Current Events > Anybody ever go to Japan? Have 11 days there in March.

(+) Yeah! (+)

What do?

Fly in and out of Osaka.

Suggestions about transport? Price for transport?
Specific places to go?

Also, anybody fly Air China before?
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JR Pass
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Yes, but a long time ago when I was just a kid
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SailorGoon posted...

JR Pass

Explain please.
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FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

SailorGoon posted...

JR Pass

Explain please.

It's a little pricey, but if you're going to do a lot of traveling it's worth it. If you're going to stay in Osaka, then I'd say nevermind actually. A 7 day pads is like $260 and the 14 day is $411.

It's just something you use to get on trains. So long as the train is part of the JR line you can get in it as many times as you need. It also covers the bullet trains if they're part of the JR line. Which a 1 way ticket can cost you upwards of $70 when traveling long distances.

If you're going to explore the country then you definitely get your bang for your buck. If it's just the city than perhaps pass.
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Yeah get the JR Pass. I live in Japan, so I can't get it. It's only for tourists.
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ssjevot posted...

Yeah get the JR Pass. I live in Japan, so I can't get it. It's only for tourists.

Important thing to note. That means you have to get it before you leave your country. You don't get it there.
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JR Rail pass as mentioned above. Get it before you go. You usually get your moneys worth if you travel back and forth between Tokyo and Kyoto once.

Major cities have subways and busses which are easy enough to use. You can't use the rail pass on these though.

As for things to see, Osaka has a pretty impressive aquarium and downtown can be neat. There was a festival going on when I was there, so it might not be as impressive to you.

Kyoto is the city of temples and history. I would highly recommend going there and at least seeing some of the more porminent sites like Kiyomizu. If you can, swing by Nara and Inari as well.

Since you only have 11 days, going to Tokyo might not be worth it as you will be spending most of a day traveling each way. It's a big city and really highligts modern japanese culture, but doesn't offer that much you won't see in Osaka and Kyoto.
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Alongside others' suggestions, if Tokyo's a bit too far for you and you still want to see another big city, I recommend Nagoya. It's often overlooked, but it often ranks 3rd behind Tokyo and Osaka in terms of big Japanese cities. It's much closer and you can get largely the same experience.

Go to Hanamaruken in Dotonbori and order their slow cooked ribs ramen
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SailorGoon posted...

FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

SailorGoon posted...

JR Pass

Explain please.

It's a little pricey, but if you're going to do a lot of traveling it's worth it. If you're going to stay in Osaka, then I'd say nevermind actually. A 7 day pads is like $260 and the 14 day is $411.

It's just something you use to get on trains. So long as the train is part of the JR line you can get in it as many times as you need. It also covers the bullet trains if they're part of the JR line. Which a 1 way ticket can cost you upwards of $70 when traveling long distances.

If you're going to explore the country then you definitely get your bang for your buck. If it's just the city than perhaps pass.

At those prices, why would you pay for a JR pass over renting a car? Luggage and everything would be annoying with trains.
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Costs way too much to travel to Japan.
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One of my favorite things I did was go to an onsen

But they said don't go to some big tourist one. Ask a local person where their favorite onsen is. I asked my hostel host. All I could think the whole time was "this is so fucking Japanese" as we looked out at the cool breeze coming off the mountain blew petals from the sakura tree through the yellow fields of flowers, all completely silently.
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IdiotMachine posted...

SailorGoon posted...

FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

SailorGoon posted...

JR Pass

Explain please.

It's a little pricey, but if you're going to do a lot of traveling it's worth it. If you're going to stay in Osaka, then I'd say nevermind actually. A 7 day pads is like $260 and the 14 day is $411.

It's just something you use to get on trains. So long as the train is part of the JR line you can get in it as many times as you need. It also covers the bullet trains if they're part of the JR line. Which a 1 way ticket can cost you upwards of $70 when traveling long distances.

If you're going to explore the country then you definitely get your bang for your buck. If it's just the city than perhaps pass.

At those prices, why would you pay for a JR pass over renting a car? Luggage and everything would be annoying with trains.

Eh, unlike the US, cars are not the focus and public transportation is much much better and easier to get around with.
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You can get a JR pass in Japan but only until March 31,2019 but it'll be more expensive of course so if you still have time,get one before you get there.

https://www.japan-rail-pass.com/common-questions/can-i-buy-my-japan-rail-pass-in-japan

Osaka,place-wise,Dotonbori for the restaurants+nightlife and has many various caricatures used to advertise their shops,like giant a octopus or giant crab for example.Great for lots of snapshots.

If into electronics,there's Den Den town,Osaka's Akiharbara to that of Tokyo's. Not as wide and spread apart imho,more compact and close together.

