Tokyo, Japan

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Xarpolis

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We just returned home after our trip to Japan. I'm going to bullet-point the time-zone shit.
  • Woke up at 6am on Monday the 18th.
  • Left the in-law's house at 11am.
  • Arrived at the Niigata train station 30 minutes later
  • Waited 30 more minutes for the bullet-train to depart
  • Arrived at Tokyo Station 2 hours later
  • Had lunch and relaxed, getting the next train an hour and a half later.
  • Rode for 1 hour to Narita station (the Airport)
  • Waited from until 9pm to board the plane to Honolulu
  • Plane departed 30 minutes later
  • Plane arrived 7 hours later
  • We land at 9am on the 18th.
After all that, we landed 2 hours BEFORE leaving the house in Niigata on the same day. Realistically, Japan is 19-hours ahead of Honolulu, so if I stay awake until 10pm tonight, I'll have been awake for 35 hours. Who can sleep on the plane, anyway?
I'm too old for this shit.

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Armadon

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I don't know what it is but traveling to Japan was the worst flight I have ever done. Phoenix to my brothers house in Fussa took 35 hours from the time I left my house in Phoenix. Just a few hours shorter coming back. Even though I loved every minute in Japan that flight is keeping me from going back.
 

Lanx

Oye Ve
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So i'll detail my worries.

My wife decided on wed she wanted to goto japan on sat since our semi-yearly hawaii vacation w/ friends was cancelled, somehow we lucked out on 1200$ tickets each. We had a bunch of guidebooks, all trash and worthless, would not recommend a single guide book to use (lonely planet/fodders, etc).

It was 2 weeks, i decided to spend 1 week in tokyo and the rest we traveled around tokyo, for that i decided the 7day jrpass was the one to get i think as Chysamere Chysamere mentioned going from tokyo to kyoto roundtrip pays for the jr pass itself. doing a 14day jrpass? i think is worthless, from my research this is the offical site
Japan Rail Pass - Order Online & Travel Japan

their offices are based in cali, so when they mail you the physical coupon, it's fedex from cali. I wasn't gonna make it so i sent it to my first hotel(dorm) in tokyo.

Japan turned out to be the cheapest vacay, money wise imo. We were 100% jap food, i made many visits to various mcdees to check out their menu, but they didn't have any "funky" jap mcdee shit going on so i just skipped it.

But yea, just walking around tokyo, a hole in the wall shop can have a good curry for 400yen.

money:
So lets focus on how to pay for shit, just whip out your debit card and pull out cash, if your bank has shit debit fees, open a paypal account link it to your bank and get a debit card. Their transactions fees are .25 to pull out cash, i have a business debit w/ em, so i have no idea on personal? but it should be the same. Japan is like all cash or IC pay(more on that later).

So just pull out cash, you'll see this

japanese-currency-20150702-18-08-00.jpg


jap money is taller than USD, so you might have issues fitting it into a wallet, billfold. Either way, go out and buy yourself a coin purse, cuz you'll be dealing with ALOT of fucking coins. (or you could just buy a coin purse in japan, i bought a $1 one that worked wonders in daiso, more on that later)

The money is self explanatory, it's all labeled, except for the bronze 5yen, it's got a hole in it w/ NO NUMBERS, while the silver 50yen is labeled.

also when you pay, always put your money on the money tray, you'll know what that is soon.

At the end of the trip i spent had only 6000 yen in bills and 2000yen in coins and only a few 1$ yen left, either way we just spent it all on some knick knacks at the airport(on the way back) duty free shop in narita. And no, they were not the usual "rip off" duty free prices, they were actually the same prices and items in any store in tokyo, so if you REALLY missed out on souveniers or shit, just buy it there, i think it was called duty free akihabara. (just place all your monies in the tray, they have coin counting machines in the register)

Also, when you pull out money, just pull it out at SEVEN 11, 7-11 is different in japan, it's a fucking paradise of awesome, only pull out your money from 7-11 for one reason, you can trust it, and you can easily track your debit pull outs. There is a 7-11 in narita when you land, the first thing i did was pick up luggage and find the 7-11 to pull out cash.

internet:
don't trust fucking free tokyo wifi or hotel wifi, that shit is garbage. get a mifi, there are many available at the airport, but they fucking rip you off.
i went to Super Fast 4G,LTE Pocket WiFi For Japan at Best Rental Price | eConnect Japan for 14days they gave a discount at 500yen a day for a mifi rental and even gave an extra battery(which we used everyday cuz were out 16hours a day) (other places seemingly charged 2000yen a day at the airport, ninjawifi i think the most used was charging 1000yen a day) this mifi worked in the fucking mountains in hakone.

