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peanut posted:Yes and there are so many Europeans around rn, fml I landed to Haneda on Saturday and they had dropped the Visit Japan QR code requirement, but my airline at least still insisted on you being vaxxed. There was bit queuing in immigration but it was still super fast and smooth compared to just about any other airport in the world. Never been to Japan before and I don’t really speak Japanese beyond few courtesies so I expected to be relying on Google Translate all the time and expected to be totally lost in places like Shinjuku station but it’s been smooth sailing so far. Signs and guidance is excellent and Apple or Google Maps tell you exactly where to go, I’ve had harder time navigating public transport back home
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May 3, 2023 13:56
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Stubb Dogg posted:Never been to Japan before and I don’t really speak Japanese beyond few courtesies so I expected to be relying on Google Translate all the time and expected to be totally lost in places like Shinjuku station but it’s been smooth sailing so far. Signs and guidance is excellent and Apple or Google Maps tell you exactly where to go, I’ve had harder time navigating public transport back home I visited Japan a few weeks ago and I had a similar experience. Japan has probably been one of the easiest countries I've been to, at least the major cities I've visited (and even Hakone). Clear illustrations and the staff having sheets ready to explain/ask you things made getting around and ordering food a breeze. The only mistake we made was purchasing the wrong Skyliner ticket from Narita to Tokyo (forgot to include the regular fare), but the staff at Nippori station immediately spotted us struggling at the gates and helped us out there.
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May 3, 2023 14:35
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So what’s up with that big new Kabukicho Tower? Anyone been?
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May 3, 2023 15:45
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The Tokyo Matrix VR thing looks dope. I'd love to try it out but I don't know if they'll have it available in English.
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May 3, 2023 22:51
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Vague question, but like... soooo what's the deal with history museums and museums in general? That is to say that it seems like tourism sites really don't emphasize museums as a compelling activity and that's a bit odd. If you google for things to do in towns, look at Japan-guide or other places that pop up in google searches there's an enormous emphasis on temples and gardens and shopping and things and it seems like relatively little emphasis on history museums. And while if you go out of your way to search for them there very clearly do exist the sort of huge museums around that one would expect to find, it remains very vague to me about 1) what is actually in the museums, ie. what topics they cover and 2) is it worth going?. It seems a little weird like going to big history museums feels significantly more promoted in other cities and countries I've been to but kind of feels like a real side show here. Would make sense if it's extremely not friendly to english speakers I suppose? Personally I know near nothing about Japan history and would be very interested to learn more, but it's not clear to me if the museums are english friendly, whether they're well done and worth going to, or even which museum to go to. Edit: I haven't seen many like blog posts or first hand impressions about going to these museums so they really feel like black boxes to me. Femtosecond fucked around with this message at 19:21 on May 4, 2023 |
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May 4, 2023 19:15
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My experience has been that a lot of the history stuff is tied to whatever local thing is there. e.g. if you go to Osaka castle, it's just a museum inside. But the museum is almost completely focused around Hideyoshi Toyotomi who was a very important figure around the turn of the 17th century. There's a great dinosaur museum in Fukui but that's because there's a big paleontological dig site nearby. There's a contemporary art museum in Kanazawa but I want to say a famous contemporary artist was from the area. Could be wrong. So the museums are there, but they're just smaller and more focused in topic.
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May 4, 2023 19:50
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You should visit the Cup Noodles museum.
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May 4, 2023 20:38
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What kind of museums were you looking at exactly? The big museums like Tokyo's National Museum or the Edo museum (currently closed for renovations) are well know and documented. Hiroshima's peace museum is listed as one of the top things to do in Hiroshima. Kure's main attraction is it's WWII Yamaoto battleship museum and is well advertised.