A nice thing to note is that Kyoto is about a 30 minute train ride away so if you really want to see a lot more in traditional cultural,like say temples,Kyoto is the place for it,like the in South Kyoto,the Fushimi Inari Shrine.

For me,despite already going there twice,I'm already set for my third time next month and still have many places to visit and re-visit and do properly,since I wasn't as prepared.

You'll have a great time!
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LightHawKnight posted...

Eh, unlike the US, cars are not the focus and public transportation is much much better and easier to get around with.

Agreed in like a place like Tokyo, but outside of that, isn't it just country-like? How would you get from the train station to sights and/or hotels? Seems really inconvenient.
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IdiotMachine posted...

SailorGoon posted...

FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

SailorGoon posted...

JR Pass

Explain please.

It's a little pricey, but if you're going to do a lot of traveling it's worth it. If you're going to stay in Osaka, then I'd say nevermind actually. A 7 day pads is like $260 and the 14 day is $411.

It's just something you use to get on trains. So long as the train is part of the JR line you can get in it as many times as you need. It also covers the bullet trains if they're part of the JR line. Which a 1 way ticket can cost you upwards of $70 when traveling long distances.

If you're going to explore the country then you definitely get your bang for your buck. If it's just the city than perhaps pass.

At those prices, why would you pay for a JR pass over renting a car? Luggage and everything would be annoying with trains.

Well I'd assume you have a place to stay and leave your luggage at. That ride to and from the airport is annoying, but it's not the end of the world.

You have so many more things to worry about with a rental. Driving in a foreign country, parking, gas, freeways cost money, and it's just not as fast as train. A train to Tokyo is only about a 3 and a half hour ride. Opposed to a 6 hour drive.
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IdiotMachine posted...

LightHawKnight posted...

Eh, unlike the US, cars are not the focus and public transportation is much much better and easier to get around with.

Agreed in like a place like Tokyo, but outside of that, isn't it just country-like? How would you get from the train station to sights and/or hotels? Seems really inconvenient.

If you plan on going to the country, you still need to pay for gas, parking, tolls, and it gets pretty expensive. Public transportation is good enough where walking can get you most places after taking public transportation.
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SailorGoon posted...

Well I'd assume you have a place to stay and leave your luggage at. That ride to and from the airport is annoying, but it's not the end of the world.

If you're hopping from town to town every couple days, what do you do with your luggage? Go to the hotel after you arrive, drop off, then go sightseeing every time?
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By the way, this JR pass interests me, since we're going to Japan next April for three weeks. I was going to rent a car...
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IdiotMachine posted...

SailorGoon posted...

Well I'd assume you have a place to stay and leave your luggage at. That ride to and from the airport is annoying, but it's not the end of the world.

If you're hopping from town to town every couple days, what do you do with your luggage? Go to the hotel after you arrive, drop off, then go sightseeing every time?

How much shit do you people bring on a vacation? You don't just bring a small backpack?
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Colorahdo posted...

How much shit do you people bring on a vacation? You don't just bring a small backpack?

Camera and drone gear, and one week worth of clothing, as well as suitcase needed for shopping / bringing Japanese stuff back. We're looking at three carry on size luggage probably.
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Ill post later been here almost three months

IdiotMachine posted...

SailorGoon posted...

Well I'd assume you have a place to stay and leave your luggage at. That ride to and from the airport is annoying, but it's not the end of the world.

If you're hopping from town to town every couple days, what do you do with your luggage? Go to the hotel after you arrive, drop off, then go sightseeing every time?

That's what I normally do. I get an Airbnb. Drop all my stuff off and get a decent backpack and pack light. You save a lot of time with transportation. It's much better if you have a general itinerary.
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SailorGoon posted...

