Japan: Donki is both the best and worst store I've ever seen

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > Japan: Donki is both the best and worst store I've ever seen

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surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

I don't know if I'm doing it wrong or if just everything is totally booked, but I can't find a single Chicago or D.C. to Tokyo ANA flight from late August through September that has business or first-class tickets available for award bookings. gently caress, I'm looking eight months away, goddammit

surf rock fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Jan 8, 2023

# ¿ Jan 7, 2023 23:45

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 18:40

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

Mister Chief posted:

Don't go to Japan in August.

Are September and October good months to visit? I'm guessing August is a heat/humidity issue?

# ¿ Jan 8, 2023 05:53

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

I'm planning to take a solo trip to Japan this September. I'm not an experienced traveler outside of the U.S., so I guess I'm wondering if anything I'm planning is Exceptionally Stupid� and should be avoided.

Planned travel itinerary

9/16: nonstop United flight to IAD (arrive 4:20 pm), spend the night in DC
9/17: nonstop ANA flight to HND at 12:15 pm
9/18: Flight arrives in HND at 3:20 pm
9/30: nonstop ANA flight back to IAD at 10:55 am, arrive at 10:35 am (isn't that neat), and then a nonstop United flight back home at 12:30 pm

I know I'm cutting it close with my connection on the way home so a delay with my first flight or an extra-long wait in customs would sabotage my second flight, but I'm not worried about navigating that if it happens; it would be easy to resolve.

I've got a boatload of Chase Ultimate Rewards points from my Sapphire Reserve card... but I guess I'm too late to book anything above Economy with those. I checked departures from both IAD and ORD for weeks surrounding my dates, and I didn't see first-class or business-class tickets available for awards usage. Oh well. I've never actually used my points before, but I think I can use this deal through Virgin Atlantic to book the IAD/HND tickets for 65k points roundtrip, so that's pretty cool.

Stuff I'm planning to do if it's open

Tokyo Metro. Gov. Building observation deck (night) <-- I'm planning to stay at the Hyatt Regency Tokyo across the street from it; I've heard this is a cool view (unfortunately, this is another case where my plan to book a nice suite using Chase points has been sabotaged by what's actually available)
teamLab Planets
Samurai Museum <-- I think this is still closed due to COVID, but maybe it reopens by then
Robot Restaurant <-- same as Samurai Museum
Square Enix Cafe <-- I think I need a reservation for this one
Hakushu restaurant <-- I'm sure I need a reservation for this one
Tokyo National Museum
Akihabara (Super Potato)
Kabuki show (find one-act hitomakumi with English subtitle tablets)
Ghibli Museum
Sumo morning practice (find a tour)
Baseball game (Giants or Swallows)
Pro wrestling show (NJPW or Stardom)

That's about one activity per day, and I'd group together some of them that are nearby each other, and others may not actually be an option while I'm there. So, I think my events plan is kind of sparse compared to some folks, but I'd like to have a a decent amount of unstructured time to wander around and see stuff like parks and shrines. I've also thought about making day-trips to visit a hot spring, Mt. Fuji, Tokyo DisneySea, or Ghibli Park (which I think will be partially opened by then). I feel like if I add one or especially two of those things to the list, my agenda should be full.

Any advice appreciated, thank you!

# ¿ Feb 12, 2023 04:09

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

Charles 2 of Spain posted:

I don't think the robot restaurant is coming back.

Honestly that's fine, I saw some pictures and the insane spectacle seemed cool, but maybe I can find something else along those lines. Or a wrestling show would probably provide more than enough spectacle.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2023 04:22

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

Grand Fromage posted:

The Edo Tokyo museum is really cool. If you're into cooking at all a walk through Kappabashi is a good time even if you don't buy anything.

I also love a long urban walk and suggest always doing that in a new city if you can. Walking from like Shinjuku or Shibyua to Asakusa takes maybe five or six hours if you go slow and do some wandering, stop off for lunch, and it's a lot of fun to just see life on the street.

It sounds like the museum will still be closed by then unfortunately: https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/the-edo-tokyo-museum-in-ryogoku-is-closing-for-three-years-from-april-2022-012422

# ¿ Feb 12, 2023 04:28

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

Mister Chief posted:

Gonna assume he means the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo.

Yeah, the bulleted list part is the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. I had also thought about the Ghibli Park that I know is elsewhere in the country, but I kind of knew that was a long-shot since I think it's only just opening now and I imagine the domestic demand is very very high.

Wonton posted:

It�s a good first time japan itinerary, just stay in either nikko/kawaguchiko /hakone for 2 days and you are good.

Sorry, this is the first I'm hearing of any of those; could you say more about why you enjoy those locations? I'm guessing the core idea is just to get out of the city for a bit.

