MikeHattsu
Member
Depends on your interests that though.
Most of the Ghibli stuff is also region free.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Japan Travel |OT| One does simply not visit just once
- Thread starter hwalker84
- Start date
Depends on your interests that though.
Most of the Ghibli stuff is also region free.
Depends on your interests that though.
Most of the Ghibli stuff is also region free.
But what could you really do anymore? How many themed cafes can you go to? (Don't go to a maid cafe, we did it and it was super creepy). Do you still actually go to arcades anymore? (we did and it was neat as a novelty and to say we did - but then you realize you can play most of these on your consoles) You can buy most of the things there outside mainly anime figurines easily in the West.
For me personally, it feels like Akiba is somewhere that belongs back in the 90s and 00s before the West got easy access to Japanese Otaku culture.
But to be fair, I'm not an anime fan outside some old ones (mainly the one my username is based on), so maybe if I was I would spend 4 to 6 hours looking at anime figurines.
Oh, and I guess if you like AKB48 or whatever that would be a big thing to see.
EDIT - Oh, Akihibara UDX has my favourite non-fine dining restaurant in all of Japan. It's a place that only does Tonkatsu and it's soo good. I forgot the name but it's on the 3rd floor.
MikeHattsu
Member
Browse for anime cels, genga and other production items, artbooks, hard to find vocaloid albums, trading cards and various doujin stuff if you're into that.
Oh, and pre-owned anime. Much cheaper than buying new
killertofu
Member
Do those unlimited data SIM cards throttle after a certain limit? My cellphone was working fine yesterday but today it's complete shit. Like dialup speed
MikeHattsu
Member
Yeah, some do. Which one did you get?
killertofu
Member
Bmobile. visitor sim.
cj_iwakura
Member
I spent two days in Akihabara, some of the arcades alone make that easy. Sure, you can emulate the classics, but almost none of those arcade rhythm games will probably ever make it over here.
Subpar Scrub
Banned
Luckily my phone company is allied with some japanese companies, so I can use my 10gigs/unlimited calls texts while I'm over there.
Costs $5 Aud per day to do it though.
Subpar Scrub
Banned
Okay, so my itinerary is pretty much completed now. I have the really important trains and buses organised as best I can, but I figured I would just post a list of the destinations I'm heading to over the 14 days. I have more detailed breakdowns of things I want to see at these places, but I figured I'd throw this out there and see if people had experience with the destinations.
The grouping of the places I'm visiting indicates each day. Not necessarily in order of my trip plan.
Tokyo:
Tokyo National Museum/Ueno Park
Tokyo Skytree/Sumida Aquarium
Sensoji Temple (Asakusa)
Imperial Palace
Akihabara
Blank day
Roppongi night
Odaiba
Tokyo Tower
Shinjuku
Nakano Broadway
Koishikawa Korakuen Garden
Shibuya
Blank day
Osaka:
Osaka Castle
Aquarium Kaiyukan/Tempozan Ferris Wheel
Dotonbori
Shinsekai Shopping District/ Tsutenkaku Tower
Nipponbashi Denden Town
Nara:
Kofukuji
Todaiji
Kasuga Taisha
Mount Wakakusayama (If time remaining in day trip)
Kyoto:
Kyoto Tower
Pontocho
Kinkaku-ji
Higashiyama Jisho-ji
Yasaka Shrine>Higashiyama preserved streets>Kiyomizudera Temple
Nishiki Market (if time remaining)
Fushimi Inari Shrine/bullet train/akihabara
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry in advance for the text wall haha. Any suggestions of places I haven't listed or alterations to my current itinerary due to personal experiences is appreciated.
The grouping of the places I'm visiting indicates each day. Not necessarily in order of my trip plan.
