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Could use feedback on this. So far the itinerary looks like this. 1st time to Japan 27/03/2017 "Tokyo me and friend arrive midday 28/03/2017 Tokyo 29/03/2017 Tokyo 30/03/2017 "Tokyo 3rd friend Arrives 12:10" 31/03/2017 Tokyo 01/04/2017 Tokyo -> Mount Fuji -> Tokyo 02/04/2017 Tokyo -> Hakone -> Tokyo 03/04/2017 Tokyo -> Kyoto 04/04/2017 Kyoto 05/04/2017 Kyoto -> Nara -> Kyoto 06/04/2017 Kyoto 07/04/2017 Kyoto -> Beppu 08/04/2017 Beppu 09/04/2017 Beppu > Takachiho 10/04/2017 Takachiho 11/04/2017 Takachiho -> Beppu 12/04/2017 Beppu -> Tokyo 13/04/2017 Tokyo 14/04/2017 "Tokyo me and friend Fly back 15/04/2017 Tokyo 16/04/2017 Tokyo 17/04/2017 "Tokyo 3rd friend fly's back i would love some suggestion on how to handle my 1st time in japan
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Jan 6, 2017 10:33
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Sefal posted:Could use feedback on this. How about spending a few days in lovely Saitama?
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Jan 6, 2017 10:41
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Sefal posted:01/04/2017 Tokyo -> Mount Fuji -> Tokyo Stay in/near Hakone for two or three nights and save yourself a bunch of long train rides. Also, when you say "Mount Fuji|", you mean "gazing at said Mount from a distance", right? Early April is well before official climbing season.
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Jan 6, 2017 10:50
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Araki posted:Stay in/near Hakone for two or three nights and save yourself a bunch of long train rides. Yes. We plan to walking around Kawaguchiko Lake (2-3 hour hike round) Knuc U Kinte posted:How about spending a few days in lovely Saitama? Would be up for it. But we also want to go somewhere rural. Are there any places near tokyo? or between beppu > tokyo?
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Jan 6, 2017 10:57
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Half of the country is between Beppu and Tokyo. You can always do Shimanami Kaido, Koyasan, Iga Ueno (ninjas) or Kurashiki is cute too.
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Jan 6, 2017 12:05
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To whoever recommended going to Miyajima on a day trip, thanks very much. It's beautiful here!
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Jan 9, 2017 06:49
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Sefal posted:Could use feedback on this. That's a ridiculous number of days in Tokyo. Tokyo is a pretty cool city for those of you living there, but unless you have a very particular interest in large cities and or really really love to shop, that's quite a long time for a tourist. Recommendations out of Tokyo include: Nikko, Kamakura, Hakone, Kusatsu, Izu Hantou Is there a particular reason you want to be at Takachiho for basically 3 days? I could be satisfied with 1.5 - 2 easily, at a relaxed pace. Yufuin technically has better onsen than Beppu. Kurokawa is better than both if you want peace and quiet with your onsen. You're taking a plane back to Tokyo from Beppu right? How are you getting there from Kyoto?
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Jan 9, 2017 07:41
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Taking the transit to Oku-tama or Hinohara out of Tokyo was a great experience.
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Jan 9, 2017 07:44
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I miss Japanese snacks (just going to Lawson/7-11/Familymart was an adventure for me) so was delighted to see you can get some in the LA area. There's a Japanese market called Tokyo Central/Main (run by Marukai) in Gardena. There are mini-aisles for fried broad beans, Calbee soy sauce and butter Jagabee, etc. Also you can buy some of those model figures I kept seeing in arcades--but no crane game sorry. I miss Japan, it was fun. Wish it was close enough for a 3-day weekend trip from LA. (I checked, the timing was crazy for all airlines except maybe NH but even then still crazy)
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Jan 9, 2017 18:08
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Mandalay posted:I miss Japanese snacks (just going to Lawson/7-11/Familymart was an adventure for me) so was delighted to see you can get some in the LA area. There's a Japanese market called Tokyo Central/Main (run by Marukai) in Gardena. There are mini-aisles for fried broad beans, Calbee soy sauce and butter Jagabee, etc. Also you can buy some of those model figures I kept seeing in arcades--but no crane game sorry. People living here miss slushies. If the thing you miss the most about Japan is convenience stores and you live in LA, I suggest you learn to drive a little bit further before you fly half a world away to indulge in crappy fried chicken.
