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i'll be driving from imabari to takamatsu, and i guess wherever else on shikoku we decide to go, so i'll do this!
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Jul 21, 2019 09:37
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ayyyyyy yoroshiku
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Jul 23, 2019 09:05
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Thanks for all the deets regarding my trip, everyone. I think that Kyushu and Shikoku will have to wait for future trips, when I can focus specifically on each of them and not be splitting time with Kyoto. So, I'm thinking I'll do the Tokyo, Kyoto, and Chubu region route. Here's what I've got so far. It looks maybe a bit too fast paced outside of Tokyo and Kyoto, and I'm not really sure where is good for me to post up during Hatsumode. Maybe that's a good time for chilling at a ryokan or minshuku somewhere, since stuff is closed? Any thoughts/suggestions? Dec 14 | ORD -> NRT Dec 15-17 (3 Nights) | Tokyo Dec 18-19 (2 Nights) | Matsumoto Dec 20-21 (2 Nights) | Kiso Valley (Tsumago & Magome) Dec 22-23 (2 Nights) | Takayama & Shirakawa-go Dec 24-26 (3 Nights) | Fukui & Eihei-ji (Overnight at Eihei-ji) Dec 27-Jan 1 (6 Nights) | Kyoto Jan 2-3 (2 Nights) | Kanazawa Jan 4-5 (2 Nights) | Tokyo Jan 6 | NRT -> ORD
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Jul 24, 2019 20:59
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Keret posted:Dec 27-Jan 1 (6 Nights) | Kyoto This part makes no sense geographically, swap Kanazawa and Kyoto. Otherwise you're doing a huge backtrack. Six days in Kyoto is also a lot, I would take a couple of those to stay in Nara to chill out. Kyoto's full of tourists all the time, Nara only has them around the park.
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Jul 24, 2019 22:54
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Got another one of these: 
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Jul 25, 2019 00:02
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Even that would be backtracking. Do Shirakawa to Kanazawa to Fukui then Kyoto before Tokyo.
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Jul 25, 2019 03:23
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Just let em backtrack trains are fun and good and planning around weekends/hotel availability is a reasonable policy.
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Jul 25, 2019 03:53
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zmcnulty posted:Even that would be backtracking. Do Shirakawa to Kanazawa to Fukui then Kyoto before Tokyo. Only if you're staying in Shirakawa-go. I think most people do the partial day bus trip that goes from Takayama. I never went to Fukui so wasn't sure which direction it was from Kanazawa. peanut posted:Just let em backtrack trains are fun and good and planning around weekends/hotel availability is a reasonable policy. Kyoto to Kanazawa is a pretty big backtrack though.
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Jul 25, 2019 05:00
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Shirakawa-go is kind of terrible tbh.
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Jul 25, 2019 05:24
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I'm looking at our plans for Meguro, and we've read before that Hotel Gajoen is worth visiting - but can you only see the fancy meeting rooms and arty stuff if you're a guest there or is it like a public gallery kind of thing? If non-guests can still have a look around without being a bother, are there closing hours for those areas?
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Jul 25, 2019 09:36
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Question Mark Mound posted:I'm looking at our plans for Meguro, and we've read before that Hotel Gajoen is worth visiting - but can you only see the fancy meeting rooms and arty stuff if you're a guest there or is it like a public gallery kind of thing? If non-guests can still have a look around without being a bother, are there closing hours for those areas? You can just walk in there and look around, I haven't been very far inside myself but it doesn't seem like anyone stops you at any point. The toilets are fun. Meguro is cool. Go to Musashikoyama to eat and drink. Megurofudo is a good temple.
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Jul 25, 2019 12:12
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Shibawanko posted:You can just walk in there and look around, I haven't been very far inside myself but it doesn't seem like anyone stops you at any point. The toilets are fun. I'm super worn out on temples so unless Megurofudo has some super special thing going on I might pass on it. I'll try to check out Musashikoyama though! My main thing personally is to check out the parasite museum (I may be by myself for that one, at least one person has specifically said they don't wanna look at gross poo poo in jars).
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Jul 25, 2019 12:26
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Question Mark Mound posted:Cool, thanks! if you're looking for dorky poo poo, the shopping street right next to Musashi-Koyama station also has a Book-Off, a Hobby-Off and a Hard-Off.
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Jul 25, 2019 13:39
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harperdc posted:if you're looking for dorky poo poo, the shopping street right next to Musashi-Koyama station also has a Book-Off, a Hobby-Off and a Hard-Off.
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Jul 25, 2019 13:50
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Other than typical airport hassles, is there any reason to prefer the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto vs a domestic flight? Seems like the flights line up a little cheaper, and assuming I'm going to kill part of the day travelling either way this seems like something I might want to try next time around. I want to focus on Tokyo much less during my next trip, though all my cheap flights still terminate there. I figured I'd do a day or two of Tokyo, then my next 20-something days in east Japan, then head back to Tokyo for a few days to bookend my trip. I certainly don't want to buy a JR pass to cover that travel via Shinkansen.