Tokyo:
Tokyo National Museum/Ueno Park
Tokyo Skytree/Sumida Aquarium
Sensoji Temple (Asakusa)
Imperial Palace
Akihabara
Blank day
Roppongi night
Odaiba
Tokyo Tower
Shinjuku
Nakano Broadway
Koishikawa Korakuen Garden
Shibuya
Blank day
Osaka:
Osaka Castle
Aquarium Kaiyukan/Tempozan Ferris Wheel
Dotonbori
Shinsekai Shopping District/ Tsutenkaku Tower
Nipponbashi Denden Town
Nara:
Kofukuji
Todaiji
Kasuga Taisha
Mount Wakakusayama (If time remaining in day trip)
Kyoto:
Kyoto Tower
Pontocho
Kinkaku-ji
Higashiyama Jisho-ji
Yasaka Shrine>Higashiyama preserved streets>Kiyomizudera Temple
Nishiki Market (if time remaining)
Fushimi Inari Shrine/bullet train/akihabara
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry in advance for the text wall haha. Any suggestions of places I haven't listed or alterations to my current itinerary due to personal experiences is appreciated.
MikeHattsu
Member
This all in one day? Might be a bit much depending on how much of the museum, Ueno Park and Sumida Aquarium you're planning to see.
Oh, and if you're going to Aquarium Kaiyukan in the weekend get the Osaka Kaiyu Ticket so you don't have to wait in line to buy tickets:
http://www.kaiyukan.com/language/eng/kaiyu.html
killertofu
Member
Subpar Scrub
Banned
Thanks for the heads up, I was planning on going to the aquarium on friday but I can swap it to saturday. Will book tomorrow when I have time. (Edit: Just read it is available at train stations. I arrive at shin-osaka station and have to go through osaka station proper, so I imagine one of them will sell it. I'll check tomorrow.)
I'm staying at a hotel across the road from Ueno Park, so I might move walking through the park and visiting the museum to one of the blank days. Would be a nice morning walk.
Thanks for the quick response, guys. Greatly appreciated and I hope you're enjoying your trip Tofu.
MikeHattsu
Member
If you can go on Friday, then do so. It's just that if you go on the weekends there's so much queues that you should get that Osaka Kaiyu Ticket so you don't have to stand in queues to buy tickets at least, just to get up the elevator inside.
Subpar Scrub
Banned
Oh, no worries. Makes sense that people would do that on their day off. I'll leave it where it is then.
I've been searching for local holidays or planned renovations to ensure the places I'm visiting aren't closed before I get there, but a lot of the information for the building are in Japanese, and the page translate function can only help so much haha. Luckily so far everything seems to be open.
SiegfriedFM
Member
Most of the (Mandarake) shops in Nakano don't open until 12, and Shinjuku obviously doesn't have much going on until the evening.
It's quite easy to spend most of the day in an arcade honestly. And plenty of the games are not available on consoles yet or the arcade versions feel different than playing it at home would (ie Taiko no Tatsujin).
I spent an hour or two playing Dragon Ball Heroes alone. That + Dissidia arcade game were enough for me to spend 4 hours on combined. There was also a light gun game (something you don't get much on consoles these days) which was fun.
It's just a different experience. I even had more fun playing Mario Kart in the arcade than I do at home.
Besides that, there is plenty of game shops to go to where you would have much more trouble finding something equivalent in the west. Ie Kotobukiya (lots of gaming related merchandise like Tales of stuff or Monster Hunter figures, .hack stuff, etc), Super Potato (retro stuff that is hard or impossible to find outside of Japan though Akiba's one is a lot worse than other ones in Japan. Or at least more expensive but it's the only one I had a chance to visit), Book Off (found some nice Japan-only games and JP LEs, one of which I bought for 4.3k yen and it had everything in it apart from the figure.), etc.
Anyway, obviously this all depends on your tastes but it seems odd to assume others will be like you and not want to spend a lot of time there. Especially since you admitted that you were disappointed in it because you built it up so much in your head.
Not trying to have a go at you btw
Just saying how depending on your tastes, you could spend a day easily in Akiba (just like you could in many areas depending on your interests and more importantly, how rushy you may be. If you're not rushing and taking it easy, you'd probably stay at a place longer than you would otherwise)As a side note: I am missing my favourite curry place in Akiba
(( whenever I think about it. ;_;Yeah, a lot of shops don't open til later. learned that the hard way. Still the Namco crane machine shop was open and I won two figures from there so it was worth going earlier... mostly
.I do recommend anyone planning to go to Odaiba, Nakano or any place similar. Unless you plan on going to a place that you know for a fact opens earlier or you're just going sight seeing (Odaiba is pretty damned serene in the morning, especially looking out from the beach towards the Rainbow Bridge, it's pretty nice), don't get there before 10 - 11am or so. Otherwise you'll be walking aimlessly waiting for places of interest to open.
