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Ginzan is still ok. It's too far away from Sendai airport, and Yamagata airport doesn't have foreign flights.
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Jul 27, 2019 17:59
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Hey goons got tohoku tips? It’s too hot in Tokyo so we got a 5 day felixible JR east pass. Thinking of Sendai, matsushima
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Jul 29, 2019 06:28
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youre not going to escape the heat in sendai. go into the mountains: hakkoda, tazawako, hachimantai
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Jul 29, 2019 07:05
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caberham posted:Hey goons got tohoku tips? See if you can hit up Nebuta/Neputa Matsuri next weekend, its great
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Jul 29, 2019 07:53
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Got to be back this Sunday for Fuji raceway  So Nebuta starts Friday August 2 this year but man hotels are super duper pricey. APA COSTS over 20k a night and I’m not staying at an APA The only hotels available are in nearby towns I don’t doing it normally but I’m on a tight schedule this time and plan on taking the 930am train back to Tokyo Saturday
caberham fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Jul 29, 2019 |
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Jul 29, 2019 10:56
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Definitely head to aomori for neputa/nebuta
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Jul 29, 2019 19:14
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Go to Morioka and get pressured into eating 100 bowls of soba.
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Jul 30, 2019 08:18
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Sendai is nice and convenient but everything closes early
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Jul 30, 2019 08:48
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So I went with my dad to Japan. We spent a little over a week in Tokyo and a week in Hakodate, a port city at the southern tip of Hokkaido. Some recs: The Morning Market. Incredibly fresh seafood. You can get breakfast, an early lunch, fresh fish to bring home and cook, dried seafood snacks, yadda yadda. Also, those 3000 yen Yubari melons. If you don't feel like shelling out that much for a single melon (or 300-500 yen for a slice), you can always get Yubari melon-flavored chocolate. The convenience stores nearby sell these things. Tea Shop Yuhi. Located inside a late 19th-century wooden building by the sea and lit only by the sun--meaning that it closes at dusk--this is probably the most serene place we went in the entire trip. You'll have to drive to get there, as it's a bit out of the way, but it's worth it. Their tea is solid. You can get matcha, several kinds of sencha, hojicha, buckwheat tea, genmaicha, or kobucha (kelp tea). Every tea comes with wagashi, but if that's not enough, you can also order odango, mochi, and other stuff. If you get the (pricey) gyokuro, you can mix the steeped-out leaves with ponzu for a tasty snack. Nishiki Sushi. Excellent 70-year-old sushi spot. Nice and traditional stuff.
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Jul 30, 2019 21:50
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Question Mark Mound posted:Uhhh, our plan for snowboarding was our last day: October 20th. I've only ridden in Hokkaido and not Hakuba, but late October is an extremely optimistic time to be hoping to be riding a snowboard. Both of my trips were in late December so I started watching snow reports in early November and nothing really starts to accumulate until the first week of December. With that said, https://www.snowjapan.com/ has good reports/forecasts in English.
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Jul 30, 2019 22:32
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highme posted:I've only ridden in Hokkaido and not Hakuba, but late October is an extremely optimistic time to be hoping to be riding a snowboard. Both of my trips were in late December so I started watching snow reports in early November and nothing really starts to accumulate until the first week of December. With that said, https://www.snowjapan.com/ has good reports/forecasts in English.
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Jul 30, 2019 23:52
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When doing Airbnb should you bring omiyage?
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Aug 1, 2019 16:26
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nielsm posted:When doing Airbnb should you bring omiyage? Oh poo poo, I’m doing Airbnb. I want to know this too.
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Aug 1, 2019 17:31
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I was going to anyways for my trip, tradition or not. The place I'm staying belongs to a tea master (brewing or making?) or whatever and his wife always does a tea ceremony for guests. Problem has been finding something cool made locally here that'd be a good gift.
