Japan travel tips
Out of context: Reply #5
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- colin_s0
i spent last april in japan, and hit tokyo, kyoto, nagoya, osaka, hiroshima, nara, nagano and a few other spots.
- truth about dressing properly. i was backpacking light so i basically had 4 shirts and a pair of jeans with me, so after a couple days i went and bought a suit jacket just to be passable on the street.
- since both people here are going in march/april, obviously the cherry blossoms are what to see; shinjuku gyoen in tokyo is where to go. osaka has a couple nice parks but i was there a little after the season had passed. kyoto, well, they're just about everywhere.
- in tokyo, the fish market is hard to see the action for unless you're up for getting up around 5 am (even then it's crowded) - BUT any sushi joint is going to have the freshest sushi you'll ever taste for a breakfast meal (try to eat between 8 and 10, just because).
- i don't know if i'd call tokyo bike friendly per se, but i live in portland so my version of that is a little skewed. either way, wherever you are in japan you can rely on public transit. it's alphanumeric + color based, so it's easy to understand visually, and always on time (and relatively cheap).
- go to the skytree in tokyo. i'm afraid of heights, but even the price tag is worth going up to the very top. however, there's a more free version of that at the main government building (i am spacing on what it is called - it's a 10 min walk southwest of shinjuku's main train station and there's even an underground walkway direct to it, however above ground you'll see some crazy architecture. anyway they let visitors up to the 45th floor for the view).
- go to harajuku if you want clothes. go to shibuya at night if you want a real "lost in translation" type experience. ikebukuro is a great sort of mid-size suburb sect of tokyo and can give you the feeling of the city when it isn't so dense / congested / bright.
- kyoto is quite bike friendly, which is good because it's the only major japanese city that doesn't have a rail system and relies solely on bus. (the train station, however, is fucking incredible). i'd head up philosopher's path, i bet that's crazy when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. it's also right by a castle whose name i am currently blanking on, but that's because there are shit tons of castles in kyoto. this one, however, at the top of philosopher's path, has a really nice walking tour and is only a couple bucks.
- kyoto is a really nice place, but if you're going that far south it might be worth it to hit up osaka, which is easily my favorite japanese city. hostel 64 is a designy yet super cheap spot to stay, there's a great aquarium next to one of hte largest ferris wheels in the world.
- as far as other fun osaka stuff, it's a 30 minute train ride from kobe so if you want to try actual kobe beef at a kobe restaurant, well, i had a $50 steak that was quite worth it, holy moly. also there's a lot of history there to check out based on the earthquake of '95, as well as it's actually kind of run down in places which is a weird juxtaposition from most of japan.
- i also had the best sushi of my life at a spot called fujimoto, but it was a tiny one room joint off a side street. all i can say is that it's near hostel 64 and moppen-bar , but i'll check and see if i can find it on google earth for more accurate directions.
for anyone going to japan: http://www.japan-guide.com/ is your friend. in prepping for the trip i checked that site daily, just to absorb as much information as i could.
it is good to have a smartphone on you but there will also be maps on the street. i have a really good inherent sense of direction so it was pretty easy for me to get around, but some of the first nights in new cities i'd get lost as a motherfucker. (pro tip: in major cities, find apple stores or american conglomorates, they usually give out free wifi. most japanese places do not.)
i'll post more as i think of it