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Recommendations for Japan Travel

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Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#201

Post by patio11 »

paulette449 wrote: post #96

This "avoid the beaten path for tourists" but also "pick Kyoto". Hmmm. If you really do want to go (slightly) off the beaten path, try Yokohama (a short hop from Tokyo), Kobe (rebuilt and revitalized since the ruinous earthquake, Fukuoka, Nagano (Winter Olympic city) or Sapporo. Or even take a domestic flight down to Okinawa and visit Naha. To go off the beaten track in Tokyo, stay in Ikebukuro an unfashionable but I…

If you walk literally fifty meters in any direction from the tourist hotspots in Kyoto you’ll get an entirely different view of Kyoto, often including a reflection of the charms that brought people to the hotspots.

YMMV; I only lived there for a year and it was a long time ago now.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#202

Post by jleyank »

gniv wrote: post #184
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…

Your comment reminded me of Lost in Translation (which came out in 2003).

Aside from not being famous or beautiful people, we liked and sorta related to lost in translation. They were good trips, and I encourage anybody from n America to visit the war museums in Tokyo and especially Hiroshima. Everybody should do Hiroshima. All in the spirit of “never again”.

I think Kyoto and maybe one other city wasn’t bombed in ww ii. Let the old temples and statues survive.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#203

Post by dreamcompiler »

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…

One thing that helps -- besides the Google translate app -- is to learn Katakana and Hiragana before you leave. There are only ~48 characters in each and they match each other 1:1 (think of Katakana as "printing" and Hiragana as "cursive"). Each character represents only one sound (unlike English) so it's easy to learn the symbol-to-sound mapping. Most signage and menus include one or the other and being able to sound out the phonemes dramatically increases one's feeling of being able to read. You can learn either from its Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana

Kanji is a whole different deal: That's the writing system with tens of thousands of characters. It helps to learn the most common few of these, but it's completely unnecessary to learn more than that to have an enjoyable time as a tourist.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#204

Post by dreamcompiler »

riko41 wrote: post #55

Here are some additional ideas for off the beaten path Japan: - Rent a car, better yet, rent a cheap camper van[1]. Save a ton of money on hotels. - Get a local 4G internet card. Save on roaming charges. - Set the option to "Avoid tolls" and "Avoid motorways" on your favorite navigation app. Slower, cheaper and much better scenery. - Sleep on Road side stations(free and safe), bath on hot springs, wash your clothes o…

Two caveats about renting cars in Japan:

1. Driving is on the left and the lanes are narrow. UK visitors will have no problem; Americans will find it trickier.

2. Japanese police have zero tolerance and complete discretion w.r.t. driving under the influence. Just don't do it; drinking even one beer and then driving is enough to get thrown in jail. And you do not want to get thrown in jail in Japan.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#205

Post by chasely »

ehnto wrote: post #30
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).

My top tip is, since everyone loves Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, there's actually a fantastic natural trail network there that I saw no one on. It takes you out through a valley of smaller shrines and graves, and nearly to the top of the mountain still. Then you can take the gates walk on the way down if you still want that experience. The trail had a beautiful uninterrupted view of Kyoto from a natural clearing in…

When my wife and I went, I think we "accidentally" went on this trail. Our philosophy is to do the touristy things, but go just beyond what most do. This meant walking past the shrine and onto the trail network where we ran into a number of smaller shrines one the walking path.

Overall I was very impressed with the number of managed walking paths when we were in Japan. Allowed you to get away from the crowds pretty quickly if you'd like.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#206

Post by traceroute66 »

I have not read the whole blog, but at least one critical part of it is already out of date.

The bit about the Japan Rail Pass, in particular the statement "and which you must purchase before you get here".

This is no longer the case. In the run-up to the Olympics, Japan made serious improvements in relation to the JRP:

     1) You no longer need to purchase it abroad. You can purchase it in Japan on presentation of your passport with your visitor visa label. Yes, you will pay a small (10%) premium for buying in-country, but the point is the "abroad only" requirement is no longer there.
     2) The whole "queue and stamp" palaver to get seats is no longer a thing. The whole "queue and show" palaver to get through the gates is no longer a thing. You now get a ticket which you can use at the machines to get your reservations. You now get a ticket which you can use at the automated gates.  If you have never been to Japan before, I can't tell you how FRIGGIN AWESOME an improvement this is over the historical way of doing things !

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#207

Post by traceroute66 »

ghaff wrote: post #149
throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The subway system is sprawling but, as someone who doesn't know any Japanese, I've never had any real trouble navigating it. Didn't know about woman-only cars but I assume most Japanese would take it as just another clueless foreigner and wouldn't think much else about it.

> The subway system is sprawling but, as someone who doesn't know any Japanese, I've never had any real trouble navigating it.

The Tokyo subway was never difficult to navigate. But as someone who has recently returned from a trip to Japan for the first time since COVID I can tell you they've made substantial improvements since (mostly as a result of the run up to the Olympics).

There is now substantially more English signage on the subway than ever before. The ticket machines even now have extensive English language menus.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#208

Post by ronyfadel »

It misses out on the 2 best places I’ve visited in Japan (possibly ever visited):

- Naoshima island: a beautiful serene island dedicated to contemporary art. Such a surreal experience.

- Shimanami Kaido: a 60km bike path linking an archipelago of rural islands in the sea of Hiroshima. The bridges looking the islands are something out of Blade Runner.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#209

Post by greggman3 »

throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #118
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.

Tokyo's trains have some of the best signage in the world. Nearly all the ones in Tokyo and other major cities have English directions. All the stations have color coded numbers like G12 or N13 if Japanese names are hard for you.

Signs on the tracks tell you what station you're at, what the previous station was and what the next station will be.

Every exit has a number and signs on the walls and ceilings tell you which way you need to walk to get to your destination or transfer.

At the gates there are always maps of the area on the walls to lookup where to go if you don't have a smartphone.

I've been all over the world and I can't think of another transit system that has all of those features. Others are always missing one or more.

As for the person below that mentioned they got help in Ikebukuro station, it's great they got help, but I suspect in their panic they didn't notice all the signs. There is no exit from the JR lines that does not have clear signage to every other line (tobu, seibu Ikebukuro, fukutoshinsen, Marunouchi, Yurakucho, ...)

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#210

Post by amrocha »

barry-cotter wrote: post #78
amrocha wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I realise this is more to reinforce your self concept of contempt towards flyover country than out of any familiarity with either place but did you do five minutes research? I’d happily spend a week in Denver. Looks pretty nice. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g33388-Activities-De...

Yep, I've visited both Phoenix and Denver before to see friends. I would not recommend someone coming to the US visit them.

There's a nice cities that are forgotten by international tourists. New Orleans, Nashville, Chicago to name a few. But imo you can skip pretty much anything west of the Mississippi without missing out on much until you get to the coast. I'm not saying all those places suck, just that they're not tourism friendly.

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