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When I was in Kyoto I went to a kendo lesson in a 400 year old hall and it was really enjoyable. You get to have a crack at slashing through a tatami mat with a samurai sword at the end of the lesson. The teacher was a lovely guy who I recommend, you can book with him here: https://www.airbnb.com.au/experiences/1128057?c=.pi80.pkbWVzc2FnaW5nL2V4cGVyaWVuY2VzX21lc3NhZ2U%3D&euid=420a81d4-34a8-98ae-fecf-d7ec8f2628b2
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Feb 1, 2024 23:41
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Yvonmukluk posted:I've carved out the days I'm going to be in Japan, I'm just hammering out the details now. My current plan is depart from the UK Thursday the 29th and arrive in Tokyo the morning of the 1st, then my itinerary is going to be a few days in tokyo, followed by a few more in Kyoto, with day-trips to Nara, Osaka and Himeji, then heading further west to Hiroshima and Miyajima, before maybe stopping off for a day in Hakone before returning to Tokyo to leave on the 15th or March. Basically all the first-time tourism stuff. Get to Miyajima early. I decided to do the Hiroshima museum first because it was closer to my hotel but by the time I could get to Miyajima most of the stalls were closing and everyone was getting off the island. Not sure what other tips to give ya besides Teamlab and the Yokohama Gundam was amazing.
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Feb 2, 2024 04:09
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Ooo that reminds me, my travel tip is to look up what dates are public holidays or other days of local significance during your trip and consider how that might affect your plans. I really wanted to go to Miyajima but didn't realise that it wasn't do-able on New Year's day because everyone wants to go to visit the shrines on that particular day and the crowds are insane. My kid and disabled partner wouldn't be up for standing in queues for hours on end so we noped out. But that day we just did other things in Hiroshima, and put Miyajima on our list of things to do next time we go to Japan. Also I had more than one time where I thought that I'd go do x, but x wasn't open because it was a Monday. Luckily there's so much to do in Japan it didn't ruin my day, but it's still worth keeping in mind.
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Feb 2, 2024 05:58
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Yvonmukluk posted:I've carved out the days I'm going to be in Japan, I'm just hammering out the details now. My current plan is depart from the UK Thursday the 29th and arrive in Tokyo the morning of the 1st, then my itinerary is going to be a few days in tokyo, followed by a few more in Kyoto, with day-trips to Nara, Osaka and Himeji, then heading further west to Hiroshima and Miyajima, before maybe stopping off for a day in Hakone before returning to Tokyo to leave on the 15th or March. Basically all the first-time tourism stuff. Just in case you want to drag fewer clothes around with you and use the hotel laundry machines around the halfway point... Consider doing the laundry around 10 or 11 AM when departing guests are busy leaving, new guests have yet to arrive and current guests are either finishing breakfast or already headed out to some activity. Easy time to find free machines.
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Feb 2, 2024 17:58
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Delita posted:Get to Miyajima early. I decided to do the Hiroshima museum first because it was closer to my hotel but by the time I could get to Miyajima most of the stalls were closing and everyone was getting off the island. Yeah I'm definitely going to fit in a trip to Yokohama Gundam, and it sounds like Teamlab is worth a try too. I guess I could try and grab a Ghibil museum ticket, but that'll be dependant on if I can remember to get/stay up til 1AM to book the ticket, as per the thread advice. bee posted:Ooo that reminds me, my travel tip is to look up what dates are public holidays or other days of local significance during your trip and consider how that might affect your plans. I really wanted to go to Miyajima but didn't realise that it wasn't do-able on New Year's day because everyone wants to go to visit the shrines on that particular day and the crowds are insane. My kid and disabled partner wouldn't be up for standing in queues for hours on end so we noped out.
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Feb 2, 2024 18:05
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field balm posted:What stuff do y'all like in Tohoku? Are you able/willing to rent a car? There's a lot of cool stuff out there but not all of it is super convenient to trains. Some of my Aomori highlights were: Osore-zan, the Jesus grave place, and some abandoned coal miner dorms.
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Feb 2, 2024 18:16
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Yvonmukluk posted:
Possible but if I went to Hiroshima again I'd want to stay there for at least two days.
