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Moon Slayer posted:Japan really needs to move up one timezone, this whole "getting light at 4 a.m." thing is ridiculous. Magna Kaser posted:I'm glad this wasn't just me. When I was there last month on multiple occasions I woke up to a bright sunny day and saw it was like 4:45. Stringent posted:It sucks. Especially because its fully dark by 7pm. Stumbling Block posted:Dark by 7 pm isn't that big of an issue for me though it getting dark by 4:30 pm, and that's during autumn, is. Holy poo poo, is this why people always wake up and sleep really early in anime and stuff? I thought it was just me being a goonlord.
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Jul 16, 2017 00:02
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Fair enough. I forgot what it was like in high school. For a theoretical vacation, is May~August still a good time to do a trip, or is there a better time of year to schedule something? My parents have expressed an interest in visiting and they've been looking to me for ideas/advice, so I might have to play tour planner or something.
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Jul 16, 2017 01:13
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We're from Florida (my parents still live there, anyway), so lovely temperatures aren't so strange to us. Then again, it does suck to walk around in that weather. I had hoped to come up around festival time or something cause that poo poo sounds uber cool, and 'cuz Obon is celebrated on my birthday outside of Kanto.  But that's me being selfish.Are there concerns besides weather to think about (availability, too many tourists, tourist-unfriendly sights/activities)?
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Jul 16, 2017 01:35
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Looks like my parents are genuinely interested in a Japan trip sometime next year. As was suggested, I told them April-May would be a good time to visit, except for during Golden Week. I have a basic idea of "tour some castles, do some hiking, maybe some flower viewing or cherry blossoms if the timing is right", and I've got my itinerary of "eat all the food I can find and pick up some nerd merch", but I have no earthly idea what else to do that a couple of mid-50s doctors would enjoy. They probably won't want to go all the way to Hokkaido, and although Okinawa and the islands seem pretty great I don't think they'd be as interested as I am, so we'll prolly be on Honshu. The Osaka area could be cool, but they'll want to tour Tokyo at the very least. So, probably the western coast? I can read some Japanese (though my kanji skills aren't that great), but I'm far from conversational. Do you think it's a good idea to get some practice in between now and April-May of next year, or should I just wing it? I have no idea how I'd practice Japanese in the middle of Massachusetts, but I can shitpost on Twitter at least. My parents will probably only want to do 7~10 days of in-Japan time, which is a pretty short amount IMO. I heard that two weeks is more worthwhile, but not everyone gets that much time off...if we can't make it two weeks, any suggestions for a whirlwind tour? Otherwise, load me up with recs  Also, my dad's into cycling. Any good cycling tours out there? EDIT: Oh yeah, I'm totally up for goonmeets too
Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Sep 18, 2017 |
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Sep 18, 2017 16:49
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Trip's happening for real. Parents decided to leave it up to me to put the plan together, and boy am I a little stumped. They said that since travel knocks us out for about a day and a half each way, it'd be something like 8 days actually spent in Japan. I'm thinking maybe April 13~23 in total, or maybe April 16~27? That'd give us a good 7~8 days of stuff to do. Which is a sadly small amount, but hey, this is primarily for my parents, so it's their loss. I'll take my own two-week vacation someday  Do those dates sound good?As for stuff to do, here's my current plan which is basically the shinkansen route: - Fly into Tokyo (April 16~17) - gently caress around in Tokyo for a day or two, do some sightseeing and picture taking (April 18~19) - Dad might want to do Shimanami, but neither I nor mom bike so who knows if he'll agree to it (April 20~21) - I on the other hand would like to go see some castles and gardens, and mom probably does too - there's Himeji, but apparently I should skip it? (April 20~21) - Hiroshima! Museums maybe? What is there to do? (April 22~23) - Go see the cherry blossoms in Fukuoka (April 24) - Travel back to Tokyo (April 25) - Fly out of Tokyo(?) (April 26~27) I have absolutely no idea if my timetable or progression is realistic, cause I am god awful at planning. There's clearly some cleaning up to do - any advice? ---- Also, I want to get at least one goonmeet in. Where are most people situated, and what times are people available? Getting wasted in an izakaya is on my bucket list and by god I will cross it off if it kills me.
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Oct 11, 2017 02:46
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Hmmm, lots of good advice here. I definitely agree that if we're going to have maybe 8 days of touring available to us, then two cities max would be best. In that case, it'd have to be Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka/Nara. I'm sure we can figure out four days worth of stuff to do in each city. That said, I don't want all of my time to be spent looking at castles n poo poo. What's some cool stuff to do that I can do independently of my parents? I heard of some people taking cooking classes via Airbnb, and that sounds pretty neat. What level of Japanese would I need to do something like that? Any other cool poo poo you'd really like to do but haven't gotten the time, yet would recommend to someone looking to burn time in Tokyo?
