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prompt posted:Just stay in the Hub
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Jan 29, 2018 06:36
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| # ? May 16, 2024 10:31 |
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prompt posted:Just stay in Osaka and go to the Hub
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Jan 29, 2018 10:18
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Anyone here pretty familiar with travelling around Nagano and perhaps Ishikawa? My October plan with parents is to do Nagano, Toyama, Kanazawa, and a loop back to Tokyo via Gifu (and maybe Aichi but I don't really need to go to Nagoya again). Things already definitely in there: Karuizawa Matsumoto Tokachi Kamikochi Noto (maybe) Kanazawa Hida Takayama Things that would be useful to know: More details about places you found beautiful, specific stories about what you found interesting about these areas, amazing places that you've stayed at, good hikes, really good minshuku in the area. Also, for a rental car, do you recommend grabbing one in Tokyo + return in Tokyo? 3 People. (Note that there is also an expressway pass for foreigners that encompasses a good portion of Chuubu + Aichi-ken)
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Jan 29, 2018 21:32
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Is the Studio Ghibli museum worth doing? I've seen only a few of the movies but do appreciate the animation. Trying to find something to do the afternoon before my flight in March.
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Jan 29, 2018 22:09
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Yeah, you have to get tickets in advance on Feb 10 iirc. It's good and cool.
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Jan 30, 2018 01:08
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ntan1 posted:Anyone here pretty familiar with travelling around Nagano and perhaps Ishikawa? I stayed a couple of nights at shibu onsen last time I went to Nagano. Pretty nice and quiet little onsen town and you can go up and visit the snow monkeys fairly easily. Food and service was great at the ryokan we stayed at.
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Jan 30, 2018 02:10
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If you go to Kanazawa I would not skip Kenrokuen Garden.
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Jan 30, 2018 04:05
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ntan1 posted:Matsumoto Been to these three. Matsumoto I liked a lot, I didn't do much specific other than chillax. It's a very good chillax spot. There are tons of wasabi farms, I went around one and ate some wasabi things. I recommend this. There's a wasabi greens salad and a giant fried chicken thing that are the local specialties and were both very good. I do not know the names since I am a mere tourist who speaks not the anime. Soba is supposed to be a thing there too, can't say I noticed the difference. The city is pretty far from the mountains so no hiking, but you pass through good hiking land when going to Takayama. I was there in winter so it was all closed down but there's a big park halfway between Takayama and Matsumoto that my friends said is spectacular, I don't know the name. Takayama is small enough to go around in a day. The local beef miso in a leaf thing is super good. The day trip to Shirakawago was nice enough, there are supposed to be cool little places to stay there in the thatched houses but I did not do that. Kanazawa is mostly about eating fish at the fish market, imo. Best fish I've had in Japan. Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Jan 30, 2018 |
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Jan 30, 2018 06:12
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ntan1 posted:Anyone here pretty familiar with travelling around Nagano and perhaps Ishikawa? Between Matsumoto and Hida there's a lot of good onsen in the Shirahone Onsen area and Okuhida onsen areas. The drawing point is the high water quality and wild, isolated atmosphere--very different from an onsen town. Awa no Yu is really notable for the cool grotto where you can bathe in mixed company with the benefit of totally opaque water, bath towels and concealed wade-in-entrances. I went to the "Hida Great Cave" on the way through, which was an interesting mix between natural beauty and bubble-style roadside attraction. Oh and definitely check out Kamikochi for hiking and nature. I heard of a crazy hikers hotel on the ridge of a mountain around there, I'll look for it.
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Jan 30, 2018 07:15
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Anyone have any experience shipping something from Japan back to the states? Anyone know which postal service in the states takes the package over - USPS, UPS, FedEx? Are the costs pretty pricey?
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Jan 30, 2018 11:58
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How much stuff are you talking about? Shipping, in general, is cheaper JP>US than US>JP. National post is transfered to national post but FedEx is partnered with Yamato and/or Sagawa.
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Jan 30, 2018 12:12
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peanut posted:How much stuff are you talking about? I want to sell a nice briefcase online and ship it to the states. I would prefer to be able to have tracking on it once it gets into the states. I don't care too much about insurance.
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Jan 30, 2018 12:45
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wild rear end guess would be thirty bucks shipping
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Jan 30, 2018 13:16
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You can find EMS rates by size/weight on the Japan Post website but when in doubt, just go to a post office and ask them to weigh and price it for you. A wide, flat package might be better done by Yamato, but Japan Post has more locations.
