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Recommendations for Japan Travel

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Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#41

Post by ThePadawan »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #5
hinoki wrote: post #3

> Note that Japanese reviewers are substantially pickier than you are No kidding, I see lots of reviews like: food is tasty, service was friendly, price reasonable. 3 stars.

And American reviewers are pretty much the most generous out there. My rule of thumb is that a 3.5 rating by Japanese equates to a 4.5 rating by Americans. Seriously.

I recently started tracking the books I read on GoodReads and their rating system struck me as the most American one yet:

5 stars: "it was amazing"

4 stars: "really liked it"

3 stars: "liked it"

2 stars: "it was OK"

1 star: "did not like it"

I wonder how many people, without any other context, would interpret "I'd rate this book 2 out of 5 stars" as "yeah, it was OK".

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#42

Post by tmtvl »

rjh29 wrote: post #19
bigDinosaur wrote: post #2

Going off the beaten path always amuses me a bit as advice (what happens when everyone decides to do that?) but it's also quite true that you can often be literally tens of metres away from the most touristic locations with barely any tourists actually around you in most places (exceptions include cities that have become theme parks like Venice).

Well there are basically 10 places in Tokyo everyone goes to, and maybe they go to Kyoto or Osaka too. That leaves... the entire rest of the country. I've travelled around most of Japan and the majority of time I see zero foreigners. Seriously just pick a random city from Japan Guide or go to an onsen. Visit Kyushu, it's beautiful and nobody seems to travel there because it's too far away :P

I love Matsumoto (in Nagano Prefecture), it's a lovely city located right in the midst of some beautiful mountains. Nara is also nice, but I'm a mountain boy at heart.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#43

Post by bsaul »

So, he obviously knows better than me, but i prefered osaka over tokyo a lot. If you’re european, you’ll probably feel the vibe is a bit cooler and more familiar than the typical salaryman tokyo

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#44

Post by rjh29 »

tmtvl wrote: post #42
rjh29 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well there are basically 10 places in Tokyo everyone goes to, and maybe they go to Kyoto or Osaka too. That leaves... the entire rest of the country. I've travelled around most of Japan and the majority of time I see zero foreigners. Seriously just pick a random city from Japan Guide or go to an onsen. Visit Kyushu, it's beautiful and nobody seems to travel there because it's too far away :P

I love Matsumoto (in Nagano Prefecture), it's a lovely city located right in the midst of some beautiful mountains. Nara is also nice, but I'm a mountain boy at heart.

Nice, not had the chance to visit Matsumoto yet! I lived in Kyoto and being surrounded by mountains was definitely one of the nicest parts.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#45

Post by ehnto »

This is somewhat adjacent for which I apologize, but being a Japan Fan of the travelling variety I have noticed a trend on HN toward Japan related articles. My understanding is HN has no user-specific algorithmic feed changes, so is this just a natural increase in interest toward Japan in general I'm seeing since the borders opened up? Most of the articles aren't even travel related, just about Japanese culture or people from Japan.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#46

Post by bluepizza »

rjh29 wrote: post #34
bluepizza wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notice that I mentioned that they get bad outside of touristic areas. I mean the ones where someone from the UK wouldn't normally stay, like a business area or a local transportation hub. Meaning the ones used by drunks, drug addicts, and prostitutes.

I've stayed in a bunch of them across the country but maybe I haven't been to any particularly rough areas. They all have a practically identical layout (both building and rooms) as far as I can tell. Any examples?

I am not talking about layout. I am talking about unclean bathrooms and beds, mold, cigarrette smells in the corridors, people falling over in the corridors, weird noises at night, aircons that don't work.

APA does not provide top notch maintenance for its hotels in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Nishi Kasai, Meidaimae, or any non important area.

If you stay in the hotel close to the central station of a small town - that's touristic. Japanese tourists are staying there.

What I mean is that APA is really bad off the beaten path, and since the article recommends branching off, using APA is a very bad idea.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#47

Post by rjh29 »

swah wrote: post #14
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #4

Lovely. Spent 3 months in Kyoto in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, and loved Japan, more than my other quick business trips in the past. Some of my notes, specific to Kyoto, but unsure whether they also apply elsewhere: Typical food in KYOTO: - aristocratic kaiseki ryori course dinners - vegetarian shojin ryori of monks - simple obanzai ryori home style cooking - Kyo-wagashi (Kyoto sweets) - Yudofu (tofu cook…

What about Kyoto vs Tokyo? Is there also the "small city" experience (calmer streets, slow people) in those cities, in places away from the center, perhaps?

It's a very big city, so yeah there are lots of districts which are quieter. They are essentially small towns all jammed together. I've stayed in a place 15 minutes walk from Shinjuku that was almost dead.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#48

Post by [deleted] »

kissiel wrote: post #35
pyb wrote: post #8

"Very few people take me up on this part of the recommendation: get out of the cities if you are here for more than a week in your life." Same situation for visitors to the UK. I've given up trying to tell tourists to get out of London, they never listen.

I'm 3 days away from my return flight after spending a month in Japan (I'm here for the first time). I regret leaving the cities. Now I'm back in Tokyo and I feel back at home. My trip was: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima, Miyakojima, Tokyo. Miyakojima, except being tropical "paradise-like island" made me _finish_ two games on my phone.

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