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May 4, 2023 23:20
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I guess my problem is that everything written about these museums feels like it was written by chat gpt or some content mill lol and I have zero sense of what they're actually like. I guess my problem is that google sucks and tourism blogs suck. like quote:Tokyo National Museum Uh huh sounds good. *clicks link* quote:The Tokyo National Museum was first established in 1972 at Yushima Seido Shrine. The museum was later moved to Ueno Park in Tokyo and is their current location. Its collection features the largest and best of art and archeological artifacts. There is over 110,000 items in the collection and almost a hundred national treasures can be found amongst the artifacts. In the permanent exhibits there can be about 4000 different items displayed at a time. English information as well as audio guides are available for use to visitors. Ok so my takeaway is lots of quantity of items but like, what is it about? Is it good? Should I go? The description of all these museums is so high level and so shallow, it's really hard to get a feel for whether I'd be interested in whatever it is they're showing at all. (This museum sounds really dull!) Maybe I am also reading too much into some subtext that like if everyone is going so out of their way to promote shrines and gardens and everything but museums, it's saying something about the museums. Femtosecond fucked around with this message at 23:41 on May 4, 2023 |
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May 4, 2023 23:36
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nielsm posted:You should visit the Cup Noodles museum. My friend lives in Yokohama, wants us to spend a day or two in her area, and I am lobbying heavily for us to do this. There will be a trip report if I can coerce her into it.
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May 4, 2023 23:45
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totalnewbie posted:
Man I'd totally go to this but looks like they're closed until mid july. Too bad!
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May 5, 2023 00:01
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I mean the national museum has a full blown English website and lays out which exhibitions they're currently running. I don't know why you're only relying on some random travel blog summary. https://www.tnm.jp/?lang=en
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May 5, 2023 00:04
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Zettace posted:The big museums like Tokyo's National Museum or the Edo museum (currently closed for renovations) are well know and documented. Hiroshima's peace museum is listed as one of the top things to do in Hiroshima. Kure's main attraction is it's WWII Yamaoto battleship museum and is well advertised. Giant Yamato battleship sounds super cool. I've been to the Hiroshima peace museum on a previous trip. Well worth a visit. I heard there was a war museum, the Yushukan Museum, but sounded a bit problematic and controversial? lol. Tbh I might be interested in that stuff but there's probably a lot more interesting things to see before that.
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May 5, 2023 00:08
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Unsure why you would waste time anywhere but the Meguro Parasitological Museum
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May 5, 2023 00:21
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Riptor posted:Unsure why you would waste time anywhere but the Meguro Parasitological Museum
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May 5, 2023 01:07
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Do you like vintage animal skeletons? Free and very close to Tokyo Station. Intermediatheque 03-5777-8600 https://maps.app.goo.gl/iXz1LGtngKrj3yXR6
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May 5, 2023 02:31
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Akratic Method posted:My friend lives in Yokohama, wants us to spend a day or two in her area, and I am lobbying heavily for us to do this. There will be a trip report if I can coerce her into it. It’s right near Minatomirai and the waterfront stuff, but you can spot who’s been through and made their custom cup because they’re worn like albatrosses by all the tourists. Partly I think the complaint is from bad blogs or Google becoming actively awful, but some of it is translation to English from Japanese context where either it’s more well explained and half that is cut, or it’s assumed you kinda get the idea because you know enough separately. Another one I’ve been to that’s cool is The Railway Museum which is near Omiya Station and was founded by JR, another I want to see is the Tokorozawa Aviaton Museum, and another cool one that might be out of the way is the Open-Air Folk House Museum in Kawasaki, where a number of old traditional homes have been brought together in one area and re-built.
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May 5, 2023 02:58
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Femtosecond posted:I guess my problem is that everything written about these museums feels like it was written by chat gpt or some content mill lol and I have zero sense of what they're actually like. That sounds like it was scraped and machine-translated from the museum's site. Japan has tons of fantastic museums but they are bad at promoting them in other languages. Even the official museum sites are often translated with Google Translate or DeepL. This is one example of a museum that's really good but the English translation of the website makes it sound boring as poo poo. Here's another one, this museum is amazing. My FIL was on one of these returnee ships as a baby and he told the museum guy where he was born and about when he came back and the guy was able to fill in a ton of background info for him that his family never told him. Anyway, the English page is garbage. I suggest reading Google reviews of places to get an idea of what they are like. Or the comedy option, Trip Advisor.
