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Japan Trip - It was great, thanks! Updating thread slowly.
4rch3nemy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Thanks for the tips everyone! I had a great, great time! www.Japanican.com was the best thing for the last days of the trip. Thank you so much!
First day: We got there and checked out Namja Town. Thankfully there was a white person working behind the counter because it was not english friendly whatsoever (and for your first experience, it is a little daunting).. had some tasty gyoza and checked out some interesting food theme park stuff.
Day two: Tsukiji Fish Market. Got there around 9am-ish and walked around. Very interesting and busy. Dodging the little motorized carts driving all around the place was fun. Lots of interesting fish products I'd never seen before. Had the best sushi I'd ever tasted right outside the market.. probably caught that morning. Went to a temple near Tokyo Tower. Cool. Went to tokyo tower. WAY too busy. Skipped the trip to the top but checked out the gift shop. Had a delicious crepe outside. Walked around Ginza some. Tsukiji is a definite recommendation for anyone going to Japan.
Day three: Met up with strebalicious from this thread. Had a gay ol' time in Akihabara, checking out the shops and then went to a maid cafe and played some awesome japanese rock paper scissors with them. Me and the GF got pictures with our girl Layla while Steve opted to play a game of hungry hungry hippos with her (in the other room by himself) he won and got a sticker. Which is sitting right in front of me. Poor Steve. We then went to Harajuku and checked out the very busy Takeshitadori street and had a good time browsing. We went to Harajuku proper and went to Kiddyland which was awesome for toys and what not. We got Naruto hair hats and wore them around and got laughed at. We finished the night back in our district of Ikebukuro drinking Chu-Hi and eating appetizers. CHICKEN HEARTS AND SKIN. So tasty. They didnt like the heart things.
I love Chu-Hi.
Day four: Got up way too late. Drinkin' does that, I suppose. To be continued..
Anyone have any questions on what it was like? We can make this a sort of Japan info thread for anyone looking to go. I got a few pm's on the subject so we definitely have some interested folk..
ORIGINAL POST:
First day: We got there and checked out Namja Town. Thankfully there was a white person working behind the counter because it was not english friendly whatsoever (and for your first experience, it is a little daunting).. had some tasty gyoza and checked out some interesting food theme park stuff.
Day two: Tsukiji Fish Market. Got there around 9am-ish and walked around. Very interesting and busy. Dodging the little motorized carts driving all around the place was fun. Lots of interesting fish products I'd never seen before. Had the best sushi I'd ever tasted right outside the market.. probably caught that morning. Went to a temple near Tokyo Tower. Cool. Went to tokyo tower. WAY too busy. Skipped the trip to the top but checked out the gift shop. Had a delicious crepe outside. Walked around Ginza some. Tsukiji is a definite recommendation for anyone going to Japan.
Day three: Met up with strebalicious from this thread. Had a gay ol' time in Akihabara, checking out the shops and then went to a maid cafe and played some awesome japanese rock paper scissors with them. Me and the GF got pictures with our girl Layla while Steve opted to play a game of hungry hungry hippos with her (in the other room by himself) he won and got a sticker. Which is sitting right in front of me. Poor Steve. We then went to Harajuku and checked out the very busy Takeshitadori street and had a good time browsing. We went to Harajuku proper and went to Kiddyland which was awesome for toys and what not. We got Naruto hair hats and wore them around and got laughed at. We finished the night back in our district of Ikebukuro drinking Chu-Hi and eating appetizers. CHICKEN HEARTS AND SKIN. So tasty. They didnt like the heart things.
I love Chu-Hi.
Day four: Got up way too late. Drinkin' does that, I suppose. To be continued..
Anyone have any questions on what it was like? We can make this a sort of Japan info thread for anyone looking to go. I got a few pm's on the subject so we definitely have some interested folk..
ORIGINAL POST:
Hey there, I'm going to japan in 2 days with my GF and I have a very small amount of time to plan a couple more days we added to our trip in the last minute. Here's what we've got so far.. please do comment on our plans in regards to food, sights, experiences, maybe if you're in the area and want to show us around, etc. We love food and plan to make this a trip for our tastebuds even more so than a trip for culture/sights.