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Feb 2, 2024 20:19
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Good Listener posted:Is Google the best site to look for restaurant recommendations while in Japan? I kinda wanna look into some sushi places like..wanna have one really good sushi experience while there you know? Just wasn't sure if Japan has their own TripAdvisor or similar site for food. The good thing to do with Google restaurant reviews is flip to sort by newest review and look at what proportion of the reviews are in english. If most of the recent reviews are not in Japanese, you know you're looking at a place that's tourist dominated and can decide if that's what you want (may not apply to restaurants near universities that are popular with homesick postgrads etc)
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Feb 3, 2024 02:57
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Yvonmukluk posted:Yeah I'm definitely going to fit in a trip to Yokohama Gundam, and it sounds like Teamlab is worth a try too. I guess I could try and grab a Ghibil museum ticket, but that'll be dependant on if I can remember to get/stay up til 1AM to book the ticket, as per the thread advice. It's possible if you get a really early train to Hiroshima, but I recommend staying a night so you can see the Hiroshima stuff the first day, and visit Miyajima the next morning. Definitely see one of the Teamlab museums in Tokyo. I haven't been to the new borderless since it moved but it's probably the better of the two. If it turns out that digital art is your thing you can visit Teamlab botanical garden in Osaka as well.
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Feb 3, 2024 03:13
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In Hiroshima, you will likely stop by the Peace Museum. I think it's not a place where you'd want to feel like you're under time pressure. I always advise people to stay overnight if only for that reason alone. I think you should also consider going up Mt. Misen which will also take time. I don't know how you like to travel but you could consider just not checking out of your hotel in Osaka and staying overnight in a capsule or something in Hiroshima. It's pretty much the perfect case for staying in a capsule.
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Feb 3, 2024 03:18
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Does anyone have any advice on registering for a Smart EX account for shinkansen tickets? I want to buy early bird tickets for the discount, however, none of my Canadian credit (and debit) cards can be verified through their dang system. I even tried via a Wise VISA card but that doesn't seem to work either. Tried both via desktop and app, nada. RuBisCO fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Feb 3, 2024 |
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Feb 3, 2024 05:35
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"I sleep in a big bed with my wife" but it's "I buy round-trip non-reserved at the JR ticket window" and get a 10% discount (40,000 yen → 36,000 yen) while the non-reserved for a specific day means I can just slide through the ticket gates whenever I'm ready to go back. Round-trip discount only applies to trips of 8 days or less.
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Feb 3, 2024 05:46
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peanut posted:"I sleep in a big bed with my wife" but it's "I buy round-trip non-reserved at the JR ticket window" and get a 10% discount (40,000 yen → 36,000 yen) while the non-reserved for a specific day means I can just slide through the ticket gates whenever I'm ready to go back. Wait, what's this then? https://smart-ex.jp/en/product/hayatoku/ex_28/ Looking at Tokyo --> Osaka and eventually back again, but it doesn't say anything about round-trip anyways
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Feb 3, 2024 05:55
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Are all your cards visas? Those are known to have problems. People have more success with mastercard.
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Feb 3, 2024 07:03
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Zettace posted:Are all your cards visas? Those are known to have problems. People have more success with mastercard. Most of my cards are mastercard and sadly none of them work. Tried the remaining visa cards I had and no luck either. I'm Canadian so I don't have an AMEX, though I guess if it comes to the point of having to apply for a new credit card I'd probably call it quits and just buy at the station.
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Feb 3, 2024 07:08
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RuBisCO posted:Wait, what's this then? https://smart-ex.jp/en/product/hayatoku/ex_28/ That's a pretty good deal, better than the 10% round-trip discount, but I rarely plan my poo poo 1-3 months in advance. Fwiw just buying at the ticket window also allows you to refund/change your tickets up to 10 min? before departure.
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Feb 3, 2024 07:43
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RuBisCO posted:Most of my cards are mastercard and sadly none of them work. Tried the remaining visa cards I had and no luck either. I'm Canadian so I don't have an AMEX, though I guess if it comes to the point of having to apply for a new credit card I'd probably call it quits and just buy at the station. I just ordered tickets from there the other day and the site did this weird poo poo where my bank sent me a code by email to confirm payment, so you may just be out of luck using a non Japanese card due to their weird security.
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Feb 3, 2024 08:48
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Ohhh, my US card hates* when I make a purchase over $500 on Japanese sites, or over $100 on southeast Asian sites. *Sends me a txt verification code, to my dad's phone, in the US time zone, where I don't live
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Feb 3, 2024 09:01
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Ethics_Gradient posted:Are you able/willing to rent a car? There's a lot of cool stuff out there but not all of it is super convenient to trains. I'm starting to consider it because the train routing seems like a lot unless I only go to like 3 places, but I think it might be pretty stressful - at least on the train I can chill. Thanks for the recs, I'll check those places out!
