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I loaded the funds in JPY and immediately my bank app told me I had spent XYZ in CAD on VISA, which was always roughly what I expected given the exchange rate at the time. Can’t say I really did the math though. So the initial purchase is in JPY but the conversion behind the scenes probably depends on your specific funding source w/r/t forex purchases etc. Sorry, can’t be of any more help than that :[
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Oct 1, 2019 20:56
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Nah, that's exactly what I wanted to know, thanks! I have a credit card without foreign fees, so I will probably use that for the Suica app. It'll save me a couple bucks. My wife and friend will have to make due with the 3% or whatever is charged at the ATM, but at least this way, I'll have access to the trains and everything immediately upon landing. That was kind of a sticking point for my wife. She was apprehensive about not having cash immediately upon landing. I told her she was being nuts, and when she noticed the currency exchange counter here in the states was already closed the day she planned to go, she finally resigned herself to just taking cash out at the airport instead of at home. She's usually pretty chill, but this was something that was bothering her.
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Oct 1, 2019 21:10
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You know there's also currency exchanges in Haneda Airport - and probably with better rates, too.
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Oct 1, 2019 21:50
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totalnewbie posted:You know there's also currency exchanges in Haneda Airport - and probably with better rates, too. Yup. My wife is nuts.
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Oct 1, 2019 22:40
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Oh, one other thought re: using credit cards When my sister was here last week and making purchases with her US card, she had the option to charge it in USD or JPY. Almost always, the USD rate they were using was extremely disadvantageous — like 101 JPY : USD at a time when the rate hovers around 108. It might only be a couple dollars on smaller purchases, but on a hotel stay? Just keep that in mind.
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Oct 1, 2019 23:28
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Nanigans posted:Yup. Make sure you limit how much she takes out because it’s literally just like tearing up money.
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Oct 2, 2019 01:09
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Nanigans posted:Remember when I said I wouldn't post my itinerary? I lied. You may as well go see TeamLabs Planets when you go see Borderless. It opens an hour before Borderless does and I think it's better than Borderless. Just remember to bring a pair of shorts if you don't want to borrow one for Planets. You might also consider hitting these places as an alternative to a convenience store breakfast: - Ichiran (open 24 hours) - Ramen for breakfast! Also get to avoid the lines that will form from lunch onwards. - Matsuya/Yoshinoya/Sukiya (open 24 hours) - Get that cheap gyudon meal experience in.
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Oct 2, 2019 01:49
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Oh lord you think you’re coming from the east coast and able to just stay awake past 4 pm. Jet lag is real and strong and will hit you like a sack of hammers.
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Oct 2, 2019 02:18
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LimburgLimbo posted:Make sure you limit how much she takes out because it’s literally just like tearing up money. She makes way more money than I do. She's crazy, but she can do what she wants. I tried to tell her, but  edit: She finally relented and will just wait for the ATMs in Haneda. It was actually easier than I thought. .Z. posted:You may as well go see TeamLabs Planets when you go see Borderless. It opens an hour before Borderless does and I think it's better than Borderless. Just remember to bring a pair of shorts if you don't want to borrow one for Planets. We're taking some shorts in case it's warm, but I'm not sure if I can/want to hit up both TeamLabs. Aren't they each like 3 hours long? If anything, maybe I'll save the other one for the next trip. Also, I'm a coffee snob so I'm hoping to hit some coffee places recommended by Sprudge, which a goon in here kindly linked. I don't think my wife could eat ramen/gyudon at 7 am, though that sounds amazing. harperdc posted:Oh lord you think you’re coming from the east coast and able to just stay awake past 4 pm. My plan is to stay awake as long as possible on the plane, maybe take an hour or two long nap. Since we're getting there after 20:00, I figure I'll be so dead tired I'll sleep through the night no problem and keep a relatively normal sleep cycle.