We have a pretty open schedule with a few things that we want to do and a general plan for areas to be in at certain times but we are VERY WELCOME TO SUGGESTIONS / COMMENTS.
-We're taking JR trains everywhere and everything we do is going to be accessible by train, hopefully.
-I'm looking for a park where monkeys roam free. I really really really want to interact with monkeys.
-We need to visit some "all you can drink" places so we can get nice and tipsy at least a couple times.
-We need to eat, what you guys think, is the best sushi in the world just to say we've done it.
-I want to eat LIVE OCTOPUS if at all possible. Where can I do this in Tokyo?
-I'm a metalhead. Any cool places that I should see regarding heavy metal?
-One of these days, if one of you has some free time maybe you'd like to hang out with [strike]some rapists[/strike] my girlfriend and I, who are funloving and outgoing people and show us some stuff?
-Where can I get some more hotel information for the last days that I'm staying?
Friday Apr 30
Arrive @ Narita ~2pm
Drop stuff off in Ikebukuro hotel @ 5pm-ish
walk around Ikebukuro east-side and hit up Namco Namja Town
Saturday May 1
We have a BBQ in.. uhh.. not sure ^^ (my gf planned this one) but it takes about 2 hours to get there, we arrive around 11 and it takes 2 hours to get back to ikebukuro
..then we need some stuff to do (we were going to hit up Tsukiji just to wander [not see the auctions] but it'll be late at that point.)
Sunday May 2
Akihabara - Shopping
Pinafore Maid Cafe for lunch
Head to Ginza, check out Tokyo International Forum and do some more shopping.. if it gets late then we'll hit up 300 bar (sweet lookin' arcade)
Monday May 3
Shinjuku -Tokyo Metropolitan Gov't Building for beautiful view/pics
Harajuku - Meiji Shrine / Takeshita-Dori / Kiddy Land
Shibuya - Spain Slope, Cheap Kaiten Sushi store?
Shinjuku again - Tokyo Metro Gov't Building at night / NIGHTLIFE or drinking (Golden Gai?)
Tuesday May 4
Odaiba - Fuji TV Building, Decks mall / Sega Joypolis, Science Museum, Palette Town (Venice Fort, Tokyo Leisure Land)
-Free Time to wander or do whatever
(open to more suggestions!)
Wednesday May 5 (Last day of Golden Week, we get our JR passes this day as well so travel is "cost-free")
start the day early
Kamakura - Great Buddha, visit the numerous shrines and temples around the town, maybe just see the beach
Yokohama - Kirin Beer Village, Ramen Museum, We wanted to find an onsen but not sure
Thursday May 6 (last night at our hotel!)
Tokyo Disney!
Friday May 7
Leave @ 7am
Hirosaki (northern area) - Hirosaki Castle + Otemon Square (information center), Former Samurai District
staying @ Super Hotel for the evening
Saturday May 8
Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima are where we'd like to see other than that everything else is open to suggestion.
Sunday May 9
Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima are where we'd like to see other than that everything else is open to suggestion.
Monday May 10
Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima are where we'd like to see other than that everything else is open to suggestion.
Tuesday May 11
Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima are where we'd like to see other than that everything else is open to suggestion.
Wednesday May 12
Leaving :[
..so anyways, like I said before. Some last minute planning is necessary. Especially hotel stuff. I suppose we can do that closer to the time that we're going to be staying, but I'd like to plan it out if I can.
Thanks!
We have a pretty open schedule with a few things that we want to do and a general plan for areas to be in at certain times but we are VERY WELCOME TO SUGGESTIONS / COMMENTS.
-We're taking JR trains everywhere and everything we do is going to be accessible by train, hopefully.
-I'm looking for a park where monkeys roam free. I really really really want to interact with monkeys.
-We need to visit some "all you can drink" places so we can get nice and tipsy at least a couple times.
-We need to eat, what you guys think, is the best sushi in the world just to say we've done it.
-I want to eat LIVE OCTOPUS if at all possible. Where can I do this in Tokyo?
-I'm a metalhead. Any cool places that I should see regarding heavy metal?