I spent so much freaking time playing Chunithm it's kinda sad. And there's no chance in hell that shows up in the west anytime soon. ;_; ;_; ;_;
SiegfriedFM
Member
Agreed. We spent time in arcades in Akiba, Shibuya and Nakano waiting for stuff to open, and had a great time. If you're a Tekken fan, well, you're not going to get 7 anytime soon elsewhere. Star Wars: Battle Pod was amazing (if a little simplistic). Dissidia could probably be a huge game if you get involved in it. Then there's all the mobile-connected stuff, and the music games, and quite a few fighters that still don't have home versions (like that Matrimelee sequel I found).
Also, HEY is amazing with all the retro cabinets. Even though I have Bubble Bobble at home, I had to sit down to put in a high score. Ikaruga was neat to try with a vertical screen too. And there's all kinds of Cave goodness.
As for Akihabara, we went there basically three days. If you only want a few current games or any common retro games, sure, you can drop by Mandarake or Super Potato or the Traders and pick up what you need. But if you're browsing for figures or anything rare, you can spend days there easily. And ultimately, most of my purchases were from there.
I mean:
Mandarake
Trader 1, 2 and 3
Super Potato
Friends
that super-cramped retro store on the main street
Kotobukiya
Animate (with all its used figures displays on upper floors)
Yodobashi (one huge floor for figures and games and stuff)
Sofmap (two relevant game floors)
Melonbooks (mostly doujinshi but I think they had other stuff too)
that other store with many floors of used figures, right near the SW station entrance
a huge 5F figure store near the north reach of the main street
another bunch of figure stores along the western side street
Book-Off under the rail overpass
pretty sure there were games at LAOX
two or three Sega arcades
Taito HEY
that annoying, promising collectible store that was closed every time we went there
If you can fit this in a day, then you are a quicker walker than me. And of course, if you really don't want any kind of figures, you can scratch half of that list.
Hi guys, coming here for some advices.
After my upcoming graduation in Japanese, next September (7th-30th) i'll make my first trip to Japan!
But it's not a simple trip, i am going there with a specific goal: armed with a camera, i'm going to visit some of the country's most important Live Houses for the Punk scene; record some gigs; interview some people, and try to make a semi-professional documentary out of it.
Anyway, i'm now in the middle of planning the trip, so any help from you guys would be more than welcome.
First of all, the budget: i'll have around 2000-2500 (roughly 2300-2800$). It's nothing, i know, but this isn't a tourist vacation, so i won't buy gifts for me, or try expensive food, and i'll try to sleep only with couchsurfing and a few contacts i have. Any tips on saving are welcome.
Then, the stops: Milan - Sapporo - Sendai - Tokyo - Nagoya - Kyoto - Osaka - Kobe - Matsuyama - Kobe - Fukuoka - Kagoshima - Milan; i'm just going in the places i've already found some good live houses without risking and explore, and while i only have 21 days i've made calculations and it'll be enough to visit those i've tracked down.
A friend of mine suggested me to start from Tokyo instead, go up to Sapporo, then fly down to Kagoshima and travel back up to Tokyo again, this way i could save one national flight and not have the need to take one of those as soon as i arrive. But i honestly prefer the itinerary i made because from a "cultural" standpoint, making north-to-south is more logical. But idk, what do you think?
The flight: this week i'll start booking the Milan-Tokyo and Tokyo-Milan tickets from the JAL site (i heard it's good to take them directly from there because it has no extra taxes), as of now the price is around 550-600, then closer to the trip i'll book the Tokyo-Sapporo and Kagoshima-Tokyo tickets, since those are national flights i guess there is no rush, and maybe i'll be able to grant some last minute offers. But worst case scenario, i've seen those are around 50.
Then there is the 3 weeks long Japan Rail-Pass, which is another 450 more or less.
Plus, i'll have to spend a 100 for the Pocket Wi-Fi, since i'll constantly have to make backups of the videos i take.
