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Visiting Japan, advice
Taterskin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I will be visiting Japan next month and am looking for advice for the trip. Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Tokyo will be the three cities I plan on visiting.
Any advice/tips on traveling between these cities? Any advice on lodging? I should have enough money to stay in hotels at these locations. Anyone who has visited (or lives) in these cities can recommend places to stay or things to see?
Any advice/tips on traveling between these cities? Any advice on lodging? I should have enough money to stay in hotels at these locations. Anyone who has visited (or lives) in these cities can recommend places to stay or things to see?
Taterskin on
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Also, bring back lots of Y5 and Y50 coins, because they have holes in them and for some reason they're bloody fascinating.
Get a JR pass before you go, it will save you a bunch on trains. Don't get the "reserved seating" JR pass because, while it lets you sit in the nicer cars on the Shinkansen, those cars are practically empty of everyone except other tourists and I don't expect you're going to Japan to see other tourists. You might not have time to get one if you're traveling next month, though.
Once you get into Tokyo, buy a "Suica" at the station; this is a sort of train pass thing that you load up with money and then use for all kinds of local trains. Wikipedia has an article on it.
I like the Shiba Park Hotel in minato-ku, which is sort of the business district of Tokyo and enormously convenient for trains and tourist attractions, but it's in a neighborhood that's very quiet at night. If you're looking for nightlife, stay somewhere else. It's also a little pricey, probably $110 a night. You can stay in "business hotels" for about $50-$60 a night, they're clustered around train stations, but I've only done those in Osaka and Kochi so I have no recommendations otherwise.
From Shiba Park, you can get to Zojoji Temple and Tokyo Tower in about 10 minutes on foot, or to the Tokyo Pokemon Center in about the same time if your tastes run that way or if you have kids to buy presents for. Another 5 minutes past the Pokemon center gets you to the Yurikamome monorail which you can take to Odaiba, where there's lots of stuff of interest.
Also be sure to see Asakusa, it's a massive temple complex / unapologetic tourist trap. Take a cruise of the Sumida river from there, the tour isn't in English but it's still a nice angle on Tokyo.
Here is the one that I went to. It was literally the most relaxing thing I've ever done in my entire life, and my traveling buddy was almost in tears from how good the food was.
I used my JR pass to run from Tokyo all the way down to Fukuoka stopping at many points in between.
The 'Culture Shock' books are very good at 'inside' information as they are written by people native to the country that have lived in the US for at least a decade.
http://thintheherd.info
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They aren't bad though..
It's not up anymore, it was only until the last day of august.
I think it's more like 12am, which is a major bummer for an otherwise awesome city.
5 Yen coins are considered "lucky" in the same fashion as American pennies, so they make good, cheap gifts for people back home.
Takterskin:
In Hiroshima, I'm assuming you're already planning on going to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and related areas.
As far as Kyoto goes, there's a bajillion shrines you can go and visit, but my personal favorite was Ryoanji. It's most famous for its Zen rock garden, but I found the rest of the grounds to be just as entrancing.
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Hotels? Capsule hotels are probably going to be the cheapest, as long as you don't mind sleeping in bays a la The Fifth Element. And capsule hotels also have a traditional bath house type thing. Do you have tattoos? If you do, lots of bath houses, hot spas, water parks, etc, turn away people (even foreigners) with tattoos because tattoos are still closely associated with the Yakuza.
Kyoto/Hiroshima? I have no idea. Tokyo area? Well I live in Atsugi which isn't too far. You got a time frame of when you are going to be around? You can do the obvious touristy areas, Akihabara, Harajuku, Yokohama, etc. Roppongi is a party area, but it's been getting a bad rep with some bars drugging foreigners and charging their credit cards up thousands of dollars. I can also give you a few ideas on some smaller touristy stuff like shrines and the fish market.
Night life. Yeah, trains stop running at midnight to 1am. Kinda sucky considering a lot of places don't get busy until late. Of course, a lot of places will stay open as long as their are people drinking.
That's my little bit of advice for now. More if I can think of it.
In Kyoto, take a day and check out Nara. They have a huge park with deer that free roam, and you can feed them, if you buy biscuits there. The big buddha statue is also in the temple there, called Todaiji. There's a few other shrines and things there, as well as a museum, but the rest of the city I don't know very well.
For Kyoto itself, be sure to see Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji (the Gold and Silver pavilions). VERY pretty. Kiyomizudera is also a well known temple to see there, and nice. Ryoanji is in a place called Arashiyama, which has a lot of small temples and shrines all in one area. I think you can take a train down there, but I don't remember.