-One of these days, if one of you has some free time maybe you'd like to hang out with [strike]some rapists[/strike] my girlfriend and I, who are funloving and outgoing people and show us some stuff?
-Where can I get some more hotel information for the last days that I'm staying?
Friday Apr 30
Arrive @ Narita ~2pm
Drop stuff off in Ikebukuro hotel @ 5pm-ish
walk around Ikebukuro east-side and hit up Namco Namja Town
Saturday May 1
We have a BBQ in.. uhh.. not sure ^^ (my gf planned this one) but it takes about 2 hours to get there, we arrive around 11 and it takes 2 hours to get back to ikebukuro
..then we need some stuff to do (we were going to hit up Tsukiji just to wander [not see the auctions] but it'll be late at that point.)
Sunday May 2
Akihabara - Shopping
Pinafore Maid Cafe for lunch
Head to Ginza, check out Tokyo International Forum and do some more shopping.. if it gets late then we'll hit up 300 bar (sweet lookin' arcade)
Monday May 3
Shinjuku -Tokyo Metropolitan Gov't Building for beautiful view/pics
Harajuku - Meiji Shrine / Takeshita-Dori / Kiddy Land
Shibuya - Spain Slope, Cheap Kaiten Sushi store?
Shinjuku again - Tokyo Metro Gov't Building at night / NIGHTLIFE or drinking (Golden Gai?)
Tuesday May 4
Odaiba - Fuji TV Building, Decks mall / Sega Joypolis, Science Museum, Palette Town (Venice Fort, Tokyo Leisure Land)
-Free Time to wander or do whatever
(open to more suggestions!)
Wednesday May 5 (Last day of Golden Week, we get our JR passes this day as well so travel is "cost-free")
start the day early
Kamakura - Great Buddha, visit the numerous shrines and temples around the town, maybe just see the beach
Yokohama - Kirin Beer Village, Ramen Museum, We wanted to find an onsen but not sure
Thursday May 6 (last night at our hotel!)
Tokyo Disney!
Friday May 7
Leave @ 7am
Hirosaki (northern area) - Hirosaki Castle + Otemon Square (information center), Former Samurai District
staying @ Super Hotel for the evening
Saturday May 8
Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima are where we'd like to see other than that everything else is open to suggestion.
Sunday May 9
Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima are where we'd like to see other than that everything else is open to suggestion.
Monday May 10
Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima are where we'd like to see other than that everything else is open to suggestion.
Tuesday May 11
Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima are where we'd like to see other than that everything else is open to suggestion.
Wednesday May 12
Leaving :[
..so anyways, like I said before. Some last minute planning is necessary. Especially hotel stuff. I suppose we can do that closer to the time that we're going to be staying, but I'd like to plan it out if I can.
Thanks!
4rch3nemy on
0
Posts
#1 - If you want good food, seafood specifically, you'll want to hit up the Tsukiji Fish market. Visit the website, check out the calendar, and go at 6am of the first open day after the weekend. You'll be able to eat the freshest possible catch.
#2 - Nara is a small town located somewhere between Kyoto and Osaka. It's not monkeys, but deer roam freely around the parks.
#3 - Find an onsen, and enjoy the most relaxing thing ever. This is the one that we went to. Expensive, but SO worth every penny.
in ginza, hit up the tokyo ice bar, if you have never been to one it is pretty cool. 3500 yen gets you inside and one drink in the cool ice cups. You won't want to stay longer than 30 minutes or so as it is pretty cold. This is walking distance from 300 bar which is awesome! Also lots of great places to get dinner in ginza in that area.
In akaskasa check out the ninja restraunt. it is expensive but i thought it was VERY cool. I had a 2 person private room and one of the course meals. We were there for 2 hours me and my date had a great time.
In shibuya check out the jpop lounge, it was where the scene in babble was filmed and is pretty neat. Also in shibuya is a great standing shushi bar called the standing shushi bar. Delicious shushi reasonable price. If you feel like clubbing at all I recommend club atom, and air. Air was in lost in translation and is great fun if you like house techno.
In shinjuku on top of the park hyatt is the new york bar and grill. Very expensive but worth going up the elevator for a drink the view is the best in the city you can get without a helicopter.
