Anyone been before?
- Once to Tokyo
Advice?
- Do it!
What to do/not do etc?
Try to see Tokyo and Kyoto - Tokyo is vast enough that you could spend two years there and still not see everything it has to offer, so don't miss out on Kyoto while you're there. I did and I regret it (I'll get back, eventually), but I know from folks who've been that it's something you really want to do.
Internal flights are cheap (capped at JPY10,000, I think.. or 15k, either way, so a Japanese colleague tells me) so can be a cheaper way of hopping from Tokyo to Kyoto, though personally I'd do the bullet train (more expensive) just to say I'd been on it.
Oh - her other tip was that it can sometimes be cheaper to fly into an airport other than Tokyo Narita and then get an internal flight to Tokyo than it is to fly straight there (due to the capped internal flight cost).
I stayed in Shinjuku not far from the station for a reasonable price, and if you avoid tourist restaurants food is actually fairly inexpensive - I ate in a 'locals' cafe in the bar district (and when they say "bar" they seem to mean strip club) in Shinjuku for probably £7 per night.. be prepared for there to be no English menu, though (just pictures of unidentifiable food!) and the place to be filled with heavily tattooed young Japanese men who might be missing the odd digit.. but there was never a hint of trouble and we were welcomed openly.
There are no road signs in English so navigating is interesting! But almost everyone speaks (some) English .. except the wait staff in that aforementioned cafe.
The girls are cute. Try not to stare.
I went in early Feb (valentines day, actually) - it was cold, a little snow here and there, cherry blossom came out on the trees and it was beautiful.
Go to the Palace Gardens, again, beautiful.
Visit Akihabara - shops filled with technology, Manga museums.. if you go up one floor in the wrong shop you'll be faced with comic book porn (so a colleague tells me .. his fiancé was not impressed, apparently!).
Visit Harajuku in the evening - the fashion is eye opening!
Eat street food (actually I'd say that wherever you go - street food in Taiwan was some of the best food I've ever eaten
).
Go up Tokyo Tower.
Go up New Tokyo Tower.
Visit the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya.
Go to Roppongi, don't visit the dodgy strip clubs there and don't drink alone in a bar.. one of our staff was fleeced of quite a lot of money that way via a pretty girl and a spiked drink.
Do it.
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Topic: Japan (Read 1770 times)