stereotypical places to visit, but with very good reason. Nara is like nowhere else I have ever been to: it's like a city built into a forest. Deers wander about the streets and some of the temples are breathtaking. Kyoto is just a big fat explosion of Japanese culture. Osaka, sometimes ignored by the casual visitor in favour of Tokyo, is in my opinion a more manageable, friendly version of Tokyo. Dotonbori is the nightlife area, where you can spend the whole day journeying from one restaurant to the next and maybe visit a kabuki theatre show. There are also plenty of chances to get a glimpse of Yakuza members! (Warning: they are not the young guys who dress in suits, gel their hair like Sonic the Hedgehog and stand on street corners...these are male prostitutes. The Yakuza are the older, shaved-head ones!) If you visit Mt Fuji, it would also be worthwhile travelling through the tea-plantations of Shizuoka. Sounds boring, but these rolling fields are beautiful to visit, and the plantation tours are fantastic. You'll notice how different Japanese tea is to Chinese tea...to begin with, it tastes a bit like chewing tobacco, but by the time you leave Japan I guarantee you will be hooked. Further south, you will find Nagasaki. Probably my favourite city in the whole of Japan. Humid, steamy, and very beautiful, it definitely has the feel of an old East-Asian pirate grotto. The Atomic bomb museum is, frankly, heartbreaking, but well worth a visit. If you can only visit one of the bombed cities, go here. Hiroshima's atomic dome is awesome to see, but I found that the rest of the city is a bit dull. Kagoshima is an alright place too, but far to travel if you are limited by time. Finally, Tokyo is a mixed bag. It is a must-see for the visitor to Japan, but can be a bit overwhelming. You really need to have a good idea of what you want to visit there, as it is not the kind of place you can just casually walk around. Akihabara is fun, being the electronics centre: the stereotypical photos of futuristic streets and neon lights that you see of Tokyo are usually taken in this area. Also, the pedestrian crossing that you see in Lost in Translation is a good place to visit: have a cup of coffee in the nearby Starbucks and just watch as the people stream across at a green man! Edited to add: If you are strapped for cash when thinking of accommodation, most cities in Japan have 24 hour internet cafes. For a low price, you can hire a booth for the night which has a mattress and a computer. There is usually also free fizzy juice, slush puppies and shower facilities. For a small fee, most places also offer noodles and some even have hot cooked food. Edited April 1, 2015 by The Other Foot 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Great advice for the most part but not sure about Fukushima. Are you sure you are not confusing it with somewhere else? I know the city well and to me it's a wee bit like recommending Alloa as a tourist destination. Not a complete dump or anything like that but at the same time not hugely scenic or interesting. All the good stuff in that area like Mt Zao is well away from Fukushima out in the surrounding countryside. I'd hazard a guess that you maybe meant Yonezawa or somewhere else up the Yamagata line? I'd also throw in Shikoku the fourth island as underhyped and underappreciated. Never seen it recommended anywhere in guide books or travel shows but a train trip I took from Okayama over the infamous bridge to nowhere down to Kochi on the south side of the island for a lot of the way on a local diesel single carriage railbus was really spectacular. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killie Zenit Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Best way to get around is a rail pass. Heading to Tokyo for a fortnight in three weeks' time, but will spend a couple of nights in Kyoto as well. Just wondering whether it's still cheaper getting the JR Pass in advance than getting a return Tokyo-Kyoto when I'm there. I've seen some things online that suggest a 7-day pass is about the same as a return to Kyoto, so am I as well just getting the JR Pass the now? Question also addressed to The Other Foot, as you both seem to know your stuff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 The best way to check out rail ticket prices and times for individual journeys is this website: http://www.hyperdia.com/ Depending how much time you have on your hands Tokyo-Kyoto can be done on local and limited express trains quite easily (best to not have much luggage no matter how you travel by train in Japan) and you get to see the countryside a bit better that way as well as save some money. A new shinkansen (bullet train) line has also opened to a city called Kanazawa on the Sea of Japan side, which is quite easy to get to from Kyoto by local and limited express trains, so you could do the return trip a different way and check out the Japanese Alps around Nagano on the way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokuriku_Shinkansen The main Tokyo to Kyoto line is a bit like checking out Scotland by traveling from Edinburgh to Glasgow through Bathgate and Airdrie (there is the Mt Fuji part so it's not all bad), because you travel through a lot of heavily populated industrial areas. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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