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peanut posted:That sounds really good! I could probably go 10/20-21. Message or email me. That’s awesome, I got new phones and all, My line ID is burgerburgerlover- No flights to shikoku directly yet
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Sep 30, 2022 07:21
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captkirk posted:Listen, it might be delicious but it's *not* cheesecake. Yes. It's sponge that smells like cheese. Let's not get it twisted. Very "we have cheesecake at home". Also has Costco increased prices? The pizza is up to 1750 yen and I heard the hot dog is 200 now too
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Sep 30, 2022 07:22
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Ham Equity posted:take the Shinkansen down to Kyoto, spend 8-10 days there, then fly back home ("home" is Seattle, if it matters). no snark. Quick fire answers stay near Tokyo station - closer ueno National museum, slightly better food selection, close to shimbashi, closer to the fish markets, and you can run around the imperial palace every morning, 5k. In Kyoto, expect to walk more, the city center is smallish and everywhere is fun to walk, not just the 3 main sites. They do have legit ryokans there but $$$. You guys seem like you can afford a bit more than the budget traveler. Nara can be done in a day trip. If you have time, definitely stop by himeji castle. Drainage system - I always wanted to go but seems like Japanese only because it’s far far out in the suburbs. Airlines- waaaay better than EVA. Japan #1 top dog any day. FINALLY TRAINS, no airport in Kyoto just Osaka airport. You are better off taking a train. If you have time, look into the hokuriku 7 day arch pass, slightly cheaper than the nation wide JR pass but takes you from Tokyo to Osaka and back. Looks into k look.com for train and mobile data deals
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Sep 30, 2022 07:34
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Sep 30, 2022 10:21
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What are you looking to get out of your stay in Tokyo? If you want somewhere you can go out at night and stumble back drunk to your hotel, Shibuya or Shinjuku are good choices. If you want something quiet at night but easy access to transport, around Tokyo or maybe Ueno are good options.
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Sep 30, 2022 20:58
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There is a garden in Nara that’s pretty close to the train station that I thought was stunning, I think it’s the Yoshikien Garden from a quick google, but it’s like something out of a movie. If you go to Nara it’s really worth visiting.
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Sep 30, 2022 21:01
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Wonton posted:Drainage system - I always wanted to go but seems like Japanese only because it’s far far out in the suburbs. uhh what That's a really weird definition of "for Japanese only". You know it wasn't built as a tourist attraction, right? They couldn't just stick it under the 109 building and call it a day.
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Sep 30, 2022 21:40
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Weatherman posted:uhh what I think they mean the tours are Japanese-language only because it's off the beaten path and not in a big touristy area.
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Sep 30, 2022 22:32
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Mons Hubris posted:There is a garden in Nara that’s pretty close to the train station that I thought was stunning, I think it’s the Yoshikien Garden from a quick google, but it’s like something out of a movie. If you go to Nara it’s really worth visiting. I like this place in Nara because you wander through the less touristed parts of the park (where the deer behave like deer rather than muggers) out the back into the suburbs and there's this random temple with a hall full of 1000 year-old statues that hardly anyone goes to. http://www.shinyakushiji.or.jp/
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Sep 30, 2022 23:14
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Ham Equity posted:I think they mean the tours are Japanese-language only because it's off the beaten path and not in a big touristy area. Ya this. The website is also written in Chinese and Korean. To allow your groups to book their own tour (but must be accompanied by a Japanese language guided tour) From Tokyo station, it’s an hour train ride out + 6 minute taxi. Definitely doable if planned ahead of time.
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Oct 1, 2022 05:20
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I've known about it for a long time but all this talk makes me actually want to go and do it next time I'm in Tokyo.
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Oct 1, 2022 08:28
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If you do the drainage system tour you can also go to The Railway Museum in Saitama on the same day.
