Japan Megathread V: It's not hot it's just humid.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > Japan Megathread V: It's not hot it's just humid.

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

Hey team,

I'm in the process of planning a 2-week trip to Japan, have read a bunch of guides (and the OP) and hatched what I think is a sensible plan but still have a raft of questions which I will now deluge you with in the hope that a charitable soul will help answer some of them.

The Plan:

Flying into Tokyo (Narita airport), staying in Shinjuku (about 8 minutes walk from the station according to Google Maps) then after a few days travelling to Kyoto (where we will stay) and from there doing day trips to Osaka, Hiroshima and Nara then going back to Tokyo for a few days before flying home. I think I have it worked out so I can buy a 1-week rail pass for the week in Kyoto and all the travelling and then just use a Suica card for the Tokyo period (the last day of the railcard will be used to go from Tokyo to see some snow monkeys in Nagano).

Questions:

To get us from airport to Shinjuku I'm planning on getting the Narita Express + Suica deal mentioned in the OP (and travelwiki), does this sound sensible or am I mugging myself as cheaper options are available? When I did the maths that deal seemed to be about the same cost as the limousine bus for a return trip and a little quicker.

I want to go see a Baseball game (specifically the Giants vs the Swallows at the Tokyo Dome) but websites are in Japanese and confuse me. I've ended up getting in touch with [website name removed because they tracked me down and asked me nicely to do so as apparently this forum post is appearing in Google search results along with their name and words like 'hobo' and 'scammy'] who reckon they can get me tickets for the game for 3,100 yen each (cheap seats) - from what I can gather their business model is for me to 'reserve' the tickets and then they send a hobo out to wait in line for tickets when they go on sale. I have no idea how legit the website is, how shady this practice is or how much they're going to gouge me for my tickets but it's the best option I've found so far. If anyone wants to tell me I'm about to get scammed please do so as I've not actually paid for anything yet.

I've also asked them for a quote on Sumo tickets for the Saturday before and they reckon 5,050 yen per ticket (again cheap seats).

I got some sense of the mark-ups these guys add when they quoted me for Studio Ghibli Museum Tickets at 2,300 yen each when they cost 1,000 from the Museum's (only) official distributor in the UK (from whom I will be buying the Ghibli tickets and the rail pass) but I can't find any other options thus far.

We're also keen on seeing some Kabuki theatre, the internet reckons the best ones are in Kyoto but I have no idea whatsoever about getting tickets for them - any ideas on that would be much appreciated (I could always ask buysumotickets.com they seem to be able to get anything).

Cultural question: I'm a naive western buffoon unfamiliar with the ways of Japanese culture but I am aware that in public feet are regarded as somewhat 'icky' in terms of sitting with your shoe-soles facing people, taking shoes off being very important etc. so my question is, what's the Japanese attitude toward flip-flops? My girlfriend wore them around China when we were there last year and on at least a couple of occassions (especially outside of cities) people absolutely lost their poo poo laughing at the fact she was wearing them - that's fine but we wouldn't want to actually upset someone rather than just amuse with our backward ways them so thought I'd ask.

Also if anyone wants to advise on stuff we should absolutely definitely do (or avoid) then please throw some suggestions in. We're definitely going to the Osaka aquarium because they have that giant whale shark and toward the end of the trip we'll probably end up at Tokyo Disney because we've already been to Disneyland, Dinsey World and Disneyland Paris so at this point it'd seem churlish not to visit.

Thanks in advance for any/all help!

Jeremys Iron fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Sep 28, 2012

# ¿ Jun 24, 2012 14:52

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 11:55

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

DracoArgentum posted:

I have literally never seen flip flops here. You could get away with them because you are foreign and they assume you are an idiot, but people will probably think you are mental.

As far as tickets go
http://www.tokyo-dome.co.jp/dome/ticket/giants/fee.html is the Tokyo Dome's list of prices (in yen of course) so you can use that for comparison. The cheapest option is standing (ha) which is 1000 yen. If you want to actually sit then your cheapest option is 1700.

