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Coxswain Balls posted:When I stopped in Matsuyama I looked up nearby sento and the closest one had just a ton of one star reviews complaining about Yakuza. Someone in the common area of my building also asked if I wasn't scared of Yakuza when I said that's where I was going. I was expecting it to be like you described with people overreacting to a bathhouse that doesn't care about foreigners with tattoos, but when I got into the bath there were a bunch of dudes in there with the full body tattoos with dragons and demons and poo poo, badass as hell. Lol that owns. Where was it? I'm making a list of tattoo friendly sento for my next trip
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Mar 30, 2023 04:26
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field balm posted:Lol that owns. Where was it? I'm making a list of tattoo friendly sento for my next trip https://kotobukionsen.hp.gogo.jp/sp/ That was the place in Matsuyama. When I was in Kyoto I went to this sento that apparently is fine with tattoos, but it's more because of all the foreign tourists, not that it's an actual Yakuza hangout like the other one. https://1010.kyoto/spot/umeyu1/?lang=en
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Mar 30, 2023 04:44
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Ham Equity posted:This is insanity, and I would not travel with these people. That goes triple if this includes children. Seriously. This would be a time to send a message to the group “I’ve been advised to try and book hotels early, so I’ll do it on Friday, you have until then to jump on otherwise you’re on your own.” Make sure you’re taken care of, and if they’re too go-with-the-flow then let them enjoy the repercussions without you getting dragged down. I can be pretty relaxed and laid back about travel but the accommodations and flights should not be messed up or last minute.
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Mar 30, 2023 07:00
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Sounds like a great way to get guilted into letting people sleep on the floor of your room.
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Mar 30, 2023 07:15
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Gabriel Grub posted:Sounds like a great way to get guilted into letting people sleep on the floor of your room.
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Mar 30, 2023 07:19
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I feel that many of the hotels in Japan would not be flexible in allowing people to sleep on the floor or even having more than the original number of guests in the booking in the room.
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Mar 30, 2023 14:32
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Nope but it happens, need to be discrete
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Mar 30, 2023 16:10
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8-10 is already a difficult number of ppl to plan, whether it be domestic or international travel. Honestly if it were something like this I'd more or less be like (1) Individually plan flights, with one main group that will be done with flights by X day (2) Individually plan lodging, with one main group that we will be able to book for on X/Y days (3) Free time for others to do w/e they want on many days. I will be doing X and anybody who wants to can follow me. And this is as somebody who has been to Japan like 15-20 times. IMHO 4 is a very nice sweet spot for friend travel, esp for Japan.
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Mar 30, 2023 18:43
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Holy shitsnacks, do not pick up your JR Pass in Shinjuku. The line is crazy long and there are only two people to cover it. They only open up 10-5. Oh my God this sucks.
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Mar 31, 2023 02:47
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Wonton posted:Nope but it happens, need to be discrete I somehow doubt the “go with the flow” travelers would be able to pull that one off. Too much rolling clown car potential to be subtle.
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Mar 31, 2023 02:53
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Hot take: Shikoku > Tokyo  Haven’t been posting much because I’m having too much fun Being On Vacation but I assure you this has been pretty fuckin dope. MJP posted:Holy shitsnacks, do not pick up your JR Pass in Shinjuku. The line is crazy long and there are only two people to cover it. They only open up 10-5. Oh my God this sucks. w
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Mar 31, 2023 02:57
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Anyway yeah before anyone goes I would highly recommend watching a video primer on how public transportation and train transfers work, including the different JR companies and limited express trains like Haruka. Don’t be like me and think you remember everything and then touch down and realize you forgot.
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Mar 31, 2023 03:12
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My favorite public transportation thing is that all the train companies will have clear signage to each of their lines, except JR which will just have signs saying "JR Lines  " as if that means anything to someone who doesn't already know where they're going.
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Mar 31, 2023 03:25
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MJP posted:Holy shitsnacks, do not pick up your JR Pass in Shinjuku. The line is crazy long and there are only two people to cover it. They only open up 10-5. Oh my God this sucks. Timing. The one time I picked mine up there I walked right up to the counter.
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Mar 31, 2023 03:25
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Pollyanna posted:Hot take:
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Mar 31, 2023 03:41
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I usually just grab mine at the airport.