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Jan 30, 2018 13:22
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ntan1 posted:Anyone here pretty familiar with travelling around Nagano and perhaps Ishikawa? Depending on your schedule there is the Seki Knife festival and the Mino-Washi "Akari" Exhibition on Oct 6 and 7. http://seki-hamono.jp/ http://www.mino-city.jp/en/tourist/festival13.html The knife festival was nice both for the various shows that happened (knife forging demonstration, taiko drum show, and some sword demonstrations) and the deals on knives (if you are into that thing). The various producers will have setup shop to either sell of excess stock, factory seconds, or just regular stock at very nice prices. The Mino-Washi "Akari" Exhibition was just pretty to see, the street is lined with all variety custom made lanterns that range from geometric designs to whimsical animals.
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Jan 30, 2018 14:24
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Japan Post EMS comes with insurance, tracking, and sig on delivery. Price is based solely on weight and usually takes 2-5 business days. 4000-6000¥ is my guess. Other shipping companies will be double or more. There is a lower Japan Post service with tracking but I have no experience with it.
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Jan 30, 2018 15:51
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Thanks for the recs folks. I'm still surprised that Nagano/Ishikawa are legitimately some of the last known areas of Japan areas I haven't been to, after 14-15 different trips + studying abroad. I'm actually not too big over the thatched huts - I'll probably stop by to take some pictures, but I've already stayed in a couple of similar huts in the Tohoku area. Also, Shirakawa-go is a bit too well known that I suspect that the experience might be affected by other tourists a bit too much for my tastes. Wasabi farms sound really good. I'm also trying to find a way to get into some grape farms around Nagano, since the Shine Muscats from that area around Oct. are amazing. keirharder posted:I stayed a couple of nights at shibu onsen last time I went to Nagano. Pretty nice and quiet little onsen town and you can go up and visit the snow monkeys fairly easily. Food and service was great at the ryokan we stayed at. What's the tourist situation there these days? I'm not particularly keen about the snow monkeys just because I've heard enough horror stories. However, Shibu Onsen might be good. Mongoose posted:Between Matsumoto and Hida there's a lot of good onsen in the Shirahone Onsen area and Okuhida onsen areas. The drawing point is the high water quality and wild, isolated atmosphere--very different from an onsen town. Awa no Yu is really notable for the cool grotto where you can bathe in mixed company with the benefit of totally opaque water, bath towels and concealed wade-in-entrances. I went to the "Hida Great Cave" on the way through, which was an interesting mix between natural beauty and bubble-style roadside attraction. Thanks for the information, I'm already aware of Shirahone and/or Okuhida since I'm an onsen nut and was planning on fitting a couple of places in. However, the place after looking a lot of Japanese sites I'm most interested in personally is 仙仁温泉 岩の湯 (Seni Onsen, Iwanoyu). I've heard many reviews about how hard it is to get a reservation, but it sounds amazing for a luxury ryokan. .Z. posted:Depending on your schedule there is the Seki Knife festival and the Mino-Washi "Akari" Exhibition on Oct 6 and 7. Neat. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Jan 31, 2018 00:16
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There weren’t that many tourists when we went in March, the onsen town itself only had a few Japanese tourists and a French couple. The town has 10 or so public onsen that are free and then the ryokan we stayed at had its own as well. We weren’t really sure what to expect with the monkeys, ended up really enjoying it though. Nice walk along a path through a forest covered in snow, they’ve just dug out a pool in the hot spring where the monkeys can come down and relax, the monkeys aren’t locked in or anything. There were guards around making sure no one harmed the monkeys, we saw one kid try to grab one and then get screamed at by a guard. I avoid animal attractions normally due to the obvious abuse but I didn’t get that vibe at all there.
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Jan 31, 2018 01:35
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ntan1 posted:I'm actually not too big over the thatched huts - I'll probably stop by to take some pictures, but I've already stayed in a couple of similar huts in the Tohoku area. Also, Shirakawa-go is a bit too well known that I suspect that the experience might be affected by other tourists a bit too much for my tastes. I was there during Chinese New Year and there were a bunch of mainlanders, but even then it was spread out enough it wasn't a huge deal. There is another less known hut village in that area that'd have fewer tourists, I was limited by what bus I could find so it was Shirakawago or nothing.
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Jan 31, 2018 05:46
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Yeah, at a certain point I started strongly preferring renting a car over train while traveling anywhere outside of cities in Japan, even if the price is a tad more (it often isn't).