Wonton posted:

Do you have to stay in shinjuku? Coming from HND if you want views, stay in shiodome. It�s a lot closer to the airport and will save you at least 45 min time from HND. Shiodome is also close to Tokyo station ish and shimbashi which have a lot of restaurants

No, but that hotel seemed like a pretty central location where it would be easy to get around to everything else I had planned. I only need to go to/from the airport twice, so I'm not too worried about that element of it.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2023 04:59

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

Wonton posted:

Most of the sights you listed are on the ginza subway line. Team planets is a lot closer to shiodome (well toyosu is far). Sumo practice is probably on the East side of the river.

Ghibli museum is a half day even if you are in shinjuku. You can go to Tokyo station and take the chuo line to mitaka. You can swing by the metropolitan building on your way back.

Hyatt regency is in tochomae station of the oedo line, it�s hell getting in and out. You have to walk 900 meters everyday to the JR station. The part of shinjuku is for chain hotels or government workers.

Shiodome isn�t much better but a lot smaller and closer to your touristy locations. And the hotel buildings are probably newer and nicer.

But these are minor details which don�t matter much to fish out of water tourists.

Still, I appreciate the insights! I'm definitely not locked in on lodging. Ideally I'd stay at a Hyatt property though so that I could use my points, and it looks like the only one in that area is Tokyo Station Hotel, which looks sick but isn't accepting any bookings during my stay.

Waltzing Along posted:

Where are you coming from? Flying to the east coast rather than the west coast is going to make your trip a bit longer. If you can fly to LAX or SFO or even something in the NW you will cut some time out of your flight.

I think I just defaulted to looking at IAD and ORD since I'm familiar with those airports. It's a fair point I should check other options though.

harperdc posted:

Ghibli Museum Tokyo was always a tough get pre-pandemic, not sure that�s going to get any easier even with the new park getting the spotlight right now. Wouldn�t put it down as a guarantee but a �good luck.�

NJPW and Stardom, try to aim for shows at Korakuen both for number of shows available and the history of the place. It�s not super big and is cool to see a live show at.

Baseball, try earlier in the month because the end is close to playoffs getting started (or actual playoffs starting) which will be a much tougher ticket. Also Yokohama I�d consider, though obviously Tokyo Dome has a pull (and I think the Japan Hall of Fame?) and seeing the Swallows at Meiji Jingu is a ton of fun.

Nikko is in Tochigi, probably better as an overnight trip, and is famous for Nikko Toshogu shrine.

Kawaguchiko is one of the cities (and a lake) in the foothills of Mt Fuji, and is a fun trip.

Hakone is the classic daytrip from Tokyo, you can also easily get from there to another lake near Fuji and see some real sights. Ride the pirate ship.

Thank you for these rundowns! I think I'm fairly settled on my dates, but I'll try to do the baseball game in my first couple of days there; I really appreciate that advice. Also, thank you for the rundowns; Hakone in particular sounds very cool.

Busy Bee posted:

Tickets for the month are listed the month prior on the 10th e.g tickets for March are released on February 10th.

I know they have a section for people outside of Japan but I believe it sells out very quickly.

The section for Japanese does not sell out very quickly and is fairly simple to get (if you are outside of Japan) if you have a VPN and a Japanese phone number to verify your account.

The new Ghibli Park outside of Nagoya is a very hot sell and I believe tickets for March 2023 were released in December 2022 and sold out pretty quick.

Ahhh, thank you for the top about the museum; that's super helpful.

Ned posted:

If you want something that is better than the Robot Museum but along the same lines, I suggest a burlesque place called After Party Tokyo. They put on good shows but slightly expensive. Very intimate environment though.

That's fun! Thank you, I've got it on the ideas list.

surf rock fucked around with this message at 15:51 on Feb 12, 2023

# ¿ Feb 12, 2023 15:37

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

OK, I've booked my flights; I'm locked in for arriving on September 18 and departing September 30. I'm open to suggestions for lodging! You can see my planned events list on the last page.

Looking at the Hyatt properties since I could use Chase points with those, I think the Regency locations in Tokyo Bay and Yokohama seem pretty out-of-the-way. The Park Hyatt, Gajoen, and Andaz are way too expensive, and I think the Tokyo Station Hotel isn't accepting awards bookings.
I've always planned on the Hyatt Regency Tokyo, where I could get a 28 sq. m. room with 180,000 Chase points. If I paid for it outright, it would be $1,968 for the 12 nights. Either way, there's an extra $431 in taxes/fees.
The high-end option that's not inconceivable is the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, where I could get a 42 sq. m. room with 300,000 Chase points. If I paid for it outright, it would be $5,316; I'm definitely not doing that. Either way, there's an extra $1,425 in taxes/fees.
Alternatively, there's the Hyatt Centric Ginza Tokyo, where I could get a 35 sq. m. room with 300,000 Chase points. If I paid for it outright, it would be $4,644; I'm not doing that either. Either way, there's an extra $1,247 in taxes/fees.

