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I'm taking my wife to Osaka for our anniversary this week, I've got ~220k yen in cash to last 8 days (hotel and flight stuff already paid for, along with some tickets to poo poo she will enjoy like USJ), is that gonna be enough to eat and get around on the subway to see stuff around the city or is my credit card going to have to take a beating too? She is mostly probably gonna want to see Osaka castle, some shrines, the aquarium. Maybe go to Kyoto for a day or two.
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May 7, 2017 15:24
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We aren't drinkers so there's no budget needed for alcohol, food wise we will probably be just eating street food stuff in the day and we might go for a meal somewhere a couple of nights (recommendations welcome, we're staying in a hotel in Shinsaibashi (spelling?) if that helps). We are generally low maintenance people. We've never been to Japan so I just wasn't sure how expensive the day to day stuff was gonna be and googling gave wildly differing opinions. I've looked at the bullet train for Kyoto and it seems like the way we'll probably go, I'll look up that castle and take her there too, thanks! If the card has to take a beating then so be it, we're both working and don't have kids so we have that sweet sweet lower middle class disposable income action. History Comes Inside! fucked around with this message at 15:43 on May 7, 2017 |
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May 7, 2017 15:40
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I'm currently sat on the rapi t express thing to namba from KIX and I'll run through all the suggestions you guys made in the morning because holy gently caress I've been travelling over 24 hours now. Thanks though!
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May 8, 2017 13:28
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I'm sat here working out what we're gonna do for the rest of the week, what's public transport like on weekends? Not sure if I should be prioritising all the out-of-Osaka activities to fit them in before the weekend or if it doesn't really matter as much.
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May 9, 2017 12:50
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peanut posted:Kyoto is full of students on weekdays and full of tourists on weekends (and forever). Trains are p much the same schedule on weekends but less people. Crowded isn't a problem as long as it exists, awesome. Back home if you want to get anywhere on a weekend via public transport you're hosed because there basically isn't any on a weekend, so I was just concerned I might fall into the same trap here.
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May 9, 2017 16:40
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So my wife just broke her toe then walked 10 miles around Kyoto on it and it's super hosed up, how much walking is there to do at Himeji castle?
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May 12, 2017 12:32
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peanut posted:Also if you are thinking about going to a doctor, it probably needs to be Saturday Morning as most clinics will be closed Saturday afternoon and all Sunday. Treatment is affordable here even without insurance. This is awesome, thanks. Luckily we have travel insurance through the company we both work for so whatever it costs I'll get back.
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May 12, 2017 23:26
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Nah no cast (un?)fortunately, and we already did USJ with overpriced express passes because standing in line is for suckers so we're all theme parked out for one holiday. On the train to Himeji now because she's powering through it like a trooper, if this is bad she might be pissed at me though because I told her the internet said this would be a neat sight.
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May 14, 2017 01:20
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Yeah she's an animal lover so we already looked into and opted against several zoos because it seems like it's kind of a thing here to have them in terrible tiny enclosures?
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May 14, 2017 01:49
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She loved the aquarium, we're gonna stretch as much out of Himeji today as we can (is there anything here other than the castle?), head to Nara to see the deer tomorrow and then Tuesday we get ready to fly home. It's been a trip.
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May 14, 2017 02:25
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How come there are small bands of school kids in uniform riding trains and wandering the city at all hours of the day, why aren't they in classrooms learning poo poo?
History Comes Inside! fucked around with this message at 03:17 on May 15, 2017 |
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May 15, 2017 02:59
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I just woke up to like an air raid siren and an incomprehensible loudspeaker message in Japanese that went on for like 2 minutes out in the streets. What the gently caress was that?
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May 16, 2017 01:52
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Osaka/Surrounding areas as recommended by thread was such a good time we're now planning a trip to Tokyo and maybe staying for a couple of weeks instead of just one, where's a couple of good places to visit when basing yourself out of Tokyo?