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Oct 12, 2017 03:02
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As a New Englander, I'd totally move to Hokkaido. I'm not afraid of a little snow! [quote="“.Z.”" post="“477296514”"] For the cooking classes, no Japanese needed. There are classes taught by English speakers. Two I’ve done and I liked were: http://www.tsukiji-market.jp/tsukiji-sushi-insider-workshop/ This one is more food tour and a small amount of sushi processing. https://www.asakusa-tokyokitchen.com/ For more cooking with a nice selection of standard Japanese fare. Beyond that, it really depends on where your interests lie. [/quote] Yesssss oh man this is great. I'm just looking for a basic introduction and some home cooked meals I can make even in the States, so nothing big. I'll check these out and do more research! Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Oct 12, 2017 |
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Oct 12, 2017 15:08
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caberham posted:People in Fukuoka are super chill and yeah more females there. And it’s also demographically one of the younger and vibrant chill out cities in japan. Also favorable to immigration compared to the rest of the country. Given that it’s closer to Seoul and Shanghai than Tokyo. Oh and SoftBank and tech companies have head quarters there ...Huh. Maybe when I retire I'll move to Fukuoka
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Oct 12, 2017 15:43
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zmcnulty posted:Edit: I would say that basically nothing compares to catching a fish yourself, then eating it raw mere minutes later. Anyone who likes sashimi must try this at least once. Just make sure you haven't caught a blowfish Oooooooh, some sort of activity involving fishing and then making sashimi out of it would be seriously cool.
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Oct 13, 2017 20:43
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So it looks like dad's gonna go to a conference in Yokohama, and we'll be based out of there for a few days. It looks like you can get into Tokyo from Yokohama pretty easily, so I think we can still hit the place up. That means the dates will look something like this: May 9~10: Travel to Yokohama and check in May 11~13: Tokyo, do poo poo there like cooking class, sightseeing, goonmeet? May 14: Travel to Kyoto May 15~18: Kyoto sightseeing, flower viewing, maybe even Himeji May 19~20: Fly home How long does it take to go from Yokohama to Kyoto (or whatever suburb is better to stay in)? If it isn't too long, we could squeeze some Kyoto-ing into the 14th. Or maybe I can add an extra day to Yokohama/Tokyo...
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Oct 17, 2017 01:51
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It’s almost like the typical weather pattern is slightly different from year to year now. Some sort of...climate...change...? Update from my parents says that the dates they can travel have changed and their best bet is 4/28 to 5/12, which cuts right through Golden Week. Lemme make sure I understand correctly, the reason why traveling during Golden Week is a bad idea is that: 1. The sights are packed 2. Stuff (restaurants, bars, etc.) is closed 3. Way more people than are worth dealing with 4. Rates are higher, maybe? I want to make sure this trip is a success, so I’m hesitant to go along with that scheduling. But realities in the American workplace mean there’s only so much I can do... What sucks is that we don’t know for sure if we can get these dates, especially since I’m starting a new job myself too. Well, I’ll find a way to make it happen.
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Oct 26, 2017 14:33
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Hmm. That seems manageable, actually. Since what we're gonna be doing involves a hell of a lot of people anyway, should I be less concerned about the Golden Week collision? Is travel more difficult, or is it gonna be roughly the same? All I know for sure is that I'm told to avoid Golden Week, but I never quite understood why besides the obvious.
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Oct 29, 2017 00:57
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Going entirely by past responses to my inquiries and by searching through the thread with references to Golden Week has a lot of people saying to avoid coming here during that time, but no explanation as to why. Tokyo might be fine, but what about plans to visit Kyoto, Himeji, etc.? Those seem like popular national vacation destinations as well, and Golden Week would be a good excuse to visit.
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Oct 29, 2017 01:48
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totalnewbie posted:Of course it's a good time to visit the most popular vacation spots - you and everyone else in the country who has those days off. I think that's what's confusing me - Golden Week is probably good for visiting places that are always really packed e.g. Tokyo, but worse for popular vacation spots and sights like Kyoto, Himeji, and all the touristy stuff. Does that sound about right? I was hoping to get some of the touristy stuff done, but if there's no chance of that being non-ridiculous until after Golden Week, maybe stick around Tokyo/Kanto until Golden Week is done, then head out for Kyoto/Kansai.
