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nielsm posted:Week trip to Tokyo booked, arriving on Nov 5, leaving on Nov 12. Have you set up you mysos app yet?
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Oct 20, 2022 17:54
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peanut posted:Once I had to stand in the smoking car of a completely full shinkansen for 90 min Lol same. RIP smoking cars, you are not missed.
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Oct 20, 2022 21:05
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Wife and i are finally starting to plan our honeymoon to japan, just want to make sure we're not overlooking anything on the (broad) details: The idea is to spend ~a week in Tokyo, doing a variety of things, probably a couple nights in Kyoto, then a week or so in Osaka, before finishing things up in Tokyo and flying back. We were planning on leaving either on the last week of march or the first week of april, and staying for 4 weeks (plus or minus however many days make flights cheaper) so we can head home before Golden Week starts. I know things will be busy with cherry blossom season (which is part of why we're going) so do we need to worry about booking far in advance for hotels/whatever?
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Oct 20, 2022 22:47
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I think prices will start going up with tourism being fair game again, so hotels etc will probably be cheaper the sooner you book them but other than that not really
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Oct 21, 2022 01:46
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I would always book hotels in advance unless you're intending to wander at random. If you know where you're going there's no reason to leave it to chance and get hosed over at the last minute. And yeah hotels right now are uh, absurdly cheap. I'm going to book mine soon for a similar timeframe. Bonus is that as long as the bookings are refundable, if they're even cheaper in a few months you can just cancel and rebook something else. If they go up, you already got in.
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Oct 21, 2022 01:51
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Another good reason to book a hotel in advance is so you can ask the concierge to help you get reservations if there are any restaurants you particularly want to visit, because sometimes that’s the only way.
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Oct 21, 2022 01:55
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Yeah I just looked at hotel rates again and, man, it's time to book for May. I think this will be my first fully hotel trip. I've done AirBnBs every other trip to JP but the price gap is negligible right now for my budget, and I'm perfectly fine not staying in some quiet neighbourhood every night. Only thing I am wondering now is how I strategize payment. There's a ton of "book now pay at hotel", but I'm not sure how that works with CAD->JPY. I would absolutely rather pay in CAD now while it's above par, than at the hotel when it's a gamble. All the prices are shown in CAD but presuming that the hotel would charge in JPY on top of whatever forex VISA wants to put through, so this is probably a no brainer too. Assuming I just go with hotels that are fully refundable, I'm going to just shell out the chunk of cash for 24 days of hotel next month, probably. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Oct 21, 2022 |
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Oct 21, 2022 11:30
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Definitely book now pay later with free cancellation. Or at least rebook at a later time. Only go all the way when you have secured airfare or other tickets/events/planned ahead of time. If you are 1000% you have time free like being a teacher or whatever reason, then yeah book everything upfront (but do get travel insurance to hedge against uncertain)
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Oct 21, 2022 12:11
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Yeah, I booked the hotels last week and paid in full (or booked with hotel points) with the thought that the prices were so low and they may go back up if the exchange rates get better for the yen. With that in mind - I’m reading that Japan is more of a cash based society, but it could be that I’m reading old info. We’re not huge shoppers, but I assume that’s for the smaller shops and markets, and that larger places/local tour providers/Shinkansen tickets/etc would accept credit cards. Would that be correct? What is an appropriate amount of yen to carry around?
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Oct 21, 2022 12:44
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Credit card is ok for bigger purchases like big restaurant tabs or trains. Many retail and clothing shops and department stores also accept credit cards or contactless. I think 5/10k a day on top is a safe safe buffer. And of course it depends. Or have your debit card that can direct withdraw pre converted forex without fee from your forex account anywhere in the world - check bank
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Oct 21, 2022 12:48
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This was a few years ago, but the only places I used my credit card were hotels and two fancier restaurants. I couldn't get my credit or debit card to work in the train ticket machine. The suica machines were good for breaking big bills though, you can load 2k on your card and put a 10k bill in and get 8 1k bills back.