JR Pass

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I went for 8 days last year, landed in Tokyo, did 1-2 days in each main city starting Tokyo, then Hakone, then Nagoya, then Kyoto. Then back up to Tokyo for another 1.5 days.
Hakone - theres this tourist route where you take the tozan line up, you can see the sulphur springs, get a decent view of Mt fuji if its good weather. it takes you on a cable car and eventually you hit a lake where you can get on a boat and get to the other side. eventually you'll have to bus it back to your original location but we really enjoyed this experience, there were some really nice views. theres also some temples and shrines that are definitely picture worthy. theres one at the edge of the lake that is popular on instagram. we also stayed at this hostel type of place where they had private onsens and community dinner right there. the hosts spoke english and everyone was super nice. i think the place we stayed at was called hakone tent, it was nice but not as nice as the pictures make it seem. but i'd definitely go back.
Nagoya - seemed mostly like a business city. we only stayed there for 1 day there wasn't a ton to do. we mostly went to museums and nagoya castle i guess. we did this tourist bus route, it was mostly local tourists actually we seemed like the only non-japanese on that bus but despite the massive language barrier we somehow made friends with some of em and they were super friendly. i enjoyed the museums and stuff. good insight into japanese history
Kyoto - by far our favorite location i'd say do at least 2 full days here if not 3. there are so many spots to visit. the silver pavilion, golden pavilion, i forgot their japanese names. theres some beautiful gardens, bamboo forest. we actually rented electric bikes and did most of the city on bike. its a major biking city and we felt totally safe doing this and enjoyed it alot. especially biking along the river was really nice. my other favorite part was taking a train to yamazaki and checking out the distillery, i thought it was a good experience. their gift shop had some nice stuff and of course i did tastings of their most expensive scotches.
Tokyo - we saved this for the end but we were pretty tired since we packed so much stuff into each day, so we didnt go balls out and stayed mostly low key. checked out some arcades, nice restaurants, this random robot show.

we did alot of research before going so we hit as many things as possible. we planned all our routes accordingly, it was very fine tuned. we planned our hotels in the perfect spots so we can get to the train station easily by walking. as for getting around with luggage, my wife and i eack packed 2 large backpacks, 1 small backpack, and 1 small dufflebag. the smaller bags we could shove in the large backpages when traveling around. eventually we bought so many souvenirs that we had to start using the smaller bags as well. like shirts, coffee mugs, my yamazaki bottles, etc. but it made getting around alot easier. you wont always find elevators or escalators. we did alot of walking and it can be hard with 50lb bags on your backs, but both of us were in some basic shape to be able to do it. at one point we took a local city bus and got off on the wrong exit, we had to walk up like 150 steep stair steps to get to our spot, that sucked lol. we bought a wifi hotspot at the airport, we did the unlimited data one, it worked great.

if ur having any trouble in each city just google for "x days itinerary for ____ city" and you'll get some good stuff.

i mean our whole thing was somewhat touristy although we did go off path quite a bit. but it was still a ton of fun. when we were there we realized we definitely need to do this again in the future and maybe visit some other cities and do more in each city. you could spend a whole month and not do everything.
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So the JR Pass interest me, but not all trains are valid with it?
Can you get to most cities with it?
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FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

So the JR Pass interest me, but not all trains are valid with it?
Can you get to most cities with it?

Basically every major city.
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Why has no one mentioned Nara?

The deer are the best fucking thing in Japan.
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Any of you guys eat kobe beef while there?
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Pay attention to the train maps. Dont get on a local train if youre going a long distance. Locals stop at every station; other trains do not. When I was last there (a long time ago), the routes were color coded.

Bummer that you cant hike Mt Fuji in March.
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Get a suica card, put some money in it. Can use it at train stations and convenient stores.

CommonStar posted...

Get a suica card, put some money in it. Can use it at train stations and convenient stores.

This a great recommendation and agreed,better then getting the tickets,as stated above.
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FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

Any of you guys eat kobe beef while there?

I ate raw horse when I was there. It was really, really good
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I'm planning on going to Japan in December 2019 to start the new year over there. Any advice? Is that a really bad and expensive idea? I can't exactly change it though since I triumphantly declared to my friends I will be there at that time, to which they all shook their heads and laughed at me. I have to prove them wrong >_>

How much Japanese do you guys know? I'm working on learning Kanji right now and have gone through almost 1500 characters at this point. I'm following an unorthodox method where I study the kanji first before I crack open Genki and formally learn the language next month.
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Sad_Face posted...

I'm planning on going to Japan in December 2019 to start the new year over there. Any advice? Is that a really bad and expensive idea? I can't exactly change it though since I triumphantly declared to my friends I will be there at that time, to which they all shook their heads and laughed at me. I have to prove them wrong >_>

How much Japanese do you guys know? I'm working on learning Kanji right now and have gone through almost 1500 characters at this point. I'm following an unorthodox method where I study the kanji first before I crack open Genki and formally learn the language next month.

Kinda...

For the week of like 12/28 to 1/4, places are usually closed and transportation can get very congested.

I would've started with Genki and learning hiragana and katakana first just so you understand the structures and grammar. Kanji is just straight memorization. But you can get by with English as well, most restaurants do offer english menus if asked and most digital systems like atms, ticket vendors, and sushi places where you order via screen will have an english option.

Rimmer_Dall posted...

Costs way too much to travel to Japan.