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Jan 9, 2017 19:07
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Ned posted:People living here miss slushies. If the thing you miss the most about Japan is convenience stores and you live in LA, I suggest you learn to drive a little bit further before you fly half a world away to indulge in crappy fried chicken. I miss a lot of things about Japan, thanks. The beautiful natural sights, the fascinating history, the incredible customer service everywhere, the cleanliness, the energy, the efficiency of the systems. The amazing food (everything from 100Y snacks to train station takoyaki to drunk kushikatsu to ryokan kaiseki to 2* Michelin sushi in Ginza). And it was all very reasonably priced compared to, say, Germany, Sedona, or London. Unfortunately, the only thing we can have here in LA that is truly the same is some of the fun snacks (and Yamazaki). Ironically I didn't get to try any convenience store fried chicken, but that'll be for next time.
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Jan 9, 2017 19:18
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the fried chicken at Lawson's is loving delicious lol but yeah, i get the fascination of convenience store stuff. my wife and i just hosted one of her best friends from the inaka in our small little town in maine, and she was absolutely floored by the portland maine mall, the walmart the next town over, and our local diner. all she wanted to do was just walk around in hannaford's. i was like "we can go to the portland headlight or the art district or whatever" and all she wanted to do was go back to walmart and keep looking at all the t-shirts lol
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Jan 9, 2017 22:42
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The Great Autismo! posted:the fried chicken at Lawson's is loving delicious lol The family mart taiyaki (custard cream) is amazing as it has a texture like it has mocchi in the dough batter. I wish I brought a suitcase full of them home with me. .
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Jan 10, 2017 08:10
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General question for visiting Tokyo: how difficult is the language barrier? For context, I have some severe food allergies and thus finding acceptable food and ordering in restaurants is a concern when traveling in a foreign country. When I visited Germany, I was constantly reassured, "oh, everyone speaks English, you'll be fine", but I encountered numerous situations (in major cities) where the restaurant employees spoke zero English and I had to do my best via translating the menus and ordering in German. There's also other non-food service situations like train travel and such that I'm also interested in, but my general perception is that the language barrier would likely be more difficult in Tokyo versus my experiences in Germany, and so just looking for any more detail on that.
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Jan 10, 2017 19:09
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Sand Monster posted:General question for visiting Tokyo: how difficult is the language barrier? For context, I have some severe food allergies and thus finding acceptable food and ordering in restaurants is a concern when traveling in a foreign country. When I visited Germany, I was constantly reassured, "oh, everyone speaks English, you'll be fine", but I encountered numerous situations (in major cities) where the restaurant employees spoke zero English and I had to do my best via translating the menus and ordering in German. There's also other non-food service situations like train travel and such that I'm also interested in, but my general perception is that the language barrier would likely be more difficult in Tokyo versus my experiences in Germany, and so just looking for any more detail on that. I'm allergic to fish, crustaceans, nuts, peas, beans and lentils and I had a blast in Japan last March. I got cards from https://www.selectwisely.com/ and i would show the card to the server and usually they would just point and laugh, but also point to the menu items that would not kill me. If you're traveling with people be prepared that not every restaurant will be able to accommodate you.
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Jan 10, 2017 19:13
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Sand Monster posted:General question for visiting Tokyo: how difficult is the language barrier? For context, I have some severe food allergies and thus finding acceptable food and ordering in restaurants is a concern when traveling in a foreign country. When I visited Germany, I was constantly reassured, "oh, everyone speaks English, you'll be fine", but I encountered numerous situations (in major cities) where the restaurant employees spoke zero English and I had to do my best via translating the menus and ordering in German. There's also other non-food service situations like train travel and such that I'm also interested in, but my general perception is that the language barrier would likely be more difficult in Tokyo versus my experiences in Germany, and so just looking for any more detail on that. I was pretty surprised when I went to Tokyo in December at how few people speak English - even in the service industry. I did also find though that without exception every single person I interacted with really really wanted to provide the best service experience possible and when they learned that I was a foreign traveler were excited to help out where they could. This even applies to random people in the street. You'll be fine in Tokyo but if you go to some smaller suburbs/towns outside of downtown Tokyo it might take some extra time to help them understand what you mean.
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Jan 10, 2017 20:43
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TWSS posted:If you're traveling with people be prepared that not every restaurant will be able to accommodate you. It would be a group of people, yes, and from my research so far it seems like eating as a group might definitely be a challenge since the rest of the group has no restrictions at all and will likely be looking to eat things that I can't. VelociBacon posted:I was pretty surprised when I went to Tokyo in December at how few people speak English - even in the service industry... Yeah, that confirms my fears then.
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Jan 10, 2017 22:35
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I was surprised at how many things are posted in English (public transport, street signage, and tourist attractions), and every restaurant we went to had a serviceable English menu (except one off-the-beaten path ramen shop in Kyoto, but we walked by tens of more welcoming restaurants to discover that one). Ordering was very easy because we could point. Even if I was super risk averse to trying new food, I could eat only at big Western hotel's restaurants in Tokyo and be fine, but then again I've never lived through severe food allergies. We even had a scare during our trip where my wife forgot her wallet on the train in Yokohama. Panicking, we went to the station attendant, who calmly helped us navigate the situation in English, located the lost valuables, and directed us to the end of the line, where we spoke with an older station attendant (in English) who returned the completely intact wallet and had us fill out some paperwork (in English). Super professional and helpful, and late at night too.