In yokohama try your hardest to see a bay stars game. Japanese baseball is seriously awesome. There is an onson on top of the pacifico yokohama hotel that faces the tokyo bay. You can get a tub with a killer view for like 2000 yen. Ask the concierge at the hotel for info. The minato mirai area has tons to do right next to yokohama station. The red brick warehouse has a couple great shops/restaurants as does world porters. also the bashamachi area is filled with neat isakayas and local flavor (I live in yokohama specifically minato mirai if you have more questions let me know.)
While in tokyo if you like horse racing hit up the tokyo race track for weekend day.
Also a great online resource for stuff to do is metropolis magazine. It is an expat english magazine for the greater tokyo area. Tons of great resources for your trip there.
Good luck!
Generally speaking, the north seems to be more rural, while the south is either urban or touristy.
I'm loving that info Limp! And Scalfin, do you have any suggests for places to go in Osaka?
Thanks, keep it up!
Are you going to Disneyland or DisneySea?
Shinjuku train station: Its a fucking maze. When you are looking at maps, figure out which side is North. I spent 5 minutes staring at a map in Shinjuku dumbfounded until I realized north was at the bottom.
Another thing is that kids that are part of a school trip will come up and 'interview' you (ask about 3 or 4 questions). It happened to me alot in Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima.
Can you speak/read Japanese? If not, bring a map. Fuck it, if you can speak/read Japanese, bring a map.
Use the money tray.
Get a fucking map. We got a decent one when we got our tickets from Narita to Tokyo. As he said stations are massive. There are a billion entrances for each one. One day I caught the loop (yamanato? can't remember) line to Tokyo Station then walked for like 30 minutes inside the station to get to the Disneyland line. 30 minutes!!!!!! underground!!!! just following the signs with mickey mouse ears!!!!!!!
I found that the signs are normally very helpful and would normally say east exit this way or north exit this way so you know where you are on the map when you come out.
Also I don't know your shopping habits but one day for Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Harijuku wasn't enough for me. I could fit 2 on a day if I wasn't tired but I like to shop. I bought so much shit in Shibuya.
If you hadn't already planned to, go to Miyajima Island while in Hiroshima. when I went there late last year it worked out pretty well heading to Hiroshima in the morning, going to the A-Bomb Dome/Peace Park and then spending the afternoon at Miyajima.
Also while in Kyoto make sure to go check out the Fushimi Inari shrine. Because it's nuts.
Very much this.
After you disembark and go through customs, you should be standing on a set of stairs. Go straight down those and diagonally right will be a tourism bench. They have maps there that have the entire rail system for Tokyo with every station and line marked.
You want to grab like a half a dozen of those, they are absolute life savers. Plus that way when you have that many and get approached by another confused tourist hoping you speak english you can save the day.
Also try and buy a Suica card. They are little cards used for trains and vending machines. Makes it so much easier to just swipe a card every time you have to catch a train (and you do this alot in Tokyo) than going to the machine, looking at the board to find out how many stops you are going and how much you need to pay etc.
-We're taking JR trains everywhere and everything we do is going to be accessible by train, hopefully.
Most touristy stuff will be right off a train station, JR or otherwise.
-I'm looking for a park where monkeys roam free. I really really really want to interact with monkeys.
Can't think of any off hand. Nagano has snow monkeys, but that's probably too far. Mt. Takao is close and has a monkey park, but I don't think you can fuss around with them.
-We need to visit some "all you can drink" places so we can get nice and tipsy at least a couple times.
There is a Yakiniku place near my house that had an all you can drink bar. Yakiniku is a grill-your-own-meat place, but stays are limited to about 90 minutes.
-We need to eat, what you guys think, is the best sushi in the world just to say we've done it.
Sushi is surprisingly different depending on where you go. A few things to try that you might not find in other countries are a sushi-go-round and a yakiniku place I mentioned earlier.
-I want to eat LIVE OCTOPUS if at all possible. Where can I do this in Tokyo?
No idear.
-I'm a metalhead. Any cool places that I should see regarding heavy metal?