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Oct 29, 2017 02:34
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Grand Fromage posted:Yep, that's right. Major cities clear out during those sorts of holidays in Asia. People also tend to all go to the exact same small set of tourist destinations, so if you avoid those you're okay too. Okay, so this is basically how it'd go: April 28th to May 6th is Golden Week, which means Tokyo and other residential(-ish) areas are less crowded since everyone's gone to Kyoto, Okinawa, etc. for the tourist spots. Travel will be moving out of the cities and residential areas and towards western Japan. That means it's a good time to see the sights in Tokyo and the surrounding area, since it's less packed than usual. After May 6th, people have left the touristy areas and gone back to work and school - Tokyo fills back up, while Kyoto's crowds die down. This makes it the perfect time to go west towards Kyoto, Himeji, etc. since everyone else just left and it'll be less busy than usual until May 12th. So our travel itinerary would be nearly identical - first half Tokyo while everyone's gone, second half Kyoto while everyone's gone. That works out quite nicely, actually - I don't see many problems with this, although a quiet Tokyo would be really really weird. The only question is how to spend 4/28~5/6 in Tokyo, which is to say I still need to figure out what we'll actually do.
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Oct 30, 2017 15:16
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So...I'm at the part where I need to come up with explicit things to do during our time in Tokyo and in Kyoto. Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure. I get the idea that Tokyo is for the cool city stuff and Kyoto is great for shrines and temples and castles 'n poo poo, but exactly what there is to do I'm not sure. I want to put together a trip that's better than me just googling "what to do in Tokyo/Kyoto" and being done with it. What're the good sights around the city of Tokyo itself? I personally want to walk around Shibuya crossing, maybe visit Nichome cuz gently caress yeah, but aside from that I don't know what's unique about it. Maybe catch a soccer or baseball game? We're not much into sports, but I can pick up some merch for friends. (Stuff to do in Kyoto will be more obvious and easier to pick out once I get to that part.) Relative to that, what's something cool and enjoyable you'd want to do if you had the time? We're not interested in doing Tokyo Disneyland or anything like that, we can get that in the states (parents live 2 hours from WDW) - we're looking for things that are unique to the area, even if it's walking around a particularly cool garden or shrine or something. I want to make the trip as memorable as possible, and that usually involves doing something out of the ordinary. EDIT: poo poo, forgot the Ghibli museum. That's gotta happen! Oh, and food will definitely be a thing, even if only I am excited for it. I feel like we could walk around a bit when we get hungry and walk in anywhere and it'd be great, but I do know we need to get at least one of each of these at some point: - Ramen - Curry - Real good sushi - Street food ala takoyaki or sth And I want to hit up a good izakaya at some point, too.
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Nov 7, 2017 18:43
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Oh man, a ryokan would be super super cool. I want to do that sometime, possibly during the Kyoto/Osaka/Himeji leg of the trip. Are there any ryokan that accommodate westerners? But unfortunately, for a couple very good reasons, I'll have to hard pass on the hot springs. Mom and dad would love it, but not if they're gonna be apart from each other. I'm kind of tempted to spend a little longer in Kyoto/Osaka, just cause there's more obvious stuff to do there. It's starting to look like it would be a good idea to just go off in a random direction in Tokyo and take in the city. Joypolis and Anata no Warehouse sound loving cool as poo poo but I doubt my parents would like it and doing stuff alone makes me sad and depressed. Saiseisakaba sounds like the food I fuckin' deserve, I would love to try that poo poo out. Maybe I should take some friends with me? But that'd be difficult. That's kinda why I was hoping there'd be goon meets sometime, get some socializing going. Speaking of translation, how important is it that I speak well? I can understand and read somewhat, but I have zero experience/practice conversing.
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Nov 9, 2017 03:41
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Stringent posted:Oh I forgot to mention, if you want top end sushi you should book it now. Good point, poo poo, it's already November? Arghhhhghghgh I am terrible at this trip planning bullshit.
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Nov 9, 2017 03:45
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peanut posted:Just wear a sick mask pee wherever you want. Wherever. I was gonna do as I do in the United States (use women's facilities and avoid anything that requires me to take my clothes off in public) anyway, but this could be some nice extra insurance. I can't see onsen happening at all, though.
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Nov 20, 2017 00:49
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Anyone here ever use Odigo for trip planning and resources? I was watching some Abroad in Japan videos and it got namedropped and it seems like it could be useful for putting our trip together. Still not sure if we're gonna wing it or follow a tour program of sorts, though.LyonsLions posted:There are onsens with private or family baths. Usually they want a reservation, but if it's open when you show up they'll let you use it. Hmmmm...that might work. I'll do some research. My parents would definitely enjoy it, but I'll still have to convince them! You can't wear anything, right? Or can you wear a jumbo-size towel like I see sometimes?
