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totalnewbie posted:How long will you be in Japan? 10-ish days. Landing on Dec 7th at 5pm, leaving on the 17th at 1pm. I figured the first night would be jetlag night, and 3 days (December 8 to 10) would be enough to enjoy Tokyo. I'm hoping Tokyo doesn't become too samey by then, which is mostly why I'm still trying to figure out what else beyond Tokyo would be nice to go to -- 6 days isn't a lot but it's simultaneously too much to spend in one place I guess?
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Oct 22, 2023 20:58
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10 days isn't a ton of time but it is enough to check off the biggies. 3 days tokyo is enough to wander Akihabara, go to Asakusa and the Shibuya crossing and a couple other things, too. It's not hard to pack a few things into a day. 3 hours down to Kyoto on the shinkansen and a couple days there to see the main stuff and then you have 3-4 more days of whatever. Hiroshima for a day isn't a bad idea. In fact, I think everyone should go to the peace park. If you like Disney, then Disney Sea is kind of a can't miss spot, IMO. Really though, if you come up with a list of like 10 things you want to see, then you can figure out a loose schedule around that and you won't go home feeling you missed anything that seemed important.
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Oct 22, 2023 21:50
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I personally think that's a fine schedule to go directly to Kyoto/Osaka after landing, spend 4-5 days there (can also hit up Osaka, Nara, etc), then the remaining time back in Tokyo. I tend to advise against a day-trip to Hiroshima mostly because people want to do both the museum and Miyajima which is not a lot of time and, well, rushing through the peace park/museum isn't great.
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Oct 22, 2023 22:50
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Hiroshima is worth staying 1-2 nights. It could be a good spot for the ryokan experience.
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Oct 22, 2023 23:16
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Also, it can definitely be done in a day. Unless you are doing the mountain tram at Miyajima, you can do that in 2 hours pretty easily. Then take the ferry directly the peace park from there and that can be done in under 2 hours, as well. It's not a huge museum. But everyone should see it at least once. And peanut is right, Hiroshima is a cool town. More than a day is totally doable. But for a short trip, if you stay in Kansai for a bit, you can easily do it in a day.
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Oct 23, 2023 00:02
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Waltzing Along posted:--snip-- Not much of a disney guy, but yeah that's basically how I'm trying to arrange my trip right now. I am gathering as many cool things to do in Japan as possible to see what I could realistically fit. peanut posted:Hiroshima is worth staying 1-2 nights. It could be a good spot for the ryokan experience. totalnewbie posted:I tend to advise against a day-trip to Hiroshima mostly because people want to do both the museum and Miyajima which is not a lot of time and, well, rushing through the peace park/museum isn't great. Waltzing Along posted:Also, it can definitely be done in a day. Unless you are doing the mountain tram at Miyajima, you can do that in 2 hours pretty easily. Then take the ferry directly the peace park from there and that can be done in under 2 hours, as well. It's not a huge museum. But everyone should see it at least once. Yes! Hiroshima is definitely a must from what I saw so far and I could probably arrange for a ryokan there, too. Not sure if it's worth going kyoto - hiroshima - kyoto - hiroshima or something similar, but it would definitely justify a JR Pass at that rate  ------ Dumb question: any problem bringing in asthma medicine with me to Japan (ie. Symbicort) without a prescription? Getting a prescription translated is going to be a pain.
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Oct 23, 2023 00:19
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Explosive Tampons posted:Not much of a disney guy, but yeah that's basically how I'm trying to arrange my trip right now. I am gathering as many cool things to do in Japan as possible to see what I could realistically fit. You don't need a translated prescription but there is stuff you need to do before you depart: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/policy/health-medical/pharmaceuticals/01.html
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Oct 23, 2023 01:26
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It's only a problem if your medicine is on the banned list. ^^^ You don't need to translate the prescription for normal medicines. If you lose it or need more and need to go to a Japanese clinic, saying "I used to take medicine XXX at home" has usually been enough for me to get a new prescription. https://misti.mit.edu/japan-preparation-and-training/japan-logistics/japan-bringing-medication peanut fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Oct 23, 2023 |
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Oct 23, 2023 01:31
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Explosive Tampons posted:Not sure if it's worth going kyoto - hiroshima - kyoto - hiroshima or something similar, but it would definitely justify a JR Pass at that rate That’s like 2 hours by train each way, I wouldn’t want to do that personally
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Oct 23, 2023 02:36
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I am curious yea like at the moment looking at just the Tokyo area for trip next summer. Is it a good idea to just stick to one big city area for 12ish days? We're lookin at hitting up Akiba, Enoshima, Numazu, Harajuku...I forget where the Kirby and FF14 cafes are..
