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Slow Graffiti posted:Exactly. I lived in NYC for 14 years, and never thought of it as a place to visit, just a great place to live in. You needed to establish your own neighbourhood connections/hangouts to really appreciate it. Tokyo felt very similar. I still had a blast, but will certainly explore other parts of the country when we come back. In fairness, that’s not something that couldn’t have happened in Tokyo too. As Limburg states, there’s a lot more to the city than the tourist attractions and ridiculously busy train stations. There are plenty of interesting little independent bars run by people with interesting stories. And yes, they’ll be happy to tell you all about it. I can easily imagine someone preferring other parts of the country, and I guess it’s ‘easier’ to get away from the hustle and bustle in such places, but if you approached Tokyo with the same attitude you have towards ‘smaller’ cities, you might find yourself having the same kind of experiences.
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Nov 27, 2019 03:38
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Yeah I’ve heard a hundred stories like that about Tokyo as well. The thing about visiting a country is that everything gets compressed and people often don’t think about how that affects their perspective. Have a good night out drinking and a unique experience while visiting city X? CITY X IS AMAZING NOTHING ELSE IS LIKE IT. Lose your wallet in city Y? CITY Y IS GARBAGE NEVER GO THERE.
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Nov 27, 2019 03:53
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For a lot of places I think the language barrier is a big problem though. Literally everywhere in Japan has local izakayas/bars that could offer those kinds of unique and unexpected experience to tourists, except: -The tourists only use tourist-friendly/online ways to find out about them. What's more, these days they are likely to just google instead of bothering to ask their hotel front desk/concierge. -If tourists happen to stumble upon a place walking down an alley, they might know nothing about it. So many places are just a sign with the name of the restaurant/bar. No menu, prices, pictures, explanation about seat charges/etc., or really anything else outside. Why would they bother going inside a place like that? How would they even know it's a bar? -Even for places that do post things outside, it's likely only in be in Japanese. -Even for places that have things outside catering to tourists, there's no telling if the staff themselves can handle non-Japanese language/people. Like Mongolian dude's place in Hiroshima. What made you go inside there versus some other place? Was the door open? Prices made clear outside? Thought it might be gaijin-compatible? We know you found out about it from  , so already that eliminated like half the options.
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Nov 27, 2019 05:32
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the kinda suburby parts of tokyo are very nice i've liked the time i've spent in them
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Nov 27, 2019 05:32
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mikeycp posted:the kinda suburby parts of tokyo are very nice i've liked the time i've spent in them last time I was there me and a few friends went to go walk around Sangenjaya one day Had lunch at one of those small diners where you order from a ticket machine and walked through a park nearby. Much more suburb-y in certain areas, even saw someone walking a pretty big dog, and yet all of it was still in Tokyo!
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Nov 27, 2019 05:50
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Sangenjaya is actually a fairly busy neighborhood with a high number of restaurants. A lot of students live there or go there to hang out. I wouldn't really describe it as suburban, just outside the center.
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Nov 27, 2019 06:11
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It's low density. That makes it feel suburban to people used to medium or high density urban areas.
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Nov 27, 2019 07:41
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zmcnulty posted:For a lot of places I think the language barrier is a big problem though. Literally everywhere in Japan has local izakayas/bars that could offer those kinds of unique and unexpected experience to tourists, except: Oh, I definitely agree that language barriers are a big reason. We ended up at the bar/tailor shop because the other bar that was recommended nearby wasn’t open yet. Like you said, I typed bar or pub into google and it popped up. All reviews were translated into English, but it was called “pub&cuisine Salooon!!” So I figured that was our best chance of just grabbing a pint before dinner. Not much signage and the tailor shop almost made us leave, but I’m glad we didn’t.