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Nov 20, 2017 17:30
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It's looking like following a pretty loose tour guide would be best for me and my parents' trip to Japan. I think there's gonna be too much of a language barrier for us to wing it like we would a trip to a Spanish speaking country or something. I feel like I really want to plan the trip myself? Cause there's places I want to go and people I want to see? But it's also a lot of work and a lot of coordination getting reservations, travel scheduling, etc. - not the mention that my Japanese is nowhere near good enough to put it all together. Tour guides, even ones like this one, are super loving expensive, though. Given that this would be on my parents' dime I wouldn't mind mooching off them But I have a feeling this trip would just leave me itching to come back and doing something my own style. At least, I hope...
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Nov 23, 2017 04:01
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Fair points. To be honest, they were the ones that suggested the tour guide - I kinda treated it as "if we're here once, we might as well hit all the sights", but from my research I can't figure out a reason why we would need a tour guide aside from the language barrier. Although I'm not exactly good at speaking Japanese, I can understand it decently well and securing tickets and passes probably wouldn't be hard. The thing is, if this was a trip just for myself, I would be perfectly happy just walking around being a shitlord, getting a Suica card, and taking a look at whatever's around me. But, I'm going to be traveling with a couple doctors in their mid-50s, and they (specifically my mother) tend to really dislike a lack of structure. They don't want to think about the logistics, so they want a tour guide. v v Different audience, really.A potential option is to secure lodging, transportation, scheduling, etc. ourselves and simply hire a local tour guide per city to show us around, to decrease the price a bit. That might be a happy medium and still allow some freedom for me. I'll put together the itinerary. Worse comes to worse, they can do their own thing, I'll do mine, and we'll meet up before we fly back home. One thing is for sure, I'll be back on my own terms. The Great Autismo! posted:^^^this entire post is predicated on the idea that you are not a class A spergelord who can't function on their own in society. if you have problems doing day-to-day things in your home country and find yourself constantly screwing up everything around you, ignore my post above and book a tour, for God's sake^^^ do you know who i am
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Nov 23, 2017 16:17
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I will probably do that, yes.
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Nov 23, 2017 17:10
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So here's what I'm thinking for 4 days in Tokyo, with one day returning from Kyoto: 4/14~4/15 - Travel In Fly in from the east coast of the United States, land on 4/15 and check into an Airbnb. Recover from jetlag, maybe fit some walking around in while getting used to things. 4/16 - Getting Acquainted Day: Tokyo Skytree, Nakano After waking up, we start to walk around the city and get used to it. First order of business would be to go find Tokyo Skytree, climb up to the top, and take in the whole city Assassin's Creed-style. Then we go down to Nakano to walk around Nakano Sun Mall and Nakano Broadway, do some souvenir shopping and get some food. Night: Shinjuku Once the sun starts to go down, we move over to Shinjuku to see the lights go up and take in the sights! We'll take lots of pictures, definitely. There are a couple restaurants I want to hit up: Takano Fruit Parlor - Outlet of company that specializes in fruits. Has a fruit buffet and cafeteria! Looks really cute, but we should hit it up sometime between 15:00~17:00 (is that correct?). Saiseisakaba - Pub specializing in horumonyaki/motsuyaki. Lots of strange cuts of meat, good for being adventurous. I've heard this one name dropped a few times, but there's various places that do horumon/motsu so it doesn't have to be this one. 4/17 - Asakusa and Shimokita Day: Asakusa In the day, we'll go to Asakusa, the old cultural center of Tokyo, and take in the culture. Specifically, I want to hit up Sensouji which has the Kaminarimon and all the shops on Nakamise. This might be a good place to hire a day tour guide for the benefit of my parents, since they'd love to hear more background information on the old places. Night: Shimokita At night, we'll head over to Shimokita, a commercial and entertainment district. The plan is to walk around and find a nice cafe or bar to hang out in and listen to some live music! Maybe there's a cool show somewhere? Anybody got suggestions? For eating, we'll find something good on the way - trust me. 4/18 - Mostly Fish Morning: Outer Tsukiji Market The inside of Tsukiji Market is basically inaccessible to the layman, and would require you to get up at bullshit o' clock, so forget that. But, apparently the outside has a lot of cool poo poo around it! We can get breakfast there, see what kind of food is sold in Japan and these kinds of markets. Mid-day to Night: Odaiba Odaiba is a man-made island in Tokyo Bay. Think of it as a bayside boardwalk ala Navy Pier or something. It's a very spacious and modern district that caters to youth, and will have a lot of interesting stuff to do:
It's a very good destination for seafood, so I hope you like fish and shrimp. Everything else there will keep us engaged until night-time! 4/19 - Parks and Nerds Day: Ueno and Yoyogi Ueno and Yoyogi are home to a lot of pretty parks and shrines - we'll want to hit up Meiji Shrine, Onshi Park, and Yoyogi Park. There's a few museums that might be interesting (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, etc.), and this might be a good place to hire a day tour guide ala Asakusa. Ameyoko will be a good place to stop by and take pictures of, and maybe even get some food. Afternoon to Night: Akihabara My parents will probably want to rest up, but I'm gonna hit up Akihabara. I wanna walk around and look at all the nerdery and retro gaming poo poo. Anata no Warehouse looks loving awesome and I can't wait to go there, holy poo poo. Other than that, I'll prolly just walk around, get drunk, and be all night. There's also a bar/cafe called NEWTYPE that came on recommendation from a friend who has connections there...still not sure if I will go, but I'll keep it in mind. 4/20 - Blaze It Travel to Osaka by train or something, check in to some Airbnb. I'll figure out Osaka and Kyoto later. ~time passes~ 4/26 - Travel Out (soon) Travel back from Kyoto to Tokyo via train or something. Check into a 1-night somewhere, walk around Shinjuku, get food, rest up for flying back. This will probably be fairly light, but is there any good one-night stuff I should fill this time with? ----- In terms of eating in Tokyo, we can pretty much just walk around when we get hungry and find something we haven't had yet - so these are just a couple suggestions. What will most likely happen is that we eat at whatever we find interesting along the way and I just gotta keep track of what kinds of food we want to eat But the more out-of-the-way stuff, I want to make sure we hit. We'll definitely do:
----- As far as I can tell, I'm also the only person of my age (27) that will be going on the trip - it's just mom and dad otherwise. For everything that I won't be doing with my parents, I'll be alone. How easy is it to socialize as an expat in Tokyo? I'm not super social or much of a bar hopper, I'm more likely to find a cafe to sit and drink a coffee or beer in, but it'd still be nice to make conversation now and then. Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Nov 23, 2017 |
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Nov 23, 2017 21:24
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Good suggestions here - I decided to make the first full day a SkyDeck/Asakusa in the day, then Shinjuku at night dealio, and move Nakano to the next day with Ueno and Yoyogi being the last day in Tokyo before we go west. I also replaced Shimokita with Koenji. Any suggestions for things to do around Nakano? I still need to fill out the second day a bit in the daytime.ntan1 posted:Keep in mind that it often takes 30 min to an hour to get across Tokyo as a whole (hour is pushing it possibly). I live in Boston, it can get much worse than 30 minutes. caberham posted:Replace Kyoto with Nikko then you are good to go. As much as I like Kyoto. You get more time that way Dad really wants to go to Kyoto and Osaka, is the thing. v  v I'm pretty curious myself, and if I do come back to Japan, my plan is to gently caress around in the Tohoku and Hokkaido regions, so I can always check out Nikko then.ntan1 posted:Also my parents are in their 50s and I go on crazy adventures with them in Japan. LyonsLions posted:You don't need to worry. Everything in Japan is basically geared for and designed to appeal to people their age. They are guaranteed to love it. If they are paying, you might as well stick them on a few bus tours. Japanese old people love bus tours and the format is perfectly calibrated for the enjoyment of old people. There are English tours, too, but I'm not convinced that not speaking Japanese would be a hindrance to enjoying the regular tours, either. I'm telling you, parents always love Japan because it's perfectly suited to people their age. My parents love Japan. My mom roams the neighborhood by herself and yaks it up with the old ladies hanging out in the cafe area of the grocery store and she doesn't speak a word of Japanese. They just show each other pictures of their grandchildren and it all works out somehow. My dad's a cyclist and a hiker and is a lot more chill - I suggested Shimanami Kaidou, but unfortunately it'll be too out of the way - so he's not my concern. I'm more worried about my mom, who is much more like Japan's audience. I'm sure they'll love it no matter what. At least, I hope  (Any non-Shimanami cycling suggestions? Especially near Kyoto/Osaka.) ----- Taking a look at the map, it makes more sense to go Tokyo -> Kyoto -> Osaka, so I'm thinking it would be better to do Osaka towards the end of the trip. Here's my (kind of insipid) Osaka itinerary: 4/24 - Travel from Kyoto Day: Arrival and walking around Travel into Osaka from Kyoto, roughly 1 hour by train. Drop off bags, then go walking around. Interesting sights to see as we settle in could include the Umeda Sky Building - a big, arch shaped building that has become a popular tourist destination in recent years. There's a rooftop observatory, and the underground market is also fascinating. Night: Shinsekai At night, we can travel into Shinsekai, a popular shop and entertainment district with many restaurants and cafes. Walk around and look at the lights, and try and find the Biliken statue! Then, walk towards the Tsutenkaku Tower, climb to the top, and look out on the city at night. 