Japan

Shit. I just hired one this morning.

Eomer_sl said:

Shit. I just hired one this morning.

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This him? You are probably ok.

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I went out on a Sunday when I was in Japan for a week. Too tired from Fuji hike to go out Saturday. It was dead. Me and this brit kid. We bumped into some british diplomat that was there on business. He was looking for the same bar as us (Gas Panic). It was dead, so we walked around, and this guy started chatting up a nigerian. I said they are scam artists, and he's like "na don't worry about it." This guy starts talking like "there are no customers here, we're all you got, and there are 50 of your bars around here, so we can just go somewhere else. We'll pay $5 a drink and no cover." The dude was floored, but accepted. It was a small little strip club. This guy's telling us things like "don't pay with coins in a place like this, pay with your big bills so it looks like you got money. They'll give you better service."

Nothing revolutionary, but it was funny how I was thinking that these bar guys are pros, they'll probably think of some way to swindle me that I can't anticipate, better stay away. And this diplomat has all the answers and completely out-negotiated the nigerian dude. We ended up turning a dead night out into a good time for cheap. Unfortunately I got so wasted that at dawn I was too exhausted to go to the fish market, and lost my subway ticket while on the subway 2 times in a row.

Which Gas Panic? Shibuya or Roppongi?

I forgot how awesome Tokyo is. And Niseko might now be my favorite ski resort on the planet. Fuck it was awesome. Our one clubbing night we hit up Gas Panic. Not really a fan. Way too fucking busy. Still had a good time. It was funny, they wanted us to buy $35 bottles of what appeared to be apple cider to reserve tables in the VIP section. "How about we buy a bottle of vodka, a bottle of gin, and a whole mess of beers instead?" That seemed to do the trick. Bottles were $150, they forgot to rip us off I guess.

yeah Gas Panic is a brand name shit hole. Plenty of better places, but you kinda gotta go just to say ya did.

I know this is an older post, but for anyone else that is deciding to go to Japan, here is my two cents!

You can definitely do Japan on the cheap while you're there. If you're flying over from North America it's freaking expensive though. I stayed in Shibuya for about $100 a night (I was at a conference, I think the regular price is more around $125-$150. I believe it was Tokyu Stay Inn. It was a smaller unit, but it was perfect for my needs. Had a washer/dryer, heated toilet, microwave, stove, sink, bed, tv, etc. Everything was a decent size considering I was in Tokyo.

A common misconception is that food is expensive there. If you're buying fruit and stuff, then hell yeah. To be honest though, I'm pretty sure fast food like McDonald's is cheaper over there than here. It can add up over time, but you could easily keep around $50 by eating breakfast/lunch/dinner all at restaurants. You can go to the supermarket and pick stuff up for cheap too. Bring a friend that speaks Japanese with you if you're unsure about ingredients.

Roppongi is a rough district. I went with 2 other guys and I got punched once, or twice, and harassed in the crowd a couple of times by Japanese guys. Japan actually has a fair amount of racism, and when you're a white guy stealing all the chicks on the dance floor, they will take notice. I had one bartender refuse to serve me. I was at, "A-Life," in Tokyo, in Roppongi. They tried scamming us by buying a table (shitty, wooden table with 4 rickety chairs) for $1000. Yes, that was the actual conversion to US$. Regardless, I had a great fucking time and I wouldn't have changed it for the world. And no, we weren't stupid enough to buy the table, although we could have afforded it.

I was only there for a week, but I heard Roppongi is great for picking up the younger crowd. I forget what the other age groups for districts were. If you're into cougars, then I heard Ginza is the place to be though.

Akihabara is probably the coolest district. You could easily spend a week there sifting through old shops finding weird and interesting things. There are all kinds of professional stores, to run down shacks, or places that might double as a living space and store tucked away on the third floor of some apartment building.

One word you need to know for your trip is, "Sumimasen," (Sue-Me-Maw-Sen) -- say it quickly. It means, "Excuse me." It's crowded and sometimes you bump into others. Stay on the right hand always when traveling underground on escalators, or subways, etc. It's kind of the silent code, so that everyone can get to where they are going quickly. Otherwise people will stare at you. A good tip for walking in large crowds is not to look at anyone, just focus on where you are going. If you stare at anyone you're going to meet with them at some point and do the awkward right-to-left shuffle. That's not fun when you're trying to get where you're going and there are thousands of people around you.

Unless you have a huge group, stay out of Roppongi. Visit pubs instead of clubs, unless you're looking for something else. If you walk around certain parts at night be prepared to be solicited by 50 hookers on the way back to your hotel unless you have a girl with you.

Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. Have fun! It's an exciting and weird place.

Tarrant_sl said:

I've been vacationing wrong all these years and had no idea.

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Sounds more like the dude had a singular experience and now plays the expert

I'm off for two weeks to Japan this autumn.

Planning on spending at least a week in Tokyo, but I also want to travel around the country some.

Any places I must visit?