I don't know Hiroshima, sorry.
Tokyo has a ton of stuff to see and do. Depends on what you want to do and see, honestly.
If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me and I'll do my best to answer (live about 2 hours from Tokyo, and have been there a fair number of times, as well as studied abroad down near Kyoto and Osaka, but that was 2 years ago and my memory is a little shaky).
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Another thing is Geisha! I don't think I'll be able to fork over enough cash to be at a geisha party bash, but there are tons of geisha in Kyoto Gion district and they do performances for the city.
Since I'm going to be in Kyoto mostly, I'm going to try to not buy a train pass if I can help it (may 1 day passes or something) because I'd rather walk everywhere and find hidden nooks and crannies around the city.
Learning key phrases is a must. Memorize some simple stuff like hello and goodbye and directions, but also important safety stuff including help! (Tasukete!) and I am sick (Watashi wa byoki desu). Calling 911 in Japan means calling 119.
Also, remember to grab some kind of packet of tissues because the bathrooms mostly don't have toilet paper from what I've heard
Lots of places have advertisements in the form of a small pack of tissues with a flyer in it that people will hand out in the street. Good luck getting them sometimes though because some Japanese are picky about giving them to foreigners.
get a JR pass for sure
if you are a anime/manga nerd check out a Jump store (there is one by the tokyo dome)
Go to a Yodabashi Camera store and walk through the games/toys sections
There is a store in Akibahara. (and another area) called Mandarake that I suggest checking out if you collect toys/manga/video games etc even if you dont buy anything you will nerdgasm.
make sure to eat at a Mochicream as well.
I stayed at Ikebukuro and Jimbocho (both were awesome, Jimbocho was a bit off the beaten path but Ikebukuro was right in the thick of it, cafe with great international beer selection in the Annex across from the main building, cute staff as well)
http://www.sakura-hostel.co.jp/ - Asakusa
http://www.sakura-hotel-ikebukuro.com/ -ikebukuro (obviously)
http://www.sakura-hotel.co.jp/ - Jimbocho
Other than that, Kyoto is fun, Hiroshima is fun. In Hiroshima, I think somebody said it, but aside from hitting up the peace park, hit up Miyajima. I had a rather unforuante incident while I was there hiking to the top, but hopefully that is just a once in a lifetime thing (a guy had a heart attack near the top). Make sure to eat the oysters!
Tokyo I went to for a week, and just sorta lounged around. Almost got stuck at the Nikko shrine 2 hours north of tokyo because I didn't pay attention to when trains were.
In Kyoto, spend lots of time near Kiyomizudera shrine, its a fantastic place! And if you make it to the Fushimi-Inari shrine south of town you can see lots and lots of Torii (gates). Also, that area is great for Sake brewery tours, so I suggest looking inot that as well!
I have to leave work, but I'll make more suggestions later!
I hear there's some sweet potato liquor called shochu?
Or saki is fine.
I expect fancy gifts!
I'll talk to my Brother and see if there's some place you should visit. He goes there every month for work. I'll post back here when I find out.
Thank you for all the suggestions.
I will only be spending two days in Tokyo (and one of those will probably be spent recovering from the time change). Two or three days in Kyoto, one in Hiroshima, and two I haven't figured out yet.
I'm not an anime nerd, but I am a history nerd. Too bad about the Gundam, I woulda checked that out.
Looking into the JRail pass now.
Niceguy, all I'm bringing back for you is Smoked Snake.
Sanjusangendo (1001 life-size golden statues of Buddha, which is meaningless until you walk in and see them stretching away from you)
Fushimi-Inari (A shrine dedicated to the god of wealth. Companies donate money to have a torii red gate erected there for good luck. Nowadays there are thousands and thousands of them forming a red-limned path through the hills)
Otogi Nembutsu-ji (in the northern part of Kyoto, Arashiyama, this is a temple full of little grotesque statues of Buddha, all different, all by different stonemasons. Some are screaming, some are sleeping. All are interesting)
Nijo-jo (Old palace, people call it castle but it is very different to a real solid castle like Himeji-jo. Nightingale floors, gold-leaf screens. The most famous of my Kyoto picks, but it's worth a visit definitely).
Actually, Himeji castle is in Hyogo-ken, on the way from Kyoto to Hiroshima. You can day-trip it from Kyoto as well. It was built in 1340-something and is wonderful. Check it out, for a history geek it's perfect.
Yes, Himeji is awesome, great view as well