I'm kind of using this post for note-taking from my research, but if anyone has tips for places to stay, I'm all ears. I know the Shiodome area has already been suggested. In terms of lodging budget, it's probably max $2,500 out-of-pocket. I kind of figure these are my best options since I can defray the costs so much using these points, but I also haven't looked into anything else yet so maybe I'm a dummy.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2023 03:37

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

Thanks all for the feedback! Some quick thoughts:

- I don't need to stay in the lap of luxury, but I'd like to be happy and comfortable with where I'm staying. I don't think I'll be out adventuring 16 hours a day for two weeks straight, and given my stomach's track record, I'm likely to be knocked out with food poisoning-like symptoms at least one day.
- I'll look into the Toyoko and Dormy options! I've also seen a recommendation for Hotel Century Southern Tower, but that looks like it's in the same area as the Regency so I'm guessing that only makes sense if the pricing is competitive since it would have the same drawbacks folks have mentioned.
- I do plan to look into Airbnb, but I've had enough sketchy experiences with Airbnb domestically that I'm a little dubious of it in general at this point. Of course, that was usually from me trying to score a deal and going to a place without many reviews. When I look into this, I'll specifically check the Shiodome and Shibuya - Naka Meguro areas.

harperdc posted:

Hyatt Regency Tokyo is fine, especially if you can cover most of it with points. Where you stay impacts your travel, it doesn�t mean you can only visit places that are in walking distance. It�s a 5-10 minute walk to the west JR entrance for Shinjuku Station, which means plenty of trains to go other places.

�Perfect is the enemy of good� it�ll be a good hotel, the location is fine, and if it meets your budget/points target then go for it and worry more about your itinerary than finding a Perfect Place.

It's a fair point. I've got seven months until the trip; my hope is to have my lodging settled in the next month and then I can play around with the itinerary for a bit.

Busy Bee posted:

That is a huge waste of Chase UR points to be honest, I would save it where you can get more value for your points.

If you have suggestions for better value, I'm open to it. I've been saving them for five years and when I finally went to use them for the flights on this trip, literally every awards option aside from economy was already booked. So, I feel like I'm going to be dead before I get to use this poo poo in an optimal scenario because award availability is so limited.

Ned posted:

Also, if you are flying to Narita you can crash here a couple of nights at Ned and Breakfast. I don't take points or money.

I'll be flying to/from HND, but thank you for the kind offer!

# ¿ Feb 14, 2023 15:08

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

Riptor posted:

Hotel Century Southern Tower is great; I've stayed there several times. Its far more "in" everything than the Regency is; the Regency feels far far more separate from the fun stuff, especially at night.

Oh, good to know! Maybe I should be using Google street view as I look at these places; it's hard to tell with some of this stuff just looking at the map.

Busy Bee posted:

I've been hearing a lot of horror stories of people using Airbnb in the states - extra fees, not advertised properly etc. but from my experience staying in Airbnb's in Tokyo, it's been great. You get to stay in actual neighborhoods rather than being surrounded by office buildings in Shinjuku.

So I'm assuming you transferred the miles over to a partner airline? Do you have Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve because you get more value with the Reserve card.

Yeah, U.S. Airbnb sucks now. Also, I've got the Reserve card. Right now I have 244k Chase points; I only transferred 65k to Virgin Atlantic for the flight that I booked last night.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2023 17:00

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

Alright, my life has been crazy the past few months, but I'm ready to get back to planning my Tokyo trip (September 18-30). I've got my flights there booked, and I'm between two hotel options, both of them goon-recommended:

- Hotel Century Southern Tower (2 Chome-2-1 Yoyogi, Shibuya City)
- HOTEL MYSTAYS PREMIER Hamamatsucho (1-chōme-8-5 Hamamatsuchō, Minato City)

The pricing/rooms are pretty similar, so the main difference seems to be location. A friendly goon suggested earlier this year using Google Maps to figure out the travel difference between my intended destinations. Some of these are just if-I-have-the-time-and-energy ideas, like I'm probably not going to visit both of those bookstores for example, but it seemed like a good idea.

Totaling it up, the Hotel Century was 547 minutes with more walkable options and the Mystays was 761 minutes with more transfers necessary, so the advantage clearly seems to be for Hotel Century. That's where I was leaning already, too.