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May 25, 2017 17:11
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Wife liked the touristy stuff. Castles, temples, interesting landscapes etc. When we weren't out looking at those we did a lot of walking just looking around at the city and eating random street foods. The only things set in stone right now are a trip out to see Mt Fuji and probably Disneyland to scratch her theme park itch. We don't have any interest in Ryokan/Onsen unless it's a "you're gonna have to go a days travel out into the sticks to see *neat thing* and unless you wanna sleep rough you'll have to stay at an inn" scenario so that's not important at all, we both have visible tattoos anyway. Since we're looking to go for a longer trip there's always the option of upping sticks and travelling further afield to see more stuff instead of just basing ourselves in the city for the full duration.
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May 25, 2017 22:14
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Yeah it'll be autumn/winter. If we don't make it back this year then we'll hold off until next autumn.
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May 26, 2017 07:35
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Is there an equivalent to the Kansai thru-pass for Kanto? Google keeps suggesting the JR East pass but that doesn't include the subways and buses etc. as far as I can tell, whereas the Kansai one was literally everything that wasn't a JR service.
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Aug 4, 2017 16:04
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Lehugo posted:
My wife and I based our trip earlier this year out of Osaka and found a ton of stuff to do every day for the whole week with the help of this thread + some googling. I don't get the hate?
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Aug 15, 2017 18:38
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fridge corn posted:im not asking you plan my trip for me, all I was wondering was about if there was a preferred guidebook or whatnot. It's not like I'm gonna post a question on here and wait for one of the almighty Japan gurus itt to deign to answer my question when I can just look in a guidebook instantly and read something written by somebody with probably more experience on the subject than any of you As someone who just dips in and out of this thread every now and then to pick up tips for their next trip my dude you need to chill. You said yourself you want "up to date" information on things, how is a printed book going to be more up to date than actively looking up the information as and when it's needed? Pocket WiFi is all you need. Maybe a USB battery for the pocket WiFi. I had that + this thread and got a ton of great advice, answers to dumb questions and a helpful cheat sheet for a potential hospital visit, virtually all of which was on the fly and while I was already in the country and having a good time. Japan goons are helpful goons. History Comes Inside! fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Jul 20, 2023 |
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Oct 12, 2017 15:45
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LimburgLimbo posted:Just make a basic itinerary and post it here and get advice. As mentioned, there’s literally 10s of millions of tourists that go to Japan a year and the vast majority of them have no tour guide and are totally fine. It would be a huge waste of money. And you may well find the lack of flexibility to be annoying. Literally did this ITT this year and it worked awesomely, had basically 3 things planned to do in Osaka and managed to fill 8 days with thread suggestions on the fly whilst already in the country. Just wing it. And get pocket WiFi for the love of god.
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Nov 23, 2017 07:51
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What's a good place to stay in/near Tokyo that isn't right in the middle of the city and a trillion bucks per night? If it was me I'd just go wherever and deal with it since it's just a place to sleep but I cant do hostel or capsule hotels because my wife wants a private bathroom since she is a We're looking at a hotel in Edogawa which puts us about a 30 minute train ride outside the city centre from the looks of it, this is fine as we found the trains in Kansai to be EZMode so have no train fear but if we can get closer just to save time on that it would be super. Also what good stuff is worth tripping out from Tokyo to see? Previous trip thread suggestions of Nara/Kyoto/Himeji were big big winners with her last time so anything similar would be sweet. Looking at travelling for 2 weeks in November (why is October more expensive?). History Comes Inside! fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Jan 12, 2018 |
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Jan 12, 2018 18:32
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Yeah with the ridiculous scale of the place it is difficult as gently caress to figure out exactly where we'd want to stay without knowing where we want to go from there I guess. We are pretty poo poo at hotel shopping to be honest, I've just taken another run at it and found somewhere exactly the same price as the place in Edogawa but about a 15 minute walk from the Tokyo Dome as far as nearby landmarks go.