I would try the hotel wifi when we went and fuck it, that shit was garbage, i just kept on using my mifi. i didn't care about data, i just needed internet for fucking google maps, which worked amazing also.

getting around:
sure, your jr pass is usable on the jr lines (you'll easily recognize them cuz they start out with jr) but you're gonna have to hop around subways/metro or bus and with that just get an IC card. get either a passmo or suica card (passmo is issued by tokyo rail suica is issued by jr) they seemingly work everywhere, it's just a 500yen refundable deposit to get a passmo, it's fucking easier than stopping at every ticket booth and figuring out where the fuck you wanna go, just use passmo to tap and go, also you can even print your name and dob on it in case you lose it and get it replaced for free. (i wasn't able to get it refunded at narita airport, cuz we were close to our flight time and i just skipped it, no big deal really, we expect to come back to japan in the future), you can even use the passmo/suica card to pay for food and drinks and other shit.

print documents:
maybe you bought some ticket online and you have to print it out for something, i did, i went to odeo-onsen and got my etickets from voyagin (more on them later, their website is govoyagin.com , they were pretty awesome for the two things i bought and they are staffed with english speakers, since they service foreigners).

How do you print shit? again 7-11 or the lawsons (upscale 7-11?) they have net printers save your docs as pdf and upload to this site (you have to register)
全国のセブン‐イレブンでいつでも簡単プリント ~ネットプリント~

Or if you have an android phone w/ a microsd card, just save it to that, they have memory chip readers, cost 20yen to print a b&w ticket.

These were the issues i was unsure and unclear about.
 
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Xarpolis

Life's a Dream
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For anyone not sure, the easiest way to figure out how much things cost in Japan is to look at the yen value and put an artificial . placeholder before the last 2 digits.

From Lanx's picture, the 10000yen bill is actually $100.00
5000yen is $50.00
The largest coin is 500yen = $5.00

So looking at prices on a store are really easy to translate. Just know that they clearly display to the penny, where as we would say $5 and mean $5.00
Hearing people say a value is something else entirely. It's hard on the fly to know that 11439yen is $114.39

Honestly, that translation isn't 100% accurate ($1 USD is actually worth 113yen), but it's close enough to understand the value of things.
 
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BoozeCube

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So how much does it cost for a couple of jap chicks to give me a rim job while wearing cat/maid outfits and feed me a bento box made up to look like cute animals? Asking for a friend.
 
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Lanx

Oye Ve
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So how much does it cost for a couple of jap chicks to give me a rim job while wearing cat/maid outfits and feed me a bento box made up to look like cute animals? Asking for a friend.
idk, but the love hotel i stayed in had cosplay rentals at the ready, it did have one of the nicer beds we stayed in.
 

Chysamere

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So how much does it cost for a couple of jap chicks to give me a rim job while wearing cat/maid outfits and feed me a bento box made up to look like cute animals? Asking for a friend.

about $200, $220 if you want them to provide the food.
 

Lanx

Oye Ve
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Well that seems cheaper than I would expect. What if I wanted two jap girls to dress up as Gundums and fight each other with Tentacle dildos?
probably a bit, the cosplay won't stand up to any sort of punishment
 

Gamma Rays

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Just to explain further what was mentioned by Lanx.

When withdrawing money in Japan, you can only go through a few banks' ATMs. As most Japanese banks are not linked to the global cirrus system. Cirrus is the network that allows ATMs to talk to your bank back at home.

Cirrus (interbank network) - Wikipedia

So go to a 7-11. The bank inside ( their own one I think ) is 7Bank which is linked to the cirrus network. 7-11's are everywhere in Japan so that's never a problem, I did make sure that the hotels I booked were near to one ( that's almost redundant, it was more like I made a note of the closest 7-11 to the hotels I booked )

Also, 7-11 in Japan is WAAYYY better than anywhere else worldwide, prices are good and they have their own lines of food and snacks, which are good. One night I bought a chicken and noodle salad meal - which was fantastic. I would never consider doing anything like that back at home, but the Japanese 7-11 is that much better.
 

Xarpolis

Life's a Dream
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Hawaiian 7-Eleven is the same tier. ...almost. They have a good chunk of prepared and precooked food that is actually really good. Give it a shot the next time you come out here.
 

Asshat wormie

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I used post offices and 7-11s in jap land for the $$$. Round eye atms were rare.
 
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Lanx

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For ATMs, you can also use the Japanese Post Office.
i only had two interactions w/ the post office, one was picking up my mifi at the airport(you designate where you want your mifi sent). i was flying united and thought since they fly out of narita1, i would also land there too, nope i landed in narita2, no big deal, just take the shuttle on over said i was picking up a package. The guys said mifi? i said yup, showed em my passport and mifi company (so they could find it easier), they just had trays of mifis, took one minute and i had a working mifi.

