The Japan Trip Resource Thread!

[dave heats]

Well Tokyo can be as expensive, or inexpensive, as you want it to be. As a few of us have mentioned earlier in the thread, we got by living off family mart food and ramen, costing less than ?10 a day. Hotels can be found for around ?14 a night, and the subway is cheap and a pleasure to use. I recomend you read through the earlier pages of this thread, as we've discussed stuff like this in more detail before.

Alternatively, you can experience first hand why Tokyo was again voted the worlds most expensive city earlier this week, by eating ?140 sushi dishes and staying in 5* hotels, taking a taxi everywhere and buying from Ginza fashion shops.

Tokyo is only as expensive as you make it.

[Kungfu]

How does the rest of Japan compare in daily living costs?

[Jushin-Thunder-Liger]

Tokyo is cheap, man.
What i ate
Breakfast: Yoshinoya - Salmon Eggs over Rice Y390
Lunch - Rahman - Y400
Dinner: Sushi Y170 per plate, usually 5 plates - Y850
Supper: Yoshinoya, or similar, Donburi Bowl - Y350

If your walking round sweaty Akiba all day, you will need plenty of Pocari Sweat Y130 litre bottle
Going out in Roppongi is expensive though Ashai and Sapporo are like Y600-800 pint.
Beer from Lawson is cheap Y130 pint, if you like drinking alone, in youe hotel room

Subway is cheap, like Y230 average

Hookers are expensive, Y10,000 oral, Y25,000 full

You could eat at McDonalds, but then someone like me might kick you in the groin, if you did.

I went outside of TYO, to Hanno City, and found it to be the same price as Tokyo.

Places in Tokyo you need not bother with: Odaiba, and i thought Ginza was pretty forgetfull

[MD]

Tokyo is cheap, man.
What i ate
Breakfast: Y390
Lunch - Y400
Dinner: Y850
Supper: Y350

Thats like Y2000 a day or Y14000 a week or about 70 quid a week. ^_^; That's outragous. :O

I managed on around a few hundred yen a day (most of the time...).

My total meal, drink (alcoholic and non alcoholic), snack bill for 12 days came to 21,312. (this did contain 3 decent resturants and 2 nights out which added over half the cost...)

If your walking round sweaty Akiba all day, you will need plenty of Pocari Sweat Y130 litre bottle

You could of course drink tap water it's even cheap at Y0.

Going out in Roppongi is expensive though Ashai and Sapporo are like Y600-800 pint.

About 3 or 4 quid, which compared to London is about the same...

Beer from Lawson is cheap Y130 pint, if you like drinking alone, in youe hotel room

Or with someone else if your lucky. :P

Hookers are expensive, Y10,000 oral, Y25,000 full

And how many hookers did you buy then?

I would have thought if you tried then sleeping with someone in Japan was easier then completing Outrun 2.

You could eat at McDonalds, but then someone like me might kick you in the groin, if you did.

Make sure you go into McDonalds and ask for a smile. :P

Places in Tokyo you need not bother with: Odaiba, and i thought Ginza was pretty forgetfull

Ginza is okay, has some nice places and is nice to walk around, has the Tokyo palace gardens just up the road. ^_^

[dave heats]

Anyone used the Keisei skyliner from narita airport? In the past Ive only used the Narita Express from JR, but on this trip its going to make alot more sense to get the skyliner straight to Nippori (the landlord of the apartment I'm renting is picking me up from Nippori St, how schweet is that?).

In the past Ive been able to book the narita express online from the UK, but it seems the skyliner can only be bought on the day at arrivals. Are the ticket booths easy to find/english speaking salespersons?

I found the express fairly pleasant journey, apart from the seats facing each other, reducing legroom and also making it difficult to avoid eye contact with the person opposite!

[Jushin-Thunder-Liger]

Well you could go all the way to Japan, and live like a bloody tramp on dehydrated noodles and tap water.
But i went to Tokyo for more than games, i went to experiance the county as well, and to know a country is to eat a country, or so the saying goes.
If you just go for the games, you may as well stay at home and buy what you want on ebay.
Japan has a massive ammount to offer, and its worth spending a few quid to experiance the country, rather than as a massive games shop.
Trapesing around Akiba all day, for 14 days, then going back to your hotel for Nissin Cup Noodle, dont sound much fun to me.
If thats your idea of fun, then go for it, if you want to experiance Japan, why not spend the MASSIVE sum of ?10 per day on food.
The food over there is the best ive ever had, by the way

[venom743]