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Jan 12, 2018 19:02
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Teeny tiny rooms aren't a problem, we won't be hanging out in the room at any point so as long as we aren't talking "there is literally no floorspace in here because it's for people stopping for an incredibly short amount of time so your suitcases live in the bed with you" tiny it's cool. In Osaka we had a room where we basically had enough space to stand our suitcases in a corner and squeeze past them every time we wanted to walk around the bottom of the bed instead of step over it, no issues. Phone posted:Oh I forgot to give the name, Richmond Hotel @ Suidobashi. They don't seem to have any dates available (at any time, so maybe it's just broken?), too popular to get into for two whole weeks apparently. Thanks for looking out though! VVVVVV I've just sent in a query with their contact form, thanks. History Comes Inside! fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Jan 12, 2018 |
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Jan 12, 2018 19:20
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Yeah we ate a bunch of random poo poo from 7/11 whenever we didn't feel like finding a restaurant for various meals last time so we already have that scouted out. They had slices of this cake that was made of like 16-17 layers of really thin cakes which was loving incredible, no idea what it was but god drat what a nice cake.
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Jan 12, 2018 20:30
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Holy poo poo that's exactly it, now I know what to look for at home. Awesome.
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Jan 12, 2018 21:33
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Yeah if we go out as far as Osaka we'd book a hotel there for a couple of days. I dunno if we will, but there's plenty of Kyoto we didn't see the first time around so maybe we'd stay there instead.prompt posted:Airbnb will get you a nicer place for less money in Tokyo and Osaka Isn't there some legal thing over Airbnb in Japan?
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Jan 13, 2018 00:03
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SHOAH NUFF posted:So we have to cancel our early May trip bc my wife forgot to change her name on her passport after we got married. Nothing has been booked so that’s good How come that's a problem? My wife spent the last 5 years traveling with her (British if that makes a difference I guess? Don't see how) passport in her maiden name and only bothered to update it when it was time to renew it, it's not caused an issue anywhere in the world.
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Mar 12, 2018 20:46
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I guess if they're going to ask for more than one form of ID, but is that a normal thing to do in the US? You don't need a driving license to get on a plane, it's what your passport is for  Every time I've ever flown internationally from anywhere it's just been passport and that's it. Even into and out of the US in fact, because it would have been the only form of ID I had at the time. For my wife we literally just put her name on the airline tickets and hotel reservations as it appears on her passport and it's not once been questioned.
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Mar 12, 2018 21:11
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How are domestic flights? We've got our hotels and flights all set up to go back in November so I'm starting to nail down the nitty gritty stuff and I'm undecided between dropping £££ on JR passes to get from Toyko-Osaka-Tokyo (and then use them to get random trains to random places for the other days they'll be valid for), or spending like 1/10th of the money on cheap local flights and just pick up the cost independantly for whatever other travel we want to do while we're there. It feels like a no-brainer to go with the cheap flights option but if domestic flights are a nightmarish experience with many many hours of standing in airports then paying out the rear end for the train becomes more appealing (along with the added mobility benefits for ad-hoc long-distance sight seeing).
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Mar 30, 2018 17:43
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I looked at shinkansen prices and it actually looked like the pass costs pretty much the same as buying the same tickets individually and gets you the extra days of travel on top. I may just be a moron though. The pass is ~28500 jpy per person, and from what I've looked at a shinkansen round trip of Tokyo-Osaka-Tokyo per person is going to come in at ~27000 jpy or more depending on the ticket type. We did the whole "take a ride on shinkansen just to say you've done it" thing for Osaka-Himeji last year so that doesn't factor in, otherwise I'd be more heavily swayed probably because I enjoy novelty. We won't be taking anything that isn't carry-on luggage for that part of the trip so it would be the most bargain basement flights imaginable if we go down that route, depending on how much time we'd lose to airport poo poo vs just hopping on and off a train. History Comes Inside! fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Mar 30, 2018 |
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Mar 30, 2018 18:36
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I hadn't seen these, interesting. If we don't want to go anywhere else on a JR line for the 7 days around/during the Osaka leg then this is probably what we'd go with, so I guess we need to try and hammer out a proper itinerary to see what time we'll need to fill. It's a 14 day trip and we've pretty much left everything open at the moment barring the 3 days we'll be in Osaka at the start of the second week. Thanks guys for the info!