No idea. If it was the techno/trance and such I could help you out. Ageha. I'm a metal guy, just too lazy to go out searching for stuff.
-One of these days, if one of you has some free time maybe you'd like to hang out with [strike]some rapists[/strike] my girlfriend and I, who are funloving and outgoing people and show us some stuff?
PM sent.
-Where can I get some more hotel information for the last days that I'm staying?
Hotels.com? Not really sure on that one.
Sorry. I'm not as much help as I should be. Just don't get around as much as I should be.
Hands down the Tsukiji fish market, go earlier so that you don't have to wait a billion hours to eat. The fish is absolutely amazing, best sushi fish I've ever had!
Tokyo
If you are fans at all of Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, or quirky things go to the Ghibli Museum! You'll have to try to get the tickets ahead of time and they're for set times, if you can try to go near the end of the day because the crowd really lets up. It's an immensely fun environment that really encourages exploring and it's almost unbearably charming.
There's a really good ten-don place in Ginza directly across the street from the Hakuhinkan Toy Park, awesome food and the toy park is fun to look around in (and hold stuff up and think, "who thinks this stuff up?!")
If you ilke tonkatsu, or more specifically kaki fry (fried oysters) there's is an absolutely phenomenal hole in the wall place in Akasaka, I can find the business card (if you're really interested just PM me).
Hiroshima
Miyajima is well worth seeing if you're in Hiroshima, they have lots of deer wandering around and it's a really beautiful place as others have said.
Kyoto
For Kyoto, when you take the buses they're really set up for tourists, they'll announce each stop in English and tell you things like, "This is the stop to see X shrine, Y temple, and Z shops." It makes it a lot easier to get around. The Kinkakuji (Golden Temple) is very pretty and worth seeing if you like really picturesque areas. If you enjoy walking the Fushimi Inari shrine is really impressive and fun to walk through, but it's a bit of a pain to get to because the bus system and the subway system are separate, so you have to get off the bus and buy a ticket for the subway to get across the river (there didn't seem to be any easy walking paths when we were there in January). Nijo was cool to go to, but I think you can only see so many castles in Japan, so I'd pick one and pass on the rest.
I have to second going to an onsen. I'd very very highly recommend staying at a ryokan, we went to this one: Hoshi Ryokan which has hot springs and things, and it was one of the most fun experiences of my life. They serve you a traditional Japanese dinner and breakfast, and soaking in the springs is really nice. It's also the oldest business in the world (if I remember right) and they take it really seriously.
If you pass through Kanazawa, I'd definitely hit up the Ninja Temple. It's really amazing seeing all the little tricks and secret passages that the building has and the ingenious ways they set things up.
http://bento.com/
Thrash zone. A tiny micro brew isakaya in Yokohama walking distance from the train station. The owner koichi is pretty much awesome. He loves metal and beer. His place has both. It only holds about 9 people and is a great place to have a beer and listen to original old school metal on vinyl. He loves maiden as much as I do.
The Tavern, an expat bar right near the yokohama station. It is quite comfy down there. Also located next to several karaoke places so if you go with friends there is a fun zone and karaoke close by.
In yokohama near sakuragicho station is a tiny club called junk. They have live jazz on the weekends and one of the best acts i have seen all over the world plays there. It is very intimate and sort of hard to find. There about a billion izakayas in that area but listen for the jazz out of the open windows and you should find it. If you happen to go on a night mr seki is there you will be blown away. His group plays about once a month.
In Shibuya there is a great little place called the insomnia lounge. The whole place is decked out in red velvet and is very comfy. They will make you take your shoes off and have a small cover. Try a tequila and tonic there. Sounds gross tastes great.
Also in shibuya is a place called the ruby room. The 3rd Saturday of each month they have a beer pong tournament there. A great place to meet local single types that speak english. Every time I have gone I have made new friends. Normally these are the type of kids that clue you into places like the amaranth (if you can find it, its worth going.)
Those are some of my favorite places but there are tons of good ones. If you want to get smashed cheap go to the 300 bar. for 30 bucks you will be black out drunk.