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Nov 27, 2019 13:35
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zmcnulty posted:For a lot of places I think the language barrier is a big problem though. Literally everywhere in Japan has local izakayas/bars that could offer those kinds of unique and unexpected experience to tourists, except: I like this about Tokyo though, unlike many other places around the world, there's a barrier to entry, things are usually not translated which makes it feel more like you're really in another world once you do sit down somewhere and order food. For tourists I would just recommend to sit down somewhere at any izakaya with relatively many seats, or especially one that has tables and chairs along with counter seats. The ones that only have counter seats tend to be kind of oriented towards regular customers. If there are relatively many young people and not just ossans you'll probably find someone willing to help with ordering.
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Nov 27, 2019 14:28
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This is not for Tokyo, but for other minor cities in Japan, I find that the recommendations that the hotels give out are usually really detailed and really good. Usually they're hand drawn too.
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Nov 27, 2019 17:49
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I've been lurking this thread for a while, but I finally took the plunge and booked a flight for next year. My tentative itinerary is: Sept 17-21: Arrive and stay in Tokyo Sept 21-26: Osaka as a hub (see the city, Hanshin Tigers, day trip to Kyoto/Nara(?), etc.) Sept 26-30: Return to Tokyo and depart It seems like getting a 7-day JR Pass just before going to Osaka is a no-brainer in terms of cost? I'm also not really sure what area of Osaka to stay in; if anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it. This thread has been a great source for places to go and I've already got a mini-list going of things to do. Really looking forward to the trip, going to be a long ten months until then.
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Nov 28, 2019 06:01
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Staying in namba would be a good hub in Osaka, can get to koshien easily to watch the Tigers, can get straight to Nara from there Would not recommend the jr pass, the bullet train to Kyoto isn't that much faster than just getting an express local line, and on hankyu it takes like 40 minutes from umeda on express and costs under 500 yen There's no bullet train to Nara and it's pretty cheap each way too You can't use the jr pass for the metro lines in Osaka, but I think there's some.kind of metro pass you can get if you plan to use them a lot
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Nov 28, 2019 06:51
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poo poo but if you're getting the shinkansen from Tokyo and back then it's worth it yeah
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Nov 28, 2019 06:52
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BB2K posted:poo poo but if you're getting the shinkansen from Tokyo and back then it's worth it yeah Yeah that plus being able to use it for other various JR lines makes it worth it overall.
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Nov 28, 2019 07:09
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John Wilkes Booth posted:I'm also not really sure what area of Osaka to stay in; if anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it. i usually stay in nipponbashi, but namba would be good too. i just like nipponbashi because nerd poo poo and it's relatively central in southern osaka.
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Nov 28, 2019 08:07
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Seems like Stockholm will be getting direct ANA flights to Haneda next year. Should be a good improvement.
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Nov 28, 2019 12:50
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My favorite part of Osaka was probably Tsuruhashi
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Nov 28, 2019 17:28
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A JR pass is only slightly more expensive than round trip Tokyo-Osaka Nozomi Shinkansen tickets. If you go to Kyoto you'll probably break even or win out by a few bucks. However with a JR pass you have to take the slower Hikari Shinkansen which isn't that big of a deal since it's only 30mins slower for a Tokyo to Osaka trip. Also Osaka to Nara is doable with JR but the private line is faster. If you add another day trip to places slightly further out like Himeji, a JR pass becomes a lot more worth it.
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Nov 28, 2019 18:36
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When it's a wash, I usually like to recommend the JR pass because it really just gives you options. Maybe you decide you're bored of Osaka - now, you can easily take a day trip to Himeji. Maybe you decide you want to get ambitious and go to Hiroshima for a day. You can do that without a second thought if you have a JR pass. Without one, now you're stuck wondering, is it really worth my money to go see some castle? Hmm.. And honestly, that's not my ideal state of being while on vacation if I can help it.
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Nov 28, 2019 19:17
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Agreed. My group got the JR pass mostly for Tokyo to Kyoto round trip on a 7-day, but we ended up using it quite a bit to get around. Tokyo > Kyoto Kyoto > Himeji Himeji > Osaka Osaka > Kyoto Kyoto > Kobe Kobe > Tokyo Plus a bunch of smaller line trains sprinkled in here and there. Our last day of the pass we got around a lot in Tokyo on JR lines even. If you just have a round trip from Tokyo to Osaka, you should still get the pass. Just have fun with it!