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Oct 23, 2023 03:21
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It's really up to you. You're not going to run out of things to do in Tokyo. I would at most go one other place for such a short trip. If it's summer you might want to consider going somewhere in the mountains like Matsumoto where you will get a little respite from the surface of the sun situation in Tokyo.
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Oct 23, 2023 03:29
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Good Listener posted:I am curious yea like at the moment looking at just the Tokyo area for trip next summer. Is it a good idea to just stick to one big city area for 12ish days? We're lookin at hitting up Akiba, Enoshima, Numazu, Harajuku...I forget where the Kirby and FF14 cafes are.. 12 days in Tokyo sounds like a waste of an opportunity to spend 12 days in Kansai.
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Oct 23, 2023 03:32
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Good Listener posted:I am curious yea like at the moment looking at just the Tokyo area for trip next summer. Is it a good idea to just stick to one big city area for 12ish days? We're lookin at hitting up Akiba, Enoshima, Numazu, Harajuku...I forget where the Kirby and FF14 cafes are.. Adding Enoshima and Kamakura, and maybe a day trip to the Fuji lakes district or further up into the mountains both are good ways to get more out of a “Tokyo” trip. You can definitely spend a week just exploring museums, districts, events, etc in and around the area, but those day trips are also easy and give some different scenery as well.
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Oct 23, 2023 03:37
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Good Listener posted:I am curious yea like at the moment looking at just the Tokyo area for trip next summer. Is it a good idea to just stick to one big city area for 12ish days? We're lookin at hitting up Akiba, Enoshima, Numazu, Harajuku...I forget where the Kirby and FF14 cafes are.. You may really like Tokyo and you may not. I like it less every few years I visit. My kids and family liked Osaka/Kyoto better the last trip I took them out. I think you should consider extending a trip to 15 days and do 7 days in Tokyo, 7 days in Kyoto/Osaka and surrounding areas and 1 day in miscellaneous on the way back before the airport. I've done Yokohama and I have done Ginza for that itinerary. I like the vibes of a last day in Yokohama so long as you schedule any museum or other visits. Shammypants fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Oct 23, 2023 |
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Oct 23, 2023 03:38
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The last time I was in Japan on a month long study trip in college. It was mainly in the Nagoya/Seto area, though we visited Kyoto/Nara/Hiroshima too on home stays in the last one and in Seto too. I'm not sure if I can change up my plane tickets to add a couple additional days or not tbh. We're set to fly out of here at 7:45 on July 9th, land in Haneda at 4PM on the 10th with the return being on July 22nd with an overnight in Chicago cuz it was cheaper to come back a day earlier. Basically yea, Tokyo was a place I did not visit so I def want to atleast see what I can of it. Good Listener fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Oct 23, 2023 |
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Oct 23, 2023 03:48
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I traveled this last summer and I couldn't believe that airlines only charged me 10 dollars a person to add days. I did it several times. Check online and they will give you a detailed list of travel dates you can extend/reduce and the cost to do so.
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Oct 23, 2023 04:13
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I recently added extra days to a JP→US→JP flight and they charged me the fare difference which was 10 yen. This was on phone customer service with JAL.
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Oct 23, 2023 04:36
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Virtue posted:Anyone have updates on the foreign visa problem? I'm getting a little worried since it's still not fixed for suica and I ran into issues with smartex today. Sorry if this is too late to help, but my wife and I ran into the same issue; our credit cards were all Visa. I was legit about to open up a credit card that uses MasterCard when we noticed that our credit union’s debit card was MasterCard. Honestly I’d recommend finding some way to get your hands on a MasterCard card, if you have time still. Having SUICA linked to your cell phone is unbelievably convenient.
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Oct 23, 2023 04:46
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My US cards are all VISA but sometimes my bank blocks credit transactions from unfamiliar foreign sources, like paying my boss's e-visa applications for business trips. This is almost always bypassed by using my debit card linked to the same bank account (which doesn't give me points).
