Japan Travel Thread

Foster

As thread title me and my mate are wanting to book 2 weeks in Tokyo for Sep/Oct (Super Hyped), I dont really know what district to stay in but we have quite a few places in mind that we want to visit

Akihabara
Pokemon Centre/Sunshine City
Tokyo Aquarium
Tokyo Skytree

Any tips/hotel/flight/sight seeing advice and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

We were looking at this for internet access aswell.

WiFi-To-Go 3G

mjn

Don't forget the KitKat shop!!!

Kit-Kat Chocolatory

Foster

Lol great shout

thefragile

I've been to Tokyo, and stayed in the Royal park hotel, and one of the hiltons, but I can't remember which. The Royal park hotel was my preferred one of the two, but certainly wasn't cheap.

Two weeks in Tokyo maybe a bit long..... There's other really beautiful cities to go to too, which is easy on the Shinkansen. If I remember rightly you can buy a rail travel pass for about £300, but it must be ordered before you travel and picked up on arrival. Again I think it covers all travel on the Shinkansen. I went from Tokyo - Kyoto - (some place in the mountains, I need to look up the name) - Hiroshima - Tokyo in 2 weeks, and saw some beautiful sights. The wooden statue at Nara and Miyajima island will stay with me for a long time, as will the market hall at the epicentre of Hiroshima.

Akihabara is worth a look, although don't expect electronics to be much cheaper than they are here...... There's a huge amount of shrines to look at, and there's also a national park which is meant to beautiful which you can do on a day trip to Tokyo.

Some of the markets are meant to be fantastic, but again, I couldn't fit it all in. The metro network is brilliant, and it's easy to get around in, although if you're a bloke, don't get in the pink carriages, they're for women only (they do it to try and combat up skirt mobile phone snaps, which is a big problem, called tosatsu I think).

It's worth remembering that the Japanese tend to be very reserved, and very polite. Keeping your voice down, and being polite goes a very long way......mostly the will bend over backward to help if they can.

I've got loads of photos with name places on Flickr if you think they'd be any good....... I loved Japan, although I think living there would drive me mad!

thefragile

Oh and as with everywhere, don't get drawn into tourist trap restaurants..... The food is very high quality and clean from the street food to the restaurants..... Some places will have English menus, most won't. You need to be brave, but you can get an idea of what the food is from the plastic versions of it the have in almost every restaurant window. They eat early and restaurants get very busy, so they have chairs to queue on outside.

Obviously you'll want to try sushi, but I'd recommend going to an okonomiyaki place. And even the humble breaded chicken/pork with rice and some kind of BBQ sauce was one of my favourite meals.

If you want to splash out, maybe try staying in a ryokan for a night, it's a very strange experience.

mitre

I went last year and stayed in Tokyo, Kyoto and Miyajima (close to Hiroshima).
Two weeks is probably a bit long for Tokyo (though you could certainly fill the time).

As mentioned there is are a variety of railcards that are available to non residents which should save you money if you plan correctly.
Within Tokyo, well worth getting a Suica card, it's a pre-paid transport card that works on almost all transport in Tokyo and also in some shops.

I used these for wifi, took the premium plan, collected and dropped off at airport post office -
Rental Mobile Wifi Mifi Pocket Wifi in Japan, Portable Wifi Mifi router access point:: Global Advanced Communications

I stayed at citadines Central in the Shinjuku/Kabukicho red light district.
The Golden Gai bar area in that district is worth a visit (Had a fantastic night there but that was down to the people we met).
Nakano Broadway, I found interesting.

Skytree, if it's a long wait there's another counter that foreigners (only) can use to pay a little more but skip the queues.

Kyoto, we rented an apartment.
Miyajima we stayed in a modern Ryokan with Kaiseki b/fast & dinners included.

Food: A real highlight, worth doing some research on the different types of food.  I also found this was not expensive.
If going to the type of restaurant that requires booking, you'll generally need someone Japanese to do it (e.g. hotel concierge).

Any more q's, fire away.

yokozuma

I got this sim delivered to the hotel on arrival which worked well. Just a had an old spare phone I set up as a WiFi hotspot.

b-mobile VISITOR SIM | b-mobile wireless internet

A friend stayed in an AirBnB recently overlooking Shibuya Crossing which he said was a perfect spot for everything. I stayed in Ginza amongst all the salary men bars and big shops which I thought was great as well, good transport and close to the fish market.

A few blog posts below my partner did on our time there to get you in the mood!

The Cutlery Chronicles: JAPAN: 10 things to eat in Tokyo
The Cutlery Chronicles: JAPAN: onsen etiquette
Tuna Auction/Fish Market guide

Foster

I totally forgot about this thread, thanks everyone for the info, flights/hotel are booked  and we are heading out 3rd of October (I cant wait!!!!), looking forward to exploring the sights/sounds/smells. Staying in The Gracery -  Shinjuku.

Foster

Im wondering if you can clear something up for me I've been looking at a few passes for the rails (suica, passmo and JR Rail Pass) Now the JR Rail pass is £265 for 2 weeks which gives you unlimited travel, the other 2 been top up based, are the trains expensive it Tokyo? If they aren't then i'll probably go with the suica option.

mitre

Generally the JR national rail passes are poor value for use only in Tokyo, they quickly become good value if you throw in a few long trips.  Also there are various regional passes. so, Tokyo is included in the JR East pass (valid for 5 days use in a 14 day period), you'd have to try costing some trips to see if it's worth it for you.
Also the JR pass is obviously only usable on JR trains.