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The All Shikoku Rail Pass is a crazy good deal, it includes all JR lines, all regional lines, and the ferry to Shodoshima. Only available to international tourists. 3 days 12000 yen, 4 days 15000 yen, 5 days 17000 yen, 7 days 20,000 yen https://shikoku-railwaytrip.com/railpass.html#shikoku01
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# ? Jun 10, 2024 21:04 |
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Riding a full nozomi shinkansen right now and the tourists with big suitcases are looking frustrated. Reserve suitcase space when you buy your tickets or mail your large bags to your next destination.
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Green Car or nothing.
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peanut posted:Riding a full nozomi shinkansen right now and the tourists with big suitcases are looking frustrated. I shipped my bags from Tokyo to Osaka since I have a one day stop over at Hakone and it’s been a smooth experience. Of course I also realised when I was initially booking my trip and I initially shuffled the Hakone forward a day I didn’t also book the hotel in Tokyo for an extra day. So I guess I get to experience a capsule hotel! Does anyone have a recommendation for one in Tokyo or am I overthinking it? Edit: or maybe Yokohama since it’s on the way back? Edit 2: I actually was able to get a business hotel for cheap in Yokohama so it has all worked out well. I’m sure there’s a lot I have done wrong but I have been enjoying myself so far and I appreciate the advice everyone has given. Yvonmukluk fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Mar 10, 2024 |
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Is it legal to gamble in Japan? What about social games of Texas Hold Em (ie no money exchanged, just playing for chips)? It'd be nice to play a game of cards with a different crowd of folks in Tokyo if possible. I've heard that actual betting with horse races is legal, but apparently the definitions of what is legal and illegal to gamble on are narrow. Where do people usually go to place bets legally? At the same time, pachinko is kind of like quasi-gambling in the sense that you collect balls from the pachinko parlor then go trade them for money somewhere else, right?
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The only legal gambling is horse racing (keiba), boat racing (kyotei), bicycle racing (keirin) and auto race (motorcycle but closer to NASCAR). There are "amusement casinos" and you basically play for chips that can't be cashed out.
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zmcnulty posted:The only legal gambling is horse racing (keiba), boat racing (kyotei), bicycle racing (keirin) and auto race (motorcycle but closer to NASCAR). There are "amusement casinos" and you basically play for chips that can't be cashed out. Okay, well let's limit it to horse racing then. It was cool watching a horse race in Hong Kong a few years ago even though I didn't bet. Apparently the closest place to watch a horse race in Tokyo is the Tokyo Racecourse in Fuchu? How close to the event date do you get to see race times on the online schedule?
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Teriyaki Koinku posted:At the same time, pachinko is kind of like quasi-gambling in the sense that you collect balls from the pachinko parlor then go trade them for money somewhere else, right? Yes, the legal fig leaf for pachinko is you trade the balls for a prize inside the pachinko arcade then visit a nearby "unaffiliated" TUC shop that will buy the prize back for a surprisingly high price. Or you can just take the cigarette lighter or watch or whatever from the arcade directly if it's useful and you want to keep it.
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There's a horse track closer than Fuchu: Tokyo City Keiba in Shinagawa. Looks like the schedule for the whole year is already posted. https://maps.app.goo.gl/yknogR8JCBE88n469
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Mah Jong is a thing if you already know how to play, even better if you can swear in Chinese
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Zettace posted:There's a horse track closer than Fuchu: Tokyo City Keiba in Shinagawa. Looks like the schedule for the whole year is already posted. That's pretty cool, thanks for sharing this. Have you been before? Seems like the gates open early in the afternoon but the "main post" is at 20:10. Are there races pretty frequently between those times?
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I went once. iirc they have like 10 races through the day with the "main" one being being near the end.
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Zettace posted:I went once. iirc they have like 10 races through the day with the "main" one being being near the end. Did you book reserved seating in advance?
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I know of the website with the toll price but is there a website that shows where someone without an ETC card can pay at the toll entrance since there are some tolls where there's no way to pay without an ETC card.
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Busy Bee posted:I know of the website with the toll price but is there a website that shows where someone without an ETC card can pay at the toll entrance since there are some tolls where there's no way to pay without an ETC card. Those are 1. Rare, and 2. Labeled explicitly “ETC ONLY.” Otherwise, you pull into the green lanes at the entrance/exit. If you’re renting from a real rental spot, you should be able to get an ETC card.
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I'm lookin at some of the regional cuisines as I'm planning out potential trip places to go..in Yokohama doria seems like a tasty option and also thinking of hitting up the monjayaki area in Tokyo. Curious if these are foods you all might have opinions on? I see also Kamata has winged gyoza which just seems like...more gyoza dough which I'm not against.
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I went to a horse track one (1) time in Tokyo and it was the most insanely depressing poo poo ever. It wasn't like Hong Kong where it's somewhat attempting to be classy and/or a big event for the whole town to watch. It was just a dreary old musty racetrack building with a sparse population of insanely old ojisans just stamping out cigarettes and throwing their tickets on the ground.
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Lol they are trying so hard with the TV commercials to make horse betting seem like the cool thing for young people to do. They see the writing on the wall.
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Good Listener posted:I'm lookin at some of the regional cuisines as I'm planning out potential trip places to go..in Yokohama doria seems like a tasty option and also thinking of hitting up the monjayaki area in Tokyo. Curious if these are foods you all might have opinions on? I see also Kamata has winged gyoza which just seems like...more gyoza dough which I'm not against. If you decide to go the Monja street in Tsukishima, Tokyo, especially on a weekend, you're better off booking if you want to have an actual choice of where to go. It gets busy. There are other monja places throughout the city though.