Thanks for this, I'd found that page when searching myself but when I click the 'English' tab at the top it takes me to the front page and I can't for the life of me navigate to an English version of the tickets page. I've given Google Translate a go but the translation provided defeats me (it's some manner of lottery?):

Google Translate posted:

Please list your desired purchase date column to start the day until 8:30 am Adv. Sequence to your customers, will be distributed one lottery ticket per person to reserve up to 8:30 am. Perform the purchase of lottery tickets in order to determine the order of the numbers in the lottery ticket spare.
One ticket per purchase, you can purchase up to four tickets.
※ exchange is done the lottery game to play another card. If two games are four per game per person per day (two games, eight in total) can be purchased up to. (Please note that is different from last year)
※ It is the lottery system, also available to come off. Can buy a seat and may be made to the sequence does not necessarily soon.
※ Excite sheet McDonald's, because of the pre-lottery sales, counter sales does not.
※ How to additional sales of the game are subject to change.
※ of purchase at the counter number is the use of "purchase tickets", so you can smoothly is a maximum of five times the purchase of one.

It sounds like these BuySumoTickets.com guys are almost doubling the price (a 1,700 class D ticket is 3,100 from them) so I'm assuming they're doing the same for sumo tickets - but frankly I can't decipher the Tokyo Dome website myself so they may still be my best bet. Don't suppose anyone has any experience using them?

As for flip-flops they're either perfectly normal and common or people will think she's mental for wearing them - is this a regional thing?

# ¿ Jun 25, 2012 00:37

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

DracoArgentum posted:

Lottery systems for tickets are not particularly unusual here. Especially for anything popular. Basically you put in a bid for the right to buy tickets. I've mostly heard of it with people trying to get tickets to see popular bands, but I see no reason why it wouldn't extend to baseball. From the website, though, it looks like the lottery may only be fore if you want season tickets. It mentions that they sell tickets at different convenience stores here, so that should be just a buy immediately. There is also a link to a website called esports for online sales, but you have to register to the site. http://eplus.jp/sys/T1U90P0101P006001P0050001P002051431P0030130

Thanks for this - it seems like Google Translate and I are going to be spending a lot of time together.

Anyone got any opinions on the Studio Ghibli museum? It's on my maybe list at the moment.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2012 19:08

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

Dmoz posted:

The Suica+N'EX pass is fantastic for getting to your hotel, not so great for returning to the airport.

Suica+N'EX gives you a ticket from Narita to Shinjuku for effectively 1500Y, which for sheer convenience is pretty awesome. The return jacks it back up to 3000Y+, which is stupidly expensive.

Travel options are basically:
Limousine bus: 3000Y, easy, potentially slow, kinda expensive.
Train: Local, change-once-at-nippori Keisei Line, at 1000Y, less if you buy a ticket at a ticket shop.
Fast, change-once-at-nippori Keisei Access Line, at 1200Y, with a much more restrictive timetable.
Faster, decent timetable Keisei OLD Skyliner, at uh 1600Y? which is basically indistinguishable from the Access line with a better timetable
Fastest Keisei line, 2600Yish, 20ish mins to nippori then 30ish mins to Narita
Easiest, expensive Narita Express which requires no changes from Shinjuku Station (but you still have to get your bags there!) at 3000Y and takes around 90mins.

Thanks for this! Going by this website (which I assume is the legit one?) http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/suica-nex/ it seems like there is some discount for getting a return as it's 5,500 yen but 3,500 one-way.

The Keisei line sounds like it could work, any ideas where I can find (English) information about it? Also you mentioned getting your bags there - are bags going to be a problem?

On the clothing thing a few people keep mentioning Uniqlo - are they particularly cheap in Japan (i.e. cheaper than London)? I also keep hearing about good second-hand/'vintage' stores in Japan - anyone care to advise me on some good ones, ideally in Tokyo, even more ideally in Shinjuku?

# ¿ Jul 2, 2012 09:16

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

I think I've now got all my tickets for Tokyo Dome Baseball, Kyoto Kabuki, Tokyo Sumo and the Studio Ghibli museum sorted after finally finding a legit-seeming UK company that could help me out (these guys in case anyone's curious) even managed to negotiate a discount on their processing fees because I organised a bunch of stuff through them at once.

My next question is about music. Is there any Japanese music anyone recommend I pick up? I have a really broad (or as some see it no) taste in music and generally like to pick up things you can't get outside of the country I'm visiting. For example when I was in Iceland I didn't buy any Bjork or Sigur Ros because you can get that anywwhere but instead took a punt on some icelandic hip-hop. Anything uniquely Japanese or notably odd I should look into?