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Jul 25, 2019 13:50
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Martytoof posted:Other than typical airport hassles, is there any reason to prefer the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto vs a domestic flight? Seems like the flights line up a little cheaper, and assuming I'm going to kill part of the day travelling either way this seems like something I might want to try next time around. For Tokyo - Kyoto the Shinkansen is probably faster actually, plus it's 3000% more comfortable, plus you can eat and drink whatever you want, plus you don't have to arrive two hours in advance, plus you usually don't even have to book in advance, plus you get treated like a human being, plus it drops you off in the center of the city instead of some depressing suburb, plus it's probably way less terrible for the environment, plus ekibens. From Tokyo, I'd do anything closer than Kyushu or Hokkaido with the Shinkansen instead of flying, even if it's slightly more expensive.
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Jul 25, 2019 13:57
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you can use a shinkanen without a jr pass . check prices on hyperdia. (ps the airport for kyoto is osaka itami right?)
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Jul 25, 2019 14:21
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Question Mark Mound posted:Cool, thanks! Musashikoyama is good for izakayas. This is one that I really like, the chef used to work in Alsatia so it's a bit like French-Japanese fusion food, the salad is really good, and I think you can order in English mostly: https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1317/A131710/13127505/ This is insanely cheap and good Chinese, standing only: https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1317/A131710/13188018/ There's plenty of other places as well of course but I like especially that first one. The parasite museum is good, it's just interesting, not really disgusting at least I didn't think so. Megurofudo is nearby but I get that you might have seen enough temples at some point. It has a good park (rinshinomori) right next to it though if you're sick of the city atmosphere. Shibawanko fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Jul 25, 2019 |
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Jul 25, 2019 14:25
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cave emperor posted:For Tokyo - Kyoto the Shinkansen is probably faster actually, plus it's 3000% more comfortable, plus you can eat and drink whatever you want, plus you don't have to arrive two hours in advance, plus you usually don't even have to book in advance, plus you get treated like a human being, plus it drops you off in the center of the city instead of some depressing suburb, plus it's probably way less terrible for the environment, plus ekibens. If you arrive 2 hours ahead for a domestic flight in Japan you’re doing it wrong.
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Jul 25, 2019 14:27
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^^^^ my personal record is about 45 minutes to get from Meguro Station to Haneda and to my gate for a domestic flight. Walked right into the boarding line.Martytoof posted:Other than typical airport hassles, is there any reason to prefer the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto vs a domestic flight? I have done a cheap flight from Narita-Itami, and I've also done shinkansen from Tokyo to Shin Osaka. This goon has the measure of it: cave emperor posted:For Tokyo - Kyoto the Shinkansen is probably faster actually, plus it's 3000% more comfortable, plus you can eat and drink whatever you want, plus you don't have to arrive two hours in advance, plus you usually don't even have to book in advance, plus you get treated like a human being, plus it drops you off in the center of the city instead of some depressing suburb, plus it's probably way less terrible for the environment, plus ekibens. Tokyo-Fukuoka is where I'd fly instead (also because Fukuoka Airport is two stops away from Hakata by subway), but yeah, even flying Haneda to KIX, you're still spending so much more time going to airports and getting through security (although, flying domestic in Japan is bliss compared with the U.S. It's like how things were in the dark ages before 9/11). Plus Tokyo/Shinagawa-Kyoto shinkansen is only about 2 hours and 9,000 yen, you get business class-quality space for the cost; flights aren't going to be cheaper and that's before factoring in the cost of getting to the airport on either side.
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Jul 25, 2019 14:32
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Fukuoka is good
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Jul 25, 2019 14:48
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Yeah, that's kind of what I figured the response would be. I'm fine doing Shinkansen, and I know you can use without JR pass, but the price for a 7 day made it worthwhile as I could just hop on JR lines along the way. I got my money's worth out of that. Since there's no way I'd ride the JR lines enough to pay for a longer trip I would probably just buy the seats a-la carte. I'm not opposed to the Shinkansen, just that there seemed to be a $50 or so overhead vs flying, but $50 to save a few hours in hassle isn't bad so I'm fine. Thanks!
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Jul 25, 2019 15:53
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Shibawanko posted:The parasite museum is good, it's just interesting, not really disgusting at least I didn't think so. Megurofudo is nearby but I get that you might have seen enough temples at some point. It has a good park (rinshinomori) right next to it though if you're sick of the city atmosphere. Oh, another quick question. We've got a hankerin' for some snowboarding so were thinking of heading up to Snow Town Yeti for just a few hours of snowboarding. I know it's super far away and not exactly gonna be Hakuba, but we thought that literally boarding down Fuji would be a bit of fun. We need to get back in time for the others to get to a rugby game so we won't be there long. However we're having a hard time seeing an easy way to get there from Tokyo. There's a link to a company that does bus tours but it just straight up blocks me from visiting the site due to being in a GDPR country, rather than having the option to disable tracking cookies. 