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Mar 31, 2023 04:46
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It used to be there were only a handful of exchange places, but almost any major station with a JR East, Tokai, or Central travel office should be able to handle it these days. Might be worthwhile avoiding the world's busiest train station. There's always someone who needs to dig for their passport or wants to make seat reservations for their entire trip. https://japanrailpass.net/en/exchange.html
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Mar 31, 2023 05:28
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Waltzing Along posted:Timing. The one time I picked mine up there I walked right up to the counter. Very true. We arrived 10:30, they opened at 10, and I bet a ton of people came right from the airport. A lot of the delay was people asking questions which could have easily been found online. Plus the staff simply wasn't familiar with the online orders direct from japanrailpass.net - they took a few minutes through the reservation confirmation email before just giving up and looking up the res number that I had pointed out to them a few times. Also online seat reservations do not give you actual tickets or claim codes, but nobody actually checked other than the fare gates. I think they REALLY want you to just get a regular old exchange order and make reservations through the ticket machines.
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Mar 31, 2023 08:04
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MJP posted:Very true. We arrived 10:30, they opened at 10, and I bet a ton of people came right from the airport. A lot of the delay was people asking questions which could have easily been found online. Plus the staff simply wasn't familiar with the online orders direct from japanrailpass.net - they took a few minutes through the reservation confirmation email before just giving up and looking up the res number that I had pointed out to them a few times. Online reservations absolutely get you real tickets, you pick them up through one of the machines. Having said that we didn't get ours checked once on the 6 reservations we had on our trip lol.
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Mar 31, 2023 11:07
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field balm posted:Online reservations absolutely get you real tickets, you pick them up through one of the machines. Having said that we didn't get ours checked once on the 6 reservations we had on our trip lol. How'd you do it? I went through the menus and it asked me for a reservation number. I didn't have one in the reservation confirmation email. The number of the JR pass didn't work either. No biggie, we got our way to the ryokan and got physical tickets for the next leg, and thereafter it's Osaka back to Tokyo. I just felt so confused trying to find some kind of unique identifier to give 'em.
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Mar 31, 2023 12:16
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Honestly I had the same issue (wouldn't accept any of the numbers) but there was some sort of option to read the qr code on your jr pass and that seemed to work everywhere. I can't really remember anymore details than that sorry! But, like you said, if you're sitting on a reserved carriage in a reserved seat that's probably enough for inspectors not to ask to see a ticket. I'm sure you could get by just showing them your online booking if it came down to it.
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Mar 31, 2023 13:02
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The conductors know which seats are supposed to be occupied. If you sit in a seat that is supposed to be open they will likely ask to see a ticket.
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Mar 31, 2023 13:11
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Yeah that little PDA thing they're carrying shows the seat map. Onomichi is cool.
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Mar 31, 2023 14:44
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So our rough plan for our trip at this stage is to check into an airport hotel in Haneda (our flight gets into Japan at 8pm) and sleep, then the next morning take an early flight to Okayama and explore there for a few days, then train it back to Tokyo, stopping at Osaka and Kyoto for a couple of days each along the way. Then train to Tokyo and spend a week and a half there before flying home. I've done some research online on pricing and it seems like it's a lot cheaper to fly from Haneda to Okayama than it is to train, is this correct? Or is there some kind of multi use ticket that I'm unaware of that I should be looking at? We're a family of 3 travelling together.
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Mar 31, 2023 22:05
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If you're doing all the travelling within 1 week you will be well served with a jr pass, might not be worth it if it's over 2 weeks. I think you need 4 shinkansen trips to make the 2 week pass break even but check it out anyway. https://japanrailpass.net/en/
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Mar 31, 2023 22:57
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dad called onomichi a run down piece of poo poo 
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Mar 31, 2023 23:35
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Pot meet kettle
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Mar 31, 2023 23:58
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Pollyanna posted:dad called onomichi a run down piece of poo poo
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Apr 1, 2023 00:24
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Pollyanna posted:dad called onomichi a run down piece of poo poo 
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Apr 1, 2023 00:43
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Pollyanna posted:dad called onomichi a run down piece of poo poo lmao
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Apr 1, 2023 00:46
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bee posted:I've done some research online on pricing and it seems like it's a lot cheaper to fly from Haneda to Okayama than it is to train, is this correct? Or is there some kind of multi use ticket that I'm unaware of that I should be looking at? We're a family of 3 travelling together. Yeah, domestic flights can be quite cheap. Trains are the same price all the time. Not sure how it compares to JR pass as I've never used one. With the time frame you're looking at, sounds like a domestic flight would save you some time, since you're already at the airport. `
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Apr 1, 2023 00:48
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Pollyanna posted:dad called onomichi a run down piece of poo poo Lol. Can't wait to hear what he thinks of Shodoshima.