Well you could go all the way to Japan, and live like a bloody tramp on dehydrated noodles and tap water.
But i went to Tokyo for more than games, i went to experiance the county as well, and to know a country is to eat a country, or so the saying goes.
If you just go for the games, you may as well stay at home and buy what you want on ebay.
Japan has a massive ammount to offer, and its worth spending a few quid to experiance the country, rather than as a massive games shop.
Trapesing around Akiba all day, for 14 days, then going back to your hotel for Nissin Cup Noodle, dont sound much fun to me.
If thats your idea of fun, then go for it, if you want to experiance Japan, why not spend the MASSIVE sum of ?10 per day on food.
The food over there is the best ive ever had, by the way

My thoughts exactly. Being able to buy games is just half the experience. There is life and games outside of akihabara. Many people believe that the best game shops are in akihabara but I dont think so.
Food in Japan is fantastic and you dont have to spend much to get something nice.

Other restaurants to try:

Matsuya- very similar to yoshinoya except the choice is far greater.
Tenya- Really good tempura
Wakko- Excellent tonkatsu restaurant

[MD]

Heh you guys are too easy to wind up...

and to know a country is to eat a country, or so the saying goes.

Sadly being Vegan meant that most places were off limits to me, and the places I did find which were vegan friendly were er expensive. ^_^; Made eating in London seem a bargain.

The food over there is the best ive ever had, by the way

I'm sure it was, I did eat some sushi but it was fairly expensive for what it was. ^_^; Making it was a lot cheaper, nicer to share too.

Many people believe that the best game shops are in akihabara but I dont think so.

And where would you say they are then?

[Kungfu]

Just interested if you guys who have been to Japan have ever used a love hotel?

[hoyteamx]

Hi everyone,

I'm moving to Japan next week and, amongst the nervousness and excitement that comes with moving abroad, I'm wondering about videogames! The questions I have are...

I'm moving to Shikoku (some way from Tokyo!) and was wondering if there are any good online videogame stores that ship to Japan. Are there any in Japan?

Where can I get US imports?

How much does the Xbox retail for?

How complicated is it for me to get Japanese consoles to work in the UK (or other electronic equipment for that matter)?

And will UK dvds work on japanese dvd players (and vice versa)?

Cheers

[tokyochojin]

Just interested if you guys who have been to Japan have ever used a love hotel?

I used a few mate (you need to if you have share room/wife/family living in Japan with you! although you should use a much cheaper and easier to *ahem* accsess Karaoke parlour (eh supergoal )
although i suspect Jushin-Thunder-Liger has a more knowledgable experience of such things ^0^ care to share an essay Jushin?

[MD]

Karaoke parlour? Sounds interesting, want to expand further?

I've walked past some low key love hotels, low key because someone pointed out to me that it offered rates for rest and overnight stay... ^_^; Although the red lighting around the building should have been a clue. ^_^;

[Kungfu]

Yeah tokyochojin would also like to hear about the karaoke parlours as it appears you have a good story to tell

[dave heats]

I'm currently compiling a things to do list of activities I hope to get up to over in Tokyo, and would like to go to the Studio Ghibli musuem. One problem though, I dont know where it is! Any info on where it is, how much admission is and if its actually worth seeing would be appreciated.

Also, if anyone wants to post some of the things they got up to in Tokyo to give me a few ideas that would be great. On my last visit I did the general touristy things, so Im after some more bizarre/off the wall things!

[MD]

It's well worth a visit to the Studio Ghibli museum. Has some really nice exhibits including quite a bit of original miyazaki artwork and every so often they have a room which focuses on a specific film, when I went it was Laputa. Had a nice pre first world war plane (not sure if it ever flew though...). If you like Studio Ghibli movies then it's the place to go.

You have to buy the ticket in advance (you can't walk up and buy a ticket...). Information is here. You need to specify the day you want to visit the museum and bring your passport with you when you buy the ticket. It costs about ?8.

The Studio Ghibli museum is in Mitaka which is easily reached from Akihabara and Shinjuku train stations, you need either the Chuo line from Shinjuku or the Sobu line from Akihabara, make sure that if you take the Chuo line that it will stop at Mitaka station, it takes less then an hour. (I went from Akihabara). Here is the train map (you will need adobe acrobat reader).

From Mitaka station, turn left and walk down some stairs and you will come to a road which branches right next to a river, walk down this road (with the small river / stream) to your left and follow the signs at the end of the road.

Can't really say what else you can do as I spent a lot of time in Akihabara, visiting Shinjuku and the Hello Kitty shop, in arcades and spending time with female company.