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Jul 25, 2019 16:40
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Grand Fromage posted:This part makes no sense geographically, swap Kanazawa and Kyoto. Otherwise you're doing a huge backtrack. True enough. I had wanted to do Kanazawa before Kyoto because it makes more sense that way, but didn't think I would have the time to fit it in. Since everything seems to close from Dec 29th until Jan 3rd, I wanted to get into Kyoto a couple of days before that so I can hit up some restaurants and shops while they're still open (mostly I just want to get the egg-drop donburi from Okakita again because holy poo poo that was a good meal). Then, Kyoto seemed like the best place to bring in the new year, so that's why I did 6 days. That many days is a little bit misleading anyway, because I'll likely do a couple of day/overnight trips to Ohara, Koyasan, Nara, or go check out Mie, while using Kyoto as my base. That said, everything will be closed in Kanazawa as well, so maybe being there during Hatsumode is a waste of time (though the garden is supposedly open then). I'll see if I can move it into the Tokyo->Kyoto leg of the trip and maybe push arrival into Kyoto back a day. ntan1 posted:Shirakawa-go is kind of terrible tbh. Is it worth going out to at all? I only added it because it seems ~~unique~~ and is recommended by websites and stuff. Cutting it wouldn't be a big deal, maybe I could just chill more in Takayama or Kanazawa. I really don't know much about that entire string of places to be honest, so I just kind of threw something together for that part. Are the places I listed between Tokyo and Kyoto cool and good to visit? I'm happy to hear any substitutions people have to suggest. Any tips for hunting for ryokans/minshuku in those areas are appreciated as well, since I'll be wanting to do that.
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Jul 25, 2019 21:32
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I thought Shirakawa-go in the snow was really pretty and cool, I dunno what ntan1's problem with it is. There were a poo poo ton of Chinese tourists but that's sort of japan.txt at this point, unfortunately. Like anywhere else, if you avoid the main tourist route (up to the overlook) there aren't so many and you can have some peace and quiet. Also I was living in China at the time and Japan was specifically an escape from the mainland, so running into it there was always more irritating than it would be under other conditions. It was worth the trip for me, anyway. I really really liked Matsumoto, it's my favorite smaller town in Japan so far. Takayama was also neat. It has a ton of sake breweries so in winter you can just stumble from one to the next trying out fresh sake samples, usually you get four or five small glasses for 500 yen which is a great deal. The hoba miso beef thing they're into is delicious. Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Jul 25, 2019 |
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Jul 25, 2019 22:42
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Question Mark Mound posted:Oh, another quick question. We've got a hankerin' for some snowboarding so were thinking of heading up to Snow Town Yeti for just a few hours of snowboarding. I know it's super far away and not exactly gonna be Hakuba, but we thought that literally boarding down Fuji would be a bit of fun. We need to get back in time for the others to get to a rugby game so we won't be there long. However we're having a hard time seeing an easy way to get there from Tokyo. There's a link to a company that does bus tours but it just straight up blocks me from visiting the site due to being in a GDPR country, rather than having the option to disable tracking cookies. When are you coming again? Snow season is usually late November or early December as a start. They’re saying it’s open from October 19 on the site though it’ll likely be rock boarding. The English “Access” page has various routes using trains and shuttle buses.
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Jul 25, 2019 23:05
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It's a bit annoying from a Japanese tourist perspective as well. The issue with it is that it's become such an attraction that the entire point of it is to take the same photograph/picture that everybody else takes and is in the photo magazines. Except, there are too many people that you can't even get your photo. So in other words, you're going to a place to take a photo that you can never get, where you have to be lucky to have the right weather in the first place. Now you can stay IN a hut, but that also has become touristy as well and sort of defeats the purpose of you are looking for the cultural experience itself. So that ends up being somewhat inauthentic, if authenticity is what you are really going for. So in other words, checks all of the marks of a tourist trap. Having traveled all over Japan, there are other places that you can go for either the cultural experience part of staying in a hut, or to get better photography of gassho-zukuri. If you are looking for the photo op, then you might as well go to Ainokura (there area bunch of other villages in various places that also have similar things, like Ouchijuku in Fukushima, where you can get your photo op AND it looks loving beautiful). If you are looking for the cultural experience of staying in a hut, then go to Tsumago or Magome in Nagano instead, or even Hokkaido. That's what I mean by poo poo 
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Jul 26, 2019 02:44
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If you like dead things in jars, plz visit St. Petersburg, Russia. http://www.kunstkamera.ru/en/museum/kunst_hist/5/5_2/
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Jul 26, 2019 02:58
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You're putting a lot of assumptions in though. I never even went up to the overlook, didn't want to fall on my rear end on the ice, and I don't feel I missed anything. Not everybody thinks the idea of traveling to a place to take a specific famous picture makes sense. It's bizarre to me but I know it's common in Asia. Gokayama and Ainokura are less famous and crowded though. I think the bus for those is from Kanazawa? Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Jul 26, 2019 |
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Jul 26, 2019 02:58
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Right, if youre not trying to take the famous picture, then in that case any of the other villages are then better.