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Nov 28, 2019 19:35
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Trying to decide how to start my trip. I have to fly into HND so that’s pretty much fixed, but my goal is to do Osaka as the first leg of my 2020 travel. I guess I’m weighing whether I want to fly in and immediately try to transfer to the Shinkansen and just marathon it from Tokyo to Osaka after a 13 hour flight or whether I want to grab a hotel by the airport once I land and start the following morning. Option one is appealing because I can probably conk out on the train with much better leg room than my flight had and then I can make it through to Osaka and just find my AirBnB and crash for the night, wake up and start my first day in Japan right from the get-go with no excess travel. Cons are that I don’t want to stress about buying a standby (or whatever it’s called, I forgot) walk-on ticket and much prefer to reserve a seat, though I don’t want to risk my flight being late and missing my train entirely. Also really worried that I’m underestimating how miserable another 2+ hours of travel are on top of the 12+ hour flight, not to mention wrestling luggage onto local trains in rush hour traffic like last time. Option two is less appealing because I’m feeling like I’m missing the morning to 2-3h travel, not to mention I’d want an early start so I’d be wrestling luggage on Friday rush morning rush hour. Right now I’m leaning toward marathoning the trip when I fly in, sucking it up and just relying on walk-on seating.
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Nov 28, 2019 19:42
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There's a shinkansen for Osaka departing like every 7 minutes from Tokyo, you'll be fine. To avoid some of the rush, take a bus directly from HND to Shinagawa. Hamatsucho-Shinagawa on Yamanote can get a bit crowded during rush hour so don't bother with monorail. Unless you sit next to a group of chatty obasans or loud kids it should be a drastically more relaxing environment than your flight. I say go for it. Edit: FWIW, reserved seat tickets can be used as free seating tickets, even after your scheduled train leaves, as long as it's during the same day. So even if you do end up missing it, you'll be fine. That said I personally wouldn't bother making a reservation in advance at all, unless you're flying in at the tail end of golden week or something. zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Nov 28, 2019 |
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Nov 28, 2019 21:14
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John Wilkes Booth posted:Sept 21-26: Osaka as a hub (see the city, Hanshin Tigers, day trip to Kyoto/Nara(?), etc.) Just FYI but that period of September is often a dead period for Japanese baseball, rained out games getting moved back there but not always regular games scheduled that last week of September. ‘Tis the end of the regular season and the lull before playoffs starting in early October.
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Nov 28, 2019 21:40
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Sumo is the middle 2 weeks of: January Tokyo March Osaka May Tokyo July Nagoya September Tokyo November Fukuoka
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Nov 28, 2019 23:15
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Thanks for this! I might end up just doing the non reserved walk-on at this rate then, sounds like I have nothing to lose. I’m going may 8th so just after GW. Hopefully it’s just as calm as it was this year.
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Nov 28, 2019 23:46
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Thanks for the advice, my whole thinking in getting the rail pass was to open up opportunities for a spur-of-the-moment trip to some random city for no cost, sounds like I made the right choice.harperdc posted:Just FYI but that period of September is often a dead period for Japanese baseball, rained out games getting moved back there but not always regular games scheduled that last week of September. ‘Tis the end of the regular season and the lull before playoffs starting in early October. Since the Olympics are happening this year, it looks like they pushed the end of the season forward a bit. During the time I plan to be in Osaka there's a three game series scheduled so no worries there.
