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Japan Travel |OT| One does simply not visit just once
- Thread starter hwalker84
- Start date
MikeHattsu
Member
Depends on where you're going.
Safe in terms of personal safety? Its always safe.
Safe in terms of making it on the last train? Like above, depends on where you are going.
how long are you going for? and what cities are you visiting? use this as a good guide: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2410.html
Truthfully, I haven't really figured out the number of days, but I'm looking into two weeks (10-14 days) as an ideal amount of time.
My idea is to land in Tokyo, take the train to a couple of cities and depart at whichever major international airport is nearby.
Roughly 3-4 days per city. Longer if it ends up just being two cities. Tokyo is pretty much a must for me (I'd assume this is the case for everyone), and Sapporo is another city I'd like to check out. I'm still deciding on a third city, and that might change where my starting city would be.
Edit: Hiroshima! I think that'll be my third city, if it works out.
Probably. I missed some of what I wanted to see in Miyajima because I was walking all over the place. I missed the last trip up the mountain.
Sapporo is long ways away from Tokyo. Its an overnight train or a flight. You could do Tokyo and then go to Kyoto/Osaka. I did that over two weeks a few years ago and its a wonderful trip. I'm guessing this is your first trip? You can spend as much time in Toyko as you want and still barely scratch the surface
MikeHattsu
Member
Yeah. Should be fine. Immigration shouldn't take that long. Make sure to inform your hotel that you'll be arriving late at night though.
Yeah, first trip. I did take into account that Sapporo is far from Tokyo.
I've been browsing the Japan-Guide.com website linked in the OP (and Raguel's provided page) and the cost might not be as expensive as I'm imagining it to be. If I can get by "high end" with $200CAD a day (not including transport), that's not bad at all.
MikeHattsu
Member
Not including flight, transport or hotel? Yeah, 200 CAD a day is more than enough. Unless you plan to do some expensive shopping/fine dining, then even 80 CAD is more than enough too.
I figure $200 is safe, covering daily expenses and some extra for emergencies.
I've been trying to figure this out all day, and I feel like I might be able to stretch this trip out longer than two weeks and visit more cities.
Hmm. Maybe I'll do miyajima first then go to Hiroshima. Then from hiroshima, go back to osaka. Because the only thing i want to see in hiroshima is the peace park.
MikeHattsu
Member
I'd not be surprised if you could do 3 weeks with your total planned budget instead of just 2, if that $200 is not including the hotel/hostel cost of course..
HideyoshiJP
Member
You should also check out the Mazda Museum. It's pretty interesting and free!
Man, I took my trip last December and I already want to go back. I've still got the jingle for this apartment rental place near Nagoya station stuck in my head.
賃貸住宅サービス
I would like to ask, what do people think of Disneyland? I've got a friend who's planning a Japan trip later this year and she asked me about it but my experiences were pretty limited since I only went with the after 6 passport (although I still had an awesome time since they had still a lot of awesome going on well into the night). I've got another friend who told me he didn't like it very much since he encountered lines that were apparently hours long but he suspected he may have went during a holiday or something.
MikeHattsu
Member
>_>
From earlier in the thread:
The 2015 calendar is here:
http://tdrnavi.jp/forecast/disneyland/2015/?lang=en
Jesus what is happening in all of March? half term? Does the "emergency" sign mean full up no more tickets?
MikeHattsu
Member
It means that the park will most likely be at maximum capacity if the weather is good.
Remember that these are just unofficial estimates and they might be wrong.
It might be worse this year since the Disneyland tickets are increasing in price on April 1st. Though I suppose people won't buy just for March.
hitsugi
Member
I haven't been to Disneyland in Japan, but I do think Disneysea was a worthwhile experience. We went on a medium-crowded day and things weren't bad. We were able to ride what we wanted to without dealing with huge lines (thanks to fastpass) and I was able to eat every variety of popcorn they had (..I think).
There is a list on the homepage of the museum:
http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/ticket-information/
http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/ticket-information/
MikeHattsu
Member
You're in Brazil? The only worldwide ticket sale one that's shipping there:
http://www.japanspecialist.co.uk/ghibli-museum/ticket-only/
You could also get Japanese tickets from these two services:
http://www.bridge.jpn.com/services/tickets
http://www.jbox.com/product/GHIBLITICKET
Never heard of the first company, but the second one is legit at least...