So, up until now i am at 1250, roughly around half of my budget.
The rest is all for food, live houses tickets (lol) and eventual hotels when i don't find someone on couchsurfing.
Food i heard that if you're not picky, you can live with 10 circa per meal, can anyone confirm? That would mean 2 a day for 21-22 days, roughly 400, but i guess i can go up to 500-600 so i'm sure i won't starve to death lol
For the sleeping, as i said, i'll try to do everything with couchsurfing, plus some already going to host me in Sapporo, Kyoto, Kobe, Matsuyama and maybe Tokyo. Hope that i won't have to spend too much on it in case of emergencies.
Lastly, i was not joking when i said i have to consider entrance tickets as a real expenses, those alone might go up to 400 lol (but i made a very aproximative calculation, taking into account only the highest price i've seen, it'll surely be much lower).
This should leave me with a few hundreds left for any other kind of expenses or emergencies.
So, how feasible is my plan? Or am i driving straight into economic (and maybe even literal) death?
After my upcoming graduation in Japanese, next September (7th-30th) i'll make my first trip to Japan!
But it's not a simple trip, i am going there with a specific goal: armed with a camera, i'm going to visit some of the country's most important Live Houses for the Punk scene; record some gigs; interview some people, and try to make a semi-professional documentary out of it.
Anyway, i'm now in the middle of planning the trip, so any help from you guys would be more than welcome.
First of all, the budget: i'll have around 2000-2500 (roughly 2300-2800$). It's nothing, i know, but this isn't a tourist vacation, so i won't buy gifts for me, or try expensive food, and i'll try to sleep only with couchsurfing and a few contacts i have. Any tips on saving are welcome.
Then, the stops: Milan - Sapporo - Sendai - Tokyo - Nagoya - Kyoto - Osaka - Kobe - Matsuyama - Kobe - Fukuoka - Kagoshima - Milan; i'm just going in the places i've already found some good live houses without risking and explore, and while i only have 21 days i've made calculations and it'll be enough to visit those i've tracked down.
A friend of mine suggested me to start from Tokyo instead, go up to Sapporo, then fly down to Kagoshima and travel back up to Tokyo again, this way i could save one national flight and not have the need to take one of those as soon as i arrive. But i honestly prefer the itinerary i made because from a "cultural" standpoint, making north-to-south is more logical. But idk, what do you think?
The flight: this week i'll start booking the Milan-Tokyo and Tokyo-Milan tickets from the JAL site (i heard it's good to take them directly from there because it has no extra taxes), as of now the price is around 550-600, then closer to the trip i'll book the Tokyo-Sapporo and Kagoshima-Tokyo tickets, since those are national flights i guess there is no rush, and maybe i'll be able to grant some last minute offers. But worst case scenario, i've seen those are around 50.
Then there is the 3 weeks long Japan Rail-Pass, which is another 450 more or less.
Plus, i'll have to spend a 100 for the Pocket Wi-Fi, since i'll constantly have to make backups of the videos i take.
So, up until now i am at 1250, roughly around half of my budget.
The rest is all for food, live houses tickets (lol) and eventual hotels when i don't find someone on couchsurfing.
Food i heard that if you're not picky, you can live with 10 circa per meal, can anyone confirm? That would mean 2 a day for 21-22 days, roughly 400, but i guess i can go up to 500-600 so i'm sure i won't starve to death lol
For the sleeping, as i said, i'll try to do everything with couchsurfing, plus some already going to host me in Sapporo, Kyoto, Kobe, Matsuyama and maybe Tokyo. Hope that i won't have to spend too much on it in case of emergencies.
Lastly, i was not joking when i said i have to consider entrance tickets as a real expenses, those alone might go up to 400 lol (but i made a very aproximative calculation, taking into account only the highest price i've seen, it'll surely be much lower).
This should leave me with a few hundreds left for any other kind of expenses or emergencies.
So, how feasible is my plan? Or am i driving straight into economic (and maybe even literal) death?
MikeHattsu
Member
Well, it would probably be cheaper to just make one plane trip from Sapporo to Kagoshima of course. If you're taking a plane directly from Tokyo to Sapporo after arriving make sure you plan enough time to get through immigration and pick up your luggage. Oh, and make sure you book flights to from the same airport in Tokyo, either Haneda or Narita (unless you got an extra 2 hours or so to get from one to the other).