Also, you're just at the end of cherry blossom blooming, however, you may be able to catch them if you go north into the Tohoku or Hokkaido regions (I know your itenerary has you going south, but just saying...). If you get as far north as Hokkaido, you'll be able to eat some of the best seafood in the world. Especially since the water's still cold, you'll be feasting on the freshest shellfish tasting you'd ever eaten in your life.
"We're taking JR trains everywhere and everything we do is going to be accessible by train, hopefully."
If you havent bought or booked your JR pass already DO SO NOW.
http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en001.html
This will save you lots of money if you plan on using the shinkansen at all.
Where you staying in Ikebukuro, is it the Sakura Hotel? if so then you picked well.
http://www.sakura-hotel-ikebukuro.com/
While in tokyo try to check out Sensoji Temple, its pretty sweet.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3001.html
When you are around osaka take a day trip to Himeji and see Himeji Castle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himeji_Castle
There is a nice covered shopping arcade that goes from the train station almost all the way to the castle.
Don't be intimidated by going into a restaurant. Last time I went, my friends all wanted to hit mcdonalds because it was safe. Some of the best food I've had in Japan has been walking blindly into a little hole in the wall restaurant, and hoping for the best.
Bring a subway map. Bring a subway map. Bring a subway map.
Don't lose it.
Learn a few phrases. The one I used the most was, "Toire wa dokodesuka?" Where is the toilet?
And have fun!
Solid advice, alot of places with have food displays on the outside of the establishment so if you hit a wall with the menu you can always bring the waitstaff out there and point/grunt at what you want, most are use to it but one place we went to the all female staff had a good giggle at my and my friend (they were all like in there 40's )
We went into some random restaurant because the waitress was cute. No english menus, no pictures, nothing. The waitress knew at least a little English to get us some appetizers and a beer (we were pretty drunk already). She wouldn't give me her number though, so we left like an Audi 5000.
Case in point, though, is that usually anywhere you go, someone probably knows enough English to get you what you need.
Yea most young people we met had at least some broken english. The chick at mcdonalds talked us through the menu since they didn't have an english one (we found out nearly every other mcdonalds does have one though) and in Shibuya at 109-2 one of the guys I talked to for a while then he invited us to this pretty awesome club/party where you had to have an invite to get in (It was pretty rockin).
Sorry I couldn't have been more present in the thread, but I've been very busy with last minute preparations (especially hotels .. amazing how the thought of not having a place to sleep is such a motivator)!
I'll let you know how it all worked out
have fun and hopefully you got your JR pass.
I met them out in Akihabara. Seemed like they were having a good enough of a trip already. We hung out most all day Sunday, and they even showed ME a thing or two that I hadn't seen since I've been here (a maid cafe, Ikebukuro). We were going to try and hang out today again, but I guess I'm too much of a creeper for them (just kidding, I'm sure there were extenuating circumstances, but I am a bit of a creeper). You two have fun on the rest of your trip! Not that you are going to read this until you get back, probably, but hey, it's all gravy.
But for anyone else planning a trip to Japan, let me know so I can see if I can hang out witcha. Gives me an excuse to get out of the house.
Yeah we got the JR pass nice and early. As soon as we found out about the extra days we just pushed the activation date to the "outside of tokyo" days and it worked out really well for us.
Went up to Hirosaki, back down to Osaka (best place in Japan, imo), down to Hiroshima, and back to Kyoto then Tokyo .. the 1 week pass paid for itself!
Thread is updated. Any questions?
I gotta see how horrible the Naruto picture turned out to be, though.
Drankin' age is 20 here. Which is why all these boots go crazy when they first get to Japan.
I mean, as long as your foreign and don't look freshly 16, I'm sure you'll get a drink. I was never once ID'ed. I don't look that old, either. streb knows best, though.
You know that 16 year old girl Jessica Watson? Sailed around the world unassisted? At work the other day I got "Hey, you'd be about the same age as Jessica wouldn't you?"
T_T
Well at least you look a bit older than you thought since she is now 17.
Well that's a lot better then.
Least now I have a badass stubble look going.
Anyway, OT.
Did anyone stay in a capsule hotel? 30 bucks a night seems pretty good...if you aren't claustrophobic.