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^^ thanks! I look at some AirBnB 30 to 50 dollars night and the host seems to have lot's of good review. Is not too bad. Plane ticket seems a bit expensive at the monent will have to see if there are cheaper ones. As far as money wise after hotel/plane ticket will $1500CAD be enough for food, transit, fare? Or I should plan more? Won't really be drinking much since this is a solo trip. |
i just paid about 350$ for my JR pass, i got an AirBnB in tokyo for the 5 days i'll be there, basically as a place to store stuff and to have a place to sleep for the first couple days, i'll be spending a day in kyoto (capsule hotel just to say i did), a day in osaka (staying in a proper hotel that's part of the Shin-Osaka station, and then back to tokyo to fly out. i'm going by myself so it's going to be a test of how much i can get done in as little time as possible, haha. definitely will be the first of many trips, hence the shorter span. Happysilp: how much were your plane tickets? in january i bought return tickets for mid feb @ $730 i think it was. |
I guess I should start planning my trip.. Or do everything last minute like my most recent solo trip. |
BTW, I've noticed in Japan people seem totally OK with waiting for the popular eateries. You're probably thinking 30-45min no biggie? Lines can easily be 1-2 hours. I don't have that kind of patience or time in my travel so I would not hesitate to eat at another place around the corner, that's probably just as good as the famous ones. How much money you should budget, really depends. For food just don't expect similar pricing to Taiwan or Korea or many times even Vancouver (I always forget how competitive our food scene is here). Worth it though. Off-topic now but I still feel the food culture and atmosphere in Korea is superior to Japan's. |
^ TBH, unless you are trying something that's one of kind, I don't think the wait is worth it. If you absolutely must go, try going some odd hours where you don't face the same crazy line-up at peak. During my recent trip to Kansai area, we visited a few highly popular eateries (always odd hours) and I thought they were good... but hardly great. Something I did find interesting though was the smaller yet old places away from the major commercial areas. There were a few Izakayas and restaurants near the airBnB we were staying, and we went to many of them to find that they had at least 80-90% of the taste of the famous places. The key is for them to be old. If they have been in the area long enough, they shouldn't be too bad. Granted many of them don't cater foreigners at all, so you'd need some basic Japanese and Google Translate to order. But many of the eateries only serve no more than 4-5 items. A ramen shop right outside of the place we stayed serves only 2 kinds of ramen (really just one... the second one just have additional meat), gyoza and fried rice. So, it shouldn't take more than a minute or two to figure everything out. |
oh i did go at odd hours (was trying to get in the tuna auction at 430am...was told they met their 120 vistor quota at 330am LOL) so I went to line up for breakfast...still waited over 3 hours. The food was great and the experience was nice, but i would've been happier sleeping a bit and lining up an hour max instead at a less popular place. |
i'm impatient lol so i'll likely just find somewhere that either has a minimal or no wait haha. |
^understatement of the century >.> |
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if its only 7 dayys, fuck fancy restaurants. ichiran for ramen, matsuya/yoshinoya/sukiya for dons, coco for curry. torikizoku/torijiro/yama chan(izakayas) for yakitori/chicken. all ok for single travelers, izakays a bit more but all generally cheap and better tasting than what you can get in Vancouver. first kitchen(fukku)/lotteria/saizeria for cheap western food. hanbey izakaya for retro japan feel |
Tokyo also has the Ghibli museum. As a solo traveller, staying in hostels is the way to go, as long as you dont mind shared sleeping spaces and bathrooms. Then again, you'll probably want to try an Onsen. agoda.com is the hostel site to search if that's your route. I'd also try the capsule hotel just to see what it's like. Some other suggestions: -Kamahara beach -Tsukiji Market + Suishi Dai (people have been known to line up at 2 am for the 5 am opening for this joint) -Tokyo tower -Odaiba, Gundam location -Hachiko statue at Shinjuku -Mt. Fuji -http://gm.gnavi.co.jp/restaurant/list/tokyo/ ^Michelin star spots, I was going to try a bunch of 1 star or bib gourmounds. they're reasonably priced. Nakiryu ramen shop was one of them that popped up on my radar. I did a bunch of research for Japan, had tickets, but had to cancel due to work. So I hope one of us will get use out of this. Also, the lonely planet guide on japan was pretty useful for planning. I would get the Tokyo digital version though, the paperback is a brick to carry around. So I've read. Also, get a mobile hotspot, Rental Mobile Wifi Mifi Pocket Wifi in Japan, Portable Wifi Mifi router access point:: Global Advanced Communications Then use google translate app on android to translate. It works pretty well with speech. You can also take photos highlight the text and have it translated. IMO 7 days in tokyo is a good time, there's plenty to do. I would do Kyoto/Nara in 7 days as well. Agreed, you don't need JR pass if your staying in Tokyo, and if you only have 7 days, stay in Tokyo. Transit costs in Tokyo shouldn't cost more than 20 dollars a day. Unless your taking the taxi. Then it can get pricy |