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Feb 3, 2024 09:29
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bee posted:Possible but if I went to Hiroshima again I'd want to stay there for at least two days. teddust posted:It's possible if you get a really early train to Hiroshima, but I recommend staying a night so you can see the Hiroshima stuff the first day, and visit Miyajima the next morning. Definitely see one of the Teamlab museums in Tokyo. I haven't been to the new borderless since it moved but it's probably the better of the two. If it turns out that digital art is your thing you can visit Teamlab botanical garden in Osaka as well. totalnewbie posted:In Hiroshima, you will likely stop by the Peace Museum. Miyajima then, then stopping off in Osaka for 3 days, (possibly fitting in one or both of those daytrips at this point), followed by a stop at Hakone, then back to Tokyo to see out the rest of my trip. Does that seem like a reasonable amount of time for each place? Also: I was looking at that Kendo class, but given I wear glasses that seems like it might be a problem.
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Feb 3, 2024 14:23
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field balm posted:I'm starting to consider it because the train routing seems like a lot unless I only go to like 3 places, but I think it might be pretty stressful - at least on the train I can chill. Thanks for the recs, I'll check those places out! Nah - driving in Japan is pretty chill, and if you're from the US/Canada just remember to keep the driver's side to the inside of the road and you'll be right. If you don't have much Japanese I think navigating one of the automated gas station kiosks might be a bit daunting, but with Google Lens you should be fine. Osore-zan is definitely the best of those three for photography, we saw a bear just up the road as we were leaving too 
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Feb 3, 2024 15:19
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RuBisCO posted:Most of my cards are mastercard and sadly none of them work. Tried the remaining visa cards I had and no luck either. I'm Canadian so I don't have an AMEX, though I guess if it comes to the point of having to apply for a new credit card I'd probably call it quits and just buy at the station. I was going to cancel my AMEX but the only reason I didn’t is that it’s the only card that works to reload Suica. Canadian here too. Maddening that my TD VISA used to work for all this stuff back in .. what, 2019? When I travelled before the pandemic. Unfortunate. AMEX might be useful to have for these niche situations if you get one without the annual fee.
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Feb 3, 2024 16:56
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slinkimalinki posted:The good thing to do with Google restaurant reviews is flip to sort by newest review and look at what proportion of the reviews are in english. If most of the recent reviews are not in Japanese, you know you're looking at a place that's tourist dominated and can decide if that's what you want (may not apply to restaurants near universities that are popular with homesick postgrads etc) Thank you for this tip haha. I dunno how close to any universities I'll be but it's good to know.
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Feb 3, 2024 17:47
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field balm posted:I'm starting to consider it because the train routing seems like a lot unless I only go to like 3 places, but I think it might be pretty stressful - at least on the train I can chill. Thanks for the recs, I'll check those places out! I'm with you on not wanting to drive, unfortunately Tohoku/Hokkaido are pretty sparsely populated and the public transit isn't great. Not that you can't do it but if you're going there, at least be sure to get an international driving permit first so you have the option if you get there and are feeling limited.
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Feb 3, 2024 19:07
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field balm posted:What stuff do y'all like in Tohoku? The 1015 stone steps in Yamadera, Yamagata. Birthplace of mountain worship. Recommend the hike too which will take you around some very ancient sites. Shiogama fish market with make your fresh catch don for breakfast then a boat ferry ride to Matsushima. Stuff yourself on sea oysters for dinner. Sendai castle ruins Aomori lantern museum (be sure to catch the times they're letting you bang on the taiko drums), Hirosaki park/gardens, the little castle up there is cute too and you can see how they moved it to work on the foundation. We got all this done with just train access. There was much more we wanted to do but it was really only car caccessible.
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Feb 3, 2024 20:39
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Yvonmukluk posted:
One of the guys in my group wore glasses and took them off for the sparring part where you wear the helmet. This bit only went for about 15-20 mins, the majority of the lesson you're learning techniques and movements.
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Feb 3, 2024 21:09
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Hmm, I just realized that my November trip means it'll be dark super early when I'm over there. Well, the big cities always feel more vibrant and energetic after dark anyway -- maybe that'll be a net positive.
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Feb 4, 2024 18:36
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Just go to Kyushu. Their sunrise and sunset is a bit more "normal" in November. Tokyo being east makes it still bright at 6 am but it starts to get dark at 4pm.
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Feb 4, 2024 23:09
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field balm posted:I'm starting to consider it because the train routing seems like a lot unless I only go to like 3 places, but I think it might be pretty stressful - at least on the train I can chill. Thanks for the recs, I'll check those places out! It's been about 10 years since I went but there was a bus that went between Aomori City and Hachinohe and stopped at all the tourist spots on the way and you could get on and off as many times as you wanted with one ticket. The buses came by pretty frequently and it was super convenient and easy.
