|
I am a bit biased but shimane and tottori have been fun to hang out in. Buy some high quality yet cheap knives at Wakou, visit the coolest blacksmith, stunt on grandmas as you monster walk past them down the dunes, izumo taisha, Mt Daisen, the cute pink electric shimaneko train and every day looking like a Ghibli movie. It’s not overrun with western tourists and you will be on Google translate a lot, but people here are happy to see you and very welcoming to their out of the way spots. cheese eats mouse fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Sep 29, 2023 |
# ? Sep 29, 2023 14:34 |
|
|
# ? Jun 6, 2024 19:53 |
|
Revitalized posted:woooah I totally forgot about this. I just played that and loved it. Might be some fun padding to time in Tokyo. Too bad the popup shop will be gone by the time I go. Last time I went I ran into a Siren popup shop by accident.
|
# ? Sep 29, 2023 20:51 |
|
I got a 7 day JR pass from Klook because my passport has been all hosed up and I won't have it in hand until maybe the day before I leave. Is there no way to reserve seats online unless you bought directly from JR? Or do I just go to a ticket office when we arrive and make them there?
|
# ? Sep 30, 2023 00:06 |
|
Just walk through the gate and ride, baby. You can also reserve at the ticket window in advance. Going from Tokyo to Kyoto tomorrow? Get tickets at a smaller JR station like Meguro and skip the long line at Tokyo station.
|
# ? Sep 30, 2023 03:17 |
|
Also you rarely need reserved seats unless you want to guarantee you sit together and have more than 2 people.
|
# ? Sep 30, 2023 03:23 |
|
Aredna posted:Also you rarely need reserved seats unless you want to guarantee you sit together and have more than 2 people. We have green car passes and those are more limited right? We're going to have large luggage and I'm a tall dude so I wanted to be more comfortable.
|
# ? Sep 30, 2023 07:54 |
|
Unless you're absurdly comedy tall there will be plenty of room on the shinkansen. If you have luggage they'll put you in one of the luggage seats. Though if you're just going to one other place and not switching hotels daily you should just takyubin the luggage instead.
|
# ? Sep 30, 2023 08:06 |
|
Researching a bit on Tokyo hotels and all, does anyone have suggestions or preferences on which section of Tokyo might be best to stay in on a budget? Like..is Shibuya best? Asakusa? I've run into lots of random travel blogs so I guess just gauging opinions where I can get them haha.
|
# ? Oct 1, 2023 14:45 |
|
Good Listener posted:Researching a bit on Tokyo hotels and all, does anyone have suggestions or preferences on which section of Tokyo might be best to stay in on a budget? Like..is Shibuya best? Asakusa? I've run into lots of random travel blogs so I guess just gauging opinions where I can get them haha. This discussion has come up a bunch. My recommendation is to stay on the Yamanote Line but not the bigger districts - business hotels or nice ones should be cheaper away from Shibuya or Shinjuku, but if you’re on the train line it’s just 20~ minutes to go there, which is not a big issue IMO. Search back in this thread, and I’m sure others will pile in as well.
|
# ? Oct 1, 2023 15:50 |
|
Way back in 2005 I stayed in Minamisenju for very cheap over the course of a weekend and change. It was very cheap back then (lots of business hotels), which was good because I was doing a two-week trip with a $1000 budget (excluding the plane ticket and JR pass bought in advance). It also had a lot of day laborers and other migrant workers, though I imagine that has changed a bit in the last two decades. I had no idea that the area was the site of a mass execution ground during the shogunate until five minutes ago because the person who I was with and brought us to the area to stay did not inform me of this, likely deliberately.
|
# ? Oct 1, 2023 15:50 |
|
We stayed in one of the business hotels next to Ueno Station when we went in early 2020 and it was very needs suiting for getting around town and easy on the budget.
|
# ? Oct 1, 2023 16:08 |
|
Good Listener posted:Researching a bit on Tokyo hotels and all, does anyone have suggestions or preferences on which section of Tokyo might be best to stay in on a budget? Like..is Shibuya best? Asakusa? I've run into lots of random travel blogs so I guess just gauging opinions where I can get them haha. Ueno is great as mentioned and I regret staying in Shinjuku or Shibuya at all this visit with kids over it. You get more space, you have greater flexibility to relax in a park or smaller city environment and everything is close anyway.
|
# ? Oct 1, 2023 16:25 |
|
I'm not really an expert, but I stayed at the APA Ryogoku hotel and it was both cheap and a three-minute walk to both train lines that was central to everything I did for two weeks except Odaiba.