...I'm vaguely familiar with King Giddra in terms of Japanese rap and my hometown has a couple of Japanese punk bands but that's about it for my knowledge of Japanese contemporary music.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2012 14:12

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

Sheep posted:

Here's a couple of starting points. Also this because it wouldn't be Japan without terrible pop music.

Thanks for these - that last one sounds way more like 90s European dance trash than I was expecting.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2012 11:38

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

OK so now I have places to stay, cities to visit and things to do my next stop is food. I'll mostly be in cities - Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Nagano and Hiroshima are the current itinerary and I have a couple of questions.

1) Are there any foods that I should be particularly seeking out to try, either generally in Japan or that are specific to these cities?

2) What are the chances of my sissy British stomach getting upset by food I buy in Japan? Are street-stalls generally OK or to be avoided? Should I be sticking to restaurants or am I OK to be relatively adventurous in trying stuff?

3) What kind of budgets am I looking at for different foods? I went to a couple of Yoshinoyas in Beijing which did a pretty good job of being both tasty and dirt cheap so I'm hoping that can be a good back-up for when I inevitably run out of money (though I appreciate that China's generally cheaper than Japan) but I don't mind spending some more cash to try anything particularly unique and tasty that people might recommend.

4) The main place we'll be staying for a while is Shinjuku in Tokyo - anyone want to point me to some particularly good restaurants in the blocks around the station? (Hotel looks to be about an 8 minute walk north east from it). We'll also be staying in Kyoto (near the Sanjo station if that means anything to anyone) so any recommendations there would also be awesome.

Also I'm going to be there for two weeks and while I'll have the linguistic basics of hello, goodbye, excuse me, sorry and please down I doubt I'll master much else before I get there. My intention is to do what I always do in foreign countries where I don't understand what's going on and just be generally enthusiastic and polite - are Japanese people going to be OK with that? I'm sure I'll commit some manner of cultural faux-pas at some point but I'm hoping they'll be able to play it off as my being an uncultured western idiot. Am I going to be able to approach people when I'm lost in Shinjuku station or are they going to run a mile from me?

*EDIT* Bonus Question: Am I right in thinking that the Suica card will not only work on the Tokyo Metro but also in Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima? Wikipedia seems to think that those cities cards are interoperable but I wanted to check.

Jeremys Iron fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Jul 23, 2012

# ¿ Jul 23, 2012 18:26

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

seorin posted:

Suica will work on JR lines wherever you go, but it will not work on local lines once you get a certain distance away from Tokyo. In Osaka, for example, you won't be able to use the subways, nor ride the Hankyu or Keihan lines with it. You'll either have to buy tickets to ride those, or you can get the local card (Osaka/Kyoto use Icoca).

Really? The Suica Wikipedia Page seems to reckon it's interoperable with ICOCA (even out in Hiroshima) and vice versa on the ICOCA page. If the articles are wong someone should probably edit them as they got me all excited about my trip being easier. I've been trying to find an official site to confirm but inevitably they tend to be in Japanese. I'm not doubting you, just double-checking because of the conflicting information.

GTGastby posted:

2. Japan is not China. It's a 1st world country and you won't have any problems with the food anywhere.

Your advice was pretty helpful and I appreciate it but I'd question this one - getting food poisoning in a first World country is pretty easy if you eat at the wrong places, certainly do-able in the UK, Spain, Italy, Greece (much of Europe really) and the USA. Obviously that tends to happen when you eat somewhere a bit shady but my radar for shady tends to be off in Asia because a lot of the usual indicators are different - I'm more cautious in mainland China and Indonesia than in Hong Kong or Singapore but that was really based on my own assumptions about the country (and the quality of their tap water which is often key). Just wanted to get a sense of how careful I should be - from your advice it sounds like 'not at all - eat what you want' which is great but I certainly wouldn't have taken that as a given when travelling to any country solely on the basis of it being a developed nation (which is I assume what you meant by 'first world').

Also you mentioned whale on your list of foods, do you know what whale is generally on the menu in Japan? I've eaten Minke Whale in Iceland and it was pretty good.

zmcnulty posted:

I encourage you to budget about 1500 yen for lunch per day. No more, no less. Yes you can get fast food/Yoshinoya for cheaper, but by budgeting more you expand your options tenfold. You can get awesome lunches of tonkatsu, sushi, beef bowl, ramen, grilled fish, tempura, Japanese curry, whatever Japanese-y foods you want with this kind of budget. With just 500 yen, you're really limited.