You should check some booking sites as well. You might get a better deal through codeshares that uses the same planes. And did you check if you could possibly book Milan-Sapporo and then Tokyo-Milan multi-city?
Check peach and jetstar for some of the cheapest domestic tickets. They use terminal 3 in Narita so you'll need to take a free shuttle bus from terminals 1 & 2. Remember to account for that if you need to transfer. You should not try to wait as long as possible to book unless you know when a sale is gonna happen. If they sell out of the cheapest tickets, then there will only be expensive ones left even when there's a sale going on.
You could get pocket Wifi from tocoo for like 55, but they got a data limit per 3 day period / month, so dunno if that would work if you're gonna upload massive amounts of data. Check the data limits of the company you're renting from anyway.
One of the cheapest places to eat is Nakau. Depending on how much you eat each meal you could get something for less than 5. Oh, and make sure to also add some money for drinks into your budget as well, unless you're gonna drink tap water all the time.
Oh, and make sure to check that all the places you want to check out are still running and not out if business of course
By your own math, Flights + rail pass + food + wifi is already at 1750. Public transportation will be an extra 20 a week, at least. If you need to spend so much as three days in an Airbnb or hotel, you've surpassed the low end of your budget. Add in those entrance fees...
That's a bit too tight of a budget for my liking. You could do it, but only if you have absolute faith in your couchsurfing hosts. One or two bail out, you're fucked.
Crash55118
Member
Went to a show at Antiknock that was all you can drink tequilla and thrash metal. It was a good time. Pro tip, I also assume it follows for other clubs, but you will want to throw away your clothes at the end of the night because of how bad they smell.
killertofu
Member
Golden Gate traffic is no joke. Took all our shit from our first Air Bnb around Ueno park and went to Setagaya. Shinjuku station was paaaacked.
But Setagaya is super chill. Our new AirBnb has a lot more space and the host had like special copies of Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 and Demon]s Souls on his counter. A true boss.
Also struck up a conversation with a girl from Michigan this morning who]s also with some friends. Gonna try to meet them up for Kareoke later.
But Setagaya is super chill. Our new AirBnb has a lot more space and the host had like special copies of Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 and Demon]s Souls on his counter. A true boss.
Also struck up a conversation with a girl from Michigan this morning who]s also with some friends. Gonna try to meet them up for Kareoke later.
Patrick Bateman
Member
You can play them.
I did the same, I bought Porco Rosso as a BluRay, realised what the prize would be in Dollar and let my girlfriend return it... ;D
It's not even a month ago that we left Japan and I already wanna go back.
It's not even a month ago that we left Japan and I already wanna go back.
We have good taste
MikeHattsu
Member
Shinjuku station is pretty packed every day, so can't even imagine how it is at Golden Week
Subpar Scrub
Banned
I've noticed that. I've planned my days around the open times, but luckily aimlessly wandering around and enjoying the experience is my jam a lot of the time
It's part of the reason I'm travelling solo.I won't be able to sleep in past 7, 8 at the latest because work has drilled that into me. So I guess I'll wander around and see what the locals are up to.
You player, you.
Hello Japan Travel Gaf. I'll be visiting Japan with my 2.5 year old and wife later on this month. It's been a while since I've been back to one of my favourite countries... the last time would have been 2008.
My rough itinerary so far is
Day 1 - Shinjuku shopping
Day 2 - Disneyland and Ginza on the way back
Day 3 - Niko Niko Park, Mitsui Outlet Mall at Tama Minami Osawa, Shibuya
Day 4 - Summerland Water park, Harujuku
Day 5 - Indoor Playground, Akiba/Nakano Broadway, Legoland in Odaiba
Day 6 - Kyoto - Shrines,Temples and Gion
Day 7 - Kyoto - more sightseeing
Day 8 - Osaka - Shopping
Day 9 - Osaka - Shopping
I've been using a lot of Tokyo Cheapo to get tips. If anyone else has some nice tips, or things to buy including souvenirs, food, drinks, things to do (especially with toddlers), let me know!