Yeah round trip is like 2k.
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I'm using this method here.

https://nihongoshark.com/learn-kanji/

It is memorization but the idea is that once you learn Kanji, you can recognize the meaning of words you see which will then make it easier to understand what the sentence is saying. I find it surprisingly nifty that I can recognize a good deal of kanji and understand its usage, like understanding an item name in a Japanese language game.

But I probably am halfbaking it since I don't put in the effort to memorize the Kunyomi and Onyomi along with it.
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plan on going next year

other than wanting to eat some sushi don't really know what to do
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Three personal suggestions...

SailorGoon posted...

JR Pass

1) This ^

2) Eat everything, the food is fantastic

3) Find a place that does nomihodai, enjoy it with friends

Frostshock posted...

Why has no one mentioned Nara?

The deer are the best fucking thing in Japan.

Dude I got mobbed by deer in Nara! I bought some of those treats you can give them, once the herd caught on to me feeding one of their buddies the rest rushed me... kinda cute in the beginning but quickly got weird with deer sticking their snouts in my pockets.

EDIT, just read this...

Colorahdo posted...

FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

Any of you guys eat kobe beef while there?

I ate raw horse when I was there. It was really, really good

Seconded, basashi is delicious! I like to think it tasted like some really choice prime rib.

Hirunesukidayo posted...

CommonStar posted...

Get a suica card, put some money in it. Can use it at train stations and convenient stores.

This a great recommendation and agreed,better then getting the tickets,as stated above.

Better than the JR Pass?
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FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

Hirunesukidayo posted...

CommonStar posted...

Get a suica card, put some money in it. Can use it at train stations and convenient stores.

This a great recommendation and agreed,better then getting the tickets,as stated above.

Better than the JR Pass?

Suica card is a prepaid card that can be used on JR lines no problem. It can also be used at certain shops, restaurants, most convenient stores, and even buses and maybe taxis. With Suica, you just swipe and go, you don't need to purchase a ticket.

JR pass is only good if you're traveling long distances in Japan.

FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

Any of you guys eat kobe beef while there?

I did. Made a quick stopover in Kobe after visiting Himeji castle. There was a resturant right at the station that served it. It's pretty pricey (around 10k yen IIRC), but extremely tastey. Truly melts on the tounge.

I was seated at counter and had my own chef prepare it in front of me and give advice on which sauces to use. It wasn't served as a steak but as smaller slices.

Frostshock posted...

Why has no one mentioned Nara?

The deer are the best fucking thing in Japan.

I did mention it :) Aside from the deer, the Tdai-ji is also very impressive IMO.
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Use Uber Japan
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Oh another good tip is to use Google maps to navigate around. It's useful with train lines too.

FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

Hirunesukidayo posted...

CommonStar posted...

Get a suica card, put some money in it. Can use it at train stations and convenient stores.

This a great recommendation and agreed,better then getting the tickets,as stated above.

Better than the JR Pass?

Not better than, but it works great with it
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How is going around only able to speak English?

Are signs in train stations easy to figure out?
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FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

How is going around only able to speak English?

Are signs in train stations easy to figure out?

There's english on the signs usually. You can also ask staff for help if needed.

You can use Google translate for a lot of basic things. Take a pic of signs and it will auto translate for you
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SailorGoon posted...

FLAMING EVIL HOMER posted...

Hirunesukidayo posted...

CommonStar posted...

Get a suica card, put some money in it. Can use it at train stations and convenient stores.

This a great recommendation and agreed,better then getting the tickets,as stated above.

Better than the JR Pass?

Not better than, but it works great with it

My bad,when I said better,I didn't mean JR pass ticket,I meant regular subway tickets. The thing to consider about the JR Pass is that if you have plans to do lots of long traveling distances,like say via Shinkansen,that's where it will pay off big time.

Its fine around Osaka,while most locals likely won't speak as much english like those in Tokyo,for ordering in restaurants and such,the tried and true finger pointing at what you want is adequate. What's also great is that you can easily take a look at the outside of so many restaurants that have plastic displays of all the dishes available and point to them as well.

Since you'll be in Osaka,how bout trying their style of Okonomiyaki? Its a Japanese pancake with various ingredients,typically otafuku/okonomiyaki sauce(similar to Worcestershire sauce but thicker and sweeter)along with seaweed/bonito flakes,Japanese mayonnaise and pickled ginger. How bout trying takoyaki balls(fried,battered octopus balls)? If those don't interest you,there's the usual fair of ramen,udon,soba and curry rice dishes. Also,do check out convenience stores like 711,Lawson,Family Mart and the like,those places have so much types of stuff,imho vastly better selection to what we have here in the west. Lots of Onigiri,sandwishes,bento boxes,desserts,etc!

One thing for sure,you'll definitely NOT starve for lack of choices!
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