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Recommendations for Japan Travel

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Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#111

Post by b4je7d7wb »

asutekku wrote: post #94
b4je7d7wb wrote: post #90

I would be careful with his advise on money. If you came to Japan in the past 3 months with no cash and a Visa card, you would be in deep shit. Visa cards are just not working here and it seems nobody cares to fix it. Japan is very safe so it's probably fine to just bring your budget in cash. Also outside of the beaten path like he advise people to go it's still very cash heavy society. Your taxi driver will not be h…

YMMV but my visa worked perfectly fine during my trip there last month.

Interesting, perhaps it has been fixed. I need to try tomorrow. In August it was definitely broken for several weeks for multiple people.

I still recommend some cash. In many cases cashiers have hard time using foreign cards since there might be prompts they are not familiar with. It's sometimes slow and awkward to pay with foreign cards. But if you prefer it and stay around Tokyo you are 95% fine with a charged IC-card and a credit card.

Actually I have even noticed some places and events in Tokyo do not even accept cash.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#112

Post by mc32 »

jeromegv wrote: post #104
teerak wrote: post #92

> the boom in tourism in Japan over the last decade or so has made the beaten path… less than wonderful It's not just Japan. I've been travelling a lot for many years, for work and pleasure, in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. In this time, the experience has become consistently much worse everywhere I go. I personally blame social media and camera phones for this. In the past, a place might be busy, but people were…

Looks like a lot of gatekeeping on your part. This was the good old days when you were travelling but now that other people travel, they are the worst because they take too many selfies. Negative impact of tourism have been documented for a while. There’s just more people traveling because flights got cheaper. But new travellers aren’t worse than you were, there’s just more of us traveling and it makes our impact mor…

Doesn’t look like it. Poster differentiates tourists going in to enjoy places and people who fly in to use places as backdrops for something else.

In other words the new tourists isn’t going in to enjoy a place for themselves but does it to amuse people elsewhere and couldn’t care much about actually taking in the places they visit.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#114

Post by TEP_Kim_Il_Sung »

impendia wrote: post #58

Having lived in Japan for two years, what I'd add to this is to spend a lot of time walking, if physically able. For example, in my opinion the best way to explore Tokyo is to simply leave your hotel in the morning, wander around all day, and stop anywhere and everywhere that looks interesting. The excellent mass transit system means that it won't be a problem to get back. In more rural parts of Japan, there are sign…

Don't worry, any places foreigners are forbidden from entering, are clearly marked.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#115

Post by kristopolous »

wyclif wrote: post #101
Razengan wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a reference to American obesity or something else..?

Americans are very fond of wide open spaces and square footage. Imagine being from Colorado, Wyoming, or Montana...or even California...and staying in a Japanese salaryman hotel. It's going to be claustrophobic for some people not used to the experience.

The hotel advice is if you're paying normal hotel prices you're going to get a room that's not absurd.

It's more that Japan (and many other places) have a product class at a pricing point that Americans do not so Americans think they've gotten a great deal but instead it's a product they're not expecting and not familiar with.

Maybe you want that, just know what you're buying.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#116

Post by diceduckmonk »

throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #110

Get change (coins) and try things from vending machines - particularly, the hot milk tea on a cold morning, but be prepared to carry your trash all day until you get back home. Try foods in supermarkets or convenience stores, especially weird candy. Bring Google Translate to use live translation mode. If you're not sure if your phone has the right bands for high speed internet, or how to get a sim card, you can rent…

> If you go to Hiroshima, do not miss… the cherry blossoms

This is kind of inverted. I followed the cherry blossom bloom West to East across Japan over a span of 2 months. I wouldn’t put Hiroshima on the top 10 cherry blossom spots. Sure, if you’re already in Hiroshima at the right time, then why not, but if people are actively seeking out cherry blossoms, they’d work backwards from where they want to go, then time it.

In case people were wondering, I thought the cherry blossoms in Hirosaki Castle were the best.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#117

Post by Markoff »

jleyank wrote: post #84

To use the physics sense, we found vacationing in Japan high friction . Yeah, it was totally different than anywhere we have been on n America or Western Europe. At times, it felt like we were looking at everything on the other side of a closed window, amazing yet inaccessible. This was ‘05 or earlier, and the lack of Roman lettering outside Kyoto was hard. Outrunning English has not been a problem elsewhere, but los…

TIL people call Latin alphabet Roman lettering

I always refer only to numerals as Roman, the alphabet/writing system always as Latin

Btw your 2005 pre smartphone experience compared to nowadays is not relevant anymore with everyone having GPS maps and translator in hands even if no signage were changed, I sort of liked old times when you had to interact with locals, nowadays you can just stare at mobile and no need to talk to them at all.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#118

Post by throwawaaarrgh »

impendia wrote: post #58

Having lived in Japan for two years, what I'd add to this is to spend a lot of time walking, if physically able. For example, in my opinion the best way to explore Tokyo is to simply leave your hotel in the morning, wander around all day, and stop anywhere and everywhere that looks interesting. The excellent mass transit system means that it won't be a problem to get back. In more rural parts of Japan, there are sign…

Tokyo is absurdly gigantic, I would not suggest randomly walking it. Also the subway system can be challenging, and the staff don't speak English, so if you get stuck they likely won't be able to help.

Another random thing about the train system: there are women-only cars. I didn't realize this until I had already boarded and (as a man) I was absolutely mortified.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#119

Post by pyb »

amrocha wrote: post #69
mlindner wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same situation for people visiting the US and they only ever go to some major US city like New York City or Los Angeles. Visit some place that's more than 100 miles from the ocean and isn't an urban downtown center.

Hard disagree. Most US cities outside the coasts are awful places to visit. What's someone gonna do in Phoenix or Denver?

We're not talking about cities here.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#120

Post by petronio »

Ruarl wrote: post #13
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.

I mean, how else would you distinguish that restaurant from "Food was sublime, service ranged from movie-star charm to invisibly dealing with my every need, payment was waived in favour of a small donation to my favourite cat charity. 5 stars"

In my view scores are relative to expectations, usually tied to price. A restaurant with a $50 meal and a 3 star score will likely have better food than one with a $5 meal and 5 stars on an absolute scale, but the people who got their $5 meal were happy with it and the ones with the $50 meal were disappointed.
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