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Oct 2, 2019 02:23
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Planning my second trip to Japan for december. Booked flights months ago when i saw direct flights to haneada for cheap, but lagged on accomodation because i wasnt sure of how i wanted to split my time between the city and countryside. Looks like all the cheaper airbnb options in shibuya and shinjuku are occupied so i might try a hotel stay for the first leg of my trip. Anyone have any first hand experience w hotel gracery in shinjuku? the godzilla hotel. its that or hilton shinjuku or maybe the keio plaza My first trip last year i went with my brother and i devoured like 80 pages of this thread for last minute planning and prep. we ended up going off his lonely planet pocket guide for most things, though we did visit both teamlabs exhibitions which were a great highlight of the trip. I also dragged him to the HUB in shibuya the night we landed because i guess I didnt pick up on the obvious sarcasm every time it got reccommended itt. It wasnt bad but lol at going to a british pub themed venue the first night in tokyo. We had a lot of early starts and did lots of dutiful tourist stuff, but in doing so we all but missed out on the iconic messiness of the party hours in shibuya/shinjuku so my first few days will probably just be devoted to a few late nights out. The only time i saw any bit of the country was alongside the highway to narita the day we flew out. Determined to get a bit of that in as well. I actually have a text file with a bunch of unattributed quotes from this thread w suggestions on what to do where to go what to eat that i gotta find a few things to fit into the 8 nights im there. excited!
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Oct 2, 2019 05:04
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harperdc posted:Oh lord you think you’re coming from the east coast and able to just stay awake past 4 pm. I may just be a weirdo, but I cannot sleep on planes so I'm awake the whole flight, and when I get to my destination I force myself to stay up until I can go to bed at some time that would be reasonable on the new time zone. I also have an alarm set so I don't sleep more than nine hours or so. I am fully on the new time zone the next day and I have never had jet lag. Not going to claim it works for everyone, but it does for me. And I have horrific insomnia issues so it's not like I'm inclined to sleep well or anything.
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Oct 2, 2019 05:16
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Is that Suica app the one that disables your existing physical card when you add it to the app so you can only use your phone or am I thinking of something else entirely?
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Oct 2, 2019 05:58
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Question Mark Mound posted:Is that Suica app the one that disables your existing physical card when you add it to the app so you can only use your phone or am I thinking of something else entirely? The app is for adding a suica card to Apple wallet without needing a physical card first. It’s when you add a physical card to Apple Wallet that disables the physical card.
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Oct 2, 2019 06:08
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Grand Fromage posted:I may just be a weirdo, but I cannot sleep on planes so I'm awake the whole flight, and when I get to my destination I force myself to stay up until I can go to bed at some time that would be reasonable on the new time zone. I also have an alarm set so I don't sleep more than nine hours or so. I am fully on the new time zone the next day and I have never had jet lag. I think you're a bit of an alien, I've always had at least a day or two of issues after travel (even from only one or two time zones away). I'm tall so I don't sleep on planes at all, and I've had rough times going to and coming back from the East coast to Japan. It's not an easy one, and I think last time it took me almost a week to get back on schedule, and that means wide-eyed at 4 am and feeling groggy at 6 pm.
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Oct 2, 2019 07:07
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Hub is great you just need to do it right and embrace cheap drinks and people watching and bullshit
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Oct 2, 2019 08:01
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LimburgLimbo posted:Hub is great you just need to do it right and embrace cheap drinks and people watching and bullshit And the occasional guy offering to sell you cocaine.
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Oct 2, 2019 09:11
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Grand Fromage posted:I may just be a weirdo, but I cannot sleep on planes so I'm awake the whole flight, and when I get to my destination I force myself to stay up until I can go to bed at some time that would be reasonable on the new time zone. I also have an alarm set so I don't sleep more than nine hours or so. I am fully on the new time zone the next day and I have never had jet lag. Yeah, this is me. I'm not super tall (5'8'', maybe 5'9'') but I just can't get comfortable enough on a plane to sleep. I'm also used to running on 6 hours of sleep most days, so a quick nap on the plane will probably be enough to get me through the time difference. My wife and friend on the other hand...we'll see. Though I suppose if they're hosed by jetlag, I can't just up and leave them either.
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Oct 2, 2019 12:51
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Waking up and crashing early is actually an asset for touristing.