I'm also looking to buy a camera lens on the first day in Shinjuku, so if anyone has suggestions where that would be good. Also thinking about getting a Super Famicom if the price is reasonable. I almost feel like these days its kind of pointless to import any games from Japan because most of them come over to the west and I don't really have time to play them all. I honestly don't have as much to buy in Akiba if anything at all. Maybe some Gachapon for my kid.
Man it was such a pain to organise hotels, normally it would be easy but we needed at least a queen size bed and many of the hotels had double beds only. In the end it cost us a lot more, but guess we are really paying for three people.
Anyways I'm excited!
My rough itinerary so far is
Day 1 - Shinjuku shopping
Day 2 - Disneyland and Ginza on the way back
Day 3 - Niko Niko Park, Mitsui Outlet Mall at Tama Minami Osawa, Shibuya
Day 4 - Summerland Water park, Harujuku
Day 5 - Indoor Playground, Akiba/Nakano Broadway, Legoland in Odaiba
Day 6 - Kyoto - Shrines,Temples and Gion
Day 7 - Kyoto - more sightseeing
Day 8 - Osaka - Shopping
Day 9 - Osaka - Shopping
I've been using a lot of Tokyo Cheapo to get tips. If anyone else has some nice tips, or things to buy including souvenirs, food, drinks, things to do (especially with toddlers), let me know!
I'm also looking to buy a camera lens on the first day in Shinjuku, so if anyone has suggestions where that would be good. Also thinking about getting a Super Famicom if the price is reasonable. I almost feel like these days its kind of pointless to import any games from Japan because most of them come over to the west and I don't really have time to play them all. I honestly don't have as much to buy in Akiba if anything at all. Maybe some Gachapon for my kid.
Man it was such a pain to organise hotels, normally it would be easy but we needed at least a queen size bed and many of the hotels had double beds only. In the end it cost us a lot more, but guess we are really paying for three people.
Anyways I'm excited!
Yeah i'm actually starting to think i'll do it that way:
Tokyo 8 9 10
Sendai 11
Sapporo 12 13
(flight)
Kagoshima 14
Fukuoka 15 16
Kobe 17
Matsuyama 18
Kobe 19
Osaka 20 21 22
Kyoto 23
Nagoya 24
Tokyo 25 26 27 28 29
This way i'll have to buy a single ticket from Sapporo to Kagoshima (which is still quite expensive), and also spend a few days in Tokyo both at the begnning and at the end, which can allow me to take the 2-weeks long Japan Rail pass and save another 100.
I still would have preferred doing north-to-south for cultural logic, but i'm low on money so i really can't be picky.
Also i would have loved to take maybe a couple of extra days in one of the smaller cities like Sendai in order to explore some more natural areas, but again since it's not a pure leisure trip i guess i'll save that for another time.
I did find some Milan-Sapporo flight but they are way more expensive.
Also, can you suggest some booking sites, since i don0t know any?
Thanks, i'll give consider this!
Is it really only 4.500Y for 30 days? Wow!
But what "Limit after 128kbps:7GB/Month" means? That if i go over 7gb i'll have to spend the rest of the month with lowered speed? :/
Oh, and make sure to check that all the places you want to check out are still running and not out if business of course
Ahah yeah that's the first thing i checked.
If you check up, that's was some calculation for the worst case scenario, but
That sounds good! And yeah, i'm going with the mentality that i'll come back home as a wreck lol
MikeHattsu
Member
What kind of prices are you finding for Sapporo-Kagoshima? Going Sapporo-Fukuoka and then taking a 90 minute Shinkansen train down to Kagoshima might be cheaper.
Try tripadvisor.com, kayak.com, expedia.com and google.com/flights/ for flight search engines.
Yeah, that is correct, after 7GB the speed will be lowered.
oyoshimaru
Member
The yen appreciation mean I have to save more for my trip in late summer. I should have went last summer!
killertofu
Member
I've noticed that. I've planned my days around the open times, but luckily aimlessly wandering around and enjoying the experience is my jam a lot of the time
I won't be able to sleep in past 7, 8 at the latest because work has drilled that into me. So I guess I'll wander around and see what the locals are up to.