For folks who are knowledgeable about Japan's public transit system, though, I wanted to check first: is Google leading me astray with any of these? Like, are any of these bullshit directions? From what I can tell, these different transit options should be categorized as:

- the "Toei Subway" network (Oedo Line and Shinjuku Line), which is different from the "Tokyo Metro" subway network (which I don't think includes any of my needed routes for either hotel possibility)
- the "JR East" aboveground passenger train network (Yamanote Line, Chūō Line)
- the "Odakyu" aboveground passenger train network (Odakyu Line)
- the "Shinkansen" aboveground bullet train network (which I would need to use to transfer to in order to visit Hakone)
- the Narita Express, Tokyo Monorail, and Yurikamome Line all seem to be various kinds of monorail that are separate things entirely

Hopefully there's a pass I can buy that will cover some/most of these different companies simultaneously, because holy poo poo I have a headache now.

surf rock fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Jun 30, 2023

# ¿ Jun 30, 2023 00:01

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

Oh thank God there's a unified pass for most of it, that's a relief. Thanks for clarifying! It sounds like Hakone could be the most complicated place to get to, but there is a direct route:

- Get to Shinjuku Station
- Don't take the Yamanote Line (unless I want a transfer)
- Instead, take the Odakyu Romancecar all the way to Hakone Yumoto Station
- This is not part of Pasmo or Suica; I'd need to buy a roundtrip ticket at Shinjuku Station

The timetable is here, and I gotta figure out how the gently caress to read this since I'd like Hakone to be a day trip. So, I need to figure out how early I can go there and when I need to be heading back.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2023 14:47

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

Ended up booking a room at Hotel Century Southern Tower! Such a relief to have all my flights and lodging settled.

I've been working through my itinerary, which is a lot more fun. For the more event-based days:

- I just learned that there's an actual sumo tournament happening at Ryōgoku Kokugikan while I'm there! I was going to go to a sumo morning practice, but I feel like I should pivot. (EDIT: wait, I was looking at this site and I realized it's probably not the official site; I think it's this one and I've gotta wait until August 10 for this too)
- I'm planning to go to a Yakult Swallows game, but tickets aren't on sale for that yet.
- I was hoping to do a pro wrestling show, but it doesn't look like any of the September events have been scheduled yet for the various companies so I gotta wait and see there.
- I was also hoping to see a one-act kabuki show, but I think September events for those also haven't been scheduled yet, and it seems like the service that provides English captioning isn't active at the moment either, so that seems unlikely at the moment.

ntan1 posted:

Just get an IC Pass and call it a day.

Yup, others explained it

surf rock fucked around with this message at 04:06 on Jul 2, 2023

# ¿ Jul 2, 2023 00:48

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

So, I've been buying tickets for various events I want to attend next month. Earlier this weekend, I was able to get tickets for a Yakult Swallows home game and a day at the big sumo tournament. In both cases, the tickets were bought via the Pia website.

I'm now trying to buy a ticket for a DDT wrestling show, which also uses Pia, but this time it's requiring an account. I tried to do so, but I don't think you can as a foreigner? It requires a name in katakana, which I did via a translation app, but it also requires a Japanese phone number.

I think there's a workaround (this site seems to be a proxy service that would let me get a ticket for an additional markup), but this makes me wonder whether this'll be a persistent challenge. For example, tickets will open up for the Ghibli Museum in a couple of days; I dunno if the same thing will happen there.

edit: Went ahead and used the proxy service! Seems to have gone pretty smoothly. I'm gonna have so much poo poo to pick up from 7/11 when I arrive

surf rock fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Aug 8, 2023

# ¿ Aug 6, 2023 16:15

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

Riptor posted:

Hotel Century Southern Tower is great; I've stayed there several times. Its far more "in" everything than the Regency is; the Regency feels far far more separate from the fun stuff, especially at night.

Just following up to say that this post was spot-on. I'm heading home on Saturday after two weeks in Tokyo, and this hotel has been loving terrific. The location (just a few minutes from Shinjuku to the north and Yoyogi to the south, although I used Yoyogi as my home station because it's so easy) is phenomenal for getting out and about, and my room has been super comfortable with great service. If I come back to Tokyo in the future, I'll be very tempted to stay here again.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2023 07:42

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

I've been back for 10 days, and I've never missed a place/vacation as much as I miss Tokyo. I had planned to do 10 international trips by the time I'm 50 (one every other year, with two down at age 32) and I had a lot of other places in mind, but it's gonna be hard not to just go back. Honestly, what a joy to have had such a fun trip.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2023 01:00

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 18:40

surf rock: Aug 12, 2007; We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

I had grand plans of doing an international vacation every two years from age 30 to age 50 and a big list of destinations, but after doing Tokyo last year I kind of just want to do Tokyo again next year. I've got a lot of ideas left over!

# ¿ Apr 21, 2024 03:00

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > Japan: Donki is both the best and worst store I've ever seen