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Jul 26, 2019 05:14
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Speaking of snow pics, anyone been to Ginzan Onsen? Is it also overrun with tourists these days? I've been a goon for 16 years now, lol zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Jul 26, 2019 |
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Jul 26, 2019 05:16
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harperdc posted:When are you coming again? Snow season is usually late November or early December as a start. They’re saying it’s open from October 19 on the site though it’ll likely be rock boarding. The English “Access” page has various routes using trains and shuttle buses. I'm guessing the smart move would be to not pre-book and wait to see if there's any actual snow.
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Jul 26, 2019 10:24
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WHERES MY AIR CONDITIONING
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Jul 26, 2019 12:57
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caberham posted:WHERES MY AIR CONDITIONING Turned off to save money and build character 
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Jul 26, 2019 13:17
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Good info about Shirakawa/etc, thanks homies.  Okay, I think I've got an idea of my itinerary then. Eihei-ji is closed to visitors on the 27th, so it has to be either the 26th or 28th (though I need to contact them to see if it can even be arranged). Getting into Kyoto on the 29th is a bit problematic if stuff starts to close that day, but it seems like many places stay open until the 31st so I guess I'll just roll the dice there. Depending on my final budget I might just hop around to minshuku in rural Kyoto or Nara Jan 1-3 anyway. Dec 13-14 | ORD -> NRT Dec 15-17 (3 Nights) | Tokyo Dec 18-19 (2 Nights) | Matsumoto Dec 20-21 (2 Nights) | Kiso Valley (Tsumago & Magome) Dec 22-23 (2 Nights) | Takayama Dec 24 (1 Night) | Ainokura (xfer through Takaoka) Dec 25-27 (3 Nights) | Kanazawa Dec 28 (1 Night) | Eihei-ji (overnight at the temple) Dec 29-Jan 3 (6 Nights) | Kyoto (+ possible day/overnight trips to Ohara, Takao, Koyasan, Hiei/Enryu-ji, or Nara) Jan 4-5 (2 Nights) | Tokyo Jan 6 | NRT -> ORD Flights are considerably more expensive right now than they were last year, about $1200 for a round trip. Maybe that's just how New Year's is. I guess I should go ahead and get on lodging, since apparently guest houses are mega slammed for the New Year period. In other news, drat if I haven't missed washlets since returning to the States. I know some people were just discussing this recently, but am I better off waiting until I go back to Japan and schlepping one all the way back than trying to get one here in the US?
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Jul 26, 2019 23:03
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Keret posted:In other news, drat if I haven't missed washlets since returning to the States. I know some people were just discussing this recently, but am I better off waiting until I go back to Japan and schlepping one all the way back than trying to get one here in the US? Japan has different electricity so you will have to hunt down models specifically for export to the US. Seems like a lot of trouble, plus electronics are in general more expensive everywhere in East Asia than in the US. Butt robots may be an exception to that.
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Jul 26, 2019 23:23
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https://www.amazon.com/TOTO-SW3044-01-Electronic-Elongated/dp/B078GQHZWZ Do you have an outlet behind your toilet?
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Jul 27, 2019 01:21
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Grand Fromage posted:Japan has different electricity so you will have to hunt down models specifically for export to the US. Seems like a lot of trouble, plus electronics are in general more expensive everywhere in East Asia than in the US. Butt robots may be an exception to that. I just plugged mine from yodobashi in and it works. What I did have to do was get an adapter for the plumbing since the size standard is different. And it was like 200 cheaper than the cheapest Toto US one I found
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Jul 27, 2019 07:19
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mikeycp posted:I just plugged mine from yodobashi in and it works. What I did have to do was get an adapter for the plumbing since the size standard is different. Oh nice. I didn't imagine they'd bother building toilet seats with a universal power brick but I guess they export enough of them it's probably worth the manufacturing simplification.
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Jul 27, 2019 07:36
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zmcnulty posted:Speaking of snow pics, anyone been to Ginzan Onsen? Is it also overrun with tourists these days? I was in Kinosaki Onsen last year, which is an equal distance away from Tokyo but actually on a train line so a bit more accessible, and my wife and I were the only foreigners. If you mean Japanese tourists, onsen towns are always full of Japanese tourists.
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Jul 27, 2019 17:40
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