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Recommendations for Japan Travel

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Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#281

Post by midoridensha »

quartesixte wrote: post #278
midoridensha wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The women-only cars are only during certain times of day. Read the sign and it'll tell you: basically it's only during rush hour. Also, the women-only cars are at the ends of the trainset.

Only in Tokyo/Osaka/(IIRC Kyoto?) There are certain cities that have made their women-only cars 24/7. More or less because the level of traffic they experience doesn't really make the loss of 1 car to 50% of the population any real detriment.

Sorry, should have specified: what I wrote above is for Tokyo.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#282

Post by teerak »

bentlegen wrote: post #153
mc32 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

He or she preferred a time when the world was less connected, and one’s ability to travel was dictated more by wealth, status, and education. Think of a time when to pull off a trip to Japan you had to use a travel agent ($) to assist you in even figuring out what hotel to go to and how to get there. You’d rely on print magazines and books to even first decide where to go, and those only had so many pages to print. R…

> He or she preferred a time when the world was less connected, and one’s ability to travel was dictated more by wealth, status, and education.

No, I started travelling frequently around 20 years ago and was by no means wealthy. Just single with a normal job and willing to spend all my money on it. I've also always been able to plan my own travel and never used agencies.

> But social media is just one small input in all of this.

I really don't think it's small. For example just yesterday I visited an island nearby with a very nice beach. It was mostly unusable, all the good areas were occupied by people taking photos and videos, with others queueing to take that spot and do the same. A constant stream of activity and noise, the opposite of relaxing. I left. I get that's a rant and people have every right to do that, but I stand by my point that social media has very noticeably made things worse.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#283

Post by ryan_lane »

The restaurant and drink recommendations in this post are... not great. I do agree that you want to aim for places that don't cater to tourists, but it's honestly pretty easy to give specific recommendations if you're into food and/or drinking.

I have a pretty extensive list for Tokyo: https://wanderlog.com/view/mhwjfphqda/tokyo-guide/shared

In the past 5 or so years, the craft beer and craft gin scenes have been really blowing up. I highly recommend seeking those while you're here.

For ramen it's totally acceptable to go to the popular places. I'd actually generally avoid the advice from the post. You probably don't want to go to the places that cater to salarymen, because they're looking for a cheap place that's open late. Avoid places like ippudo and ichiran, but for the most part, if it has a crazy amount of reviews on google maps or tabelog, and isn't a chain, it's probably really good.

Otherwise I really like extensively trying izakayas. There's so much variety, from cheap salaryman places, to expensive spots that cater to foodies. Some specialize in sashimi, others yakitori, and lots of izakayas seem to take the jack of all trades approach. The hardest part of the izakayas is that they tend to have their menus on the walls, on wooden or paper signs for each dish, making it pretty difficult if you can't read japanese.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#284

Post by ranger_danger »

greggman3 wrote: post #209
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.

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 whi…

>There is no exit from the JR lines that does not have clear signage to every other line

Several times I have come across a station (like Shinjuku) where I can see the same sign for the same train line placed in 4 or 5 different areas (all visible at once) all pointing in different directions.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#285

Post by rtpg »

jesterson wrote: post #274

The part where it said that cards can be widely accepted made me chuckle. Don't fall for it, cards wouldn't be accepted in most places where you'd go, and in half of those places your card wouldn't be working because it wasn't issued in Japan. The only place where card would be almost guaranteed to be accepted is konbini. Everywhere else it would be better to rely on cash. Especially if it is inaka

This has changed immensely in the past 4 years. Night and day. I would not recommend going card only (and lots of restaurants will be cash only for lunch) but honestly at this point my cash spending in face to face transactions has plummeted immensely.

Though for countryside stuff… I feel like PayPay has a lot more success than cards

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#286

Post by mantas »

amrocha wrote: post #213
mantas wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Experience what the US actually is? Traveling should be about experience the local reality, not cherry picking.

The coast is what the US actually is. There's more people on the coasts than not. I truly don't understand where the idea that the coasts aren't the "real" US comes from. They're more real than some city nobody moves to in a state barely anyone lives in.

The real US is the mix of both coasts and in-between. If you see the coasts only, then you don't experience real US. Only few cherry picked bits.