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May 5, 2023 03:03
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Having taken Japanese history, in Japanese, at a Japanese high school... the education system here obliterates any passing interest you may have had in the history of Japan or glorifying any historical figures. Your tests aren't asking you to explain what led to, for example, the Battle of Yamazaki. Instead you're asked to write the name of the retainer that offed Nobunaga, in Kanji. Then you're asked to write the name of who he later faced later in battle, in Kanji. Then write the name of the mountain at whose base the battle was fought... in Kanji. It's the same sort of rote memorization that you see with English education here. Most young people don't know much of what happened during the bubble era, let alone anything before that. The media aspect isn't really there either. It's just trivia variety TV, period over-dramatizations with laughably lovely acting, or very dry NHK documentaries. Never seen a Japanese equivalent of like, Today I Found Out.
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May 5, 2023 07:29
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My partner sets up exhibitions for museums, so last time we went to Japan we visited a ton of them out of professional interest. Most of it is very well done, but things like the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno won't blow your mind if you've been to anything similar. There are hardly any Japanese, let alone Asian, exhibitions where we are from, so those were a lot more impressive and Japan has a gazillion of them. This probably factored into how much we liked them. I love the Osaka Castle one. For 600 yen the Kaiyodo Figure Museum next door is also worth it. It's basically one guy showing off his miniature collection, but it is a very large collection, covering everything from religious statues to Ghibli things and the museum is way bigger than I thought it'd be. Last month I went to the Byōdō-in museum in Uji and that was awesome. I'm a sucker for old statues in poorly-lit glass displays like Todai-ji in Nara, but this one was inside a mountain which added a little something.
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May 5, 2023 08:08
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I've been to countless museums in Japan and my most favorite one was the Otsuka Museum of Art. It was created by Otsuka Pharmaceutical, the same company that makes Pocari Sweat, CalorieMate, SoyJoy etc. and is full of actual sized replicas of thousands of famous works of art. Very unique building, location, and experience - I would highly recommend it. https://qz.com/300922/japans-most-expensive-museum-is-full-of-fake-art
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May 5, 2023 12:42
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I have a Japanese friend who is a museum curator and he told me Japan prefers to spread its collections out so every little podunk nowhere can have a museum with some stuff in it. Which is nice for whoever's skimming construction funds in podunk nowhere, but leads to most museums having unimpressive collections rather than having some gigantic equivalent to like the Capitoline. Weird little museums don't have this problem which gives you the fun things like the parasite museum.
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May 5, 2023 14:06
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ToTo has their own toilet museum in Kitakyushu. It's small but enjoyable.
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May 5, 2023 14:25
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My wife and I are pretty big roller coaster enthusiasts and we're considering taking a day just for Fuji-Q. We only have 5 days in Tokyo so this is a pretty significant commitment. Can anyone speak to the quality of the rides there? The theming doesn't look great but we're more interested in how fun the coasters are.
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May 5, 2023 15:34
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Eejanaika at Fuji-Q holds the world record for twistiest coaster.
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May 5, 2023 16:07
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peanut posted:Do you like vintage animal skeletons?
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May 5, 2023 16:20
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peanut posted:Eejanaika at Fuji-Q holds the world record for twistiest coaster. Yeah that one looks great.
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May 5, 2023 19:51
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I’m two hours from wheels down and I’m going to enjoy the hell out of this vacation but god drat, 13 hours in the air is just awful if you’re someone who can’t sleep on a plane.
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May 6, 2023 04:58
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Kaddish posted:Can anyone speak to the quality of the rides there? The theming doesn't look great but we're more interested in how fun the coasters are. What peanut said, it’s the coaster spot, make your plans and get there early. Disney and Universal are more the theme, but it’s the place I’d point any actual roller coaster fans to over here.