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Aug 1, 2019 17:48
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I finally have some time and just wanted to share my effort post Japan trip report/impressions while it's still relatively fresh in my mind. Hopefully this is useful for people planning a first timers trip. We spent 10 days, visiting the 'big 3' cities. This thread was super helpful to figure out some of the logistics and places to see/things to do. We also watched a lot of youtube videos (our favourite was Paolo from Tokyo https://www.tokyozebra.com) to get an idea of geography and what to look out for. I went with my wife for our very belated honeymoon. We got married 2.5 years ago and didn't have time or money for this kind of trip at the time. She's always wanted to go to Thailand and I've always been interested in Japan and the flight to Thailand goes through Japan anyway so we saved up and made it happen. Before Japan we spent 10 days in Thailand; a few nights in and around Bangkok (an OK city, but don't need to go again) and then 5 nights on Koh Samui island. We were pretty relaxed with our time on the island so we could be prepared to go pretty hard in Japan. For our flight from Thailand to Japan, we flew from Samui to Bangkok in the afternoon, and then took a red-eye flight from Bangkok to Tokyo, and then an 8am domestic flight from Tokyo to Osaka, so we were pretty exhausted on arrival. Osaka (2 nights) -good intro for us to Japan. A little slower paced and people were a little more casual -We stayed at the Best Western in Shinsaibashi. The hotel was nothing special but it was a short walk to Dotonbori and Namba districts, and easy subway access. -first day (Tuesday) we arrived at the airport at 9:15am and took a very expensive cab ride (too tired to handle the subway) to the hotel to drop stuff. We walked to Kuromon Market but we were running on fumes at that point and we had to find a park bench for a snooze. After recovering, had some great ramen and a bunch of snacks in the market. -we later walked up through Namba and Dotonbori and just took it pretty easy, snacking on street food and exploring the arcades and stores. We spent like an hour exploring a Bic Camera store. We ended up crashing at 9pm. -day 2 we went to Osaka Castle in the morning. The castle and grounds were quite cool to look at. I maybe didn't need to pay to go up the castle but the view was nice enough. -we then went down to Shinsekai district for lunch and walking around. We enjoyed all the Billiken dolls. -to escape the heat and relax, we hung out in the Keitakuen Garden, in behind the art museum. They had a small admission fee but it was worth it to escape the heat and get off our feet for a bit -after some more wandering and exploring, we headed up to Koshien Stadium for the Hansin Tigers game vs the Tokyo Giants. -i posted about it earlier on this thread, but the Tigers game was so much fun. It ruined North American baseball games for me. -we each bought jerseys and the mini bats, and I got a Tigers hat. We sat in the 1B alps side. The seats are definitely made for Japanese butts, but we squeezed in. It was amazing to see. We were across the field from the Giants fans and I was surprised to see how many there were, and that they were cheering as loud as the Tigers fans. -  -  (with sound: https://imgur.com/wX0en9k)Kyoto (3 nights) -took the subway from Osaka to Kyoto in the morning. Super easy with just one transfer. -we first stayed at the WBF hotel a few blocks west of Nishiki market. Really nice hotel with an onsen. They also had free sake and wine in the lounge in the evening. They had an amazing red rice sake called 'Ine Mankai' which you should track down when you're in Kyoto. -first day was very rainy. We ran to Nishiki market early enough that most of the shops were just opening so it wasn't too crowded. We spent some time around the Yasaka Shrine and walked a bit up the mountain before heading back towards Taramachi shopping street and Nishiki. Nishiki was insanely crowded in the late afternoon, mostly with Chinese tour groups, which would prove to be a theme in Kyoto. -we were in Kyoto just before the Gion Matsuri festival, and unfortunately left before start of it, but it was cool to see all the preparations. On the side streets you could see the men building the parade floats with dozens of people watching them. -evening was super rainy, so we had amazing Japanese curry at Kara-Kusa curry for dinner. -day 2 we got up super early and took the Randen tram line to Arashiyama. It was definitely worth getting the day pass for the Randen line if you're going from west Kyoto to Arashiyama, because they also give you a coupon book. -we arrived at the end station and went straight to the bamboo grove and got there at 8:45am. It was almost completely empty when we arrived. We walked through the grove for a while before it started getting crowded, then we walked through the grounds of Tenryuji Temple. -we then went to the monkey park. The Randen pass got us a discount on admission. It was stupid hot and the climb up was rough, but it was worth it. It was a little weird to see the 'human cage' where you can feed the monkeys. We went to an elephant sanctuary in Thailand and learned about giving food to wild animals so it was a bit off-putting. Monkeys were still fun though, and nice views of Kyoto and the mountains. -after lunch we took the Randen line up towards Golden Temple. It was 'mainlander mania' with so many tour groups, but we went in with elbows out and were able to take some space for photos. -changed hotels to a ryokan-style hotel for a couple nights. The ryokan experience was okay...I didn't mind sleeping on the tatami and all that, but I kind of missed having a proper dresser and desk to put things, especially when you keep acquiring souvenirs and they start taking up more space. -day 3 we went to the Fushini-Inari Shrine, again arriving around 8:45. The gates are cool and all, but the best part of visiting this shrine is watching all the people get pissy about people walking into their photos. We noticed it a lot more on the way back as it got busier. They would walk 5 minutes in, try to get their perfect instagram shot and literally shout at people for getting in their shot. Though if you walked maybe 10-15 minutes in, it's pretty quiet and easy to get nice photos. We were out a little after 10am and it was already packed with tour groups. -we bussed up to the Nazen-Ji shrine to see the grounds and rock gardens. This particular temple was a hilight for me. It was very quiet, even in early afternoon, and it was nice to sit in the rock garden and enjoy the silence. We later went down to Sannenzaka shopping street, walked through Gion district, and had dinner and drinks in Pontocho Alley. I'm 90% sure we saw a real geisha in Pontocho (white makeup and everything), not just a Chinese tourist in a rental kimono. -woke up early the next morning and took the Shinkansen to Tokyo. This ended up longer than I thought, so I guess part 2 with Tokyo will come later.
