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Japan

W

wacko

pfm Member
About to leave Osaka back to Tokyo for final couple of days in Japan.

A great holiday. All the cliches are true: everywhere is incredibly clean and the people so polite and helpful despite the long hours they work. Infrastructure and most buildings look very well constructed.

Thank God for Google Translate and Map! Some superb food: quality not quantity. Cold sake really is better than hot.

Shinkansen was impressive and departs on the dot. Heavy luggage can safely and cheaply delivered to your next hotel with Japanese efficiency.

Found Kyoto charming and especially good to rent a bike. Surprised to see bikes ridden on pavements (usually slowly) and majority do not wear helmets.

Osaka Castle a highlight.

Really liked Shibuya, Omotesando Hills and Shinjuku. If I ever come again I'll just stay in Tokyo ! I'm sure Japan outside the cities is lovely but would need months to explore that.

No time for hifi shops (don't want to buy anything anyway), or record shops (too heavy and delicate to carry).

Can just imagine how the 3 guys from Birmingham sat around getting drunk on Asahi and the Super Dry clothing brand was born.

Not cheap but not too expensive either: fair prices for high quality goods and services.
 
One of my sons lives and works in Japan, and I have a Japanese daughter-in-law, so we have an excuse to visit every few years.

I always look forward to it. It really is a magical experience. :)
 
I know a guy who visits Japan every year or two to catch up with the local garage rock & impro-jazz. He has a friendship with a fellow fan where each of them barely knows a word of the others language. It must be like Ghost Dog & the ice cream seller.
 
wacko said:
If I ever come again I'll just stay in Tokyo ! I'm sure Japan outside the cities is lovely but would need months to explore that.
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You can spend months exploring Tokyo. There's always another interesting neighbourhood to wander round... and an hour on the train and you're in the mountains in Takao or wandering around the countryside in Kamakura. I could easily spend an entire holiday in Tokyo too : )
 
I had planned on going to Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Had booked hotels and flights then Covid happened! I’m thinking of going either later this year or this time next year.
 
I’ve never been and your write up is a great advert for it. I might be too tempted to return without a Japan unlocked version of the little Sony Walkman DAP though, A307 I think that is.
 
Always had a hankering to visit Japan but I'd probably spend too much time in a Koetsu retailer. That opportunity has now gone and I'm too old but the improved exchange rate does rub salt into the wound, as the £ has been rubbish against most currencies for yonks.
 
Mike Reed said:
Always had a hankering to visit Japan but I'd probably spend too much time in a Koetsu retailer. That opportunity has now gone and I'm too old but the improved exchange rate does rub salt into the wound, as the £ has been rubbish against most currencies for yonks.
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The heavy luggage transfer system really does help Mike. Send it the day before you travel within Japan and it is usually in your next hotel room before you are. And of course the trains are brilliant.
 
Better late than never. I turned 60 overnight in Tokyo, and it was a fitting experience visiting such a fascinating country. I only wish I stayed longer, but we managed to see a bit of Tokyo, Kyoto, Yokohama, Kagoshima and Nagasaki. Would love to return to visit the bits north of Tokyo.
 
On another timeline I moved to Japan. I love the place. It was the first country I visited when I stayed for 8 weeks, just the kings of cultural kick in the ass that a young American needs. I went back for a couple weeks a year after my wife and I got married, a very different but still wonderful experience, marred slightly for my wife by the onset of morning sickness from what turned out to be our first-born child.

There are so many highlights, and thats with actually only spending a couple days each in Tokyo and Kyoto. A Ryokan (traditional inn) in Kanazawa, staying in Buddhist temples in Kyoto and Hide Takayama, the art island Naoshima, the Peace Museum in Hiroshima...
 
Mike Reed said:
Always had a hankering to visit Japan
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However, I have had two holidays in Taiwan, which was occupied and run by Japan for around 50 years. Can't think too many have visited this interesting and efficiently run island. Apart from the Dutch and Portuguese remnants of Formosa's colonial rule, the recent earthquake area of Tairuga is amazing. Bathing under cliffs at night with body in a warm thermal pool and hand/arm in a cold flowing river. Fantastic walking area in the mountains too, if a bit hairy in places.
 
gustav_errata said:
There are so many highlights, and thats with actually only spending a couple days each in Tokyo and Kyoto. A Ryokan (traditional inn) in Kanazawa, staying in Buddhist temples in Kyoto and Hide Takayama, the art island Naoshima, the Peace Museum in Hiroshima...
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I love sleeping on tatami in an old ryokan. A soak in a hot sento, a couple of cold beers then slipping under the futon duvet and drifting off to the sound of a river burbling away outside is my idea of heaven. I just wish I didn't look so ridiculous in a yukata : )
 
This thread is making me really miss Japan! I was hoping to get there this year but it's been tricky to fit in with studying for a masters where you don't get much time off and the finding someone to cat sit who is OK with administering the medications she needs. Hopefully next year.
 
paulfromcamden said:
This thread is making me really miss Japan! I was hoping to get there this year but it's been tricky to fit in with studying for a masters where you don't get much time off and the finding someone to cat sit who is OK with administering the medications she needs. Hopefully next year.
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It's also getting a lot more expensive to get there. The airlines don't use Russian airspace anymore. They need to detour over or under it.
 
I have an old skateboard mate who is in Japan right now. I have wanted to go for decades but haven’t had the cash, although I will tell The Wife about the favourable exchange rate as someone mentioned above.

If we go it will be a big trip with Australia and Hawaii included as we have family/friends there. Makes me feel more disabled just thinking about it.
 
I went with my family to Japan for the first time last year in September. We spent 2 weeks there, split across Tokyo and Kyoto.
Our experiences were similar to Wacko's.
Great food, polite people, very clean, with a lot of interesting places to visit.
The trains there were excellent. Our (London) tubes, national railway trains and stations are pretty awful in comparison.

We had a number of friends/colleagues visiting Japan just before and after us. All with varying experiences. Your trip would benefit from a bit of research to make the most of it. I did create an (overly) ambitious schedule... but we got to experience a wide range of places, events and food. The weather was very hot at the time, so that was the only downside. I would choose another time of year to visit.
 
If you're not used to a humid climate Japan can be pretty brutal in the summer. The rainy season June-July can get pretty wet too.

Spring and Autumn are nice times to visit. But avoid Golden Week (coming up in a fortnight) when pretty much all of Japan goes on vacation and everything is booked up a year in advance. I quite like winter in Tokyo. It's dry and never gets really cold. But a lot of the north of the country is under heavy show and shuts down until March/April.
 
have been to Japan about 4 times for work. Longest stay was month in Tokyo. Had some short breaks, food was nice, people were nice. Women treated as 2nd class citizens in the world of work. Some had a strange sexualised view of the youth and younger.

Personally I much preferred working in Taiwan.
 
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