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Oct 2, 2019 12:58
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Grand Fromage posted:I may just be a weirdo, but I cannot sleep on planes so I'm awake the whole flight, and when I get to my destination I force myself to stay up until I can go to bed at some time that would be reasonable on the new time zone. I also have an alarm set so I don't sleep more than nine hours or so. I am fully on the new time zone the next day and I have never had jet lag. I thought I was the only one incapable of sleeping on that lovely long haul flight   I do pretty much what you do, but the first night, no matter how long I stay up, I end up waking up at like 3am. Does pass pretty quickly though, and by the second night I'm like 95% acclimated. And as stated above, waking up early was actually great for me the first few mornings since I got to see all the shrines I wanted with minimal crowds. Once I got acclimated to staying up later I shifted to seeing more night-life. Win/win. This time around I need to find some good looking , fashionable walking shoes that don't look like cross-trainers. I wore my converse for the first week and paid for it in painful blisters, but the running shoes I brought didn't go with anything I wore. Definitely need to fix that before this upcoming trip. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 14:22
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Just buy some new balances or hiking boots. No one cares.
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Oct 2, 2019 14:31
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Ullllllttraaaaaa boooooooosts
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Oct 2, 2019 14:54
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Martytoof posted:This time around I need to find some good looking , fashionable walking shoes that don't look like cross-trainers. I wore my converse for the first week and paid for it in painful blisters, but the running shoes I brought didn't go with anything I wore. Definitely need to fix that before this upcoming trip. just wear the running shoes, if you're walking 10+ km a day it's better to do that comfortably than fashionably. besides, you're a tourist, you'll already stand out. prompt posted:Ullllllttraaaaaa boooooooosts also yes
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Oct 2, 2019 15:06
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.Z. posted:The app is for adding a suica card to Apple wallet without needing a physical card first. It’s when you add a physical card to Apple Wallet that disables the physical card.
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Oct 2, 2019 15:09
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LimburgLimbo posted:Hub is great you just need to do it right and embrace cheap drinks and people watching and bullshit these are not the reasons i thought people went to hub
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Oct 2, 2019 17:07
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mikeycp posted:these are not the reasons i thought people went to hub HUB レモン L - ¥500
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Oct 2, 2019 17:18
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Phone posted:HUB レモン L - ¥500 Okay one it’s 560 yen, two it’s 280 during happy hour.
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Oct 2, 2019 17:22
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Jet lag is such a strange phenomenon, the lag I get flying out of Holland into Japan (+8 hours) is so strong it's just impossible to stay awake when it hits. There's no point during the normal course of things that you ever get that sleepy but when you change time zones, you do. Nowadays I just take melatonin at the beginning of the flight and sleep like a brick to try to mitigate it a bit, it only works for the first day or two and then the lag hits anyway
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Oct 2, 2019 18:52
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Nanigans posted:
Fave food: gyoza dogs, alien mochis, donald duck shrimp buns. We had a surprisingly good counter service lunch at Yucatan grill. For Big Band Beat, they have a lottery booth by the Venetian gondolas where you choose a time and you can win fastpass tickets for that time in the lower bowl of the auditorium. If, like me, you don't win, they have standby seating in the upper level. We showed up about 20 minutes before the show and got in no problem. Nanigans posted:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If you're comfortable being naked around your friend, Oedo Onsen in Odaiba is worth a visit. A super touristy onsen, but a great way to spend an afternoon relaxing. My wife and I went after Borderless and were expecting to stay for an hour or two, and ended up staying for 5 hours. Definitely bring snacks with you to Borderless. There's no food on site other than the tea room, and you can't go in/out once you've entered. There's a Family mart by the monorail station, so grab some onigiri on your way in. And once you enter Borderless, head straight to the 'lamp room' because there's a limited number of people allowed inside so it builds a long line quickly.
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Oct 2, 2019 19:01
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I've heard those Alien mochi were good. And the shrimp buns are near Aquatopia? I heard those are good too. Is Yucatan Mexican food? I'm curious how the Japanese would treat Mexican food. You hear about Japanese takes on Italian, French, Chinese and American food all the time. Also good to know about the standby seating not being bad! And man, my wife is a super pretty lady (obviously I'm biased), thin and petite, but she's real prudish about nudity. She's the type to always wrap a towel around her even in the locker room. Onsen is like the one major Japanese tourist thing we're not doing, I think.
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Oct 2, 2019 19:08
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Would it be okay to ask for advice on the JET program application on this thread?