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Jan 31, 2018 20:51
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Looks like I'm getting bought out at work, so I'll be able to come back and do the bike route north from Kyoto to experience the alps with no time pressure. I promise not to fall down a mountain again guys.
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Jan 31, 2018 20:55
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lol we just purged chat, and now you're coming back??? (welcome!)
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Jan 31, 2018 23:35
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I'll need to figure out a way to get to Shikoku for a visit. Probably gonna usw the payout to go to school with a B Ed as the end goal, and it'd be fun to chat with you and K about teaching!
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Feb 1, 2018 00:46
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Found the crazy mountain lodge. Not sure if it's a parent's trip kind of thing but here it is: http://www.hotakadakesanso.com/
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Feb 1, 2018 02:10
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You should talk to forums user Blistex about the reality of teaching jobs in Canada...
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Feb 1, 2018 05:31
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Which is more interesting for nature/onsen/upscale boutiques: Karuizawa or Fujigoko? Basically, should I take the Chuo expressway through Fuji, or Kanetsu-Joshin expressway through Karuizawa on my way to Matsumoto?
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Feb 3, 2018 01:41
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I'm not very experienced with driving here, but if Chuo includes the 東名 you should avoid it like the plague. I've driven once to Hachinohe, but I don't remember the exact route we took. Karuizawa was very nice, but that was before the tourist explosion. Nasu up in Tochigi has a lot of rich people that fancy themselves artists as well as a lot of vacation homes and as a result some really fantastic restaurants. But from my very limited experience I would give Chuo a hard miss.
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Feb 3, 2018 03:40
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Stringent posted:Karuizawa was very nice, but that was before the tourist explosion. When did this happen? Wasn't Karuizawa always busy for Tokyo/Taiwan/Hong Kong tourists?
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Feb 3, 2018 04:20
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I was referring to the change they made for mainlander visas in general. I don't know if Karuizawa has been impacted, but I'd kinda be surprised if it hadn't. Pretty much everything that was crowded before is super crowded now.
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Feb 3, 2018 04:24
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Well now you get Thai, Malay, and Indonesian tourists! Oh and this is just the tip of the iceberg because the initial wave of SEA tourists are the well off ones. If Japan is still hovering the same, then in 10 years time other developing countries will On the bright side, someone will open more halal restaurants and bring more SEA food to Japan. Oh strigent have you been here yet? http://lanzhou-lamian.com/english
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Feb 3, 2018 04:35
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There's been a massive increase in Vietnamese "interns." Give it another 5 years for a significant number to settle permanently and open banh mi shops <3
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Feb 3, 2018 04:43
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Chuo doesn't include Tomei, but it's likely i'll have to take the Tomei back from Nagoya if I dont want to pay crazy 1way fees + shinkansen prices.
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Feb 3, 2018 05:02
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peanut posted:There's been a massive increase in Vietnamese "interns." Give it another 5 years for a significant number to settle permanently and open banh mi shops <3 The place I stayed at near Okubo station had a bunch of Vietnamese places.
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Feb 3, 2018 21:30
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Sadly, I have yet to see such a delightful sight here in Shikoku. We have a lot of Vietnamese interns in my town, but they're all the single guy instant ramen types.
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Feb 3, 2018 23:06
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What channel is the Super Bowl going to be on tomorrow morning?
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Feb 4, 2018 10:49
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Busy Bee posted:What channel is the Super Bowl going to be on tomorrow morning? lol'd
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Feb 4, 2018 10:57
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Busy Bee posted:What channel is the Super Bowl going to be on tomorrow morning? It's on subscription services NHK BS1 and Nippon TV G+, and on streaming service DAZN. You can probably sign up to an introductory month of DAZN and watch.
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Feb 4, 2018 11:03
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sale on Banksy art posted:It's on subscription services NHK BS1 and Nippon TV G+, and on streaming service DAZN. You can probably sign up to an introductory month of DAZN and watch. BS1 coverage may also include the English announcing, I don't remember, but I'm guessing the DAZN one won't. You may also be able to get the NBC Sports app online feed, but that's questionable.
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Feb 4, 2018 11:21
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Is there any issue to getting something shipped to a Japanese address that's addressed to someone that doesn't live there? I know its not an issue in the states but wondering if the Japanese postman would get confused and commit seppuku or whatever.
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Feb 7, 2018 17:29
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Nah post guys are pretty chill and half the population doesn't have a name on their mailbox. The recipient will know to expect the package in advance, right?
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Feb 7, 2018 23:59
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