|
# ? Oct 1, 2023 17:04 |
|
I stayed in Ueno in the spring for $30 a night at a business hotel. Anything near a Yamanote station is fine and I think generally the northern part (roughly from Ikebukuro to Ueno) is going to be cheapest. But there's probably a cheapo business hotel near most of the stations if you dig around.
|
# ? Oct 1, 2023 18:22 |
|
Not gonna lie, something about getting to ride a bunch of trains around to get places seems really fun but also I feel dweeby saying it lol. It's probably just because it's different from having to drive everywhere.
|
# ? Oct 1, 2023 19:06 |
|
I stayed in the Shibuya excel hotel tokyu when I last visited 5 years ago. My favorite part of that was that it overlooked the shibuya scramble which was cool. Also that the Tsutaya/Starbucks was across the street and I chilled in there one evening to people-watch folks on the scramble. And finally that it was down the street from an Ichiran that's open until 6am. One of the nights I still had energy late at night, so I hit up ichiran for a set of ramen at 2AM. It was raining too, what a great feeling. I kinda want to do that again, but it's probably a better choice for me to try something different this time to expand my experiences.
|
# ? Oct 1, 2023 21:25 |
|
The public transit system is legit neat and interesting to use if you're just going places but if you're just going to work or something it's a total drag Man I loving hated the summer days where you're loving sleepy and you're in this insanely humid and hot weather stuck on a train platform JR sucks, at least the Tokyo Metro stations usually have an air conditioner and you're not being murdered by the sun and the heat island effect of all the buildings AHH F/UGH fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Oct 2, 2023 |
# ? Oct 2, 2023 00:35 |
|
everwake posted:I'm not really an expert, but I stayed at the APA Ryogoku hotel and it was both cheap and a three-minute walk to both train lines that was central to everything I did for two weeks except Odaiba. Ryogoku isn’t a bad option, but I wouldn’t recommend the APA chain because the owners are deniers of Japanese WWII atrocities, and put pamphlets to that end in guest rooms. Do with that knowledge what you will, but I’m not giving them money. AHH F/UGH posted:JR sucks, at least the Tokyo Metro stations usually have an air conditioner and you're not being murdered by the sun and the heat island effect of all the buildings JR and Metro/private lines are both trade-offs, depends on where and what you need. But Metro stations also get balmy, especially the Oedo Line, which is just above the molten core of the earth it’s so far underground.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 05:01 |
|
harperdc posted:Ryogoku isn’t a bad option, but I wouldn’t recommend the APA chain because the owners are deniers of Japanese WWII atrocities I have bad news for you about the heads of all major businesses in Japan and their friends who run the effective one party state you spend your tourism money in.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 05:11 |
|
Gabriel Grub posted:I have bad news for you about the heads of all major businesses in Japan and their friends who run the effective one party state you spend your tourism money in. My guy, I’ve lived in Japan for more than a decade, including time in the by-god inaka. I know the difference between “no ethical consumption” baseline things and “the Rape of Nanking didn’t actually happen” pamphlets in hotel rooms. Spare me the CSPAM.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 06:17 |
|
I don't think it's worth a tourist inconveniencing themselves over. Just my opinion.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 06:30 |
|
It takes literally no effort to not stay at their hotels so I think that's fine if you don't want to go there Also the inaka rules. Give me some Kanagawa instead of Tokyo Station any fuckin day
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 07:41 |
|
AHH F/UGH posted:It takes literally no effort to not stay at their hotels so I think that's fine if you don't want to go there With the reopening of tourism, business hotels are much more booked up and expensive than just a few months ago. There is effort and cost involved in avoiding a major chain like APA now. Make the choice your conscience demands. I'm going to be doing business trips to Tokyo several nights a month from now on and I've been watching in horror as simple, small business hotel rooms without breakfast included climb well over 10,000 yen a night. Gabriel Grub fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Oct 2, 2023 |
# ? Oct 2, 2023 07:45 |
|
There are a lot of simple hotels around Iidabashi and Suidobashi station because of Tokyo Dome.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 08:48 |
|
We're thinking of storing an empty bag at our airport so we can divide the poo poo we get between the bags on the way back to avoid overweight bags. We get two checked bags each on our flights. Is this dumb for any reason? I think Haneda allows two weeks max which is one day less than what we would need.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 11:04 |
|
everyone wants knives in the states i feel like a goddamn dealer with the amount of knives traveling in my luggage. hopefully Yamato doesnt laugh in my face at my luggage request.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 11:12 |
|
Chekans 3 16 posted:We're thinking of storing an empty bag at our airport so we can divide the poo poo we get between the bags on the way back to avoid overweight bags. We get two checked bags each on our flights. Is this dumb for any reason? I think Haneda allows two weeks max which is one day less than what we would need. Depending on how much of a hassle it is for you to carry an empty checked bag to Japan + the costs associated with storing it, probably cheaper to just buy a new bag while in Japan. You can even order one from Amazon or go to any department store.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 11:58 |
|
Take a big fabric hold-all/duffel bag/whatever your local name for it is so that you can just fold it up relatively flat and pack it in your regular luggage, then when you’re packing to fly home fill it up with all your laundry and anything else soft/not damageable or that you don’t care about being damaged so you can use the space in your regular luggage for the poo poo you don’t want to break. Edit: also consider if you store the empty bag at the airport how the hell are you gonna carry all the poo poo you wanna pack in it to the airport? History Comes Inside! fucked around with this message at 12:54 on Oct 2, 2023 |
# ? Oct 2, 2023 12:33 |
|
I have used a big folding zipper bag that was ¥600 at Donki on multiple international flights without problem. Cardboard boxes are fine too.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 13:19 |
|
We're gonna be in Tokyo next week. Looks like jacket weather for the mornings yeah?