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Apr 1, 2023 00:51
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field balm posted:If you're doing all the travelling within 1 week you will be well served with a jr pass, might not be worth it if it's over 2 weeks. I think you need 4 shinkansen trips to make the 2 week pass break even but check it out anyway. We're there for a little over three weeks. Looking something like: 28/12 - Haneda, sleep the night at airport hotel 29/12 - early morning flight to Okayama 2/1 Train to Osaka 6/1 Train to Kyoto 10/1 Train to Tokyo 18/1 fly home Does anyone have any suggestions for cool stuff that would be worth checking out in Osaka/Kyoto or thoughts on the amount of time we're spending in each city? Neither of us are interested in visiting breweries or doing snow sports. We'll be travelling with a theme park and pokemon obsessed tween so want to check out Disneyland, DisneySea, Universal studios. I like seeing art, botanical gardens, parks, temples, cute animals, and a little shopping. Mr bee likes technology, trains, baseball, and stuff to do with food.
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Apr 1, 2023 01:29
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OH poo poo IT’S NEW YEARS. Ummm hope you have a license to rent a car or book restaurants or whatever, good choice getting out of Tokyo If it’s over 3 weeks with a tween, and you like art islands and stuff, I would look into the 2 week train pass. Right now going to Tokyo to Okayama is already good enough for 7 day round trip, But with 14 days you can go a little further out to Hiroshima and Shikoku without much fuss and go back to Tokyo. You save a night of hotel in haneda and half a day of time. HND is painless but a shink train pass is even better, Okayama is still not that far compared to Fukuoka or Sapporo
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Apr 1, 2023 01:55
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I'm ok with the first night in Tokyo - we're flying from Australia and by the time our plane lands in Tokyo it's going to be late, we're going to be tired, and not wanting to spend another couple of hours on a train or flight to somewhere else. Mr bee and I both have driving licences, why would you need this to book a restaurant? Do you need to rent a car to get around Okayama?
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Apr 1, 2023 02:16
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bee posted:I'm ok with the first night in Tokyo - we're flying from Australia and by the time our plane lands in Tokyo it's going to be late, we're going to be tired, and not wanting to spend another couple of hours on a train or flight to somewhere else.
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Apr 1, 2023 02:37
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If you're staying in Okayama or just like going to Kurashiki for the day, you don't need a car. It never even occurred to me when I was there. If you want to go somewhere more off the beaten path you probably would want one.
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Apr 1, 2023 02:52
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bee posted:We're there for a little over three weeks. Looking something like: Go to Minoo falls. It's not a tourist spot and is pretty cool.
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Apr 1, 2023 03:12
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I'm headed to Yakushima and I completely hosed up hiring a car. Turns out it's spring break and everything with wheels is currently booked right out. Anyone got any experience travelling around the island on public transport? Edit: managed to snag a car after all. Would recommend booking months in advance to save yourself a lot of the stress I went through if you ever decide to come to Yakushima The Neal! fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Apr 1, 2023 |
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Apr 1, 2023 04:22
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Oh man Senkyoro was awesome for a first time ryokan experience but dang if it wasn't fully Showa era. Lots of slapdash wiring and ducting when they installed heaters and other electrical. Old tile, fixtures, and wallpapers. The food was absolutely nuts and the staff was nice but I think I should have held out and spent more Amex fun bucks at Madoka-no-Mori. Also, private baths are useless if your narrow ikokujin rear end can't stand the heat. 140ish Fahrenheit. Couldn't even get a toe in and nope'd all the way to the regular outdoor bath. Which, by the way, was wonderful. Goons may want to stick to Hakone ryokans easier to access unless you are OK with placing your itinerary in the hands of a local bus. We missed our original shinkansen because slow mountain roads, but no biggie - the next train is almost always 30 minutes out. Way easier direct access via the Odakyu Romancecar if you need to delay starting your JR Pass.
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Apr 1, 2023 05:46
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