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Oct 1, 2022 08:52
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peanut posted:We recently stayed here, it's on the Yamanote Line and Keisei Skyliner to Narita, but Nippori Station is small enough that the exits are very intuitive. Wonton posted:In Kyoto, expect to walk more, the city center is smallish and everywhere is fun to walk, not just the 3 main sites. They do have legit ryokans there but $$$. You guys seem like you can afford a bit more than the budget traveler. Nara can be done in a day trip. If you have time, definitely stop by himeji castle. You aren't the only one to mention Kyoto being small; I love historical poo poo, and that's why I wanted to make it a destination, but we're going to be there for quite awhile; would we be better off staying in Osaka and doing a couple of day trips to Kyoto? Maybe even do like 2-3 nights in Kyoto on the way to Osaka for another 4-5 nights instead of 8-9 nights in Kyoto. We can definitely afford to do some more expensive stuff, but as far as lodging goes, we're all pretty basic; I've always had the philosophy that I'm spending my time doing poo poo while I'm on vacation, not sitting around the hotel room, so as long as it's clean and comfortable to sleep in I'm good. The plan was to do regular Western-style hotel rooms for most of the trip, then try to find a nice (maybe a bit more upscale) ryokan in Nara to spend the night in, try out the whole tatami mat experience. quote:Drainage system - I always wanted to go but seems like Japanese only because it’s far far out in the suburbs. Busy Bee posted:If you do the drainage system tour you can also go to The Railway Museum in Saitama on the same day. This looks so loving cool, I'm gonna see if I can convince my Japanese-speaking friend to play translator for that one day. We'll buy him dinner after; the fact that we can do the train museum the same day makes it seem like a must-do. quote:Airlines- waaaay better than EVA. Japan #1 top dog any day. quote:FINALLY TRAINS, no airport in Kyoto just Osaka airport. You are better off taking a train. If you have time, look into the hokuriku 7 day arch pass, slightly cheaper than the nation wide JR pass but takes you from Tokyo to Osaka and back. Looks into k look.com for train and mobile data deals slinkimalinki posted:I like this place in Nara because you wander through the less touristed parts of the park (where the deer behave like deer rather than muggers) out the back into the suburbs and there's this random temple with a hall full of 1000 year-old statues that hardly anyone goes to. Thank you all for the help.
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Oct 1, 2022 09:19
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We stayed in Hostel Haruya Higashiyama in Kyoto and it was one of the most memorable places we stayed during a 6+ month trip. It was a tiny, creaky building inside a shopping street, with (heated) bathrooms outside on the courtyard, tatami rooms upstairs and delicious rice porridge in the morning.  Absolutely loved it. Hostelworld is cool if you're looking for weird small places to stay, they aren't all dormitories and/or party hostels.Edit. There was also a craft beer place next door!! Doll House Ghost fucked around with this message at 11:30 on Oct 1, 2022 |
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Oct 1, 2022 11:28
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Ham Equity posted:drat, they have a triple room here for wildly goddamn cheap. Is Agoda.com fine for booking (I have not ever planned an international trip where I needed a hotel)? Yes, we stayed in a triple: me, grandma, and two kids. It was comfy. Agoda is fine, so is booking.com, jalan, and yahoo japan travel.
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Oct 1, 2022 11:45
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For public transport I did the math for my trip in 2018 and decided not to bother with day passes of any kind, I just got an Icoca when I arrived in Osaka and kept topping it up for the rest of the trip. Super convenient, accepted in several cities, and you can use it for vending machines too.
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Oct 1, 2022 14:58
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Ham Equity posted:You aren't the only one to mention Kyoto being small; I love historical poo poo, and that's why I wanted to make it a destination, but we're going to be there for quite awhile; would we be better off staying in Osaka and doing a couple of day trips to Kyoto? Maybe even do like 2-3 nights in Kyoto on the way to Osaka for another 4-5 nights instead of 8-9 nights in Kyoto. There's also things like going to Fushimi for sake tours, Uji for green tea stuff, Arashiyama or even going to Nara for a day trip. Also it'll be overpriced, but dining at a restaurant overlooking the Kamogawa river in the evening can be quite nice followed by a bar in Pontocho. I'd say 4 or 5 nights should be sufficient before you're ready to move on, but bear in mind that's only because I'm used to the place. On the other hand Kyoto is basically bankrupt so you'll be doing everyone a favour by spending money there.
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Oct 1, 2022 16:43
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Charles 2 of Spain posted:A week in Kyoto is overkill in my opinion, unless you absolutely love historical stuff. The main places downtown like Kiyomizudera can be visited in a couple of days since buses service all of them regularly. You can probably get through 3-4 a day if you plan right. There's also some good hiking in Kyoto. Hiking up on the Daimonji mountain is fun, though you want to make sure you're not hiking down after sunset.
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Oct 1, 2022 17:18
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Yeah that's also a good shout, March would be great for it too.
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Oct 2, 2022 03:22
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Ham Equity posted:Is there a good pass for just, like, local rail inside Tokyo, or are we best off just paying the fares as we go? This is called the Tokyo Free Kippu, basically 1600 yen for unlimited metro, JR, and Toei buses in Tokyo for a day. Notably it doesn't cover them monorail to Haneda or any trains out to Narita. https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/en/pass/tokyo_free.html You'd need to ride quite a lot to make this worthwhile so unless you're planning on covering half the city in one day or something, I'd say just stick with Suica or Pasmo.