By the same token, don't spend more than 1500 yen on lunch, since past that price point, the cost/benefit ratio goes down the shitter. If you want to splurge, do it at night.

This is really helpful - I'm not on a tiny back-packer shoestring budget but don't have money to burn either so a general sense of what's reasonable to expect is good to have. I'll aim for 1,500 and then just try whatever looks good.

One last question, should I be expecting Tokyo to be notably more expensive than the other cities or are they all relatively similar?

# ¿ Jul 24, 2012 21:34

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

seorin posted:

The cards are interchangeable as long as you're using JR lines. My Suica doesn't work on Hanshin/Hankyu, so I picked up an Icoca. I tried that on the subway when I was in Fukuoka just for laughs, and as expected it didn't work. However, since this is all anecdotal, it's possible they got Suica deals with more local companies since I last tried it a few months ago. Be prepared for it to not work and give it a shot anyway; all that happens if it doesn't is the ticket gate beeps at you and flutters its ineffectual little gates shut.

So are JR lines just trains but not subways? (sorry still mastering the terminology) I had it in my head that Suica and ICOCA were for city transit systems like the subway, buses etc. (like Oyster in London or the Charlie card in Boston) so when Wikipedia said they were interoperable I thought that meant they'd work on each other's subway systems too. Is it just that they're interoperable on city trains (or JR lines) but not that other good stuff? Wikipedia reckons they started working together around 2008 so if this didn't work for you last month then it sounds like I may be out of luck. To clarify I'll likely be using the subway in Osaka and Kyoto, possibly Hiroshima.

*EDIT* found a travel forum and did some more googling - I hadn't realised that the JR lines were so limited. Seems like I'll just have to buy a day pass in Osaka and whatever they have in Kyoto (I'm assuming there's a similar card though I've yet to find details about it).

GTGastby posted:

I don't know where you are eating that getting food poisoning is "pretty easy". Anyways, I'd argue that saying a place is a "first world country" is equivalent to saying "it's food standards will be similar to the US". My point was that Japan is not like the rest of Asia in regards to food quality.

Also, sorry if my use of "first world" offended you. Feel free to substitute "developed country", "advanced country", "industrialized country", "'more developed country" (MDC), "more economically developed country" (MEDC), "Global North country", "first world country", or "post-industrial country", as you will.

Anyways, yes, the water is perfectly fine. Use the same amount of caution as you would in the US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, or the UK.

I'm not sure about the whale at all, unfortunately.

You kinda chopped off all the context from my quote there - if you'd quoted the rest of sentence I think it's a pretty reasonable thing to say. Also I wasn't offended by your use of 'first world' I was just trying to make sure I understood what you were saying as the term does have multiple meanings. I put the note in there in case you got frustrated that I'd misunderstood you, instead you seem to have become frustrated by me asking to confirm so it seems like I hosed up there. Very sorry.

Jeremys Iron fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Jul 25, 2012

# ¿ Jul 25, 2012 19:27

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

Original_Z posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M0gfvg0IdU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0HGFly2kO8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfmrZfdvhgk

Thanks for these too - if you guys could keep arguing about music and posting relevant links that'd be perfect for what I'm after.

In terms of genres I guess I'd be interested in the best or most representative (appreciate it's subjective) of a few genres, like rock, hip-hop, pop, acoustic indie stuff and feel free to throw in some artsy weird poo poo too.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2012 19:05

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

PowerLlama posted:

Wow, those pictures are beautiful. Thanks for the link

We actually got a cheap round-trip flight from Tokyo to Ishigaki, so we'll be making a bit of a loop. Going Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka/Nara - Tokyo.

Oh hey - looks like we'll be making similar trips at pretty much the same time.

Japan's cities are notoriously de-populated so I'm sure we'll bump into each other at some point.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2012 09:39

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

With my 2-week trip across Japan occurring shortly I thought I'd ask about this cash-economy thing they apparently have going on.

It's been discussed a bit in the thread and in the various guide books I've taken out of the library but I thought I'd ask roughly what ratio of cash to credit card (Mastercard / Amex) I should expect to be able to use. I much prefer to use credit card and know I'm going to need some cash but trying to get a sense of how much I'll need. I appreciate much of this will depend on where I spend my money - most of my costs will likely be on food and possibly weird tat I decide to buy as and when. Will I be able to buy Suica cards etc. on credit card?