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Oct 23, 2023 06:00
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peanut posted:My US cards are all VISA but sometimes my bank blocks credit transactions from unfamiliar foreign sources, like paying my boss's e-visa applications for business trips. It’s, very specifically, Visa being huge dicks about IC cards. Tho if u have a Visa debit card guess it can’t hurt to try 
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Oct 23, 2023 08:17
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Explosive Tampons posted:Not sure if it's worth going kyoto - hiroshima - kyoto - hiroshima or something similar, but it would definitely justify a JR Pass at that rate Actually the price increase of the new 7 day JR pass so hilariously high that a Toyko - Osaka/Kyoto - Hiroshima - Osaka - Tokyo trip is still cheaper via individual tickets than using a 7 day JR pass. For a 7 day pass to pay off you need to go to Kagoshima or something stupid like that.
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Oct 23, 2023 08:34
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Re: Osaka vs. Tokyo question. We didn't really give Tokyo a fair shake. Tokyo is a mega-city and probably requires a whole trip dedicated to just for it. I landed in Tokyo with a head cold (of course masked up right away) and we only had three full days there. We did the major hits, Senso-ji, etc and TeamLab Planets, which was a waste with only a few days to spend there. One of the nicest things we did was just have dinner at the Prince tower Stellar Lounge across from Tokyo Tower. Just a chill atmosphere listening to jazz while eating expensive (overpriced tbh) food with the Tower right in front of you. Kyoto is awesome to just walk around and explore the temples/Gion. I thought Arishayama would sort of suck because I envisioned it as just a little bamboo forest, which it is, but there are also a ton of temples and shrines tucked within and around there. I was into collecting Goshuin so that was really cool. Osaka is a smaller, grittier, dirtier city in all the right ways. I could never envision myself living in Tokyo. Osaka would be do-able. They are both absolutely worth visiting in a single trip but Tokyo needs more than we gave it. Kaddish fucked around with this message at 09:33 on Oct 23, 2023 |
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Oct 23, 2023 09:30
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Zettace posted:Actually the price increase of the new 7 day JR pass so hilariously high that a Toyko - Osaka/Kyoto - Hiroshima - Osaka - Tokyo trip is still cheaper via individual tickets than using a 7 day JR pass. For a 7 day pass to pay off you need to go to Kagoshima or something stupid like that. Well that's an unpleasant surprise  But yeah thanks goons! I tend to underestimate commute times all the time. I think I'm probably doing Tokyo - Hiroshima - Somewhere Else then - Tokyo again. Hell I could skip the third stop and just go back to Tokyo again for a few more days. As for the medicine I emailed their bureau just in case.
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Oct 23, 2023 13:21
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Kaddish posted:Re: Osaka vs. Tokyo question. Yea, finding those areas for memories is really cool and good and you get that almost any of the major cities. Tokyo is the kind of place where you can be led astray by the wrong articles and what I like to hear most about people's trips is what they realized were their areas of interest. My personal rating of cities is that I like the ones with many micro-neighborhoods with their own vibes, which Tokyo has. It's easy for a tourist to end up in Shinjuku and Shibuya and Akihabara when you may not have a ton of interest in them other than the hype, but how do you know what your vibe is? Maybe you're not a Shibuya person, and you're an Ueno/Jimbocho/Cat Street person. In being completely fair to Tokyo, you can plot an entire trip to areas of Tokyo that are small and have a similar feel to areas of Osaka. When I say spend less time in Tokyo I might be referring to my own bias for disliking the highly touristed areas in the West of the city that to me have little character and little to do if you don't drink and aren't interested in Donki.
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Oct 23, 2023 15:10
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This is kinda obvious but many of my favorite places/concepts of Tokyo were discovered on work trips. I live in Shikoku but have spent maybe 3 or 4 months total staying in different neighborhoods getting around by foot, train, taxi, and rental car. If I actually had to live in Tokyo for realsies, I would probably be pushed out to Setagaya or Kawasaki, like everyone else, to find a balance of commute time, rental price, and local vibe. I wish I could afford Toranomon or Ichigaya, lol, lmao.
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Oct 23, 2023 15:23
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Shimo-Kitazawa is really chill. Great food, tons of small venues, and more second-hand clothing shops than you can visit in a week.Good Listener posted:I forget where the Kirby and FF14 cafes are..