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May 6, 2023 05:33
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QuasiQuack posted:ToTo has their own toilet museum in Kitakyushu. It's small but enjoyable. Did you sign the guestbook so to speak
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May 6, 2023 10:27
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AHH F/UGH posted:Did you sign the guestbook You could say I left my mark on the place 
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May 6, 2023 10:39
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some kinda jackal posted:I’m two hours from wheels down and I’m going to enjoy the hell out of this vacation but god drat, 13 hours in the air is just awful if you’re someone who can’t sleep on a plane. Have a great trip!
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May 6, 2023 10:55
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Hello, I'll be going on a 3 week Japan trip soon. My travel agent booked the following itinerary for me (all trips with public transport). Tokyo: 3 nights. First day I'll arrive in the afternoon and I'll make my way to my hotel and do a little explore. Second day I got an English-speaking guide who will take me places based on my interests. Kawaguchiko: 2 nights. Since it's outside of Mt Fuji climbing season I think I'll take a bus up to the "5th Station" and hike down into town from there instead. Matsumoto: 2 nights. It is strongly suggested by the travel agent to do a day trip for a walk through the Kiso valley. Takayama: 2 nights. Bus from Takayama to Kanazawa with a recommended stop in Shirakawago. Kanazawa: 2 nights. Kyoto: 3 nights. I think some kind of guided bicycle tour is included. They also suggest daytrips to Nara or Koyasan. Hiroshima: 2 nights Osaka: 1 night before flying back home. Either on the way from Kyoto to Hiroshima or on the way back to Osaka I'll hop out of the train to visit Himeji castle. My main question is: for the additional full day in Tokyo, the travel info suggests one of three option: stay in Tokyo, make a day trip to Nikko, or make a day trip to Kamakura. What would you all recommend? And basically, it's the same question for the other places. In any of the places I'll visit, any sights I really shouldn't miss? Good ideas to see some of the local culture, history, or ideas for nature hikes or long walks otherwise? Carbon dioxide fucked around with this message at 18:56 on May 6, 2023 |
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May 6, 2023 18:48
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Is your travel agent chat gpt, if it’s all just public transit why need a travel agent in the first place???
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May 6, 2023 20:05
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Travel agents still exist?
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May 6, 2023 20:19
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Much more convenient to book a package deal and have all the hotels and such handled for you than figuring out places to stay myself. I've planned trips all by myself as well but this time I wanted some convenience in that step.
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May 6, 2023 20:29
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Waltzing Along posted:Travel agents still exist? They're not as numerous as they once were but yes. Often they specialize to provide a useful service besides reservation management; for example we have one here on SA who specializes in theme parks (Disney etc) and in addition to getting the tickets, hotels, cruise stuff, etc fixed up she also offers advice on how the parks work and can suggest specific rides and shows.
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May 6, 2023 20:35
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Carbon dioxide posted:Hello, If you're going to do a day trip from kyoto, Nara is going to be a hell of a lot easier than Koyasan. Unless you want to spend most of the day on the train.
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May 6, 2023 20:39
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Our company uses a travel agent to book flights and I once had a flight that was all hosed up. It had me departing from an airport before I arrived but there was also weird poo poo going on. Have to admit, it was pretty easy firing off an email to the travel agency going, "Uhhh..." and then just getting a new itinerary instead of having to deal with the airlines, etc.
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May 6, 2023 20:40
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some kinda jackal posted:I’m two hours from wheels down and I’m going to enjoy the hell out of this vacation but god drat, 13 hours in the air is just awful if you’re someone who can’t sleep on a plane. High five fellow "can't sleep on planes" buddy. I got cursed for one of my seats for my upcoming trip to Japan (one of the long legs of course) to be in the middle so I'm hoping some combination of melatonin + booze + being tired already will create better conditions for passing out and not waking up as soon as my arm starts falling asleep. Kaddish posted:My wife and I are pretty big roller coaster enthusiasts and we're considering taking a day just for Fuji-Q. We only have 5 days in Tokyo so this is a pretty significant commitment. Can anyone speak to the quality of the rides there? The theming doesn't look great but we're more interested in how fun the coasters are. Hoping to try some of the coasters myself since I'm there for two days for a couple of concerts at the open air venue near the park! I'm not too much of a coaster person but figured since I'm there I'll suck it up and try some.
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