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Aug 1, 2019 19:29
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Blackchamber posted:I was going to anyways for my trip, tradition or not. The place I'm staying belongs to a tea master (brewing or making?) or whatever and his wife always does a tea ceremony for guests. Problem has been finding something cool made locally here that'd be a good gift. Get something locally hand-made. It doesn't have to be anything cool or fancy. A couple hand-made ceramic bowls, for example, would be pretty perfect. Simple, understated, hand-made, local. Read about wabi-sabi if you're not familiar with the concept.
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Aug 1, 2019 19:48
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Ive never given nonalcoholic omiyage
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Aug 1, 2019 20:46
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geese posted:I finally have some time and just wanted to share my effort post Japan trip report/impressions while it's still relatively fresh in my mind. Hopefully this is useful for people planning a first timers trip. We spent 10 days, visiting the 'big 3' cities. This thread was super helpful to figure out some of the logistics and places to see/things to do. We also watched a lot of youtube videos (our favourite was Paolo from Tokyo https://www.tokyozebra.com) to get an idea of geography and what to look out for. glad u had a good time
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Aug 1, 2019 20:58
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Okay part 2 of my effort post: 5 nights in Tokyo Day 1 -took the Shinkansen from Kyoto, which was so much better than flying. Had each got our own train bento from Kyoto Station and we brought on a big beer and just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. Would definitely shinkansen again. -arrived in Tokyo around 1pm and it was pouring rain. We didn't have much luggage so we went to the Edo-Tokyo Musuem. It was a surprisingly good museum, and gave a lot of good context around the development of Tokyo and why it's so modern compared to Kyoto. It was really helpful to understand why areas like Asakusa didn't get turned into another Shinjuku. Was also interesting to learn about the transition of Japanese culture from post-WW2 to today. -we stayed at the Hotel Route Inn Grand in Asakusabashi. It was really affordable (10 000yen/night) and accessible to the Asakusa and Chuo Ko subway lines so it was fairly easy to get back to the hotel at night. They also had a nice onsen, which we visited almost every evening. -we then went one stop over to Akihabara for the evening. I'm not super into the Japan anime nerd stuff (I'm mostly into Nintendo and Pokemon) so it didn't quite do it for me. When we got there there was some sort of Pokemon Go event happening, so there were people on Go everywhere. -we did have a fun time exploring M's, the sex shop. Interesting outfits there. Day 2 -explored Harajuku and Shibuya during the day. It was the Monday of Marine Day holiday weekend so the streets were pretty packed. We're not super into the 'kawaii' stuff but it was fun to see the stores and the fashion. My wife loves Snoopy so we got some cute Snoopy stuff at Kiddyland. -hit up the Pokemon Centre DX on our way back to the hotel. Got so many plushies! -went out to Shinjuku in the evening and went to Omiede Yokocho and Yakitori Alley for dinner and drinks. We ended up upstairs at a random yakitori bar in the alley and got friendly with a neighbouring table of local musicians. -One of the older guys in the group was watching the Giants vs. Swallows game on his phone and he was pretty shocked when I told him we went to the Hanshin Tigers game a few nights before. I showed him my photos of us in Tigers gear and he was not impressed, since he was a Giants fan. We ended up all drinking together, and they bought us a bottle of sake when we said it was our honeymoon  -the food at there was so good too. It was this place https://goo.gl/maps/9odQAo9UqkXYGWQt7 for those interested. Try the ponzu beef and the gizzard. Day 3 -we went to Tsukiji Fish Market first thing in the morning, arriving 9am. -had some snacks and sushi around the market, and it was super busy by the time we left around 10:15. Favourites were fresh oysters the size of my face, uni cream buns and menchikatsu. Had some good but overpriced sashimi because my wife couldn't leave without getting sashimi in Tsukiji. -bussed to Odaiba and we went to Teamlab Borderless on advice from this thread. Highly recommended. My favourite room was the 'create your own' aquarium, and the light show room. It was pretty crowded but manageable. -we were tired and already in Odaiba, so we decided to go to the Ooedo-Onsen Monogatari to relax. I know it's touristy, but it was pretty quiet while we were there and didn't get busy until we left. We thought we would be there a couple hours, but we ended up hanging out for 5 hours. It was nice to have some food, do the bath circuit, eat and drink some more, do the nap room, second bath circuit, 2nd nap etc. etc. I think we both became a little onsen obsessed on this trip. -in the evening we went