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Oct 23, 2023 15:48
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leather fedora posted:Shimo-Kitazawa is really chill. Great food, tons of small venues, and more second-hand clothing shops than you can visit in a week. Yea I've been told to try and book it there a month in advance minimum. Like I said, I'm now just wondering if it's a better idea to try to do multiple Tokyo area stops in a day (a day for enoshima/kamakura or such) or just do one at a time and spend the whole time there. I have...yea plenty of time to figure out but I always end up thinkin of all the options before things actually happen haha.
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Oct 23, 2023 18:23
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My take on Tokyo: Tokyo is unique in that it's actually a bunch of cities mashed together as one which kind of makes the different areas of the city all kind of feel samey if you're just wondering around as city centres usually contain the same things. However, Tokyo is so huge that it has a million things tucked away in corners so there's tons of stuff to do but you need to know where they are. This means it's best to find a bunch of stuff to do first and then plan your itinerary around going to and doing those things instead of just wondering around. I personally wasn't a fan of Tokyo until I started doing this.
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Oct 23, 2023 20:30
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Zettace posted:My take on Tokyo: Tokyo is unique in that it's actually a bunch of cities mashed together as one which kind of makes the different areas of the city all kind of feel samey if you're just wondering around as city centres usually contain the same things. Is it okay if I ask some recommendations in PMs and such so I'm not just clogging up the thread again? Either personal recommendations of places or like..websites that feature that kind of stuff to research? I feel more and more I'm biting into something way bigger than I expected 
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Oct 24, 2023 00:32
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This isn't the LAN thread. Chances are there's someone else reading/that will read this thread that's interested in the same recommendations.
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Oct 24, 2023 00:57
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This thread is such low volume that I don't think anyone would mind the extra replies. My personal recommendation is if you're into cars Nissan's showroom in Ginza is cool. They show off their racing models, experimental models, and classic model there.
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Oct 24, 2023 01:02
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zmcnulty posted:This isn't the LAN thread. Chances are there's someone else reading/that will read this thread that's interested in the same recommendations. Yep. No reason not to post recommendations in a T&T thread, on topic posts aren't clogging up anything.
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Oct 24, 2023 01:07
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Agreed, I’m also compiling recommendations for whenever I can go back to Japan again. One thing I enjoyed in Tokyo was Kappabashi Street, where they sell a lot of dishes and the plastic food outside restaurants. Got some really beautiful bowls there too.
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Oct 24, 2023 01:45
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We have been trying to find second hand but more Japan style than western style clothing shops. But we are also both way taller and bigger than Japanese people so I don’t know how much luck we will have. We really do want to pick up some samue in a comfy Turkish cotton, if anyone has a place to check out?
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Oct 24, 2023 02:00
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Gotcha haha . Sorry just self conscious that I'm babbling too much since it's a bigger trip than I've ever really planned before. I definitely appreciate all the help
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Oct 24, 2023 04:31
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I'm watching and taking notes 
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Oct 24, 2023 08:57
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Related to my interests actually, anyone know of any good vintage toy type shops where you might find Transformers and the like? I've seen Nakano Broadway's Mandarake location mentioned but if you all know something along those lines that might be a bit smaller, I'm curious to know. I'm assuming Akiba is a good place to start but yea curious if you all are familiar with any offhand. Good Listener fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Oct 25, 2023 |
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Oct 25, 2023 00:47
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Mandarake is the big one, there are a lot of them around with different stuff. Book Off is worth checking. There are also lots of consignment shop places where people rent out a little cube to sell, I'm not sure what the Japanese name for them is to search but there are a ton in Akiba.
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Oct 25, 2023 01:05
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Nakano Broadways Mandarake is like 11 stores or something like that. They are scattered around the 4 floors. Each devoted to one of the sections. But one of them is nearly a museum with how much vintage stuff it has. It is definitely the best of the sort I have seen in Tokyo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-04kwOS98JY&t=85s That's the one at the start of the video. I wonder if it is too vintage, though. It's worth walking around at the very least.
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Oct 25, 2023 01:06
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Hobby Off is what you want to look for, those are the arm of the Off franchise that have toys and figures and everything else. The trick is they aren’t always in real central locations, but what good is a trip without a little exploring? Looks like locations include Akihabara and near Ueno, so that should be easy enough to access.
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Oct 25, 2023 02:54
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