Dabamf_sl said:

Sounds more like the dude had a singular experience and now plays the expert

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nah I had the exact same experience many times visiting Roppongi / Shibuya. Japanese girls have no problem with 'sport fucking'. One I hooked up with passed me off to her friend after because 'she hadn't been fucked good in a long time'.

Merkins4Brazil_sl said:

nah I had the exact same experience many times visiting Roppongi / Shibuya. Japanese girls have no problem with 'sport fucking'. One I hooked up with passed me off to her friend after because 'she hadn't been fucked good in a long time'.

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Damn i really missed out on those Tokyo districts all these years.

I dunno, in my brief Japan trips it didn't seem any different than any other big city. Find the right area with good nightlife, and the local chicks like foreigners. Applies equally well to places in Europe, Canada, the US and so on.

Daelos_sl said:

Any places I must visit?

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I'd say a week in Tokyo is probably a day or two longer than is truly necessary. You can see all the major stuff in 2-3 days really, but you could spend weeks seeing every last nook and cranny I guess. Other than Tokyo I haven't really seen much of the rest of the country, just the areas around Hakuba and Niseko for skiing. I've heard Kyoto is the one place you absolutely have to go to if you are in Japan.

Eomer_sl said:

I dunno, in my brief Japan trips it didn't seem any different than any other big city. Find the right area with good nightlife, and the local chicks like foreigners. Applies equally well to places in Europe, Canada, the US and so on.



I'd say a week in Tokyo is probably a day or two longer than is truly necessary. You can see all the major stuff in 2-3 days really, but you could spend weeks seeing every last nook and cranny I guess. Other than Tokyo I haven't really seen much of the rest of the country, just the areas around Hakuba and Niseko for skiing. I've heard Kyoto is the one place you absolutely have to go to if you are in Japan.

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Agree - a week might be too long for just Tokyo if you're focused on sight seeing. There are some good day trips from Tokyo though - most notable are probably Nikko, Yokohama and Kamakura. I found Nikko to be a lovely little town with a great forested park for wandering around/hiking in and more gaudy temples than you can stomach. Yokohama is probably the least notable because it's not too different from a regular city - but there is a big Chinatown there. Kamakura has more large traditional temples and shrines and is more reminiscent of a mini-Kyoto. All 3 places are easily accessible by train and easy to do in a day.

Question for Japan experts: I might have an opportunity to go to Japan/Tokyo next year, but half my stay would be during "Golden Week". How big a deal is that? Is it like Christmas/Thanksgiving level holiday where everything is closed, or is it more like a Memorial Day type holiday stretch (ie, it's a holiday for office folks/government and all the retail/restaurant people still work)?

Any suggestions for places to see would be appreciated. Obviously would go see the Imperial Palace area (the areas that can be accessed anyways) and not interested in waking up at 5am for the fish market thing ;P Any suggestions for good places to eat is appreciated as well. I don't drink, so I don't give a fuck about bars/booze cruises ;P

No idea on the holiday thing. Food wise, I found that just about everything there was awesome, as long as you stayed away from anything remotely westernized. Just eat at a bunch of ramen and sushi places. Gonpachi was kind of neat, but the food wasn't great in my opinion:http://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan/to...usion/gonpachi

Imperial Palace, Meiji Shrine, Asakusa Temple are the three main ones that I've seen in Tokyo. You could almost do all three in a single day, but you'd be rushed a bit. You could easily spend a full day in Akihabara, but just as easily could only spend a couple hours there too. I didn't get to see the top of the Sky Tree when I was last there, just the base, as it was sold out. However I'd definitely recommend checking either that or the Mori Tower out to get a view of Tokyo from up here, preferably late in the afternoon so you can see it both when it's light and dark. Impressive as fuck. Mori Tower will also generally have an art exhibit going on, and both times I've enjoyed the shit out of them (and honestly outside of grade school, I've never been to an art exhibit otherwise). Last time there was a giant painting called "Space Shit", and a bunch of paintings of adolescent girls being blown up, thrown in to giant blenders, and so on. How awesome is that?http://www.mori.art.museum/english/c...ist/index.html

I dunno, just bust out the Lonely Planet and start taking your pick of what sounds interesting:http://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan/tokyo/sights

I was in Kyoto with my wife (she's Japanese) 2 years ago. We stayed at one of those traditional style hotels. It was roughly $600 USD per night, but it was incredible. Also, that price included breakfast and lunch every day. The hotel had a total of 26 rooms, and a "room girl" that took care of everything that you need. I was pretty much convinced that if I wanted to, she would have had a 3 some with my wife and I. But then again, she was only being friendly and doing her job.

I don't know the name of the hotel, but here is the sign at the gate (Maybe one of you can read it).



Here are the beds. These took a little getting used to.


This is our "room girl". She brought us breakfast and lunch as well as set up the beds when it was time to sleep.


And last picture, this is what the room looked like when the beds weren't out. Really awesome.