4/25 - An Excuse to Stuff Ourselves Day: Kuromon Ichiba, Osaka Castle, and the Instant Ramen Museum For breakfast, we can hit up Kuromon Ichiba in the morning, an old-style covered market popular with both foreigners and locals. Then we can head to Osaka Castle, and check out the Instant Ramen Museum - because cmon, we gotta. Night: Dotonbori and Shinsaibashi We can cap the visit off with a trip to Dotonbori. There's food stalls and lights everywhere, and if we follow the Tonbori Riverwalk, we'll pass by the Osaka branch of Don Quixote - a variety discount store with its own ferris wheel! The riverwalk will lead us to Shinsaibashi, where if we look around a bit we can find America-mura, a heavily American-themed district that's a major hangout spot for foreigners. ----- What's the most recommended way to get from Tokyo to Kyoto? Is the Shinkansen worth taking? It seems super loving cool, but man, those prices. Can't argue with a ~3hr travel time, though. Also, we gotta do a ryokan. How many nights can you stay at a ryokan? I usually see just one, is two also an option? Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Nov 24, 2017 |
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Nov 24, 2017 05:25
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The Great Autismo! posted:wait, I am from Boston also, am I supposed to know who you are? Ask the LAN thread Foreign Substance posted:Just want to point out that Anata no Warehouse is out in Kawasaki, about 40 minutes away from Akihabara. Aw, ballsacks. I was never good at geography. I'll fix that up somehow.
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Nov 24, 2017 18:05
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.Z. posted:-Try and book a reservation at Den, especially if you can get your parents to cover it. http://www.jimbochoden.com/en/ When I asked if they were interested in booking a reservation at a high-end restaurant they gave me a very vague response about choosing whatever I thought would be appropriate for the trip, which I took as a no. I can try again and get a real answer out of them or just go on my own, cause it does look pretty drat good... EDIT: Phone reservations only, and it's only open 12 to 5 Japan time. Should be fun.  quote:-Tsukiji Inner Market - The wholesale section is open to tourists, though you'd still need to be there in the morning to see anything. No flash photography. Also none of the sushi resturants (Dai, Daiwa, and the others) are really worth waiting 2 hours for. Oh. Whoops. For some reason I got it into my head that the wholesale area was closed off to non-workers.  quote:-Did your friend tell you what NEWTYPE is? Or have you googled it yet? Haha, yeah, I know. She has friends over in NEWTYPE is why it came up, and it's possible I might go say hi, but I have no idea if the opportunity would even be there. Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Nov 24, 2017 |
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Nov 24, 2017 18:21
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We'll see if we get inside Tsukiji - I'm gonna have to get up reaaaal early for that  Stringent posted:This is the place to eat in the inner market: And if we make it, I am definitely going here. That looks drat good. Stringent posted:Oh yeah, Pollyana you're into cooking right? Tsukiji Masamoto has a shop in the outer market. They've got a listing of their knives here so you can see what they've got: https://www.mtckitchen.com/japanese-knives/brand/tsukiji-masamoto/ gently caress yeah, I need a knife that isn't some bullshit IKEA thing. I'll make sure we stop by! Do they let you bring it through customs? Do you sharpen those knives like any others? ----- Here's my Kyoto itinerary - how's this for an example itinerary? 4/20 - Blaze It Day: Bullet Train Travel to Kyoto from Tokyo. How, you may wonder? BULLET TRAIN  Our best bet is to take the Hikari train, which is covered by the JR Rail Pass (which we might want), to Kyoto from Tokyo - it will take about 2 hours and 40 minutes. Check into whatever Airbnb we settle on, and walk around a bit.Night: Free Time, maybe? Honestly, in Kyoto, we could just walk around and stumble upon something cool. Would be good to stretch our legs after being stuck on a train for 3 hours, so I'll leave this open for anything that might come up. 4/21 - Shrines and Dines Day: Northeast Kyoto (Heian Shrine, Nijo Castle, Yasaka Shrine) There's a lot to do in Kyoto, and one way to approach it is to hit the corners. In the northeast, there's Heian Shrine, Nijo Castle, and Yasaka Shrine - it's a good example of what to expect from Kyoto! TODO - Add more details! Night: Gion, Cooking class! Walk down Hanamikoji Street in Gion, where we can look at the old-style roads and architecture. Also, at some point, I want to take a cooking class, and I think Kyoto would be a good place to do that. 4/22 - Bamboo Hell Day: Northwest Kyoto (Kinkaku-ji, Arashiyama and the Bamboo Grove) Kinkaku-ji is a villa-turned-temple covered in gold leaf - you might recognize it from The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima. Arashiyama, on the other hand, is a district that houses many shrines and temples, and most notably includes the Bamboo Grove, a big forest of bamboo. Night: Uhhhh Hey thread, anyone got ideas for night-time stuff to do in Kyoto? Assuming that what we can do during the day won't take all the way 'til bedtime, which is possible. 4/23 - Obligatory Hot Springs Episode Day: Southeast Kyoto (Kiyomizu Temple, Fushimi Inari Shrine) Night: Free Time, Ryokan, Onsen Go wherever catches our fancy during the evening, and then check into a ryokan at night. The ryokan will likely offer a meal done in kaiseki style, which will likely be relatively light, small, and artistic. If we're lucky, they might even have a hot springs attached!! 4/24 - GOTO Osaka Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Nov 25, 2017 |