Maybe somebody who's living in Japan could help you get tickets as well. People have gotten help from people in Japan who posts in this thread before.
rrvv
Member
MikeHattsu
Member
Probably safer to use the train at night in Japan than during the day in lots of other countries.
rrvv
Member
how about in the road while carrying big baggage
distantmantra
Member
Japan is ridiculously safe. You'll be fine.
Yeah I live in Brazil. Thanks for that site!
Hmm I do have a friend that lives in Ikebukuro, I'll ask him if he can buy tickets for us.
Wander the streets drunk at 3 in the morning with a fistful of yen and you'll still be fine.
distantmantra
Member
It's pretty crazy just how safe it is. I can't think of anywhere else where I have no problem walking around with large amounts of cash.
I will try this on Thursday.
distantmantra
Member
We actually had a guy try to fight us on the Yamanote once, but then we made up and all ended up drinking beers together at a yakuza run bar in Kabukicho.
That was a good night.
That was a good night.
Can you.. let us know where in Japan?
Going tomorrow for around 6 days! Mainly staying in Tokyo. Still debating how much cash to bring. Currently have 100k yen. I know that is probably enough for food and minor items. But I want to know am I able to use credit card when filling up suica card? If not then I think a good chunk of my cash will be used for daily transport and random stuff I can tap-2-pay.
Suica refill is cash only. You can put as much as 20,000 Yen on it but I would also advice against filling up too much on it at a time in case you lose the card.
Little by little as the days go by is the best, imo. You can also get the money back if you wanna empty it become you go home.
Edit: Here, some details and info in English if you want: http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/suica.html
MikeHattsu
Member
Don't overfill your Suica card. You'll probably not be able to use it for a lot more than 15-20k in total in a week.
Hell I don't even know where or what I'm doing/going yet. LOL.
Edit: Do I need reservations for Nihonryori Ryugin?
MikeHattsu
Member
Yes:
http://www.nihonryori-ryugin.com/en/reserve/
And here's a schedule of MMA events:
http://mma-in-asia.com/resources/list-of-all-events/2015-upcoming/
Ticket PIA got tickets to some of them:
http://t.pia.jp/sports/fighting/index.jsp
Beck
Member
So I'm planning a trip to Japan with a friend but we don't know the best time to go. We're working it sometime in April, potentially May depending on one factor: other tourists. Both of us fly standby so we're trying to find the best time to go to avoid getting full flights. I know there's an increase in tourism during late March due to the cherry blossoms, but does anyone know how long that boost lasts?
Like I was looking at April 7th or 8th and coming back around the 23rd (roughly two weeks) to avoid Golden Week, or is that too close to the the tourist season?
Like I was looking at April 7th or 8th and coming back around the 23rd (roughly two weeks) to avoid Golden Week, or is that too close to the the tourist season?
I wouldn't say Japan is a place filled with tourists, like if you go to an exotic beach in Bali or a resort in Thailand You can honestly go anytime you want without worrying about overcrowded tourists. They will be there regardless, but most places won't be packed with them. Japan is huge and a lot of them tend to stick to certain areas. Honestly, there packed places (like Disneyland and shrines) have way more Japanese citizens than tourists.
April/May is probably the most "packed" time since it's around Golden Week. Though, Golden Week is the worst week of the year. Everyone around rural Japan comes to Tokyo/the big cities for sales and what not. Also you can check out the sakura forecast here (subject to change in case of rain): http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2011_when.html
Watch out for typhoon season too.
Not sure what else you want, but you can look here for travel time details:
http://www.tofugu.com/2012/11/27/whens-the-best-time-to-visit-japan/
Beck
Member
Well it's not that I'm worried about too many people while I'm in Japan, I'm more worried on whether or not flights to Japan are crammed packed during those periods.
No idea where you live or flying from, but your best bet would be to just check online. The longer you wait, the faster it will sell out. Actually most flights to and from Japan are filled with Japanese who are going/coming from vacation, heh.