You player, you.
Honestly the best part of this trip has been me jet lagged and waking up super early and just walking around and seeing people start their day.
And I probably won't see the girl again
. I was actually more interested in meeting her friend because I was told that "she wanted to see building where Wizardmon died".Subpar Scrub
Banned
I'm pretty sure Shinjuku has a yodobashi camera a couple hundred metres from the station.
I'm planning a trip to go back to Japan ~June 24th and staying for about three weeks. The trip I'm envisioning in my head has us (wife and I) starting out in Tokyo for a couple days, and then spending the rest of the time exploring the Kansai region, mainly Osaka and Kyoto, with probably day-trips to Nara and Kobe.
We both absolutely loved Kyoto last time we went. Does anyone have any input on whether it would be worthwhile to stay in Osaka for part of the time vs. making Kyoto our home-base and traveling around the region? It looks like it's only about an hour trip from Kyoto.
The obvious downside is that we probably wouldn't really get to experience Osaka's famous nightlife this way, but neither of us are big drinkers anyway.
Thanks a ton in advance for any advice. If anyone has any more general advice about exploring Kansai, that would be greatly appreciated as well.
We both absolutely loved Kyoto last time we went. Does anyone have any input on whether it would be worthwhile to stay in Osaka for part of the time vs. making Kyoto our home-base and traveling around the region? It looks like it's only about an hour trip from Kyoto.
The obvious downside is that we probably wouldn't really get to experience Osaka's famous nightlife this way, but neither of us are big drinkers anyway.
Thanks a ton in advance for any advice. If anyone has any more general advice about exploring Kansai, that would be greatly appreciated as well.
killertofu
Member
Pokemon Center was pretty lit although kind of disappointing with their selection of Pokemon.
Honestly, I haven't noticed any crazy people traffic during Golden Week. Sure it's busy, but nothing crazy where you're crammed. I've only noticed long lines so far for baking goods and a kids store lol, not sure why for either.
This is based on shopping in Ginza, Shinjuku (inc Isetan), and Omote-sando.
This is based on shopping in Ginza, Shinjuku (inc Isetan), and Omote-sando.
killertofu
Member
I've spent so much money because I keep seeing things and going "oh man x would love that"
Spending freeze time. There's still a week to go.
Spending freeze time. There's still a week to go.
In preparation of my trip in October I decided to upload some of my favorite pics from my May 2014 trip.
Hope you enjoy them everyone.
Hope you enjoy them everyone.
cherry blossoms in Suganuma, Japanese Alps
mossy grounds at Gio-Ji in Kyoto
street scene in Akihabara
a stall at the flea market amidst the International Forum, Tokyo
Tsukiji Fish Market
shooting the shoot in Gion, Kyoto
the perfect garden view at Sho-ren-in, Kyoto
leavy greens behind the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
a flower vendor at the Farmers Market, UN University, Tokyo
killertofu
Member
Geobobfrank
Member
Subpar Scrub
Banned
Hoping that because I'm going just over a week after Golden Week concludes, everything will be a lot less busy.
ThreePiMatt
Member
Alright, tentative schedule:
Wednesday 11th: Arrive, sleep.
Thursday: Odaiba
Friday: Yokohama + Baseball game.
Saturday: Chiba + Baseball game.
Sunday: Deep Purple concert
Monday: ?
Tuesday: Leave
Wednesday 11th: Arrive, sleep.
Thursday: Odaiba
Friday: Yokohama + Baseball game.
Saturday: Chiba + Baseball game.
Sunday: Deep Purple concert
Monday: ?
Tuesday: Leave
killertofu
Member
How expensive are those souviner jackets?
I'm an expert
Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
tokyo proper is dead during golden week comparatively speaking. had to run into my office this week and it was a breeze. most everyone goes back to their families for a few days. the thing is not everyone in tokyo is from far away, and so the surrounding prefectures overflow. come out to koshigaya laketown yesterday or the day before and it was a madhouse. literally cant breathe. but starting a bit today and by next week it will be back to normal levels and nothing special, and then tokyo will regain its usual crowds. golden week is actually a fine time to be here, but tourists probably wouldn't realize either way.
I found horse meat at a few random Sushi places.