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Oct 2, 2022 03:51
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Ham Equity posted:drat, they have a triple room here for wildly goddamn cheap. Is Agoda.com fine for booking (I have not ever planned an international trip where I needed a hotel)? Kyoto and Osaka both have daily passes good for the metro lines and bus. Generally you'll break even if you use the metro three times on the pass and save money after that. In Tokyo you will often use the Yamanote line travelling in the city and it's not covered by the metro pass, so I don't think it's worth it. Definitely get an IC for when you don't have a pass so you don't need to buy paper tickets.
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Oct 2, 2022 05:50
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If you're going castling in Kansai don't sleep on Hikone Castle, which is one of the few with its original structure intact instead of a modern rebuild. And you can chill by Lake Biwa.
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Oct 2, 2022 06:00
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Don’t get the daily metropolitan subway passes. Do get the regional passes if you are on regional day trips. But Most of these passes are more for specific regions or people know kind of know their way around Japan. The regional ones include unlimited regional shinkansen rides and that’s where you get the most savings. If you travel to other regions, do get an international drivers permit and have the option to rent a car. People are super nice and roads are well maintained. I was in Tokyo during august a few years back and the weather was just too hot and unbearable. It was also a weekday and most goons were busy, so we ended up going up to Sendai and Aomori. It was also the Neputa and Nebuta festival which made the trip really memorable. We also drove up to osore san where JP trip advisor posted “really dangerous and windy roads” when everything was freaking paved and clean. Anyways, visit Japan multiple times! Not this trip but next autumn or spring I want to stop by izumo taisha because of YouTube recommendations and take the hokuriku arch pass and do the kurobe gorge walk and onsen stay.
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Oct 2, 2022 06:10
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Grand Fromage posted:If you're going castling in Kansai don't sleep on Hikone Castle, which is one of the few with its original structure intact instead of a modern rebuild. And you can chill by Lake Biwa. I had planned on meeting a friend and visiting Hikone while I was on a work trip once and it turns out there was a loving typhoon that weekend. Booooo. I think it's better to just stay in one place for Kyoto or Osaka, to be honest. Osaka if you want to go out at night, Kyoto if you want to really do stuff early before crowds or whatever.
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Oct 2, 2022 06:53
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I'm back from my trip. One week in Osaka with day trips to Nara and to Kobe, then down to Okayama. Plan was just to overnight there and visit Kurashiki/Korakuen garden before spending a few days staying and doing the art islands in a fancy hotel, but the Super Typhoon put paid to that. Ended up basically vaguely bunkering down in Okayama, squeezed in main highlights of Naoshima and a day tip to Himeji before everything closed down. Not a total loss because had time to go get some really nice jeans. Knock on effect was that schedule was a bit messed up so didn't have time to make the most of proposed route down to Kochi, at least not without constantly packing/unpacking which is no fun, so stayed in Takamatsu and did Kotohira and Yashima/Shikoku Mura. Then final week I was 'working' with an 8 hour time difference in Tokyo, and most free time was shopping/eating/drinking - and a trip for some sumo - because I couldn't really take the whole day off for trips. Overall, I'm really grateful I had an opportunity to visit before the vast numbers returned. Final week in Tokyo, you could see things were beginning to pick up tourist-wise more and more. Felt like kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity in a lot of respects. I spent a couple of months in Japan in 2019, a month of which was at Kyoto Uni in August (hell weather), and the headline temples really are astonishingly beautiful but nonetheless very marred in my view by visitor numbers. I climbed Fushimi Inari at 6am back then and it was just about peaceful and you were able to take some nice photos and poke around with not many others. Way back down it was just queues of people taking selfies one by one in the torii tunnels as far as the eye could see. Similar story in Arashiyama, either you get there at sunrise or it's a zoo (in peak season, at least). It put me off going to Nara because it's such a popular destination. Random bits: - Since I'm seeing some talk on shinkansen/flying, if you aren't getting a JR pass, flying from Haneda to Osaka is actually a lot cheaper than even the cheapest shinkansen option. I used the JAL Explorer Pass (I don't think it shows up on normal flight aggregators?) and it was about 50% of the cost of a shinkansen ticket and not vastly different timewise, even accounting for transfers. - In Osaka, Nara was fantastic and a lot of fun as a trip. I rated Osaka Aquarium. I actually got a lot of value from Osaka Amazing Pass due not to free metro per se, but free entry to museums/galleries. The weirdest thing I did was go to the Suminoe Speed Boat racing/gambling thing. A bit of a struggle if you speak no Japanese I imagine, but it was a very fun, off the beaten track experience. You basically get unlimited free drinks and a seat if you have the pass. - Naoshima main galleries were great, although Lee Ufan Museum was almost a scam. Wish I had had more time and better weather to chill and cycle around but that's the way it goes. - Really rated Takamatsu as a place. Honestly had a pretty vibrant central district of izakaya/udon joints. Kotohira was good and the Kabuki theatre there was also really cool. Also came with free old man tour, although only in Japanese. Shikoku Mura was the surprise standout of the whole trip. I think parts were renovated this year for the Setouch Triennale? Place was dead empty, literally had the place to ourselves for like 3+ hours. Insanely good bakery down the road too. e: not sure on picture policy, but I threw some snaps on imgur https://imgur.com/a/hHouWPz Jeza fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Oct 2, 2022 |
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Oct 2, 2022 11:14
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zmcnulty posted:This is called the Tokyo Free Kippu, basically 1600 yen for unlimited metro, JR, and Toei buses in Tokyo for a day. Notably it doesn't cover them monorail to Haneda or any trains out to Narita. This looks good for collecting stamps at all the JR stations https://tabiyomi.yomiuri-ryokou.co.jp/article/000580.html
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Oct 2, 2022 12:44
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If you can snag your Japanese translating friend’s time, take them to the railway museum too. They have some cool train simulators that are JP only, but looked hella fun when I last went.
