Tokyo, Japan

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Lanx

Lanx

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a_skeleton_06 said:
Looks like it's 4.4km from the Shin-Okubu station but I was just going to try and pop a taxi or something. We are only staying at 1 place in Tokyo and 1 place in Kyoto so shouldn't be too much movement. Unless Taxi's / Uber is non-existent I guess then we're fucked.
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oh wow you're staying really west and north of tokyo, huh?

i had a 1 night hotel in shinjuku and thats like south of where you were, and even still getting near there was a bit difficult (compared to just being right in tokyo)

Is there a reason you want to be there? i'm pretty sure that was little koreatown (it was like a 4 street strip) i went there for the don quijote, it was no where near as good as the shinjuku one.
 
A

a_skeleton_06

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Lanx said:
oh wow you're staying really west and north of tokyo, huh?

i had a 1 night hotel in shinjuku and thats like south of where you were, and even still getting near there was a bit difficult (compared to just being right in tokyo)

Is there a reason you want to be there? i'm pretty sure that was little koreatown (it was like a 4 street strip) i went there for the don quijote, it was no where near as good as the shinjuku one.
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My wife just really liked the hotel is all really. We had planned our first few days out on the west side anyway (Golden Gai bars, Harajuku, etc) so it didn't seem like it would be too bad to navigate.
 
Xarpolis

Xarpolis

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As a tourist, Osaka was neat, but Tokyo was much better.

Osaka doesn't really have much to do. At all. Osaka Castle isn't a traditional castle. It's a normal museum that happens to have a castle skin (exterior only).
There's a street that's nothing but food stalls. That was pretty neat, but I wouldn't make a trip around just that. When I went there, the country still allowed the sale of raw ground beef with raw egg cracked onto it. It sounds nasty, but it was delicious.
 
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Lanx

Lanx

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Xarpolis said:
As a tourist, Osaka was neat, but Tokyo was much better.

Osaka doesn't really have much to do. At all. Osaka Castle isn't a traditional castle. It's a normal museum that happens to have a castle skin (exterior only).
There's a street that's nothing but food stalls. That was pretty neat, but I wouldn't make a trip around just that. When I went there, the country still allowed the sale of raw ground beef with raw egg cracked onto it. It sounds nasty, but it was delicious.
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plan was to seoul->kix to osaka(or nara which ever one first) bullet train to tokyo one way (only 130/per) then leave to nrt back to seoul, now we might have issues cuz we might have a tag along, argh.
 
TJT

TJT

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Finally getting my Japan trip together. Going in September for 17 days. Life kept getting in the way and shit.

The only thing I really wanted to do was Mt Fuji. So its Tokyo-Fuji-Kyoto-Return... I think so far. Otherwise I would have done the Hokkaido two week bike tour which my cyclist friends keep telling me is awesome. Additionally because I like the more remote and rural places in general.

But I will survive!
 
Armadon

Armadon

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If you were planning on climbing fuji it will be too late. I think you can only climb in July and first part of August. Check out the ice caves though at fuji bottom and I had the best hamburger of my life at a restaurant at the bottom also.

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Lanx

Lanx

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TJT said:
Finally getting my Japan trip together. Going in September for 17 days. Life kept getting in the way and shit.

The only thing I really wanted to do was Mt Fuji. So its Tokyo-Fuji-Kyoto-Return... I think so far. Otherwise I would have done the Hokkaido two week bike tour which my cyclist friends keep telling me is awesome. Additionally because I like the more remote and rural places in general.

But I will survive!
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oh so you were gonna fly into nrt and out of kix?
 
Szlia

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Xarpolis said:
When I went there, the country still allowed the sale of raw ground beef with raw egg cracked onto it. It sounds nasty, but it was delicious.
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I found that rather strange, because it's a pretty common french brasserie dish (under the name 'steak tartare' which implies an eastern europe origin). Apparently it is also a pretty common dish in Korea. I can vouch for the french version. Spice it up with some tabasco sauce, eat it with buttered french toasts... delicious!
 
Alex

Alex

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Steak tartare is not a rare thing. Pun slightly intended. I usually prefer tuna, but I won't pass on steak.

There's a place here that serves chicken or turkey tartare. Forget which one. Regardless, sounds disgusting. And I'm a very adventurous eater. But I would not eat that unless a trusted source highly recommended it.
 