Sending it back was my second interaction, it came w/ a prepaid envelope, so i powered it on, put it in the envelope, sealed it and used it up until narita express dropped me off, the post office box was right there, and thats where you have to send it, b/c there is no post office inside (after customs) check. I was gonna put it in the box, but the nice girl just said domo, and asking for it.

So sending and receiving mail is super easy in japan, however i'll admit i never even thought to look at the post office for ATM, cuz 7-11 is like starbucks in america, one on everyblock.

I wonder how non airport japan post offices are like, these two were so fucking nice, hell how are the japan dmv's?
 

Lanx

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Make sure to get the crepes they do in Harajuku. They're a dessert item and come rolled into an icecream cone shape and are filled with a variety of mostly ice-cream sundae type stuff.

Strawberrys, chocolate, icecreams, various sauces. There's a massive variety of choices you can make.

There's numerous vendors around Tokyo, but the most well known ones are in Harajuku and they all sell similar stuff.

Harajuku Crepes Guide | Tokyo Cheapo
went to a lot of the ones on the list, my favorite one was the one in akihabara
Df9bUw5VQAIEh5J.jpg


Their custard was just the best.
 
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a_skeleton_06

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Wife and I decided to plan a trip to Tokyo->Kyoto in November to catch autumn in Japan. Time to plow through this thread and begin my normal vacation process of over-researching the entire thing to the nth degree. If anyone has updates, it would be appreciated!
 

Zapatta

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i only had two interactions w/ the post office, one was picking up my mifi at the airport(you designate where you want your mifi sent). i was flying united and thought since they fly out of narita1, i would also land there too, nope i landed in narita2, no big deal, just take the shuttle on over said i was picking up a package. The guys said mifi? i said yup, showed em my passport and mifi company (so they could find it easier), they just had trays of mifis, took one minute and i had a working mifi.

Sending it back was my second interaction, it came w/ a prepaid envelope, so i powered it on, put it in the envelope, sealed it and used it up until narita express dropped me off, the post office box was right there, and thats where you have to send it, b/c there is no post office inside (after customs) check. I was gonna put it in the box, but the nice girl just said domo, and asking for it.

So sending and receiving mail is super easy in japan, however i'll admit i never even thought to look at the post office for ATM, cuz 7-11 is like starbucks in america, one on everyblock.

I wonder how non airport japan post offices are like, these two were so fucking nice, hell how are the japan dmv's?

I have been in a long while but American Express had actual physical offices in Tokyo. You could ATM, change money at excellent rates and they had a buncha free maps etc. They did have a max draw on your Amex Card in cash per day. I was hitting up the place 2X a week.

As mentioned its a cash society. There were some places that took credit cards, but they didnt seem to have a handle on it. Some charges didnt show for 3-4 months. A couple big ones never showed at all.
 
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Cybsled

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Wife and I decided to plan a trip to Tokyo->Kyoto in November to catch autumn in Japan. Time to plow through this thread and begin my normal vacation process of over-researching the entire thing to the nth degree. If anyone has updates, it would be appreciated!

When I went, I visited Kyoto and Tokyo. Tokyo has been talked a bunch about already, so for Kyoto.

1) Kyoto isn't really known for it's food, so just keep that in mind. It did have some decent French bakeries when we were there, though.
2) Can visit the old Imperial Palace and some awesome shrines
3) There is famous market/food in some alleyways in Kyoto that have all sorts of cool stuff. First time I ever tried fermented black garlic was there.
4) There are some shitty Geisha tourist traps there. 95% of people who see walking around in Kimonos in the Geisha district are just cosplayers/pretend Geisha/Geiko. The legit ones don't really walk around, they work in actual establishments and you don't really see them unless they're leaving/arriving (and usually they just get in a car)
5) The Kyoto area does have some well regarded locally made rice cooker ceramics, though. Might be worth a look if you're into that
6) Nara is super close to Kyoto. That's where there are all the tame deer and there is a temple with a mega Buddha statue. Just be warned, if you buy the deer snacks, they will swarm you like zombies in a Romero film lol

Also, if you get the railpass (which is a no brainer, thing pays for itself with a round trip between Kyoto and Tokyo practically), Hiroshima is like a 2ish hour bullet train ride from Kyoto. Might be worth a day trip to check out the A-Bomb dome and Hiroshima Peace Park/Museum at the very least. The museum was pretty haunting and also highlights why sane people are scared about nuclear weapons being used again.
 
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Gamma Rays

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A JR rail pass will also be useful for some train lines inside the big Japanese cities.

BUT the subway trains are run by different companies. Tokyo has 3 for instance, the JR network is mostly on the surface and linking the bigger centers, then the other 2 networks are the underground ones which really go everywhere. Fortunately the prices are never too high, just a bit of planning and walking from one section of a station hub to the other if you're needing to get to a specific station on specific network.

For a city network, the JR pass will be useful at times when you plan it out.
 
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