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Nov 25, 2017 01:33
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Mom and dad want to try again with the Japan tourism trip. I’ve put on a few pounds and I’ve always been pretty butch in appearance. Would I have any issues socializing or getting attention? I know that Japan has a bit of a thing about being overweight or any sort of gender non-conforming.
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Nov 24, 2018 15:31
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Fair enough
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Nov 24, 2018 15:53
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sale on Banksy art posted:You will be the top headline for weeks after you visit. Everyone in Japan will be thinking about you for months, if not years, after your visit. You are very, very special. Grand Fromage posted:Any living being will. Even inanimate objects like roads and restaurant displays cannot withstand Japanese summer. caberham posted:Why do people think they are some unique snowflake all the time? Saeku posted:I went to Japan with my friend who's a butch, broad, tall (cis) woman and she got harassed and glared at in washrooms, somebody actually in broken English told her she needed to leave and wasn't welcome. My friend responded by grabbing her own chest to "demonstrate" and the woman was mortified and apologised. (The worst was in rural areas but there was a bit in Tokyo too.) I speak Japanese a bit so I could hear people talking about her... nothing derogatory, actually, but kids and teens were saying stuff like "Is that foreigner a woman?" or "wow, she's tall!" or "look, it's a woman with a shaved head!"  All I needed to know, thanks. I’m sure my trans status would go over well too.
Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Dec 27, 2018 |
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Dec 27, 2018 21:26
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Still tempted to schedule a trip for this April anyway, even though it’s late in the year. How feasible is it to procure things like train cards, lodging, etc. on site? I can speak and read a little so I’m sure I could buy some Suica cards if we need them, but I dunno if I could do something more complicated like renting a hotel or  Airbnb.Also, is it worth doing any particularly social things while I’m over there, and if so, is it better to stick with other foreigners/tourists? Or should I focus on sightseeing? I had considered walking around Nichoume but I get the sense it’s not very open to foreigners.
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Jan 8, 2019 19:48
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Not a Children posted:My brother and I have booked all our stuff for April pretty easily. Booked all our stuff online well in advance. Can't help ya if you're asking about doing it when you get there. Thaaaaat’s annoying. I wonder why they do that. My plan was to go Tokyo -> Kyoto -> Osaka, so i think need some sort of rail pass, right? I’m not sure which, though. Grand Fromage posted:I never did much advance planning, all I would do is book my hotel rooms and figured out the travel when I got there. I did get a rail pass once but I just picked that up at the JR office in the station, I didn't have to have anything mailed to me. Showed them the email and that was it. It was a regional pass for Kansai-Hiroshima area though, not the national one. I wonder - if we might not be planning on using the rail much within a certain city (i.e. Kyoto), is it maybe more worthwhile to get rail passes for Tokyo abs Osaka instead of the national pass? Or does that not make sense? Shibawanko posted:Before golden week? You can find stuff just using expedia or booking.com, the first time I went I didn't really plan much in advance, didn't speak Japanese and still managed to get everywhere. Lots of people do actually speak English too and renting an airbnb is easy enough in most cases. Just do it. I’m not worried about getting places, that’ll be fine. Getting affairs in order will be the hard part, since I’m not expecting to mingle with the locals. quote:Disregarding costs you could theoretically get on a plane tomorrow, book a few nights anywhere and you'll be fine. Train cards are extremely easy to get. From what I gathered nichoume is perfectly open to foreigners, as are most places in Japan. I get the sense that the local Japanese keep foreigners at an arm’s length, where the former are wary of the latter. Just based on chatter I’ve seen in these threads and heard from expats. I know it obviously differs from person to person, and Nichoume is an outlier anyway, but as someone who’s baseline of interaction is fuckin’ Boston, it’s a little weird to be in a homogenous society anyway. Eh, we’ll see what happens. Edit: I guess I just don’t feel very comfortable going somewhere where the social baseline is “who the gently caress are you”. I get enough of that in the US. LimburgLimbo posted:Early April is rough though. Need to set up early as people go to try to see cherry blossoms and also its when everyone starts school and poo poo so parents come to send kids off etc. so accom can fill up. Yeah, I was hoping to hit at least a little of that, but I’m not sure how much it’ll gently caress us over. Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Jan 8, 2019 |