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AHH F/UGH posted:I went to a horse track one (1) time in Tokyo and it was the most insanely depressing poo poo ever. I think there are events at Fuchu where they try and do it big for major races, similar to the big horse racing events in the UK, US and Canada, but yeah, the Tokyo City and Kawasaki tracks both are kinda depressing and trying to do things like light-up illuminations during the winter to drum up any customers.
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If you make it to Hokkaido, the sledge racing in Obihiro is actually kinda fun and not as depressing as most of the other places. I wouldn’t go all the way there just for that, though.
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My favorite areas to wander and think about food are Shimbashi and Ameyoko.
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DiscoJ posted:If you decide to go the Monja street in Tsukishima, Tokyo, especially on a weekend, you're better off booking if you want to have an actual choice of where to go. It gets busy. There are other monja places throughout the city though. Thanks for the heads up. I'm not super sure when we'll be going but will keep it in mind. Restaurants seem to be either you gotta reserve it crazy early or just wait and walk in.
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Busy Bee posted:Did you book reserved seating in advance?
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Booking a trip end of September. I see there are 2 long weekends :/ First half of the trip is split between Okayama and Osaka/Kyoto. There is a place i want to go thats fairly rural Okayama, Google maps shows a taxi stand out at the station so i can probably get there. How do i get back? Will Go/Taxi app be fine? (otherwise its like a 1-2 hour walk back to the station as im getting old) Then the plan is to Shinkansen to Osaka on the Friday (which turns out ot be a long weekend) and hopefully the hello kitty one. Whats the best place to book that and thats a month ahead right? Then we have Sat/Sun to split between Osaka or Kyoto. Should we do Kyoto on Saturday and Osaka Sunday? (no real set plans, maybe a few closer to the time), Then train to Tokyo on Monday. Is it ok to have standard luggage. 1 checked in roller thing each and a backpack for the shinkansen? We are both old and will get reesrved seats im sure
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Meskhenet posted:There is a place i want to go thats fairly rural Okayama Where are you going in Okayama, out of curiosity? You're going to want to book tickets to shink in advance if possible on long weekends, Friday especially. There are luggage racks above the seats that are perfectly fine unless your bags are truly enormous.
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You can test the taxi apps like Go by searching your destination in advance. It's not nationwide yet.
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Gabriel Grub posted:Where are you going in Okayama, out of curiosity? heading to a shrine in the middle of nowhere, seeing a bridge, and hopefullying doing the talk to a demon prayer at kibitsu (listen to a pot of rice boil) I was originally looking at car hire, but each place is an hour + in opposite directions, speed limit is 50km, so its not liek they are even that far, but ive never even been a passenger in japan. So plan is train, bus, and taxis to the really far out stuff
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It would be the same price as that taxi ride to buy a bicycle
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Meskhenet posted:heading to a shrine in the middle of nowhere I used to live in Okayama, that's why I was curious where.
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Shrine i want to see is Taro-ji a little north of Konko station. Though i see the park just a bit south of that shrine has what looks to be an awesome slide i might want to try too ><
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Looks like it’s west of Kurashiki (and for everyone wondering, I looked it up and yes, it’s some nerd poo poo). You could just ask the taxi driver to wait or come back in an hour or two. It doesn’t look like the kind of place you’d be at for all that long. Kurashiki is a nice place as well.
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Meskhenet posted:Shrine i want to see is Taro-ji a little north of Konko station. LMAO I had a post typed out last night that was "You're going to see Taro Jinja, aren't you?" but decided against it. I think I know why you're going ![]() edit: to be clear, I have been there myself. I was only able to justify it because I was working in nearby Fuchu at the time; however it was at the height of the pandemic (March 2021, when Delta was running rampant and there was no vaccine in-country yet) so it was unmanned and all of the nerd poo poo was stowed away, so I appreciated it for what it was. Navaash fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Mar 13, 2024 |
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We were thinking of going to the stairs in Your Name. I think they are around Yoyogi station.
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Navaash posted:LMAO I had a post typed out last night that was "You're going to see Taro Jinja, aren't you?" but decided against it. I think I know why you're going is there anything else to actually see in Okayama! Code is 2 5 7 right? I had to justify this trip (last one was to see a band i would never see otherwise) and this pretty much justifys it in my mind at least, its not something id ever do again. And the bridge is Seto bridge at Washuzen, but thats meant to be a pretty nice view. (not sure i want to do the 40 min bus ride there, might just taxi from Kojima station, and bus back) So id beable to use go taxi app to get back to konko station? And i am kinda almost interested in some of the pottery, would i have to go to Bizen to get legit stuff? again thats the opposite direction. Ill probably be asking about where to get shinkansen tickets in august, as there is no way id remember now. It sucks getting old.
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Nanigans posted:May I ask for those of you in Japan right now how the media is treating Toriyama’s death? I’d love to see anything of people remembering him fondly right now. ![]()
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lampey posted:
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In a Kyoto bar a few days ago I ended up drinking with a producer from MAPPA and we ended up reminiscing about Toriyama (as well as ranking all the Jojo's)
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I think the surprising thing to overseas people would be that the voice actor of Chibi Mariko's death was announced on the same day, and both pieces of news were reported and greeted with roughly the same weight.
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# ? Jun 10, 2024 21:04 |
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Makes sense considering they're both equally unimportant
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