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Oct 21, 2022 13:28
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Cacafuego posted:Yeah, I booked the hotels last week and paid in full (or booked with hotel points) with the thought that the prices were so low and they may go back up if the exchange rates get better for the yen. covid caused a sea change for w/e reason and most places take cards now. you should install the suica app on your phone and an epayment app, paypay is the most common. 20k yen in cash is a good baseline to carry around just in case.
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Oct 21, 2022 14:02
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If you have an iPhone (even a non-Japan model) I believe you can add a Suica card, and use your phone to go through the train gates. The important part is you should be able to top it up with an American card from your iPhone wallet. I haven’t gotten into the likes of PayPay but if you have credit or debit cards that pay by touch I’ve used that a fair bit at the grocery stores and such. Credit cards accepted most places, if your debit card is Visa/MC and chipped you should be good to go.
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Oct 21, 2022 14:25
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paypay is a good add because a lot of places that don't want to pay credit card fees have set up a qrcode payment thing since they were loss leading getting their poo poo out there
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Oct 21, 2022 14:40
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^^^All good suggestions, thanks! I’ll add paypay and see if I can add a Suica app to my iPhone. Those would make it easier to pay and get around for sure. Perhaps another dumb question, but if I’m able to take advantage of the exchange rate now and buy yen here in the US to bring with us, is there a max amount they let you bring in?
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Oct 21, 2022 15:12
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Cacafuego posted:^^^All good suggestions, thanks! I’ll add paypay and see if I can add a Suica app to my iPhone. Those would make it easier to pay and get around for sure. just do it at the airport, or better still at atm machines in japan
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Oct 21, 2022 15:16
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You're supposed to declare if you have over a million yen cash. Could just hide it though.
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Oct 21, 2022 15:17
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There was that goon a few years ago who didn't bring any cash and didn't tell his bank he was going abroad so he had no access to cash until Monday and he arrived on a Saturday. I would bring at least a little with you or change a little at the airport so that you don't have to rely on the charity of random goons if things don't go according to plan.
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Oct 21, 2022 16:00
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paying in cash is part of the authentic japanese holiday experience
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Oct 21, 2022 16:27
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I have a friend who is a dumbass and acts like he is allergic to money, will not carry cash with him for any reason ever. He has ended up stuck in other countries without any money and his card not working multiple times and has never learned to just bring some loving cash in case. Don't be like him.
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Oct 21, 2022 16:30
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Part of the fun of japan is being cashlord. World is a gently caress, pay em all, 410,757,864,530 10 yen coins
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Oct 21, 2022 16:43
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No Mods No Masters posted:Part of the fun of japan is being cashlord. World is a gently caress, pay em all, 410,757,864,530 10 yen coins 
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Oct 21, 2022 18:47
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I had no problem loading my Suica onto my iPhone and reloading it with the cards set up on ApplePay, and it was amazing. I didn't use a ton of cast, but even then I still took out a fair amount at a few ATMs along the way. My first experience with ATMs was that it was really hit or miss whether they would work with my card, despite the international networks. First time I tried to hit a few convenience stores with no luck, and eventually got cash at a post office ATM. Or maybe vice versa, I don't remember. On the hotel booking, my flights and rough itineraries are already booked and planned so I think just paying now is fine.
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Oct 21, 2022 19:29
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Does anyone have favorite record stores to recommend, whether in Tokyo, Osaka or Sapporo? Mostly looking to see if I can find metal albums from Light Bringer or Galneryus, jazz fusion albums from Casiopea or maybe Japanese releases of western 80s/90s rock/metal for the bonus tracks 
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Oct 21, 2022 21:26
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Bofast posted:Does anyone have favorite record stores to recommend, whether in Tokyo, Osaka or Sapporo? As far as chains go I always check out disk union, the shinjuku one is huge and I scored a load of punk/hardcore 7 inches I've never seen in stores before. Even in smaller stores I could never find any of the fusion, city pop or environmental music stuff I was interested in, I'm guessing youtube has driven the price up for online sales.