Gamma Rays

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I'm going to be in Tokyo, basically a month from now. Am traveling light. Only a modest sized backpack bag as carry-on. The airfare is a lot cheaper that way. I will be there for 9 days total, 6 in Tokyo and then 2 nights / 3 days with a rental car, to give me a chance to get out of the city. I was in Japan 2 years ago, but was downed by a cold bug in the 2nd half of the trip, so missed a lot of my planned Tokyo things.

So after the 6 days in Tokyo, I will get the rental car, take the train to the airport to get the rental there ( picking it up from there and dropping it off there when I fly out makes sense ) Drive north to Nikko, see the sights up there, there's a lake that's up above the town, mountains, cool shrines up there. 2 nights in Nikko. I know there's a good train service from Tokyo to Nikko, but I want the ability to set my own pace and see things on the way, and getting around the area will be much better with a car.

Oh yeah there's a road up and down from the lake with a bunch of switchbacks, so that's gonna be fun.
 
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TJT

TJT

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Lanx said:
oh so you were gonna fly into nrt and out of kix?
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Is it unfeasible to fly into Narita and then take the train to Kyoto and back? Or overly expensive to do it this way? I may have to steal Gamma Rays Nikko plan here too. that sounds cool.
 
Gamma Rays

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That could work, (edit: bullet train Tokyo to Kyoto and then return ) especially if you're buying the JR pass then that's going to cover a large chunk of the cost ( of a 7 day pass ) right there.

I did look into it a bit, for modes of transport, the cheapest is some of the bus lines. If you're on a tight budget, then travel overnight, that's one less night in a hotel / if you figure you're good at getting decent sleep on a bus. I say that as the bullet train is not an overnight trip ( due to the short travel time )
 
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Gamma Rays

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Additional, re: my renting a car.

I found that I still needed to get an international driving permit. I am coming from Australia and we drive on the same side of the road as Japan. I rented a car in the UK some 10 + years ago and didn't need one for that ( also rented in New Zealand / but meh, it's Australia's little brother so all's cool ) But yeah, needed it for Japan due to ?requirements?

Also, traveling long distances by car in Japan can be crazy expensive on the Toll roads. It's almost a match for the cost of traveling by train. But for the short distances I'm going, I will just still to the humble side roads / unless I get some good reason to stay somewhere later and need to get to a place faster then I will cough up the extra money.

And when renting, go for one of the domestic, still large, Japanese rental companies. Don't just go for the familiar international names as they are more expensive.
 
Lanx

Lanx

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TJT said:
Is it unfeasible to fly into Narita and then take the train to Kyoto and back? Or overly expensive to do it this way? I may have to steal Gamma Rays Nikko plan here too. that sounds cool.
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sures, depends on
1. jr pass
2. you want to spend that time travelling

it's at least a 3:30 hour affair on bullettrain not mention all the connecting trains/buses you'll take, also if you don't have jr pass then the cost is not worth it to do it.

if you're gonna do it with the jr pass overlapping both, i don't see a problem really.

if you're thinking about driving in japan
Drive Abroad: Get Your International Driver's Permit.
 
TJT

TJT

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I will not be driving shit in Japan thanks.
 
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Armadon

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See if you can get a toll road automatic pass. Sorry forgot what they are called. Instead of paying the guy in cash you just drive through and it deducts it automatically from your card. Doing it that way saves a bunch of money on toll roads because you get a discount for using it.
 
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Cybsled

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Tolls are insane price wise, though. It isn’t unusual to pay like $70 one way in some instances.

Probably part of the reason there isn’t a shitload of cars in Tokyo lol (combined with their S-tier public transit)
 
Xarpolis

Xarpolis

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TJT said:
Is it unfeasible to fly into Narita and then take the train to Kyoto and back? Or overly expensive to do it this way? I may have to steal Gamma Rays Nikko plan here too. that sounds cool.
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Flying to Narita is fine. However, you need to take a 1 hour train to travel from the Narita Airport over to Tokyo Station. It kinda sucks, especially after you've been flying so long to get to Narita in the first place.

After you're in Tokyo station, you can take a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. It'll be another 2 1/2 hours to get there. It'll also run you around 13,000 yen ($130) each direction. However, if you buy a rail pass from AAA before you even head to Japan, you'll save a lot of money.
 
wormie

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Whatever you do dont take a cab from Narita to Tokyo. Cost me 25k yen :D
 
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