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Thoughts on Okinawa? I would like to visit the aquarium there. I have like 2 weeks. Thinking about doing the first week in Tokyo, then trying to cover Kyoto and Osaka in the second week. And it would be cool to go to Okinawa for the aquarium, as that has been something I've always wanted to do. |
IMO, I would leave something like Okinawa or Hokkaido for a second trip. I highly recommend Shirakawa-go it's accessible from Tokyo since they built a new line a year or two ago to Kanazawa (apparently well known for their garden/geisha quarters/fresh seafood from Sea of Japan...I didn't get to spend time here though). I did it as a day-trip from Kyoto and returned that evening to Tokyo. |
okinawa can be 5 days to week on its own. not worth a one day stop imo. you could technically do it in 3 but when youre in okinawa you gotta relax and enjoy it too tosd think about planning around 5 days in tokyo, 2 in kyoto, 2.5 osaka+kobe 1 hiroshima. gives you flex days incase you wanna stop in nagoya, yokohama, head to a place kinda out of the way like nara or to go back to Tokyo/kyoto and see something you missed/didnt know about. youd be able to see the basics but not adventure too much |
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love annoying the staff by ordering the chain special drinks as they have to sing songs when delivering it. also a must try at hanbei is oppai ice, even better if you are drinking with friends. girls get free dessert there. worth it just to see the retro toys, posters and furniture hanbey site for pics so ppl can actually get what I'm talking about ???? | ?????????????????????? |
i know it's not enough time, this is really just a preliminary trip. i plan to go as much as i can manage, but this was about all the time i had/could afford. other areas i want to go to are Hokkaido, Kure, and Hakone to name a few |
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Rent a bike and tour as much of Japan as you can on it and ride from loc to loc. It's something I've always wanted to do. This company has some pretty sick sportbikes too (although the lineup will depend from location to location). https://www.rental819.com/english/ ie. Their Ikebukuro location has GSXR 600 - 1000, and CBR600RRs https://www.rental819.com/english/ar...d=00110&area=3 |
For anyone still planning, here's a good site that I used to get ideas for my April trip. https://www.odigo.jp |
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https://www.odigo.jp/itineraries/48225 what do you guys think? A lot of places are like pretty close together so it shouldn't take long to finish an area. |
Book a room on AirBnB https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/8163180 doesn't seem so bad price wise and place have pretty good reviews. |
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Didn't look into many of the places you were going, but some warnings on the following. Robot restaurant - believe its 100+ now, used to be 60ish. heard the experience has gone downhill. need to prebuy tickets for a time, and if you are late too bad sunshine observatory - not worth going to during the day, for night viewing seems you are going to a lot of anime places/themed cafes. So I would suggest one of the following to you for dinner Alice in a Labyrinth - Ginza. Alice in wonderland themed restaurant. Went there, pretty interesting place, you might cream your pants if the same waitresses are there. Ehon no Kunino Alice - Shinjuku. Another alice in wonderland themed restaurant. Not decorated as well as the Ginza one, looks like a worse experience than the Ginza one Alcatraz ER - shibuya. Horror, Prison themed restaurant. Drinks come in iv bags etc Ninja Akasaka - asakusa. I missed out on this as I was sick. My friends have gone multiple times. Great experience, food is good. Dinner can run high, lunch is more modest but still a bit expensive. Friends recommend it more than the robot cafe |
instead of bringing cash, has anybody used the ATM's at 7-11 to withdraw yen? |
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ATM is absolutely better than bringing a bunch of cash in hand. Just make sure international withdrawals are allowed (some banks block them unless you enable them) |
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Just recently came back from Japan a couple days ago. I've been to couple places that you've listed so i'll try my best to give you a review of it. From what it looks where you are going, I high suggest you to get one of those Tokyo Metro unlimited pass that lasts for 24,48,72 hours(maybe even more because I only needed the 72 hour one) that you can purchase from any BIC Camera stores. Spoiler! |
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