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Mar 30, 2018 18:59
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Out of curiosity what's wrong with Chinese airlines/connecting in China? We flew Air China and connected in Beijing last year and other than the airport being a concrete and glass sweatbox and the staff being dressed in some kind of paramilitary swat uniform poo poo that made it feel even more like a prison it wasn't any more off-putting than any other international travel I've done.
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Jul 29, 2018 17:33
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Anyone know how the walk up to Nihon-Ji is? I know there's a ropeway that would make it EZ-mode but the wife is terrified of heights so that's out unless the hike is some kind of superhuman feat. I've only been able to find it described as "steep in places".
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Aug 12, 2018 19:03
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I know zoos in SE Asia tend to be nightmarish animal prisons, but how is Ueno? My wife wants to see pandas but if there's a bunch of sad animals to wander past first she probably won't have a great time of it.
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Sep 25, 2018 10:35
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I'll try and convince her we don't need to see pandas then, thanks for confirming my suspicions.
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Sep 25, 2018 12:48
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Airline just hosed our flights home up so now I get in to Tokyo a day earlier than planned and our original hotel is fully booked for that night  What's a decent chain/hotel/area in Tokyo that isn't ridiculous megabucks 10s-of-thousands-of-yen a night? We're going cheap for the rest of it since it's already booked and paid for but I wouldn't mind treating the wife for that first unexpected night now after the shitshow that rearranging the trip has ended up being.
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Oct 18, 2018 18:43
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harperdc posted:Where are you flying into, when are you arriving and what’s your budget? If it’s next week the answers are going to be different than if it’s in December or some time in 2019. And you say “what’s not mega bucks” but also “I wouldn’t mind treating the wife for that first night” so budget needs to be accommodated. We land at Narita in the morning on the 5th of November now so we have a full day to fill as well as the extra night. Budget wise I'd pay like 20-30k jpy if it was a really nice place, I know you can spend double or even triple that for guaranteed 5 star luxury madness but that's unnecessary since other than hopefully having a really nice bed we'd probably be too tired after 16 hours of flights and then a day wandering around the city to appreciate the majority of the bells and whistles that spending way too loving much on a hotel room brings. I'm already breaking our budget rearranging travel around the trip (we have to finish the trip and only then we can look to get the airline to compensate us for loving up our plans, so I have to be out of pocket anyway for now) so that much extra isn't really a big deal at this point.
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Oct 19, 2018 06:35
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harperdc posted:In this sort of case I’d recommend to find a hotel close to Tokyo Station or Shinagawa Station, take the Narita Express in from the airport, and try to drop bags or check in early. Those are both fairly central and you can head out to wander fairly easily, and also get to your main booking as well the next day, and both stations have good hotels at and below your price range in the area. Late reply but this advice worked out, thanks guy.
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Nov 4, 2018 09:37
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What's the most powerful sleep meds I can buy OTC/off the shelf here? Going on 3 nights now where I can't stay asleep more than a couple of hours, I'm apparently experiencing jet lag for the first time in my life.
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Nov 8, 2018 01:45
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Stringent posted:whiskey I'm sadly coming up to 4 years sober or this would have been the obvious choice.
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Nov 8, 2018 02:30
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I just walked up and down as much of Kabukicho as I could handle in 2 hours and the only remotely pushy tout was a Japanese guy who asked me if I just didn't like Japanese whiskey when I told him I didn't drink. Tons and tons of African dudes shouting and waving flyers though. We went down a stairwell for the S02 subway station and somehow ended up walking forever through a huge underground complex and coming out at S01, which was not only not S02 but also a whole stop in the wrong direction. How did we gently caress that up?
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Nov 8, 2018 14:10
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