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 13:32 |
|
Do you want us to give you hour by hour fashion advice?
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 13:35 |
|
Mister Chief posted:Do you want us to give you hour by hour fashion advice? I mean, it would be helpful but I think it's asking too much honestly.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 13:35 |
|
https://www.wunderground.com/hourly/jp/tokyo/date/2023-10-03
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 13:39 |
|
Windbreakers are perfect travel clothing
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 13:46 |
|
I remember one time my friend from the states was going to be in Japan and she asked me if she would be able to buy a windbreaker there.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 13:52 |
|
AHH F/UGH posted:The public transit system is legit neat and interesting to use if you're just going places but if you're just going to work or something it's a total drag This is definitely a thought I had taking the train in Chicago on a vacation last year into the city from out in Rosemont. "This is super cool and fun but I bet if I'd have to commute on it every morning, I'd hate it."
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 15:03 |
|
surf rock posted:Just following up to say that this post was spot-on. I'm heading home on Saturday after two weeks in Tokyo, and this hotel has been loving terrific. The location (just a few minutes from Shinjuku to the north and Yoyogi to the south, although I used Yoyogi as my home station because it's so easy) is phenomenal for getting out and about, and my room has been super comfortable with great service. If I come back to Tokyo in the future, I'll be very tempted to stay here again. I stayed at the Hotel Century Southern Tower in 2017 and loved it. In 2018 I stayed at the Hotel Grocery Shinjuku and, while the service was great, I was shocked at how small the room was and how far away from the station it really felt. I'm going back to Tokyo this month and I made sure to book Hotel Century again. I just absolutely love how convenient it was to get to the station via the pedestrian only walkway and that the rooms were a little more "American" sized.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 16:07 |
|
Busy Bee posted:I remember one time my friend from the states was going to be in Japan and she asked me if she would be able to buy a windbreaker there. Depending how large you are this is a completely fair question. Every time I visited Tokyo I'd get new shoes since it was the only place in Asia I'd found a store with my size.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 18:34 |
|
History Comes Inside! posted:Take a big fabric hold-all/duffel bag/whatever your local name for it is so that you can just fold it up relatively flat and pack it in your regular luggage, then when you’re packing to fly home fill it up with all your laundry and anything else soft/not damageable or that you don’t care about being damaged so you can use the space in your regular luggage for the poo poo you don’t want to break. We both have large suitcases, mine has a large amount of empty space right now we were planning for souvenirs but looking at the overweight bag charges it would be 100 to 200 extra. A second checked bag is included in our flight and storage is about 4 bux a day or so at the airport so cheaper overall. I might go with a fabric one though
|
# ? Oct 2, 2023 21:24 |
|
|
# ? Jun 6, 2024 19:53 |
|
I accidentally booked my flight one day earlier. I'm still within my 24 hours but now I'm wondering if I want the extra day. I haven't booked my stay yet, and I was looking at trying The Millenials capsule hotel for a couple nights. Wouldn't cost much to extend that by a day either. Any other fun things to do in Fukuoka? Is the Fukuoka Tower worth checking out? Looks like it's next to a museum too. Any noteworthy eats besides the ramen stadium I should seek out?
|
# ? Oct 3, 2023 04:05 |