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Nov 29, 2019 00:06
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Martytoof posted:Trying to decide how to start my trip. I have to fly into HND so that’s pretty much fixed, but my goal is to do Osaka as the first leg of my 2020 travel. I guess I’m weighing whether I want to fly in and immediately try to transfer to the Shinkansen and just marathon it from Tokyo to Osaka after a 13 hour flight or whether I want to grab a hotel by the airport once I land and start the following morning. Can you just find a flight from Tokyo to Osaka? When I flew in from Thailand, we arrived at HND around 6am and then had a 8am flight from HND to ITM (older Osaka airport) that was just over an hour. You don't even have to leave the airport. It also worked out cheaper than getting a JR pass since we just needed to do one-way shinkansen back to Tokyo.
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Nov 29, 2019 03:03
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John Wilkes Booth posted:Since the Olympics are happening this year, it looks like they pushed the end of the season forward a bit. During the time I plan to be in Osaka there's a three game series scheduled so no worries there. But the baseball went straight through the Rugby World Cup this year, why would they bow down to some athletics thing?  if you’ve checked then that’s good, double check when tickets are available too to try and line those up. It’s usually two months before that month (so sometime in July for all of the September matches).
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Nov 29, 2019 09:56
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Welp, just booked my flight for May 8-31. Looks like I fly in and out on weekends so at least I won't be hitting the metros at rush hour.
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Nov 29, 2019 19:48
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Shibawanko posted:My favorite part of Osaka was probably Tsuruhashi  transfer at tsuruhashi to avoid transferring at namba for umeda
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Nov 29, 2019 20:18
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Martytoof posted:Thanks for this! I might end up just doing the non reserved walk-on at this rate then, sounds like I have nothing to lose. oh hey, i'm gonna be in country the same time frame and probably the same areas 
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Nov 29, 2019 20:19
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Phone posted:
Please specify which of the four? Nambas you refer to because we sure won't on any signs!
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Nov 29, 2019 20:59
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Grand Fromage posted:Please specify which of the four? Nambas you refer to because we sure won't on any signs! Namba (難しい）
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Nov 29, 2019 21:27
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I'm heading to Tokyo for 10 days in May, from the 12th to the 22nd, with a friend of mine. We're really interested in nice walks in parks (we're planning on going through the Todoroki ravine) and museums (we're also planning on spending a few days in Ueno park at the natural history museum/western art museum/zoo/etc). So does anyone have recommendations for other museums or nice parks/gardens? We're also looking for markets that might be interesting. I know the Tsukiji market is very busy and overpriced, but are there other ones that might be good? We are also thinking about taking a day trip out to Kawagoe. Mostly I'm just concerned with not being a rude tourist and keeping out of everyone's way. 
HellOnEarth fucked around with this message at 07:41 on Dec 1, 2019 |
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Dec 1, 2019 06:09
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Todoroki Ravine is in my neighborhood. We'd probably be willing to point you to some spots in the area.
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Dec 1, 2019 08:12
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I'm checking flights SFO - KIX for my parents to visit in Dec/Jan/Feb and drat, everything is like $2500 per person on ANA, Korean, China (Taiwan)... But Cathay Pacific has normal, great affordable fares. Do any goons have any other suggestions I might have overlooked?
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Dec 3, 2019 10:55
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Cathay Pacific was one of the best flights I've had, at least as good as ANA or JAL.
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Dec 3, 2019 11:28
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peanut posted:I'm checking flights SFO - KIX for my parents to visit in Dec/Jan/Feb and drat, everything is like $2500 per person on ANA, Korean, China (Taiwan)... But Cathay Pacific has normal, great affordable fares. Do any goons have any other suggestions I might have overlooked? Kinda guessing that people are just avoiding Cathy because they’re afraid of flights getting cancelled or transferring at HK, but it’s a great airline so take it imo.
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Dec 3, 2019 11:51
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use cathay
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Dec 3, 2019 12:47
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Officially back in the states for a week and still find myself in the Japan mindset. I had to force myself to cross against the light on an empty street last night. Then I was horrified that there were scattered pieces of paper towels on the floor of the bathroom at the bar I was at. Two weeks over there really reprogrammed my brain. Also, cold toilet seats suck. Now I’m just watching Abroad in Japan YouTube videos and planning a return trip...
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Dec 3, 2019 14:17
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