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Feb 4, 2024 23:28
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Grand Fromage posted:I'm with you on not wanting to drive, unfortunately Tohoku/Hokkaido are pretty sparsely populated and the public transit isn't great. Not that you can't do it but if you're going there, at least be sure to get an international driving permit first so you have the option if you get there and are feeling limited. yeah, I'll get the permit just in case. I'm only doing a week or so through Tohoku so I think there will be plenty of stuff to see near the train lines in that time. cheese eats mouse posted:The 1015 stone steps in Yamadera, Yamagata. Birthplace of mountain worship. Recommend the hike too which will take you around some very ancient sites. Thanks, these all look pretty cool! LyonsLions posted:It's been about 10 years since I went but there was a bus that went between Aomori City and Hachinohe and stopped at all the tourist spots on the way and you could get on and off as many times as you wanted with one ticket. The buses came by pretty frequently and it was super convenient and easy. This sounds really handy, I'm very keen to do the Tanesashi Coast hike there. I'm tossing up between doing Hachinohe as a day trip from Aomori or staying the night there. Right now I'm thinking about flying from Narita straight up to Aomori and stopping off at places on the shinkansen line back to Tokyo rather than getting the train up and then back.
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Feb 5, 2024 02:26
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field balm posted:Right now I'm thinking about flying from Narita straight up to Aomori and stopping off at places on the shinkansen line back to Tokyo rather than getting the train up and then back. Hey, do you have any other northern Japan hikes you can recommend?
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Feb 5, 2024 02:32
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DM for restaurant recs if you head to any of these places. You can get made to order senbei in Matsushima and it’s so tasty paired with their matcha soft serve. There’s a cute couple there that runs a Ryokan that needs some renovations but the couple is so nice with cute poodles and the futon is very comfy. Also has a tattoo friendly onsen. I forgot about Chusonji temple in Iwate, which is way better than the Kyoto golden temple. Only place I found black sesame soft serve too. Go hungry and get wanko soba, which we did not do. There’s another temple that’s a nice walk around too. Not much else in that town. PS I obviously love ice cream
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Feb 5, 2024 08:52
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I'm slated to be in Gifu during the April 14-15 during Takayama Matsuri. This is purely by coincidence. Anybody been this, the Spring festival? Would like to spend Friday and Saturday in Tokyo too, shopping for some clothes. Any personal stylists in Tokyo that could take me shopping? Are there any apps that are particularly useful? How are the Japanese people going to treat an american walking around alone. I do know that since I'm there for 5 days of traditional tattooing, to keep everything super covered.
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Feb 5, 2024 13:35
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(insert sarcastic answer) It's fine, you'll be fine. Ask your tattoo artist for shopping recs.
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Feb 5, 2024 14:26
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Cheese Thief posted:How are the Japanese people going to treat an american walking around alone. I guess this depends on whether you're wearing a kasa or not.
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Feb 5, 2024 14:34
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Cheese Thief posted:How are the Japanese people going to treat an american walking around alone. You aren't supposed* to be walking around alone without a Japanese chaperone, or at the very least a Japanese-speaking foreigner. You'll definitely get a lot of very strange looks on the street, and you definitely won't be able to get served in any restaurant. Fortunately, there are vending machines all over the place so you won't starve to death, but you'll have to survive on sugary liquids from vending machines, or whatever you can get from 7/11. Make sure to carry your passport on you at all times in case a policeman stops you, and be ready to show your visa and hotel booking. There's a reason that very, very few foreigners go to Japan every year, and next to none of them go without guided tours. It does mean it's almost entirely virgin territory for foreign tourists though, so the hassle makes up for it in the untouched splendor of sites you'll never see on travel blogs or YouTube. *Further context: it's not explicitly forbidden, it just goes against social mores, like drinking water in public during Ramadan in most Muslim-majority countries, or picking your nose and wiping it on your pants while in a crowded bus. Have fun and let us know how it goes though! We get almost no trip reports of Americans traveling alone in Japan. I hope this answer was also suitable for Peanut. Saladman fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Feb 5, 2024 |
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Feb 5, 2024 15:32
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The passport thing is legit though, although the only dude I know personally who got asked for his poo poo was an expat visiting home on his Japanese passport lol. His dad’s white so he figures he must have looked just foreign enough to make it worth a punt for some bored policeman.
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Feb 5, 2024 15:36
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Saladman posted:You aren't supposed to be walking around alone without a Japanese chaperone, or at the very least a Japanese-speaking foreigner. You'll definitely get a lot of very strange looks on the street, and you definitely won't be able to get served in any restaurant. Fortunately, there are vending machines all over the place so you won't starve to death, but you'll have to survive on sugary liquids from vending machines, or whatever you can get from 7/11.  Well this is information I didn’t think to ask for. Guess I’ll be living on vending machine food.
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Feb 5, 2024 15:42
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I'm not planning on any guided tours, are me and my roomie gonna get hassled for wandering around Tokyo :x?
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Feb 5, 2024 16:05
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Yvonmukluk posted:
I think this is a piss take, given the shitloads of tourism Japan gets
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