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Oct 2, 2019 22:08
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harperdc posted:Oh lord you think you’re coming from the east coast and able to just stay awake past 4 pm. I never have really bad jet lag coming from the west coast to Japan. I sleep on the plane, and the plane usually arrives at like 5-6AM. So in other words it's a really long day with not so good sleep. Then I get tired around dinner time and go to sleep around 9PM the first day, then wake up at 6AM the next. I keep like a wake up at 6AM schedule entirely while traveling cause it means you can get to places before tourists. Or if you're at an onsen ryokan you can take a morning bath, which sometimes really loving sucks because it turns out 6AM to 7AM is also when every loving oyaji likes to take their morning bath.
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Oct 2, 2019 22:39
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Hiro Protagonist posted:Would it be okay to ask for advice on the JET program application on this thread? Yeah it's fine, basically the same posters in every thread but LAN might be more specific?? JET is a mystery, there's lots of cool people but some huge creeps and weirdos get accepted every year, too. Placement is ???!!! Try not to be a massive weeb, talk about any foreign travel/living/survival experience or leadership experience you've done. I didn't even get an interview so I took an eikaiwa job instead and I'm still heckin here 14 years later, lol. Good luck.
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Oct 3, 2019 00:35
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geese posted:Definitely bring snacks with you to Borderless. There's no food on site other than the tea room, and you can't go in/out once you've entered. You’re not supposed to eat in there, and for good reason. Take a quick stop in the break rooms and drink water (which is on sight). Also leave your bag(s) in a locker and experience it without much on you, trust me on this.
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Oct 3, 2019 00:43
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peanut posted:Yeah it's fine, basically the same posters in every thread but LAN might be more specific?? I was curious, some people recommended trying to find volunteer teaching work before submitting in November? Does that sound right? I've worked with kids in the past, have a Humanities Master's, and tried to present my being the oldest of 4 children as experience leading and guiding kids of different ages. Would it be just extra unnecessary work?
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Oct 3, 2019 01:02
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I've never heard of an Asian English teaching program caring about their teachers having any sort of skills or experience beyond being white and not having the foreigner plague of AIDS. JET is the one I know the least about though.
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Oct 3, 2019 01:07
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It’s funny that SuicaEng just came up, as I discovered it today and was going to mention it in this thread. Just downloaded and charged it for our trip next month. Super easy to use and I love the idea of being able to reload it from Apple Pay whenever it starts to run low. Also, for shoes I highly recommend a pair of Blundstone boots with some of those Dr. Scholl’s gel inserts. I do hotel maintenance for a living and am constantly on the move, and these things are a godsend. They also are light weight, slip off easily (no laces), and can be worn with pants or shorts.
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Oct 3, 2019 01:14
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Ok, I'm just confused because people seem to talk about how the JET program has the weirdest acceptance criteria, with people that should be immediate hires being turned down for insanely bad candidates. It's made me weirdly paranoid. Like, I have a bunch of experience with Japanese Buddhism and relevant Japanese history. Is that a plus, or will they think that "Japan is irreligious now, so that won't help"?
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Oct 3, 2019 01:16
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Hiro Protagonist posted:Ok, I'm just confused because people seem to talk about how the JET program has the weirdest acceptance criteria, with people that should be immediate hires being turned down for insanely bad candidates. It's made me weirdly paranoid. Like, I have a bunch of experience with Japanese Buddhism and relevant Japanese history. Is that a plus, or will they think that "Japan is irreligious now, so that won't help"? Idk, half of the people who think that JET is an impossible labyrinth to get into will post at length about it. But everyone who is genuinely credentialed just gets in with zero fuss. Then it’s later revealed that the same people complaining about not getting into JET are the anime club nerds from high school that were failing half of their classes.
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Oct 3, 2019 01:32
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Phone posted:Idk, half of the people who think that JET is an impossible labyrinth to get into will post at length about it. But everyone who is genuinely credentialed just gets in with zero fuss. Thanks, that makes me feel better.
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Oct 3, 2019 01:37
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I used to do JET interviews. The most confident candidate I ever saw got disqualified before stepping into the interview for being weird in the waiting room. I'm sure he has posted some convoluted rants somewhere about how he was too much of an expert on Japan or some other combination of factors, never guessing that it was just that he was a jerk and we passed word to his panel not to give him a score.
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Oct 3, 2019 02:15
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