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Jan 10, 2017 22:45
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The week I spent in Tokyo I only encountered one person who spoke English at all. Including the loving international airport which was bizarre. Normal people fine but how do you not speak English at a major international airport? Anyway. Tokyo is used to tourists and people in Japan are generally quite patient and helpful with communications issues. Definitely bring one of those cards or something printed because the concept of food allergy doesn't really exist over here. I fortunately don't have any but friends who do constantly have problems trying to explain it. Signage and whatnot is always in multiple languages including English, you'll have zero problems with getting around. It's talking to people where the issue arises. If you post your food allergies we can give you a list of foods that are safe. If you can't eat seafood products I would just not touch Japanese food at all. Some Japanese adaptions of foreign food like yakiniku or tonkatsu would be okay.
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Jan 11, 2017 04:28
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I've heard from people who have had to go through this that the Japanese seem to think that "food allergies" are the same thing as "I don't like it," so be prepared for locals to insist that you should just give something a try no matter how many times you explain that it will kill you.
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Jan 11, 2017 04:37
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Or maybe they just want to kill you.
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Jan 11, 2017 04:47
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Moon Slayer posted:I've heard from people who have had to go through this that the Japanese seem to think that "food allergies" are the same thing as "I don't like it," so be prepared for locals to insist that you should just give something a try no matter how many times you explain that it will kill you. Any idea how this came to be? There are laws requiring allergen info to be listed on packaged food, so obviously even some Japanese people are allergic. It would be one thing if like only 1 in 1000 Japanese people had an allergy compared to 1 in 10 gaijins but afaik this isn't the case. Is it? Edit: definitely eat yakiniku for every meal zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 08:46 on Jan 11, 2017 |
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Jan 11, 2017 08:43
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zmcnulty posted:Any idea how this came to be? There are laws requiring allergen info to be listed on packaged food, so obviously even some Japanese people are allergic. It would be one thing if like only 1 in 1000 Japanese people had an allergy compared to 1 in 10 gaijins but afaik this isn't the case. Is it? It is, for the ones you are interested in (ie, fish allergy is rarer across most Asians, excluding some regions). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3563019/
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Jan 11, 2017 09:04
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People will understand if kids have allergies but adults are kinda... idk I don't know any adults here with serious allergies. One problem is that in the Japanese language can/can't is used for food preferences. "I hate onions" is literally "I can't eat onions" and people will ask "Can you eat sushi? Can you eat miso?" instead of "Do you like ___."
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Jan 11, 2017 10:47
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peanut posted:People will understand if kids have allergies but adults are kinda... idk I don't know any adults here with serious allergies. Yeah but you can just say you have an allergy
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Jan 11, 2017 11:22
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Grand Fromage posted:If you can't eat seafood products I would just not touch Japanese food at all. Thanks for the reply. I was afraid that would be the case but it makes sense. It's definitely concerning with their stance on food allergies but I understand if it's just something that is not very common in their country. Specific to this point you made, though, what would non Japanese food options be? Are you suggesting American type fast food restaurants which I assume are available all over Tokyo just as they are in the rest of the world?
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Jan 11, 2017 15:45
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LimburgLimbo posted:Yeah but you can just say you have an allergy I saw a YouTube video about this and it said that it was "very dishonorable" to have an allergy in the bushido code.
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Jan 11, 2017 15:53
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Sand Monster posted:Thanks for the reply. I was afraid that would be the case but it makes sense. It's definitely concerning with their stance on food allergies but I understand if it's just something that is not very common in their country. Specific to this point you made, though, what would non Japanese food options be? Are you suggesting American type fast food restaurants which I assume are available all over Tokyo just as they are in the rest of the world? Tokyo's a world city, you can find just about anything there. For Japanese stuff that isn't seafood, yakiniku is the Japanese version of Korean bbq, katsu is deep fried meat like a schnitzel. Tempura is any sort of deep fried thing in a particular batter, which can be seafood or not. Vegetable tempura is good. Avoid all soups/stews/sauces because those likely will involve dashi somewhere, which is a seafood stock. Japan has a vegetarian/vegan tradition so you could check out those restaurants. Yakitori restaurants are grilled things on sticks, can be seafood or not.
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Jan 11, 2017 15:59
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Sand Monster posted:Thanks for the reply. I was afraid that would be the case but it makes sense. It's definitely concerning with their stance on food allergies but I understand if it's just something that is not very common in their country. Specific to this point you made, though, what would non Japanese food options be? Are you suggesting American type fast food restaurants which I assume are available all over Tokyo just as they are in the rest of the world? I ate kare raisu almost every day. Gyoza and tonkatsu are also okay for me and available nearly everywhere. Also, in the two weeks i was there i probably spent $200 on apples and bananas to stay regular.