back to Shinjuku for shopping (at the combination Bic Camera and Uniqlo, my two favourite stores). Checked out Golden Gai and Kubokicho and we were both pretty indifferent about both. Yakitori Alley was much more fun than Golden Gai, and Kabukicho reminded us of a more modern Khao San Road in Bangkok. Day 4 -hit up the Asakusa area and Senso-Ji temple in the morning. Again, arrived by 9am, out by 10 before the crowds. -my wife wanted to go to Kappabashi (kitchen street), so we wandered there for a bit and bought some souvenirs. -headed back to Harajuku and Shibuya and just wandered around. Had an evening walk through Ginza / Tokyo Station area. Day 5 -went to Tokyo Disneysea. It was amazing. -I made an effort post on this in the Disney parks thread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3544789&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=420#post496948147 Final day -packed our stuff, checked out of the hotel and headed to Tokyo Skytree. Stored our luggage and we went up Skytree and got some last minute souvenirs from the Skytree mall (including my 2nd Pokemon Centre visit). -took the airport shuttle train straight from Skytree to NRT airport. So easy! Food -my wife and I are pretty adventurous when it comes to food. There's Japanese restaurants where we live like izakayas, ramen joints, sushi and curry so we were pretty familiar with Japanese food in general, but obviously not Japanese quality. Most places around here are run by Koreans. -in general, everything we ate was delicious and had better attention to detail than anything I would get at home. Even a 500 yen gyudon at midnight from a 24-hour diner was tasty and satisfying and we always had great service who were patient with our lack of Japanese language skills. -I have to say, as a tourist it's easy to get caught up in wanting to try 'the best' of everything, but when you only have up to 5 days in a city there isn't always time to spend in line waiting or travelling to a top restaurant. We'd walk by a ton of 'best of' places with lineups out the door and you can't help but be curious, but there's only so much time you have. -Instead of waiting an hour in line to get 'the best (ramen/local dish) in (neighbourhood), we were more than happy walking into the 3rd or 4th-best place, get served immediately, and still getting great food that blows anything we get at home out of the water. And then use than extra hour we would have waited to do more touring. -some things we hadn't tried before but really enjoyed in Japan were unagi, various cold noodle dishes (we were sceptical at first, but great for the summer heat), uni, Hoppy (much more refreshing than beer on a hot night), oden, cucumbers with miso paste and gyukatsu. -Also shout out to Pocari Sweat for saving our lives every day, and to 7-11/Lawson and their onigiri whenever we wanted a quick portable snack. General advice as a first-time tourist -always wake up early in Kyoto. Just 30 minutes in the morning is the difference between peace and quiet at a popular shrine, and tour bus hell. -Get the IC card. We spent our first 2 days like a couple of idiots buying subway tickets in Osaka with cash. Get the card. -don't over-plan each day, just stick to one or two neighbourhoods centred around 3 or 4 main sightseeing things in those neighbourhoods. -Enjoy going an onsen at least a few times to relax. Nobody there cares about your weiner, and you'll never see those folks again anyway. And that's it. Hopefully a future thread-reader will find this helpful. I have some friends planning a Japan trip so it was a good excuse to get this in writing.
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Aug 1, 2019 22:59
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^________^ thanks for good posts mate
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Aug 1, 2019 23:44
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the place I stayed in Tokyo last month had a public bath/spa and part of it was outside and it was open for like 4 hours in the morning and I probably spent three of those hours every day I was there just soaking and showering and then drying off and soaking and showering again. I was a poo poo tourist this time around because I only had a few days and had a ton of work to do but I was like "this bath owns and im going to spend as much time here as I can before I go out and hit the day" Japan is cool and good, thanks for the good posts to remind all of us of that
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Aug 2, 2019 00:04
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暑いですね
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Aug 2, 2019 00:24
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geese posted:
This I cannot state this enough. Couple of times I've gone to Kyoto with friends I had been adamant that we go early to miss the tour buses if we're going to shrines but for some reason they think 10am-12pm as 'early'. So of course we got stuck in the masses. I love Kyoto but I'm almost as fed up of the crowds as the locals are nowadays. If I go with family and/or friends and they pull this on me again, I'll either strongly advise we do something else or I'm ditching them to do my own thing.