If it helps I'll mostly be in cities - Tokyo and Kyoto are the hubs with day trips to Hiroshima, Nara and Osaka from Kyoto and Nagano from Tokyo.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2012 01:24

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

drat I hadn't realised that getting cash out would be a pain as well! How are they on Visa/Link cards? I may just have to get a bunch of Yen before I head out there by the sounds of it.

...if only entire life weren't predicated on using credit cards to defer payment for everything by a month.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2012 19:14

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

I have two more bonus questions:

1) Mobile phones - I assume my phone will work in Japan? It's worked everywhere else I've ever been in Asia but didn't know if Japan had any particularly wacky standards.

2) Plug sockets - am I right in thinking that they're like American ones so if I bring a bunch of UK-to-US adapters I should be fine?

# ¿ Aug 19, 2012 21:52

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

kapalama posted:

Almost the same but American plugs are often polarized.

If you have the American plug that is polarized they will not fit in many Japanese sockets.

Also, though in general it does not matter, Japanese power is 100v, not 120v. The frequency is split between 50hz and 60Hz. Anything that autoswtiches should be fine, but the strangest stuff is not autoswitching.

Nintendo DS Lites for instance are not autoswitching. My Japanese-bought one works in America, but it is strictly a 100v adaptor, and would not work in Europe, for instance.

as someone unfamiliar with a 'polarised' US plug is that when one of the plugs is slightly wider? If so that's not a problem as adaptors never have that (or at least none of mine do).

# ¿ Aug 20, 2012 21:31

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

Hey team, I'm now putting the finishing touches to the plan for my 2-week Japan trip at the end of the month and think I have most things worked out.

I'm going to be approaching this trip as I do most trips by embracing my role as an enthusiastic but stupid tourist and have just read about Akihabara on travel wiki - I know almost nothing about anime but I enjoy a good arcade game and weird themed restauarant as much as anyone so it looks like good times - the current plan is to go on a Sunday (before the Swallows Giants game at the Tokyo Dome!) which is apparently when they pedestrianise the main street and it fills with cosplayers and the like. If I see some people in particularly awesome/hilarious/weird costumes are they going to be offenced/confused/weirded-out if I ask to have a photo with them? I know that they're just regular people with a hobby rather than the people you get in Red Square or Hollywood that dress up in order for people to pay for photos with them so I've no idea what their attitude to that kind of thing would be and while I think it'd be a cool photo to have I also don't want to upset anyone.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2012 17:59

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

DiscoJ posted:

I've been to Akihabara on a Sunday a few times but I don't think I've ever come across any cosplayers there. I suppose I may have gone at the wrong time/to the wrong place though.

If you want to see a lot of cosplayers, you might want to head to the Tokyo Dome a bit earlier as the attached 'Tokyo Dome City' seems to be where cosplayers hang out on Sundays.

Ah this is good to know - I was going solely off its entry in Wikitravel which says:

WikiTravel posted:

On Sundays, the main thoroughfare Chūō-dōri is closed to vehicles, and it turns into an unofficial stage for cosplayers (people dressed up as cartoon characters) and local bands to strut their stuff. Sadly, this is not as populated as it once was following a bizarre 2008 incident where a knife-wielding lunatic went around stabbing people at random, but the cosplayers are slowly returning.

Which made it sound like an entertainingly bat-poo poo place to visit for a couple of hours.

I'll actually be going to the Tokyo Dome area on a Sunday anyway to see a baseball game so I may well end up getting my quota there.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2012 09:51

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 11:55

Jeremys Iron: Aug 18, 2006; "Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8 O'clock, Time to get Bizzay"

EasternBronze posted:

I would suggest not bothering with credit cards, I lived there nearly two years and used cash for everything. Be prepared to have alot of useless change at the end though. I liken using your card at most shops to be around the same annoyance level for everyone around you as using a $100 bill to buy a candy bar at a gas station. Yes, you can do it but people will kind of roll their eyes at you. Don't worry about carrying so much cash, it seems crazy if you're from the states but that's just the way everyone does it. Most places are extremely safe and I never had a single problem in that regard.

My issue isn't so much around worrying about carrying cash - more that my entire budgeting system is built on credit cards allowing me to defer payment for things (responsible I know) so getting cash out is much more problematic.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2012 15:04

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > Japan Megathread V: It's not hot it's just humid.