Going to Japan - advice?

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Seraph
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Going to Japan - advice?

Post by Seraph »

Work is sending me to Japan next month. Won't have much time for myself, but looking for advice on things to check out while there.
Akihabara is on the list, of course, and I'd like to check out some of the arcades, but what else should I be looking at/for?
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Re: Going to Japan - advice?

Post by Froggy »

Lots. Check out Tokyo tower, a replica of the Eiffel tower but in true Japanese fashion they made it 13m higher so it's better lol. Make sure you head out on a Saturday and check out the Harajuku girls, get out and see the temples and stuff. If you are into action figures, spend some time going to mandarake shops I think there's about 12 - 13 of them (sometimes theres 3 of their shops on different levels of the one shopping centre so you have to really search) they have some good stuff and hard to get in oz stuff. Something I did which I found awesome was head out to FujiQ which is a theme park that nearly every ride was built to break a world record (ie fastest accelerating, most inversions, most angled drop in degrees etc).

There is literally so much to do, buy one of those travel guides to make sure you know when things will be on more than anything and the maps are handy but my biggest pieces of advice would be this:

You may not come across one person who speaks English the whole time you are there, be prepared to have a lot of trouble ordering food etc especially if you go out rural but at the same time they are very polite and will try to help you.

There are two train companies which run separate tickets but both run an underground around Tokyo. JR rail has a loop and tokyo metro has a proper metro system, I always used tokyo metro as it goes everywhere in tokyo and is far easier to get around but if you go out to the country side then you are going to probably use JR line so you'll need to realise when you have to change tickets for the metro to get there. Also fi you are coming in from the airport on the train you are on JR, if you are thinking of catching the subway to your hotel you have to leave the JR line area of the subway first and then get a Tokyo metro ticket or you'll simply be perplexed like I was for an hour and a half how the fuck to get to the metro. This goes back to my first point, no one speaks english so no one could help me.

Don't be afraid to go anywhere, I've never felt safer in a country than I have there so if you walk a lot of places than you will usually find a lot of things\take in more than if you caught trains\taxi's etc.
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Re: Going to Japan - advice?

Post by GreyWizzard »

just make a plan of what you want to see. I didn't make a plan when I went and was overwhelmed with options and saw very little :(
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Re: Going to Japan - advice?

Post by Misly »

There are two nfc card / companies / ticketing systems that allow you to travel both on JR trains and Tokyo metro trains. Suica and Pasminco. I used Suica because you can use your Suica nfc train ticket to buy from vending machines and other places. Simply get a Suica card, easily top it up with yen at tokyo train stations and beep in from within your wallet as you pass through the gates. You can also easily top it up if you find yourself short as you exit your destination train station. Easy and convenient ticketing system.

Good discussion on within Tokyo already, but check out the Sensoji temple and surrounding areas.


Day trips from Tokyo that I thouroughly enjoyed:
Nikko. First little town in the Japanese mountains. Wild monkeys, really awesome shrines and temples. The sacred bridge and awesome waterfall, lake and mountain views. Can be done in a day, a bit out of Tokyo with an early start, late finish. But seriously great Japanese experience.
Kamakura.
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Last edited by Misly on 26 Jan 2013 05:54 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Going to Japan - advice?

Post by Misly »

My NFC phone can read the data, transaction draw down information from my three year old Suica NFC card / train ticket.
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Going to Japan - advice?

Post by flipswitch »

GreyWizzard wrote:just make a plan of what you want to see. I didn't make a plan when I went and was overwhelmed with options and saw very little :(

You did get to go to TGS right? ( if I remember correctly)
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Re: Going to Japan - advice?

Post by GreyWizzard »

that was the only thing I planned. I then had a week and didn't know what to do...
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Re: Going to Japan - advice?

Post by Rorschach »

Pity you can't go to central Japan - Osaka spanks Tokyo for variety.
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Re: Going to Japan - advice?

Post by Cletus »

I hear they have a snow capped mountain made entirely of discarded rolls of film. Check that out.
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Re: Going to Japan - advice?

Post by Timbo »

I'm heading to Japan in March/aApril for about 9 days. I'm getting a local blogger to do me an itinerary. I'll post it up once he's delivered. :)
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Re: Going to Japan - advice?

Post by AgOnNy »

Going to Japan to surprise a mate who moved there towards the end of last year. He's turning 30 and even though he has a wife (she's Japanese) & kid, he needs a pick me up.

Only going for a week, staying at an Inn in Machida (they live there) but I'm sure we'll be heading into Shibuya & Shinjuku a fair bit. It'll be my first time visiting a non-english speaking country, but excited that it's Japan that will pop that cherry for me.

Going to go to town on the food & check out all the weird & wonderful things they have to offer. Any recommendations on anything must see or do?
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