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Aug 2, 2019 01:01
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Kyoto is nicer on your second visit since you saw the sights the first time and can just chillax in the 90% of the city that isn't crowded/see the not famous stuff.
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Aug 2, 2019 01:05
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geese posted:I'm not super into the Japan anime nerd stuff (I'm mostly into Nintendo and Pokemon) geese posted:We're not super into the 'kawaii' stuff but ... My wife loves Snoopy so we got some cute Snoopy stuff at Kiddyland. geese posted:hit up the Pokemon Centre DX on our way back to the hotel. Got so many plushies!  tell us more about how you don't like nerd/kawaii stuff
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Aug 2, 2019 04:58
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zmcnulty posted:
I am a changed man after visiting Harajuku. I guess in Akiba specifically the only anime I ever watched was Pokemon as a kid and I don't read comics or magna so when we wandered into a store like Book Off it didn't do much for me. Also the big titty anime girl thing definitely doesn't appeal to me. I was originally super against spending a lot of time in Harajuku as well, but my wife really wanted to go, and I ended up liking it more than I thought. It was kind of fun to embrace the kawaii weirdness. I'm usually a little reserved and I don't often share my Pokemon fandom with my friends and colleagues, so I let my nerd flag fly for the rest of the trip.
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Aug 2, 2019 05:51
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I still respect you even if you only like the small titty anime girls.
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Aug 2, 2019 10:43
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nielsm posted:When doing Airbnb should you bring omiyage? I’ve stayed in dozens of Airbnbs in Japan and only met the owner of one once. I assume anything you may leave is going to be tossed or taken by cleaning staff.
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Aug 2, 2019 10:51
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Yeah I've never met an owner either. Unless you're doing the kind where you're just renting a room and they're still there I'd say it'd be a waste.
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Aug 2, 2019 11:09
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Thanks for the posts, geese 
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Aug 2, 2019 13:25
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Yeah. My interaction with AirBnB owners was nothing beyond getting a key. Don't bring anything.
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Aug 2, 2019 18:51
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One of my Airbnb places I booked in Kyoto for November has the owner offer to come cook us breakfast every morning. The reviews say it's pretty good even!
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Aug 2, 2019 18:59
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Sounds like it might be a minshuku that advertises on AirBnB. Those are a little different. Most Japan AirBnBs are just small hotels, especially since they were regulated and running one out of your spare room is illegal now.
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Aug 2, 2019 19:03
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We spent a bunch of time wandering Harajuku and Shibuya and I didn't find it overwhelmingly kawaii at all. We were focused on the street wear and resale shops though so maybe I just missed it.
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Aug 2, 2019 19:42
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Coming back from Tohoku and will write a trip report. Tokyo was getting too hot and we already went to team lab planets. Wanted to spend a few days in Izumo but overnight trains were already sold out. And we haven’t really been to tohoku so we were thinking about JR east past. It’s a steal and we stopped by Sendai, Aomori and hirosaki for the Nebuta (aomori) and Neputa (hirosaki) festival. Rented a car and went to lake towada, oriase gorge, and osorezan. The locations I picked were mostly random and l just guessed from looking at the map. Food wise we found 2 good restaurants in Aomori but most were so-so. Tohoku - it’s cheap and convenient! And not so hot!
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Aug 2, 2019 23:10
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I have a two week trip coming up to Tokyo and elsewhere and I'm worried early September is still going to be blazing hot. But I better get used to it - looking at a potential move in the new year.
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Aug 3, 2019 00:19
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Disinterested posted:I have a two week trip coming up to Tokyo and elsewhere and I'm worried early September is still going to be blazing hot. But I better get used to it - looking at a potential move in the new year. Early September should be starting to cool off, but it’s definitely going to be warm. Keep an eye on how August progresses. The last few days here have been awful, getting to “feels like” over 42 degrees / 100 F before 9 am.
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Aug 3, 2019 00:47
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Pro aomori tip. Izakaya yy by hirosaki station kicks rear end.
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Aug 3, 2019 01:08
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harperdc posted:Early September should be starting to cool off, but it’s definitely going to be warm. Keep an eye on how August progresses. The last few days here have been awful, getting to “feels like” over 42 degrees / 100 F before 9 am. That's the summer I remember, but loving yikes all the same.
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Aug 3, 2019 01:34
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| # ? May 10, 2024 16:34 |
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Recent years have been scorching dry August, followed by clusters of typhoons in September.
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Aug 3, 2019 02:01
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