It's like going to London and Paris and claiming you have seen „real“ Europe. No, it was just few cherry picked non-representative bits.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#287

Post by wst_ »

ghaff wrote: post #188
spike021 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was the last time you were there? I went in 2019 and 2020 and it was really easy to get around. All stations have signage in English almost everywhere. Google maps says which exit / entrance to come in or leave from, even which car of the train you're on is closest to the path you need to get off. As for walking, you don't need to walk _everywhere_ but it really is cool to spend a few hours like OP said and just…

Pre-Google Maps, finding specific addresses could be a bit challenging--because of the addressing scheme that I've not totally grokked to this day--but even then I don't recall the subway system being a particular challenge relative to other big systems like New York or London.

Don't worry. You're not the only one. Natives are often lost. Couple of times already I've been asked where the given address is by Japanese person and I am definitely not of Asian descent :) On the contrary, in 2008, before the mobile Internet I was looking for an address and couple of natives couldn't find it despite the fact I got address and a picture printed at hand. Turned out we've standing next to the building and all I had to do is to turn back to find it. Today I just follow uncle Google advice.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#288

Post by hk__2 »

simondotau wrote: post #245
the_af wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rome is amazing, so straight off the bat that piece of advice will not work for everyone. And I have more examples: Cinqueterre is out of this world. In same cases it's true though: Florence left me unimpressed, but I think it was the fault of the huge influx of tourists and peddlers that ruined everything.

“Probably” does a lot of heavy lifting in my aforementioned rule of thumb. There are some major cities that are worth visiting despite the tourists. In some cities, like London, the rule applies fractally. Avoid anywhere listed in tourist guides and there are lots of great suburbs to explore. Whereas a city like Paris, great as it is to lay eyes on the Eiffel Tower and the Arch de Triumph, the city is ultimately a di…

IMHO if you want to visit Paris the city (vs. Paris the symbol), you can ignore the Eiffel Tower and the Arch de Triumph, which are monuments that have not much to do with the history of the city itself, and instead wander around in Montmartre / Saint-Germain / le Marais / islands de la Cité and Saint-Louis / along the Seine and the canal Saint-Martin.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#289

Post by ehnto »

Vt71fcAqt7 wrote: post #241
workingdog wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fair to say the culture is younger, but they have a very complete Shinto deity mythos that's just as lavish and nuanced as the Greek gods. The isolation provided by being an hard to reach island has, in my opinion, made their culture quite differentiated and useful to contrast my own culture with. For example, I learned from the Japanese that children are much more capable than my own culture thinks they are. So…

>The isolation provided by being an hard to reach island has, in my opinion, made their culture quite differentiated and useful to contrast my own culture with. Not really. Vast portions of pre-modern Japanese culture was borrowed from China. From fashion and art to language, philosophy and religion. Even the "very complete Shinto deity mythos" is not what you claim: >Even among experts, there are no settled theories…

> People like Japan because of anime

Foreigners have exotified Japan well before anime, I think your point about exceptionalism stands though and points to what I think is the real reason for it's popularity; To explain modern day infatuation, if I were to be a little shallow, I would say Japan is just the east-asian country that's most accessible to the west, since it's cultural shifts somewhat met the west in the middle after WWII.

It's still an exotic location and culture to a westerner, but it's safe and easy to engage with, and it's acceptable to enjoy it. It has no political tensions, it has no religious tensions (for travelers), it has a very agreeable set of social rules, and it's extremely safe to visit even if you go off the beaten path. It's like East-Asia Easy Mode for travelers.

Re: Recommendations for Japan Travel

#290

Post by michaelt »

bentlegen wrote: post #248
michaelt wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The raw availability of something existing in 1996 (when Expedia launched, a decade before the iPhone) does not mean it was accessible or widespread. Sure, but the same is true for the iPhone. After all, iphone sales in 2007 were 200 million. And that was for a product with no 3G and no app store. So I doubt tourist sites were clogged with Instagram influencers in 2007.

I acknowledged that social media plays some part; read again. You tell me what’s more impactful. Literal data that says the number of international tourists growing 350% over 30 years (from 400 million global international arrivals in 1990 to 1.4 billion in 2018), or some dataless notion that “actually it’s because of selfies”. You can’t build more ancient collisseums and temples. See also why aged whiskey prices hav…

Given that teerak explicitly says:

> I personally blame social media and camera phones for this. [...] people taking the same photo 100 times with slightly different poses. Wannabe influencers using their boyfriends as personal photographers. Youtubers being loud

I think my interpretation, that teerak is complaining about social media and camera phones, is better supported by data - namely, the text of the post - than your rather uncharitable interpretation that he or she preferred a time when the world was less connected, and one’s ability to travel was dictated more by wealth, status, and education

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