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Jan 11, 2017 16:06
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TWSS posted:I ate kare raisu almost every day. Gyoza and tonkatsu are also okay for me and available nearly everywhere. I think these would all be okay from a quick Google search but I'd need to delve deeper into the common ingredients. Grand Fromage posted:Tokyo's a world city, you can find just about anything there. For Japanese stuff that isn't seafood, yakiniku is the Japanese version of Korean bbq, katsu is deep fried meat like a schnitzel. Tempura is any sort of deep fried thing in a particular batter, which can be seafood or not. Vegetable tempura is good. Avoid all soups/stews/sauces because those likely will involve dashi somewhere, which is a seafood stock. Japan has a vegetarian/vegan tradition so you could check out those restaurants. Yakitori restaurants are grilled things on sticks, can be seafood or not. Thanks for these suggestions. I'll continue to research. Seafood is okay I just didn't want to be relying on eating it multiple times per day, every day, for the entire trip (I assume mercury poisoning is still a concern for the fish consumed in Japan?).
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Jan 11, 2017 16:29
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Sand Monster posted:(I assume mercury poisoning is still a concern for the fish consumed in Japan?). Not unless you're planning to eat top of the food chain all day every day for like, months.
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Jan 11, 2017 16:33
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TWSS posted:I ate kare raisu almost every day. Gyoza and tonkatsu are also okay for me and available nearly everywhere. Also, in the two weeks i was there i probably spent $200 on apples and bananas to stay regular. I ate both apples and bananas almost every day... what sort of artisanal fruit were you eating? A presliced bag of apples from a conbini is like ¥150 and a banana was about 100. 
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Jan 11, 2017 16:34
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Sand Monster posted:General question for visiting Tokyo: how difficult is the language barrier? For context, I have some severe food allergies and thus finding acceptable food and ordering in restaurants is a concern when traveling in a foreign country. When I visited Germany, I was constantly reassured, "oh, everyone speaks English, you'll be fine", but I encountered numerous situations (in major cities) where the restaurant employees spoke zero English and I had to do my best via translating the menus and ordering in German. There's also other non-food service situations like train travel and such that I'm also interested in, but my general perception is that the language barrier would likely be more difficult in Tokyo versus my experiences in Germany, and so just looking for any more detail on that. What allergies do you have? Some allergies are more difficult to avoid than others (I can't imagine how you'd eat in Japan with a soy allergy) but if you list them, we can tell you about specific things you should watch out for that might not be immediately obvious.
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Jan 11, 2017 19:09
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totalnewbie posted:What allergies do you have? Some allergies are more difficult to avoid than others (I can't imagine how you'd eat in Japan with a soy allergy) but if you list them, we can tell you about specific things you should watch out for that might not be immediately obvious. The primary allergies of concern are meat (severe; everything except seafood, and particularly poultry) and eggs. Some lesser allergies like peanuts and a few fruits aren't as severe so not necessarily worried about those.
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Jan 11, 2017 21:05
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Wait what? I thought the other guy was trolling a bit with his allergies to peanuts, shellfish, and beans. Meat and poultry products? What the? Also, you're screwed, mayo and eggs are either on or in everything. I would warn you about eggs on hamburgers, but since hamburgers are out of the mix.
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Jan 11, 2017 21:29
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Phone posted:Wait what? I thought the other guy was trolling a bit with his allergies to peanuts, shellfish, and beans. Yeah, not a troll, unfortunately. It's quite rare, guess I'm "lucky".
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Jan 11, 2017 21:42
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The only other guy with a meat and poultry and egg allergy I knew was diagnosed in Venezuela in the 70's and never did follow-up testing... You're now a vegan, except for sushi. Good luck!
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Jan 12, 2017 00:13
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totalnewbie posted:(I can't imagine how you'd eat in Japan with a soy allergy) I basically had an itchy throat for the whole trip and now I use soy sauce pretty frequently to try and desensitize myself in preparation for my next trip. Sand Monster posted:The primary allergies of concern are meat (severe; everything except seafood, and particularly poultry) and eggs. Some lesser allergies like peanuts and a few fruits aren't as severe so not necessarily worried about those. What the actual gently caress? You can be allergic to meat? You're going to have a really hard time unless you eat exclusively sushi.
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Jan 12, 2017 00:19
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I *JUST* listened to a podcast about (red) meat allergy: https://www.radiolab.org/story/alpha-gal In this particular case, it's related to tick bites.
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Jan 12, 2017 00:33
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You can actually acquire a meat allergy from some tick bites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy
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Jan 12, 2017 00:34
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