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Jan 8, 2019 22:20
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Grand Fromage posted:I don't think it would be worthwhile to bother with a pass for that trip. You would at least need to be doing shinkansen Tokyo to Kyoto and back for it to make sense. If you're flying into Tokyo and out of Kansai you aren't going to use it enough, and you can't get a single regional pass for both areas. Hell, if all we need are Suica cards, that works too. I dunno how flights would work if we went fly in Tokyo -> fly out Osaka, I would have expected needing to train our way back to Tokyo before leaving. quote:E: As for your impression of Japanese culture as standoffish, I suspect you're overblowing it and that's also largely a Tokyo thing. People in Tokyo are sort of dicks and generally not going to just talk to you randomly, but everywhere else I've been in Japan is a lot friendlier. Kyoto gets so many tourists they are sort of Tokyo-ish. Osaka and Nara are easy places to meet people, as are all of the other smaller towns I've gone to. I am probably overthinking it, and I’m used to big city attitudes anyway. I’m more worried about implicit discrimination and xenophobic sentiment even if it never manifests. That is not a good headspace to be in. It probably doesn’t matter that much, but I get enough of that poo poo at home, you know?
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Jan 8, 2019 23:54
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sale on Banksy art posted:Anta wa dare?! Nobody actually says this outside of video games n poo poo (probably) (I think) Also yes I know I am probably blowing it out of proportion. I’ll find out if I ever get there I guess cuz now mom’s got cold feet.
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Jan 9, 2019 13:42
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sale on Banksy art posted:And Nichoume. Nooo
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Jan 9, 2019 15:16
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kuddles posted:I feel like 95% of the time I go on a vacation anywhere in the world, I get a lot of information online about how unwelcoming the country is to Westerners and when I go there I immediately wonder how much of a rude rear end in a top hat they must have been to have had that experience. On the contrary, you would think Japanese people get an endorphin rush every time they help out a white guy with the way they behaved. People were way more patient with me than I likely would be with helping a Japanese person who knew no English lost in my country. I mean people could always just feel obligated to be accommodating  Grand Fromage posted:The passes are great if you happen to fall in the very narrow situations where they make sense, but that narrowness sucks the value out of them a lot of the time. Like I think a JR salaryman looks at it and thinks hm yes this is a great value when you take five shinkansen trips in a week, that's a sensible way that people will definitely travel but it's not useful if you want to actually spend any time anywhere. The downside of this is that you’re on a bus and not a kickass train.
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Jan 9, 2019 17:45
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Shibawanko posted:Nah, I've always felt it's usually genuine friendliness, or at least politeness. People who don't speak English will probably feel embarassed but in general it's way easier to strike up a conversation with a stranger than it is in Europe for example where people don't give a gently caress about tourists. I speak a little bit so at that point I’d probably embarrass myself with my less-than-conversational chat. Speaking of, dad still seems interested in going. If we do go, is it worth getting some conversation practice in? Not a Children posted:My brother and I are planning a big tokyo-kyoto-hiroshima-osaka-tokyo loop over 2 weeks with a decent amount of local train travel day-to-day, so we sprung for the passes. If you're a tourist trying to cover a lot of ground it seems like a good deal. That seems like too much. I was considering T-K-O then fly out and that’s probably 12~13 days total.
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Jan 9, 2019 18:50
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My plan is to only mete out the loosest structure of the trip and have a number of options and sights to choose from depending on the area. Get there first, then throw a dart at the wall or something every morning. That probably just makes me lazy.
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Jan 11, 2019 01:20
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Oh no I definitely wouldn’t do more than 1 major activity a day. Just that I don’t wanna plan the whole thing out at once.
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Jan 11, 2019 04:21
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