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Oct 2, 2022 14:19
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Does anything look overly weird/impractical with this rough sketch of a schedule for going at the end of October and early November?
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Oct 2, 2022 14:20
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That looks good. Shikoku festivals are ｈａｐｐｅｎｉｎｇ in mid-October! There's basically something everyday from Oct 13th to Oct 21st. I'll type up a multicity schedule soon.
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Oct 2, 2022 14:32
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Shibuya Halloween is going to lead to the country being shut down again hopefully.
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Oct 2, 2022 14:39
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Thanks, Peanut! I was hoping to squeeze Fuji-Q Highland in there somewhere but I don't think I have enough time for it without things getting too busy.
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Oct 2, 2022 17:10
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Mister Chief posted:Shibuya Halloween is going to lead to the country being shut down again hopefully. Shibuya Halloween is just gonna be a whole heap of lost people wandering around the train station wondering what the gently caress JR is up to. (Meaning the pretty odd construction zones between the keo and JR sections.)
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Oct 3, 2022 01:36
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Wibbleman posted:Shibuya Halloween is just gonna be a whole heap of lost people wandering around the train station wondering what the gently caress JR is up to. It is a hell of a lot better than it was before covid for those who have not been here. I have literally been lost every single time I have gone to Shinjuku station however.
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Oct 3, 2022 03:17
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i always think those stations would be better if you could see outside if them more so you can see where you are in relation to outside. otherwise you are just supposed to know the number of your exit
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Oct 3, 2022 05:10
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Shibawanko posted:i always think those stations would be better if you could see outside if them more so you can see where you are in relation to outside. otherwise you are just supposed to know the number of your exit This is always what I do at Shinjuku, just get to daylight and walk around. Mister Chief posted:Shibuya Halloween is going to lead to the country being shut down again hopefully. oh yeah they'll get a photo of like three drunk Eikaiwa teachers who live out in Saitama and use that as a reason to shut the gates again.
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Oct 3, 2022 08:15
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Mister Chief posted:It is a hell of a lot better than it was before covid for those who have not been here. Shinjuku still isn't finished. And I was here 4 years ago. The odakyu at the west gate being shut/renovating makes that side a lot more complicated to get where you want. Keo seems to have not hosed up their section though.
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Oct 4, 2022 05:06
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No liquid restrictions on domestic flights within Japan, right? For example nothing over 100 ml and must fit all in a small Ziploc bag.
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Oct 4, 2022 11:08
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Wibbleman posted:Shinjuku still isn't finished. And I was here 4 years ago. I was here in college in 2007 and the Shiodome intersection was under construction. Still is today.
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Oct 4, 2022 11:17
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Busy Bee posted:No liquid restrictions on domestic flights within Japan, right? For example nothing over 100 ml and must fit all in a small Ziploc bag. you can basically walk through the gate while eating cold okonomiyaki from a plastic tray and drinking a beer
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Oct 5, 2022 04:10
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Anyone have a Yakiniku or a Wagyu restaurant recommendation for Tokyo? I tried Shima Wagyu Mafia (need membership now, cant join RIP) Ginza Steak (vaguely remember, did I go?) Haven't been to Rokkasen in years, I'm kind of out of the loop. Thanks guys
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Oct 5, 2022 09:42
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