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Oct 22, 2022 03:14
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Bofast posted:Does anyone have favorite record stores to recommend, whether in Tokyo, Osaka or Sapporo? Can't really go wrong with Disk Union and Tower Records.
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Oct 22, 2022 05:29
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LyonsLions posted:There was that goon a few years ago who didn't bring any cash and didn't tell his bank he was going abroad so he had no access to cash until Monday and he arrived on a Saturday. I would bring at least a little with you or change a little at the airport so that you don't have to rely on the charity of random goons if things don't go according to plan. This might be the fault of the travel book they read, I know the one I did was like "just pick your money up at an ATM machine." I was scared shitless when the first one I tried to pull from didn't work even though it had an international sign. But I just tried another machine and it was fine, luckily. I guess Wells Fargo just didn't support the first one.
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Oct 22, 2022 05:46
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7-11 and Japan Post office ATMs are what you want for international cash cards.
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Oct 22, 2022 08:52
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Our flight from a certain non-SFO Bay Area airport to Osaka via Honolulu on Hawaiian was slow drip cancelled (delayed an hour, delayed another hour, oops not gonna happen uhhhh the crew uhhhhhhhhhhh called in sick or something and now it's too late to make your connection lmao). I had to book a $3000 replacement flight for us on my phone and run to a waiting taxi, tell him to BOOK IT to SFO, then sprint to the check in table to barely get in under the gun. Best our lovely Hawaiian Airlines clerks were willing to do was some sort of insane 36 hour layover in Guam that would have cost us two full days. Honeymoon off to a great start.
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Oct 23, 2022 19:41
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I've flown Hawaiian once and it was awful. I feel for you. Congrats on getting married!
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Oct 23, 2022 20:38
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Waltzing Along posted:I've flown Hawaiian once and it was awful. I feel for you. TY We made it somehow, holy poo poo
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Oct 24, 2022 10:01
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Bofast posted:Does anyone have favorite record stores to recommend, whether in Tokyo, Osaka or Sapporo? One of the Disc Unions in Shinjuku is specialized in metal, has a decent collection of western records for sale both obscure and well known.
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Oct 24, 2022 14:46
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field balm posted:As far as chains go I always check out disk union, the shinjuku one is huge and I scored a load of punk/hardcore 7 inches I've never seen in stores before. Even in smaller stores I could never find any of the fusion, city pop or environmental music stuff I was interested in, I'm guessing youtube has driven the price up for online sales. Gabriel Grub posted:Can't really go wrong with Disk Union and Tower Records. Archer666 posted:One of the Disc Unions in Shinjuku is specialized in metal, has a decent collection of western records for sale both obscure and well known. Thanks, fellows 
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Oct 24, 2022 15:56
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Are there any companies that caters to foreigners or even Japanese residents looking for a short term furnished all inclusive apartment rental of a month or two? Airbnb is an easy and convenient option but wondering if there are any other suggestions.
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Oct 24, 2022 23:42
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LeoPalace
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Oct 25, 2022 00:59
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Yes, there're plenty of short-term rental companies advertising on Google of... varying reputation (see ^) and you can get anything from a bunk in a sharehouse to a private apartment. The cheaper places are often wooden with paper-thin walls so if noise is an issue make sure to check the building type. Some hotels also offer residential services; I spent some time at the Ascott Marunouchi and it was nice.
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Oct 25, 2022 02:40
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God I love the trains in Japan
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Oct 25, 2022 04:04
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Short-term rentals are often called "monthly mansion". Many allow foreigners, but that probably does not include people on a tourist visa. https://www.weekly-monthly.net https://www.monthly-mansion.com/sp/ https://www.good-monthly.com/sp/
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Oct 25, 2022 05:55
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I like traim
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Oct 25, 2022 07:49
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Gabriel Grub posted:I like traim Many are saying
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Oct 25, 2022 08:44
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